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Teen Reading List:
Multicultural

Beake, Lesley - Song of Be

It is a time of change in Be's world. Her family are Bushmen, the San, and have traditionally traveled the lands of Africa. Now the lands are not as open, the government and farms are settling the land. As Be becomes a woman, she must adjust to the changes not only in herself, but also in all that surrounds her. 

Childress, Alice - A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich

13-year-old Benjie Johnson knows that he is not addicted to heroin. He doesn't understand why his friends and family can't see that. This is a raw look at how addiction affects more than just the addict. 

Cofer, Judith Ortiz - An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio

A collection of short stories that focuses on the lives of everyday teenagers of Latino descent.

Draper, Sharon - Darkness Before Dawn

Keisha is the senior class president who is recovering from her ex-boyfriend's suicide the previous spring. Then she meets Jonathan who is so cool, rich, and handsome and the principal's son. When Jonathan begins leaving gifts at Keisha's front door, she is swept off her feet. But then something goes terribly wrong… 

Draper, Sharon - Romiette and Julio

A modern-day version of the famous play, but with a more hopeful ending. Romiette and Julio meet in an Internet chat room and fall in love. Then they're faced with a school gang that takes extreme steps to keep the two apart. 

Flake, Sharon - The Skin I'm In

Maleeka Madison is a girl trying to fit in. The problem is that her skin is dark, darker than most, and everyone in her school teases her and talks down to her. Then one day, Maleeka gets a new teacher, and she knows that things are going to get worse.  AGC-3735

Grimes, Nikki - Jazmin's Notebook

Teenage Jazmin lives in the Harlem of the 1960's. So much is always happening around her and in her head that she does her best to catch it on paper. Sometimes too much is not enough. Thank goodness for her sister who helps her keep it together. 

Herrerra, Juan Felipe - CrashBoomLove; A Novel in Verse

To be young. To feel like an outsider. To be an outsider. To be angry. To feel thrust into something you can't stop. Know how it feels? Meet Cesar. He does. 

Martinez, Victor - Parrot in the Oven; Mi Vida

Manny Martinez doesn't always want what the world wants for him; he wants choices about gangs, drugs and his future. Growing up in the projects as a member of a poor Mexican family, it isn't easy for him to keep his options open. 

Matcheck, Diane - The Sacrifice

A young Apsaalooka Indian girl is thrown into a desperate race for survival as she struggles to overcome her past and fulfill a prophecy that she will become a great leader. 

Mori, Kyoko - One Bird

Megumi struggles with the fact that her mother has abandoned her family and that her father has a mistress, while she is miserable and feels abandoned. 

Mosher, Richard - Zazoo

Zazoo loves her life on the river and sharing the poetry she writes with her elderly French grandfather, who adopted her from Vietnam 12 years earlier. 

Myers, Walter Dean - Monster

While on trail as an accomplice to a murder, 16-year-old Steve Harmon writes a film script to record his experiences in prison and the courtroom. Through his writing he tries to decide whether he deserves the name that the prosecuting lawyer keeps calling him - "monster".

Myers, Walter Dean - Motown and DiDi: A Love Story

Motown and DiDi, two teenage loners in Harlem, become allies in a fight against the drug dealer whose dope is destroying DiDi's brother and then find themselves falling in love. 

Na, An - A Step from Heaven

At age four, Young Ju moves from Korea to America, where her parents hope to find a better life. Unfortunately for Young Ju, who speaks better English than her parents and is forbidden to see her American friends, embarrassed for her friends to see her home, and afraid of the beatings from her father, America is more than just "a step from heaven". 

Porter, Connie - Imani All Mine

Tasha is a teenager who tried hard to be a good mother to her baby daughter, and must rely on her newfound faith when tragedy strikes. 

Ryan, Pam Munoz - Esperanza Rising

Esperanza and her mother must learn to do hard work in a labor camp when her father dies and her uncle cheats them of their wealth and land. 

Soto, Gary - Jesse

It's not easy being a Mexican American in southern California, especially in 1968. In spite of their poverty and the prejudice they face, Jesse and his brother Abel make a life for themselves, working weekends as farm workers to make barely enough to support themselves and pay for their classes at the local college. 

Voigt, Cynthia - Come a Stranger

Young and black, Mina dances as a way to express her love for a minister too old for her. The outcome enhances more than one life. Voigt extends the circle of friends the reader meets in Homecoming (book, audio.)

Whelan, Gloria - Homeless Bird

Like most girls her age in India, 13-year-old Koly is getting married. But when Koly gets to the home of her future husband, nothing is as it should be. Soon Koly finds herself alone, with nothing but her skills and instincts to survive.

Williams-Garcia, Rita - Like Sisters on the Homefront

Gayle is only fourteen with a young child when she finds that she is pregnant again. She isn't sure she'll survive the summer when her mother sends her down South to live with her strict preacher uncle and his straight-laced daughter. 

Woodson, Jacqueline - From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun

Melanin Sun is ready for a great summer. But when Mel's mom tells him that she is in love with a woman, Mel's world comes crashing down. Mel has some growing up to do if he wants to stay close to his mom. 

Woodson, Jacqueline - If You Come Softly

Two teens meet in a fancy Manhattan prep school. Although he's black and his parents are separated and she's been abandoned by her Jewish mother, they know they are meant to be together. Their relationship becomes other people's problems.