BOOK CHOICE: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
F Alv Alvarez, Julia. Before We Were Free. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf Note: "In the early 1960's in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo."
Fic Bag Bagdasarian, Adam. Forgotten Fire. New York, NY: Dell Laurel-Leaf Note: The story of how Vahan Kenderian survived the Turkish massacre of the Armenians in 1915.
Fic Ban Banks, Lynne Reid. Broken Bridge. New York: Morrow Junior, Note: The murder of fourteen-year-old Glen Shelby, soon after his arrival in Israel to visit his father's family, has a dramatic effect on the lives of his relatives, the other members of their kibbutz, and the Arabs responsible for his death.
Fic Ban Banks, Lynne Reid. One More River. New York: Avon, 1992. Note: Fourteen-year-old Lesley is upset when her parents abandon their comfortable life in Canada for a kibbutz in Israel prior to the 1967 war.
Fic BENNETT Bennett, Jack. The voyage of the Lucky Dragon. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice -Hall, [1982, 1981]. Note: A young Vietnamese boy recounts the perils and hardships endured by his family as they journey to Indonesia, Singapore and finally to Australia seeking political asylum.
Fic Ber Bertrand, Diane Gonzales. Trino's time. Houston, Tex: Piñata Books, [2001]. Note: With the help of some friends and a Tejano hero that he discovers in history class, thirteen-year-old Trino copes with his problems and his world.
Fic Ber Bertrand, Diane Gonzales. Trino's choice. Houston: Piñata Books, [1999]. Note: Frustrated by his poor financial situation and hoping to impress a smart girl, seventh grader Trino falls in with a bad crowd led by an older teen with a vicious streak.
Fic Bud Budhos, Marina. Ask Me No Questions. New York: Atheneum Book for Young Readers, 2006. Note: Fourteen-year-old Nadira, her sister, and their parents leave Bangladesh for New York City, but the expiration of their visas and the events of September 11, 2001, bring frustration, sorrow, and terror for the whole family.
Fic Can Canales, Viola. The tequila worm. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, [2005]. Note: Sofia grows up in the close-knit community of the barrio in McAllen, Texas, then finds that her experiences as a scholarship student at an Episcopal boarding school in Austin only strengthen her ties to family and her "comadres."
Fic Car Carter, Alden R. Crescent Moon. 1st ed. New York: Holiday House, [1999]. Note: Living in the logging area of northern Wisconsin during the early 1900s, thirteen-year-old Jeremy helps his uncle carve a statue of a Chippewa maiden as a tribute to the vanishing culture of her people.
Fic CHO Choi, Sook Nyul. Year of Impossible Goodbyes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. Note: A young Korean girl survives the oppressive Japanese and Russian occupation of North Korea during the 1940s, to later escape to freedom in South Korea.
Fic Cre Crew, Linda. Children of the River. New York: Delacorte Press, 1989. Note: Having fled Cambodia four years earlier to escape the Khmer Rouge army, seventeen-year-old Sundara is torn between remaining faithful to her own people and enjoying life in her Oregon high school as a "regular" American.
Fic Dan Danticat, Edwidge. Behind the mountains. 1st ed. New York: Orchard Books, [2002]. Note: Writing in the notebook which her teacher gave her, thirteen-year-old Celiane describes life with her mother and brother in Haiti as well as her experiences in Brooklyn after the family finally immigrates there to be reunited with her father.
F DAN Danticat, Edwidge. Krik? Krak! New York: Soho Press, [1995]. Note: Nine stories describe life under dictatorship in Haiti and the experiences of families who fled to the United States to start new lives.
Fic DANTICAT Danticat, Edwidge. Breath, eyes, memory. New York: Vintage Books, [1995]. Note: At the age of twelve, Sophie Caco is sent from the impoverished village of Croix-des-Rosets to New York to be reunited with her mother, where she gains a legacy of shame that can only be healed when she returns to Haiti, to the woman who first reared her.
Fic Den Denenberg, Barry. The journal of Ben Uchida, citizen 13559 : Mirror Lake Internment Camp. 1st ed. New York: Scholastic, [1999]. Note: Twelve-year-old Ben Uchida keeps a journal of his experiences as a prisoner in a Japanese internment camp in Mirror Lake, California, during World War II.
Fic DINES Dines, Carol. Best friends tell the best lies. New York, N.Y: Delacorte Press, [1989]. Note: Fourteen-year-old Leah's loyalty and devotion to her emotionally troubled friend, Tamara, brings into focus some of her conflicting feelings about her mother's imminent remarriage and her own growing attachment to a young Mexican American, the nephew of her mother's boyfriend.
Fic Ell Ellis, Deborah. The Breadwinner. Toronto: Douglas and McIntyre, 2000. Note: Because the Taliban rulers of Kabul, Afghanistan, impose strict limitations on women's freedom and behavior, eleven-year-old Parvana must disguise herself as a boy so that her family can survive after her father's arrest.
Fic Ell Ellis, Deborah. Parvana’s Journey. Toronto: Douglas and McIntyre, [2002]. Note: In this sequel to The Breadwinner, the Taliban still control Afghanistan, but Kabul is in ruins. Twelve-year-old Parvana's father has just died, and her mother, sister, and brother could be anywhere in the country. Parvana sets out alone to find them, masquerading as a boy, and she meets other children who are victims of war.
Fic FAR Farmer, Nancy. A Girl Named Disaster. New York: Orchard Books, [1996]. Note: While journeying to Zimbabwe, eleven-year-old Nhamo struggles to escape drowning and starvation and in so doing comes close to the luminous world of the African spirits.
