As many lot of us prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving next week, the sentiment behind the celebration remains a treasured and important one, but I think it’s important to research and learn about the real story behind the frequently told tale of the first Thanksgiving and acknowledge the wrong that was done to all the Native tribes through the colonization and since then.
Today I’m sharing some of the books by Native authors and native stories that we have read (or are currently reading) and have enjoyed in the last couple of years as we diversify our reading and learn more about the beautiful culture and communities.
Picture Books:
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and Illustrated by Michaela Goede
Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard and Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal
Remember by Joy Harjo and Illustrated by Michaela Goede
Be a good ancestor by Leona and Gabrielle Prince and Illustrated by Carla Joseph
Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior by Carole Lindstrom and Illustrated by Bridget George
Being Home by Traci Sorell and Illustrated by Michaela Goede
What’s in a bead? by Kelsey Borgford and Illustrated by Tessa Pizzale -It’s Powwow Time! By Martha Troian and Illustrated by Hawlii Pichette -Bud finds her gift by Robin Wall Kimmerer and Illustrated by Naoko Stoop
Middle Grade:
The Second chance of Benjamin Waterfalls by James Bird
Ancestor Approved edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith
We still belong by Christine Day
Red Bird danced by Dawn Quigley
Two Tribes by Emily Bowen Cohen
On a wing and a tear by Cynthia Leitich Smith
YA:
Fire Keeper’s Daughter; Warrior girl unearthed; and Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley @angelineboulley
Horror Anthology:
Never whistle at night, Edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Romance:
The truth according to Ember; & Love is a war song by Danica Nava @danica_nava
Non-fiction:
An Indegenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz -The Paranormal Ranger by Stanley Milford Jr.
Did you pick any books for Native American Heritage Month? Have you read any books you can recommend?
This week I’m sharing the second list of book recs. Middle grade books can be surprisingly profound in the topics they deal with, and at the same time, have an uplifting message.
With my kids, we’ve picked some of our favorites. For this one I added some info about book genre and also adding little flags from the authors heritage if known 😊
Featured books:
Standalones:
– 🇨🇺 Graciela in the abyss by Meg Medina
– 🇵🇷 Iveliz explains it all/ Iveliz lo explica todo; Something like home / Casino, casino un hogar & It’s all or nothing Vale / Todo o nada, Valentina by Andrea Beatriz Arango
– 🇧🇷🇵🇷Lola Reyes is so not worried by Cindy L. Rodriguez
– 🇲🇽 The last cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
– 🇲🇽 The Pecan sheller by Lupe Ruiz-Flores
– 🇲🇽 Mañanaland by Pam Muñoz Ryan
– 🇩🇴 The extraordinary orbit of Alex Ramirez by Jasminne Paulino
– 🇩🇴 Ghost squad by Claribel Ortega
Series:
– 🇨🇺 Sal & Gabi by Carlos Hernandez
– 🇲🇽 The Storm runner by JC Cervantes
– 🇩🇴 Witchlings series by Claribel Ortega
Graphic Novels:
– 🇩🇴 ¡Manu! By Kelly Fernandez
– 🇩🇴 Frizzy / Rizos by Claribel Ortega and illustrated by Rose Bousamra
– 🇩🇴 Doodles from the Boggiedown by Stephanie Rodriguez
– 🇨🇺🇨🇴 Home & Speak up, Santiago! by Julio Anta
– 🇨🇺 How to say goodbye in Cuban by Alexis Castellanos
This is my 5th year participating as a reviewer for Multicultural Children’s book day. This year I was assigned 2 books, and today I’m excited to share my review for the second of them.
Estado de la Unión / State of the Union by Kitty Felde is a MG contemporary fiction novel. It’s the second in the Fina Mendoza mystery series that features Josefina (Financial) a 10 yo daughter of Mexican-American congressman, as she discovers living in Washington DC and hanging around in the Capitol.
In this book, she pairs with Senator Something, the dog she walks after school to help solve the mystery of the bird that pooped on the Presidents head during thr State of the Union address.
The setting is interesting and definitely educational for kids to learn about the different branches of government, special events like the State of the Union address, democratic participation in this case and peaceful protest for immigration, etc.
