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Recommendations based on American Streetby Ibi Zoboi
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead
An escaped slave's daring escape to freedom, fighting against the brutality of slavery.
The story is told in the third person, focusing mainly on Cora. Scattered single chapters also focus on Cora's mother Mabel, the slavecatcher Ridgeway, a reluctant slave sympathizer named Ethel, and ... (Wikipedia)
Children of Blood and Bone
by Tomi Adeyemi
In a world where magic has been suppressed, a young girl fights to bring it back and overthrow the oppressive monarchy.
The novel takes place in the fictional land of Orïsha, inhabited by two distinct people: divîners, who have the capability to become magical maji and are marked by white hair, and non-magical ... (Wikipedia)
Piecing Me Together
by Renée Watson
An African-American teen's journey to self-discovery and personal empowerment.
Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner, New York Times, bestseller, "Timely and timeless." —Jacqueline Woodson,"Important and deeply moving." —John Green Acclaimed author Renee ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Sun Is Also a Star
by Nicola Yoon
An unlikely romance between two teenagers of different backgrounds, testing the limits of fate.
Natasha lives in New York City with her parents Samuel and Patricia, and her brother Peter, all of whom are illegally in the country. Natasha and her family are set to be deported back to Jamaica. ... (Wikipedia)
Chains
by Laurie Halse Anderson
A young girl's mission to secure her and her sister's freedom from enslavement.
As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become ... (Goodreads)
An American Marriage
by Tayari Jones
A newlywed couple's lives are torn apart when the husband is wrongfully convicted of a crime. The novel explores love, loyalty, and injustice.
Roy, a sales representative for a textbook company, and Celestial, an artist specializing in custom made baby dolls, are newlyweds who live in Atlanta. After their first year of marriage they travel ... (Wikipedia)
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
by Erika L. Sánchez
After the death of her sister, Julia struggles to find her place in her Mexican-American family and uncover secrets about her sister's life.
Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is ... (Goodreads)
Love, Hate & Other Filters
by Samira Ahmed
A young Muslim girl navigates her dreams and desires while facing Islamophobia in America.
A searing #OwnVoices coming-of-age debut in which an Indian-American Muslim teen confronts Islamophobia and a reality she can neither explain nor escape—perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Jacqueline ... (Goodreads)
The Poet X
by Elizabeth Acevedo
A young girl in Harlem discovers her love for slam poetry as a way to express herself and navigate the challenges of her conservative Dominican family.
Xiomara Batista is a fifteen-year-old Dominican teenager living in Harlem, who loves to write poetry. Though she longs to share it with the world, her religious mother is only concerned with her ... (Wikipedia)
Behold the Dreamers
by Imbolo Mbue
A Cameroonian family’s struggle to build a better life in America.
The novel opens in fall 2007 with the interview of an immigrant from Cameroon, Jende Jonga, who is hoping to be hired as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a Lehman Brothers executive. Jonga's job allows ... (Wikipedia)
Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi
Spanning centuries, the intertwining stories of two African sisters, their descendants, and the legacy of slavery.
Effia is raised by her mother, Baaba, who is cruel to her. Nevertheless she works hard to please her mother. Known as a beauty, Effia is intended to be married to the future chief of her village, but ... (Wikipedia)
The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog
by Adam Gidwitz
A medieval adventure across France, featuring three miracle-working children and their loyal dog.
The novel is told by multiple narrators, all travelers at the Holy Cross-Roads Inn near Paris, set in early March 1242. Marie, a brewer from the town of Saint-Geneviève, starts the story of Jeanne ... (Wikipedia)
The Fifth Season
by N.K. Jemisin
A world where seismic and magical disasters ravage the land, and a woman's journey to save humanity.
In a prologue, an extraordinarily powerful orogene discusses the sad state of the world and laments the oppression of his race. He then uses his enormous power to fracture the entire continent along ... (Wikipedia)
The Upside of Unrequited
by Becky Albertalli
A teenage girl learns to embrace her identity, finding strength in her vulnerability.
Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love—she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many ... (Goodreads)
Another Brooklyn
by Jacqueline Woodson
A poetic story of four teenage girls growing up in Brooklyn in the 1970s.
The story starts with August, an adult anthropologist, returning to New York to bury her father. On the subway, she encounters an old friend, and begins to reminisce. She remembers being an 8 year ... (Wikipedia)
The Bear and the Nightingale
by Katherine Arden
A folktale of a brave girl who defies the dark forces threatening her village.
