Moving stinks for everyone, but it's especially awful for Maya. Maya is deaf and she's used to going to a school with other deaf kids where everyone can sign and understands what Deaf culture is about. But in Colorado she has to go to a regular, hearing high school, which means she has to have an interpreter in all her classes. Outside of class, she has to rely on lip reading, which is never 100% effective, and deal with the ignorance of her hearing classmates. But one boy is different. Beau starts learning sign language and seems interested in getting to know Maya a lot better. Will they be able to bridge their differences and get together? Or is their relationship doomed before it even starts?

I love reading books that explore Deaf culture, and Maya is a wonderful character. She's fiercely loyal to her younger brother, who has cystic fibrosis and is not acclimating to the higher elevation well. With her friends at school she can be flawed and moody, which is perfectly understandable considering all she has to put up with and makes her well-rounded and relatable. I'd whole-heartedly recommend this to students looking for a realistic school story or a romance. 

The Silence Between Us by Alison Gervais
Erica's Picks
Grades 6-8
Tags:character driven, contemporary fiction, disability, family life, romance, school stories

Danny is the O'Carolan's last hope. His family was destroyed by the potato famine. His parents and brothers are all either dead or sent to the ends of the world as punishment for stealing food to feed their starving family. His last remaining relative is his older sister Kathleen, and she is determined to keep a close eye on him. When they arrive in New York with nothing but a mysterious family heirloom, they have to act quick if they don't want to end up in an orphanage. Kathleen takes the only job she can find where they can stay together: working as a maid. But Danny has to disguise himself as a girl so they can stay together. He hates the deceit and the hard work for little pay, but he knows that above all else he has to survive to keep the O'Carolan name alive.

I loved this nuanced look at a difficult period in American history. The Civil War is raging and many of the Irish who have just arrived are drafted while the rich pay a fee to avoid going to war. Meanwhile the Irish immigrants are taking jobs that free blacks had previously filled. Tensions rise on all sides as Danny tries to do the right thing, be true to himself, and keep his traditional songs and dances alive. ​

Last of the Name by Rosanne Parry
Grades 4 - 7
​Tags: character driven, family life, historical fiction

This may be my favorite book of the year. As a foodie and a cook, I love reading about food and its creators. Here we have a trip to so many ethnic and cultural cuisines that symbolize so much more than nourishing the body. Take a trip to Hungry Heart Row, a few square blocks of multicultural restaurants, food trucks and small businesses. You will meet a shy teen who bakes feelings into her pastry and gives them to people who need them.  Visit a Chinese establishment with gang connections. Grab a taste at a Muslim food truck with the best halal meat (look that up if you don’t know what it is). Meet a boy who puts his soul into his food to win a contest that will save his mother’s life. And so much more
Here are 13 stories by some of my favorite YA authors, all interconnected by setting and characters. When they magically appear in the next story, you ask,” How did they do that?” With magic, food and love!  Love, family, culture, belonging and the meaning of life.  It all awaits you on Hungry Heart Row.
Come for a stroll and stay for the food.

Tessa's Pick, 5th-8th grade, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Global perspectives, People of Color, Short stories

​The Marvels and Creations of Existence…the name of an ancient manuscript that two young people discover separately; both decide to record the marvels and oddities in their lives. We will be privy to their writing in these journals rewritten in narrative form. 
Begin. We meet Zayneb a Muslim in hijab, sitting on a plane next to a verbally Islamophobic woman. It is established that Zayneb is angry at the affront and she has a passion for justice.  Unfortunately, her high school history teacher insults her cultural heritage every day. One time he goes too far and she confronts him. This earns her a suspension and she heads to her aunt’s in Doha (located in Qatar on the Persian Gulf).
Quiet and sensitive Adam, a university student in London, is also headed to Doha when the two accidentally meet for a moment at the airport. They part never expecting to meet again. 
But they do, as Adam is a family friend of Z's aunt.  Told in alternate chapters, Z and A voice their feelings about each other and the issues they are dealing with. Adam is hiding his diagnosis of multiple sclerosis from his family and is trying to keep his mother’s memory alive for his little sister. Zayneb is exploring her identity as a woman in a Muslim country and confronting stereotypes.
This is their love story as they support and care for each other. Their marvels and oddities make them grow separately and together.
  This is my favorite wisdom from the book: The size of the world is relative to our mind’s perception of it.
 “For some of us, this means the world is small, including only those we see as belonging to it…. People who look like us, dress like us, think like us.
For others, it’s a medium-size and includes those we connect to through some similarity…which then allows us to overlook the differences between us and them.
And then there are those who see the world as huge…. Huge enough to include vast differences, people with nothing in common with one another except a beating heart and a feeling soul, these two—heart, soul—being the strongest connection between us all.”
To which world do you belong?

​Tessa's Pick, 7th-8th grade, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Global perspectives, Issues fiction, Romance