Hi, My family and I are working on a Read Around the World project with our 5th grader (10 year old girl). I read them aloud, so slightly more advanced content is OK, within reason. I'd say anything middle school appropriate (up to age 13 or 14) would be fine.
Loose guidelines:
- Non-fiction, historical fiction, or realistic fiction set in any country other than the USA.
- Books about immigrants to the USA are also fine if they include perspectives and details about life in other countries.
- I'd prefer books where the characters are native to the country, but there is a nice genre of American-raised kids going back to their ancestral country that's fine too.
- Particularly, I want to find books that aren't centered around war. There are a lot of powerful books that involve conflict, so please do recommend them. But I want to include the perspective of normal life in other countries as well..
Here's my list so far. Some we've read already, and I know I am missing a few we read.
Please share your suggestions!
Asia
– Bangladesh
– Samira Surfs by Rukhsanna Guidroz
– Bhutan
– Brunei
– Cambodia
– China
– Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
– India
– Boys without Names by Kashmira Sheth
– Ahimsa
– The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krisnaswami
– Ajay and the Mumbai Sun by Varsha Shah
– Red, White and Whole by Ranjani LaRocca
– Indonesia
– Girl of the Southern Sea by Michelle Kadarusman
– Japan
– Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
– The Big Wave by Pearl S Buck
– The Last Cherry Blossom by Kathleen Burkinshaw
– Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr
– Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
– While I Was Away by Waka T Brown
– Soul Lanterns by Shaw Suzki
– Kazakhstan
– Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata
– North Korea
– Brother's Keeper by Julie Lee
– South Korea
– Finding Junie Kim by Ellen Oh
– Kyrgyzstan
– Laos
– Malaysia
– Maldives
– Mongolia
– Myanmar
– Nepal
– Philippines
– My Fate According to the Butterfly by Gail Villanueva
– How to Make Friends with the Sea by Tanya Guerrero
– Everlasting Nora by Marie Miranda Cruz
– Singapore
– Sri Lanka
– The Girl Who Stole an Elephant by Nizrana Farook
– I am Kavi by Thushanthi Ponweera
– Taiwan
– Tajikistan
– Thailand
– All Thirteen by Christina Soontornvat
– Turkmenistan
– Uzbekistan
– Vietnam
– Listen Slowly by Thanhhà Lai
– Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhhà Lai
– House Without Walls by Ching Yueng Russell
Middle East, North Africa, and Greater Arabia
– Afghanistan
– The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
– Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis
– Algeria
– Azerbaijan
– Bahrain
– Egypt
– Iran
– Iraq
– Israel
– Jordan
– Kuwait
– Lebanon
– Libya
– Morocco
– Oman
– Pakistan
– A Thousand Questions by Saadia Faruqi
– Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
– The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
– Palestine
– Code Name: Butterfly by Ahlam Bsharat (trans Nancy Roberts)
– Qatar
– Saudi Arabia
– Somalia
– Syria
– Refugee by Alan Gratz
– Tunisia
– Turkey
– The United Arab Emirates
– Yemen
Europe
– Albania
– Andorra
– Armenia
– Austria
– Belarus
– Belgium
– Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh
– Bosnia and Herzegovina
– Bulgaria
– Croatia
– Cyprus
– Czech Republic
– Denmark
– When Mischief Came to Town by Katrina Nannestad
– Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
– Estonia
– Finland
– France
– Georgia
– Germany
– I am Defiance by Jenni L Walsh
– A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen
– Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan
– Greece
– Quiver by Stephanie Spinner
– Hungary
– Iceland
– Ireland
– Italy
– Hero on a Bicycle by Shirley Hughes
– Kosovo
– Latvia
– Liechtenstein
– Lithuania
– Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen
– Luxembourg
– Macedonia
– Malta
– Moldova
– Monaco
– Montenegro
– Netherlands
– Norway
– Astrid the Unstoppable by Maria Parr
– The Reckless Kind by Carly Heath
– Poland
– Portugal
– Romania
– Russia
– San Marino
– Serbia
– Slovakia
– Slovenia
– Spain
– All You Knead is Love by Tanya Guerrero
– Sweden
– Switzerland
– Ukraine
– United Kingdom
– The War that Saved my Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
– Sweep by Jonathan Auxier
– Vatican City
North America
– Canada
– Greenland
– Mexico
– Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
– The United States of America
Central America and the Caribbean
– Antigua and Barbuda
– The Bahamas
– Barbados
– Belize
– Costa Rica
– Cuba
– Refugee by Alan Gratz
– Farewell Cuba, Mi Isla by Alexandra Diaz
– Dominica
– Dominican Republic
– El Salvador
– Grenada
– Guatemala
– Haiti
– Honduras
– Jamaica
– Nicaragua
– Panama
– Saint Kitts and Nevis
– Saint Lucia
– Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
– Trinidad and Tobago
South America
– Argentina
– Bolivia
– Brazil
– Chile
– I Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosin
– Colombia
– Ecuador
– Guyana
– Paraguay
– Peru
– The Ugly One by Leanne Statland Ellis
– Suriname
– Uruguay
– Venezuela
Sub-Saharan Africa
– Angola
– Benin
– Botswana
– Wild Life by Keena Roberts
– Burkina Faso
– Burundi
– Cameroon
– Cape Verde
– The Central African Republic
– Chad
– Comoros
– Republic of the Congo
– The Democratic Republic of the Congo
– Cote d'Ivoire
– Djibouti
– Equatorial Guinea
– Eritrea
– Ethiopia
– Gabon
– The Gambia
– Ghana
– The Kaya Girl by Mamle Wolo
– Guinea
– Guinea-Bissau
– Kenya
– Auma's Long Run by Eucabeth Odhiambo
– Lesotho
– Liberia
– Madagascar
– Malawi
– Mali
– Mauritania
– Mauritius
– Mozambique
– Namibia
– My Book of Africa by Tippi Degré
– Niger
– Nigeria
– Too Small Tola by Atinuke
– Buried Beneath the Baobob Tree by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
– Jimmy at the River School by Sabine Adeyinka
– Rwanda
– Broken Memory by Elisabeth Combres
– Sao Tome and Principe
– Senegal
– One Shadow on the Wall by Leah Henderson
– Seychelles
– Sierra Leone
– South Africa
– When Morning Comes by Arushi Raina
– South Sudan
– Sudan
– A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
– The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney
– Swaziland
– Tanzania
– Togo
– Uganda
– Orange for the Sunsets by Tina Athaide
– Zambia
– Zimbabwe
Australia and Oceania
– Australia
– Does My Head Look Big in This by Randa Abdel-Fattah
– East Timor
– Fiji
– Kiribati
– Marshall Islands
– The Federated States of Micronesia
– Nauru
– New Zealand
– The Whale Rider by Ihimaera
– Palau
– Papua New Guinea
– Samoa
– Solomon Islands
– Tonga
– Tuvalu
– Vanuatu
by JeffR47