Children’s / Teenage: Social Issues / Topics

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he...

For generations, Mevan and her family lived in their beloved Kurdistan. But when they are forced to flee by the Iraqi government, Mevan must leave everything behind. Her family travels from country to country in search of safety; and with each stop, Mevan feels more and more alone. Until . . . a...

When young Bud sees people bustling around, intent on their chores and their screens, she is certain they must be doing important things—and she wants to be included. But wise Nokomis, her grandmother, shows her that there is a different way to find belonging, one that relies on stillness and...

In this photographic picture book, the authors record and transcribe the words of displaced children, raising up their voices—who they are, where they came from, and the many different reasons that they had to leave their home countries. My parents told me we had to leave to stay safe. I was...

This brilliant memoir-in-verse tells the moving story of how a nation learned to celebrate a hero. Through years of protests and petition, Kathlyn's story highlights the foot soldiers who fought to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday. Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ’Round is a...

Award-winning Mexican author Juan Pablo Villalobos explores illegal immigration with this emotionally raw and timely YA nonfiction book about ten Central American teens and their journeys to the United States. For this striking, stripped-down account of youth immigration, Villalobos interviewed...

When Simone is awakened by her mom as a wildfire threatens their home, it is the beginning of a life-changing journey. On their way to take shelter in a high school gym, the family passes firefighters from a prison unit battling the fire. Simone’s mom tells her that when she was a girl in Viet Nam,...

Compiled by educator and author Liz Kleinrock and author Caroline Kusin Pritchard, this powerful intersectional anthology celebrates thirty-six Jewish heroes—from Tracee Ellis Ross and Victor "Young" Perez to Doña Gracia Nasi. A first-ever collection that disrupts the narrative of how a Jewish...

Hà and her family have worked hard to make a life for themselves in the US, but it hasn’t come easy. Hà has only just started to feel settled when Mother decides that the family will move to Texas for a new job. Hà knows how hard starting over is and doesn’t want to have to do it again. But...