Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Since their mother's death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep... (more)

Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It

Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything in It

by Sundee Tucker Frazier

Ten-year-old Tae Kwon Do blue belt and budding rock hound Brendan Buckley keeps a "Confidential" notebook for his top-secret scientific discoveries. And he's found something totally top secret. The grandpa he's never met, who his mom refuses to talk about or see, is an expert mineral collector and lives nearby! Secretly, Brendan visits Ed DeBose, whose skin is pink, not brown like Brendan's, his dad's, or that of... (more)

Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet

by Sherri L. Smith

Ana Shen has what her social studies teacher calls a “marvelously biracial, multicultural family” but what Ana simply calls a Chinese American father and an African American mother. And on eighth-grade graduation day, that’s a recipe for disaster. Both sets of grandparents are in town to celebrate, and Ana’s best friend has convinced her to invite Jamie Tabata–the cutest boy in school–for a home-cooked meal. Now... (more)

When Heaven Fell

by Carolyn Marsden

Every day nine-year-old Binh sells fruit and sodas to the girls whose families can afford to send them to school, and every night she returns to her one-room home to share a simple meal with her family. Everything changes, however, when her grandmother tells Binh she had a daughter during the Vietnam war, a child who was sent away to America as a little girl. Now Di Hai - Binh's aunt and a teacher - is... (more)

If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period

by Gennifer Choldenko

Kirsten's parents are barely speaking to each other, and her best friend has fallen under the spell of the school's queen bee, Brianna. It seems like only Kirsten's younger science-geek sister is on her side. Walker's goal is to survive at the new white private school his mom has sent him to because she thinks he's going to screw up like his cousin. But he's a good kid. So is his friend Matteo,... (more)

Dreams from My Father

A Story of Race and Inheritance

by Barack Obama

Nine years before the Senate campaign that made him one of the most influential and compelling voices in American politics, Barack Obama published this lyrical, unsentimental, and powerfully affecting memoir, which became a #1 New York Times bestseller when it was reissued in 2004. Dreams from My Father tells the story of Obama’s struggle to understand the forces that shaped him as the son of a black African... (more)

What I Meant...

by Marie Lamba

After 15 years of being a good daughter and loyal friend, wouldn't you expect the people closest to you to believe you? To at least try to understand what you mean? Since my evil aunt moved in, everything has gone wrong. My little sister thinks I'm a thief. My best friend thinks I'm a jerk. My parents think I'm bulimic. And the boy I love thinks I'm not into him at all. Somehow I have to set the record... (more)

Outside Beauty

by Cynthia Kadohata

"My mother had four daughters by four different men." There's only one way Shelby and her sisters can describe their mother: She's a sexpot. Helen Kimura collects men (and loans, spending money, and gifts of all kinds) from all over the country. Sure, she's not your typical role model, but she's also not just a pretty face and nail polish. She is confident and brave; she lives life on her own terms, and her four... (more)

Soul Enchilada

by David Macinnis Gill

Girl meets boy at a car wash. "Dog," she says. "Dude," he says. And probably this would have been a sweet teen romance. . . . If Beals hadn't been sitting next to her in the car. If Beals hadn't been a supernatural repo man looking to repossess her car. And to possess her. David Macinnis Gill delivers the whole enchilada. With a side of soul.

Mexican WhiteBoy

by Matt de la Pen?a

DANNY’S TALL AND skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. A 95 mph fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound he loses it. But at his private school, they don’t expect much else from him. Danny’s brown. Half-Mexican brown. And growing up in San Diego that close to the border... (more)

Does Anybody Else Look Like Me? A Parent's Guide to Raising Multiracial Children

Does Anybody Else Look Like Me? A Parent's Guide to Raising Multiracial Children

by Donna Jackson Nakazawa

A psychologically wise guide to helping multiracial children of all ages develop confidence and a healthy understanding of their uniqueness. "Am I black or white or am I American?" "Why don't my eyes look like yours?" "Why do people always call attention to my 'different' hair?" Helping a child understand his mixed racial background can be daunting, especially when, whether out of honest appreciation or... (more)

Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering

Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering

by Suzanne Kamata

What happens when your child doesn't speak your native language? How do you maintain cultural traditions while living outside your native country? And how can you raise a child with two cultures without fracturing his/her identity? From our house to your house - to the White House - more and more mothers are facing questions such as these. Whether through intercultural marriage, international adoption or... (more)

The House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations of an Interracial Family in the American South

The House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations of an Interracial Family in the American South

by W. Ralph Eubanks

A powerful story about race and identity told through the lives of one American family across three generations In 1914, in defiance of his middle-class landowning family, a young white man named James Morgan Richardson married a light-skinned black woman named Edna Howell. Over more than twenty years of marriage, they formed a strong family and built a house at the end of a winding sandy road in South... (more)

Cuba 15

by Nancy Osa

HobbleNeale Sourna

Hobble

by Neale Sourna

BENNET GILLESPIE, a successful, yet burned out half Native American medical professional, crashes into a recuperating "innocent" beauty on the beach; beginning an obsessive, sexual triangle with the seductive African American, DAY, who's jealously guarded by HOPKINS, her overbearing, elderly British stepfather, and lover. Benn's a master manipulator, but he could, in fact, literally lose his heart, his life,... (more)

Whale Talk

by Chris Crutcher

There’s bad news and good news about the Cutter High School swim team. The bad news is that they don’t have a pool. The good news is that only one of them can swim anyway. A group of misfits brought together by T. J. Jones (the J is redundant), the Cutter All Night Mermen struggle to find their places in a school that has no place for them. T.J. is convinced that a varsity letter jacket–exclusive, revered, the... (more)

Border Crossing: A Novel

by Maria Colleen Cruz

An entertaining novel about a young girl’s search for her Mexican roots When Ceci Alvarez decides to spend time thinking about who she is—and avoid taking yoga or reading books out of the "Self-Help" section when she grows up—she knows certain things. She is twelve going on thirteen. She is four feet and nine inches tall. She is named Cecilia Maryann Alvarez after her grandmothers, one name English and one... (more)

That's My Mum

by Henriette Barkow

I Am a Gymnast (Young Dreamers)

by Jane Feldman

With more than 75 color and black-and-white photos, and published just in time for the summer 2000 Olympics, I Am a Gymnast portrays the excitement and dedication of a very young athlete with a dream. Girls and gymnastics fans of all ages will be thrilled to follow 8-year-old McKenzie Foster as she trains with international champion and coach Wendy Hilliard; performs at Rockefeller Center; is interviewed on live... (more)

Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada

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Tags: multiracial

by Ann Patchett