Suburban Mosaic Book of the Year Selections 2004 - 2010
The Suburban Mosaic Book of the Year Program seeks to confront issues of racial and social justice and promote cross-cultural understanding through literature.
2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004
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How to Heal a Broken Wing By Bob Graham Preschool - K Title This cartoon-like picture book will delight our youngest readers. Only tiny Will notices a bird, which broke its wing flying into a skyscraper, lying on the sidewalk. Will and his mom nurse the injured bird then set it free. Making a difference, indeed. |
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Listen to the Wind By Greg Mortenson Grades K - 3 Title A remarkable story about Greg Mortenson's first building project in Pakistan is told through simple text and colorful collages. A scrapbook follows the story, displaying photographs of the events, the village's inhabitants, and key players who helped ensure the success of the project. |
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Notes from the Dog By Gary Paulsen Grades 4 - 5 Title Finn is a loner and plans on spending his summer reading and not talking to a lot of people. His life changes when Johanna moves in next door. She is battling cancer and loves gardening. Johanna makes a difference in the lives of Finn, their families, and neighbors. Everyone pulls together to support Johanna and discovers something about themselves in the process. |
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Back Home By Julia Keller Middle School The story follows an ordinary family forced to deal with an extraordinary loss and shows what battle-scarred families face when their wounded loved ones return home. |
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The Carbon Diaries 2015 By Saci Lloyd High School In 2015, global warming has done so much damage that the UK enacts severe carbon rationing. Now 16-year-old Laura must make decisions about daily life that she never imagined. Travel, cell phone use, and the toaster are now rationed. Laura's world is crumbling and disaster is becoming normal. Laura describes the first year of rationing through diary entries and emails to her cousin in the United States. |
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The Help By Kathryn Stockett Adult It's 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi, where maternal Aibileen and her outspoken best friend Minny work as maids for wealthy white families not unlike the one Eugenia ("Skeeter") grew up in. But together, this trio of "ordinary" women bring change to their community, undertaking a risky project to illuminate the experiences of Jackson'sAfrican-American maids and the indignities of segregation. |
2009: Realities facing our communities
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Those Shoes By Maribeth Boelts Preschool Jeremy, who longs to have the high tops that everyone at school seems to have but his grandmother cannot afford, is excited when he sees them for sale in a thrift shop and decides to buy them even though they are the wrong size. |
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How to Steal a Dog By Barbara O'Connor Elementary School Living in the family car in their North Carolina town after their father leaves, Georgina persuades her younger brother to get money by stealing a dog and claiming the reward that the owners are bound to offer. |
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The Mailbox By Audrey Shafer Middle School When his Uncle Vernon dies, twelve-year-old Gabe, who grew up in foster care, tells no one for fear that he will go back into the system. However, when a strange note arrives in the mailbox and his uncle's body disappears, a unique correspondence begins. |
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It's Kind of a Funny Story By Ned Vizzini High School A humorous account of a New York City teenager's battle with depression and his time spent in a psychiatric hospital. |
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Breakfast at Sally's: One Homeless Man's Inspirational Journey By Richard LeMieux Adult A self-made man with his own successful company, Richard LeMieux lived a very comfortable life. After losing everything, he spent two years living out of his van and learning to rely on others' generosity. His uplifting story cuts through stereotypes and offers a powerful look at homelessness in society. |
2008: Living Between Cultures
E Fiction
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The Other Side By Jacqueline Woodson (Grade Pre K -2) Two girls, on white and one black, gradually get to know each other as they sit on the fence that divides their town. |
E Fiction
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The Year of the Dog By Grace Lin (Grades 3-5) Frustrated by her seeming lack of talent for anything, a young Taiwanese American girl sets out to apply the lessons of the Chinese Year of the Dog, those of making best friends and finding oneself, to her own life. |
J Fiction
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American Born Chinese By Gene Luen Yang Middle School This graphic novel alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese Americans trying to participate in popular culture. |
J Fiction
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Persepolis By Marjane Satrapi High School This autobiography tells the story of Satrapi’s early life as a girl in late 1970s and early 1980s Iran. Through her young eyes, the reader sees the overthrow of the Shah, the Islamic fundamentalist rise to power, and the war with Iraq. |
Fiction
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Digging to America By Anne Tyler Adult When American couple Bitsy and Brad Donaldson and Iranian-American couple Sami and Ziba Yazdan both adopt Korean infant girls, their chance encounter at the Baltimore airport the day their daughters arrive marks the start of a long, intense, and sometimes awkward friendship. A penetrating light on the American way as seen from two perspectives, those who are born here and those who are still struggling to fit in.
