​(This is a book for mature readers as it addresses issues of homophobia, child abuse, hate crimes, Islamophobia and sexual abuse).
Rukhsana loves the laws of physics and plans to become an engineer.  In a few months she will be attending Caltech on a scholarship. With her girlfriend Ariana. Only her parents who are conservative Muslims living in the Bengali community of Seattle would probably disown her if they found out about her relationship.  When she and Ariana are caught kissing by her mother, events spiral into a terrifying path.
Falsely told that her grandmother in Bangladesh is gravely ill, Rukhsana and parents catch the next plane.  The truth is soon apparent that they are there to force her into an arranged marriage. Her parents are convinced that their lives would be over if the truth about her sexuality came out. 
Rukhsana learns some secrets of her own mother’s past when her grandmother gifts her the diary of her early life, marriage and motherhood. Gathering strength from her grandmother who encourages her to fight for her freedom of choice, she also gains sympathy for her mother's dark childhood. Cousins and other family members are allies and memorable characters adding to the cultural experience of a large Bengali family
One of the proposed marriage partners turns out to be gay and the two form a friendship and eventually a plan to help them both escape back to the states. Rukhsana must find the courage to fight for her love and her freedom and hopefully keep the culture and family she loves.

Tessa's picks, 8th summer 2019, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Family life, Global perspectives, Issues fiction, People of color.

I loved this book!  Not only is it about FASHION, it has heart and soul and tough hardships to overcome. And it is laugh-out-loud hilarious!  Charlie Dean has had to overcome a deceased mother, a recovering (sometimes) addict father, and dirt-common beginnings and boy, has she. Like her inspirations Diana Vreeland and Wallis Simpson, she has achieved near perfection. (If you don’t know who they are, look them up.) Her room is a fashion design studio complete with sewing machines, dress forms and refurbished elegance and she has the talent to match it.
 In answer to her dreams the exclusive Green Pastures Academy of Art and Applied Designs Emerging Talent is offering a scholarship to be awarded to a student who shows talent in fashion design in a competitive runway event.
In alternate chapters we meet John Thomas-Smith, bitter, sarcastic and a talented artist in medal who will do anything to get into Green Pastures including recasting himself as a fashion designer. All the characters are quirky, memorable and have their own back story which allows you to feel empathy for their flaws.
And the drama…models assaulted, dresses destroyed, friendships in danger, kidnapping (sort of), addiction, passion!
There is lots of diversity in representation of race, ability, and sexual orientation; this book has it all
Even if you HATE fashion, read this book!  It is so much fun.

​Tessa's Picks, 8th summer 2019, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Humor, LGBTQ, People of color

If you read one book this year, have it be this one.  The year is 2002, one year after 9/11, a politically turbulent time for a sixteen-year old Hijabi Muslim.  Shirin’s immigrant parents have moved the family each year to find better job opportunities and better school districts. This makes it even harder to walk the halls of a new school surrounded by rampant Islamophobia and xenophobia.  Slurs and stereotyping and even violence have built a guarded shell around Shirin that she can never let down. Invisibility is her goal and loneliness her companion. 
One day her brother introduces her to his break dancing crew and she finds herself belonging somewhere.  Then she meets Ocean. Not since Augustus in A Fault in Our Stars, have I encountered a young male character whose innocence, kindness, integrity and tenderness break your heart.  He is the perfect complement to Shirin’s toughness.  But I had never, ever touched someone and felt like this: like I was holding electricity inside of me. Their romance is so sweet and yet you fear that Shirin may be right that the cruelty of students, teachers and families will destroy it.
Shirin is an amazing narrator, fierce and angry as well as funny and loving.  Her family and their Persian culture is heartwarmingly portrayed.  I laughed and cried over this book.
I just want to include the following written by a young reader from Good Reads:
“Everything about this book fitted right into the hollows of my heart. When I first heard that this is the story of a fellow teen Muslim, my hope came so sharp that I didn’t dare speak it. My joy, now, is inarticulate—I could never quite explain the blaze of connection, the feeling of being seen and set apart that planted seeds of gratitude that would come to flower.”

