Denver Public Schools Top 100: Middle School

Graphic Novels

Kayla is a young peasant who cares little about the world outside her village...until her best friend, Mal, finds herself in some serious trouble and the only way Kayla can save her friend is by entering the Kingdom Races...and winning. With control of the entire kingdom at stake, Kayla is thrust into a mission rife with political intrigue and lurking danger. Follow Kayla as she adventures into the wider world while putting her own life on the line for her friends, both old and new. No one has ever even finished the Kingdom Races. Will Kayla be the first?

In this semiautobiographical graphic novel from award-winning cartoonist Colleen Frakes, Norah must navigate not just her foiled dreams of blond hair but also the tangled mess her family has become. Norah is the good kid. Good at pleasing her parents and being a good sister. Good at school. Good at, well, almost everything. So when Mom's work brings her to a new town leaving Norah and Dad behind, no one thinks twice. After all, Norah's a mature sixth grader who can take care of herself...right? But things spiral out of control after a botched home dye job goes wrong and being the good kid quickly gets a little...hairy. Before long, one small tangle becomes a knot of epic proportions, and Norah soon realizes that the only way to untangle the mess she's made is to find her voice and ask for help.

From the creators of Banned Book Club comes a young adult graphic novel about unveiling secrets, confessing your crushes, and finding yourself- all in the mountains of South Korea on Christmas Eve.

Inspired by a true story, new Muslim student Aliya joins an all-girls, hijab-wearing basketball team, and she learns about teamwork and herself.

Follows Lonnie as he deals with his parents' divorce and has tough conversations with his father, who drives him to and from school.

With a Thai mother and an American father, Kathy lives in two different worlds. She spends most of the year in Bangkok, where she's secretly counting the days till summer vacation. That's when her family travels for twenty-four hours straight to finally arrive in a tiny seaside town in Maine. Kathy loves Maine's idyllic beauty and all the exotic delicacies she can't get back home, like clam chowder and blueberry pie. But no matter how hard she tries, she struggles to fit in. She doesn't look like the other kids in this rural New England town. Kathy just wants to find a place where she truly belongs, but she's not sure if it's in America, Thailand... or anywhere.

A new Midnight Society gathers around the campfire to share urban legends, folklores, and all manner of spooky stories. These three terrifying tales feature haunted buses, monstrous creatures, and spine-chilling mysteries guaranteed to have you reaching for the light switch! In "The Tale of the Witch's Wings," a young boy with a habit of bullying meets his match when an ancient witch sets her eyes on him. In "The Tale of the Haunting of Bus #13," a young girl finds herself potentially trapped on a bus haunted by more than just ghosts! And in "The Tale of the Stray Comet," two siblings bring home a stray dog that is much more monstrous than they could ever imagine! Are you afraid of the dark? You will be..."

When Kay reluctantly agreed to join the youth group at Stone Mission Church in Orange County California, she expected the Jesus talk and the dorky singalongs and the colorful posters about dodging temptation. What she didn't expect was to stumble on her youth group leaders, Meg and Cortland, in the middle of a read-deal exorcism. Turns out they're both soldiers in a secret organization of demon hunters in a war that's heating up, and even if Kay wanted to stay on the sidelines, she doesn't have a choice - she's a "Blight," a human who demons can't possess, and apparently that's made her a target. Will Kay find her place in a world that's so much more God-fearing and monster-fighting than what she's used to? Will the Stone Mission youth group find common cause with their badass peers of other faiths? Or will a pack of small-time demons use Blights like Kay as the key to starting some real big trouble?

A joyful coming-of-age middle-grade graphic novel by debut Indigenous creator Cameron Mukwa about the journey of a two-spirit kid who wants to create a ribbon skirt for the upcoming powwow.

When Carlos was nineteen, his mother decided to leave her life in El Salvador. Refusing to let her go without him, Carlos joined the journey north. Together they experienced the risks countless people faces as they migrate.

In this moving graphic novel, thirteen-year-old Reanna grieves the loss of her older sister. Can she find comfort through her family's Ojibwe traditions?

