Wonder World Book Cafe'

Joe Oak can rely on math and his grandmum; both are consistent. He cannot rely on food or his mom; both are inconsistent. Joe knows and experiences things kids shouldn't have to, yet being a survivor is his superpower.

The deep devotion and respect Syrians have for their ancestral homeland is deeply moving and so beautiful. This is a story of history and hope, dreams and believing in a different future.

Jude, her parents, and her favorite person in the whole world–her older brother–are  living in Syria. With political unrest and safety concerns, Jude’s parents decide it’s time for Jude and her expectant mother to move to the United States. (One of my favorites from 2019 and still so relevant today.)

In and out of foster care, twelve-year old Kita's story is heavy and hopeful. It won’t take but a few pages before readers become Kita’s biggest supporter.  

In this graphic memoir, Pan lives with what he calls “The Puzzle.” This unwelcome, relentless Puzzle impacts nearly every part of his life. After nearly a decade, Pan finally discovers he has OCD and candidly explains living with and treatment for this condition.

13 year-old Jake needs to quiet his inner-bully, the voice in his head so he can begin recovering from disordered eating. Based on the author's own experiences, this story is raw, honest, and necessary.

Mia Tang is back in book 5 of the Front Desk Series. Readers will enjoy Mia at 13 years old while she explores San Francisco’s Chinatown and attends journalism camp.

What does it mean to win? Explore this with Grace and Jonah, two highly competitive students, on their way to high school. Keeping Pace has plenty of relatable woes and joys, and heartbreaks and happinesses when it comes to friendships and first love.

Join 13 year-old Pandita as she adapts to MANY changes while honoring her ma's memory and attempting to right a wrong in her community. Set in the 1980s in California's Silicon Valley, a community is divided over affordable housing.

Seventh-grader Mimi loves living on a beautiful island in Florida, but is appalled at all the plastic and styrofoam she finds on the beach. Inspired by the true story of the Wijsen Sisters of Bali (Bye Bye Plastic Bags), Mimi is determined to ban plastic bags in her community, but frustratingly discovers how many people, locally and online, don't support her.

✨✨Welcome to Season 5! ✨✨

Written with so much heart, this middle grade novel, Across So Many Seas, spans more than 500 years and follows four girls from generations of Sephardic Jewish families. Incredibly woven together, each girl's story is part of hundreds of years of family history, heartbreak, and so, so much love.

YA. Written in verse. Persian American, Omid, speaks Farsi and English and LOVES words, but he can't seem to find the right ones when he needs them, yet. A new found interest in listening to and writing Rap music (with a little help from Shakespeare) makes it possible for Omid to talk about his first crush, communicate with his Iranian grandparents, and share what it's like living in Arizona right after 9/11.

YA fans of poetry, rap, Shakespeare, and stories written in verse, here's to you!

YA. Narrative nonfiction. Unputdownable. There are plenty of WWII and Holocaust stories for teens, though none quite like Impossible Escape. This is the true story of two men who survived an escape from Birkenau concentration camp intent on sharing with the world the atrocities of concentration camps. In doing so, Rudi Vrba and Adolph Wetzler saved 200,000 lives.

1948. Historical fiction. Twelve-year old Amil and his family are settling into their new and hopefully safer home in Bombay, India after fleeing their homeland, just after India's Partition. Riots continue. Gandhi is assassinated. Amil is dealing with quite a lot on top of everything else. His relationship with his papa is strained, school is difficult, and he'd love to have a friend. Come along on Amil's journey in this companion story to The Night Diary.

1989 Dan’s first year of high school is a few short months away, and he’s about to embark on the biggest “out of his comfort zone” experience of his life, a 3 week study abroad program in Europe. Mix tapes, Kodak cameras, first love...come along with Dan Santat in his graphic novel memoir. This is one for all-ages.

YA memoir written in verse. Raw. Honest. Real. A gift to readers.

Jiordan is looking toward her first high school year, while trying to understand the crime her dad committed: googling money-laundering, defraud, schemed, and "how to survive prison."

Tempers flare. Social media posts fly. Friendships severed. Cleverly crafted, Mascot follows a group of six diverse students through their 8th grade year in a town near Washington D.C. as they along with their community hotly debate a controversial, long-standing tradition.

What can ten-year old Amelia, her twenty-one year old chinchilla, Calvin, and a sugar apple tree possibly have in common? Turns out, quite a bit. Join Amelia as she navigates her life: desperate to find Calvin and deal with a friend who’s turned her world topsy-turvy. 

