The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland

When she is forced to leave Vietnam, a young girl brings a lotus seed with her to America in remembrance of her homeland. - SBCL

A young Vietnamese girl carries a precious lotus seed as she flees her war-torn homeland for a strange new country. Years later, her grandson takes the seed from the family altar and plants it in the yard. The grandmother mourns her loss until a beautiful pink lotus appears in the yard. She then presents each grandchild with his or her own seed and keeps one for herself to remember her country of birth. - CDE

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The moving and beautiful autobiography of a talented black woman. ". . . I have no words for this achievement, but I know that not since the days of my childhood . . . have I found myself so moved . . . Her portrait is a Biblical study of life in the midst of death".--James Baldwin. - SBCL

The author tells of her painful childhood and adolescence, of her growth out of a childhood fantasy that she was an enchanted white girl, and of her self-acceptance. This book contains mature situations and adult language. Abusive human rights violations are portrayed. - CDE

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya

When a curandera comes to stay with a young boy, he tests the bonds that tie him to his culture and finds himself in the secrets of the past. - SBCL

Antonio Marez must face numerous conflicts as he grows up in New Mexico. He is helped by Ultima, a curandera who cures with herbs and magic. At each turn of Tony's life, she is there to nurture his soul. - CDE

I felt the same power in this book as I felt when I read Chinua Achebe. The power of a great writer to create a world of his heritage so that it becomes your world as well. Where everything makes sense to you and you live and breath the story. This is the story of a little boy, he is only six, who moves innocently in the worlds and conflicts of his Spanish and Mexican ancestors and cultures. It is the story of his New Mexican family, his mom and dad who come from totally opposing traditions. And it is the story of Ultima, the healer, the curandera. Ultima, the old and wise woman, has learned the ways of the ancients, the Native Americans, the Spanish and the Mexican. She is the midwife that delivered all the children of the family, and especially the last child, Antonio. Out of respect the family has given her a home in her old age.

Antonio is beginning the journey from being a boy to growing to manhood in the world. But he is also, through his dreams and experiences, starting another journey, one of self-discovery and gaining his place in the spiritual world as well. And Ultima becomes his spiritual guide.

Antonio, always asking questions, and bravely open to new experiences, learns to trust Ultima's wisdom and ultimately his own understanding. It is a book to be read when you are ready to read it. I believe you will know that time.

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas

In 1972, when she was seven, Firoozeh Dumas and her family moved from Iran to Southern California, arriving with no first-hand knowledge of this country beyond her father's glowing memories of his graduate school years here. More family soon followed, and the clan has been here ever since.

Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas's family: her engineer father, a sweetly quixotic dreamer who first sought riches on Bowling for Dollars and in Las Vegas, and later lost his job during the Iranian revolution; her elegant mother, who never fully mastered English (nor cared to); her uncle, who combated the effects of American fast food with an army of miraculous American weight-loss gadgets; and Firoozeh herself, who as a girl changed her name to Julie, and who encounted a second wave of culture shock when she met and married a Frenchman, becoming part of a one-couple melting pot.

In a series of deftly drawn scenes, we watch the family grapple with American English (hot dogs and hush puppies? - a complete mystery). American traditions (Thanksgiving turkey?- an even greater mystery, since it tastes like nothing), and American culture (Firoozeh's parents laugh uproariously at Bob Hope on television, although they don't get the jokes even when she translates them into Farsi). - SBCL

In this bittersweet memoir about growing up Iranian in southern California, Dumas relates her family's encounters with American culture and how their preconceived notions frequently clashed with reality. - CDE

Hush by Jacqueline Woodson

This 2002 National Book Award finalist is reissued with a new look. When Toswiah Green's policeman father testifies against a fellow officer, the family members must change their identities and move to a different city. Now Toswiah is Evie Thomas--and that's the least of the changes. - SBCL

This intriguing story tells of a devastating situation. A middle-class African American family is forced to enter the federal witness protection program after the father decides to testify against two policemen who killed an innocent boy. The family must leave a comfortable and familiar life. Just as Evie learns to cope with her new name and all new names and biographical details, she must also learn that her parents aren't as capable of readjusting as circumstances require. - CDE

