POST-RECONSTRUCTION AMERICAN HISTORY BOOKLIST
Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller by
Sarah Miller
YA historical; 1887
City of Orphans by Avi
YA realistic; 1893 NYC
The Devil in the White City: Murder,
Magic, and Madness at the Fair the
Changed America by Erik Larson
Nonfiction; 1893 Chicago
The Year We Were Famous by Carole
Estby Dagg
YA fictionalized account of a true story;
1896
Deadly by Julie Chibbaro
YA historical; Typhoid fever; early
1900s
The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters while also unable to speak her true thoughts out loud. These supernatural challenges only make Olivia more
YA historical; Suffrage movement; 1900 mysterious motives, all while secretly fighting for the rights of women. Winters breathes new life into history once
Oregon
Annie Sullivan was little more than a half-blind orphan with a fiery tongue when she arrived at Ivy Green in 1887.
Desperate for work, she'd taken on a seemingly impossible job -- teaching a child who was deaf, blind, and as
ferocious as any wild animal. But Helen Keller needed more than a teacher. She needed someone daring enough
to work a miracle. And if anyone was a match for Helen, it was the girl they used to call Miss Spitfire.
The streets of 1893 New York are full of life: crowded, filthy, dangerous. If you are a newsboy like thirteen-year-
old Maks Geless, you need to watch out for Bruno, leader of the Plug Ugly Gang whose shadowy, sinister boss is
plotting to take control of all the newsies on the lower East Side. With Bruno’s boys in fierce pursuit, Maks
discovers Willa, a strange girl who lives alone in an alley. It is she, stick in hand, who fights off the Plug Uglies--but
further dangers await. Maks must find a way to free his sister Emma from The Tombs, the city jail where she has
been imprisoned for stealing a watch at the glamorous new Waldorf Hotel. Maks, believing her innocent, has only
four days to prove it. Fortunately, there is Bartleby Donck, the eccentric lawyer (among other employments) to
guide Maks and Willa in the art of detection. Against a backdrop alive with the sights and sounds of tenement New
York, Maks, as boy detective, must confront a teeming world of wealth and crime, while struggling against
powerful forces threatening new immigrants and the fabric of family love.
Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.
H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short
period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the
famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible
success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B.
Anthony, Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be
responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the
World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well
as his own charismatic personality to lure victims.
With their family home facing foreclosure, seventeen-year-old Clara Estby and her mother, Helga, need to raise a
lot of money fast—no easy feat for two women in 1896. Helga wants to tackle the problem with her usual loud and
flashy style, while Clara favors a less showy approach. Together they come up with a plan to walk the 4,600 miles
from Mica Creek, Washington, to New York City—and if they can do it in only seven months, a publisher has
agreed to give them $10,000. Based on the true story of the author’s great-aunt and great-grandmother, this is a
fast-paced historical adventure that sets the drama of Around the World in Eighty Days against an American
backdrop during the time of the suffragist movement, the 1896 presidential campaign, and the changing
perception of “a woman’s place” in society.
A mysterious outbreak of typhoid fever is sweeping New York. Could the city’s future rest with its most unlikely
scientist? If Prudence Galewski is ever going to get out of Mrs. Browning’s esteemed School for Girls, she must
demonstrate her refinement and charm by securing a job appropriate for a young lady. But Prudence isn’t like the
other girls. She is fascinated by how the human body works and why it fails. With a stroke of luck, she lands a
position in a laboratory, where she is swept into an investigation of the fever bound to change medical history.
Prudence quickly learns that an inquiry of this proportion is not confined to the lab. From ritzy mansions to shady
bars and rundown tenements, she explores every potential cause of the disease. But there’s no answer in sight—
until the volatile Mary Mallon emerges. Dubbed “Typhoid Mary” by the press, Mary is an Irish immigrant who has
worked as a cook in every home the fever has ravaged. Strangely, though, she hasn’t been sick a day in her life.
