Kids and Families

Multicultural Fiction for Teens

see also multicultural books for children

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. Delacorte Press, 1999.
Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids. Newbery Award Winner.

Candle in the Wind by Maureen Wartski. Fawcett Juniper, 1995.
On the night of a party celebrating his acceptance into Harvard, Harris Mizuno, a Japanese-American teenager, is shot dead by an elderly white man who mistakes him for an intruder when Harris asks to use the phone because his car has stalled.

Cezanne Pinto by Mary Stolz. A.A. Knopf, 1994.
In his old age Cezanne Pinto recalls his youth as a slave on a Virginia plantation and his escape to a new life in the North.

Dangerous Skies by Suzanne Fisher Staples. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1996.
Hypocrisy and prejudice twist events in such a way as to implicate two children, one from a prominent white family and the other an Afro-American, in a murder.

Danger Zone by David Klass. Scholastic, 1996.
When he joins a predominantly black "Teen Dream Team" that will be representing the United States in an international basketball tournament in Rome, Jimmy Doyle makes some unexpected discoveries about prejudice, racism, and politics.

Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine. Harper Collins Publishers, 1999.
When orphaned Dave is sent to the Hebrew Home for Boys where he is treated cruelly, he sneaks out at night and is welcomed into the music-and culture-filled world of the Harlem Renaissance.

Dragonwings by Lawrence Yep. Harper & Row, 1975.
In the early twentieth century, a young Chinese boy joins his father in San Francisco and helps him realize his dream of making a flying machine.

Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers. Scholastic, Inc., 1988.
Seventeen-year-old Richie Perry, just out of his Harlem high school, enlists in the Army in the summer of 1967 and spends a devastating year on active duty in Vietnam.

Forged by Fire by Sharon Draper. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1997.
Teenage Gerald, who has spent years protecting his fragile half-sister from their abusive father, faces the prospect of one final confrontation before the problem can be solved.

For the Life of Laetitia by Merle Hodge. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1993.
As the first in her family to go to secondary school, twelve-year-old Lacey struggles with a variety of problems including a cruel teacher and a difficult home life with her father and stepmother.

From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun by Jacqueline Woodson. The Blue Sky Press, 1995.
Fourteen-year-old Melanin Sun's comfortable, quiet life is shattered when his mother reveals she has fallen in love with a woman.

The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers. Scholastic, 1994.
Follows a family's two hundred forty-one year history, from the capture of an African boy in the 1750s through the lives of his descendants, as their dreams and circumstances lead them away from and back to the small plot of land in South Carolina that they call the Glory Field.

Grab Hands and Run by Frances Temple. Orchard Books, 1993.
After his father disappears, twelve-year-old Felipe, his mother, and his younger sister set out on a difficult and dangerous journey, trying to make their way from their home in El Salvador to Canada.

Heaven by Angela Johnson. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1998.
Fourteen-year-old Marley's seemingly perfect life in the small town of Heaven is disrupted when she discovers that her father and mother are not her real parents.

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson. Putnam's, 1998.
After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's reactions.

Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred Taylor. Dial Press, c1981.
Four black children growing up in rural Mississippi during the Depression experience racial antagonisms and hard times, but learn from their parents the pride and self-respect they need to survive.

One Bird by Kyoko Mori. Henry Holt, 1995.
After her mother abandons them, fifteen-year-old Megumi tries to understand her father's need for his mistress while dealing with her own aching isolation.

The Road to Memphis by Mildred Taylor. Dial Books, 1990.
Sadistically teased by two white boys in 1940's rural Mississippi, a black youth severely injures one of the boys with a tire iron and enlists Cassie's help in trying to flee the state.

Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori. H. Holt, 1993.
After her mother's suicide when she is twelve years old, Yuki spends years living with her distant father and his resentful new wife, cut off from her mother's family, and relying on her own inner strength to cope with the tragedy.

The Skin I'm In by Sharon Flake. Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for Children, 1998.
Thirteen-year-old Maleeka, uncomfortable because her skin is extremely dark, meets a new teacher with a birthmark on her face and makes some discoveries about how to love who she is and what she looks like.

Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush by Virginia Hamilton. Philomel Books, 1982.
Fourteen-year-old Tree, resentful of her working mother who leaves her in charge of a developmentally disabled brother, encounters the ghost of her dead uncle and comes to a deeper understanding of her family's problems.

Taste of Salt by Frances Temple. Orchard Books, 1992.
In the hospital after being beaten by Macoutes, seventeen-year-old Djo tells the story of his impoverished life to a young woman who, like him, has been working with the social reformer Father Aristide to fight the repression in Haiti.

Tears of Tiger by Sharon Draper. Atheneum, 1994.
The death of high school basketball star Rob Washington in an automobile accident affects the lives of his close friend Andy, who was driving the car, and many others in the school.

Toning the Sweep by Angela Johnson. Orchard Books, 1993.
On a visit to her grandmother Ola, who is dying of cancer in her house in the desert, fourteen-year-old Emmie hears many stories about the past and her family history and comes to a better understanding of relatives both dead and living.

Walking to the Bus-Rider Blues by Harriette Gillem Robinet. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2000.
Twelve-year-old Alfa Merryfield, his older sister, and their grandmother struggle for rent money, food, and their dignity as they participate in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott in the summer of 1956.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Delacorte Press, 1995.
The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi. Houghton Mifflin, 1991.
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.

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