List

Immigration

The materials on this list offer people of all ages opportunities to dig deeper into the topic of immigration--through fiction and nonfiction--with accounts of historical and contemporary immigration to the United States.

  • I'm New Here

    2015 by Anne Sibley O'Brien

    For children and families: This picture book follows three children whose families recently arrived in the United States as they acclimate to their new schools.

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  • Grandfather's Journey

    2013 by Allen Say

    For children and families: Being an immigrant can mean feeling love for two places--the country of one's birth and the country where one lives. This picture book explores those complicated feelings through the story of an immigration from Japan to the United States.

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  • The Turtle of Oman : a novel

    2014 by Naomi Shihab Nye

    For children and families: Aref, a third grader, has mixed feelings about his family's plans to leave Oman and live in Michigan for three years. This middle grade novel explores the emotions that accompany a move across the world and what it means to leave family and friends behind--even temporarily.

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  • Inside Out & Back Again

    2011 by Thanhha Lai

    For children and families: In this middle grade novel in verse, ten-year-old Ha, her bothers, and their mother leave their home in Vietnam to immigrate to Alabama in 1975.

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  • The Arrival

    2007 by Shaun Tan

    For young adults: A lone man arrives in a strange city in this wordless graphic novel.

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  • The Secret Side of Empty

    2014 by Maria E Andreu

    For young adults: As her friends make plans for life after high school, M.T. struggles to envision her future as an undocumented immigrant and becomes determined to make a life for herself in the only place she has ever considered home.

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  • Denied, Detained, Deported : stories from the dark side of American immigration

    2009 by Ann Bausum

    For young adults: This nonfiction title examines the history of American immigration, particularly those lesser-known stories of immigrants who were denied entrance into the United States or detained for security reasons.

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  • Return to Sender

    2009 by Julia Alvarez

    For young adults: After his family hires migrant Mexican workers to help save their Vermont farm from foreclosure, eleven-year-old Tyler befriends the oldest daughter. When he discovers they may not be in the country legally, he realizes that real friendship knows no borders.

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  • Hold Tight, Don't Let Go : a novel of Haiti

    2015 by Laura Rose Wagner

    For young adults: In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Nadine goes to live with her father in Miami while her cousin Magdalie, raised as her sister, remains behind in a refugee camp, dreaming of joining Nadine but wondering if she must accept that her life and future are in Port-au-Prince.

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  • In the Country We Love : my family divided

    2016 by Diane Guerrero

    For adults: Television actress Guerrero was fourteen when her parents were deported. Born in America, she was able to stay in school through the help of compassionate friends. Her story recounts the nightmare of children of undocumented immigrants when they are separated from their families.

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  • Americanah

    2013 by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    For adults: A young woman from Nigeria leaves behind her home and her first love to start a new life in America, only to find her dreams are not all she expected.

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  • A Better Life

    2011 by Chris Weitz

    For adults: The film itself is a dramatic masterpiece with its doomed tale of a father and son. Demian Bichir reaches into his soul for this performance as a lost, sad man who brings a lot of his problems on himself just by trying to make a better life for his son.

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  • Illegal : reflections of an undocumented immigrant

    2014 by José Ángel

    For adults: The anonymous author crawled through a tunnel to live undocumented in the U.S. Now, educated, married, and successful, but always living in dread of discovery, he gives eloquent voice to the millions living in the shadows.

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