Is the accusation against her an act of discrimination? Or is she the first clue in a new scientific discovery?
Prudence is determined to find out. In a time when science is for men, she’ll have to prove to the city, and to
herself, that she can help solve one of the greatest medical mysteries of the twentieth century.
Olivia Mead is a headstrong, independent girl—a suffragist—in an age that prefers its girls to be docile. It’s 1900
in Oregon, and Olivia’s father, concerned that she’s headed for trouble, convinces a stage mesmerist to try to
hypnotize the rebellion out of her. But the hypnotist, an intriguing young man named Henri Reverie, gives her a
terrible gift instead: she’s able to see people’s true natures, manifesting as visions of darkness and goodness,
determined to speak her mind, and so she’s drawn into a dangerous relationship with the hypnotist and his
again with an atmospheric, vividly real story, including archival photos and art from the period throughout.

Crossing Stones by Helen Frost
YA historical; verse; WWI and suffrage; who advise her to keep her opinions to herself. How can she find a way to care for those she loves while still
1917 Michigan
In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat
Winters
YA historical; WWI and flu epidemic;
1918
Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine
YA realistic; Harlem Renaissance;
1920s
The Fire Horse Girl by Kay Honeyman
YA realistic; 1923 CA
Witness by Karen Hesse
YA fictionalized account of a true story;
verse; KKK; 1924 Vermont
Silhouette of a Sparrow by Molly Beth
Griffin
YA realistic; roaring 20s; 1926
Minnesota
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
YA historical; verse; 1934 Oklahoma
Eighteen-year-old Muriel Jorgensen lives on one side of Crabapple Creek. Her family's closest friends, the
Normans, live on the other. For as long as Muriel can remember, the families' lives have been intertwined,
connected by the crossing stones that span the water. But now that Frank Norman—who Muriel is just beginning
to think might be more than a friend—has enlisted to fight in World War I and her brother, Ollie, has lied about his
age to join him, the future is uncertain. As Muriel tends to things at home with the help of Frank's sister, Emma,
she becomes more and more fascinated by the women's suffrage movement, but she is surrounded by people
remaining true to who she is?
In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the
deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an
atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to
séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest
moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who
died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her? Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-
century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.
When orphaned Dave is sent to the Hebrew Home for Boys and treated cruelly, he sneaks out at night and
welcomed into the music- and culture-filled world of the Harlem Renaissance, where he discovers the power of
friendship.
Jade Moon is a Fire Horse—the worst sign in the Chinese zodiac for girls, said to make them stubborn, willful, and
far too imaginative. But while her family despairs of marrying her off, she has a passionate heart and powerful
dreams, and wants only to find a way to make them come true. Then a young man named Sterling Promise
comes to their village to offer Jade Moon and her father a chance to go to America. While Sterling Promise's
smooth manners couldn't be more different from her own impulsive nature, Jade Moon falls in love with him on the
long voyage. But America in 1923 doesn't want to admit many Chinese, and when they are detained at Angel
Island, the "Ellis Island of the West", she discovers a betrayal that destroys all her dreams. To get into America,
much less survive there, Jade Moon will have to use all her stubbornness and will to break a new path... one as
brave and dangerous as only a Fire Horse girl can imagine.
Hesse tells her story, which is based on real events, through the eyes of 11 different characters. Each point of
view is expressed in poetic form, but with a stark clarity of difference that makes the voices unique and
identifiable. There is a fire-and-brimstone preacher whose sermons reveal him as a zealot and whose actions
brand him as a hypocrite. There is a middle-aged farm woman named Sara who takes Esther under her wing
despite the warnings of her neighbors, trying to help the child understand why the Klan has marked her and her
widowed father as targets for their hatred. Esther's only other friend is Leanora, who is about to learn some harsh
lessons on tolerance and hatred herself at the hands of the Klan. And linking them all together is 18-year-old
Merlin Van Tornhout, a young man struggling to fit in with the adult world and determine for himself the difference
between right and wrong. The remaining characters who circle the periphery of this core group reflect the various
mind-sets and biases that were common during this era of fear and persecution, even in a setting as bucolic as
the Vermont countryside.
