Read A Likes
If you like Darius the Great is Not Okay you might also enjoy...
Dear Evan Hansen - Val Emmich, Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul
American Born Chinese - Gene Luen Yang
Looking For Alibrandi - Melina Marchetta
The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros
We Are All That’s Left - Carrie Arcos
Girl in Translation - Jean Kwok
Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan
A Place for Us - Fatima Farheen Mirza
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Saenz
Listen, Slowly - Thanhha Lai
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossini
The American Granddaughter - Inaam Kachachi
Together Tea - Marjan Kamali
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hossini
If I Ever Get Out of Here - Eric Gansworth
It's 1975. Lewis lives in abject poverty on the reservation. His favorite band, the Beatles, has broken up. He's the only Indian in the class for smart kids. And he's in middle school. Times are tough. When George, a military kid, arrives, the two bond over their mutual appreciation of music. Lewis shares select pieces of his life with George. However, he struggles to avoid revealing the true nature of his life on the rez. Things deteriorate for Lewis when he catches the attention of a school bully who makes his life miserable. Forces of nature eventually compel Lewis to face everything: the bully, what he is hiding and his own shame. Lewis' desire to move between cultures, and his difficulty doing so, will resonate with readers of many backgrounds. The action in this book builds slowly, providing readers with the context to understand the distrust that makes Lewis reluctant to fully commit to a friendship with George. Some readers may not be enthralled by the extensive exposition and sometimes-stilted dialogue, but those who stay with the story to the end will find their hearts touched by Lewis, George and their families. Gansworth's debut for young people is a worthy exploration of identity and friendship between middle school boys who live in different worlds. (Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2013)
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - Sherman Alexie
Alexie nimbly blends sharp wit with unapologetic emotion in his first foray into young-adult literature. Fourteen-year-old Junior is a cartoonist and bookworm with a violent but protective best friend Rowdy. Soon after they start freshman year, Junior boldly transfers from a school on the Spokane reservation to one in a tiny white town 22 miles away. Despite his parents' frequent lack of gas money (they're a "poor-ass family"), racism at school and many crushing deaths at home, he manages the year. Rowdy rejects him, feeling betrayed, and their competing basketball teams take on mammoth symbolic proportions. The reservation's poverty and desolate alcoholism offer early mortality and broken dreams, but Junior's knowledge that he must leave is rooted in love and respect for his family and the Spokane tribe. He also realizes how many other tribes he has, from "the tribe of boys who really miss . . . their best friends" to "the tribe of tortilla chips-and-salsa lovers." Junior's keen cartoons sprinkle the pages as his fluid narration deftly mingles raw feeling with funny, sardonic insight. (Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2007)
Funny in Farsi - Firoozeh Dumas
Light-as-air essays about an immigrant childhood in California.In 1972, Dumas 's father, an employee of the Iranian National Oil Company, which had landed a two-year consulting contract with an American firm, came to the US and brought along the entire family. Although the adventure in their new country begins with the author and her mother getting lost after elementary-school orientation, the Dumases rapidly embrace their new home: Las Vegas becomes their default vacation destination, and they spend every Christmas watching Bob Hope. The author has the usual problems of a stranger in a strange land—nobody can pronounce her name or has any awareness of her homeland—but Dumas tosses in some new ones as well: the communal showers at sleep-away camp (she doesn't bathe for a week) and the disappointment when her father fails to qualify as a contestant on Bowling for Dollars. But these trials pale in comparison to the family's difficulties during the hostage crisis. As vendors begin selling T-shirts that read "Iranians go Home," Dumas 's father loses his job and his pension and is forced to sell all the family's belongings. After the crisis ends, he does find a new job, at half his previous salary, but nothing mars his love for his adopted country; Dumas recounts his thoughts on US citizens who shirk their civic duties: "They need to be sent for six months to a nondemocratic country. Then they'll vote." At all times, no matter how heavy the subject matter, Dumas keeps her tone light. Even a disastrous trip to Washington, D.C., to welcome the Shah, complete with death threats from protestors, is played for laughs.Warm and engaging, despite some creaky prose. (Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2003)
Natasha and Daniel meet, get existential, and fall in love during 12 intense hours in New York City.Natasha believes in science and facts, things she can quantify. Fact: undocumented immigrants in the U.S., her family is being deported to Jamaica in a matter of hours. Daniels a poet who believes in love, something that cant be explained. Fact: his parents, Korean immigrants, expect him to attend an Ivy League school and become an M.D. When Natasha and Daniel meet, Natashas understandably distractedand doesnt want to be distracted by Daniel. Daniel feels what in Japanese is called koi no yokan, the feeling when you meet someone that youre going to fall in love with them. The narrative alternates between the pair, their first-person accounts punctuated by musings that include compelling character histories. Danielsure theyre meant to beis determined to get Natasha to fall in love with him (using a scientific list). Meanwhile, Natasha desperately attempts to forestall her familys deportation and, despite herself, begins to fall for sweet, disarmingly earnest Daniel. This could be a sappy, saccharine story of love conquering all, but Yoons lush prose chronicles an authentic romance thats also a meditation on family, immigration, and fate. With appeal to cynics and romantics alike, this profound exploration of life and love tempers harsh realities with the beauty of hope in a way that is both deeply moving and satisfying. (Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2016)