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Diverse Reads for All Ages September 2026 |
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A Different Pond
by Bao Phi
As a young boy, Bao Phi awoke early, hours before his father's long workday began, to fish on the shores of a small pond in Minneapolis. Unlike many other anglers, Bao and his father fished for food, not recreation. Between hope-filled casts, Bao's father told him about a different pond in their homeland of Vietnam.
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The Day You Begin
by Jacqueline Woodson
There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you. There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it's how you look or talk, or where you're from; maybe it's what you eat, or something just as random. It's not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway.
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When Stars Are Scattered: (National Book Award Finalist)
by Victoria Jamieson
Omar and his younger brother Hassan live in a refugee camp, and when an opportunity for Omar to get an education comes along, he must decide between going to school every day or caring for his nonverbal brother in this ... portrayal of family and daily life in a refugee camp--
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Thank You, Omu!
by Oge Mora
Everyone in the neighborhood dreams of a taste of Omu's delicious stew One by one, they follow their noses toward the scrumptious scent. And one by one, Omu offers a portion of her meal. Soon the pot is empty. Has she been so generous that she has nothing left for herself? An author's note explains that Omu (pronounced AH-moo) means queen in the Igbo language of her parents, but growing up, she used it to mean Grandma.
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The keeping quilt
by Patricia Polacco
A homemade quilt ties together the lives of six generations of the author's immigrant Jewish family, remaining a symbol of their enduring love and faith, in a 25th-anniversary edition of a moving story that has been updated to include the author's children.
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American Street
by Ibi Zoboi
In this stunning debut novel, Pushcart-nominated author Ibi Zoboi draws on her own experience as a young Haitian immigrant, infusing this lyrical exploration of America with magical realism and vodou culture. On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie--a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola's mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit's west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own.
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A Long Walk to Water
by Linda Sue Park
A LONG WALK TO WATER begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan: a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, fetches water from a pond that is tow hours' walk from her home. She makes two trips to the pond every day. the boy, Salva, becomes one of the last boys of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. enduring every hardship from loneliness and attack by armed rebels, to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor.
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Parachutes
by Kelly Yang
New York Times bestselling author Kelly Yang's acclaimed novel about two girls navigating power and corruption in an elite institution--a modern immigrant story that combines the drama of Gossip Girl with the hard truths of Speak.They're called parachutes: wealthy teenagers dropped off to live and study in the United States while their parents remain in Asia. That's how Claire, from Shanghai, comes to live with Dani, who couldn't be less thrilled that mom rented out their spare room.
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We Are Here to Stay: Voices of Undocumented Young Adults
by Susan Kuklin
The Stonewall Honor-winning author of Beyond Magenta shares the intimate, eye-opening stories of nine undocumented young adults living in America. Meet nine courageous young adults who have lived in the United States with a secret for much of their lives: they are not U.S. citizens. They came from Colombia, Mexico, Ghana, Independent Samoa, and Korea. They came seeking education, fleeing violence, and escaping poverty. All have heartbreaking and hopeful stories about leaving their homelands and starting a new life in America.
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The Good Immigrant : 26 Writers Reflect on America
by Nikesh Shukla
A U.S. follow-up to the best-selling U.K. edition collects urgent essays by first- and second-generation immigrant writers on the realities of immigration, multiculturalism and marginalization in today's increasingly divided America.
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Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A powerful, tender story of race and identity by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun. Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time.
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Sea Prayer
by Khaled Hosseini
A short illustrated poetic letter written from a father to his young son as they prepare to flee war-torn Syria across the Mediterranean Sea.
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The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You
by Dina Nayeri
This is a memoir laced with stimulus and plenty of heart at a time when the latter has grown elusive. --Star-Tribune (Minneapolis) Aged eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother and lived in the crumbling shell of an Italian hotel-turned-refugee camp. Eventually she was granted asylum in America. She settled in Oklahoma, then made her way to Princeton University. In this book, Nayeri weaves together her own vivid story with the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers in recent years, bringing us inside their daily lives and taking us through the different stages of their journeys, from escape to asylum to resettlement.
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