​Tessa's Picks, 8th Summer 2019, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Issues fiction, People of color, Romance

​Shayla and her friends call themselves the United Nations because Shay is black, Isabella is Puerto Rican and Julia is Japanese American. But is seems like the start of 7th grade is shaking up the peace. There is some girl drama and some boy drama and Shay doesn’t know what to think about who is a friend and who isn’t.  Shay hates trouble so much it makes her hands itch but sometimes what you believe in can get you into trouble.
When an unarmed black man is shot by police in her neighborhood she realizes that some rules are worth breaking. Her older sister Hana is involved in Black Lives Matter and Shay starts wearing an armband to school in support.  As the movement at school grows, the principal announces that armbands are against the dress code. She must face a very real problem.
Crushes, identity, friendship and racism infuse this book about being brave enough to stand up for what you believe.

​Tessa's Picks,7th summer 2019, 8th summer 2019, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Issues fiction, People of color.

Darius Kellner, a half-Persian and half-American teenager tries to find his place in the world or at least school where he is bullied and has one sort of good friend.  He doesn’t connect to his Persian side; he has only met his grandparents via computer. His little sister Laleh speaks Farsi but Darius never learned as his mother wanted her first born to be all American.  When the whole family travels to Iran to visit the grandparents, he bonds with his Persian family and makes an extraordinary friend. Sohrab.  The friendship between these two is tender and deep.
 The thing is, I never had a friend like Sohrab before. One who understood me without even trying. Who knew what it was like to be stuck on the outside because of one little thing that set you apart.”
Darius and his father take medication for depression but this is not a bond between them. Dad is ever critical of Darius and keeps his emotions under strict control. The warmth and acceptance Darius feels in Iran is a revelation. I love what a reviewer on Goodreads said:
“This is where I fell in love with Yazd, with Persepolis, with Persian food and culture. We need diverse books because they help us discover a world that is more than just our own four walls. We need diverse books because they teach us tolerance, acceptance and love. I needed this book, because I had never before read a story set in Iran. I never knew that I wanted to taste Quottab, a deep-fried, almond-filled pastry, or Faludeh, a sorbet-like dessert served with rose water syrup. I want to go visit Yazd, I want to see Persepolis and learn about the historic Darius the Great. I loved how elegantly the author teaches the reader about Persian culture and life in Iran.” This from a review by  Kai on Goodreads.
Read this heartfelt and tender book about friendship and belonging.
“Everyone wants you here. We have a saying in Farsi. It translates ‘your place was empty.’ We say it when we miss somebody."

Tessa's Picks, 6th-8th grade, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Family life, Issues fictin, Global perspectives, Mental illness.


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 Kate DiCamillo’s characters have a warmth and richness of language that I associate with the South. You will fall in love with Louisiana Eleffante, child of the tragically dead Flying Eleffantes circus performers. Her story begins:
”I am going to write it all down, so that what happened to me will be known, so that if someone were to stand at their window at night and look up at stars and think, My goodness, whatever happened to Louisiana Elefante? Where did she go? they will have an answer. They will know. 
“This is what happened.
“I will begin at the beginning.”
Granny, who is raising Louisiana, wakes her in the middle of the night raving about the curse which has hung over their heads for generations. They take off on a road trip leaving friends and home behind. Winding up in a small town in Georgia, Louisiana wakes to find Granny gone!   There she meets a Reverend, a grouchy motel-owner, and a boy with a pet crow.
I love Louisiana’s voice which manages to be funny and profound at the same time. She must find her own way and her path brings up big questions about her past and her identity.  Warm and generous hearts will help her along the way until she can find a place to call home. As the walrus-faced Reverend Obertask says,”‘I do think that, more often than not, love has a way of finding us,”
Indeed.

​Tessa's Picks, 3rd-5th grade, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Friendship.

 Seventh grader Jilly is an avid fantasy reader and belongs to a chat group about her favorite book series. Here she meets a diverse group of fellow fans including a boy from Oakland who is Deaf and Black.  When Jilly’s sister Emma is born Deaf, Jilly can’t wait to share solidarity with Derek.  She goes about it in a way that inadvertently offends him. Jilly persists in asking questions and learning to be open and their bond deepens.
Determined to help with Emma, Jilly begins to teach herself sign language and is dismayed that her family is not on board.  In fact the doctor they choose seems cold and inflexible in her approach to Emma’s treatment. A turning point is when Jilly and her family attend a workshop for families who are members of the Deaf community and meet Derek and his family. All share their stories and come away comforted and informed.
Jilly comes from a mixed race family. She is White and her beloved aunts are lesbians, one Black and one White.  Jilly looks to her aunt to help her confront two family members who make racist comments during a holiday dinner.  She learns a lot about both subtle and blatant forms of bigotry and when she stands up to her uncle and grandmother you want to cheer.
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While learning how to support her family and friends, Deaf culture and the reality of Black families’ fear for their children’s safety become an important part of her heart. 