In the summer of 1926, sixteen-year-old Garnet Richardson is sent to a lake resort to escape the polio epidemic in
the city. She dreams of indulging her passion for ornithology and visiting the famous new amusement park--a
summer of fun before she returns for her final year of high school, after which she’s expected to marry a nice boy
and settle into middle-class homemaking. But in the country, Garnet finds herself under the supervision of equally
oppressive guardians--her father’s wealthy cousin and the matron’s stuck-up daughter. Only a liberating job in a
hat shop, an intense, secret relationship with a daring and beautiful flapper, and a deep faith in her own fierce
heart can save her from the suffocating boredom of traditional femininity. Silhouette of a Sparrow is a coming-of-
age story about a search for wildness in a confining time, and a simultaneous quest for security in an era full of
unrest. It is the tale of a young woman’s discovery of the science of risk and the art of rebellion, and of course, the
power of unexpected love.
When Billie Jo is just fourteen she must endure heart-wrenching ordeals that no child should have to face. The
quiet strength she displays while dealing with unspeakable loss is as surprising as it is inspiring.
Written in free verse, this award-winning story is set in the heart of the Great Depression. It chronicles Oklahoma's
staggering dust storms, and the environmental--and emotional--turmoil they leave in their path. An unforgettable
tribute to hope and inner strength. (His)

Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez “More than grief, more than anger, there is a need. Someone to blame. Someone to make pay.”
YA historical; New London school
explosion; 1937 Texas
X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabaz
YA fictionalized account of a true story;
Malcolm X's childhood; 1930s-1940s
Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow by he was arguably the Negro League's hardest thrower, most entertaining storyteller and greatest gate attraction.
James Sturm
YA historical; graphic; 1930s-1950s
Under the Blood Red Sun by Graham
Salisbury
YA historical; Pearl Harbor; 1941
Hawaii
Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac
YA historical; WWII
Mare's War by Tanita S. Davis
YA realistic; WWII
Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith
YA realistic; WWII Louisiana
“This is East Texas, and there’s lines. Lines you cross, lines you don’t cross. That clear?”
New London, Texas. 1937. Naomi Vargas and Wash Fuller know about the lines in East Texas as well as
anyone. They know the signs that mark them.
“No Negroes, Mexicans, or dogs.”
They know the people who enforce them.
“They all decided they’d ride out in their sheets and pay Blue a visit.”
But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful it breaks through even the most entrenched color
lines. And the consequences can be explosive.
Ashley Hope Pérez takes the facts of the 1937 New London school explosion—the worst school disaster in
American history—as a backdrop for a riveting novel about segregation, love, family, and the forces that destroy
people. (His)
Malcolm Little’s parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that's
nothing but a pack of lies—after all, his father's been murdered, his mother's been taken away, and his dreams of
becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There’s no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the
nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer. But Malcolm’s
efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory when what starts as some small-time
hustling quickly spins out of control. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he’s found is only an illusion—and
that he can't run forever. X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when
he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today. (His)
Baseball Hall of Famer Leroy "Satchel" Paige (1905-1982) changed the face of the game in a career that spanned
five decades. Much has been written about this larger-than-life pitcher, but when it comes to Paige, fact does not
easily separate from fiction. He made a point of writing his own historyand then re-writing it. A tall, lanky fireballer,
Now the Center for Cartoon Studies turns a graphic novelist's eye to Paige's story. Told from the point of view of a
sharecropper, this compelling narrative follows Paige from game to game as he travels throughout the segregated
South.
