10 More Reasons to Expand Your Use of Multicultural Literature

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There are at least 13 good reasons K12 students should read literature about many and diverse cultures and communities. The first three reasons are, or should be, obvious:

• Kids are engaged and validated when they read about people like themselves - familiar faces, familiar experiences, familiar cultures. They are curious about their histories. All kids.
• Global citizenship is unavoidable. Connected students view and engage in global conversations; the more they know about other cultures, the better the conversation. It is important for us to expose our students to different conditions and perspectives so that they develop cross-cultural understanding, not disrespect – so that they do not judge others based solely upon their own, perhaps dominant, cultural point of view (thank you to Willa Sky Freer for this phrasing).
• Literature is a powerful medium for gaining a deeper understanding of one's own worldview through a negotiation of sameness and difference.

You may already include diverse, multicultural readings in your curriculum based on these points. Kudos! Many do not. The CCSS list of "story" exemplars is inadequate in terms of multicultural texts. Why is this?

The common definition of multiculturalism is narrow.  Multicultural means much more than race. The definition I like best is this: Multicultural literature is a representation of any non-dominant or underprivileged group.  

Let's face it. The dominant group in this country is competent white Christian men and their (less important) stable families. That does not mean this group represents the largest percentage of our population; it means that in our reality and its representations (media, literature, dreams) this group expects to and is allowed to overwhelm other groups as opinion-shapers, policy-makers, doers, users, protectors - as lead actors on the stage.  

Multicultural literature is written by a member of the wide non- pool that makes for the cultural, racial, sexual, medical, demographic, economic, familial, class and other diversities found in today's classrooms and communities. It puts non- group members and non-dominant cultures on the stage as independent, lead actors.   

More of it should be read in our schools. Why? In addition to the three reasons stated at the top of this post: 

1. Because although Whites [currently] constitute the majority of the U.S. population, with a total of about 245,532,000 or 77.7% of the population, 93% of the population growth in the United States now comes from the non white populations. 50.4% of American children under the age of 1 belong to minority groups.   
2. Because the US population is over 50% female. 
3. Because we are increasingly urban, with 81% residing in cities and suburbs as of 2014.  
4. Because there is a new Captain America, and he is not white, we have a new Muslim Ms. Marvel, we have Harley Quinn, and soon we will have Black Panther.  Watch out World for the new impact of diversity in the film, comic, and (or not) gaming and toy industries. It's time to 'Obliterate the Term Black Film', moving us slowly toward a new cultural normal.
5. Because Obama Will Approve Immigrant Work Permits for Millions.  Or not. But Immigration (Reform) will be a battle to follow.
6. Because 15% of Americans live in poverty. Of this, 10% are white. 22% of children in the U.S. live in families that are considered officially poor and child poverty rates are highest among black, Latino, and American Indian children.  The gap between rich and poor is at its highest and is getting larger. And by the way, the perception that the rich are smarter and harder working is at an all-time high.
7. Because single parents account for 27 percent of family households with children under 18. Some of the trending family diversity might surprise you. Read more about The Changing American Family.
8. Because "the United States is on the verge of becoming a minority Protestant country."  Find out more about religious diversity.
9. Because 10% of the youth population is LGBT.  LGBT youth are twice as likely as their peers to say they have been physically assaulted, kicked or shoved at school, and 92% report that they hear negative messages about being LGBT - in school.  Read more about the profile and needs of our LGBT Youth.
10. Because about 13% of public school students are receiving special education services. Learn more about Children and Youth With Disabilities.

We Need Diverse Books is one good place to find multicultural titles.  Bear in mind that multicultural literature is best when it is authentic - written by an author from the culture or very closely connected (parent, child, etc.) to the diverse community or character(s) central to the text. Most of the resources at We Need Diverse Books, at Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature (Best Books) and at SLJ's updated An Expanded Cultural Diversity Booklist do hold to this standard. Goodreads has quite a good multicultural literature shelf. There are many lists that don't hold to this standard of authorship or to a high standard of literary value. Do your homework.

And a last note. SLJ makes the essential point that multicultural literature reading means not only giving kids novels [poems, drama] and picture books featuring a varied cast of characters but also ensuring a nuanced, multicultural view of our whole society: in other words, bringing diversity to nonfiction series titles.  So take a good hard look at your informational text selections.  Are they promoting multiculturalism as well?  

