Hot Reads

Jaya, Maria, and Lola are just like the other eighth-grade girls in the wealthy suburb of Meadowbrook, New Jersey. They want to go to the spring dance, they love spending time with their best friends after school, sharing frappes and complaining about the other kids. But there's one big difference: all three are daughters of maids and nannies. And they go to school with the very same kids whose families their mothers work for.

That difference grows even bigger--and more painful--when Jaya's mother is accused of theft and Jaya's small, fragile world collapses.

When tensions about immigrants start to erupt, fracturing this perfect, serene suburb, all three girls are tested, as outsiders--and as friends. Each of them must learn to find a place for themselves in a town that barely notices they exist.

Marina Budhos gives us a heartbreaking and eye-opening story of friendship, belonging, and finding the way home. …More

Welcome to Glenfair, New Jersey's Little Moscow, where fifteen-year-old Alyssa Bondar lives with her Russian-born, Jewish parents. In their culture, drinking is as traditional as blinchiki and piroshkis. So when her mom starts having bad days, it seems like Alyssa's the only one who notices--or cares.

Alyssa would love to focus on regular stuff like her first kiss with Keith, her cute track team partner--or simply come home without dread of what she might find. But someone has to clean up her mom's mess. Her dad is steeped in work, the evening news, and denial. Her best friend Lana is busy--shamelessly vying for a place with the popular crowd who ridicule their Russian heritage.

It's up to Alyssa to save her mom--and her family. But who will be there to catch Alyssa when her mom's next fall off the wagon drags her down, too? …More

The mixed-race son of apple pickers, Manz lives with his hard-drinking mother and her truck-driver boyfriend in the hardscrabble world of dusty Rockhill, Texas. Forced to take a summer job rebuilding fence of a cattle ranch, Manz works alongside his friend Jed and meets a girl named Vanessa -- but even among his friends, Manz suffers from an uncontrollable paranoia. As the summer wears on, Manz becomes convinced that "Operation Wetback," a brutal postwar relocation program, is being put back into effect. As the voices in his head grow louder and more insistent, Manz struggles to negotiate the difficulties of adolescence, the perils of an oppressed environment, and the terror of losing his grip on reality. …More

Past and present collide in a Chinese-American teen's search for identity amid family secrets. …More

One hundred years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, this moving young adult novel gives life to the tragedy and hope of this transformative event in American history. …More

Livia Stowe's past experiences with love have been nothing but disappointing, but all that is about to change. She's spending the summer in Princeton, New Jersey, with her brother who's studying abroad. This Brit is determined to make the most of her American summer. …More

Inspired by the experience of her parents, Gonzalez tells the story of a 14-year-old girl's journey from Cuba to America as part of Operation Pedro Pan--an organized exodus of more than 14,000 unaccompanied children, whose parents sent them away to escape Fidel Castro's revolution. …More

Fifteen-year-old Pearl DeWitt and her mother live California, where her uncle owns a grove of 900 avocado trees. Uncle Hoyt hires migrant workers regularly, but Pearl doesn't pay much attention to them--until Amiel. …More

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Life's not easy for 15-year-old Sami Sabiri, especially as the only Muslim kid at his private school. And when Sami catches his father in a lie, everything he's ever known comes into question. …More

During Ramadan, we're not allowed to eat from sunrise to sunset, for a whole month. My family does this every year, even though I've been to a mosque exactly twice in my fifteen years. My exercise-obsessed mom -- whose hotness skipped a generation, sadly -- says I could stand to lose a few. But is torture really an acceptable method? I think not.

Things wouldn't be so bad if I had a boyfriend, but my oppressive parents forbid me to date. This is just cruel and wrong. Especially since Peter, a cute and crushable artist, might be my soul mate. Figures my bestest friend Lisa likes him, too.

To top it off, there's a new Muslim girl in school who struts around in super-short skirts, commanding every boy's attention -- including Peter's. How can I get him to notice me? And will I ever feel like a typical American girl? …More