In the summer of 1995, almost-fifteen-year-old Almudena is sent to live with her estranged Spanish-speaking father, and together they renovate a brownstone and build a relationship while Almudena navigates the Latin American side of her heritage for the first time.

Between homework, studying, and Chinese school, Měi Yīng's summer is shaping up to be a boring one. Her only bright spots are practice with her soccer team, the Divas, and the time spent with her năi nai, who is visiting from Taiwan. Although Měi Yīng's Mandarin isn't the best and Năi Nai doesn't speak English, they find other ways to connect, like cooking guōtiē together and doing tai chi in the mornings. By the end of the summer, Měi Yīng is sad to see Năi Nai go-she's the com­plete opposite of Měi Yīng serious professor mother-but excited to start fifth grade. Until new kid Sid starts making her the butt of racist jokes. Her best friend, Kirra, says to ignore him, but does everyone else's silence about the harassment mean they're also ignoring Sid . . . or her? As Sid's bullying fuels Měi Yīng's feelings of invisibility, she must learn to reclaim her identity and her voice.

When amateur teen detective Vivian Vance takes on a case in the Pillars, a downtrodden community beneath the highway, she stumbles on a dark secret about her town's history and finds herself face-to-face with the flesh-takers, monsters who snatch unruly kids off the street.

Ash has always felt alone. Adults ignore the climate crisis. Other kids Ash's age are more interested in pop stars and popularity contests than in fighting for change. Even Ash's family seems to be sleepwalking through life. The only person who ever seemed to get Ash was their Grandpa Edwin. Before he died, he used to talk about building a secret cabin, deep in the California wilderness. Did he ever build it? What if it's still there, waiting for him to come back...or for Ash to find it? To Ash, that maybe-mythical cabin is starting to feel like the perfect place for a fresh start and an escape from the miserable feeling of alienation that haunts their daily life. But making the wilds your home isn't easy. And as much as Ash wants to be alone...can they really be happy alone? Can they survive alone?

Indu, a boy from the moon, feels like he doesn't belong. He hasn't since he and his adoptive mom disembarked from their spaceship--their home--to live on Earth with their new blended family. The kids at school think he's weird; he has a crush on his pen pal, who might not like him back; and his stepfamily doesn't seem to know what to do with him. Worst of all, Indu can't even talk to his mom about how he's feeling because she's so busy. In a moment of loneliness, Indu calls out to the moon, begging them to take him back. And against all odds, the moon hears him and agrees to bring him home of the first day of the New Year. But as the promised day draws nearer, Indu finds friendship in unlikely places and discovers that home is more than where you come from. And when the moon calls again, Indu must decide: is he willing to give up what he's just found?

How did a bunch of young people from the inner city create a genre of music that became a global phenomenon? From its humble origins at house parties in the Bronx, where DJs mixed old records to create new sounds, charismatic MCs let their clever lyrics flow, and B-boys and B-girls pioneered inventive dance moves, hip-hop quickly became a musical and cultural revolution.

Horror, Mystery, and Thriller

We are all familiar with tropes of the horror genre: slasher and victims, demon and the possessed. Bloody screams, haunted visions, and the peddler of wares we aren't sure we can trust. In this young adult horror anthology, fans of Jordan Peele, Lovecraft Country, and Horror Noire will get a little bit of everything they love--and a lot of what they fear--through a twisted blend of horror lenses, from the thoughtful to the terrifying. From haunted, hungry Victorian mansions, temporal monster-infested asylums, and ravaging zombie apocalypses, to southern gothic hoodoo practitioners and cursed patriarchs in search of Black Excellence, All These Sunken Souls features the chilling creations of acclaimed bestsellers and hot new talents.

A collection of fifteen horror stories centering on Black girls who battle monsters--both human and supernatural--face down death, and survive.

A YA anthology of short stories ranging in genres from horror to romance, featuring classic and original monsters and creatures, and highlighting authors from the LGBTQIA+ community, including Claire Kann, Kalynn Bayron, Jonathan Lenore Kastin, and H.E. Edgmon.

