Originally I was going to do a full ranking but then there’s 35 books and I don’t hate myself. Also the last time I read all 35 was in 2020 where I read the 35 books in 17 days (I was under self-pressure okay. It was a stupid idea) and got eye strain for a month. It was an awful idea. But it’s a lot and so I decided to choose the top 5 that always stand out to me.

1. One Eye Laughing, The Other Weeping: This book is split into two parts describing Julie’s life under the beginning of Nazi persecution in Austria and her escape to America. The first part is harrowing describing how happy her life is which makes it all the more awful when it becomes more limited by the rules of Gestapo. It doesn’t help that they are all in denial of what is to come, but not for long. Kristalnacht is where it really sets in that people truly hate them for being Jews and older readers will be able to read in between the lines of what the Nazis did to Julie’s mother leading to her subsequent depression and suicide. I was just shocked when Julie’s servants turned on them calling her “the rich Jewish bitch.” It further isolates Julie as her former friends refuse to speak to her and her fellow Jews are disappearing, either to escape or have been rounded up already. With all this happening, Denenberg’s portrayal of Julie’s depression and PSTD when she comes to America is realistic as she cannot feel happy knowing what is happening to her father on the other side of the ocean and the cruelty people are capable of.

1. With the Might of Angels: Dawn Rae’s life is turning upside down for the better and for the worse. She along with few others have been chosen to integrate her Virginia middle school. She is excited to get a better education that her parents remind her that she deserves, but the backlash is fierce and soon she is the only one attending as her other friends feel the hostility and threats aren’t worth it. The discrimination that Dawnie faces is intense and I’m mad on her behalf to see what she goes through from teachers and students alike but Pinkney gives Dawnie a great support system with her family and Church and inspiring figures like Jackie Robinson and a young unknown preacher with the initials of MLK to give her the courage to keep going.
2. A Coal Miner’s Bride: Anetka is thrilled to finally be able to join her father in America especially as things in the motherland grow worse and worse with the military draft, hostile soldiers and general poverty. But when she comes to America, she finds out the full story of how her father afforded her passage. He had the help of her apprently new husband, a Pennsylvania miner with three daughters. It’s not what she envisioned in coming to America but she is determined to get the girls to love her and when her husband dies, fight for the rights of other workers against the exploitative managers.
3. Dreams in the Golden Country: If you like Fiddler on the Roof, you’ll enjoy this story of 12 year old Zipporah and her family as the finally come to the city with street paved with gold. Not so much. Zipphorah is trying to catch up on her English when she’s placed in kindergarten classes at school and the rest of the family try deal with their low-paying jobs in factories. But what makes it very Fiddler on the Roof is the aspect surrounding family and tradition as Zipporah begins to long for life on the Yiddish stage while her older sister falls in love with a young Irish man, cementing her death in the eyes of their parents.
4. Color Me Dark: African-Americans had thought things would get better after WW1 since they had sent soldiers to fight for democracy, proving that they deserved rights and citizenship just as any white man. Not so much as the Love family finds out when their returning uncle gets lynched and their newspaper offices gets destroyed. Worst of all, Nellie’s twin has gone mute since witnessing the attack. Though they are loathed to leave the only home they’ve known, the family moves to Chicago along with the rest of the Great Migration. McKissack does a great job in exploring Nellie’s sort of culture shock in the North, the variety of black Churches and preachers and the continuing racial tensions that simmer below the surface.