52 Short Books for 11-CCR Students: TLDR and What HS Students Are Reading (and NOT)

image: from OpenClips on Pixabay

TLDR: Too Long, Didn't Read.  Scroll down if you want to skip this short read and go directly to The List.

A recently released study by Renaissance Learning finds that HS seniors read on average 5.2 books a year, down from 55.4 in grade 2 and 16.2 in grade 6.  There is also a decline in the number of words contained in the reading, from a high in grade 6 (419,121) to 304,252 in grade 12.

Wait a minute.  Do the math.  The books read by HS students must be longer.  That must explain the decline in the number of books read.

Nope. My quick study of the Top 20 lists for 6th and 12th grades provided in the report suggests that 6th graders are actually reading longer books, on average, than their HS counterparts, who are overwhelmingly reading fiction under 250 pages (must have small print). With the exception of The Hunger Games (which first appears on the grade 5 list, 810L) and another light read titled Safe Haven (830L), the longer texts read are found in the bottom (least read) 10. These include some zingers: Twilight (another light read but 544p 770L), Kite Runner (402p  840L), and Divergent (501p HL700L). Hardly a sterling list in terms of challenge.

Supporting my contention that 12th grade students are selecting books well below what they should be reading is the report's finding that the average ATOS book level (similar to the lexile scale) in grade 12 is 7.1 (one month into 7th grade).  The average ATOS in grade 6 is 5.3, which is not great, but at least it's not embarrassing.

I don't think too much should be made of this report, although it purports to be important (it's important for Renaissance Learning). How many of these titles are assigned and how many are choice independent reading?  The titles are all Accelerated Reader quizzed titles, which certainly directs choice and limits what titles are entered into the data.  The identity of the cohort is unclear; the HS students in the sample may not - probably do not - represent the full top-bottom range of student readers.

On the other hand, today's NPR post Why Aren't Teens Reading Like They Used To? reiterates the Renaissance report's finding that HS students are reading well below the level recommended by CCSS and other standards. It is possible to chalk the Renaissance report up as representative of the American public school student reading population.  OK through 5th grade in terms of fiction reading quality and quantity, but downhill from there.  Too far downhill in the 11-12 grades.

The essays which "pepper" the Renaissance report stress the importance of e-reading in today's classroom, suggesting perhaps that digital texts will spur students to read more.  I believe it is valid that e-reading is engaging and, for readers who use the tools, supportive of deeper reading. But a page-turner is a page-turner and a plod is a plod and long is long and a tool can not change that. What needs to change is access to better reading choices.

If we want our HS students to read more than 5.2 fiction titles a year (I am not mentioning nonfiction because the report finds it amounts to no more than 15% of their reading, despite recommendations to the contrary), we need to consider the fact that, in their/our culture of e-communication and e-research, TLDR (Too Long Didn't Read) is a message HS students send out every day.  By not reading.  By selecting short rather than longer titles.  By selecting easy reads with ATOS reading level 5-6.

This is not helping/challenging/growing our students.  What we need to offer HS students are high quality, high challenge, high engagement short books.

I have spent some time with lexile.com and with good lists over the last few days.  It is possible to mine the classics and good contemporary fiction for excellent short books.  Alas, many of these probably are not in the Accelerated Reader quiz bank.  You may not have read or heard of many of them.  But it's high time HS readers were encouraged to make better reading choices, so gather up as many of these titles as you can.

My arbitrary short book cutoff is 250 pages.  Where possible, lengths are from lexile.com. Amazon.com is the backup.

Here is my list of 52 short fiction books (and one or two nonfiction titles) for 11-12 grade readers, generated by mining lexile.com (for pages and lexile ranges) and other lists.  They are in lexile order, something a bit questionable, but at least this is a consistent measure in line with Common Core standards. More about that later. Only two titles have been carried over from the Renaissance report's grade 12 top 10.  It adds up to one book a week for a year.

Note: We can not really rely on lexiles to determine suitability and challenge. Examples: most of Gary Paulsen measures well over 1100L and ditto with the best of Zindel (e.g. The Undertaker's Gone Bananas measures 1050). Both novelists are great for MS, but with only a few exceptions are not suitable for HS. Ray Bradbury and Steinbeck, on the other hand, score much lower on the lexile scale than this reader would expect and are suitably complex for HS. Of Mice and Men belongs on this list, but since it is often read in grade 9 or 10 anyway, I have omitted it.

