Reading Through our Differences:
Oppression, Prejudice, Bullying, and Hatred,
Novels and Memoirs for Teens
Essential Questions:
1. What are the different forms of hatred? How does hatred affect characters’
Motivations, decisions, and consequences?
2. Why do individuals and groups continue to be oppressed?
3. What are the effects on individuals and groups when people’s rights are taken away?
Enduring Understandings:
1. When we act on universal values, we improve the quality of life for those in our world.
2. Even the smallest opportunity to contribute to the well-being of others is important.
3. We have a moral imperative to act on our beliefs if we want to have integrity.
4. Because our culture impacts our perceptions, we can only develop sound judgment if we consider
multiple perspectives.
Dogar, Sharon. Annexed. Novel. Lexile: HL470; 341 pages. SWM library.
Holocaust. A fictional account of what life in the Secret Annex might have been like through the
eyes of Peter Van Pels.
Orlev, Uri. Run, Boy, Run. Novel. SWM library.
Holocaust. Based on the true story of a nine year old boy who escapes the Warsaw Ghetto and
must survive in the Nazi-occupied Polish countryside.
Sepetys, Ruta. Between Shades of Gray. Novel. Lexile: HL490L. 336 pages.
Soviet Prison Camps. A harrowing and horrifying account of the forcible relocation of countless
Lithuanians in the wake of the Russian invasion of their country in 1939. In the case of 16-yearold Lina, her mother, and her younger brother, this means deportation to a forced-labor camp
in Siberia, where conditions are all too painfully similar to those of Nazi concentration camps.
Lina's great hope is that somehow her father, who has been arrested by the Soviet police, might
find and rescue them.
Spinelli, Jerry. Milkweed: a Novel. Novel. Lexile: 510; 208 pages. SWM library
and available in literacy library.
Holocaust. A street child finds community when he is taken in by a band of orphans in the
Warsaw Ghetto.
Sherman, Alexie. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Novel. Lexile:
600; 230 pages
Oppression Book List page 1
Native American discrimination. Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian
Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school
mascot.
Preller, James. Bystander. Novel. SWM library. Lexile: HL600; 226 pages
Bullying. Thirteen year old Eric discovers there are consequences to not standing by and
watching as the bully at his new school hurts people.
Park, Linda Sue. When My Name was Keoko. Novel. Lexile: 610; 196 pages
The story of a Korean brother and sister living in Korea under Japanese occupation in the 1940s.
Hughes, Dean. Missing in Action. Novel. Lexile: HL620; 240 pages. SWM library.
Japanese Internment camps; Native American prejudice. While his father is missing in action in
the Pacific during World War Two, twelve year old Jay moves with his mother to small-town
Utah, where he sees prejudice from both sides, as a part-time Navaho himself and through an
unlikely friendship with Japanese American Ken from the nearby internment camp.
Ellis, Deborah. The Breadwinner. Novel. Lexile: 630; 166 pages
Afghanistan. Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, 11-year-old Parvana has rarely been
outdoors. Barred from attending school, shopping at the market, or even playing in the streets
of Kabul, Parvana realizes that it's up to her to become the "breadwinner" and disguise herself
as a boy to support her mother, two sisters, and baby brother.
Levitin, Sonia. Dream Freedom. Novel. SWM library. Lexile: 670; 169 pages
Sudanese slavery. Marcus and his classmates learn about the terrible problem of slavery in
present-day Sudan and raise money to help buy the freedom of some of the slaves.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Novel. Lexile: HL670; 288 pages.
This book is for advanced readers because it uses dialect exclusively, which makes it difficult to
read. The book changes setting frequently and readers have to juggle many different plots and
characters. Sexism and segregation. The powerful story of one woman’s struggle against
oppression against sexism and racism in the segregated South. Raped by her father and forced
to give up her children, Celie is married off to an abusive husband she calls “Mister.” Told
through Celie’s letters to God, this novel shows the power of love to transform a broken spirit.
