Sesame Street® Welcoming Words

• Interest Level: Preschool – Grade 2    
• Reading Level: Kindergarten

Sesame Street characters help readers connect to new friends who speak different languages. Simple words and phrases relating to everyday life plus a colorful approach help readers learn a new language to become smarter, kinder friends and communicate across cultures.

The languages covered in this series include the languages most frequently spoken in refugee camps around the world, helping children welcome friends into their new communities.

The Most Beautiful Thing

• Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 3    
• Reading Level: Grade 2

A warmhearted and tender true story about a young girl finding beauty where she never thought to look.

Drawn from author Kao Kalia Yang’s childhood experiences as a Hmong refugee, this moving picture book portrays a family with a great deal of love and little money. Weaving together Kalia’s story with that of her beloved grandmother, the book moves from the jungles of Laos to the family’s early years in the United States.

When Kalia becomes unhappy about having to do without and decides she wants braces to improve her smile, it is her grandmother—a woman who has just one tooth in her mouth—who helps her see that true beauty is found with those we love most. Stunning illustrations from Vietnamese illustrator Khoa Le bring this intergenerational tale to life.

“A deep and moving reflection on enduring hardship and generational love. . . . Poignant storytelling with stunning visuals.”—starred, Kirkus Reviews

“A sincere narrative that centers on the power of family love.”—starred, School Library Journal

Minnesota Book Award Finalist, ALA Notable Children’s Book, New York Public Library Best Book for Kids, NPR Best Book of the Year

The Little Tree

• Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 3    
• Reading Level: Grade 2

When the Little Tree sees the world around her narrowing, she worries about what life will be like for her Little Seed. She decides to take the biggest risk of all, and let Little Seed find a richer life on her own.

Migrants

• Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 3    
• Reading Level: Grade 2

The migrants must leave the forest. Borders are crossed, sacrifices made, loved ones are lost. It takes such courage to reach the end. At last the journey is over and the migrants arrive. This is the new place.

With forceful simplicity, Migrants narrates the journey of a group of animals leaving a leafless forest. Borders must be crossed, sacrifices made, loved ones left behind.

Watanabe takes extraordinary care to show the individuality and humanity of each migrant—through the detailed patterns on their clothing, their care of each other as they set up camp, the symbol of the blue ibis showing the connection between past and future, life and death.

Boundless Sky

• Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2    
• Reading Level: Grade 2

Nobody knew, nobody dreamed, nobody even considered the possibility that a bird that fits in your hand might fly halfway around the world looking for a place to nest . . . or that a young girl from northern Africa might flee halfway around the world looking for safety. This is the story of Bird. This is the story of Leila. This is the story of a chance encounter and a long journey home.

Tomorrow

• Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2    
• Reading Level: Grade 2

Yazan no longer goes to the park to play, and he no longer sees his friend who lives next door. Everything around him is changing. His parents sit in front of the television with the news turned up LOUD and Yazan’s little red bike leans forgotten against the wall. Will he ever be able to go outside and play? An uplifting story about a courageous little boy growing up in a time of conflict, and the strength of family love.

Their Great Gift

Courage, Sacrifice, and Hope in a New Land

• Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 3    
• Reading Level: Grade 2

With lyrical text and thought-provoking photography, Their Great Gift explores the experiences of immigrants in the twenty-first century, focusing on the lives of children. Images of families who came to the United States from many different parts of the world celebrate the diversity of our country and contain a vision of hope for the future.

Escape

One Day We Had to Run . . .

• Interest Level: Grade 4 – Grade 6    
• Reading Level: Grade 3

CLING. Don’t let go. Hold tight. Never give up. FLY. Rev up. Lift off. Soar. PEDAL. Set off. Cycle. Pedal for your life.

Throughout history, ordinary people have been forced to leave their families and homes because of war, famine, slavery, intolerance, economic and political upheaval, or climate change. These remarkable true stories of escape show how courageous people all around the world have overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their flight to freedom.

Without Refuge

• Interest Level: Grade 4 – Grade 7    
• Reading Level: Grade 4

Thirteen-year-old Ghalib wishes his life could go back to normal. He wishes he could still hang out at the market with his friends, root for his favorite soccer team, even go to school. But civil war has destroyed his home.