Moreover, many non-Western titles and short story collections have not been lexiled. Surprise! My list is more multicultural than most lists.

The Common Core, by the way, has realigned lexile bands with grade levels to make "stretch" reading the norm. Only the last 2 books on my list fall within the 11-CCR band.  That's absurd. A book does not have to have a lexile over 1200 in order to be great or to be an intellectual challenge for a 16 year old. I stand by all of these short books for 11-CCR.

The List, in lexile order (do you notice a pattern in the titles not lexiled?):

1. Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue - Lester - not lexiled
2. I See You - Shukri - not lexiled (fictional contemporary African country) - a Best Book of 2014, Africa is a Country
3. Every Day is for the Thief - Cole - not lexiled - selected for many Best of 2014 lists (Nigeria)
4. Citizen: An American Lyric - Rankine - not lexiled - America Book Award 2014 shortlist - poems and short pieces
5. The Thunder that Roars - Garda - not lexiled (South Africa, Muslim)
6. How to Escape from a Leper Colony (stories) - Yanique - not lexiled 
7. The Strange Library - Murakami - not lexiled
8. The Dead Lake - Ismailov - not lexiled (trans. from Russian)
9. Family Life - Sharma - not lexiled - India/America - Named one of the Ten Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times Book Review and New York Magazine
10. Things We Found During the Autopsy - Manickavel - not lexiled - South Indian short fiction - a Best Book of 2014, Africa is a Country
11. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood - Satrapi GN380 (Iran) or American Born Chinese - Yang GN580
12. The Metamorphosis - Kafka 670 or The Room - Karlsson - not lexiled - find a great short film of the Kafka here.
13. When the Emperor Was Devine - Otsuka  810
14. Snow Country - Kawabata 820
15. Drown - Diaz 830 (stories, Dominican Republic immigrants)
16. If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home - O'Brien  830 or How To Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America - Laymon - non-lexiled (NF)
17. Slaughterhouse-Five - Vonnegut 850
18. Things Fall Apart - Achebe 890
19. Ceremony - Silko 890  (Laguna Pueblo)
20. Grendel - Gardner 920
21. The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith - Keneally - 920
22. The Thing Around Your Neck (stories) - Adichie  920 (estimated) (Africa and United States)
23. Montana 1948 - Watson 940
24. Life and Times of Michael K: A Novel - Coetzee 940
25. The Bluest Eye - Morrison 960
26. July's People - Gordimer 970
27. Being There - Kosinski - 980
28. Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids - Oe 1000
29. Nothing - Teller 1000
30. The Pearl - Steinbeck 1010
31. Snapshots: 20th Century Mother-Daughter Fiction - Oates, ed 1020
32. The Secret Agent - Conrad 1030
33. Frankenstein - Shelly  1040 
34. The First Fast Draw - L'Amour 1040
35. Interpreter of Maladies (stories) - Lahiri 1050 (India, United States)
36. The Heart of Darkness - Conrad 1050
37. The Crying of Lot 49 - Pynchon 1060
38. The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald 1070
39. The Time Machine - Wells 1070
40. Bridge of San Luis Rey - Wilder 1080 (or perhaps The Scatter Here is Too Great - Tanweer, set in Karachi - not lexiled)
41. The Bad Seed - March 1100
42. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Spark 1120
43. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Lindsay 1140
44. The Bridges of Toko-Ri - Michener 1140
45. My Life in Dog Years - Paulsen 1150  (NF)
46. Animal Farm - Orwell 1170
47. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Haddon 1180
48. Hiroshima - Hersey  1190
49. Ransom - Malouf 1200 (estimated lexile)
50. Forrest Gump - Groom  1210
51. Eighteen Best Short Stories by Edgar Allan Poe - Poe 1220
52. Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Marquez 1270

It goes without saying that most of these books will require more effort to read than The Hunger Games trilogy. That effort is one of the reasons that readers find Animal Farm, Of Mice and Men and Gatsby turn-offs and Percy Jackson so captivating, and it is probably the real motivation behind TLDR. Educators can give in to this, or they can combat it with titles like those above. One approach builds lists of easy, long, page-turners; the other approach builds better and better-educated readers. Your choice.