The Deinhart Manor has been a looming shadow over town for as long as anyone can remember, and it's been abandoned for even longer. When the final Deinhart descendent passes, the huge gothic manor is up for sale for the first time ever. Which means Arden can steal the keys from her mom's real estate office . . . It's time for a graduation party that no one will ever forget.

Four teens on the Blackfeet Reservation find themselves the suspects of an investigation when a classmate is found murdered during the annual Indian Days celebrations.

No one has ever called Frani Gonzalez squeamish. Seriously, whether it's guts (no big deal), bugs (move aside, she's got this), or anything else that you might find at the Central Texas Forensic Anthropology Research Facility, to her and her dad, the university's body farm is just home. Having bodies buried in her backyard doesn't exactly make Frani the most popular kid in school, and the imaginary spider that lives in a web in her brain isn't helping either. Arañita's always to blame for the distracted thoughts weaving through Frani's mind. But when a hand reaches out of the ground and grabs her ankle, Frani realizes that she's got bigger problems. Not everything is as it seems at the body farm, and now Frani must help the teenage zombie that crawled out of the dirt...before he gets too hungry. But as more and more zombies begin to appear-and they seem to get less and less friendly-can Frani embrace the true nature of her brain and count on new friendships to solve the body farm's mystery before it's overrun with the undead?

Looking for a fresh start, sixteen-year-old Libby and her family return to her mother's childhood home only to discover that the house's strange beauty may disguise a sinister past.

When small-town athlete Avery's morning run leads her to a strange pond in the middle of the forest, she awakens a horror the townspeople of Crook's Falls have long forgotten. The black water has been waiting. Watching. Hungry for the souls it needs to survive. Avery can smell the water, see it flooding everywhere; she thinks she's losing her mind. And as the black water haunts Avery--taking a new form each time--people in town begin to go missing. Though Avery had heard whispers of monsters from her Kanien'kéha: ka (Mohawk) relatives, she has never really connected to her Indigenous culture or understood the stories. But the Elders she has distanced herself from now may have the answers she needs.

Expecting paradise on a remote island vacation, seventeen-year-old Femi and fellow guests are instead met with terror when the animals on the island turn feral.

Alguien está haciendo desaparecer los espíritus en la ciudad más embrujada de Europa, York. Cuando Charlie Frith, un vidente de 16 años, se da cuenta de que uno de sus amigos fantasmales ha desaparecido, debe dejar de lado su propia seguridad y su existencia solitaria si desea encontrarlos. Charlie se une a regañadientes a Sam Harrow, el nuevo vidente de la ciudad, y a un grupo heterogéneo de fantasmas, para salvar a sus amigos de un destino literalmente peor que la muerte. Pero hay un propósito oscuro detrás de estas desapariciones, y más siniestro de lo que Charlie podría haber imaginado. A medida que acepta lentamente sus sentimientos románticos hacia Sam, la búsqueda se convierte en un camino contrarreloj en el que todo estará en juego.

A rescued cat named Wishbone grants siblings Ollie and Mia's every wish, but their desires, which have a steep price, are threatened by a shadow man called The Mage who covets Wishbone's power.

Adventure, Fantasy, and Romance

When Zélie is captured and taken away from her homeland, she must face her captor, King Baldyr, and find allies to stop the impending catastrophe threatening her people at the hands of the Skulls.

As her sister's wedding approaches, high school senior Arya must navigate fraught family dynamics, the fallout of her two best friends breaking up, and a tense partnership with her rival, the frustratingly attractive student council president.

Alex and his friends continue their quest to prevent the apocalypse, but with everyone looking to him for answers, Alex is not sure he is cut out to be a superhero.

Book smart teen Lola's summer plans are derailed when she is sent to live with her grandmother in Mexico City and learns a family secret that changes her life forever.

In this reimagining of the classic novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Zane is itching for an adventure that will take him away from his family's boarding house in Rockaway, Queens. So when he is entrusted with a real treasure map, leading to a spot somewhere in Manhattan, Zane wastes no time in riding the ferry over to the city to start the search with his friends Kiko and Jack and his dog Hip-Hop. Through strange coincidence, they meet a man who is eager to help them find the treasure: John, a sailor who knows all about the buried history of Black New Yorkers of centuries past--and the gold that is hidden somewhere in those stories. As a vicious rival skateboard crew follows them around the city, Zane and his friends begin to wonder who they can really trust.