Drucker, Malka and Halperin, Michael. Jacob’s Rescue: a Holocaust Story.
Novel. Lexile: 680; 117 pages. SWM library.
Holocaust. A brave Polish couple hid Jacob and and other Jewish children from the Nazis. Based
on a true story.
Langan, Paul. The Bully. Novel. Lexile: 700; 190 pages. SWM library.
Oppression Book List page 2
Bullying. Ninth grader Darrell Mercer and his mother move to the Bluford area in the middle of
the school year where Darrell quickly becomes a target for the freshman class bully.
Cooney, Caroline. Burning Up: A Novel. Novel. Lexile: 720; 230 pages. SWM
library.
African-American/racial prejudice. When a girl she had met at an inner-city church is murdered,
fifteen year old Macy channels her grief into a school project that uncovers prejudice she had
never imagined in her family and community.
Hoffman, Alice. Incantation. Novel. Lexile: 730; 166 pages
Anti-Semitism during Spanish Inquisition. During the Spanish Inquisition, sixteen-year-old
Estrella, brought up a Catholic, discovers her family's true Jewish identity. Will her family’s
secret be safe with her best friends or will she be betrayed?
Zuzak, Marcus. The Book Thief. Novel. Lexile: 730; 576 pages
Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel
Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by
stealing when she encounters something she can't resist, books. With the help of her accordion–playing
foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as
well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee Neela. Victory Song. Novel. Lexile: 740; 185 pages
India under British rule. Neela, 12, lives in India, where 200 years of British rule has turned sour.
When she befriends an underground freedom fighter, Samar, her interest in India’s struggle
begins to consume her every thought. Her father has joined Mohandas Gandhi’s “civil
disobedience” movement, and she becomes determined to fight for her country’s freedom.
Koller, Jackie French. A Place to Call Home. Novel. Lexile: 740; 250 pages
Racial prejudice. Anna, a fatherless, biracial fifteen-year-old, is intent on keeping her mother’s
disappearance a secret from authorities so that she and her younger brother and sister won’t
be separated.
Lobel, Anita. No Pretty Pictures. Nonfiction memoir. Lexile: 750; 193 pages
Holocaust. Illustrator Anita Lobel’s memoir of her traumatic years in Poland spent under the
threat of annihilation by the Nazis is notable both as an account of survival and as a revelation
of a remarkable human being.
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. Novel. Lexile: 750; 294 pages
(Even though this lexile seems low, this is still a high-level book!) Feminism/futuristic. In this
futuristic novel where only a fraction of women can bear children, the resulting society is a
feminist's nightmare: women are strictly controlled, unable to have jobs or money and assigned
to various classes: the chaste, childless Wives; the housekeeping Marthas; and the reproductive
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Handmaids, who turn their offspring over to the "morally fit" Wives. What will happen when
one woman dares to change the order?
Venkarraman, Padma. Climbing the Stairs. Novel. Lexile: HL750; 243 pages
British-occupied India and Sexism. Fifteen-year-old Vidya is the odd girl out in British-occupied
India. While her friends dream of the perfect arranged marriage, she wants nothing more than
to head to college. Just as it appears she might achieve the impossible, tragedy strikes, and
she's sent to live in the traditional household of her grandfather, where the men live upstairs
and the women are segregated below. Set against the backdrop of World War II and the
simultaneous protests of Mahatma Ghandi, this is a tale of a girl seeking independence and
freedom.
Pixley, Marcella. Freak. Novel. Lexile: 750; 151 pages. SWM library.
Bullying. Twelve year old Miriam is considered a freak by the popular girls at her middle school,
and she eventually explodes, revealing an inner strength she did not know she had.
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. The Boy Who Dared. Novel. Lexile: 760; 202 pages
Holocaust. In October, 1942, seventeen-year old Helmuth Hübener, imprisoned for distributing
anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth
about Hitler and the war to the German people. Based on a true story.