This is, of course, just one solution to our national non-reading dilemma. There are others:

• If you really want students to be stretched, assign books and articles about fiction and authors.  That's the best place for students to meet those higher lexile texts.  Some might find these essays lead them to great novels.
• Allow/encourage your students to read multi-culturally and diversely.
• Celebrate the humanities as well as STEM.
• Write and read.  Introduce students to living writers and their works.
• Encourage collaborative reading in 11-12 grades.  What?  This means groups encouraged to read like a book club reads.  
• Invest in great audio books for your students. Time well spent.
• PBL: Oral histories of the reading memories of parents and seniors; Twitter reading selfies and campaigns.

Want to add a book or an idea?  Write a comment or email me directly.

International Texts: A Compelling Unit

source

[Look for additional titles on the Graphic Novels for MS/HS page to the right,  in this annotated list from George Ramos, Books for Expanding Global Understanding, and in SLJ's newly updated An Expanded Cultural Diversity Booklist.]

Janice Murphy, a highly qualified, highly successful, and highly regarded teacher at Freeport Middle School, has shared with me a reading workshop unit comprised of texts - fiction and memoir - from an international palette.

There is no doubt that we are living in a global world, one that challenges educators to open student eyes, as appropriate, to life beyond the bounds of a zip code.  This means, more often than not, exploring cultural, social and political realities (and/or histories) not discussed or explored in the traditional curriculum.

Janice's unit is particularly powerful for middle school (she teaches grade 8) because at its core are adolescent issues: fairness, power, identity and "place," equality (social, gender, class), and the voice of the individual within his or her culture and world.  Instead of focusing the reading on culture, history, etc., or asking endless comprehension questions, she personalizes the reading experience.  Her Essential Question is: How do the situations or events in memoirs, autobiography, prose or historical fiction have relevance in my life? 

This question is a powerful one.  Moving from text to self is at the core of reading. [2014 disclaimer: yes, I know that now, in the CCSS world, this is no longer to be encouraged].

As designed by Janice, this is a collaborative unit.  Students read in groups - some as small as two - from a list of titles that have been purchased in multiple.  There is choice.  This year, the majority of the choices were not read.  This is to be expected in some classes, especially when insecurity about reading and heightened social awareness are the rule. Nonetheless, the larger the range of choices, the more chance there is that you will find a good fit for every student.  You may also find, as I often did, that good choices and good discussions lead students to make a 2nd choice - and even a 3rd.

Janice used two straightforward organizers to focus discussion of the texts: Collaborative Homework Questions and Critical Thinking Map, both from ReadWriteThink.  In combination, they direct discussion and serve also to give the teacher a quick assessment of how individual reading is going. 

Beyond that, I don't know the details of Janice's adventure. Aside from the fact that it worked. She shared several stories of students who read, for the first time, in a new zone.  One boy discovered a voice to talk about his own culture.  High readers asked for even more challenges. Some self-professed non-reading boys connected to the realistic nature of the genre. 

You will find at the bottom of this post reading choices for upper MS and HS. More ideas welcome!  The list does not contain Holocaust fiction and (generally) non-fiction; great lists are available online elsewhere.

Here are some ideas for Quest level activities (to continue the gaming metaphor I began in the previous post):

• view and discuss, as a class, Adichie's wonderful TED talk, The Danger of a Single Story
• culture/nation/news/history research (including fact-checking from text) - wiki - perhaps an edu.Glogster.com poster for the wall 
• tier 3 vocabulary lists from text - student selected - word walls (would need to contain images)
• video and audio files, images, artifacts - edu.Glogster posters or Prezi
• author research - wiki (same as other research)
• character study map or Prezi - the powerless protagonist (growth or change?)
• text passage selection - wiki - I would organize it by the Homework Questions topics - this can be huge in developing the Boss level project
• creative writing assignments: RAFT pieces, audio recordings, POV pieces - this can be sustained as one character throughout the unit or change with reading assignments (depends on the book - students should decide)

At the Boss level, Janice is using the Social Issues discussions to have students develop essay responses to the reading.  That is perfect for her personalized Essential Question and it allows her students to develop personal statements in the introduction and conclusion.  Very fine twist on the 5-paragraph essay.

If you wanted to use a more global question rather than the personal question, you might ask students to prepare a persuasive, issue-based presentation for a global roundtable (simulated UN) on the question of ....   Groups could then use a tool like TitanPad to write and refine an actual position paper.  In classes where I have used this approach, we had sit-ins, signage, graffiti (chalk), and lots of demonstration around the key points of discussion.

