🦅 Memorial High School Library: Reading Recommendations

A mesmerizing and hauntingly beautiful memoir about a Hmong family's epic journey to safety told from the perspective of the author's incredible mother who survived, and helped her family escape, against all odds. Author Kao Kalia Yang reveals her mother's astonishing saga with tenderness and unvarnished clarity, giving voice to the countless resilient refugees who are often overlooked as one of the essential foundations of this country. Evocative, stirring, and unforgettable, Where Rivers Part is destined to become a classic.

Revered teacher, librarian, and story ambassador John Schu explores anorexia--and self-expression as an act of survival--in a wrenching and transformative novel-in-verse. A fictionalized account of the author's experiences and emotions living in residential treatment facilities as a young teen with an eating disorder, Louder than Hunger is a triumph of raw honesty.

At first, no one noticed when I stopped talking at school.

In this moving true story, Kao Kalia Yang shares her experiences as a young Hmong refugee navigating life at home and at school. Having seen the poor treatment her parents received when making their best efforts at speaking English, she no longer speaks at school. Kalia feels as though a rock has become lodged in her throat, and it grows heavier each day. Although the narrative is somber, it is also infused with moments of beauty, love, and hope.