The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco by Marilyn Chase

The veteran Wall Street Journal science reporter Marilyn Chase's fascinating account of an outbreak of bubonic plague in late Victorian San Francisco is a real-life thriller that resonates in today's headlines. The Barbary Plague transports us to the Gold Rush boomtown in 1900, at the end of the city's Gilded Age. With a deep understanding of the effects on public health of politics, race, and geography, Chase shows how one city triumphed over perhaps the most frightening and deadly of all scourges. - SBCL

How politics and science worked against the Chinatown residents who fell victim to Bubonic Plague sets the stage for an exploration of how government doctors later solved the mystery of the plague's outbreak in twentieth-century California. - CDE

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order, and predictability shelter him from the messy wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.

Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher's mind. - SBCL

Christopher is autistic and possesses a superbly logical brain. His routine, which keeps him grounded, is disturbed when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork. When Christopher is initially blamed for the killing, he decides to track down the real killer. He turns to his favorite fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, for guidance and finds out who killed Wellington. Unfortunately, he also finds out that his own family is falling apart at the seams. - CDE

Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books by Francesca Lia Block

Available for the first time in a single volume, these postmodern fairy tales chronicle the thin line between fear and desire, pain and pleasure, cutting loose and holding on in a world where everyone is vulnerable to the most beautiful and dangerous angel of all--love. - SBCL

The problems and challenges of growing up free-spirited, but thoughtful, are presented in the collection of novels by a California author. The characters and language are quirky and reflect offbeat humor and insights on youth culture. Gay issues. This book addresses controversial issues of interest to many adolescents and includes scenes and language that reflect mature content. - CDE

The Four Immigrants Manga: A Japanese Experience in San Francisco, 1904-1924 by Henry (Yoshitaka) Kiyama

Translated, with an introduction and notes, by Frederik L Schodt

Originally published in Japanese in San Francisco in 1931, The Four Immigrants Manga is Henry Kiyama's visual chronicle of his immigrant experience in the United States. Drawn in a classic gag-strip comic-book style, this heartfelt tale -- rediscovered, translated, and introduced by manga expert Frederick L. Schodt -- is a fascinating, entertaining depiction of early Asian American struggles. - SBCL

A Japanese immigrant to California recorded his experiences in graphic novel form. The stories reflect life in San Francisco at the beginning of the twentieth century, with additional commentary by a modern editor. - CDE

Remembering Manzanar: Life in a Japanese Relocation Camp by Michael L. Cooper

Uses firsthand accounts, oral histories, and essays from school newspapers and yearbooks to tell the story of the Japanese Americans who were sent to live in government-run internments camps during World War II. - SBCL

This is a look at the first relocation camp built for Japanese evacuees living on the West Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Photographs by Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, as well as excerpts from diaries and journals, provide first-person accounts of life behind the barbed wire. The biography is framed by the author's participation in the 2001 Manzanar pilgrimage and serves as an introduction for all ages. - CDE

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Jane Austen's elegant novel reveals her complex view of the human condition. The story centers around the charming and vibrant Elizabeth Bennett, one of five sisters whose family circumstance dictates that they marry well, and the misunderstandings that can result--sometimes hilariously--from hasty judgements. - SBCL

In early nineteenth-century England, a spirited young woman copes with the courtship of a snobbish gentleman and with the romantic entanglements of her four sisters. - CDE

The Conch Bearer: A Novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Action and adventure are combined in this exotic, compelling fantasy set in contemporary India. - SBCL

Challenges await twelve-year-old Anand, accompanied by a mysterious man and a headstrong street child, whose task is to return a conch shell that possesses mystical power to its home in the Himalayas, hundreds of miles away. The exotic journey draws on the setting of India's culture, is devoted to peacefulness, and affords a glimpse of the lad's growth and maturation in an intriguing and suspenseful adventure. - CDE

The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe

The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe

The author of Woman in the Dunes funny and terrifying novel about an imminent post-apocalyptic Japan. - SBCL

The treatment of outcasts from Japanese society and international, social, and political issues, such as pollution and atomic power, are the subjects of this hyper-realistic novel. Appropriate for mature readers, this novel presents a Japanese rather than a Western viewpoint. - CDE

Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe

Set in the Ibo heartland of eastern Nigeria, one of Africa's best-known writers describes the conflict between old and new in its most poignant aspect: the personal struggle between father and son. - SBCL

The second of the Nigerian author's trilogy about Western values destroying native ways depicts British colonials in the early twentieth century. Philosophical and ethical influences of the historical period, as well as the political ramifications, are presented. Sequel to THINGS FALL APART. - CDE

Hurry Freedoom: African Americans in Gold Rush California by Jerry Stanley

Hurry Freedom: African Americans in Gold Rush California by Jerry Stanley
Here for the first time in a book for young readers is the story of the African American forty-niners who went west to seek fortunes and freedom in the California Gold Rush. Among the thousands drawn west by the California Gold Rush were many African Americans. Some were free men and women in search of opportunity; others were slaves brought from the slave states of the South. Some found freedom and wealth in the gold fields and growing cities of California, but all faced the deeply entrenched prejudices of the era. To tell this story Hurry Freedom focuses on the life of Mifflin Gibbs, who arrived in San Francisco in 1850 and established a successful boot and shoe business. But Gibbs's story is more than one of business and personal success: With other African American San Franciscans, he led a campaign to obtain equal legal and civil rights for Blacks in California. - SBCL

The author recounts the activities of African Americans during the Gold Rush. The book concentrates on the life and work of Mifflin Gibbs, who came to San Francisco in 1850 and was dedicated to protecting the civil rights of African Americans in California. Includes an index, a bibliographic note, and archival photos and prints. - CDE

Voices From the Fields: Children of Migrant Farmers Tell Their Stories by S. Beth Atkin

Photographs, poems, and interviews with children reveal the hardships and hopes of Mexican American migrant farm workers and their families. - SBCL

This photo-essay about modern field-workers is narrated through the voices of children and teenagers whose parents work in California's agriculture industry. Most voices are Latinos. - CDE

Twenty Years At Hull House by Jane Addams

This is Jane Addams's graphic account of her famed settlement house in Chicago's West Side slums. Covering the years 1889 to 1909, a time when America was fired with fear of subversives and suspicion of foreigners, this book stands as the immortal testament of a woman who lived and worked among the immigrant settlers, the sweatshop toilers, the unwed mothers, the hungry, the aged, the sick, to show them the true concept of American Democracy. - SBCL

Jane Addams, social reformer and humanitarian, describes her settlement house in Chicago's West Side slums from 1889 to 1909. - CDE

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Achebe's masterpiece tells the story of Okonkwo, strongman of an Ibo village in Nigeria, as he witnesses the destruction of his culture and the loss of his own place within it. - SBCL

Set 100 years ago, this character story concerns the disintegration of the Ibo community in the face of white missionary intrusion. - CDE

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West by Stephen E. Ambrose

In this sweeping adventure story, Stephen E. Ambrose, the bestselling author of D-Day, presents the definitive account of one of the most momentous journeys in American history. Ambrose follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Thomas Jefferson's hope of finding a waterway to the Pacific, through the heart-stopping moments of the actual trip, to Lewis's lonely demise on the Natchez Trace. Along the way, Ambrose shows us the American West as Lewis saw it-wild, awesome, and pristinely beautiful. Undaunted Courage is a stunningly told action tale that will delight readers for generations. - SBCL

The Lewis and Clark Expedition is recounted within the context of the physical, political, and social ramifications of the early nineteenth century. Authoritative and readable, this account addresses military training, interracial relations, the role of women in nineteenth-century western America, and the development of friendship among co-workers and fellow explorers. -CDE

Ocean of Words by Ha Jin

The place is the border between Russia and China. The time is the early 1970s, when the two giant powers were posed on the brink of war. In this award-winning collection of stories, Chinese writer Ha Jin brilliantly explores the humanity of the barely literate Chinese soldiers who must constantly scrutinize the enemy even as they themselves are watched. - SBCL

This collection of stories explores the tension between two major world powers, China and Russia. Soldiers facing the possibility of war at a moment's notice describe the events. - CDE