In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez – It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo’s dictatorship. It doesn’t have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas—“The Butterflies.” In Alvarez’s novel, the voices of all four sisters —Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé— speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from hair ribbons and secret crushes to gunrunning and prison torture, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo’s rule.
Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America’s Stolen Land by Noé Álvarez – Growing up in Yakima, Álvarez worked at an apple-packing plant alongside his mother, who “slouched over a conveyor belt of fruit, shoulder to shoulder with mothers conditioned to believe this was all they could do with their lives.” A university scholarship offered escape, but as a first-generation Latino college-goer, Álvarez struggled to fit in. At nineteen, he learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys, epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America. He dropped out of school and joined a group of Dené, Secwépemc, Gitxsan, Dakelh, Apache, Tohono O’odham, Seri, Purépecha, and Maya runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings. Telling their stories alongside his own, Álvarez writes about a four-month-long journey from Canada to Guatemala that pushed him to his limits.
Out of My Heart by Sharon M. Draper – In this sequel to Out of My Mind, Melody decides to sign up for a horseback riding summer camp in order to get over her fear of horses, but she wonders if the camp will welcome a kid with cerebral palsy.
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez – A status-driven New York wedding planner grapples with her social ambitions, the return of an absent mother, and Puerto Rican roots — all in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
The Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad by Gordon H. Chang – A history of the Chinese human laborers who were pivotal to the construction of the American Transcontinental Railroad details the construction perils that cost innumerable lives before survivors were almost instantly lost to public memory.
L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón – Follows the Los Angeles-based Alvardo family as they take critical looks at their internal and external relationships while struggling with a fierce local drought, impending evacuations, secrets, deception, betrayal and making some tough decisions.
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good – Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention. Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them. Their paths cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris – Tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books, 26-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel is hired until she after a string uncomfortable events, is elevated to Office Darling, leaving Nella in the dust.
The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar – Follows three generations of Syrian Americans who are linked by the truths they carry close to their hearts. Five years after a suspicious fire killed his mother, a closeted Syrian American trans boy sheds his birth name and searches for a new one. He has been unable to paint since his mother’s ghost has begun to visit him each evening. He paints murals on buildings at night and on one excursion finds the tattered journal of a Syrian American artist who mysteriously disappeared 60 years ago and it reveals connections to his family and parts of his community he hadn’t known.
Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram – In this companion to the award-winning Darius the Great Is Not Okay, Darius suddenly has it all: a boyfriend, a tea internship, a spot on the soccer team. It’s everything he’s ever wanted – but what if he deserves better?
Grown-Up Pose by Sonya Lalli – Forced by cultural expectations to marry young, an Indian-American woman upsets her tight-knit community by getting divorced and investing all of her savings into running her own yoga studio against her parents’ wishes.
Heavy by Kiese Laymon – Laymon writes about the physical manifestations of violence, grief, trauma, and abuse on his own body. He writes of his own eating disorder and gambling addiction as well as similar issues that run throughout his family. Through self-exploration, storytelling, and honest conversation with family and friends, Heavy seeks to bring what has been hidden into the light and to reckon with all of its myriad sources, from the most intimate -a mother-child relationship- to the most universal-a society that has undervalued and abused black bodies for centuries.
A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger – Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories. Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home. He’s found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake. Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries. And there are some who will kill to keep them apart.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo – When Lily Hu realizes she has feelings for a girl in her math class, it threatens Lily’s oldest friendships and even her father’s citizenship status and eventually, Lily must decide if owning her truth is worth everything she has ever known. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown and Red Scare paranoia looming over everything. Winner of the National Book Award.
Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March – Investigating the double murder of two women in 1892 Bombay, Captain Jim Agnihotri is confronted by suspicion on both sides of a divided land before his investigation triggers unexpected consequences.
The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer – When her publisher insists that she write a Hanukkah romance, Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt, a Jewish woman with chronic fatigue and a secret career as a Christmas romance novelist, unexpectedly finds inspiration when she encounters a childhood aquaintance at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah.
Home Reading Service by Fabio Morábito, translated by Curtis Bauer – Sentenced to a year of community service reading to the elderly after an unfortunate incident, Eduardo finds a life-changing poem by a famous Mexican poet and discovers meaning in a corrupt, unequal society.
