Books like The Legend of the Bluebonnet
By Tomie dePaola
For families exploring Native American stories and the history behind familiar wildflowers, this is a quiet, moving one to sit with. Solemn, reverent, and rooted in the natural world.
A boy travels north with his grandfather, Moshom, to see the trapline where Moshom grew up, asking again and again, "Is this your trapline?" as he imagines the life his grandfather once lived there.
A young man leaves Japan to explore California, falls in love with both places, and spends his life torn between two homelands he can never fully choose between.
A Black girl named Clover is told it isn't safe to cross the fence separating her side of town from the white side where Anna lives — so the two girls find a way to be together anyway, by sitting on top of it.
A woman who loves the trees of her Kenyan homeland begins planting seeds one by one, teaching other women to do the same, until the whole country grows strong and green again.
A fox and his dog share an inseparable life together until the dog dies, sending the fox into grief so deep he tears apart the garden they once tended, until an unexpected pumpkin vine slowly draws him back into the world.
A girl and her grandmother gather salmon, herring eggs, and berries across the seasons on their island home, singing to the land as it sings back to them.
After their father dies, six-year-old Marvel, her seven siblings, and their mother move into a run-down tar-paper shack deep in the Wisconsin woods and slowly turn it into a home.
A young Hmong refugee girl longs for things her family can't afford — ice cream, a new dress, meat for dinner — until her grandmother helps her see beauty in what she already has.
A tree loves a boy so completely that she gives him her apples, her branches, and finally her trunk, asking nothing in return as he grows old.
A young girl must flee her family's home in Dehradun during the Partition of India, leaving behind her beloved doll Gurya in the rush to catch a train to safety.
A mistreated girl mocked as Sootface by her cruel older sisters sets off to try her luck with a warrior who can only be seen by someone with a kind, honest heart.
A granddaughter joins her granny and a growing group of neighbors on a mysterious, important walk through their community — one granny says will shape her into a leader.
