In this kindhearted, stand-alone companion to The Turtle of Oman, eight-year-old Aref moves from Oman to Ann Arbor, Michigan, so his parents can attend graduate school. The start of their three-year stay is buoyed by welcoming new neighbors and a summer art class that helps ease Aref’s transition.
Book of the Week
The Legend of Gravity
“He leaped so high that he looked like he was never coming down, like he defied gravity or something.” The new kid at the neighborhood basketball court doesn’t have a nickname, but his skills quickly earn him one.
Ironhead, or Once a Young Lady
Stance, 18, lives in Ghent in 1808. She’s always looking for experiences more interesting than what her fate as a woman seems to hold. Her brother Pier, 14, who wants to be a scholar, is dismayed by his older sister’s boldness and defiance.
A Song Called Home
Lou and older sister Casey’s mom is about to marry Steve, an unwelcome change that means they’ll be moving from San Francisco to the suburbs, enrolling in new schools, and living far from friends.
Olu & Greta
Olu lives near Lagos, in Nigeria; Greta lives in Milan, in Italy. The two children (both Black) are cousins. “They have never met each other in person! How would they?”
The Silence That Binds Us
The seemingly out-of-the-blue suicide of May’s older brother, basketball star and Princeton-bound Danny, just before graduation sends her Chinese American family into an downward emotional spiral.
Caprice
Twelve-year-old Caprice, Black, is back in Newark after attending a summer program at Ainsley International School in upstate New York.
The Treasure Box
In her secret treasure box, a girl with brown skin collects special found items: a particularly smooth, round rock; a papery snakeskin; a large feather; a bird’s nest. She delights in sharing these items with her white grandfather when he visits.
The Summer of Bitter and Sweet
Lou (Métis/white) is spending the summer before college working at her family’s ice cream stand in her Canadian prairie town. After her mom leaves to sell beadwork on the powwow circuit, Lou’s biological father–the white man who raped Lou’s mom when she was 16–lets Lou know he’s out of prison and demands to meet her.
Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone
Jennifer Chan (Chinese American) is obsessed with extraterrestrial life, a fascination she shared with her late dad. Biracial (Korean/white) Mallory Moss, always worried about fitting in, may not believe in aliens from other worlds but admires her new neighbor Jennifer’s ability to be herself even as she distances herself from Jennifer once the school year begins.