COERR, ELEANOR MIEKO AND THE FIFTH TREASURE
The four treasures of traditional East Asian calligraphy are brush, inkstick, inkstone, and paper. The "fifth treasure," as Mieko's art teacher has told her, is beauty in the heart, which breathes life into writing word-pictures (characters). Mieko lived in a village outside Nagasaki when the atom bomb was dropped. Flying glass badly damaged her writing hand and now, a few months later, she has been sent to live with her grandparents. Ashamed of her scars and certain she has lost the fifth treasure, Mieko withdraws into herself, rejecting school and her grandparents' efforts to help her heal psychologically. It is the subtle, beneficial influence of her new friend, Yoshi, and her overbearing aunt that helps Mieko overcome her fears and start to face life again.
RL 5.9, GRL O
ELLIS, DEBORAH THE BREADWINNER 
Afghanistan is still under the rule of the harsh Taliban regime. Young Parvana's father can no longer teach. Every day, 10 year-old Parvana accompanies her father to the market, where he sits in a corner trying to earn enough money to support his family by reading letters for those who cannot read.. When Parvana's father is beaten and jailed, the family is left with no means of survival. Their only hope is with Parvana - she is young enough to dress as a boy (girls are not allowed to go out in public) and knows how to read and write, which will enable her take her father's place in the market.
RL 5.5 GRL V
PERKINS, MITALI RICKSHAW GIRL Naima is a talented painter of traditional alpana patterns, which Bangladeshi women and girls paint on their houses for special celebrations. She wants to help earn money for her family, like her best friend, Saleem, does for his family. When Naima's rash effort to help puts her family deeper in debt, she draws on her resourceful nature and her talents to bravely save the day. Includes a glossary of Bangla words and an author's note about a changing Bangladesh and microfinance.
WALSH, ANN SHABASH
When Rana Bains, a young Sikh boy, Canadian by birth, tries to sign up for the Dinway Pee Wee hockey team, he encounters resistance and senses that he is not wanted. He has known about prejudice all his life and had learned about it in his grade five class at school, but he had never really been hurt by it until now. As he stubbornly battles discrimination, he and a teammate, Les Johnson, become friends – even though Les's father, a laid-off mill worker, tries to keep Rana off the team. Throughout this highly charged novel, Rana learns about loyalty and sportsmanship, the importance of differences, and the difficulties in overcoming racism.
WHELAN, GLORIA HOMELESS BIRD Koly’s parents have arranged a marriage for their only daughter and now, like many girls her age in India, she will leave home forever. She yearns to flee, but tradition dictates that it’s too late to turn back. On her wedding day, Koly’s fate is sealed. Caught up in a current of tradition that threatens to sweep her toward a terrifying fate, Kily finds herself cast out, lost in a strange and cruel world. But sometimes courage and hope can be more powerful than tradition and fate can be taken into one’s own hands.
RL 6.1, GRL X
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