Reading: Culture Clash

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Young Adult Fiction. 229 pages. Available as ebook

Two teen males—one black, one white—grapple with the aftermath of a police officer who has brutally beaten the black teen. A powerful story about what it means to you a young man in America across the lines of race. Young Adult Fiction. 316 pages.

Logan Witherspoon is attracted to a new student at his small-town high school, Sage, who is tall, unconventionally pretty, and a much-needed friend. One day, Logan kisses her, and then Sage discloses a secret: biologically, she's a boy. Young Adult Fiction. 360 pages. Available as ebook

After her mother is detained by immigration officials, Fabiola Toussaint has to finish her move from Haiti alone, navigating her loud American cousins, the grittiness of Detroit's west side, a new school, and a surprising romance. Young adult fiction. 324 pages.

A father's letter to his son about the experience of being a Black man in America. Widely recognized as one of the best books of 2015. Nonfiction. 152 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

The novel explores the experiences of characters who have immigrated to the United States from a number of Latin American nations through differing first-person perspectives. Fiction. 285 pages. Available as ebook

An outrageously funny debut, Crazy Rich Asians is the story of three superrich, pedigreed Chinese families and the gossip, backbiting and scheming that occur when Nicholas Young, heir to one of the most massive fortunes in Asia, brings home his ABC (American-born Chinese) girlfriend to the wedding of the season. Fiction. 517 pages.

School outsider Jesse, a lesbian, is having secret trysts with Emily, the popular student council vice president,who also has a boyfriend. Their relationship becomes more complicated when they find themselves on the opposite side of a major issue. Young Adult Fiction. 256 pages.

A hilarious and tragic portrait of an orphaned half Indian, half Irish, acne-ridden teen who travels back and forth through time in a violent search for his true identity. "Raw and vital, often racously funny ... there isn't a false word in it." (NYT). Young Adult Fiction. 181 pages. Available as ebook

"These are the memories that inspired the television show. The author is the thirty-year-old proprietor of Baohaus, the hot East Village hangout where foodies, stoners, and students come to stuff their faces with delicious Taiwanese street food late into the night. But before he created the perfect home for himself in a small patch of downtown New York, he wandered the American wilderness looking for a place to call his own." Nonfiction. 276 pages. Available as ebook

In this extraordinary collection of short stories, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah explores urgent instances of racism and social unrest. Friday Black confronts readers with a complicated, insistent wrenching chorus of emotions, the final note of which, remarkably, is hope. Fiction. 194 pages.

In 1972, when she was seven, the author and her family moved from Iran to Southern California. Funny in Farsi is a humorous and unforgettable story of culture shock, discovery, and the power of family love. Nonfiction. 227 pages.

When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Fiction. 307 pages. Available as ebook

After a family tragedy orphans her, Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., moves into her grandmother's mostly black community in 1980s Portland, where she must swallow her grief and confront her identity as a biracial young woman. Fiction. 264 pages. Available as ebook

This runaway best seller tells the story of 16-year-old Starr Carter, who is drawn to activism after she witnesses the police shooting of her unarmed friend. Winner of the Coretta Scott King award. Young Adult Fiction. 444 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project. Fiction. 464 pages.

An account of the previously unheralded but pivotal contributions of NASA's African-American women mathematicians to America's space program describes how they were segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws in spite of their groundbreaking successes. Nonfiction. 346 pages.

Set in the ethnic neighborhoods of Seattle during World War II and Japanese American internment camps of the era, this debut novel tells the heartwarming story of widower Henry Lee, his father, and his first love Keiko Okabe. Fiction. 309 pages. Available as ebook

In the 1960s, political tension forces the García family away from Santo Domingo and towards the Bronx. The sisters all hit their strides in America, adapting and thriving despite cultural differences, language barriers, and prejudice. Fiction. 290 pages.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday October 9, 2012, she almost paid the ultimate price. Nonfiction. 327 pages. Available as ebook

When the sister who delighted their parents by her faithful embrace of Mexican culture dies in a tragic accident, Julia, who longs to go to college and move into a home of her own, discovers that her sister may not have been as perfect as believed. Described as a "perfect book about imperfection." Young adult fiction. 344 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

Tala, a London-based Palestinian, is preparing for her elaborate Middle Eastern wedding when she meets Leyla, a young British Indian. The attraction is immediate. As Tala’s wedding day approaches, the pressure mounts for Tala to be true to herself. Fiction. 204 pages.

Heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting, this stirring memoir chronicles one Asian-American immigrant's struggle to find himself--and to transcend the dangers of gang life in Los Angeles. Nonfiction. 249 pages.

Deborah Rodriguez went to Afghanistan in 2001 to help. Not a doctor or nurse, she used her skills as a hairdresser to help Afghan women, who have a long tradition of running their own beauty salons. That’s how the Kabul Beauty School was born. Nonfiction. 301 pages.

In the perfect and progressive suburb of Shaker Heights, two very different families will change each other's lives forever. When Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl rent a house from the wealthy Richardson family, they quickly become entwined in each other's lives with the Richardson children becoming especially close to the Warrens. When family friends of the Richardsons try to adopt a Chinese baby from a local woman a battle erupts that forces both families to reckon with culture, the powerful bond of motherhood, and long-hidden secrets. This book is a compelling and emotional character study of people who all feel they are doing the right thing, even though they often are hurting others by doing it. Fiction. 328 pages.

While Xiomara Batista’s parents are determined that she obey all of the laws of the Church, she pours her passions and frustration into a leather notebook. As her body is developing curves, her voice is developing through poetry. Written in verse, this book crackles with lyrical energy. Young adult fiction. 361 pages.

Two sisters leave Shanghai to find new lives in 1930s Los Angeles in this fresh, fascinating adventure. Fiction. 322 pages.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder returns with the extraordinary true story of Deo, a young man who arrives in America from Burundi after surviving a civil war and genocide in search of a new life. Nonfiction. 284 pages.

Beginning in 1903 with the arrival of sixteen-year-old Masuo Yasui in Oregon, the author chronicles the struggles and ultimate triumph of three generations of Japanese Americans. Nonfiction. 308 pages.

Two teens--Daniel, the son of Korean shopkeepers, and Natasha, whose family is here illegally from Jamaica--cross paths in New York City on an eventful day in their lives--Daniel is on his way to an interview with a Yale alum, Natasha is meeting with a lawyer to try and prevent her family's deportation to Jamaica--and fall in love. Young Adult Fiction. 344 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook

The explosion of racial hate in an Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape. Fiction. 323 pages. Available as ebook and audiobook