The Birchbark House

10 best books like The Birchbark House (Louise Erdrich): One Crazy Summer, Other Words for Home, Front Desk, Alchemy and Meggy Swann, Jingle Dancer, The Night Diary, Merci Suárez Changes Gears, Elijah of Buxton, Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan, BookSpeak!: Poems about Books

One Crazy Summer

Author	Rita Williams-Garcia
ISBN	0060760885

In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion...

Other Words for Home

Author

Jasmine Warga

I am learning how to be
sad
and happy
at the same time.

Jude never thought she’d be leaving her beloved older brother and father behind, all the way across the ocean in Syria. But when things in her hometown start becoming volatile, Jude and her mother are sent to live in Cincinnati...

Front Desk

Author	Kelly Yang
ISBN	1338157795

Mia Tang has a lot of secrets.

Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests.

Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner,...

Alchemy and Meggy Swann

Author	Karen Cushman
ISBN	0547231849

Fans of Karen Cushman's witty, satisfying novels will welcome Meggy Swann,newly come to London with her only friend, a goose named Louise. Meggy's mother was glad to be rid of her; her father, who sent for her, doesn't want her after all. Meggy is appalled by London,dirty and noisy, full of rogues and...

Jingle Dancer

Author

Cynthia Leitich Smith

Tink, tink, tink, tink, sang cone-shaped jingles sewn to Grandma Wolfe's dress.

Jenna's heart beats to the brum, brum, brum, brum of the powwow drum as she daydreams about the clinking song of her grandma's jingle dancing.

Jenna loves the tradition of jingle dancing that has been...

The Night Diary

Author	Veera Hiranandani
ISBN	0735228515

It's 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders.

Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn't...

Merci Suárez Changes Gears

Author

Meg Medina

Thoughtful, strong-willed sixth-grader Merci Suarez navigates difficult changes with friends, family, and everyone in between in a resonant new novel from Meg Medina.

Merci Suarez knew that sixth grade would be different, but she had no idea just how different. For starters, Merci has...

Elijah of Buxton

Author	Christopher Paul Curtis
ISBN	0439023440

Newbery Medalist and CSK Award winner Christopher Paul Curtis's debut middle-grade/young-YA novel for Scholastic features his trademark humor, compelling storytelling, and unique narrative voice.
Eleven-year-old Elijah is the first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada, a settlement...

Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life by Ashley Bryan

Author	Ashley Bryan
ISBN	1481456903

Newbery Honor Book
Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book

Using original slave auction and plantation estate documents, Ashley Bryan offers a moving and powerful picture book that contrasts the monetary value of a slave with the priceless...

BookSpeak!: Poems about Books

Author	Laura Purdie Salas
ISBN	0547223005

A collection of wacky, whimsical poems about books and all the treasures they contain. Laura Purdie Salas, the acclaimed author of Stampede!, is back with another collection of wild and weird, wacky and winsome poems about all the magic to be found on a single bookshelf. In BookSpeak!, each poem gives...

Anna Hibiscus

Author

Atinuke

Rarer than quality books. More elusive than good picture books for older readers. The goal, the gem, the one kind of book all children’s librarians seek but know are so difficult to find . . . . the really well written early chapter book. Now let’s say you’ve found one. It happens. Lots exist, to a...

Harbor Me

Author	Jacqueline Woodson
ISBN	0399252525

Jacqueline Woodson's first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories.

It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat—by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There,...

The Wild Book

Author	Margarita Engle
ISBN	0547581319

Fefa struggles with words. She has word blindness, or dyslexia, and the doctor says she will never read or write. Every time she tries, the letters jumble and spill off the page, leaping and hopping away like bullfrogs. How will she ever understand them?But her mother has an idea. She gives Fefa a blank...

Talking Leaves

Author	Joseph Bruchac
ISBN	0803735081

A new work of historical fiction about Sequoyah and the creation of the Cherokee alphabet, from the acclaimed author of Code Talker 

Thirteen-year-old Uwohali has not seen his father, Sequoyah, for many years. So when Sequoyah returns to the village, Uwohali is eager to reconnect. But Sequoyah’s...

Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart

Author	Vera B. Williams
ISBN	0060571829

This book of poetry is about how two sisters deal with the loss of having their father go to jail. The father goes to jail because he forged a check from his former employer. Amber and Essie find comfort in each other and they take care of each other. The poem "Best Sandwich" tells about how the sister cuddle...

The Heart of a Chief

Author

Joseph Bruchac

Chris's life is complicated. At school, he's been selected to lead a project on sports teams with Indian names. At home, on the Penacook reservation, the Indians are divided about building a casino. It would destroy the beautiful island Chris thinks of as his own. Is there anything one sixth-grade boy...

The Year of Billy Miller

Author	Kevin Henkes
ISBN	0062268155

Award-winning, nationally bestselling author Kevin Henkes introduces second-grader Billy Miller in this fast-paced and funny story about friendship, sibling rivalry, and elementary school. The Year of Billy Miller includes black-and-white art by Kevin Henkes and is perfect for fans of the Ramona...

Finding Langston

Author	Lesa Cline-Ransome
ISBN	0823439607

In a debut historical novel about the Great Migration a boy discovers Chicago's postwar South Side and the poetry of Langston Hughes.

When 11-year-old Langston's mother dies in 1946, he and his father leave rural Alabama for Chicago's brown belt as a part of what came to be known as the Great...

Crongton Knights

Author

Alex Wheatle

Winner of the Guardian Children Fiction's Prize 2016
Shortlisted for the YA Book Prize 2017

Living on the South Crongton council estate has its worries - and life for McKay has been even tougher since his mum died. His dad has been working all hours to keep the bailiffs from their door. His...

Pelé: The King of Soccer

Author	Eddy Simon
ISBN	1626727554

Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known to his schoolmates as Pele, grew up in poverty in the Sao Paulo region of Brazil. He was too poor to afford a real soccer ball, so he played with a ball of newspaper tied together with string. Yet he dominated the youth leagues and signed his first professional soccer contract...