Crossing the Tracks

How It All Blew Up

The Black Kids

Becoming Brianna: Emmie & Friends

Amina's Song: Amina's Voice

Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf

When Lily was three, her mother put her up for adoption, then disappeared without a trace. Or so Lily was told. Lily grew up in her new family and tried to forget her past. But with the Korean War raging and fear of “commies” everywhere, Lily’s Asian heritage makes her a target. She is sick of the racism she faces, a fact her adoptive parents won’t take seriously. For Lily, war is everywhere—the dinner table, the halls at school, and especially within her own skin.

Then her brainy little brother, Ralph, finds a box hidden in the attic. In it are a baffling jumble of broken antiques—clues to her past left by her “Gone Mom.” Lily and Ralph attempt to match these fragments with rare Chinese artifacts at the art museum. She encounters the artistic genius Elliot James, who attracts and infuriates Lily as he tries to draw out the beauty of her golden heritage. Will Lily summon the courage to confront her own remarkable creation story? The real story, and one she can know only by coming face-to-face with the truth long buried within the people she thought she knew best.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

Crossing the Tracks

Barbara Stuber, 2010

How It All Blew Up

Arvin Ahmadi, 2020

The Black Kids

Christina Hammonds Reed, 2020

Becoming Brianna: Emmie & Friends

Terri Libenson, 2020

Amina's Song: Amina's Voice

Hena Khan, 2021

Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey

Ozge Samanci, 2015

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

Maritza Moulite, Maika Moulite, 2019

Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf

Jennifer L. Holm, Elicia Castaldi, 2006