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#OwnVoices Books
Picture Books
Jump to: Upper Elementary
Clicking on the book titles will take you to the catalog record for each item.
Islandborn by Junot Díaz
Lola was just a baby when her family left the Island, so when she has to draw it for a school assignment, she asks her family, friends, and neighbors about their memories of her homeland...and in the process, comes up with a new way of understanding her own heritage.
Radiant Child by Javaka Steptoe
Jean-Michael Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocked to fame in the 1980's as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art work had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City.
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
A young boy rides the bus across town with his grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things.
Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard
Using illustrations that show the diversity in Native America and spare poetic text that emphasizes fry bread in terms of provenance, this volume tells the story of a post-colonial food that is a shared tradition for Native American families all across the North American continent.
Magnificent Homespun Brown by Samara Cole Doyon
Joyful young narrators celebrate feeling at home in one's own skin.
Drawn Together by Minh Le
A boy and his grandfather cross a language and cultural barrier using their shared love of art, storytelling, and fantasy.
Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
An illustrated picture book autobiography in which award-winning author Yuyi Morales tells her own immigration story.
Where are You From? by Yamile Saied Méndez
When a young girl is asked where she's from--where she's really from--she's no longer as she was. She decides to turn to her dear abuelo for some help with this ever-persistent question. But he doesn't quite give her the answer she expects.
Powwow: A Celebration through Song and Dance by Karen Pheasant-Neganigwane
Illustrated with photographs, Powwow is a guide to the dance, music and culture of this Indigenous celebration.
Upper Elementary
The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez
Twelve-year-old María Luisa O'Neill-Morales reluctantly moves with her Mexican American mother to Chicago and starts seventh grade with a bang--violating the dress code with her punk rock aesthetic and spurning the middle school's most popular girl in favor of starting a band with like-minded weirdos.
Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
Sent with her mother to the safety of a relative's home in Cincinnati when her Syrian hometown is overshadowed by violence, Jude worries for the family members who were left behind as she adjusts to a new life with unexpected surprises.
New Kid by Jerry Craft
After his parents send him to a prestigious private school known for its academics, Jordan Banks finds himself torn between two worlds. (graphic novel)
The Moon Within by Aida Salazar
Celi Rivera, who is a mix of Black-Puerto Rican-Mexican Indian is uncomfortable about her approaching period, and the changes that are happening to her body; she is horrified that her mother wants to hold a traditional public moon ceremony to celebrate the occasion--until she finds out that her best friend Magda is contemplating an even more profound change of life.
The Serpent's Secret by Sayantani DasGupta
Up until her twelfth birthday, Kiranmala considered herself an ordinary sixth-grader in Parsippany, New Jersey, but then her parents disappear and a drooling rakkhosh demon shows up in her kitchen, and soon she is swept into another dimension, full of magic, winged horses, talking birds (very annoying), and cute princes--and somehow Kiranmala needs to sort it all out, find her parents, and basically save the world.
Cilla Lee-Jenkins: Future Author Extraordinaire by Susan Tan
A half-Chinese, half-Caucasian girl's 'memoir' about a new sibling, being biracial, and her path to literary greatness.
A Place to Belong by Cynthia Kadohata
Twelve-year-old Hanako and her family, reeling from their confinement in an internment camp, renounce their American citizenship to move to Hiroshima, a city devastated by the atomic bomb dropped by Americans.
The Stars Beneath our Feet by David Barclay Moore
Unable to celebrate the holidays in the wake of his older brother's death in a gang-related shooting, Lolly Rachpaul struggles to avoid being forced into a gang himself while constructing a fantastically creative LEGO city at the Harlem community center.