The mystery itself is simple, and Fina goes about it asking questions and investigating by reasearching online, and asking people like bird experts from the zoo. It also has complex family dinamics, specially between their grandmother who loves from California to help them at home and Fina’s older sister Gaby; and also their father.
Overall the book was entertaining and a great tool for introducing civics education to kids. There are also free educational guides available for teacher to download and use in their classrooms.
Thank you to Chesapeake press and Read Your World for this gifted copy. All opinions are my own.
Read Your World 2025 (1/30/25) is in its 13th year! Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen founded this non-profit children’s literacy initiative; they are two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural diverse books and authors on the market while also working to get those books into the hands of young readers and educators.
Read Your World’s mission is to raise awareness of the need to include kids’ books celebrating diversity in homes and school bookshelves. Read about our Mission and history HERE.
Read Your World is honored to be Supported by these Medallion:
Join us on Thursday, January 30, 2025, at 9 pm EST celebrating 13 years of Read Your World Day Virtual Party! Register here.
This epically fun and fast-paced hour includes multicultural book discussions, addressing timely issues, diverse book recommendations, & reading ideas.
We will be giving away a 10-Book Bundle during the virtual party plus Bonus Prizes as well! *** US and Global participants are welcome. **
Follow the hashtag #ReadYourWorld to join the conversation, and connect with like-minded parts, authors, publishers, educators, organizations, and librarians. We look forward to seeing you all on January 30, 2025, at our virtual party!
This is my 5th year participating as a reviewer for Multicultural Children’s book day. This year I was assigned 2 books, and today I’m excited to share my review for the first of them.
The Pecan Sheller by Lupe Ruiz-Flores is a MG historical fiction novel set in the late 1930s in Texas. Following the Great Depression, the Pecan industry that had terrible work conditions and relied mostly on immigrant and child labor, significantly cut wages to its workers.
Petra, a thirteen-year-old girl has to leave school and get a job shelling pecans with her stepmom after her father’s death in order to help take care of her younger siblings.
The setting of this story is important, it seems ludicrous that a young child would be taken out of school to work in such horrible conditions. Yet, before workers rights, this was commonplace. And it’s the movement for workers rights that takes center stage, and Petra’s role within it, her journey and growth bring out the brave young woman she is, fighting not only for herself and her family, but for her work friends.
This book delt with some very difficult topics and I appreciated how well it tackled them. It was set in a period I was unfamiliar with. I really enjoyed the fact that I learned new things, and I think it’s a great tool for young readers to become familiar with a time when things where so different. I would have loved for her writing to be a bigger part of the story. As a little side note, I liked that the author wrote this novel to honor her mother and grandmother whi were Pecan shellers.
This novel comes out April 1. Thanks to Lerner Books and Read Your World for this gifted ARC. All opinions are my own.
Read Your World 2025 (1/30/25) is in its 13th year! Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen founded this non-profit children’s literacy initiative; they are two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural diverse books and authors on the market while also working to get those books into the hands of young readers and educators.
Read Your World’s mission is to raise awareness of the need to include kids’ books celebrating diversity in homes and school bookshelves. Read about our Mission and history HERE.
Read Your World is honored to be Supported by these Medallion:
Join us on Thursday, January 30, 2025, at 9 pm EST celebrating 13 years of Read Your World Day Virtual Party! Register here.
This epically fun and fast-paced hour includes multicultural book discussions, addressing timely issues, diverse book recommendations, & reading ideas.
We will be giving away a 10-Book Bundle during the virtual party plus Bonus Prizes as well! *** US and Global participants are welcome. **
Follow the hashtag #ReadYourWorld to join the conversation, and connect with like-minded parts, authors, publishers, educators, organizations, and librarians. We look forward to seeing you all on January 30, 2025, at our virtual party!
Today’s list of book gift ideas for middle grade readers (8-12 yo) and YA comes with the assistance of my lovely 14 yo daughter. Since she started venturing into some YA territory and we narrowed our favorites to share today.