Tan Lee finds himself embroiled in an unusual love triangle, all while trying to defuse a heist, unravel a conspiracy, and navigate the most complicated babysitting assignment ever.

Realistic Fiction

Yoyo Gold has always played the role of the perfect Jewish daughter. She keeps kosher, looks after her siblings, and volunteers at the local food bank. She respects the decisions of her rabbi father and encourages her friends to observe the rules of their Orthodox faith. But when she sees her best friend cast out of the community over a seemingly innocent transgression, Yoyo's eyes are opened to the truth of her neighbors' hypocrisies for the first time. And what she sees leaves her shocked and unmoored.

Eighteen-year-old River Lang struggles after the death of his best friend and reluctantly joins a research study for struggling teens where he confronts his complex relationship with Dylan's ex, develops feelings for a charismatic jock, and uncovers unsettling truths about the study.

It's the summer before fifth grade, and for Ferris Wilkey, it is a summer of sheer pandemonium: Her little sister, Pinky, has vowed to become an outlaw. Uncle Ted has left Aunt Shirley and, to Ferris's mother's chagrin, is holed up in the Wilkey basement to paint a history of the world. And Charisse, Ferris's grandmother, has started seeing a ghost at the threshold of her room, which seems like an alarming omen given that she is also feeling unwell. But the ghost is not there to usher Charisse to the Great Beyond. Rather, she has other plans--wild, impractical, illuminating plans. How can Ferris satisfy a specter with Pinky terrorizing the town, Uncle Ted sending Ferris to spy on her aunt, and her father battling an invasion of raccoons? As Charisse likes to say, "Every good story is a love story," and Kate DiCamillo has written one for the ages: emotionally resonant and healing, showing the two-time Newbery Medalist at her most playful, universal, and profound.

When twelve-year-old Summer visits her family on a reservation in Alberta, Canada, she begins experiencing vivid dreams of running away from a residential school like the one her grandfather attended as a child and learns about unmarked children's graves, prompting her to seek answers about her community's painful past.

Told in alternating voices, determined to make a difference and heal from their troubled pasts, teens Ana and Leandro fight to protect California wildlife and the endangered puma.

Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how she understands the world and her place in it. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5.5 trillion, and that the odds of her having the best family ever were even lower. Yet somehow, Kemi lucked out. But everything Kemi thought she knew changes when she sees an asteroid hover in the sky, casting a purple haze over her world. AMPLUS-68 has an 84.7% chance of colliding with Earth in four days, and with that collision, Kemi's life as she knows it will end.

When troubled twelve-year-old Alex is assigned to spend his summer volunteering at a senior living facility, he forms a unique bond with a Holocaust survivor and learns lessons that change the trajectory of his life.

Twelve-year-old nonbinary B forms a connection with an anxious stray dog, Gooseberry, prompting them to pursue their dream of becoming a dog trainer while navigating the complexities of trust and building a family in their newest foster home.

Cruzita must save her family's failing panaderia by winning a mariachi band contest--the only problem is she hates mariachi and cannot speak Spanish.

An evocative, historical debut novel in verse about a boy and his family who are forced to flee their home and become refugees after the British Partition of India.

Twins Storm and Lake are separated into different foster homes and struggle to find love, hope, and each other.

As Jane's mother tours the world to support the family, Jane lives and goes to school in a Victorian mansion with her younger brother and their mendacious father who confines Jane's mother to a system of pneumatic tubes whenever she's at home. And then there's weirdly ever-present Aunt Finch, Milorad the gardener, and his rat Brutus. For Jane, this all seems normal until she suddenly gains access to the files for a lifetime of security-camera videos--her lifetime. A.S. King's ... surrealist [book] follows Jane's bizarre and brilliant journey to reconnect with her mother by breaking out of her shell and composing a punk opera.

