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The Walter Dean Myers Award |
This award is given annually to a "diverse author (or co-author) whose work features a diverse main character or addresses diversity in a meaningful way." For more information on The Walter, please visit weneeddiversebooks.org.
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The Firekeeper's Daughter
by Angeline Boulley
Daunis, who is part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths.
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Red, White, and Whole
by Rajani LaRocca
Told in verse, Reha, already dealing with being the only Indian American student in middle school, must now take care of her mother diagnosed with leukemia.
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Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
When Lily 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.
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Revolution In Our Time : the Black Panther Party's Promise To the People
by Kekla Magoon
In this history of the Black Panther Party, Kekla Magoon introduces readers to the Panthers' community activism, grounded in the concept of self-defense, which taught Black Americans how to protect and support themselves in a country that treated them like second-class citizens.
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Borders
by Thomas King
A boy and his mother refuse to identify themselves as American or Canadian at the border and become caught in the limbo between nations when they claim their citizenship as Blackfoot.
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Root Magic
by Eden Royce
Eleven-year-old twins Jez and Jay begin training with their uncle, Doc, in the African American folk magic known as rootwork, but soon Jez found out that her family's true power goes beyond magical potions and elixirs.
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We have selected our favorite Walter Dean Myers Award winning and honor titles just for you. Please note that some of these titles can be found in the Teen High (TH) section of the library.
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Punching the Air
by Ibi Aanu Zoboi
This book traces the story of a young artist and poet whose prospects at a diverse art school are threatened by a racially biased system and a tragic altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood.
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When Stars Are Scattered
by Victoria Jamieson
A Somali refugee who spent his childhood at the Dadaab camp and the Newbery Honor-winning creator of Roller Girl present the story of a young refugee who struggles with leaving behind his nonverbal brother when he has an opportunity to help his family by going to school.
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Almost American Girl
by Robin Ha
Moving abruptly from Seoul to Alabama, a Korean teen struggles in a hostile blended home and a new school where she does not speak English before forging unexpected connections in a local comic drawing class.
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We Are Not Free
by Traci Chee
Growing up together in the community of Japantown, San Francisco, four second-generation Japanese American teens find their bond tested by widespread discrimination and the mass incarcerations of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II.
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Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me
by Mariko Tamaki
Upset about her on-again, off-again relationship with her girlfriend Laura Dean, Freddy Riley depends on her friends, a local mystic, and a relationship columnist for help in dealing with her situation.
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King and the Dragonflies
by Kacen Callender
A 12-year-old boy spends days in the mystical Louisiana bayou to come to terms with a sibling’s sudden death, his grief-stricken family and the disappearance of his former best friend amid whispers about the latter’s sexual orientation.
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Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story)
by Daniel Nayeri
At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. But Khosrou's stories are beautiful, and terrifying, from the moment his family fled Iran in the middle of the night with the secret police moments behind them, back to the refugee camps of Italy, and further back to Isfahan.
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The Bridge Home
by Padma Venkatraman
Facing daunting prospects on the streets of Chennai, two runaway sisters finds shelter and friendship on an abandoned bridge with two homeless boys before an illness forces them to choose between survival and freedom.
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With the Fire on High
by Elizabeth Acevedo
Navigating the challenges of finishing high school while caring for a daughter, talented cook Emoni Santiago struggles with a lack of time and money that complicate her dream of working in a professional kitchen.
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Pet
by Akwaeke Emezi
In a near-future society that claims to have gotten rid of all monstrous people, a creature emerges from a painting seventeen-year-old Jam's mother created, a hunter from another world seeking a real-life monster.
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A Good Kind of Trouble
by Lisa Moore Ramée
Strictly following the rules to pursue her junior-high ambitions, 12-year-old Shayla is forced to choose between her education and her identity when her sister joins the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of a powerful protest.
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Other Words for Home
by Jasmine Warga
Sent with her mother to the safety of a relative's home in Cincinnati when her Syrian community is overshadowed by violence, Jude worries for the beloved family members who were left behind and forges a new sense of identity shaped by friends and changing perspectives.
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The Poet X
by Elizabeth Acevedo
The daughter of devout immigrants discovers the power of slam poetry and begins participating in a school club as part of her effort to understand her mother's strict religious beliefs and her own developing relationship to the world.
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Ghost Boys
by Jewell Parker Rhodes
After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till.
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