Books like Broken China by Lori Aurelia Williams

In Camp Green Lake, a boy named Stanley Yelnats must dig endless holes for a supposedly reformatory camp that really hides a buried truth.

The Hate U Give tracks 16‑year‑old Starr Carter, a Black teenager from a poor Bronx neighborhood who attends an elite private school, as she confronts police violence, social media battles, and community turmoil after witnessing her friend’s shooting.

The Kite Runner follows an unlikely friendship between a privileged boy and the son of his father’s servant amid Afghanistan’s turbulent history, exploring betrayal, redemption, and the father‑son bond.

A high‑school freshman, Melinda, isolates herself after a traumatic encounter with a classmate. Through art and the courage to speak, she confronts her past and begins healing.

Alice Walker's 1982 novel, The Color Purple, won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, exploring the lives of black women in the South and their experiences of abuse and struggle for independence.

A personal, illustrated memoir of Marjane Satrapi’s childhood in Tehran, her coming‑of‑age during the Islamic Revolution, teenage years in Vienna and eventual exile from Iran.

Jeannette Walls' memoir chronicles her turbulent childhood in a dysfunctional, itinerant family, detailing poverty, alcoholism, and homelessness across the United States as she seeks stability and personal growth.

On a private Massachusetts island, teen Cadence spends a summer with her cousins and a boy named Gat, only to wake up with amnesia and a tangled web of secrets, friendships, and loss that threaten to destroy the Liars.

A tense psychological thriller that pits FBI agent Clarice Starling against the notorious cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter as they collaborate to catch a new predator.

Junior, a budding cartoonist from the Spokane Indian Reservation, transfers to an all‑white farm‑town high school, where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

A poignant portrait of an eleven‑year‑old Black girl in mid‑20th‑century America, whose longing for blue eyes reflects deeper wounds of family, race, and identity.

A heart-wrenching coming-of-age story of poverty and resilience in 1930s Brooklyn.

Steve Harmon, a sixteen‑year‑old charged as an accomplice to murder, records his prison and courtroom experiences as a film script while confronting his self‑perception and fate.

Rashad and Quinn wrestle with the aftermath of a police assault that sparks intense racial debate, told through their alternating perspectives.

In a tense sixty seconds, a young boy faces a choice that will determine whether he seeks revenge for his brother’s death or walks away from violence.

Pecan Pie Baby follows Gia as she anxiously anticipates the arrival of a new baby, exploring family dynamics, mother-daughter bonds and the joys and challenges of single‑parent life in a humorous, heartfelt way.

Jade dreams of escape from her rough neighborhood and seizes a scholarship to a predominantly‑white private school, but faces the challenges of fitting in and navigating mentorship programs aimed at at‑risk Black girls.

Teenage mother Renee struggles to raise Kendra after both endured early motherhood, as their teenage daughters navigate school, family expectations and a legacy of sacrifice in New York City.

A fourteen‑year‑old girl uses free‑verse prose to follow a hard‑working babysitter, and together they learn to find opportunities in an uncertain world.

Raspberry, a thirteen‑year‑old, dreams of earning money to save her mother and herself from homelessness and poverty.

Show Way explores how quilts served as coded maps for escaping slaves, a secret tradition passed from mother to daughter in the author’s family.

When Tyler Johnson, a teenage African American, heads to a party, his twin brother Marvin follows to watch over him. The night spirals into a shooting and a tense police raid, leaving both family and community in abrupt grief.

Sunny Holiday empowers a vibrant African‑American girl to create kid‑friendly holidays for months that lack them, while navigating family and friendships with humor and heart.

"A breath of fresh air ... an exploration of heroism, of what it means to be a real hero in a world that hates them, how to be a hero without having powers, how to be a hero having powers."--The Book Smugglers. Can a shattered superhero help save humanity's hope for a better world? Broken figured she was done with heroics when she lost the ability to fly and fled the confinement of the Extrahuman Union. But then the world started to fall apart around her, and the mysterious Michael Forward entered her life, dangling the possibility of redemption and rebirth. Michael Forward can see the future, but all he wants is to escape the destiny he has struggled against all his life. When the moment comes, though, he finds he can't refuse. Now he needs the help of a homeless ex-superhero to save a baby who may be the key to humanity's freedom. Monica had a good life with her large family, until two strangers and a baby showed up at her door. Now her family is gone, her life is in ruins, and she's on the run from the law. In a time of spreading darkness, when paranoia and oppression have overtaken the world, can three unlikely allies preserve a small ray of hope for a better, brighter future?

A spirited twelve‑year‑old in Dublin confronts her grandmother’s impending death and is drawn into a mysterious adventure when a stranger brings a message for Gran.

311 pages ; 20 cm680L Lexile

A story about a young girl who tries to buy a gold pin for her mother, despite financial difficulties and the loss of her job.

Fifteen‑year‑old Reuven Bloom, a Russian Jew, abandons his violin dreams to guard his baby sister after his family is murdered in 1897.