|
All of the
following titles are either about California or take place in the state.
Click on the book cover for location and availability. |
|
Picture Books |
 |
The Legend of Freedom Hill
Linda
Jacobs Altman
During the
California Gold Rush Rosabel, an African American, and Sophie, a Jew, team
up and search for gold to buy Rosabel's mother her freedom from a slave
catcher. |
|
|
Alfredito Flies Home
Jose
Argueta
Alfredito and his family are getting
ready to return to El Salvador for Christmas. It will be their first visit
back since they left as refugees and made their way to California on foot.
But this time they're flying! |
|
|
Nine for California
Sonia
Levitin
Amanda travels by stagecoach with
her four siblings and her mother from Missouri to California to join her
father
|
|
Novels
|
|
|
Al Capone Does My Shirts
Gennifer
Choldenko
A twelve-year-old boy named Moose moves to
Alcatraz Island in 1935 when guards' families were housed there and has to
contend with his extraordinary new environment in addition to life with
his autistic sister. |
 |
Flash Fire
Caroline B. Cooney
As
fire sweeps through a canyon near Los Angeles, teenagers Danna and Hall
Press and other children whose parents are not around must work together
to save themselves. |
|
|
The Journal of C.J.
Jackson: A Dust Bowl Migrant
William Durbin
Thirteen-year-old C.J. record in
a journal the conditions of the Dust Bowl that case the Jackson family to
leave their farm in Oklahoma and make the difficult journey to California,
where they find a harsh life as migrant workers.
|
|
|
Walk Across the Sea
Susan
Fletcher
In late nineteenth-century California
when Chinese immigrants are being drive out or even killed for fear they
will take jobs from whites, fifteen-year-old Eliza Jane McCully defies the
townspeople and her lighthouse-keeper father to help a Chinese boy who has
been kind to her. |
|
|
Valley of the Moon: The Diary of Maria
Rosalia de Milagros
Sherry Garland
The
1845-1846 diary of thirteen-year-old Maria, servant to the wealthy Spanish
family which took her in when her Indian mother died. Includes a
historical note about the settlement and early history of California. |
|
|
Charlie's Run
Valerie
Hobbs
Hoping to stop his parents'
impending separation and keep them from getting a divorce, eleven-year-old
Charlie runs away from their house in the California countryside and finds
a ride to the coast.
|
|
|
Any Small Goodness
Tony
Johnston
Arturo and his family and friends
share all kinds of experiences living in the barrio of East Lost
Angeles--reclaiming their names, playing basketball, championing the
school librarian and even starting their own gang.
|
|
|
Breaking Through
Francisco Jimenez
Having
come from Mexico to California ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Francisco
is still working in the fields but fighting to improve his life and
complete his education.
|
 |
How I Saved Hanukkah
Amy
Goldman Koss
Maria the only Jewish student in her
fourth-grade class, wishes she celebrated Christmas like her best friend
Lucy until one year when she decides to learn all about Hanukkah and to
teach her family too.
|
 |
Kailey
Amy
Goldman Koss
Ten-year old Kailey launches an art
protest to keep a developer from spoiling the cove and its tide pools that
are special to her and her family and friends. (American Girl Today
Series)
|
|
|
Call me Henri
Lorraine
M. Lopez
Faced with family problems, difficulty
in school and gangs in the barrio, Enrique dreams of some day reaching the
"other America" depicted on television, while sympathetic
teachers help him cope by supporting his fight to study French instead of
ESL. |
 |
Path to My African Eyes
Ermila Moodley
When
her father gets a new job in Buena Vista, California, fourteen-year-old
Thandi Sobukwe struggles to find her true identity between her sometimes
ignorant American friends and her past South African culture.
|
|
|
The Wild Girls
Pat
Murphy
When thirteen-year-old Joan moves to
California in 1972 she becomes friends with Sarah, who is timid at school
but an imaginative leader when they play in the woods and after winning a
writing contest together they are recruited for an exclusive summer
writing class that gives them new insights into themselves and others. |
|
|
Ruby Electric
Theresa
Nelson
Twelve-year-old Ruby Miller, movie buff
and aspiring screen writer, tries to resolve the mysteries surrounding her
little brother's stuffed woolly mammoth and their father's five year
absence. |
|
|
The Boy Who Saved Baseball
John
H. Ritter
The fate of a small California town
rests on the outcome of one baseball game, and Tom Gallagher hopes to lead
his team to victory with the secrets of the now disgraced player, Dante
Del Gato.
|
|
|
Esperanza Rising
Pam Munoz Ryan
Esperanza
and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in
Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California where they
must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers on the
eve of the Great Depression.
|
|
|
The Boys of San Joaquin
D. James Smith
In
a small California town in 1951, twelve-year-old Paolo and his deaf cousin
Billy get caught up in a search for money missing from the church
collection, leading them to complicated discoveries about themselves,
other family members and townspeople they thought they knew. |
 |
Lord of the Kill
Theodore
Taylor
With his parents in India,
sixteen-year-old Ben Jepson is in charge of Los Coyotes Preserve, a refuge
for big cats near Los Angeles, when two powerful groups try to shut it
down by intimidation, murder and kidnapping the largest tiger in
captivity. |
 |
This Isn't About The Money
Sally
Warner
Twelve-year-old Janey tries to adjust in
the aftermath of an automobile accident that kills her parents, severely
injures her face and forces her and her younger sister to move from
Arizona to California to live with their grandfather and great aunt. |
 |
Daughter of Madrugada
Frances
M. Wood
After the United States wins the war with
Mexico in 1848, life on her Mexican family's ranch in California is
greatly changed for thirteen-year-old Cesa. |
 |
So Totally Emily Embers
Lisa
Yee
In a series of letters to absent father,
twelve-year-old Emily Embers deals with moving cross-country, her parent's
divorce, a new friendship and her first serious crush. |
 |
The Earth Dragon Awakes
Laurence
Yep
Eight-year-old Henry and nine-year-old Chin
love to read about heroes in popular "penny dreadful" novels
until they both witness real courage while trying to survive the 1906 San
Francisco earthquake. |
| Older
Titles |
| Book
Lists |
| Children's
Room |
