Africa
AK by Peter Dickinson
Laurel-Leaf Books, 1994
When a military coup occurs in the constantly war-torn African country of Nagala, teenage Paul is forced to flee into the open countryside to avoid enemy soldiers who seek his life.
PB YA FICTION DIC
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Anchor Books, 2002
Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, Botswana, Precious Ramotswe is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter.
MYSTERY MCC
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Alfred A. Knopf, c1992
This novel accounts the growing hostility between African village leaders and Europeans wanting to save their souls. But its hero, a noble man who is driven by destructive forces, speaks a universal tongue.
YA FICTION ACH
Asia
God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Random House, c1997
The story of an Indian family during the 1969 Communist disturbances in Kerala province. It is told through the eyes of a boy and his sister who are the children of a rich rubber planter.
FICTION ROY
The Letters by Kazumi Yumoto
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, c2002
In Japan, the death of her former landlady triggers a young woman's memories about her father's death when she was six years old, and the special way the old lady helped her to cope with the loss.
YA FICTION YUM
The Stone Goddess by Minfong Ho
Scholastic, 2005
After the Communists take over Cambodia and her family is torn from their city life, twelve-year-old Nakri and her older sister attempt to maintain their hope as well as their classical dancing skills in the midst of their struggle to survive.
PB YT FICTION HO
Wandering Warrior by Da Chen
Delacorte Press, 2003
Eleven-year-old Luka, destined to become the future emperor of China, is trained in the ways of the kung fu wandering warriors by the wise monk Atami.
YA FICTION CHE
Australia
Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty
St. Martin's Press, 2001
Letters are written between teenage friends, who deal with crazy mothers, absent fathers, disappearing friends and brand new love.
YA FICTION MOR
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
Knopf, 2005
After capturing a bank robber, nineteen-year-old cab driver Ed Kennedy begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to addresses where people need help, and he begins getting over his lifelong feeling of worthlessness.
YA FICTION ZUS
Europe
3 Days Off by Susie Morgenstern
Viking, c2001
During a three-day suspension for insulting a teacher, an apathetic French high school student meets diverse people who give him new insights into education and life.
YA FICTION MOR
Crazy by Benjamin Lebert
Alfred A. Knopf, c2000
Benni himself is partially paralyzed and a serial failure (he's been kicked out of four boarding schools in his short life and has just entered his fifth). So he's a little odd, but he's cool and he finds other strange boys to hang with.
YA FICTION LEB
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexnder Solzhenitsyn
A common carpenter, Ivan is one of millions viciously imprisoned for countless years on baseless charges, sentenced to the waking nightmares of the Soviet work camps in Siberia. Even in the face of degrading hatred, where life is reduced to a bowl of gruel and a rare cigarette, hope and dignity prevail.
PB CLASSIC SOL
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
This extraordinary voyage into the depths of the unknown aboard the legendary submarine Nautilus – commanded by the brilliant, tragic Captain Nemo – explores both the limitless possibilities of science and the twisted labyrinth of the human mind.
PB CLASSIC VER
Latin America
Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez
Alfred A. Knopf, c2002
In the early 1960s in the Dominican Republic, twelve-year-old Anita learns that her family is involved in the underground movement to end the bloody rule of the dictator, General Trujillo.
YT FICTION ALV
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Alfred A. Knopf, 1985
The House of the Spirits is the magnificent epic of the Trueba family – their loves, their ambitions, their spiritual quests, their relations with one another, and their participation in the history of their times, a history that becomes destiny and overtakes them all.
FICTION ALL
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Doubleday, c1992
Since her birth, food has become a way of life for Tita. A magical and ethereal childhood influences her family and inspires her to become a master chef, along the way she shares special points of her favorite preparations with listeners throughout the story.
FICTION ESQ
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Perennial Classics, 1998
This novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind.
FICTION GAR
Middle East
The Arabian Nights: The Marvels and Wonders of the Thousand and One Nights
Penguin Books, c1991
This collection of over 40 tales, includes "Aladdin and His Magic Lamp", "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", and the Sinbad stories.
PB CLASSIC ARA
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Pantheon Books, c2003
A wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic-strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effect of war with Iraq.
741.5 SAT