Who says ELA is boring and disconnected?

Reading list:  (lexiles given where available) - MS = not recommended for middle school

• Angel de la Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery - Galang - Philippines
• Bamboo People - Perkins - Burma - 680
• Before We Were Free - Alvarez - Dominican Republic - 890
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers - Boo - Mumbai, India - 1030 - nonfiction - MS
• The Bite of the Mango - Kamara - Africa - Sierra Leone - 800 - MS
• Bless Me, Ultima - Anaya - Chicano - 840
• Boxers and Saints - Yang - China - graphic novel
• Burma Chronicles - Delisle - Burma - graphic novel - MS
• The Breadwinner - Ellis - Afghanistan - 630 - also Parvana's Journey (640) and Mud City (740)
• Breaking Stalin's Nose - Yelchin - 670 - Stalin's Russia - graphic illustrations - Newberry
• The Bride Price - Emecheta - Nigeria - 1060 (retold at 610 for MS)
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - Diaz - Dominican Republic - 1010 - MS
• Chinese Cinderella - Mah - China, autobiographical - 960 - or the author's autobiographical Falling Leaves - 950
• Claire of the Sea Light - Danticat - Haiti - MS
• The Clay Marble - Minfong Ho - Cambodia - 860
• Colibri - Cameron - Guatemala - 730
• Collected Stories - Marquez - Columbia - MS
• Cuba 15 - Osa - Cuban immigrants - 750
• The Death of Vishnu - Suri - India
• The Disappeared - Whelan - Argentina - 780
• Exit Wounds - Modan - Israel - graphic novel - MS
• The Farming of Bones - Danticat - Dominican Republic (Trujillo) & Haiti - MS
• First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (P.S.) - Loung Ung - Cambodia - memoir - 920 - MS
• God Grew Tired of Us - Dau - Sudan and US memoir - pair with Lost Boy, Lost Girl
• The Grand Plan to Fix Everything - Krishnaswami - India - 770
• A Hand Full of Stars - Schami - Syria - 810
• Haveli - Staples - Pakistan - 1030
• Heart of a Samurai - Preus - Japan (and US) - 760
• Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Rushdie - 940 - India
• Homeless Bird - Whelan - India - 800
• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Ford - Japanese American-WW2 - 730
• The House of the Spirits - Allende - Chile - 1280 - MS
• Inside Out and Back Again - Lai - Vietnam (fleeing at end of War) - National Book Award, Newberry - poem form - 800
• In the Time of the Butterflies - Alvarez - 910 - MS (graphic sexuality)
• Iqbal - D'Adamo - Pakistan - 730
• The Jade Peony - Choy - Chinese-Canadian children
• Kampung Boy - Lat - Southeast Asia (Muslim) - graphic novel
• The Kite Runner - Hosseini - Afghanistan - 840 - MS - advanced readers will enjoy and appreciate his new novel, And the Mountains Echoed
• The Life and Times of Michael K: A Novel - Coetzee - S. Africa - 940
• A Long Walk to Water - Park - Sudan - 720
• A Long Way Gone - Beah - Africa--Sierra Leone boy soldier - non fiction - 920 - MS
• Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping Civil War in Sudan - Dau - Sudan - non fiction - 900 - 8th+
• The Metamorphosis - Kafka - Russia - 670
• My Name is Not Easy - Edwardson - First People (Canada) 
• Never Fall Down - McCormick - Cambodia boy soldier - 710
• The Old Gringo - Fuentes - Mexico - MS
• The Orphan Master's Son - Johnson - North Korea - definitely MS
• Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You - Jansen - Rwanda
• Paradise of the Blind: A Novel - Duong Thu Huong - Vietnam - 720 - upper MS and HS
• Persepolis - Satrapi - Iran - graphic novel - MS
• Purple Hibiscus - Adichie - Nigeria - 920
• The Red Glass - Resau - AZ. and Mexico - 800
• Red Scarf Girl - Jiang - China, Cultural Revolution - 780
• Shabanu - Staples - Pakistan - 970
• Shiva's Fire - Staples - India - 990
• Shizuko's Daughter - Mori - Japan - 820
• So Long a Letter - Ba - Senegal - translated from French, Muslim woman - MS
• Sold - McCormick - Nepal/India - 820 - verse format - MS
• A Step From Heaven - An Na - Korean girl - 670
• A Stone in My Hand - Clinton - Palestine (Gaza) - 540
• The Storyteller - Llosa - Peru - MS
• They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky: The Story of Three Lost Boys From Sudan - Ajak, Deng, Deng - Sudan - non fiction 
• A Thousand Splendid Suns - Hosseini - Afghanistan - 830
• Tofu Quilt - Russell - young girl in Hong Kong 1960's - poem format
• Trash - Mulligan - unspecified underdeveloped country - 860
• Two Old Women - Wallis - First People (Canada)
• We Need New Names - Bulawayo - Zimbabwe - displacement, immigration of young girl - MS
• The White Tiger - Adiga - India - MS
• Zahra's Paradise - Amir - Iranian boy disappears after 2008 elections - graphic novel - also may be available serialized online 

