Books like 'Key Player'
Readers who enjoyed Key Player by Kelly Yang also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical action / adventure historical-fiction realistic social-commentary poc-mc friendship sports children family
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Pink y Say by Patricia Polacco
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFor use in schools and libraries only. Say Curtis describes his meeting with Pinkus Aylee, a black soldier, during the Civil War, and their capture by Southern troops. Based on a true story about the author's great-great-grandfather...Categorized as:
children family friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary action-adventure -
The Pearl Sister by Lucinda Riley
Rated: 4.32 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFrom the breathtaking beaches of Thailand to the barely tamed wilds of colonial Australia, The Pearl Sister is the next captivating story in New York Times bestselling author Lucinda Riley’s epic series about two women searching for a place to call home.CeCe D’Aplièse has always felt like an outcast...Categorized as:
family female-mc historical-fiction lgbtq realistic action-adventure adult audiobook -
The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones by Daven McQueen
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt’s the summer of 1955. For Ethan Harper, a biracial kid raised mostly by his white father, race has always been a distant conversation. When he’s sent to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in small-town Alabama, his Blackness is suddenly front and center, and no one is shy about making it known he’s not welcome there. Except for Juniper Jones... -
Room to Dream by Kelly Yang
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsMia Tang is going for her dreams!After years of hard work, Mia Tang finally gets to go on vacation with her family -- to China! A total dream come true! Mia can't wait to see all her cousins and grandparents again, especially her cousin Shen. As she roams around Beijing, witnessing some of the big changes China's going through, Mia thinks about the changes in her own life, like . . .1...Categorized as:
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The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsSurvival for Ki Lim and Sang Ly is a daily battle at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living scavenging recyclables from the trash. Life would be hard enough without the worry for their chronically ill child, Nisay, and the added expense of medicines that are not working...Categorized as:
family female-mc friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic action-adventure audiobook -
Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA lavish new picture book from Caldecott-winner Sophie Blackall that will transport readers to the seaside in timeless, nautical splendor!Watch the days and seasons pass as the wind blows, the fog rolls in, and icebergs drift by. Outside, there is water all around...Categorized as:
children family friendship historical-fiction realistic action-adventure book children-books -
The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe new kid in school needs a new name! Or does she?Being the new kid in school is hard enough, but what about when nobody can pronounce your name? Having just moved from Korea, Unhei is anxious that American kids will like her. So instead of introducing herself on the first day of school, she tells the class that she will choose a name by the following week...Categorized as:
bullying children family friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary -
Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsAn international bestseller: Grace learns that she can be anything she wants...Categorized as:
children family female-mc friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic action-adventure -
Eleven by Tom Rogers
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAlex Douglas always wanted to be a hero. But nothing heroic ever happened to Alex. Nothing, that is, until his eleventh birthday. When Alex rescues a stray dog as a birthday gift to himself, he doesn't think his life can get much better. Radar, his new dog, pretty much feels the same way. But this day has bigger things in store for both of them. This is a story about bullies and heroes...Categorized as:
bullying children family friendship historical-fiction realistic action-adventure animals -
The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSince the Tall Boots--the Nazis--have marched into Monique's small French village, terrorizing it, nothing surprises her. Until the night Monique encounters "the little ghost" sitting at the end of her bed...Categorized as:
children family female-mc friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic 20th-century -
Goin' Someplace Special by Jerry Pinkney, Patricia C. McKissack
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratings1950s Nashville, Tennessee is segregated, and black people are persecuted, but young Tricia Ann is determined to venture on her own across town to someplace special. A must read book about persecution of minorities, but also about hope and light...Categorized as:
bullying children family historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary action-adventure -
Madeline and the Bad Hat by Ludwig Bemelmans
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe Spanish Ambassador has moved next door, and Madeline knows right away that his son, Pepito, is bad news...Categorized as:
children family female-mc friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic 20th-century -
The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsAn instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!From the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award winning author Kwame Alexander, comes the first book in a searing, breathtaking trilogy that tells the story of a boy, a village, and the epic odyssey of an African family.In his village in Upper Kwanta, 11-year-old Kofi loves his family, playing oware with his grandfather and swimming in the river Offin...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family poc-mc children friendship realistic social-commentary bullying -