Tomi was born in Hawaii. His grandfather and parents were born in Japan, and came to America to escape
poverty. World War II seems far away from Tomi and his friends, who are too busy playing ball on their eighth-
grade team, the Rats. But then Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese, and the United States declares war on
Japan. Japanese men are rounded up, and Tomi’s father and grandfather are arrested. It’s a terrifying time to be
Japanese in America. But one thing doesn’t change: the loyalty of Tomi’s buddies, the Rats.
Throughout World War II, in the conflict fought against Japan, Navajo code talkers were a crucial part of the U.S.
effort, sending messages back and forth in an unbreakable code that used their native language. They braved
some of the heaviest fighting of the war, and with their code, they saved countless American lives. Yet their story
remained classified for more than twenty years. Joseph Bruchac brings their stories to life for young adults
through the riveting fictional tale of Ned Begay, a sixteen-year-old Navajo boy who becomes a code talker. His
grueling journey is eye-opening and inspiring. This deeply affecting novel honors all of those young men, like Ned,
who dared to serve, and it honors the culture and language of the Navajo Indians. (His)
Octavia and Tali are dreading the road trip their parents are forcing them to take with their grandmother over the
summer. After all, Mare isn’t your typical grandmother. She drives a red sports car, wears stiletto shoes, flippy
wigs, and push-up bras, and insists that she’s too young to be called Grandma. But somewhere on the road,
Octavia and Tali discover there’s more to Mare than what you see. She was once a willful teenager who escaped
her less-than-perfect life in the deep South and lied about her age to join the African American battalion of the
Women’s Army Corps during World War II. Told in alternating chapters, half of which follow Mare through her
experiences as a WAC member and half of which follow Mare and her granddaughters on the road in the present
day, this novel introduces a larger-than-life character who will stay with readers long after they finish reading. (His)
Ida Mae Jones dreams of flight. Her daddy was a pilot and being black didn't stop him from fulfilling his dreams.
But her daddy's gone now, and being a woman, and being black, are two strikes against her. When America
enters the war with Germany and Japan, the Army creates the WASP, the Women Airforce Service Pilots - and
Ida suddenly sees a way to fly as well as do something significant to help her brother stationed in the Pacific. But
even the WASP won't accept her as a black woman, forcing Ida Mae to make a difficult choice of "passing," of
pretending to be white to be accepted into the program. Hiding one's racial heritage, denying one's family, denying
one's self is a heavy burden. And while Ida Mae chases her dream, she must also decide who it is she really
wants to be. (His)

Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse
YA historical; verse; WWII Alaska
Bone by Bone by Bone by Tony
Johnston
YA realistic; 1950s Tennessee
The Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin
Talley
YA historical; Civil Rights; 1959 Virginia confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another. (His)
The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz
Gonzalez
YA historical; Operation Pedro Pan;
1961 Cuba to America
Countdown by Deborah Wiles
YA historical; Cuban Missile Crisis;
1962 DC
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Historical SciFi; JFK assassination;
1963 Texas
The Rock and the River By Kekla
Magoon
YA historical; Civil Rights; 1968
Chicago
The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano by
Sonia Manzano
YA historical; 1969 El Barrio
In June 1942, seven months after attacking Pearl Harbor, the Japanese navy invaded Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
For nine thousand years the Aleut people had lived and thrived on these treeless, windswept lands. Within days of
the first attack, the entire native population living west of Unimak Island was gathered up and evacuated to
relocation centers in the dense forests of Alaska's Southeast.
With resilience, compassion, and humor, the Aleuts responded to the sorrows of upheaval and dislocation. This is
the story of Vera, a young Aleut caught up in the turmoil of war. It chronicles her struggles to survive and to keep
community and heritage intact despite harsh conditions in an alien environment.
David's daddy is determined that his son will grow up to be a doctor like himself. David studies the human bones,
and secretly teaches them in turn to his black friend, Malcolm. In a rage, Dr. Church forbids Malcolm to ever enter
their home —and threatens to kill him if he does. David tries to change his daddy's mind, but when Malcolm
crosses the line, Dr. Church grabs his shotgun.
Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors
student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily. Linda Hairston is the
daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the
races should be kept separate but equal. Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must
In 1961, two years after the Communist revolution, Lucía Álvarez still leads a carefree life, dreaming of parties and
her first crush. But when the soldiers come to her sleepy Cuban town, everything begins to change. Freedoms are
stripped away. Neighbors disappear. Her friends feel like strangers. And her family is being watched. As the
revolution's impact becomes more oppressive, Lucía's parents make the heart-wrenching decision to send her
and her little brother to the United States—on their own. Suddenly plunked down in Nebraska with well-meaning
strangers, Lucía struggles to adapt to a new country, a new language, a new way of life. But what of her old life?
Will she ever see her home or her parents again? And if she does, will she still be the same girl? (His)
It's 1962, and it seems everyone is living in fear. Twelve-year-old Franny Chapman lives with her family in
Washington, DC, during the days surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis. Amidst the pervasive threat of nuclear
war, Franny must face the tension between herself and her younger brother, figure out where she fits in with her
family, and look beyond outward appearances. For Franny, as for all Americans, it's going to be a formative year.
Life can turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English
teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine. While grading essays by his GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling
piece penned by janitor Harry Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer
slaughter of his entire family. Jake is blown away...but an even more bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s
friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to
prevent the Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the era
of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock hops, and cigarette smoke... Finding himself in warmhearted Jodie,
Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The
course of history is about to be rewritten...and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful. (Sci)
For thirteen-year-old Sam it's not easy being the son of known civil rights activist Roland Childs. Especially when
his older (and best friend), Stick, begins to drift away from him for no apparent reason. And then it happens: Sam
finds something that changes everything forever. Sam has always had faith in his father, but when he finds
literature about the Black Panthers under Stick's bed, he's not sure who to believe: his father or his best friend.
Suddenly, nothing feels certain anymore. Sam wants to believe that his father is right: You can effect chnage
without using violence. But as time goes on, Sam grows weary of standing by and watching as his friends and
family suffer at the hands of racism in their own community. Sam beings to explore the Panthers with Stick, but
soon he's involved in something far more serious -- and more dangerous -- than he could have ever predicted.
Sam is faced with a difficult decision. Will he follow his father or his brother? His mind or his heart? The rock or the
river? (His)
There are two secrets Evelyn Serrano is keeping from her Mami and Papo? her true feelings about growing up in
her Spanish Harlem neighborhood, and her attitude about Abuela, her sassy grandmother who's come from
Puerto Rico to live with them. Then, like an urgent ticking clock, events erupt that change everything. The Young
Lords, a Puerto Rican activist group, dump garbage in the street and set it on fire, igniting a powerful protest.
When Abuela steps in to take charge, Evelyn is thrust into the action. Tempers flare, loyalties are tested. Through
it all, Evelyn learns important truths about her Latino heritage and the history makers who shaped a nation.
Infused with actual news accounts from the time period, Sonia Manzano has crafted a gripping work of fiction
based on her own life growing up during a fiery, unforgettable time in America, when young Latinos took control of
their destinies.

Are You Experienced? by Jordan
Sonnenblick
YA historical; Woodstock; 1969
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
YA historical; Vietnam
City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg
Historical; 1976-77 NYC
Eli the Good by Silas House
YA realistic; 1976 South
Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella
YA historical; baseball; 1980s Iowa
Everything Beautiful in the World by
Lisa Levchuck
YA realistic; 1980s New Jersey
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by
Emily M. Danforth
YA realistic; 1990s Montana
Rich is fifteen and plays guitar. When his girlfriend asks him to perform at protest rally, he jumps at the chance.