Fic Fer Ferreira, Anton. Zulu Dog. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, [2002]. Note: In post-apartheid South Africa, a Zulu boy keeps secrets from his family as he cares for an injured dog and befriends the daughter of a white farmer.
Fic FORD Ford, Marjorie Leet. Do try to speak as we do : the diary of an American au pair. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, [2001]. Note: A humorous novel follows a young American woman overseas to England, where she struggles to survive as an au pair for a wealthy British family.
Fic Gar Garland, Sherry. Shadow of the dragon. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, [1993]. Note: High school sophomore Danny Vo tries to resolve the conflict between the values of his Vietnamese refugee family and his new American way of life.
Fic GARDNER Gardner, Mary. Boat people : a novel. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, [1995]. Note: A community of Vietnamese immigrants in Galveston, Texas, struggles to maintain a balance between the worlds of the past and present.
Fic GEORGE George, Jean Craighead. Water sky. 1st ed. [New York]: Harper & Row, [1987]. Note: A boy who goes to Barrow, Alaska, to live with friends of his father for awhile learns the importance of whaling to the Eskimo culture.
Fic HES Hesse, Karen. Letters from Rifka. New York: Henry Holt, [1992]. Note: In letters to her cousin, a young Jewish girl chronicles her family's flight from Russia in 1919 and her own experiences when she must be left in Belgium for a while when the others emigrate to America.
Fic Jim Jimenez, Francisco. Breaking through. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, [2001]. Note: Having come from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working in the fields but fighting to improve his life and complete his education.
Fic Joh Johnston, Tony and Colón, Raúl. Any small goodness : a novel of the barrio. New York: Blue Sky, [2001]. Note: Arturo and his family and friends share all kinds of experiences living in the barrio of East Los Angeles--reclaiming their names, playing basketball, championing the school librarian, and even starting their own gang.
Fic Kes Kessler, Cristina. Our secret, Siri Aang. New York: Philomel Books, [2004]. Note: Namelok, a Masai girl, tries to persuade her traditionalist father to delay her initiation and marriage because they will restrict her freedom and keep her from the black rhino mother and baby she is protecting from poachers.
Fic LAI Laird, Elizabeth. Kiss the Dust. New York: Puffin Books, [1992]. Note: The story of 13-year-old Tora, a Kurdish girl whose family flees its home in Iraq and escapes through the mountains of Iran.
Fic LAMPMAN Lampman, Evelyn Sibley. The potlatch family. 1st ed. New York: Atheneum, [1976]. Note: Looked down at by her classmates because of her darker skin and alcoholic father, a Chinook Indian girl gains a new outlook when her brother returns from Vietnam.
Fic Lee Lee, Marie G. F is for fabuloso. New York, NY: Avon, [1999]. Note: Seventh-grader Jin-Ha finds her adjustment to America complicated by her mother's inability to learn English.
Fic LEE Lee, Marie G. Necessary roughness. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins, [1996]. Note: Sixteen-year-old Korean American Chan moves from Los Angeles to a small town in Minnesota, where he must cope not only with racism on the football team but also with the tensions in his relationship with his strict father.
Fic LOW Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, [1989]. Note: In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.
Fic MAR Martinez, Victor. Parrot in the oven : mi vida : a novel. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, [1996]. Note: Manny relates his coming of age experiences as a member of a poor Mexican American family in which the alcoholic father only adds to everyone's struggle.
Fic MEA Mead, Alice. Girl of Kosovo. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, [2001]. Note: Although Zana, an eleven-year-old Albanian girl, experiences the turmoil and violence of the 1999 conflict in her native Kosovo, she remembers her father's admonition to not let her heart become filled with hate.
Fic MIKLOWITZ Miklowitz, Gloria D. The war between the classes. New York: Delacorte Press, [1985]. Note: Seventeen-year-old Emiko, brought up in a strict Japanese-American family, is in love with handsome blond Adam, although she realizes her old-fashioned father expects her to find a Japanese husband.
Fic Na Na, An. Wait for me. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, [2006]. Note: As her senior year in high school approaches, Mina yearns to find her own path in life but working at the family business, taking care of her little sister, and dealing with her mother's impossible expectations are as stifling as the southern California heat, until she falls in love with a man who offers a way out.
Fic NAI Naidoo, Beverly. Journey to Jo’burg: A South African Story. New York: J.B. Lippincott, [1985]. Note: Separated from their mother by the harsh social and economic conditions prevalent among blacks in South Africa, thirteen-year-old Naledi and her younger brother make a journey of over 300 kilometers to find her in Johannesburg.
Fic NAI Naidoo, Beverly. The Other Side of Truth. New York: HarperCollins, [2000]. Note: Smuggled out of Nigeria after their mother's murder, Sade and her younger brother are abandoned in London when their uncle fails to meet them at the airport and they are fearful of their new surroundings and of what may have happened to their journalist father back in Nigeria.
Fic NAM Namioka, Lensey. Ties That Bind, Ties That Break: a novel. New York: Delacorte Press, [1999]. Note: Ailin's life takes a different turn when she defies the traditions of upper class Chinese society by refusing to have her feet bound.
Fic NICHOLS Nichols, John Treadwell. The Milagro beanfield war. [1st ed.]. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, [1974]. Note: A handyman diverts water to irrigate his crops and sparks a standoff between the community and a real estate developer.