​(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

​This is a sweet summer story with depth and heart. Cat who is about to enter 6th grade, has always felt a strong sense of responsibility and love for her younger brother, Chicken, who is on the autism spectrum. Her mom illustrates children’s books and they are all grieving for the loss of her father.  Mom needs to work without distractions so the children are going to meet their grandparents for the first time and stay with them on their island home off the coast of North Carolina.  Over the summer Cat learns to love her grandparents and comes to understand the reason why her mom has kept them apart.  Her faith in her grandparents allows her to loosen up and let them help with her brother so that she can have time to be a kid herself.
There are a few moments where Cat and Chicken being bi-racial come up and are important in establishing their identity.  I found myself putting in markers to save the words of wisdom that I would come upon; “Being a parent is a kind of promise. A promise to stand by someone even if you think they’re making a mistake. To love who you get, not who you think you’re going to get.”
Along with all this growing, Cat makes some great friends, enters a fishing contest and learns that even someone you thought was an enemy has a mix of good with his bad.
A beautiful story about family and forgiveness with a wonderful cast of characters.

​Tessa's Picks, 5th summer 2019, Character driven, Friendship, Family, 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.

Hallelujah,Miss Eula is back! One of my favorite characters in Polacco's many wonderful books, this African-American grandmother takes the young Patricia under her wing when the author moves to California as a young girl. Before Trisha's own grandmother passes away through the "holes in the sky," she tells her granddaughter that she will send a sign that she is watching from the other side. 
The family moves to a diverse neighborhood in Oakland  where Trisha is befriended by Miss Eula's grandson Stewart. They join forces with the entire neighborhood to save a hurting neighbor and her dying garden. And Trisha finds her sign.
A heartwarming celebration of community, diversity and family.



​Tessa's Picks, K-3rd Grade, Family life, People of color, Picture books

“You’re so exotic!”
“You look so unusual.”
“But what are you really?”
These are comments Isabella is used to hearing. Her father is back and her mother is white and now that they divorced, it seems like she is split in two. Not only does she have to switch houses, nicknames, and backpacks; it seems like she has to switch identities too.  Both parents have moved on to wonderful new partners in their lives but even a supportive “new” older brother can’t make her feel whole.
Racism is a very real part of Izzy’s life and how people are treated differently based on their ethnicity and appearance plays out in her life. After a disturbing incident involving a noose placed in her best friend’s locker after a history class on lynching, Izzy questions her identity:
 “‘I’ve got friends who are white. And friends who are Black. We’ve got kids at our school from all races--and most of the time we kinda blend without thinking about it, like cookie dough. But this noose thing with Imani has really changed the recipe, at least for me.’ 
Mom waits for a tick, then asks, ‘How do you mean?’
‘Because I am that dough, Mom! Am I the chocolate chip or the vanilla bean? I’m really not sure.’”
Changing houses each week brings her parents together in an awkward and sometimes unpleasant meeting.  But both are supportive of Isabella’s musical talent as a gifted pianist. The high point of her career is the upcoming recital. The shocking climax of the book comes on the way to the recital when an ugly and dangerous racially based incident occurs.  The whole extended family comes together in solidarity and love to support her.
This is a window and mirrors book that will evoke empathy in many a young person.

​Tessa's Picks, 4-6th grade, Character driven, Family life, Issues fiction, People of Color.

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 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.

Inspired by transformation in the tales of Snow-White and Rose-Red and Swan Lake, McLemore has created a beautiful story of magical realism in lyrical prose.  The title characters are two sisters who come from a long line of women in a Latinx family that has been cursed for generations. The curse is that there are always two daughters and one is chosen by the swans to become one of them. Roja has always know it would be her, for she is seen as the one with darker skin and fiery red-black hair and wicked, passionate ways.  Blanca of the fair skin and hair is the sweet, obedient, graceful one.
They are the yin and yang and closer than a circle.  Together they vow to break the curse.  While they hope to stop the transformation to swan, two missing boys have become a bear and a cygnet. A rich boy from an abusive family has become Yearling the bear. The cygnet is Page, a trans boy from a family who grow apples as if it is an art. Love happens to all but not as expected and with dire consequences.  Can destiny be avoided, can expectations and assumptions be shattered?
“The story of the ugly duckling was never about the cygnet discovering he is lovely. It is not a story about realizing you have become beautiful. It is about the sudden understanding that you are something other than what you thought you were, and that what you are is more beautiful that what you once though you had to be.”
One of the most beautiful books I have read, magic, fierce, bright and unforgettable. 
 
 Tessa's Picks
7th-8th grade, Character driven, Fairy Tales, Fantasy, LGBTQ, Romance, People of Color 

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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