So in no particular order:
Middle grade:
The Selkies Daughter by Linda Crotta Brennan
Something like home by Andrea Beatriz Arango
Kicked out by AM Dassu
Release the Wolves by Stephan Bachmann
Lily Xiao Speaks out by Nicole Chen
The one and only family by Katherine Applegate
The Wild robot by Peter Brown
Land of Broken promises by Jane Kuo
Lola Reyes is so not worried by Cindy L. Rodriguez
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
– Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Young Adult:
Divine Rivals & Ruthless vows by Rebecca Ross
A drop of Venom by Sajni Patel
Twin Flames by Olivia Abtahi
A tall dark trouble by Vanessa Montalban
– The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams
Nonfiction:
Lifeskills book for teens by Maureen Stiles
Do you ever read middle grade or young adult books?
This is my 4th year participating as a reviewer for Multicultural Children’s book day. This year I got to read the middle grade novel Kicked out by A.M. Dassu.
After a delay, I finally got my book and I’m happy to finally share my review. Let me tell you, this book was worth the wait. What a great story full of great messaging.
Poster Artist: Rebecca Burgess
This year I got to read the middle grade novel Dream, Annie, Dream, by Waka T. brown and published by Quill Tree Books. After a delay, I finally got my book copy last week and quickly dived in. Let me tell you, this book was worth the wait. What a great story full of great messaging.
Ali, Sami and Mark are best buds, they share a love of football ⚽️ (soccer for my US followers), videogames and having fun in Marks new pool. Their friend Aadam, is Sami’s unofficial adoptive brother, they came together to the UK seeking asylum from Syria. But Aadam is at risk of being deported, because he arrived as an unaccompanied minor, losing his documentation along the way, and he has been accused of being an adult, despite only being 16.
Ali and his friends decide to help him raise funds to pay his attorney and new asylum application. But there are obstacles for them to overcome. They find biases against immigrans and asylum seekers even in Marks home. As Ali struggles with his feelings when his father, who abandoned him and his siblings, moved back in town with his new family in tow.
But they also find helping hands, those who are willing to help them organize s charity even to raise funds for Aadam.
I appreciated how well it tackled these subjects, and the boys found resolution to these problems. There is friendship, there is a lot of growing and learning, and working hard to help those in need.
I also liked the Authors note at the end, don’t skip it as it gives great insight to the authors goal to raise awareness for the refugee crisis all over the world. I would highly recommend to everyone regardless of age.
Aadam likes to cook and he briefly mentions he wants to make Tabbouleh, I couldn’t help craving a this delicious dish, so I made some myself.
Book Summary:
In this companion novel to the acclaimed Boy, Everywhere , A.M. Dassu returns to extend the story of Sami’s best friend Ali, who organizes a charity soccer match for their friend Aadam while his whole life is privately unraveling.
After their friend Mark’s mum wins the lottery and gets a giant house with an indoor pool, Ali and Sami have been having the time of their lives hanging at Mark’s house. Even their friend Aadam gets a job there, which means he can make more money for his legal battle for UK residency. But when some money goes missing, Aadam is accused of stealing it–and all three boys are unceremoniously kicked out of Mark’s house in suspicion.
On top of that, Ali’s dad, who abandoned the family when Ali was little, is suddenly turning up everywhere in town, and a half-brother Ali never knew has shown up at Ali’s school. Ali feels miserable and resentful about it, making it hard to be a good friend.
The boys know Aadam is innocent, and if he doesn’t raise thousands of pounds right away, he could get deported back to Syria amidst its civil war. At least Ali has a they’ll host a charity football penalty match to raise money for Aadam so he can stay in the UK.
But can Ali pull together the match–even if he feels his whole life at home is falling apart?
Check out the Multicultural Children’s book day site for tons of other book reviews, resources and information about all the sponsors for this great event. https://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com
Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2024 (1/25/24) is in its 11th year! Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen founded this non-profit children’s literacy initiative; they are two diverse book-loving moms who saw a need to shine the spotlight on all of the multicultural diverse books and authors on the market while also working to get those books into the hands of young readers and educators.
Read Your World’s mission is to raise awareness of the need to include kids’ books celebrating diversity in homes and school bookshelves. Read about our Mission and history HERE.
Read Your World celebrates Multicultural Children’s Book Day and is honored to be Supported by these Medallion and Ruby Sponsors!
For my final Holiday gift guide of the year I bring you Graphic Novels. We enjoy GN immensely and love how the story merges with the art.