Unfortunately, the police show up, and so does Rich’s dad. He’s in big trouble. Again. To make matters worse, this
happens near the anniversary of his uncle’s death from a drug overdose years ago. Rich’s dad always gets
depressed this time of year, but whenever Rich asks questions about his late uncle, his dad shuts down.
Frustrated by his dad’s silence, Rich sneaks into his office and breaks into a locked cabinet that holds his dad’s
prized possession: an electric guitar signed by Jimi Hendrix. Before he knows it, Rich is transported to the side of
a road in Upstate New York with a beautiful girl bending over him. It will take him a while to realize it’s 1969, he’s
at Woodstock, and the girl’s band of friends includes his fifteen-year-old dad and his uncle, who’s still alive. What
Rich learns, who he meets, and what he does could change his life forever. (Sci)
A coming-of-age tale for young adults set in the trenches of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, this is the story of
Perry, a Harlem teenager who volunteers for the service when his dream of attending college falls through. Sent to
the front lines, Perry and his platoon come face-to-face with the Vietcong and the real horror of warfare. But
violence and death aren't the only hardships. As Perry struggles to find virtue in himself and his comrades, he
questions why black troops are given the most dangerous assignments, and why the U.S. is there at all. (His)
New York City, 1976. Meet Regan and William Hamilton-Sweeney, estranged heirs to one of the city's great
fortunes; Keith and Mercer, the men who, for better or worse, love them; Charlie and Samantha, two suburban
teenagers seduced by downtown's punk scene; an obsessive magazine reporter, Richard, and his idealistic
neighbor, Jenny, - and the detective trying to figure out what any of them have to do with a shooting in Central
Park on New Year's Eve.
The mystery, as it reverberates through families, friendships, and the corridors of power, will open up even the
loneliest-seeming corners of the crowded city. And when the blackout of July 13, 1977, plunges this world into
darkness, each of these lives with be changed forever. (Con)
Bicentennial fireworks burn the sky. Bob Seger growls from a transistor radio. And down by the river, girls line up
on lawn chairs in pursuit of the perfect tan. Yet for ten-year-old Eli Book, the summer of 1976 is the one that
threatened to tear his family apart. There is his distant mother; his traumatized Vietnam vet dad; his wild sister; his
former warprotester aunt; and his tough yet troubled best friend, Edie, the only person with whom he can be
himself. As tempers flare and his father’s nightmares rage, Eli watches from the sidelines, but soon even he
cannot escape the current of conflict. From Silas House comes a tender look at the complexities of childhood and
the realities of war — a quintessentially Southern novel filled with music, nostalgic detail, a deep respect for
nature, and a powerful sense of place.
"If you build it, he will come." These mysterious words inspire Ray Kinsella to create a cornfield baseball diamond
in honor of his hero, Shoeless Joe Jackson. What follows is a rich, nostalgic look at one of our most cherished
national pastimes and a remarkable story about fathers and sons, love and family, and the inimitable joy of finding
your way home.
The only good thing about having a mother with cancer is that people are willing to let you get away with pretty
much anything. Like failing a Latin test. Or being late to class. Or skipping tennis practice. But there’s one thing
Edna’s fairly certain even she can’t get away with – her burgeoning romance with Mr. Howland, her fourth-period
Ceramics teacher. That day when Mr. Howland kissed her in his office, she felt like she was floating, like she
could levitate right out of her skin. It’s Mr. Howland, with his tousled blond hair and his beautiful guitar and his
spot-on impression of Dracula, who makes Edna feel happy for the first time in a long time. But what does Mr.
Howland want? And how does Edna really feel – about her mother, about Mr. Howland, about moving forward?
When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they’ll never
know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl. But that relief doesn’t last, and Cam is soon forced to move
in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows
that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and
leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both. Then Coley
Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She
and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship — one that seems to leave room for something more to
emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to ‘fix’
her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self — even if she’s not exactly sure who
that is.
