The Best People & Places Teen & Young Adult Books 2024

1. Breaking Through (Paperback)

In this Pura Belpré Honor-winning memoir, sequel to best-selling The Circuit, Francisco Jimenez tells his timely story about immigrant prejudice, keeping hope alive when there is none and his family's journey to achieving their American dream. In this Pura Belpré Honor-winning memoir, sequel to best-selling The Circuit, Francisco Jimenez tells his timely story about immigrant prejudice, keeping hope alive when there is none and his family's journey to achieving their American dream. At the age of fourteen, Francisco Jiménez, together with his older brother Roberto and his mother, are caught by la migra. Forced to leave their home in California, the entire family travels all night for twenty hours by bus, arriving at the U.S. and Mexican border in Nogales, Arizona. In the months and years that follow during the late 1950s-early 1960s, Francisco, his mother and father, and his seven brothers and sister not only struggle to keep their family together, but also face crushing poverty, long hours of labor, and blatant prejudice. How they sustain their hope, their good-heartedness, and tenacity is revealed in this moving, Pura Belpré Honor-winning sequel to The Circuit. Without bitterness or sentimentality, Francisco Jiménez finishes telling the story of his youth.

• Author: Francisco Jiménez • ISBN:9780618342488 • Format:Paperback • Publication Date:2002-10-01

2. Sugar Changed the World : A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science (Hardcover)

An award-winning husband-and-wife team traces the story of sugar, a substance whose sweetness we all crave, from the first discovery of cane to its role throughout world history. When this award-winning husband-and-wife team discovered that they each had sugar in their family history, they were inspired to trace the globe-spanning story of the sweet substance and to seek out the voices of those who led bitter sugar lives. The trail ran like a bright band from religious ceremonies in India to Europe's Middle Ages, then on to Columbus, who brought the first cane cuttings to the Americas. Sugar was the substance that drove the bloody slave trade and caused the loss of countless lives but it also planted the seeds of revolution that led to freedom in the American colonies, Haiti, and France. With songs, oral histories, maps, and over 80 archival illustrations, here is the story of how one product allows us to see the grand currents of world history in new ways. Time line, source notes, bibliography, index.

• Author: Marc Aronson,Marina Budhos • ISBN:9780618574926 • Format:Hardcover • Publication Date:2010-11-15

3. Open the Unusual Door : True Life Stories of Challenge, Adventure, and Success by Black Americans (Paperback)

Summers has selected an intriguing collection of autobiographical essays and edited them into a thought-provoking anthology that teaches readers how to recognize the right door of opportunity, open it, and find the strength to walk through it. Sometimes life offers us chances to change our direction. These opportunities can be obvious, but many times they come as a surprise and, if we're not paying close attention, we can miss the door leading to change. All of the authors in this inspiring collection took advantage of the hand they were dealt--a chance to triumph, make a comeback, or, in some cases, simply survive. Barbara Summers has selected an intriguing collection of autobiographical essays and edited them into a thought-provoking anthology that teaches us how to recognize the right door, open it, and find the strength to walk through it.

• ISBN:9780618585311 • Format:Paperback • Publication Date:2005-11-01

4. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

Pre-Owned - Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live. With a forward by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and four-color interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

5. Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

Pre-Owned - Dad believed people were like money. You could be a thousand-dollar person or a hundred-dollar person -- even a ten-, five-, or one-dollar person. Below that, everybody was just nickels and dimes. To my dad, we were pennies. Fourteen-year-old Manny Hernandez wants to be more than just a penny. He wants to be a vato firme, the kind of guy people respect. But that′s not easy when your father is abusive, your brother can′t hold a job, and your mother scrubs the house as if she can wash her troubles away. In Manny′s neighborhood, the way to get respect is to be in a gang. But Manny′s not sure that joining a gang is the solution. Because, after all, it′s his life -- and he wants to be the one to decide what happens to it.

Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

Pre-Owned - Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live. With a forward by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and four-color interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

7. Love, Stargirl, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

Pre-Owned -

Love, Stargirl, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

8. Bless Me, Ultima, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

Pre-Owned - With exquisite prose and wondrous storytelling, this coming of age classic follows a young boy as he questions his faith and beliefs in family, religion, and other aspects of his Chicano culture. Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. She is a curandera, one who cures with herbs and magic. Under her wise wing, Tony will probe the family ties that bind and rend him, and he will discover himself in the magical secrets of the pagan past-a mythic legacy as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America. And at each life turn there is Ultima, who delivered Tony into the world...and will nurture the birth of his soul. The winner of the Pen Center West Award for Fiction for his unforgettable novel Alburquerque, Rudolfo Anaya's rich and compassionate writing about the Mexican American experience has helped cement him as the father of Chicano literature in English.

Bless Me, Ultima, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

9. Love & Gelato, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

Pre-Owned - A summer in Italy turns into a road trip across Tuscany in this sweeping New York Times bestseller filled with romance, mystery, and adventure. Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn't in the mood for Italy's famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She's only there because it was her mother's dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn't around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home. But then Lina is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina's uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother's footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept for far too long. It's a secret that will change everything Lina knew about her mother, her father--and even herself. People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more. Kirkus Reviews called Love & Gelato a sure bet for fans of romance fiction, while VOYA said readers will find it difficult to put this book down. Readers are about to discover a new place, a new romance, and a new talent.

Love & Gelato, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

10. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

Pre-Owned - Honest and exquisitely crafted. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) One morning before school, some girl tells Piddy Sanchez that Yaqui Delgado hates her and wants to kick her ass. Piddy doesn't even know who Yaqui is, never mind what she's done to piss her off. But as the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang starts to take over Piddy's life. In an all-too-realistic novel, Meg Medina portrays a sympathetic heroine forced to decide who she really is.

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass, Pre-Owned (Paperback)