Diverse Read Alouds
Read Aloud EVERY Day!
Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read.
--Marilyn Jager Adams
EARLY ELEMENTARY READS
DREAMERS BY YUYI MORALES
Available in Sora.
Dreamers is a celebration of what migrants bring with them when they leave their homes. It's a story about family. And it's a story to remind us that we are all dreamers, bringing our own gifts wherever we roam. Beautiful and powerful at any time but given particular urgency as the status of our own Dreamers becomes uncertain, this is a story that is both topical and timeless. --Publisher
THANK YOU, OMU! BY OGE MORA
Everyone in the neighborhood dreams of a taste of Omu's delicious stew! One by one, they follow their noses toward the scrumptious scent. And one by one, Omu offers a portion of her meal. Soon the pot is empty. Has she been so generous that she has nothing left for herself? --Publisher
DRAWN TOGETHER BY MINH LE
Available in Sora.
When a young boy visits his grandfather, their lack of a common language leads to confusion, frustration, and silence. But as they sit down to draw together, something magical happens - with a shared love of art and storytelling, the two form a bond that goes beyond words. --Publisher
UPPER ELEMENTARY READS
FRONT DESK BY KELLY YANG
Available in Sora.
Recent immigrants from China and desperate for work and money, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel in Southern California. The owner, Mr. Yao is a miser who exploits them while her mother (who was an engineer in China) does the cleaning. Mia works the front desk and tries to cope with demanding customers and other recent immigrants--not to mention being only one of two Chinese American students in her fifth grade class, the other being Mr. Yao's son, Jason. --Publisher
FINDING LANGSTON BY LESA CLINE-RANSOME
Available in Sora.
When eleven-year-old Langston's father moves them from their home in Alabama to Chicago's Bronzeville district, it feels like he's giving up everything he loves. It's 1946. Langston's mother has just died, and now they're leaving the rest of his family and friends.
In the city, they live in a small apartment surrounded by noise and chaos. But Langston's new home has one fantastic thing. Unlike the whites-only library in Alabama, the Chicago Public Library welcomes everyone. There, hiding out after school, Langston discovers another Langston--a poet whom he learns inspired his mother enough to name her only son after him. --Publisher
ARU SHAH AND THE END OF TIME BY ROSHANI CHOKSHI
Available in Sora.
Twelve-year-old Aru Shah has a tendency to stretch the truth in order to fit in at school. One day, three schoolmates show up at Aru's doorstep to catch her in a lie. They don't believe her claim that the museum's Lamp of Bharata is cursed, and they dare Aru to prove it. But lighting the lamp has dire consequences.
The only way to stop the demon is to find the reincarnations of the five legendary Pandava brothers, protagonists of the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata, and journey through the Kingdom of Death. But how is one girl in Spider-Man pajamas supposed to do all that? --Publisher
MIDDLE SCHOOL READS
AMAL UNBOUND BY AISHA SAEED
Available in Sora.
Life is quiet and ordinary in Amal's Pakistani village. She has no real complaints, and is busy pursuing her dream of becoming a teacher one day.
Her dreams are temporarily dashed when--as the eldest daughter--she must stay home from school to take care of her siblings. Amal is upset, but she doesn't lose hope and finds ways to continue learning. Then the unimaginable happens--after an accidental run-in with the son of her village's corrupt landlord, Amal must work as his family's servant to pay off her own family's debt. Will she find a way to pursue her dream? --Publisher
MARCUS VEGA DOESN'T SPEAK SPANISH BY PABLO CARTAYA
Available in Sora.
Marcus Vega is six feet tall, 180 pounds, and the owner of a premature mustache. When you look like this and you're only in the eighth grade, you're both a threat and a target.
After a fight at school leaves Marcus facing suspension, Marcus's mom decides it's time for a change of environment. She takes Marcus and his younger brother to Puerto Rico to spend a week with relatives they don't remember or have never met.
Marcus doesn't know if he'll ever find his father, but what he ultimately discovers changes his life. And he even learns a bit of Spanish along the way. --Publisher
HARBOR ME BY JACQUELINE WOODSON
Available in Sora.
It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat--by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for "A Room to Talk"), they discover it's safe to talk about what's bothering them--everything from Esteban's father's deportation and Haley's father's incarceration to Amari's fears of racial profiling and Ashton's adjustment to his changing family fortunes. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives. --Publisher
HIGH SCHOOL READS
SWING BY KWAME ALEXANDER
Available in Sora.
Novel in verse.
Noah and his best friend Walt want to become cool, make the baseball team, and win over Sam, the girl Noah has loved for years. When Noah finds old love letters, Walt hatches a plan to woo Sam. But as Noah's love life and Walt's baseball career begin, the letters alter everything.
As the personal and social tensions increase around them, Noah and Walt must decide what is really true when it comes to love, friendship, sacrifice, and fate.--Publisher
THE POET X BY ELIZABETH ACEVEDO
Available in Sora.
Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.
With Mami's determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school's slam poetry club, she doesn't know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can't stop thinking about performing her poems.
Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent. --Publisher
500 WORDS OR LESS BY JULEAH DEL ROSARIO
Available in Sora.
Nic Chen refuses to spend her senior year branded as the girl who cheated on her charismatic and lovable boyfriend. To redefine her reputation among her Ivy League-obsessed classmates, Nic begins writing their college admissions essays.
But the more essays Nic writes for other people, the less sure she becomes of herself, the kind of person she is, and whether her moral compass even points north anymore.--Publisher
Need more resources for finding recommended Diverse Read Aloud books?
Denver Public Schools Library Services
Email: libraryhelpdesk@dpsk12.org
Website: etls.dpsk12.org/library_services
Location: 1617 S Acoma St., Denver CO
Phone: 7204231842