Quagmire Tiarello prides himself on not needing anything from anybody. Sure, his mom is skipping work again and showing signs of going into one of her full-out spins, but it's nothing he can't handle. He's used to her up-and-down moods, even if this time it feels a little different. Then his mom disappears, and Quag must find shelter with an uncle he didn't know he had. Should he come clean about his mother's mental health challenges? Or can he use his carefully honed skills to bluff long enough to find his mom and get home? Readers will root for Quag as he finds himself rethinking his world and learning to accept help from the people who love him.

This first book in a sparkling middle grade series giving a fresh take on The Baby-Sitters Club follows a young Korean American girl who starts a business with her best friends to support her artistic dreams.

In the future, a Black girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined--to be used as a biological match for the president's son, should he fall ill. She is known as a Blue, for the color of sadness. She lives in a small room with her dog, who is going wolf--he's pacing and imagining he's free. Inmate Eleven wants to go wolf too. She wants to know what is beyond her room. In the present, Imogen lives outside Charlottesville, Virginia. The pandemic has distanced her from everyone but her mother and her therapist. Imogen has intense phobias and nightmares of confinement. Her two older brothers once supported her, but now she's on her own, until she meets a college student who helps her see the difference between being Blue and sad, and being Black and empowered.

When ten-year-old Ayla struggles with the disapperance of her best friend Kiri, her friends and family help her gradually accept the truth of what happened.

The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head. Years ago, the Fall kids' father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces. Now Dizzy Fall, age twelve, bakes cakes, sees spirits, and wishes she were a heroine of a romance novel. Miles Fall, seventeen, brainiac, athlete, and dog-whisperer, is a raving beauty, but also lost, and desperate to meet the kind of guy he dreams of. And Wynton Fall, nineteen, who raises the temperature of a room just by entering it, is a virtuoso violinist set on a crash course for fame--or self-destruction. Then an enigmatic rainbow-haired girl shows up, tipping the Falls' world over. She might be an angel. Or a saint. Or an ordinary girl.

In a series of moments spanning two years, seventeen-year-old Neon navigates the progression of his relationship with Aria, culminating in a case of the jitters as the two intend to take the next big step in their relationship.

Set in the 1930s to today, [this novel follows] four generations of Filipino American boys [who] grapple with identity, masculinity, and father-son relationships.

Thirteen-year-old Elio is struggling with "coming of age"--first love, first heartbreak, first real fight (which lands him in the hospital), and what it means to be a "man," a true friend, and an ally, as well as how to overcome a culture of toxic masculinity. Told in verse format.

A novel in verse about the joys and struggles of a Chicana girl who is a warrior for her name, her history, and her right to choose what she celebrates in life.

Eric, a lonely nineteen-year-old grappling with the loss of his best friend, retreats into his imagination and finds solace in a memory of a day spent with a boy named Haru, but Eric's imagination and reality blur together when he walks into a coffee shop and sees Haru.

Dolores Mendoza is not thriving. She was recently diagnosed with a chronic bladder condition called interstitial cystitis. The painful disease isn't life threatening, but it is threatening to ruin her life. Just when things seem hopeless, Dolores meets someone poised to change her fate. Terpsichore Berkenbosch-Jones is glamorous, autistic, and homeschooled against her will by her overprotective mother. After a rocky start, the girls form a tentative partnership. Beautiful, talented Terpsichore will help Dolores win back her ex-best friend, Shae. And Dolores will convince Terpsichore's mom that her daughter has the social skills to survive public school. It seems like a foolproof plan, but Dolores isn't always a reliable narrator, and her choices may put her in danger of committing an unforgivable betrayal.

The summer before seventh grade, as the constant threat of housefires looms over her Brooklyn neighborhood, basketball-loving Sage is trying to figure out her place in her circle of friends, when a new kid named Freddy moves in.

Follows Hmong American Malcom as he embarks on a journey to become a shaman like his grandparents before him.

Ten-year-old Lina wants to create a viral video to help her mom's business, but as she navigates the world of likes and views with her two best friends, Lina must find the courage to stay true to her authentic self.

When twelve-year-old chess player May Li wins an award for being the top female player at the state championship, the boys on her team question her skills, so May makes a bet with a teammate that she can earn the board-one spot at nationals and become team captain.