Lerangis, Peter. Smiler’s Bones. Novel. Lexile: 760; 136 pages
Eskimos. Explorer Robert Peary brings six Eskimos to a New York City museum to be a living
exhibit. Qisuk, known as "Smiler," and his son Minik are part of the exhibit. Four of the Eskimos
die, including Smiler, and one Eskimo returns to Greenland. Minik spends twelve years at the
museum amid lies and deception, in search of the truth and a way to survive.
Jiang, Ji Li. Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution. Nonfiction
Memoir. Lexile: 780; 285 pages
Communist dictatorship/China. This memoir recounts the experiences of Ji-li Jiang living
through the Cultural Revolution in China. Scapegoated because of her family’s political
background, she must choose between her family and her future in Chinese society. Ji-li
experiences constant fear of arrest and the betrayal of her closest friends.
Jansen, Hanna and Crawford, Elizabeth. Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You.
Nonfiction memoir. Lexile: 790; 332 pages.
Rwandan genocide. When Jeanne was eight, Hutu neighbors massacred her family and
destroyed her home; she witnessed the murder of her mother and brother, as well as other
family members and friends.
Martin, Ann. Here Today. Novel. Lexile: 790; 308 pages. SWM library.
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Bullying/ misfits. In 1963 when her mother abandons the family to pursue her dream of acting,
eleven year old Ellie takes charge of her younger siblings, while also trying to deal with her
outcast status in school and acts of prejudice toward the “misfits” that live on her street.
Nazer, Mende and Lewis, Damien. Slave: My True Story. Nonfiction memoir.
Lexile: undocumented ; 368 pages.
Sudanese slavery. Mende Nazer was a teenager when she was kidnapped, raped, and sold into
slavery by her own countrymen in Sudan. This is her story of survival.
Blanco, Jodee. Please Stop Laughing at Me. Nonfiction Memoir. Lexile:
undocumented; 288 pages.
Bullying. This memoir recounts the author’s experiences of being bullied in school from fifth
through twelfth grade simply for being different. Jodee Blanco is now a successful publicist and
agent and has used her success to help others who are victimized by bullying.
Krisher, Trudy. Spite Fences. Novel. SWM library. Lexile: 800; 284 pages
Segregation. As she struggles with her troubled relationship with her mother during the
summer of 1960, a young girl is also drawn into the violence and racial tension in her small
Georgia town.
O’Brien, Caragh M. Birthmarked. Futuristic Novel. Lexile: HL800L 361 pages.
Futuristic/ Oppressive Government. Set in the 2400's, the story follows Gaia, a midwife, on her
quest to track down her parents and uncover the secrets of the oppressive regime that her
family so dutifully serves. But to do so, she must make her way inside the walls of the Enclave.
The hitch: with half her face covered in scars, she sticks out like a sore thumb among a
government-cultivated population that's been bred to perfection. Readers accompany the
novel's inspiring heroine on an undertaking brimming with danger, intrigue, and romance.
Matas, Carol. After the War. Novel. Lexile: 840; 133 pages. SWM library.
Holocaust. After being released from Buchanwald at the end of World War Two, fifteen year old
Ruth risks her life to lead a group of children across Europe to Palestine.
Kidd, Sue Monk. The Secret Life of Bees. Novel. Lexile: 840; 302 pages
(The lexile seems lower, but it’s a high level book and is read in Freshman high school classes at
South High.) Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is
haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship
with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town
that holds the secret to her mother's past.
Klass, David. Danger Zone. Novel. Lexile: 850; 232 pages. SWM library.
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Racial prejudice. When he joins a predominantly black Teen Dream Team that will be
representing the U.S. in an international basketball tournament in Rome, Jimmy makes some
unexpected discoveries about racism and politics.
Dallas, Sandra. Tallgrass. Novel. Lexile: 860; 305 pages.
Japanese Internment Camps. During World War Two, a family finds life turned upside down
when the government opens a Japanese internment camp in their small Colorado town. After a
young girl is murdered, all eyes (and suspicions) turn to the newcomers, the interlopers, the
strangers.
