Two girls forge a forever-friendship by learning each other’s language. The Day Saida Arrived demonstrates the power of language to build bonds beyond borders.
Featured in August 2023’s WOW Dozen on books about Language Learning and Communication.
Realistic Fiction
Realistic Fiction genre
Mommy’s Hometown
This gentle, contemplative picture book about family origins invites us to ponder the meaning of home. A young boy loves listening to his mother describe the place where she grew up, a world of tall mountains and friends splashing together in the river. Mommy’s stories have let the boy visit her homeland in his thoughts and dreams, and now he’s old enough to travel with her to see it for himself. But when mother and son arrive, the town is not as he imagined. Skyscrapers block the mountains, and crowds hurry past. The boy feels like an outsider-until they visit the river where his mother used to play, and he sees that the spirit and happiness of those days remain. Sensitively pitched to a child’s-eye view, this vivid story honors the immigrant experience and the timeless bond between parent and child, past and present.
Twin Cities : (A Graphic Novel)
Being twins means having a best friend forever but when one goes to middle school in Mexico and the other across the border in California, can that bond withstand the distance? Luis Fernando is staying local in Mexicali, Mexico, while Luisa Teresa crosses the border every day so she can go to a private school in Calexico, California. As they try to embrace new experiences close to and far from home, the twins hit obstacles: like making new friends and navigating school pressure without the other one for support. Fernando and Teresa finally have the chance to stand on their . . . isn’t that what the always wanted?
Wherever I Go
Abia is the self proclaimed Queen of the Shimelba refugee camp, facing her displacement with strength, imagination, and pride.
The Quiet And The Loud
George’s life is loud. On the water, though, with everything hushed above and below, she is steady, silent. Then her estranged dad says he needs to talk, and George’s past begins to wake up, looping around her ankles, trying to drag her under. But there’s no time to sink. George’s best friend, Tess, is about to become, officially, a teen mom, her friend Laz is in despair about the climate crisis, her gramps would literally misplace his teeth if not for her, and her moms fill the house with fuss and chatter. Before long, heat and smoke join the noise as distant wildfires begin to burn. George tries to stay steady. When her father tells her his news and the painful memories roar back to life, George turns to Calliope, the girl who has just cartwheeled into her world and shot it through with colors. And it’s here George would stay quiet and safe, if she could. But then Tess has her baby, and the earth burns hotter, and the past just will not stay put. A novel about the contours of friendship, family, forgiveness, trauma, and love, and about our hopeless, hopeful world, Helena Fox’s gorgeous follow up to How It Feels to Float explores the stories we suppress and the stories we speak and the healing that comes when we voice the things we’ve kept quiet for so long.
The Melancholy Of Summer
After seventeen year old Summer’s parents go on the run, she is placed in the care of Olu, a cousin she barely knows, but with Olu and friends’ efforts, stoic Summer eventually learns to open up.
My Paati’s Saris
A Tamil boy explores his love for his grandmother and her colorful sari collection in this tale of expressing your true self.
Visions Of The Crow
Damon Quinn just wants to get through his senior year unscathed. His mom struggles with alcohol and is barely coping with the day-to-day. Marcus and his cronies at school are forever causing Damon trouble. The new girl, Journey, won’t mind her own business. To make matters worse, now a mysterious crow is following him everywhere. After he is seized by a waking dream in the middle of a busy street, Damon is forced to confront his mom with some hard questions: Why haven’t I met my dad? Where did we come from? Who am I? Damon must look within himself, mend the bond with his mother, and rely on new friends to find the answers he so desperately needs. Traveling through time and space, Damon will have to go back before he can move forward.
Borderless
Caught in the cross hairs of gang violence, seventeen-year old fashion designer, Maya, and her mother set off on a perilous journey from Guatemala City to the US-Mexico border.
Forward Me Back To You
Told in separate voices, Kat and Robin leave Boston on a church mission to help combat human trafficking in India while Kat recovers from a sexual assault and Robin seeks his birth mother.