The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen
10 best books like The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen (Mitali Perkins): Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem, Braced, Blue Jasmine, Behind the Mountains, Words in the Dust, Samurai Shortstop, Rubber Houses, I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This, Novio Boy: A Play, First Crossing: Stories About Teen Immigrants
| Author | Marilyn Nelson |
| ISBN | 1932425128 |
There is a skeleton in the Mattatuck Museum in Connecticut. It has been in the town for over 200 years. In 1996, community members decided to find out what they could about it. Historians discovered that the bones were those of a slave name Fortune, who was owned by a local doctor. After Fortune's death,...
| Author | Alyson Gerber |
| ISBN | 0545902142 |
Rachel Brooks is excited for the new school year. She's finally earned a place as a forward on her soccer team. Her best friends make everything fun. And she really likes Tate, and she's pretty sure he likes her back. After one last appointment with her scoliosis doctor, this will be her best year yet.
Then...
| Author | Kashmira Sheth |
| ISBN | 0786855657 |
When twelve-year-old Seema Trivedi learns that she and her family must move from their small Indian town to Iowa City, she realizes she'll have to say good-bye to the purple-jeweled mango trees and sweet-smelling jasmine, to the monsoon rains and the bustling market. More important, she must leave...
First Person Fiction is dedicated to the immigrant experience in modern America. In "Behind the Mountains" Edwidge Danticat tells the story of Celiane and her family's struggles in Haiti and New York.
It is election time in Haiti, and bombs are going off in the capital city of Port-au-Prince....
| Author | Trent Reedy |
| ISBN | 0545261252 |
Zulaikha hopes. She hopes for peace, now that the Taliban have been driven from Afghanistan; a good relationship with her hard stepmother; and one day even to go to school, or to have her cleft palate fixed. Zulaikha knows all will be provided for her--"Inshallah," God willing.
Then she meets...
| Author | Alan Gratz |
| ISBN | 0803730756 |
Tokyo, 1890. Toyo is caught up in the competitive world of boarding school, and must prove himself to make the team in a new sport called besuboru. But he grieves for his uncle, a samurai who sacrificed himself for his beliefs, at a time when most of Japan is eager to shed ancient traditions. It’s only...
Typical teenager Kit lives a happy, normal life of friends,boys, and loving family. She and her younger brother, Buddy, are incredibly close despite their eight-year age difference, bonded by a shared love of baseball and math. But when Buddy is taken suddenly by cancer, Kit and herparents struggle...
| Author | Jacqueline Woodson |
| ISBN | 0142405558 |
3 soft snickerdoodles.
Cover Love: No, but I saw there were several editions of this book and many other great covers.
Why I Wanted to Read This:
My library has a bunch of Jacqueline Woodson books and I keep meaning to read some of them. I saw mention of this one in an article so I went...
Ninth grader Rudy has a date with eleventh grader Patricia. Now he has to come up with the money, the poise, and the conversation to carry it off. This one-act play, by turns heartwarming and heart-wrenching, follows Rudy from his desperate search for guidance through the hilarious date itself--all...
| Author | Donald R. Gallo |
| ISBN | 0763632910 |
"Stories by eleven well-known authors touch on a variety of teen experiences, with enough attitude and angst to speak to young adults anywhere." — SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
Fleeing from political violence in Venezuela, Amina and her family have settled in the United States. Sarah, adopted,...
| Author | Francisco Jiménez |
| ISBN | 0618038515 |
From the perspective of the young adult he was then, Francisco Jiménez describes the challenges he faced in his efforts to continue his education.
During his college years, the very family solidarity that allowed Francisco to survive as a child is tested. Not only must he leave his family behind...
| Author | Narinder Dhami |
| ISBN | 0440420199 |
Meet Amber, Jazz, and Geena Dhillon—a.k.a. the Bindi Babes. They’re three fabulous sisters with a reputation for being the coolest, best-dressed girls at their school. But their classmates don’t know that the Dhillon sisters work extra hard to look perfect and together to all of their friends...
| Author | Laurel Snyder |
| ISBN | 0375847197 |
THIS IS THE tale of Lucy and her best friend, Wynston. Until recently, they spent their days paddling in the river, picking blackberries, and teasing each other mercilessly. But now, King Desmond has insisted that Wynston devote every spare second to ruby-shining and princess-finding. Lucy feels...
| Author | Danette Haworth |
| ISBN | 0802723934 |
Hailee Richardson never realized how much she hated her Salvation Army life and Goodwill accessories until the night her family wins the lottery. All of a sudden she's no longer the only girl at school without a cell phone or a brand-new bike! And the newfound popularity that comes with being a lottery...
| Author | Nancy Bo Flood |
| ISBN | 1590786610 |
On the island of Saipan, in the South Pacific, the second world war is a distant idea. The Japanese have governed the island for twenty-five years and they mix regularly with the native islanders. Though no one questions who holds power, the two peoples coexist peacefully.
Joseph has known...
| Author | Andrea Pyros |
| ISBN | 1402293003 |
If Life Was Like a Song
Nina Simmons’ song would be “You Can’t Always Eat What You Want.” (Peanut allergies, ugh). But that’s okay, because as her best friend Brianna always said, “We’re All in This Together.”
Until the first day of the seventh grade, when Brianna...
| Author | Ben Mikaelson |
| ISBN | 0786812087 |
I thought that the book Countdown by Ben Mikaelsen was a good book. It tells the story of a young boy named Elliot who is chosen to be the first junior astronaut in space. Meanwhile Vincent, a young Maasai boy from Africa, is figuring out how the world works. While Elliot is in space his job is to talk on a radio....
| Author | Dandi Daley Mackall |
| ISBN | 0525477268 |
When Lara Phelps walks into Laney Grafton's fourth-grade class, Laney feels the air change. Lara is fat. Really fat. Finally, there will be someone else for the boys to pick on, Laney thinks. But as the class prepares for the school play, Lara doesn't act the way a fat kid should. She's confident. She's...
| Author | Kekla Magoon |
| ISBN | 1416978046 |
Set in a suburb of Las Vegas, Ella and Zachary, called Z, have been friends forever, but Z has always been “the weird kid” in their class. He collects stubby pencils, plays chess, and maintains an elaborate –and public– fantasy life, starring himself as a brave knight. Z’s games were okay back...
| Author | Pamela Curtis Swallow |
| ISBN | 0761317902 |
It Only Looks Easy by Pamela Swallow is about Kat Randall, who is in seventh grade. Kat's dog is hit by a car driven by a woman with Alzheimer's disease. She cannot wait any longer to hear about her dog's condition so she "borrows" a bike and heads to the vet. While she is inside, someone steals the borrowed...
| Author | Margi Preus |
| ISBN | 1419708074 |
Set in 1853 in Japan, this novel follows Yoshi, a Japanese boy who dreams of someday becoming a samurai. Unfortunately, as part of the serving class Yoshi can never become a warrior. He is taken up by Manjiro, the protagonist of Preus’s Heart of a Samurai, and becomes his servant and secret watchdog....
| Author | Justina Chen |
| ISBN | 1580891705 |
Even though she was tired, one of my tutoring students worked hard this morning on plurals. She applied rules (-es when the word ends in ch, s, sh, x, and sometimes z; drop the y and add -ies) and was mimicking the academic vocabulary I used. So I was happy to let her pick out a book for me to read to her, and of...