Historical Fiction

Twelve-year-old Charley Cuffey is many things: a granddaughter, a best friend, and probably the best pitcher in all of Lee's Mill. Set on becoming the first female pitcher to play professional ball, Charley doesn't need reminders from her best friend Cool Willie Green to know that she has lofty dreams for a Black girl in the American South. Even so, Nana Kofi's thrilling stories about courageous ancestors and epic journeys make it impossible not to dream big. She knows he has so many more to tell, but according to her parents, she isn't old enough to know about certain things like what happened to Booker Preston that one night in Great Bridge and why she can never play on the brand-new real deal baseball field on the other side of town.

Spanning over five hundred years, a novel telling the stories of four girls from different generations of a Jewish family, many of them forced to leave their country and start a new life.

In 1960, twelve-year-old Victoria's family leaves Cuba and seeks refuge in Miami, and when Victoria's best friend and cousin Jackie makes the trip alone, the reunited girls attempt to bring the rest of their family to safety.

Petra Luna is in America, having escaped the Mexican Revolution and the terror of the Federales. Now that they are safe, Petra and her family can begin again, in this country that promises so much. Still, twelve-year-old Petra knows that her abuelita, little sister, and baby brother depend on her to survive. She leads her family from a smallpox-stricken refugee camp on the Texas border to the buzzing city of San Antonio, where they work hard to build a new life. And for the first time ever, Petra has a chance to learn to read and write. Yet Petra also sees in America attitudes she thought she'd left behind on the other side of the Rio Grande--people who look down on her mestizo skin and bare feet, who think someone like her doesn't deserve more from life. Petra wants more. Isn't that what the revolution is about? Her strength and courage will be tested like never before as she fights for herself, her family, and her dreams.

At the turn of the new year in 1948, Amil and his family are trying to make a home in India, now independent of British rule. Both Muslim and Hindu, twelve-year-old Amil is not sure what home means anymore. The memory of the long and difficult journey from their hometown in what is now Pakistan lives with him. And despite having an apartment in Bombay to live in and a school to attend, life in India feels uncertain. Nisha, his twin sister, suggests that Amil begin to tell his story through drawings meant for their mother, who died when they were just babies. Through Amil, readers witness the unwavering spirit of a young boy trying to make sense of a chaotic world, and find hope for himself and a newly reborn nation.

Lucy, a spirited French-Ojibwe orphan, is sent to the stormy waters of Lake Superior to live with a mysterious family of lighthouse-keepers-and, she hopes, to find the legendary necklace her father spent his life seeking.

In in 1930s Los Angeles Chinatown, the Chow sisters, May, Gemma, and Peony, suspect foul play in the death of Chinatown star Lulu Wong and take it upon themselves to solve the murder, revealing a conspiracy that threatens their Chinatown neighborhood.

During a blackout in a war-torn Angola, two teenagers explore their deepest emotions as they share personal stories and dreams in the intimacy of the darkness.

This middle grade historical adventure follows two siblings at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers, as they try to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother's disappearance.

Nonfiction and Poetry

From changing a tire, to merging onto a highway, to checking and filling your own oil, [this book] is the new go-to manual for new and seasoned drivers alike. With 160 pages of full-color illustrations throughout, drivers will have all the step-by-steps they need to navigate life on the road.

Albert Einstein. Steve Jobs. Elon Musk. Maya Lin. These geniuses are all visual thinkers. Are you? Do you like puzzles, coding, and taking things apart? Do you write stories, act in plays, slay at Wordle? The things you are good at are clues to how your brain works. Are you good at math? Working with your hands? Are you a neat freak or a big mess? With her knack for making science easy to understand, Temple Grandin explains different types of thinkers: verbal thinkers who are good with language, and visual thinkers who think in pictures and patterns. You will discover all kinds of minds and how we need to work together to create solutions to help solve real-world problems.

