She is famous. Not just in her own mind or in her own school, but seriously, FAMOUS. At 
least in the online world of YouTube. Torrey Grey has her own channel talking about fashion, style and all the things in between. And for being a teenager, she has a huge amount of people following her channel. One thing though, is that her sister doesn’t particularly share her zest for clothing and all things fashion, but sometimes Torrey needs Miranda to film things for her videos. One day, while filming Torrey and her friend shopping, Miranda decides she’s had enough and leaves the store. Moments later, tragedy strikes when Miranda is killed by a drunk driver.
Now, online is the last place Torrey wants to be. Strangers are passing judgement on Torrey and many are blaming her for her sister’s death. Torrey knows her parents might be harboring similar thoughts as well. So the family decides to pick up and move across the country to start over. Torrey now struggles to make new friends and wonders how she’ll be able to tell if they are true or not.
Can’t Look Away by Donna Cooner looks at guilt and how much we can ever really be responsible for someone other than ourselves. When is it time to accept life and figure out a way to move on, or not.
Recommended for 7th grade and up.
Xing Xing is the unwanted daughter from her father’s first marriage. Her father’s second wife had a daughter named Wei Ping and when her father dies, Xing Xing becomes a servant to the second wife. When her father was alive, he shunned the idea of binding young girls feet, in the common tradition. He felt women should be able to walk and move about, but once he is dead, the second wife can only think of making a fine marriage for her daughter Wei Ping. So even though she is much older than normal to bind feet, the mother does it.
Valley located in the middle of nowhere England. But when his school bus stops to pick up a new student – a girl named Scarlett – something in the day seems to shift. For reasons that Eddie can’t fathom, Scarlett is interested in him – well, interested in what happened to his mom, who died when he was just an infant in a car accident. Yet, when Eddie tries to ask Scarlett anything about her life, or why on earth her family is in Wellcome Valley, she shuts him down and tells him she can’t talk about it. Mystified and captivated, Eddie decides to accidentally run into her one day when he’s out riding his bike – in the rain – just in case she’s where she said she’d be. And she is! But she’s hiding behind their history teacher’s house and when he asks what she’s up to, she shushes him and they watch as the teacher digs up part of the backyard, buries a book, then digs it back up moments later in another part of the backyard!
Darwin feels like he can’t catch a break. Like how his dad is in prison and his mom thinks if he attends a fancy school out in the suburbs, Darwin won’t end up following in his dad’s footsteps. But when the history teacher at his new school questions whether he actually wrote his paper himself, or when the kids all whisper when they see him, or when a kid approaches him to join a fight club, Darwin knows life is never easy.
Tareq’s father decides they must leave Syria and journey to Turkey as the first step in fleeing their war torn country. However, they need money for this and they travel to a part of Syria that is controlled by Daesh fighters and there Tareq witnesses things he never thought to see in real life. And they haven’t even left the country yet.
You Bring the Distance Near by Mitali Perkins looks at a family in transition from their initial roots in India to their final settling place of America and all the trauma and triumphs that go with it. How do you fit in, and still feel like yourself? Is it even possible? And not only are the girls having their own issues, but their mother must find her own way to be herself in all these new and strange countries. And when the girls grow up and have their own girls, what challenges do the children of immigrants face that are different from their own mothers?