Native American literature in the US can also be considered international, due to the sovereign nationhood of more than 500 Nations.  The best lists and reviews are found at Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature blog.  It is a good idea to check a title with Debbie's blog before using it in the classroom. Debbie and others have also compiled a k12 list of the Top 100 Books by Indigenous Masters.

Similarly, the Raza experience is often poorly portrayed in fiction.  Find reliable recommendations at De Colores: The Raza Experience in Children's Literature.

Another slant is the immigrant experience and the experiences of other cultures within the US, which have generated some exceptional fiction. Some of the best titles:

• All the Broken Pieces - Burg - Vietnam boy immigrant (post-War) - poem format - HL680
• American Born Chinese - Yang - graphic novel
• Americanah - Adichie - Nigerian immigrants to America and London
• An American Brat - Sidwa - Pakistan girl
• Any Small Goodness - Johnston - Mexican immigrant to East LA barrio - 660 - reviewed here in The Raza Experience in Books for Children
• America Street - Mazer - short story collection for MS and up
• The Arrival - Shaun Tan - immigrant experience - graphic novel
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Chua - Chinese mother in America - MS
• Breaking Through - Jiménez - Mexican immigrants
• Brother, I Am Dying - Danticat - autobiographical, Haitian immigrants (60's) - MS
• The Circuit - Jimenez - Mexican immigrant memoir in story form - non fiction - 880 - has sequels Breaking Through (750) and Reaching Out (910) which are more directly autobiographical
• Drown - Diaz - Dominican immigrant (male voices) - stories - MS
• Esperanza Rising - Ryan - US/Great depression/Mexican Am. - 750
• First Crossing: Stories About Teen Immigrants - Gallo - short story collection for MS and up
• God Grew Tired of Us - Dau - Sudan and US memoir - pair with Lost Boy, Lost Girl
• Home of the Brave - Applegate - Sudanese refugee in US - poem form - 860
• The House on Mango Street - Cisneros - Hispanic in Chicago - 870
• How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents - Alvarez - Santa Domingo - 950 - MS
• Interpreter of Maladies - Lahiri - Indian immigrants and life in India - 1050 - MS
• The Jumping Tree - Saldana - Mexican immigrants in Texas - racism theme - 770
• Krik? Krak! - Danticat - Haitian immigrants - stories - MS
• The Last Summer of the Death Warriors - Stork - Mexican American - HL640 - MS (terrific pairing with The Round House)
• Little Bee - Cleave - Nigeria immigrant to Britain - MS
• Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping Civil War in Sudan - Dau - Sudan and US - non fiction - 900 - 8th+
• Lupita Manana - Beatty - Mexican immigrant children - 760
• Parrot in the Oven - mi vida - Martinez - Mexican-American boy in Chicago - 1000
• Return to Sender - Alvarez - Mexican immigrant family in Vt. - 890
• The Namesake - Lahiri - Calcutta family immigrates to MA - 1210 - MS
• Native Speaker - Chang-rae Lee - Korean - MS
• The No-No Boy - Okada - Japanese, Nisei experience - 900 - MS
• Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida - Martinez - Mexican immigrant - 1000 - MS
• Two Kinds - Tan - Chinese-American - online - also Tan's "Fish Cheeks"
• What is the What - Eggers - Lost Boys of Sudan (based on a true story) - MS
• When I Was Puerto Rican - Santiago - 1020 - MS
• The Woman Warrior - Kingston - Chinese - creative nonfiction - 800