The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsEverything’s changing for twelve-year-old Marlee. Her brother’s gone off to college and her sister’s moved out of the room they’ve shared since Marlee was born. To Marlee, it feels like her whole world’s falling apart. On top of all that, she’s starting middle school and has to break in new teachers—teachers who don’t yet know Marlee doesn’t talk...Categorized as:
bullying children family friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary -
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Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIllus. in full color. "Winter's story begins with a peg-leg sailor who aids slaves on their escape on the Underground Railroad. While working for plantation owners, Peg Leg Joe teaches the slaves a song about the drinking gourd (the Big Dipper). A couple, their son, and two others make their escape by following the song's directions...Categorized as:
children family historical-fiction poc-mc social-commentary action-adventure black-mc book -
The Matchbox Diary by Paul Fleischman, Bagram Ibatoulline
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Pick whatever you like most. Then I’ll tell you its story." When a little girl visits her great-grandfather at his curio-filled home, she chooses an unusual object to learn about: an old cigar box. What she finds inside surprises her: a collection of matchboxes making up her great-grandfather’s diary, harboring objects she can hold in her hand, each one evoking a memory...Categorized as:
children family historical-fiction poc-mc realistic action-adventure book children-books -
Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Alexander Ramsey, Gwen Strauss
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRuth and the Green Book is the story of one black family's trip from Chicago to Alabama by car in the late 1940s. Along the way they encounter prejudice, but they also discover The Green Book, a real guide to accommodations which was published for decades to aid African-American travelers as they faced prejudice on the roads across the country...Categorized as:
children family friendship historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary action-adventure -
The Wall by Eve Bunting
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA young boy and his father visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial...Categorized as:
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Sapphire Battersea by Jacqueline Wilson, Nick Sharratt
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHetty Feather is a Foundling Hospital girl and was given her name when she was left there as a baby. When she is reunited with her mother, she hopes her beautiful new name, Sapphire Battersea, will also mean a new life! But things don't always go as planned.…Follow the twists and turns of Hetty's adventure as she goes out to work as a maid for a wealthy man...Categorized as:
children female-mc friendship historical-fiction realistic action-adventure book drama -
It Ain't So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsZomorod (Cindy) Yousefzadeh is the new kid on the block . . . for the fourth time. California’s Newport Beach is her family’s latest perch, and she’s determined to shuck her brainy loner persona and start afresh with a new Brady Bunch name—Cindy. It’s the late 1970s, and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes U.S... -
Dragonfruit by Malia Mattoch McManus
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHAWAI'I, 1891. As the heiress to a plantation fortune, Eliza Dawson occupies a privileged place in the opulent court of Hawaii's King Kalakaua. But her secret plan to marry the son of an opium tycoon collapses when political crisis forces him to China. Pregnant and desperate to keep her child, Eliza must wed an opportunistic rancher on the remote island of Moloka'i... -
The Story That Cannot Be Told by J. Kasper Kramer
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA powerful middle grade debut that weaves together folklore and history to tell the story of a girl finding her voice and the strength to use it during the final months of the Communist regime in Romania in 1989.Ileana has always collected stories...Categorized as:
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Fiona's Lace by Patricia Polacco
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn Irish family stays together with the help of Fiona’s talent for making one-of-a-kind lace in this heartwarming immigration story from the New York Times bestselling creator of The Keeping Quilt.Many years ago, times were hard in all of Ireland, so when passage to America becomes available, Fiona and her family travel to Chicago...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family children poc-mc realistic children-books historical fiction -
A Sweet Smell of Roses by Angela Johnson
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsTwo young girls not only witness but help to change history in this inspiring and urgent Civil Rights-era picture book by three-time Coretta Scott King Award winner Angela Johnson.There's a sweet, sweet smell in the air as two young girls sneak out of their house, down the street, and across town to where men and women are gathered, ready to march for freedom and justice...Categorized as:
historical-fiction social-commentary realistic poc-mc children family children-books historical -
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Satch & Me by Dan Gutman
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratings"You wanna know who threw the fastest pitch ever?"Many baseball players claim that Satchel Paige was the fastest pitcher in the history of the game. Stosh and his coach, Flip Valentini, are on a mission to find out. With radar gun in tow, they travel back to 1942 and watch Satch pitch to power hitter Josh Gibson in the Negro League World Series...Categorized as:
children historical-fiction poc-mc realistic sports action-adventure book children-books -
When Mischief Came to Town by Katrina Nannestad
