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MCK |
A Friendship for Today
(age 10+) by Pat McKissack bigotry ... friendship ... historical In 1954 Missouri, 12-year-old Rosemary Patterson is about to make history as one of the first African-American students to enter the all-white school in her town. When the girl who has shown her the most cruelty becomes an unlikely confidante, Rosemary learns important truths about the power of friendship to overcome prejudice. |
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KAD |
Kira-kira
(age 10+) by Cynthia Kadohata bigotry ... family ... friendship ... illness/loss kira-kira (kee ra kee ra): glittering; shining. Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. The sky is kira-kira because its color is deep but see-through at the same time. The sea is kira-kira for the same reason. And so are people's eyes. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to the Deep South of Georgia, it's Lynn who explains to her why people stop on the street to stare. And it's Lynn who, with her special way of viewing the world, teaches Katie to look beyond tomorrow. But when Lynn becomes desperately ill, and the whole family begins to fall apart, it is up to Katie to find a way to remind them all that there is always something glittering, kira-kira, in the future. |
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BUR |
Wrango
(age 10+) by Brian Burks bigotry ... historical ... adventure The War Between the States is over, and George McJunkin and his family are among the slaves who've won their freedom. Trouble is, the McJunkins still live in a tiny shack, and the money George's father brings in barely keeps food on the table. George's parents say the times are changing. They say someday in Rogers Prairie, Texas, there will be a school for black children. They say someday the family will own the blacksmith shop where George's father still toils for the man who used to own them. But George isn't so sure about someday. Between 1867 and 1895, more than five thousand black cowboys helped drive ten million cattle up the Chisholm Trail from Texas. One such cowboy was George McJunkin, who set out from Rogers Prairie for the adventure that would change his life. |
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UCH |
Journey to Topaz: a Story of the Japanese-American Evacuation
(age 10+) by Yoshiko Uchida identity ... survival ... bigotry ... historical After the Pearl Harbor attack, an eleven-year-old Japanese-American girl and her family are forced to go to an aliens camp in Utah. |
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SPE |
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
(age 10+) by Elizabeth George Speare magic ... bigotry ... historical Orphaned Kit Tyler knows, as she gazes for the first time at the cold, bleak shores of Connecticut Colony, that her new home will never be like the shimmering Caribbean island she left behind. In her relatives' stern Puritan community, she feels like a tropical bird that has flown to the wrong part of the world, a bird that is now caged and lonely. The only place where Kit feels completely free is in the meadows, where she enjoys the company of the old Quaker woman known as the Witch of Blackbird Pond, and on occasion, her young sailor friend Nat. But when Kit's friendship with the "witch" is discovered, Kit is faced with suspicion, fear, and anger. She herself is accused of witchcraft! |
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HES |
Witness
(age 10+) by Karen Hesse mystery ... bigotry ... historical Leanora Sutter. Esther Hirsh. Merlin Van Tornhout. Johnny Reeves. These characters are among the unforgettable cast inhabiting a small Vermont town in 1924. A town that turns against its own when the Ku Klux Klan moves in. No one is safe, especially the two youngest, twelve-year-old Leanora, an African-American girl, and six-year-old Esther, who is Jewish. In this story of a community on the brink of disaster, told through the haunting and impassioned voices of its inhabitants, Newbery Award winner Karen Hesse takes readers into the hearts and minds of those who bear witness. |
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PAR |
Project Mulberry
(age 10+) by Linda Sue Park identity ... enterprise ... bigotry ... authorship Julia Song and her friend Patrick would love to win a blue ribbon, maybe even two, at the state fair. Can they come up with the right plan? Can they see it through? What surprising truths will they discover along the way? We might think we know, but then we wouldn't ask the right questions. |
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TAY |
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
(age 10+) by Mildred D. Taylor family ... bigotry ... historical The story of one African American family fighting to stay together and strong in the face of brutal racist attacks, illness, poverty, and betrayal in the Deep South of the 1930s. |
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TAY |
The Cay
(age 10+) by Theodore Taylor voyages/journeys ... friendship ... bigotry ... adventure ... historical When the freighter on which they are traveling is torpedoed by a German submarine during World War II, an adolescent white boy, blinded by a blow on the head, and an old black man are stranded on a tiny Caribbean island where the boy acquires a new kind of vision, courage, and love from his old companion. sequel: Timothy of the Cay |
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SPI |
Maniac Magee : a Novel
(age 10+) by Jerry Spinelli folklore ... humor ... bigotry ... realistic ... friendship ... sports After his parents die, Jeffrey Lionel Magee's life becomes legendary, as he accomplishes athletic and other feats which awe his contemporaries. |
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LOW |
Number the Stars
(age 10+) by Lois Lowry survival ... bigotry ... friendship ... historical In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis. |