From: Miriam Lang Budin <miriammeister_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2011 18:49:03 -0400

Here are some recent titles.

I love Laura Resau's A STAR IN THE FOREST which was published in 2010 and deals with the family of an undocumented Mexican who's deported and his family which is left in the US. The protagonist (elementary school aged, if I remember correctly) had been on the periphery of the "in crowd" at school, but that all changes as her family struggles.

This year Resau published THE QUEEN OF WATER which is for older readers and was--for me--revelatory about the inequalities that persist in Ecuador for indigenes.

Ralph Fletcher's ALSO KNOWN AS ROWAN POHI (2011) is about a high school kid who, together with his buddies, invents a boy who applies to the exclusive boarding school in their town. When "Rowan" is accepted, the protagonist assumes his identity and tries to fit in.

And how about Frank Cottrell Boyce's THE UNFORGOTTEN COAT? (2011) Again, undocumented immigrants, this time they're Mongolians in Liverpool.

I have to add that issues of social justice always make me think of the fine non-fiction of Ellen Levine.

Miriam

-- Miriam Lang Budin Head of Children's Services Chappaqua Library, NY
Received on Sat 05 Nov 2011 06:49:03 PM CDT