As violence rages around them, his family makes the difficult choice to flee Syria. Together they start out on a dangerous journey toward Europe. Along the way, they encounter closely guarded borders, hardscrabble refugee camps, and an ocean crossing that they may not survive.

The gripping story of one boy’s journey to find refuge pays tribute to struggles millions of Syrians face in today’s real-world crisis.

Called Up

From the Series Lorimer Sports Stories

• Interest Level: Grade 5 – Grade 8    
• Reading Level: Grade 2

For thirteen-year-old David Timko, making the Bantam A hockey team is everything. So when he doesn’t make the cut, his bad attitude soon gets him benched. Even worse, his new friend at school, Omar, shows a complete lack of understanding of David’s problem. Omar has problems of his own. A recent Syrian refugee, he’s angry that his parents can’t find good jobs in his new country, among other problems. As both boys become more frustrated with their own problems, their friendship begins to suffer. Can the two boys come to an understanding of each other’s problems before their friendship comes to blows?

Either the Beginning or the End of the World

• Interest Level: Grade 8 – Grade 12    
• Reading Level: Grade 7

For sixteen years, it’s been just Sofie and her father, living on the New Hampshire coast. Her Cambodian immigrant mother has floated in and out of her life, leaving Sofie with a fierce bitterness toward her—and a longing she wishes she could outgrow.

To me she is as unreliable as the wind.

Then she meets Luke, an army medic back from Afghanistan, and the pull between them is as strong as the current of the rushing Piscataqua River. But Luke is still plagued by the trauma of war, as if he’s lost with the ghosts in his past. Sofie’s dad orders her to stay away; it may be the first time she has ever disobeyed him.

A ghost can’t love you.

When Sofie is forced to stay with her mother and grandmother while her dad’s away, she is confronted with their memories of the ruthless Khmer Rouge, a war-torn countryside, and deeds of heartbreaking human devotion.

I don’t want you for ancestors. I don’t want that story.

As Sofie and Luke navigate a forbidden landscape, they discover they both have their secrets, their scars, their wars. Together, they are dangerous. Together, they’ll discover what extraordinary acts love can demand.

I Remember Beirut

• Interest Level: Grade 8 – Grade 12    
• Reading Level: Grade 7

Zeina Abirached, author of the award-winning graphic novel A Game for Swallows, returns with a powerful collection of wartime memories.

Abirached was born in Lebanon in 1981. She grew up in Beirut as fighting between Christians and Muslims divided the city streets. Follow her past cars riddled with bullet holes, into taxi cabs that travel where buses refuse to go, and on outings to collect shrapnel from the sidewalk.

With striking black-and-white artwork, Abirached recalls the details of ordinary life inside a war zone.

The Global Refugee Crisis

Fleeing Conflict and Violence

• Interest Level: Grade 6 – Grade 12    
• Reading Level: Grade 8

According to a UN tally, more than 1 million people fled violence and persecution in 2015. Of these, more than half were children. Thousands died along the way. The Syrian civil war as well as armed conflicts in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and the Central African Republic contributed to the continuing exodus of people into Europe and North America. Learn more about these modern mass exoduses, what is fueling them in the 21st century, how nations are addressing the crises, how refugees contribute to and strain communities, and what kinds of solutions could help. Along the way, you’ll meet actual refugees and the people who are trying to help.

Climate Migrants

On the Move in a Warming World

• Interest Level: Grade 6 – Grade 12    
• Reading Level: Grade 8

Around the world, from US coastal towns to island nations of the Pacific and the deserts of Africa, people are in danger of losing their homes. Some have already fled. Others know they are running out of time. By 2050, at least 25 million people will be driven from their homes due to the effects of climate change.

Droughts, desertification, rising sea levels, melting permafrost, and severe storms are drastically redefining the planet’s landscape and leaving many places unable to support human populations. Although developing nations are especially vulnerable to the impacts of extreme climate shifts, ultimately, people in wealthy countries will also be forced to migrate. Experts expect Americans to move from drought-ravaged California, sea-swept Florida, and numerous other vulnerable areas to crowd into the few remaining safe havens.

Humans cannot stop climate change altogether. Yet leaders can minimize the damage by curbing carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change and by adapting communities to better withstand climate-related stresses. Even so, for many people, relocation is already a reality. How they adjust to their new homes—and how their new communities adjust to them—will set the stage for a future defined by a warming planet.