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Abrahams, Peter.
Mine Boy
(South African boy faces the bitter realities of apartheid)
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Achebe, Chinua.
No Longer at Ease
(Nigerian boy tries to live up to expectations of family1950s setting)
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Banks, Russell.
Rule of the Bone: A Novel
(Aimless boy’s search to find his father)
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Bradbury, Ray.
Dandelion Wine
(Twelve-year-old boy’s summer of discovery; Illinois, 1920s setting)
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Bradford, Richard.
Red Sky at Morning
(Father-son story; World War II setting)
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Burns, Olive Ann.
Cold, Sassy Tree
(Author’s fictionalized account of her own father’s boyhood in rural Georgia, early 1900s)
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Carter, Forrest.
The Education of Little Tree
(Tale of Cherokee boyhood in the 1930s and boy’s relationship with his grandparents)
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Chambers, Veronica.
Mama’s Girl
(Girl’s tale of growing up in poverty-stricken Brooklyn neighborhood and her problematic relationship with her mother; nonfiction)
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Crane, Stephen.
The Red Badge of Courage
(Classic story of a young man’s experience fighting in the Civil War)
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Dickens, Charles.
Oliver Twist
(Classic tale of orphan Oliver Twist, his experience with a gang of pickpockets, and his struggle to better his life)
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Fong-Torres, Ben.
The Rice Room
(Chinese American journalist/DJ’s tale of growing up in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1959s and ‘60s)
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Gates, Henry Louis.
Colored People
(African American scholar’s coming of age tale of growing up in West Virginia)
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Gibbons, Kaye.
Ellen Foster
(Plucky orphan’s search to find a foster family for herself)
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Grealy, Lucy.
Autobiography of a Face
(Young woman’s struggle with facial disfigurement; nonfiction)
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Guest, Judith.
Ordinary People
(Boy’s struggle with himself and his family after his brother’s death)
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Hamill, Pete.
Snow in August
(Powerful story of a boy’s moral dilemma when confronted with anti-Semitism in his neighborhood; late 1940s, Brooklyn setting)
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Heinlein, Robert.
Podkayne of Mars
(Brother and sister are launched on a space journey that risks political intrigue and planetary war)
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Kaysen, Susanna.
Girl, Interrupted
(Young woman’s memoir of being hospitalized for psychiatric reasons; nonfiction)
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Kincaid, Jamaica.
Lucy
(West Indian girl comes to the United States as a baby-sitter for a family)
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Kincaid, Nanci.
Crossing Blood
(Friendship tale of a white girl and African American neighbor boy during the early days of the civil rights movement; set in Florida)
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Knowles, John.
A Separate Peace
(Friendship and rivalry of two boys at a private school during World War II)
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Lamb, Wally.
She’s Come Undone
(Girl’s long journey to deal with and get over childhood trauma)
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Lee, Harper.
To Kill a Mockingbird
(Southern lawyer’s brave stand against the racism of his town in the 1930s, told from the point of view of his young daughter growing up)
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LeGuin, Ursula.
A Wizard of Earthsea
(Fantasy of Sparrowhawk and how he mastered knowledge and power in his universe)
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Major, Deborah.
An Open Weave
. (Imani’s 17th birthday celebration with her family has to wait as she deals with a friend’s crisis)
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Martinez, Max.
Schoolland
(Mexican American coming of age tale set in rural Texas in the 1950s)
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McBride, James.
The Color of Water
(African American author’s tale of his family of 12 children and their white mother)
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McCorkle, Jill.
The Cheerleader
(High school-to-college tale of a girl’s life and love)
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McCorkle, Jill.
Ferris Beach
(Growing up tale of a girl and her relationship with her daring cousin and strict mother)
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Morrison, Toni.
The Bluest Eye
(Young African American girl’s wish to be blue-eyed and white)
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Mukherjee, Bharti.
Jasmine
(Young woman’s flight from India to the US and her life as an illegal immigrant)
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Potok, Chaim.
The Promise
(Story of two Jewish boys growing up in Brooklyn)
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Remarque, Erich Maria.
All Quiet on the Western Front
(World War I tale of four young German soldiers, only one of whom survives)
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Rodriguez, Luis.
Always Running: La Vida LocaGang Days in L.A.
(Author’s memoir of gang days in Los Angeles in the 1970s; nonfiction)
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Santiago, Danny.
Famous All Over Town
(Tale of family life and growing up in Mexican American neighborhood in Los Angeles)
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Sinclair, April.
Coffee Will Make You Black
(Growing up tale of young African American girl in Chicago)
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Steinbeck, John.
The Red Pony
(Boys love and care for a rescued pony)
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Taulbert, Clifton.
Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored
(Author’s touching memoir of growing up; companion title: Last Train North)
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Walker, Alice.
The Color Purple
(African American girl’s struggle to survive a brutal family and ultimately prevail)
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Williams, Donna.
Nobody Nowhere
(Author’s struggle out of autism; nonfiction)
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Wright, Richard.
Black Boy
(Famous African American author’s account of growing up; nonfiction)
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