Wonder World Book Cafe'

It's 1965 in Delano, California. Seventh-grader Lula is inspired when she meets Dolores Huerta and thinks maybe she wants to be an activist and organizer, too. But, first Lula's family and all the other farm workers are on strike demanding better working conditions and wages from the growers. The families meet  important historical figures fighting on their behalf, such as Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez and Larry Itliong. Lula is stronger than she believes, despite her traditional Papa's goals for her; after all, she's a girl. When farm workers decide to garner national attention, they organize a 300 mile march from Delano to California's capital, Sacramento. Lula desperately wants to convince Papa to allow her to be part of this important, life-changing event.  Transcript here 

In this graphic memoir, Pan lives with what he calls “The Puzzle.” This unwelcome, relentless Puzzle impacts nearly every part of his life. After nearly a decade, Pan finally discovers he has OCD and candidly explains living with and treatment for this condition. Transcript here

13 year-old Jake needs to quiet his inner-bully, the voice in his head so he can begin recovering from disordered eating. Based on the author's own experiences, this story is raw, honest, and necessary. Transcript here

Mia Tang is back in book 5 of the Front Desk Series. Readers will enjoy Mia at 13 years old while she explores San Francisco’s Chinatown and attends journalism camp. Transcript here

What does it mean to win? Explore this with Grace and Jonah, two highly competitive students, on their way to high school. Keeping Pace has plenty of relatable woes and joys, and heartbreaks and happinesses when it comes to friendships and first love.

Seventh-grader Mimi loves living on a beautiful island in Florida, but is appalled at all the plastic and styrofoam she finds on the beach. Inspired by the true story of the Wijsen Sisters of Bali (Bye Bye Plastic Bags), Mimi is determined to ban plastic bags in her community, but frustratingly discovers how many people, locally and online, don't support her. Transcript here

✨✨Welcome to Season 5! ✨✨ Written with so much heart, this middle grade novel, Across So Many Seas, spans more than 500 years and follows four girls from generations of Sephardic Jewish families. Incredibly woven together, each girl's story is part of hundreds of years of family history, heartbreak, and so, so much love. Transcript here

YA. Written in verse. Persian American, Omid, speaks Farsi and English and LOVES words, but he can't seem to find the right ones when he needs them, yet. A new found interest in listening to and writing Rap music (with a little help from Shakespeare) makes it possible for Omid to talk about his first crush, communicate with his Iranian grandparents, and share what it's like living in Arizona right after 9/11. YA fans of poetry, rap, Shakespeare, and stories written in verse, here's to you! Transcript here

YA. Narrative nonfiction. Unputdownable. There are plenty of WWII and Holocaust stories for teens, though none quite like Impossible Escape. This is the true story of two men who survived an escape from Birkenau concentration camp intent on sharing with the world the atrocities of concentration camps. In doing so, Rudi Vrba and Adolph Wetzler saved 200,000 lives. Transcript here

It seems 13 year-old Ruby has lost or is losing everything she has loved: her Ye-Ye, the beloved neighborhood bakery, her friends, and now her summer freedom. Set in San Francisco's Chinatown, Ruby is navigating a whole lot of change in her young life. Multigenerational love wrapped around these pages. (Transcript unavailable)

1989 Dan’s first year of high school is a few short months away, and he’s about to embark on the biggest “out of his comfort zone” experience of his life, a 3 week study abroad program in Europe. Mix tapes, Kodak cameras, first love...come along with Dan Santat in his graphic novel memoir. This is one for all-ages. Transcript here

YA memoir written in verse. Raw. Honest. Real. A gift to readers. Jiordan is looking toward her first high school year, while trying to understand the crime her dad committed: googling money-laundering, defraud, schemed, and "how to survive prison." Transcript here

Tempers flare. Social media posts fly. Friendships severed. Cleverly crafted, Mascot follows a group of six diverse students through their 8th grade year in a town near Washington D.C. as they along with their community hotly debate a controversial, long-standing tradition. Transcript here

What can ten-year old Amelia, her twenty-one year old chinchilla, Calvin, and a sugar apple tree possibly have in common? Turns out, quite a bit. Join Amelia as she navigates her life: desperate to find Calvin and deal with a friend who’s turned her world topsy-turvy.  Transcript here

What can 12 year-old Josh do after his middle school is stained with freshly painted swastikas and antisemitic messages especially given that he doesn't want to reveal his Jewish identify? The Do More Club is fast-paced, written in verse with not only hate, but courage and kindness. Transcript here

Step into the life of twelve-year old Tuesday Beals whose story is nearly a love letter to Zion National Park, located in Utah, and her beloved sky. Transcript here

Featuring two graphic fictionalized memoirs. Huda, a freshman and new to her high school, is a riot. She will have you laughing out loud while tugging at your heart as she grows up and navigates her place in the world, defining herself as a Muslim Arab American. Transcript here

2020: A Zelda loving 13 year old boy and his 100 year old great grandmother living in New Jersey during the pandemic 1930’s: A deadly famine in Ukraine, a privileged Communist girl living in Kyiv, and a girl from Brooklyn, New York Masterfully written, these intertwining stories all come together.  Based on a true historical event and the author’s own family.  Transcript here

Cuba, 2018. Soleida, 16, is growing up in a place where art is illegal and sea levels are rising. Her family of artists hides their sculpture garden, but it's discovered during a hurricane which leads to the arrest of her parents leaving Soleida on her own. She ends up in a Costa Rican refugee camp where she meets Dariel, a Californian, who endures all too frequent wildfires. Together they want to find her parents, protect the environment, and explore the budding romance, until Soleida discovers he's a rich boy with famous parents who will never understand a girl like her. Transcript here

It's 1996. 13 year-old Sarai is a first generation Puerto Rican who's trying to grow up with her Mami and older sister in Bushwick, a borough in Brooklyn, New York, a  neighborhood riddled with drugs and crime. Sarai grapples with her Puerto Rican identity, hunger, poverty, frequent moves and looming neighborhood gentrification. Yet, Sarai is curious and questions the here and now and her future. Situations that seem insurmountable are juxtaposed with Sarai’s curiosity, resiliency, and hopeful spirit. Transcript here