Suffering heavy damage in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017, Puerto Rican communities lacked access to clean water and electricity. Salvador Gómez-Colón couldn't ignore the basic needs of his homeland, and knew that nongovernmental organizations and larger foreign philanthropies could only do so much. With unstoppable energy and a deep knowledge of local culture, Salvador founded Light and Hope for Puerto Rico and raised more than $100,000 to purchase and distribute solar-powered lamps and hand-powered washing machines to households in need. With a voice that is both accessible and engaging, Salvador recalls living through the catastrophic storm and grappling with the destruction it left behind. 

A journey through the evolution of knowledge, communication, and information.

From New York Times-bestselling author of All Boys Aren’t Blue comes an illuminating set of profiles of Black and Queer icons from the Harlem Renaissance, interspersed with personal essays and spot illustrations by a Steptoe Award-winning illustrator.

Thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly sent to attend boarding schools specifically created by the government to teach them the ways of white society and punish them for observing their own cultures. Little Moon There Are No Stars Tonight was only four years old when she was removed from her home and sent to Chilocco -- and her grandson, the author, was working there as maintenance staff when it shut down nearly one hundred years later. These first-person accounts bring to light the lasting legacy of cultural erasure and abuse, and the strength and resiliency that made the effort ultimately unsuccessful.

From three-time Newbery Honoree Christina Soontornvat and award-winning historian Erika Lee comes a middle-grade nonfiction that shines a light on the generations of Asian Americans who've transformed the United States and who continue to shape what it means to be American today.

This title takes an in-depth look at voting rights in the US, particularly examining when certain groups of people won the right to vote. Special features expand on the text and highlight why voting is important.

Bust some of history's biggest myths and learn the truth about the Salem witch trials.

From controlled burns to protesting pipelines, Indigenous peoples have always stood for their rights and the rights of nature. Discover how Native Americans are reclaiming cultural lands and taking care of them.

The true story of America from the Mexican American perspective.

With a meld of history, fantasy, and memoir, Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games gives existing fans of tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) insight into the history of the medium--and provides a gateway for anyone new to the phenomenon.

Poet Renée Watson looks back at her childhood and urges readers to look forward at their futures with love, understanding, and celebration in this fully illustrated poetry collection.

Author Lee Wind takes readers across the globe to examine gender identity and representation throughout history. Learn how cultures both past and present debunk the idea of a gender binary.

In her New York Times bestseller White Rage, Carol Anderson laid bare an insidious history of policies that have systematically impeded black progress in America, from 1865 to our combustible present. With One Person, No Vote, she chronicles a related history: the rollbacks to African American participation in the vote since the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Known as the Shelby ruling, this decision effectively allowed districts with a demonstrated history of racial discrimination to change voting requirements without approval from the Department of Justice. Focusing on the aftermath of Shelby, Anderson follows the astonishing story of government-dictated racial discrimination unfolding before our very eyes as more and more states adopt voter suppression laws. In gripping, enlightening detail she explains how voter suppression works, from photo ID requirements to gerrymandering to poll closures. And with vivid characters, she explores the resistance: the organizing, activism, and court battles to restore the basic right to vote to all Americans as the nation gears up for the 2020 presidential election season.

Biographies

Maurice Stokes was 6'7" and could play offense and defense like no one else his size in the NBA in 1958. After experiencing a career-ending injury during a game, other players rallied to support Stokes.

A young adult memoir in verse that traces the author's journey from being a closeted gay Black teen battling poverty, racism, and homophobia to becoming an openly gay first-generation college student who finds freedom in poetry.

"...Your dad is coming back home." As far back as nine-year-old Jay Jay Patton can remember, her dad, Antoine has been in prison. Growing up in Buffalo, New York with her mom and younger brother, she's only been to visit him twice. Instead, the two have sent each other numerous letters -- Jay Jay's letters can take weeks or months to reach her dad, and some never even get delivered. What's it going to be like having Dad home? This powerful coming-of-age graphic novel memoir tells Jay Jay Patton's life of growing up with a dad in -- and out of -- prison. How she and her dad were able to develop a powerful father/daughter bond and create Photo Patch -- a life-changing application that connects children to incarcerated parents. Because no child should have to grow up unable to engage with their parents. As Jay Jay says: "It's not a privilege for a kid to be able to talk to their parent. It's a right.