At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a ... (Goodreads)
Trail of Lightning
by Rebecca Roanhorse
In a post-apocalyptic world, a monster hunter with supernatural powers must track down a killer while confronting her own past.
In the 21st century, a worldwide flood caused by multiple earthquakes along the New Madrid fault line destroys most of the United States as magic returns to the world. Dinétah becomes an independent ... (Wikipedia)
Boxers
by Gene Luen Yang
A young Chinese boy's quest to save his village from foreign invaders during the Boxer Rebellion.
China, 1898. Bands of foreign missionaries and soldiers roam the countryside, bullying and robbing Chinese peasants. Little Bao has had enough. Harnessing the powers of ancient Chinese gods, he ... (Goodreads)
The Obelisk Gate
by N.K. Jemisin
A magical journey of survival, facing cosmic forces that threaten the universe.
The story is told primarily from the perspectives of Essun, a powerful orogene driven out of her home at the beginning of the first book, and Nassun, her adolescent daughter. Schaffa, Essun's former ... (Wikipedia)
The Wedding Date
by Jasmine Guillory
A chance meeting leads to a fake wedding date, but sparks fly and they must navigate a long-distance relationship.
A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in this fun and flirty multicultural romance debut by, New York Times, bestselling author Jasmine ... (Barnes & Noble)
An Untamed State
by Roxane Gay
A woman's fight against her captors, as she struggles to survive the horrors of captivity.
Mireille Duval Jameson is born and raised in the United States, her parents are from Haitian descent. Her parents move back to Haiti. While vacationing at her parents' house with her husband and ... (Wikipedia)
American Born Chinese
by Gene Luen Yang
Three seemingly unrelated stories converge to explore themes of identity, assimilation, and acceptance in the American-born Chinese experience.
All Jin Wang wants is to fit in. When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he suddenly finds that he's the only Chinese American student at his school. Jocks and bullies pick on him constantly, ... (Goodreads)
Stay with Me
by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
A sweeping tale of love, betrayal, and the power of family, set in Nigeria.
This celebrated, unforgettable first novel, shortlisted for the prestigious Women's Prize for Fiction and set in Nigeria, gives voice to both husband and wife as they tell the story of their ... (Goodreads)
Dear Martin
by Nic Stone
An African American student's reflections on racial injustice, sparked by the shooting of an unarmed black teen.
Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry giants Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers as she boldly tackles American race relations in this stunning debut. Justyce McAllister is ... (Goodreads)
The Diviners
by Libba Bray
In 1920s New York City, a group of young people with supernatural abilities must come together to stop a dark force from unleashing chaos on the city.
SOMETHING DARK AND EVIL HAS AWAKENED… Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, ... (Goodreads)
Island Beneath the Sea
by Isabel Allende
Epic story of a young slave's journey of resilience, emancipation and freedom.
The story opens on the island of Saint-Domingue (current day La Hispaniola ) in the late 18th century. Zarité (known as Tété) is the daughter of an African mother she never knew and one of the white ... (Wikipedia)
The Namesake
by Jhumpa Lahiri
A young Indian-American's journey of reconciling two different cultures and his own identity.
The story begins as Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, a young Bengali couple, leave Calcutta , India, and settle in Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts . Ashoke is an engineering student at the ... (Wikipedia)
Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds
A young boy's journey of grief and redemption, as he seeks retribution for his brother's death.
William Holloman is ready to exact vengeance on the person who murdered his older brother, Shawn. As Will rides the elevator down from his 8th-floor apartment at each floor a new person, who is dead, ... (Wikipedia)
A Conjuring of Light
by V.E. Schwab
The final battle between magic and darkness, as four Londons collide and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Witness the fate of beloved heroes and notorious foes in the heart-stopping conclusion to V.E. Schwab’s, New York Times, bestselling Shades of Magic trilogy. ,*Kirkus' Best Fiction of 2017*, This ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Girl in the Tower
by Katherine Arden
A young woman's journey of self-discovery, braving the unknown to reclaim her destiny.
The Bear and the Nightingale , Katherine Arden’s enchanting first novel, introduced readers to an irresistible heroine. Vasilisa has grown up at the edge of a Russian wilderness, where snowdrifts ... (Goodreads)
