Cullen, Lynn
I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter
In 17 th century Amsterdam things are tough for Cornelia van Rijn. Only 14, her mother has died of plague and her father—the talented but difficult painter Rembrandt—is teetering on madness. Her only happiness comes in a growing relationship with Carel, the son of a wealthy man, whose passion for art stirs her. Then there is the Neel, her father's last pupil, whose steadfast devotion to Rembrandt both touches and baffles her.

Canales, Viola
The Tequila Worm
This Pura Belpre Award-winning book follows Sofia’s journey from the barrio in McAllen, Texas to a privileged boarding school in Austin where she must navigate a strange, new world. But she never travels alone because of the magic and mystery of family traditions: making Easter cascarones, celebrating el Dia de los Muertos, preparing for quinceañera, and curing homesickness by eating the tequila worm.

Moriarty, Jaclyn
The Year of Secret Assignments
The Ashbury-Brookfield pen pal program is designed to bring together the two rival schools in a spirit of harmony. But when Cassie, Lydia, and Emily send their first letters to Matthew, Charlie, and Sebastian, things don't go quite as planned. What starts out as a simple letter exchange soon leads to secret missions, false alarms, lock picking, mistaken identities, an all-out war between the schools and… romance.

Tan, Shaun
The Arrival
A lone immigrant leaves his family and journeys to a new world, both bizarre and awesome. This beautiful story is told without a single word. The sepia images of this graphic novel depict the wonder, isolation, and strangeness of an immigrant’s encounter with his new home. Look and feel what it is truly like to be a stranger in a strange land.

Klass, David
California Blue
What is more important? Jobs or nature? A timber company or a butterfly? 17-year old John Rodgers has discovered a new species of butterfly and wants to preserve it, but the butterfly lives on land owned by the local mill, and any governmental protection of the area will be bitterly resisted by the entire town, including John's parents. Love, politics, and environmentalism converge in a gripping story of a young man holding on to personal convictions in spite of family and community pressure.

Wright, Bil
When the Black Girl Sings
Where do you fit in? Where does anybody? Lahni Schuler is the only black student at her private prep school, and she's the adopted child of two white parents who are on the road to divorce. Struggling to comfort her mother and angry with her dad, Lahni feels more and more alone. But when Lahni and her mother attend a local church one Sunday, Lahni hears the amazing gospel choir. After that her life takes an unexpected turn and she’s on the road to discovering her own identity and feeling at home.

Farmer, Nancy
The House of the Scorpion
This futuristic novel follows the life of Matt, the clone of the powerful drug lord who rules Opium, the country that now separates the United States and Mexico. As Matt begins to grasp what his life as a clone entails, he must make a choice and his decision may endanger the only people who treat him like a human. 

Donnelly, Jennifer
Northern Light
Mattie Gokey, a gifted writer, dreams of attending Barnard College, but a promise to her mother to care for her siblings chains her to a life in poverty and a job at a resort. However, she does not keep a promise to burn Grace Brown’s letters. After the guest is found drowned, Mattie reads the letters and discovers that she holds the key to unraveling the girl's death and her beau's mysterious disappearance.

Barakat, Ibtisam
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood
A memoir set in Ramallah in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War, the book captures what it is like to be a child whose world is shattered by war. Barakat stitches together memories of the fear and confusion as bombs explode, her separation from her family, the harshness of life as a refugee, and her unexpected joy when she discovers the Arabic alphabet. This is the beginning of her passionate connection to words, as language becomes her refuge and her true home.

Butler, Octavia
Kindred
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back again and again for Rufus, yet each time the stay grows longer and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has even begun.

Kidd, Sue Monk
The Secret Life of Bees
When her beloved caretaker Rosaleen is arrested and assaulted by white men on her way to register to vote, Lily Owens decides to flee from town with her. The two set off to find Tiburon, South Carolina, a place Lily knows only from the picture of a black Madonna she found among her dead mother’s things.

Carey, Janet Lee
Dragon’s Keep
Princess Rosalind Pendragon is meant to fulfill a 600-year-old prophecy from Merlin that she will restore her family's good name and end a war. Sh e was born with a dragon claw where her ring finger should be. Is this a curse or a gift? Can she fulfill the prophecy that will restore her family to its rightful throne? Rosalind’s flaw cannot be separated from her fate. When she is carried off by the dragon, everything she thought she knew falls apart. . . .