Isaacs, Anne. Torn Thread. Novel. Lexile: 880; 188 pages. SWM library
Holocaust. In an attempt to save his daughter’s life, Eva’s father sends her from Poland to a
forced labor camp in Czechoslovakia where she and her sister survive the war.
Sharenow, Robert. The Berlin Boxing Club. Novel. Lexile: 880; 406 pages. SWM
library.
Holocaust. In 1936 Berlin, fourteen year old Karl Stern, considered Jewish despite a nonreligious upbringing, learns to box from the legendary Max Schmeling while struggling with the
realities of the Holocaust.
LaFaye, A. The Strength of Saints. Novel. SWM library.
Segregation. In 1936, fourteen year old Nissa takes a stand against racial prejudice and for her
own integrity and independence, drawing on the support of her family and some of the people
in her Louisiana town.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Novel. Lexile:
900; 158 pages
Communist dictatorship/Soviet Union. The story is set in a Soviet labor camp in the 1950s, and
describes a single day of an ordinary prisoner, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. Its publication was an
extraordinary event in Soviet literary history—never before had an account of Stalinist
repression been openly distributed.
Taylor, Mildred. Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry. Novel. Lexile: 920; 236 pages.
SWM library.
Segregation. A black family living in the South during the 1930s is faced with discrimination
which their children don’t understand.
Wright, Richard. Black Boy. Nonfiction Memoir. Lexile: 950; 382 pages.
The writer’s memoir of growing up under segregation and racism in the South and his quest to
find his own identity as a writer.
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Uchida, Yoshiko. A Jar of Dreams. Novel. Lexile: Lexile: 970; 131 pages. SWM
library.
Japanese-Americans. A young girl grows up in a closely-knit Japanese-American family in
California during the 1930s, a time of great prejudice.
Staples, Suzanne Fisher. Dangerous Skies. Novel. Lexile: 990; 231 pages. SWM
library.
Racial prejudice. Hypocricy and prejudice twist events in such a way as to implicate two
children, one from a wealthy white family and the other an African American, in a murder.
Gleitzman, Morris. Once. Novel. Lexile: undocumented; 176 pages; SWM library.
Holocaust. After living in a Catholic orphanage for nearly four years, a naïve Jewish boy runs
away and embarks on a journey across Nazi-occupied Poland to find his parents.
Griffin, John Howard. Black Like Me. Nonfiction. Lexile: 990. 188 pages.
Griffin was a white native of Mansfield, Texas and the book describes his six-week experience
travelling on Greyhound buses (occasionally hitchhiking) throughout the racially segregated
states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia passing as a black man.
Grove, Vicki. The Starplace. Novel. Lexile: 1000; 214 pages. SWM library.
Segregation. Thirteen year old Frannie learns hard lessons about prejudice and segregation
when she becomes friends with a young black girl who moves to her small Oklahoma town in
1961.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham. Novel. Lexile: 1000;
210 pages
Segregation. A novel that begins as a lighthearted romp follows ten-year-old Kenny and the rest
of the “Weird Watsons” of Flint, Michigan, as they travel South in 1963 and become witnesses
of a tragic event of the Civil-Rights Movement.
Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. Novel. Lexile: 1000; 220 pages
Teen misfits/bullying. T.J., an exceptional athlete who has refused to play on the school teams,
agrees to lead a start-up swim team only to buck the system by signing up every needy misfit he
can find and ensuring that each will win a letterman’s jacket.
Mathabane, Mark. Kaffir Boy—an Autobiography. Nonfiction Memoir. Lexile:
1040; 348 pages
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South African Aparteid. Mark Mathabane is born into a poverty-stricken black family in South
Africa during the apartheid years. Throughout his childhood, Mark suffers hunger, witnesses
violence, and learns to hate and fear whites.
Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and Houston, James D. Farewell to
Manzanar. Nonfiction Memoir. Lexile: 1040; 145 pages
Japanese internment camps. Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when her family
was uprooted from their home and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp with ten
thousand other Japanese-Americans.