So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow – At the Freedman’s Colony of Roanoke Island, a haven for the recently emancipated, the four March sisters – Meg, Joanna, Bethlehem, and Amethyst – come into their own as independent young Black women together facing love, sickness, heartbreak, and new horizons.
If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy – A fashion-obsessed plus-size woman fills in for a no-show contestant on her executive producer stepmother’s popular dating reality show and becomes a body-positivity viral sensation overnight and could actually picture herself falling for the eligible suitor – and a way to the shoe-designing career she dreams of.
Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo – Separated from her husband, her daughter grown, and her white mother passed away, Anna goes in search of the African father she never knew.
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters – A trans woman, her detransitioned ex and his cisgender lover build an unconventional family together in the wake of heartbreak and an unplanned pregnancy.
The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade – It’s Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and thirty-three-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his fifteen-year-old daughter Angel shows up pregnant at his mother’s home where he lives and disrupts his plans for personal redemption. With weeks to go until her due date, tough, ebullient Angel has fled her mother’s house. The Five Wounds spans the baby’s first year as five generations of the Padilla family converge: Amadeo’s mother, Yolanda, reeling from a recent discovery; Angel’s mother, whom Angel isn’t speaking to; and disapproving Tio Tive, keeper of the family’s history.
First Comes Like by Alisha Rai – Social media influencer and makeup expert Jia Ahmed finds herself in a public relations jam after the son of a powerful Bollywood family begins private messaging her. It turns out she’s been catfished – soap opera star Dev Dixit has no idea who she is. Paparazzi blast their private business into the public eye, they agree to fake dating to calm the gossips and dazzle her family. It can’t possibly lead to real romance, right?
Mango, Mambo and Murder by Raquel V. Reyes – Moving from New York to Coral Shores, Miami, food anthropologist Miriam gets a short-term job as a Caribbean cooking expert on a Spanish-language morning TV show, which sets the stage for murder—one that could be the recipe for her own death.
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay – Setting aside his college ambitions when he learns that his cousin has been murdered as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, a high school senior travels to the Philippines to uncover the truth, and the part he may have played in it.
The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon – Taking on a former footballer who wants back in the NFL, personal trainer Taylor Powell finds her game plan turned completely upside down when they’re accidentally outed as a couple.
I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott, illustrated by by Sydney Smith – When a child has a “bad speech day” at school, his father gives him a new perspective on his stuttering.
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See – The ostracized daughter of a Japanese collaborator and the daughter of their Korean village’s head female diver share nearly a century of friendship that is tested by their island’s torn position between two warring empires.
Blue-Skinned Gods by S.J. Sindu – Born with blue skin, an Indian boy believed to be the 10th human incarnation of Vishnu, blesses pilgrims but ultimately questions his divinity.
This Town Sleeps by Dennis E. Staples – Engaging in a secret affair with a closeted white man, an Ojibwe from a northern Minnesota reservation navigates small-town discrimination before a ghost leads him to the grave of a basketball star whose murder becomes linked to a local legend.
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto – Accidentally causing the death of a blind date, Meddy is persuaded by her meddlesome Chinese-Indonesian mother and aunts to dispose of the body, which upends a billionaire’s wedding and Meddy’s reunion with a former flame.
The Archer by Shruti Swamy – Vidya, who lost her mother as a young child, finds structure and purpose in Kathak dancing, as she comes of age in 1960s and 70s Bombay.
The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea – Across one bittersweet weekend in their San Diego neighborhood, revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of family patriarch Miguel “Big Angel” De La Cruz and his mother, and recounting the many tales that have passed into family lore.
When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky by Margaret Verble – After disaster strikes during one of her shows, Two Feathers, a young Cherokee horse-diver on loan to Glendale Park Zoo from a Wild West show in 1926 Nashville, must get to the bottom of a mystery that spans centuries with the help of an eclectic cast of characters.
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead – A furniture salesman in 1960s Harlem becomes a fence for shady cops, local gangsters and low-life pornographers after his cousin involves him in a failed heist in the new novel from the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad.
The #WeNeedDiverseBooks (or #wndb) hashtag originated April 24, 2014, on Twitter, as part of organized efforts by several authors, bloggers and publishing industry folks including Aisha Saeed to increase diversity in youth literature. Their efforst led to the We Need Diverse Books™ organzation, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and a grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people. For more information, visit https://diversebooks.org/about-wndb/