What can 12 year-old Josh do after his middle school is stained with freshly painted swastikas and antisemitic messages especially given that he doesn't want to reveal his Jewish identify? The Do More Club is fast-paced, written in verse with not only hate, but courage and kindness.

Step into the life of twelve-year old Tuesday Beals whose story is nearly a love letter to Zion National Park, located in Utah, and her beloved sky.

Featuring two graphic fictionalized memoirs. Huda, a freshman and new to her high school, is a riot. She will have you laughing out loud while tugging at your heart as she grows up and navigates her place in the world, defining herself as a Muslim Arab American.

2020: A Zelda loving 13 year old boy and his 100 year old great grandmother living in New Jersey during the pandemic

1930’s: A deadly famine in Ukraine, a privileged Communist girl living in Kyiv, and a girl from Brooklyn, New York

Masterfully written, these intertwining stories all come together. 

Based on a true historical event and the author’s own family. 

Cuba, 2018. Soleida, 16, is growing up in a place where art is illegal and sea levels are rising. Her family of artists hides their sculpture garden, but it's discovered during a hurricane which leads to the arrest of her parents leaving Soleida on her own. She ends up in a Costa Rican refugee camp where she meets Dariel, a Californian, who endures all too frequent wildfires. Together they want to find her parents, protect the environment, and explore the budding romance, until Soleida discovers he's a rich boy with famous parents who will never understand a girl like her.

It's 1996. 13 year-old Sarai is a first generation Puerto Rican who's trying to grow up with her Mami and older sister in Bushwick, a borough in Brooklyn, New York, a  neighborhood riddled with drugs and crime. Sarai grapples with her Puerto Rican identity, hunger, poverty, frequent moves and looming neighborhood gentrification. Yet, Sarai is curious and questions the here and now and her future. Situations that seem insurmountable are juxtaposed with Sarai’s curiosity, resiliency, and hopeful spirit.

Sixth grader Ziggy lives in New Mexico with his dad and sister. When Ziggy was a baby, his mom vanished, a tragic all-too-common occurrence among Native American females. Since nobody is looking for his mom anymore, Ziggy and his friends venture into the desert one night looking for any clue that will lead them to his mom. During this fantastical night, they meet talking animals who have much to teach Ziggy if he will listen. This is a wondrous tale rich with Cherokee history, language and culture juxtaposed with a tragic modern day issue. 

🌟Cheers to 60 episodes!

17 year-old Lilah is born to hearing parents who aren't interested in learning sign language, but Lilah wants to improve hers. She can do this by being a summer counselor at Camp Gray Wolf, a place she attended and loved as a child. Not expecting to meet Isaac, romance was the last thing on her mind. Aside from enjoying Isaac’s attention, camp fires, and lake visits, Lilah is busy and worried: high spirited young campers keep her busy and the camp’s financial woes worry her. This story sheds light on the nuances of the Deaf community. 

In this middle grade graphic memoir, Mexikid, readers will love Pedro whose family of 11 is leaving their home in Watsonville, California to travel to Jalisco, Mexico in Apa's Winnebago where they'll pick up Abuelito and bring him back to CA. Their 2,000 mile journey is adventurous, hilarious, historic, and heartwarming. Pedro and his siblings are entirely relatable to a wide audience.

Through 12 year-old Nat's perspective about synchronized swimming and life, Barely Floating offers several jumping-off points for rich conversations: body positivity, dealing with big emotions, activism, acceptance, and challenging societal "norms".

Read The Probability of Everything and learn what happened when a family is faced with an asteroid that is on track to collide with the world. You'll meet and adore 11 year-old science and probability loving Kemi, but this book is far more than a book about science and asteroids.

Twelve-year old Adnan lives for table tennis. In this sport, it doesn’t matter that he is left handed, color-blind, or even on the small side. He’s good. He’s competitive. He does not like to lose. Come along on a journey where Adnan, his family, and community face a loss far greater than a table tennis match.

Sixth graders April and Zee are best friends though more like family. They are inseparable until Zee pursues his dream of being first chair in the Boston Symphony. This means a new school for Zee and gives April an opportunity to act on her drumming dreams. While he and April miss being at the same school, they are handling it until a tragic event occurs, and now April must live without Zee forever. Grief and hope... written lyrically in verse.

Sixth grader, Andy Zhou agrees to bleaching his hair, joining the dance club, befriending a bully, navigating the culture gap with his grandparents who've just arrived from Shanghai, and being a good son and grandson to please everybody. Add in racial microaggressions, intentional and unintentional, and this causes us to feel deeply for Andy.