We’ve read from across genres and age groups and here are some of my favorites:
Reading age 5-8
The Investigators series by John Patrick Green
– The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell and collaborators
– Doodleville and Doodleville 2 by Chad Sell
Reading age 9 – 13
Frizzy/Rizos by Claribel Ortega, ilustrated by Rose Bousamra
⁃ Atana and the Firebird by Vivian Zhou
⁃ Isla to Island by Alexis Castellanos
⁃ The moth keeper by Kay O’Neill
⁃ Seance tea party by Reimena Yee
⁃ Global by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin ilustrated by Giovanni Rigano
⁃ Living with Viola by Rosena Fung
⁃ Shakti by SJ Sindu, ilustrated by Nabi H. Ali
⁃ Two tribes by Emily Bowen Cohen
– Pilu of the woods by Mai K. Nguyen
City of Dragons: The Awakening Storm by Jaimal Yogis, ilustrated by Vivian Truong
Reading age 14 and up
My heart in braille by Joris Chamblain, ilustrated by Anne-Lise Nalin
Home vol. 01 by Julio Anta
Adults
Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe
All of these range from funny and silly, to sweet, to tackling series subjects and dealing with life and growing up. Genres range from realistic fiction, to fantasy to everything in between. There is so much variety in graphic novels these days and I’m here for it.
Today’s list of book gift ideas for middle grade readers (8-13 yo) and not so middle grade comes to you courtesy of my lovely 13 yo daughter. She painstakingly narrowed her favorite books of the year to share with y’all.
Why the addition of not so middle grade? She’s now been venturing into some YA territory, and even into some of the classics. Depending on how next year goes, I’ll probably end up separating it into 2 lists, but for now, we decided to keep it in one list.
I’ve read 6 of these, some years ago, and was happy that we could discuss them, even if we haven’t been doing our #motherdaughterreviews regular this year.
I wanted to share some recs from authors from Boriken or of Puertorrican descent that we’ve enjoyed in the last few years. This island is very special to me, not only is my husband from here, and my kids are half boricua, and we get to call this beautiful island home. This place has so much good to offer, starting with its wonderful people who are diverse, lively, resilient, welcoming and caring. If you’ve never visited, I highly recommend you do, or at least, check out some books from puertorrican authors.
Picture Books:
Coquí in the city / De aquí como el coquí by Nomar Perez
The Coquíes still sing by Karina Nicole Gonzalez
Across the bay by Carlos Aponte
Mother of Sharks by Christina Melissa Marquez
Just Ask by Sonia Sotomayor
Middle Grade:
Iveliz explains it all by Andrea Beatriz Arango
Magical Realism:
The Storyteller’s death by Ann Davila Cardinal
Contemporary Fiction:
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xóchitl Gonzalez
Contemporary Rom-Com:
A Proposal they can’t refuse by Natalie Caña
One tought cookie by Delise Torres
Mythology and Horror short story Anthology: (4 stories from Puerto Rico)
Our Shadows have claws – various authors. Edited by Amparo Ortiz and Yamile Saied Mendez
Have you read any of these? Are any of them on your TBR?
PS – if you noticed the writing on the first picture, they are lyrics of different parranda songs. Parrandas are traditional songs that are sung and played during the holiday celebrations.
As many lot of us prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving next week, the sentiment behind the celebration remains a treasured and important one, but I think it’s important to research and learn about the real story behind the frequently told tale of the first Thanksgiving and acknowledge the wrong that was done to all the Native tribes through the colonization and since then.
Today I’m sharing some of the books by Native authors and native stories that we have read (or are currently reading) and have enjoyed in the last couple of years as we diversify our reading and learn more about the beautiful culture and communities.
Picture Books:
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom
Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard
Remember by Joy Harjo
Be a good ancestor by Leona and Gabrielle Prince
Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior by Carole Lindstrom
Middle Grade:
The Second chance of Benjamin Waterfalls by James Bird
Ancestor Approved edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith
We still belong by Christine Day
Two Tribes by Emily Bowen Cohen
YA:
Fire Keeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Warrior girl unearthed by Angeline Boulley
Dark Fantasy Anthology:
Never whistle at night, Edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Non-fiction:
An Indegenous People’s History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Many of these I’ve reviewed before, a few I have upcoming reviews on so stay tunned ☺️
Did you pick any books for Native American Heritage Month? Have you read any books before you can recommend?
For the love of Libros 