​Tessa's Picks, 5th-6th grade, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Family life, LGBTQ+, Issues fiction, People of color.

'Quinn McAvoy is a freshman in a new school and loves sports and skateboarding.  And she is completely bald, having lost her hair due to alopecia, an autoimmune disorder.  Bullied and shunned by her friends, she is hoping to start over when her parents move to Massachusetts so that her younger brother can attend a special school for his autism.  She decides to keep her baldness a secret, struggles with wig issues and finds herself popular!
When Quinn first encounters Nick Strout in his wheelchair, his bitterness and bad temper are off putting. Eventually they become friends and Quinn learns that he is a double amputee due to a snow-boarding accident caused by his big brother who was drunk at the time.  Tommy is a star football player as was Nick before the accident.  Tommy is doing his best to support his brother but winning forgiveness is a long way away. 
Quinn and Nick become close and their honest support of each other is heartwarming. Quinn is not afraid of being real and Nick responds with humor.
“I know this is weird, but I don’t feel like explaining it right now. Can you just roll with it?”
“Oh, I can roll with it. You’ve seen me roll.”
“Are you making a wheelchair joke?”
“Maybe.”
The author handles issues of disability in a very real and empathetic way.  I have a relative with alopecia who has recently decided to stop wearing wigs and I applaud how Quinn works through her own way of dealing with this issue.  Nick’s acceptance of Quinn’s encouragement helps him move on in his journey to walk and to finding forgiveness.
This story about courage, connection and love will not disappoint.

​Tessa's Picks, 6-8th grade, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Family life, Friendship, Issues fiction, romance.

Do not be put off by the gross stuff in the beginning. This book is hilarious and an amazing exploration of what it is like to grow up between cultures. 
Taiwanese-American Mei is at MIT pursuing her parents’ dream for her to become a doctor, marry an ivy-league Taiwanese boy and have lots of babies.  But she is germophobic times 100, falls for a Japanese boy and forget babies. There are so many ways her traditional parents think differently from her. She has to deal with the internalized obedience and guilt she feels for not doing what they want.  And the lies she has to tell! 
I listened to this audiobook and was laughing out loud.  This was a window book for me and I delighted in learning so many details about the culture and traditions of Mei’s family.  It is touching how much they love her and maddening how much control they use.
Mei’s growth as she struggles to be her own person will have you cheering.  She even persuades her mother to stand up to the father when it comes to seeing Mei’s brother who had been disowned for marrying a woman they disapproved of.
So laugh and become a little wiser at the same time!

Tessa's Picks

7th-8th grade, Contemporary fiction, Character driven, Family life, Humor, Issues fiction, Global perspectives, People of color.

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Marin has been in foster homes since she was abandoned by her mother when she was four years old. At eleven, she has never given up home that her mother will return and there will be a happy ever after ending. Everywhere she goes she carries three pennies and the I Ching which she uses to guide her choices.  But now it is not giving her the answers she wants.
Dr. Lucy Chang wants to adopt her. She tells Marin that she has four chambers to her heart and even though one is full, she still has lots of room left. Marin does not have to think of her as her new mother if she is not ready…but rather as a new kidney ready to do its new job.  Marin tries hard not to be drawn in by Lucy’s kindness and understanding.
When Marin hears that her mother is relinquishing her rights to her, she amps up her efforts to track down her mom. She is quite a good detective but one has a feeling of dread as she gets closer to her goal.
Watched over by Gilda, a solid character who is her social worker and an unexpected owl who lives in a building near Dr. Lucy, Marin evades their attempts to guide her.
As Marin gets closer to finding answers, all I wanted was for her to give Dr. Lucy a chance.  Heart wrenching and ultimately satisfying Marin’s story will touch you.

Tessa's Picks
​4-5th grade, Contemporary fiction, Character driven, Family life, Issues fiction, Tear jerker

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