Heera, a fourteen year old girl living in a crudely made shack in Northern India, knows girls like her have only two inevitable life paths: marry young or become a prostitute. She's ambitious, wants an education, and questions "tradition." Come along on Heera's journey. While a work of fiction, this is based off true events that occur across the globe.

Middle school issues are difficult enough, but Güero and Fregona are dealing with even bigger and more important issues. When Fregona’s dad drops her off on the first day of school, ICE agents take him away.

At 17 years old, Veronica wants to reclaim her body. All her life she’s lived with overbearing parents who worry incessantly about the hip condition she was born with and doctor’s who speak of Veronica’s condition as if she’s not even in the room. She has endured multiple surgeries, physical therapy, chronic pain, ableism, and plenty of people who stare and comment on her “disability.” Veronica finds peace in swimming and of her many goals, she wants to be a mermaid.

☕Listen in on this espresso-sized episode, shorter than usual, to learn about a few YA highly engaging short stories (but not short stories in the traditional sense). I hope this episode provides you a little extra jolt for reading.

In this YA novel, Charlie Vega battles with societal expectations, and even her own mother about her body type. She longs for her first kiss and a real date. Charlie is bold and honest about her struggles. Come along on her journey of love, romantic and self.

In this YA novel, 17 year-old Jamison uses his love of photography to cope with stifling grief and to honor his best friend, his mom. With Dorothea Lange as his inspiration, Jamison decides to take a photo every night, at the very corner he saw each night from his mom's hospital room, at 9:09, the time of her last breath. Come along with Jamison as his photography is a catalyst for healing--for himself and countless others. Jamison's voice, his wit and sarcasm, AND his talent reverberate on the pages.

In this YA novel, Chaos Theory, meet seniors Shelbi and Andy. Both have distinctive voices and their perspectives on families, friends, addiction, mental health, pain, grief, joy, and love are stories we need in the world.

In this middle grade book, readers will relish a collection of 18 short stories and poems all from different Native authors. Each piece is written from the author’s own lived experiences and imagination.

People are traveling from Nations within the borders of the United States and Canada to Ann Arbor, Michigan for the annual two-day Dance for Mother Earth Powwow. Ancestor Approved, brings us stories of traditions, celebrations, joy, and hope representing a wide-range of Native families.

In this young adult, historical fiction, romance novel, four strong Black women's lives intertwine in alternating chapters (my favorite format). As the story begins, it’s 1910. In each chapter, a strong-willed, determined young Black woman tells her story of love, friendship, and living up to or defying family and societal expectations. 

When classmates accuse 11-year old Sicily of lying about her heritage, she sets out to gain an understanding of and ultimately confidence to explain how she is Black first, then Panamanian and Latina. Sicily, a writer, has much to share with the world! 

At the age of nine, Javier Zamora migrated to California. Decades later, Zamora, a Salvadorian poet, tells his story in this memoir, Solito: a nine-year-old boy from El Salvador who embarked on a harrowing "trip" with strangers and a coyote who was paid to safely reunite him with his parents in the United States. 

Twelve-year old Iveliz's story brings mental health conversations to the forefront. She is grieving the loss of her father whose death, she's sure, is her fault. When her Abuela Mimi comes from Puerto Rico, this sets off a generational and cultural rift as Mimi dismisses the need for the therapy and medication Iveliz needs for trauma and PTSD. 

During WWII, ten year old Mari and her family are forced to the Manzanar Relocation Center. Mari is devastated with her brother Mak decides to join the Army, even against his father's wishes. In protest, Mari takes a vow of silence until Mak returns home safely. 

Teenage sisters embark on "world school" with their parents. Listen in on this true story to learn all the places this family of four traveled to along with the many ups and downs of learning about new places and cultures. 

Evan Pao doesn't feel he fits into his new community steeped in its Civil War history and traditions until he learns Chinese soldiers fought in this war. He is delighted to see himself represented. It's a little known fact that Chinese Americans fought in the Civil War. 

Jama, a 12 year-old Maasai girl, lives in rural Kenya and has a heart for "her herd of elephants." She uncovers corruption between poachers and the ranger who is supposed to be stopping such cruel acts. Inspired by the threats elephants in Asia and Africa continue to endure. The Elephant Girl is heart-pounding and heart-warming. 

Indigenous Wisdom and Scientific Knowledge.

Savor the stories. Ponder the questions. Heed the call to action. Use as a reference guide. Care for and love this one Earth.