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn the tradition of Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking comes a heart-warming novel about love, family, grief, joy and the power of laughter and imagination.When Inge Maria arrives on the tiny island of Bornholm in Denmark to live with her grandmother, she's not sure what to expect...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family realistic children friendship poc-mc female-mc middle-grade -
Ruby's Wish by Shirin Yim Bridges, Sophie Blackall
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsRuby is unlike most little girls in old China. Instead of aspiring to get married, Ruby is determined to attend university when she grows up, just like the boys in her family...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family realistic poc-mc children social-commentary female-mc children-books -
The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Mary Ellen gets bored with her reading, Grandpa knows a hunt for a bee tree is just what she needs. Half the town joins the exciting chase, but it's not until everyone returns home that Mary Ellen makes a discovery of her own: Sometimes, even the sweetest of things must be worked for...Categorized as:
children family friendship historical-fiction realistic action-adventure animals book -
That Book Woman by Heather Henson
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCal is not the readin' type. Living way high up in the Appalachian Mountains, he'd rather help Pap plow or go out after wandering sheep than try some book learning. Nope. Cal does not want to sit stoney-still reading some chicken scratch. But that Book Woman keeps coming just the same. She comes in the rain. She comes in the snow...Categorized as:
children family friendship historical-fiction realistic action-adventure book children-books -
This Is the Rope: A Story from the Great Migration by Jacqueline Woodson, James E. Ransome
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJacqueline Woodson--New York TimesBestselling, National Book Award andNewbery Honor winning author--writes arich story of a family adapting to change as they hold on to the past and embrace the future. WithCoretta Scott King Award winning illustrator James Ransome.During the time of the Great Migration, millions of African American families relocated from the South, seeking better opportunities...Categorized as:
children family historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary action-adventure audiobook -
Sweet Home Alaska by Carole Estby Dagg
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis exciting pioneering story, based on actual events, introduces readers to a fascinating chapter in American history, when FDR set up a New Deal colony in Alaska to give loans and land to families struggling during the Great Depression. Terpsichore can’t wait to follow in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s footsteps . . . now she just has to convince her mom...Categorized as:
historical-fiction family children friendship realistic middle-grade fiction children-books -
Jackie & Me by Dan Gutman
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLike every other kid in his class, Joe Stoscack has to write a report on an African American who's made an important contribution to society. Unlike every other kid in his class, Joe has a special talent: with the help of old baseball cards, he can travel through time... -
I Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011 by Lauren Tarshis
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsEleven-year-old Dexter has always wanted to see a tornado. So when he gets the incredible opportunity to go storm chasing with the famous Dr. Norman Rays, he has to say yes! Dr. Rays is the host of Tornado Mysteries, the show that Dex and his older brother, Jeremy, watched every night until Jeremy joined the U.S. Navy SEALs and left Joplin...Categorized as:
children family friendship historical-fiction realistic action-adventure audiobook book -
Unbound: A Novel in Verse by Ann E. Burg, Bahni Turpin
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsFrom the award-winning author of All the Broken Pieces and Serafina's Promise comes a new novel-in-verse that is a gripping, transcendent story about a little-known piece of slave history. The day Grace is called from the slave cabins to work in the Big House, Mama makes her promise to keep her eyes down...Categorized as:
children family female-mc historical-fiction poc-mc realistic action-adventure audiobook -
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Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA middle-grade novel about two enslaved children’s escape from a plantation and the many ways they find freedom.Under the cover of night, twelve-year-old Homer flees Southerland Plantation with his little sister Ada, unwillingly leaving their beloved mother behind. Much as he adores her and fears for her life, Homer knows there’s no turning back, not with the overseer on their trail...Categorized as:
historical-fiction children family friendship realistic poc-mc social-commentary middle-grade -
Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M.M. Blume
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsEleven-year-old Cornelia is the daughter of two world-famous pianists—a legacy that should feel fabulous, but instead feels just plain lonely. She surrounds herself with dictionaries and other books to isolate herself from the outside world...Categorized as:
children family friendship historical-fiction realistic action-adventure animals book -
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe letter waits in a book, in a box, in an attic, in an old house in Lambert, South Carolina. It's waiting for Candice Miller.When Candice finds the letter, she isn't sure she should read it. It's addressed to her grandmother, after all, who left Lambert in a cloud of shame. But the letter describes a young woman named Siobhan Washington. An injustice that happened decades ago... -
A Dublin Student Doctor by Patrick Taylor
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPatrick Taylor's devoted readers know Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly as a pugnacious general practitioner in the quaint Irish village of Ballybucklebo. Now Taylor turns back the clock to give us a portrait of the young Fingal--and show us the pivotal events that shaped the man he would become...Categorized as:
family friendship historical-fiction realistic action-adventure adult audiobook book -
LOS PREHISTORRATONES 10: ¡LLUEVEN MALAS NOTICIAS, STILTONUT! by Geronimo Stilton
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGeronimo Stiltonoot and The Stone Gazette are in the running for the Stone Age Ratitzer: the award for the best prehistoric journalism! But their main competition is Sally Rockmousen, the ruthless host of Gossip Radio -- and she'll stop at nothing to win...Categorized as:
children friendship historical-fiction action-adventure animals book children-books fiction -
Song of the Sea (American Dreams) by Jean Ferris
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRaider is almost killed boarding the LIGHTNING to save Rosie from the cruel Captain Lawrence, who has kidnapped, tormented and imprisoned her. Rosie nurses his wounds and tries to forget his surprising kiss, while she prays for his life.and for her own strength to resist him. For she knows there's no room in his life for love...Categorized as:
children friendship historical-fiction action-adventure book fiction historical womens-fiction -
House Without Walls by Ching Yeung Russell
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFor most people, home is a place with four walls. It's a place to eat, sleep, rest, and live. For a refugee, the concept of home is ever-changing, ever-moving, ever-wavering. And often, it doesn't have any walls at all.Eleven-year-old Lam escapes from Vietnam with Dee Dee during the Vietnamese Boat People Exodus in 1979, when people from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fled their homelands for safety...Categorized as:
historical-fiction realistic poc-mc friendship family middle-grade fiction historical -
Wildwood by Elinor Florence
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA single mother. An abandoned farmhouse. An epic battle with the northern wilderness.Broke and desperate, Molly Bannister accepts the ironclad condition laid down in her great-aunt’s will: to receive her inheritance, Molly must spend one year in an abandoned, off-the-grid farmhouse in the remote backwoods of northern Alberta... -
Almost to Freedom by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLindy and her doll Sally are best friends - wherever Lindy goes, Sally stays right by her side. They eat together, sleep together, and even pick cotton together. So, on the night Lindy and her mama run away in search of freedom, Sally goes too. This young girl's rag doll vividly narrates her enslaved family's courageous escape through the Underground Railroad...Categorized as:
children family historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary action-adventure black-mc -
A Distant Hope by Ellin Carsta, Gerald Chapple
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this breathtaking and emotional saga, a family must travel far from home to save what they hold dear. Hamburg 1888: After thirty prosperous years, coffee importer Peter Hansen & Sons faces hard times—and certain bankruptcy—unless three brothers can make savvy moves to save the faltering business after their father’s untimely death... -
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Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky by Faith Ringgold
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIllus. in full color. Cassie, who flew above New York in Tar Beach, soars into the sky once more. This time, she and her brother Be Be meet a train full of people, and Be Be joins them. But the train departs before Cassie can climb aboard...Categorized as:
children family historical-fiction poc-mc realistic social-commentary action-adventure black-mc -
The Wild Girls by Pat Murphy
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsIt is the early 1970s. Twelve-year-old Joan is sure that she is going to be miserable when her family moves from Connecticut to California. Then she meets a most unusual girl. Sarah prefers to be called "Fox" and lives with her author dad in a rundown house in the middle of the woods...Categorized as:
children family female-mc friendship historical-fiction realistic 20th-century action-adventure -
Caddie Woodlawn's Family by Carol Ryrie Brink, Marguerite Davis
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCaddie Woodlawn is back and there are more frontier adventures to go on in this sequel to the Newbery Medal–winning novel, Caddie Woodlawn! The high-spirited Caddie is back with her lively siblings for some amusing escapades. In these fourteen stories, learn about frontier life with the seven Woodlawn children...Categorized as:
children family female-mc historical-fiction realistic action-adventure book children-books -
The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA poignant story filled with heart-warming courage as a young girl takes on a harrowing journey to be reunited with her mother.Ami lives on Culion, an island in the Philippines for people who have leprosy. Her mother is among the infected. Ami loves her home: with its blue seas and lush forests, Culion contains all she knows and loves. But the arrival of malicious government official Mr...Categorized as:
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Wilderness Days by Jennifer L. Holm
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Remember -- you make your own luck." Abandoned on the frontier by her faithless fiance, Jane Peck prepares to head home, only to learn that the Philadelphia life she once knew is no more...Categorized as:
children female-mc historical-fiction realistic action-adventure book fiction historical -
Encounter by Jane Yolen
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Christopher Columbus landed on the island of San Salvador in 1492, what he discovered were the Taino Indians. Told from a young Taino boy’s point of view, this is a story of how the boy tried to warn his people against welcoming the strangers, who seemed more interested in golden ornaments than friendship...Categorized as:
historical-fiction social-commentary poc-mc children realistic family children-books historical
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