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2007: Immigration
E Fiction
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Recorvits, Helen and Swiatkowska, Gabi My Name is Yoon(Grade Pre K -2) When Yoon moves from Koreas to America, she wants to keep her Korean name, Shining Wisdom, and writes her name using Korean symbols. Although everything seems different in American, Yoon finds ways to accept her new home and maintain her Korean heritage. |
J Fiction
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Fleming, Candace Lowji Discovers America(Grades 3-4) When nine-year-old Lowji Sanjana moves from busy Bombay to a small, rural town in Illinois, he has great hopes of having a pet and making friends. He creatively wins over his grumpy landlady as he accomplishes both. |
J Fiction
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Park, Linda Sue Project Mulberry(Grades 5-6) When Julia's mother suggests a project raising silkworms as she did as a girl in Korea, Julia and her friend Patrick learn not just about silkworms but about tolerance, prejudice, friendship and patience. |
J Fiction
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Budhos, Marina Ask Me No Questions(Grades 7-10) In the months following September 11th many Muslim men were arrested, detained, and eventually deported along with their families. When her father is arrested, fourteen-year-old Nadira must find a way to bring her family back together, all the while feeling like a dangerous outsider in the country she thought was her home. |
Non-Fiction
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Nazario, Sonia Enrique's Journey: the Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with his Mother(High School - Adult) When Enrique was five years old, his single mother made the trek from Honduras to the United States in search of work, hoping to make enough money to come home for her children. When she doesn't return, Enrique decides to make the difficult and dangerous journey north to find her.
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2006
E Fiction
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Katz, Karen The Colors of Us(Preschool) Lena, born in Guatemala, learns she is the color of cinnamon. She and her Mom go for a walk to observe many other sades of brown. Lena realizes that every shade is beautiful and paints portraits of each of her friends. |
E Fiction
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Polacco, Patricia Mrs. Katz and Tush(Grades K-2) Mrs. Katz is a lonely Jewish widow and Larnel is a young African American boy. Their friendship begins when Larnel gives the old woman a scagly kitten. During their daily visits, Mrs. Katz tells stories of her life and of the similar experiences Jews and African Americans had in coming to this country. |
J Fiction
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Namioka, Lensey Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear(Grades 3-5) Newly arrived in Seattle from China, nine-year-old Yangtao is tone deaf. His parents, both professional musicians, assume his problem is lack of practice and chide him for playing baseball. Yangtao and a musically gifted friend team up to solve the problem. |
J Fiction
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Fleischman, Paul Seedfolks(Grades 6-8) Kim, a Vietnamese girl mourning her dead father, plants six seeds in a vacant lot hoping to attract her father's spirit. Other neighbors become involved in the garden. The story illustrates how members of a multi-ethnic neighborhood overcome language barriers and prejudice to enrich one another's lives. |
Biography
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Obama, Barack Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance(High School - Adult) President Obama's mother was a white American and his father was a black Kenyan whom he never knew. After completing college, Obama went to Kenya to experience the world of his late father. Readers will find his search for identity both moving and familiar.
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2005
J Spanish
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Reiser, Lynn Margaret and Margarita, Margarita y Margaret(Grade Pre K -1) Margaret, who speaks only English, and Margarita, who speaks only Spanish, meet in the park and have fun plying together even though they speak different languages. |
J Fiction
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Mochizuki, Ken Baseball Saved Us(Grades 2-4) A Japanese American boy learns to play baseball when he and his family are forced to live in an internment camp during World War II. His ability to play helps him after the war is over. |
J Fiction
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Curtis, Christopher Paul The Watsons Go to Birmingham(Grades 5-8) The mindsets and daily routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, change drastically after they go to visit their grandmother in Alabama in the summer of 1963. |
J Fiction
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Hosseini, Khaled Kite Runner(High School - Adult) Amir and Hassan are young boys growing up in Afghanistan in the 1970's. They are inseparable until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever. |
2004
E Fiction
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Norah, Dooley Everybody Cooks Rice(Grade K -3) As Carrie travels from one of her neighbors' homes to the next, she is treated to samples of their ethnically divers dinners. She is surprised to find that although they all hail from different countries, there is one dish they have in common. |
J Fiction
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Ellis, Deborah Breadwinner(Grades 4-7) After the Taliban takes over Afghanistan, women are no longer allowed to go to school or to play in the streets, let alone work outside the home. When her father is arrested, Parvana must disguise herself as a boy in order to support her struggling family. |
Fiction
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Cisneros, Sandra The House on Mango Street(Teen - Adult) After her family moves to the Hispanic area of Chicago, Esperanza learns to empower herself through her writing. She uses poems and stories to express thoughts and emotions about her neighborhood environment. |
