BOOKS AND NOVELS THAT CAPTURE AMERICA'S DIVERSE VOICES

 Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.

With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the camp's Director and his guards. 

 S.K. Ali’s novel follows the life of a 15 year old Indian-American hijabi named Janna Yusuf as she navigates Muslim faith, identity, social issues, and mental health.  

 Kaikeyi is the story of the infamous queen from Indian mythology, the Ramayana. It is a tale of fate, family, courage, and heartbreak—of an extraordinary woman determined to leave her mark in a world where gods and men dictate the shape of things to come. 

 Jhumpa Lahiri tells the story of the immigrant experience of one Bengali family, the Gangulis. Following an arranged marriage, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli move to America to begin a new life in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

 Sherman Alexie's book tells the story of Junior, who in search of a better education transfers from the high school on his reservation to a rich, white school in a nearby town. 

 Based on the author’s real-life experiences immigrating to America from China and running a motel with her parents, this novel explores how one little girl overcomes language barriers, discrimination and her own lack of confidence to find her voice – and use it to make a difference. 

 Chinua Achebe’s book details the life of Okonkwo. His struggle with his father's reputation, the standards of masculinity, and the cultural practices of his clan pre-colonialism, providing an in-depth view of the Igbo culture.

 Us​is Reyna Grande's memoir about her life before and after coming to the United States and becoming a full-fledged U.S. citizen. She details her life overcoming poverty, hardships, domestic abuse, and cultural barriers alongside her two siblings. 

 Saumya Dave’s beautiful story is about how mothers try to do better for their daughters, doing whatever is in their power to give them a life with more opportunities than they ever had. 

 A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother's religion and her own relationship to the world.

 Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. 

 The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago.  

 Written by Tahereh Mafi, herself the daughter of Iranian-American immigrants, the book tells the story of a teenage Muslim American girl dealing with racism and Islamophobia in the wake of 9/11. 

 Jen and Riley have been best friends since kindergarten. As adults, they remain as close as sisters, though their lives have taken different directions. Jen married young, and after years of trying, is finally pregnant. Riley pursued her childhood dream of becoming a television journalist and is poised to become one of the first Black female anchors of the top news channel in their hometown of Philadelphia.

 The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Told in a series of vignettes-sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous-Sandra Cisneros' masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers.
 

Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a searing and compassionate new novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible injustice done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench 

First-generation American LatinX Liliana Cruz does what it takes to fit in at her new nearly all-white school. But when family secrets spill out and racism at school ramps up, she must decide what she believes in and take a stand.
 

 The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. 

 Nadine Jolie Courtney's All-American Muslim Girl is a relevant, relatable story of being caught between two worlds, and the struggles and hard-won joys of finding your place. 

 An inspiring novel about two transgender friends who help each other navigate the ups and downs of teenage life. 

Juliet Milagros Palante is a self-proclaimed closeted Puerto Rican baby dyke from the Bronx. Only, she's not so closeted anymore. 

 A Pakistani-American Muslim girl struggles to stay true to her family's vibrant culture while simultaneously blending in at school after tragedy strikes her community in this sweet and moving middle grade novel from the award-winning author of It's Ramadan, Curious George and Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns. 

 Caroline Murphy, a girl that lives on an island near Saint Thomas, believes herself to be cursed. She was born during a hurricane, a sign of bad luck, and is haunted by the spirit of an unknown woman. Murphy goes to a Catholic school, where she is bullied by students and faculty alike, due to the color of her skin. 

 Maya Aziz is a 16-year-old Muslim girl living in Illinois, America: a pretty much all-white community. She has a crush on a white boy, and is irritated by pressure from her overprotective parents to be more traditional when she really wants to study film in New York. 

 A memoir published in 2021, Beautiful Country details the experiences of author Qian Julie Wang when she and her family first arrived in the United States as undocumented immigrants.

 Seventeen-year-old Pakistani immigrant, Zara Hossain, has been leading a fairly typical life in Corpus Christi, Texas, since her family moved there for her father to work as a pediatrician.  

 Naila’s conservative immigrant parents have always said the same thing: She may choose what to study, how to wear her hair, and what to be when she grows up—but they will choose her husband. Following their cultural tradition, they will plan an arranged marriage for her. 

 It’s hard to overstate the influence of queer Chicana literary scholar Gloria Anzaldúa. Before her death in 2004, the Rio Grande Valley native pushed the boundaries of feminism and social justice activism, powerfully articulating what it means to be from the border. Her most famous book, Borderlands/La Frontera, blends prose and poetry, Spanish and English, literary theory and memoir into a true tour de force.

 Sophie is a 12-year-old African American girl living in 1965 Los Angeles. She is intelligent and determined. With two professional parents and a sister on her way to a historically black college, Sophie is living a middle-class life in her mostly white neighborhood and struggling to find acceptance among her peers. Friendship formation and creative ambitions are thwarted by bigotry, but her inner strength leaves her undaunted. 

 Jackson’s second novel in the continuing story of Rosa “Rose” Lee Carter, a 13-year-old African American girl growing up in Mississippi. The year is 1955, and the town of Stillwater, MI, is still reeling from the injustice of Emmett Till’s murderers going free. The white folks are saying that ever since the trial, “the coloreds have gotten beside themselves.” Trouble is brewing closer to Rosa than it ever has before. Her best friend, Hallelujah, the preacher’s son, is stirring up talk of holding demonstrations in Stillwater

 Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard."

 Ijeoma comes of age as her nation does; born before independence, she is eleven when civil war breaks out in the young republic of Nigeria. Sent away to safety, she meets another displaced child and they, star-crossed, fall in love. They are from different ethnic communities. They are also both girls. When their love is discovered, Ijeoma learns that she will have to hide this part of herself. But there is a cost to living inside a lie. 

 It’s the summer of 1990 and Crystal Beach has lost its beloved, long-running amusement park, leaving the lakeside village a virtual ghost town. It is back to this fallen community that Starla Mia Martin must return to live with her overbearing mother after dropping out of university and racking up significant debt. 

 An astonishing story that puts a human face on the ongoing debate about immigration reform in the United States, now updated with a new Epilogue and Afterword, photos of Enrique and his family, an author interview, and more—the definitive edition of a classic of contemporary America.

 This book is a vividly told autobiographical account of the life of a child growing up in a family of migrant farm workers. It brings to life the day-to-day existence of people facing the obstacles of working in the fields and raising a family in an environment that is frequently hostile to those who have little education and speak another language.

  Blade never asked for a life of the rich and famous. In fact, he’d give anything not to be the son of Rutherford Morrison, a washed-up rock star and drug addict with delusions of a comeback. Or to no longer be part of a family known most for lost potential, failure, and tragedy, including the loss of his mother. The one true light is his girlfriend, Chapel, but her parents have forbidden their relationship, assuming Blade will become just like his father.