 The day D Foster enters Neeka and her best friend’s lives, the world opens up for them. D comes from a world
vastly different from their safe Queens neighborhood, and through her, the girls see another side of life that
includes loss, foster families and an amount of freedom that makes the girls envious. Although all of them are
crazy about Tupac Shakur’s rap music, D is the one who truly understands the place where he’s coming from, and
After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline through knowing D, Tupac’s lyrics become more personal for all of them. The girls are thirteen when D’s mom
Woodson swoops in to reclaim D—and as magically as she appeared, she now disappears from their lives. Tupac is gone,
too, after another shooting; this time fatal. As the narrator looks back, she sees lives suspended in time, and
YA realistic; 1990s urban realizes that even all-too-brief connections can touch deeply. (Mul)
It's a Tuesday morning in Brooklyn--a perfect September day. Wendy is heading to school, eager to make plans
with her best friend, worried about how she looks, mad at her mother for not letting her visit her father in
California, impatient with her little brother and with the almost too-loving concern of her jazz musician stepfather.
She's out the door to catch the bus. An hour later comes the news: A plane has crashed into the World Trade
The Usual Rules by Joyce Maynard Center--her mother's office building. Through the eyes of thirteen-year-old Wendy, we gain entrance to the world
rarely shown by those who documented the events of that one terrible day: a family's slow and terrible realization
YA historical; 9/11/2001 that Wendy's mother has died, and their struggle to go on with their lives in the face of such a crushing loss. (Con)
Nadira and her family are illegal aliens, fleeing to the Canadian border -- running from the country they thought
was their home. For years since emigrating from Bangladesh, they have lived on expired visas in New York City,
hoping they could someday realize their dream of becoming legal citizens of the United States. But after 9/11,
everything changes. Suddenly, being Muslim means being dangerous, a suspected terrorist. And when Nadira's
Ask Me No Questions by Marina Tamar father is arrested and detained at the border, Nadira and her older sister, Aisha, are sent back to Queens and told
Budhos to carry on, as if everything is the same. But of course nothing is the same. Nadira and Aisha live in fear they'll
have to return to a Bangladesh they hardly know. Aisha, always the responsible one, falls apart. It's up to Nadira
YA historical; 9/11/2001 to find a way to bring her family back together again. (Mul)
Miles has only lived in New Orleans with his dad, a musician, for a few months when Hurricane Katrina hits.
Hurricane Song by Paul Volponi Father and son haven't exactly been getting along. Miles is obsessed with football; his dad's passion is jazz. But
when the storm strikes, they're forced to work through their differences to survive a torturous few days in the
YA historical; Hurricane Katrina; 2005 Superdome.
Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean
Myers
Operation Iraqi Freedom, that's the code name. But the young men and women in the military's Civil Affairs
YA historical; Iraq War; late 2000s Battalion have a simpler name for it: WAR. (His)
After a marijuana-addled brawl with a rival gang, 16-year-old Azael wakes up to find himself surrounded by a
familiar set of concrete walls and a locked door. Juvie again, he thinks. But he can't really remember what
happened or how he got picked up. And this lock-up seems more than a little different from the one he knew
before. For one, no one comes to visit or even calls. Stranger still are the hours he's forced to spend observing
The Knife and the Butterfly by Ashley another inmatea white girl his own agethrough a one-way mirror. And then there's his file, which has a heavily
Hope Perez redacted newspaper account of the brawl. Between observation sessions, Azael occupies himself with recalling
his extremely difficult upbringing as one of three children of illegal Salvadoran immigrants and as a member of the
YA realistic; contemporary MS-13 gang.
When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar.
Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white. In the aftermath of Tariq's death, everyone has something to
How it Went Down by Kekla Magoon say, but no two accounts of the events line up. Day by day, new twists further obscure the truth. Tariq's friends,
family, and community struggle to make sense of the tragedy, and to cope with the hole left behind when a life is
YA realistic; contemporary cut short. In their own words, they grapple for a way to say with certainty: This is how it went down. (Mul)