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In this poetic memoir that’s nothing short of enchanting, Margarita Engle, the first Latina woman to receive a Newbery Honor, tells of growing up as a child of two cultures during the Cold War.

In 1954, seventeen-year-old Chinese-American Lily Hu, is secretly excited and intrigued by an ad for a show at the Telegraph Club featuring a male impersonator. Her White friend, Kathleen takes her to the San Francisco lesbian bar, where they begin to explore their sexuality and their relationship.

Educator’s guide available from Malinda Lo’s website.

It’s 1953, and the United States has just executed an American couple convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. Everyone is on edge as the Cold War standoff between communism and democracy leads to the rise of Senator Joe McCarthy and his zealous hunt for people he calls subversives or communist sympathizers. Suspicion, loyalty oaths, blacklists, political profiling, hostility to foreigners, and the assumption of guilt by association divide the nation. Richard and his family believe deeply in American values and love of country, especially since Richard’s father works for the FBI. Yet when a family from Czechoslovakia moves in down the street with a son Richard’s age named Vlad, their bold ideas about art and politics bring everything into question.

Richard is quickly drawn to Vlad’s confidence, musical sensibilities, and passion for literature, which Richard shares. But as the nation’s paranoia spirals out of control, Richard longs to prove himself a patriot, and blurred lines between friend and foe could lead to a betrayal that destroys lives.

A graphic-novel-style history of the Cold War competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union to succeed in manned space flight, filled with detail on the success and failure of individual mission attempts.