Immigration and Migration
Introduce students to the stories of Latino American and Asian American immigrants and migrant farm workers. Some of the books link the personal narratives to important time periods in American history. Some of the stories begin in the country of origin and help readers reflect on the lives of immigrants before and after their journey.
An Island Like You
Interconnected short stories feature life in Puerto Rico and in a New Jersey neighborhood. The Latino characters indulge in rivalries, a project to bring live theater to the barrio, and other activities.
Breaking Through
Since coming from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco is still working in the fields, fighting to "break through" to improve his life and complete his education.
Child of the Owl
The story is set in 1960 in San Francisco's Chinatown. Casey, a Chinese American teen, slowly discovers the value of her Chinese heritage while living with her grandmother.
Crossing the Wire
Fifteen-year-old Victor Flores heads north from Mexico so he can find work and send money home to his family.
Dragonwings
In 1903 Moonshadow travels from a remote village in China to California to join his father, whom he has never seen. Despite tremendous difficulties and disasters, father and son struggle to build a life in San Francisco, working toward their dream of creating a dragon-like flying machine.
Esperanza Rising
This novel tells of a Mexican girl's fall from riches and her immigration to California in the 1930s. The story highlights her awareness of Mexico's post-revolution tensions, the rivalry with Oklahoma Dust Bowl victims, and struggles of Mexican workers trying to organize themselves to ask the U.S. government for better living conditions.
Goodbye, Vietnam
When they realize that grandmother faces arrest in present-day Vietnam for following the old religion and practicing healing, the Vinh family decides to flee their small rice-growing village in the Mekong Delta and escape by sea to Hong Kong.
Grapes of Wrath
The hardships faced by migrant agricultural workers who arrived in California during the Great Depression are depicted by this Nobel Prize-winning California author.
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Interrelated stories describe the experiences of the four Garcia sisters before and after their family's exile from the Dominican Republic. The novel is set in New York in the 1960s.
Journey of the Sparrows
This moving story is about the secret lives of immigrants struggling to find work and are fearful of arrest and deportation.
Seedfolks
When a young Vietnamese girl plants some bean seeds in a vacant lot because she misses her family, the beginnings of a community project emerge.
The Circuit
These 12 poignant short stories about a family of migrant workers in the California fields are based on the author's own experiences. Each story describes the tenacity and courage of a family determined to build on its limited opportunities.
The Joy Luck Club
This California author depicts the contrasting world views of women born in China who immigrated to the United States and their American-born daughters.