Children's Books discussion

Hi - We are looking for novels appropriate for 4th graders (so not picture books or super short books, and not too high of a reading level either) that feature characters from Africa or the Middle East. We are trying to be culturally relevant to our many immigrant students. We have already found many good books relevant to our students from Central and South America and from Asia.

Thanks!

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*From* Africa? Home of the Brave is an excellent story about a Sudanese refugee immigrant to Minnesota.

I suspect stories about immigrants are easier to find (in the US) than stories about children actually *living in* Africa.

Listopia: Top Children's/Y.A. Books Set in Africa
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Which, from /or/ living in, do you mean?

And by 'novel' do you mean to eliminate narrative non-fiction? I wonder if 14 Cows for America wouldn't work. (But I haven't read it yet so I don't know how strongly to recommend it.)

Alexander McCall Smith has a series of detective stories set in Botswana featuring his Precious Ramotswe character as a child. First one is The Great Cake Mystery. My kids read them a bit younger, but they were advanced readers, so might be right for your kids.

(Oops, I see Laura has already shown one of the series above.)

The content may not be totally appropriate for 4th graders...probably more for 6th and up...but I really loved A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story. The text isn't that long or that difficult but it deals with the lost boys of Sudan and the civil war in Sudan and the real horrors that occurred. It made me cry.

Listening for Lions was excellent. It's been a few years since I read it so I can't guarantee if the reading level is appropriate for 4th graders, but I think it may be.

I know I have read others so I will keep thinking.

There is a listopia for books set in the Middle East as well. https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

I have only read two of them and don't recall enough about one to know if it is appropriate for 4th grade. But I did like The Turtle of Oman and I think it could work for some 4th graders.

Sorry, the only books I can think of are picture books. (I did move this thread to the "Themes, Topics and Categories" folder so I hope it will get more attention there.)

I have not read this, but Lacey and the African Grandmothers might be an idea, although I think it features a Native American girl setting up an AIDS charity for African grandmothers raising grandkids orphaned by AIDS.