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.

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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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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“A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.”

Dominican teen Xiomara is a powerful poet.  Growing up in a strict Hispanic household, she feels trapped by her mother’s oppressive religious beliefs.  Her voice will grab you and not let go as she processes her relationships and her passion to break out of the confines surrounding her. There is so much raw emotion here. 
“Late into the night I write and the pages of my notebook swell from all the words I’ve pressed onto them. 
It almost feels like the more I bruise the page the quicker something inside me heals.” 
Content warning:  for mature students

Tessa's Picks

​8th grade, Character driven, Family life, Issues fiction, People of color, LGBTQ, Novels in verse

Maya Aziz is an Indian-American Muslim teen who dreams of attending film school in New York City and being free from parental expectations for their good Indian daughter.  A good portion of this book portrays Maya’s relationship with boys. Dating is not allowed in Muslim families and especially with a non-Muslim so she must keep the romance from her parents. Her parents’ protectiveness becomes even stronger when a horrific terrorist crime is attributed to a Muslim (who did not do it) with the same last name.  The community Maya has grown up in is suddenly consumed with fear, bigotry and hatred.
Islamophobia is rampant and Maya’s dreams are in danger of being crushed.  Will she find the strength to move on? “These terrorists are the antithesis of Islam. They’re not Muslim. Violence has no place in religion, and the terrorists are responsible for their own crimes, not the religion and not us.”
Read this book and be aware that many young Muslim women who reviewed this book on Goodreads were upset with the representation of Maya as a Muslim.  

Tessa's Picks
7-8th grade, Contemporary fiction, Issues fiction, Character driven
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 Nine students. Three bloodsports. One deadly weekend.
Creepy, seriously creepy. With a British accent. Greer MacDonald, scholarship student, does not fit into the exclusive atmosphere of St. Aidan’s boarding school for the elite. She knows this and tries to keep a low profile. Then she receives a mysterious invitation with three words embossed upon on it: huntin' shootin' fishin'. It refers to a weekend at the country manor of Henry de Warlencourt, the most popular and wealthy boy at S.T.A.G.S.
Arriving at Henry’s ancestral home, Greer realizes the only adults are the servants who do Henry’s bidding. The other guests are Henry’s clique known as “The Medievals” as they distain all modern technology calling it “savage.” Two other outsiders have been invited along with Greer; Shafeen Jadeja (“Punjabi playboy”) and Chanel Ashford (“Carphone Chanel”).
 Each day is to be devoted to one of the three blood sports on the invitation. As each becomes progressively dark and twisted, Greer realizes that she and the other misfits have become the prey. 
This is a top notch psychological thriller. Murder, mayhem and madness! You won’t be able to put it down. Warning…not for the faint of heart!

Tessa's Picks

7-8th grade, Contemporary fiction, Fast paced, Horror

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