Just Read It! - Juv (Project LIT Inspired)

"Twelve-year-old Amal's dream of becoming a teacher one day is dashed in an instant when she accidentally insults a member of her Pakistani village's ruling family. As punishment for her behavior, she is forced to leave her heartbroken family behind and go work at their estate. Amal is distraught but has faced setbacks before. So she summons her courage and begins navigating the complex rules of life as a servant, with all its attendant jealousies...

A boy and his grandfather cross a language and cultural barrier using their shared love of art, storytelling, and fantasy.

Twelve-year-old María Luisa O'Neill-Morales (who really prefers to be called Malú) reluctantly moves with her Mexican-American mother to Chicago and starts seventh grade with a bang--violating the dress code with her punk rock aesthetic and spurning the middle school's most popular girl in favor of starting a band with a group of like-minded weirdos.

The ghost of fifteen-year-old Alfonso Jones travels in a New York subway car full of the living and the dead, watching his family and friends fight for justice after he is killed by an off-duty police officer while buying a suit in a Midtown department store.

Based on her popular Instagram posts, debut author/illustrator Vashti Harrison shares the stories of 40 bold African American women who shaped history.

"Mela ends up in trouble when her little boat is swept into the dense jungle. She offers each animal she meets a prize for helping her find her way home, but the animals take their rewards without helping--then an elephant shows Mela that kindness is its own reward"--

Unable to celebrate the holidays in the wake of his older brother's death in a gang-related shooting, Lolly Rachpaul struggles to avoid being forced into a gang himself while constructing a fantastically creative LEGO city at the Harlem community center.

A young girl describes where she finds colors in both the world around her and beyond what she can see.

"A red oak tree and a crow help their human neighbors work out their differences. Red is an oak tree who is many rings old. Red is the neighborhood "wishtree"--People write their wishes on pieces of cloth and tie them to Red's branches. Along with a crow named Bongo and other animals who seek refuge in Red's hollows, this wishtree watches over the neighborhood. You might say that Red has seen it all. Until a new family moves in. Not everyone is welcoming,...