Bagdasarian, Adam. Forgotten Fire. Novel. Lexile: 1050; 271 pages
Armenian genocide in Turkey. This vivid, even horrific, novel tells of the genocide carried out
against Armenians in Turkey during World War I. Like narrator Vahan Kenderian, who is twelve
when the novel begins, the reader can’t really prepare for this relentless tragedy before it
unfolds.
Stockett, Kathryn. The Help. Novel. Lexile: Undocumented but advanced; 530
pages
Segregation and Civil Rights. Set during the Civil Rights movement, a white society woman
collects the forbidden stories of the “colored” maids who work for her society friends and
writes a tell-all book that rocks their Jackson, Mississippi society.
Angelou, Maya. I Know why the Caged Bird Sings. Nonfiction memoir. Lexile:
1070; 246 pages
Segregation and sexism. In this memoir, poet Maya Angelou recounts a youth filled with
disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and finally hard-won independence. Sent at a young age
to live with her grandmother in Arkansas, Angelou learned a great deal from this exceptional
woman and the tightly knit black community there. These very lessons carried her throughout
the hardships she endured later in life, including a tragic occurrence while visiting her mother in
St. Louis and her formative years spent in California--where an unwanted pregnancy changed
her life forever.
Boyne, John. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: a Fable. Novel. Lexile: 1080; 215
pages. SWM library.
(The lexile seems high, yet this is a simple book to read.) Holocaust. Bored and lonely after his
family moves to a place he calls “Out-With” in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a
boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Nonfiction
Memoir. Lexile: 1080; 138 pages.
Slavery. The incredible memoir of the former slave and abolitionist: how he rebelled against his
master and ultimately won freedom and the respect of the nation.
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Haley, Alex, and Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Nonfiction
memoir. Lexile: 1120; 464 pages
Civil Rights and Segregation. From the streets of Harlem to prison, from Washington D.C. to
Mecca, Saudi Arabia, this is the incredible story of Malcolm X, the controversial Civil Rights
leader.
Sapphire. Push. Novel. Lexile: XXX; 139 pages.
Economic oppression, sexual abuse and incest. Warning: This book has graphic and explicit
descriptions of sexual abuse/incest. Precious is a victim of her father’s sexual abuse and her
mother’s physical and verbal abuse. Illiterate and pregnant, she meets a teacher who teaches
her how to love herself through writing about her life.
Nolan, Han. Born Blue. Novel. Lexile: XXX; 284 pages.
Child abuse/foster homes. Janie, the child of a heroin addict, has seen it all: revolving foster
homes, physical abuse, an unwanted pregnancy. The only thing that makes her life worth living
is singing, but can she use her gift to make a new life for herself?
Holm, Anne. I am David. Novel. Lexile: XXX; 239 pages.
Holocaust. David’s entire life has been spent in a concentration camp; when he is given the
chance to escape, he seizes it. Now he must survive on his wits, his survival skills, and the
advice of strangers.
Gruwell, Erin. The Freedom Writers’ Diary. Nonfiction. Lexile: XXX; 277 pages.
Economic and educational inequalities. The true story of a teacher and her students’ quest to
find
Bridge, Andrew. Hope’s Boy. Nonfiction Memoir. Lexile: XXX; 306 pages.
Foster care system. When Andrew’s mother became too unstable to care for him, he was
thrown into the foster care system. Living with a foster family that refused to give him love or
support, he clung to the love of his teachers.
Namioka, Lensey. Ties that Bind, Ties that Break. Novel. Lexile: XXX; 154 pages.
Sexism in China. Third sister in the Tao family, Ailin has watched her two older sisters having
their feet bound, an extremely painful and disabling practice. Knowing she will never be able to
run again once her own feet are bound, she refuses to follow this practice, even though she will
be shunned by her family and society.
Beals, Melba Pattillo. Warriors Don’t Cry. Nonfiction Memoir. Lexile: XXX; 312
pages.
Segregation. The memoir of one of the Little Rock Eight: the high school students who were the
first to integrate all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.
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