Below are titles we recommend on immigration and the immigrant experience with a focus on the United States. To learn more about immigration and refugees from Central America, see our Central America booklist. See also resources for teaching about immigration on the Zinn Education Project website and the Rethinking Schools blog.

Elementary | Middle Grades | YA / Adult Fiction | YA / Adult Nonfiction | Teaching about Immigration

Alfredito Flies Home *

By Jorge Argueta, Luis Garay (Illustrator)

Amigos del Otro Lado / Friends From The Other Side

By Gloria E. Anzaldua

Brothers in Hope

By Mary Williams, R. Gregory Christie (Illustrator)

Coming to America: A Muslim Family's Story

By Bernard Wolf, Wolf Bernard (Photographer)

Dreamers*

By Yuyi Morales

A Gift from Papa Diego: Un Regalo de Papa Diego

By Benjamin Alire Saenz, Geronimo Garcia (Illustrator)

Going Home

By Eve Bunting, David Diaz (Illustrator)

From Far Away

By Robert Munsch, Saoussan Askar, Rebecca Green (Illustrator)

From North to South / Del Norte al Sur

By René Colato Laínez

Hiromi's Hands

By Lynne Barasch

Home at Last

By Susan Middleton Elya, Felipe Davalos (Illustrator)

I Hate English!

By Ellen Levine, Steve Bjorkman

Islandborn*

By Junot Diaz, Leo Espinosa (Illustrator)

Joseph's Big Ride

By Terry Farish

Kamal Goes to Trinidad

By Malcolm Frederick, Prodeepta Das (Illustrator)

Landed

By Milly Lee, Yangsook Choi (Illustrator)

La Frontera: El viaje con papa / My Journey with Papa*

By Deborah Mills, Alfredo Alva, Claudia Navarro (Illustrator)

Let's Go See Papa

By Lawrence Schimel, Alba Marina Rivera (Illustrator)

The Little Doctor / El Doctorcito

By Juan J. Guerra

La Luna Mango

By Diane de Anda

Malaika's Costume

By Nadia L. Hohn, Irene Luxbacher (Illustrator)

Mama's Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation

By Edwidge Danticat, Leslie Staub (Illustrator)

Mango, Abuela, and Me *

By Meg Medina, Angela Dominguez (Illustrator)

Mango Moon

By Diane de Anda

Marwan's Journey

By Patricia de Arias, Laura Borràs (Illustrator)

A Movie in My Pillow / Una Pelicula En Mi Almohada*

By Jorge Argueta, Elizabeth Gomez (Illustrator)

My Name Is Yoon

By Helen Recorvits, Gabi Swiatkowska (Illustrator)

My Shoes and I*

By Rene Colato Lainez

The Name Jar

By Yangsook Choi

Nana's Cold Days

By Adwoa Badoe, Bushra Junaid (Illustrator)

Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant's Tale*

By Duncan Tonatiuh

Shanghai Messenger

By Andrea Cheng, Ed Young (Illustrator)

Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family's Journey*

By Margriet Ruurs

The Turtle of Oman

By Naomi Shihab Nye

Undocumented: A Worker's Fight

By Duncan Tonatiuh

Dos Conejos Blancos // Two White Rabbits *

By Jairo Buitrago

Xochitl And The Flowers / Xochitl, la Nina de las Flores

By Jorge Argueta, Carl Angel (Illustrator)

Who Belongs Here?: An American Story

By Margy Burns Knight, Clarita Kohen (Translator)

Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain

By Russell Freedman

Behind the Mountains

By Edwidge Danticat

A Boy from Ireland

By Marie Raphael

Caravan to the North: Misael's Long Walk*

By Jorge Argueta

Crossing the Wire

By Will Hobbs

A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America

By Ronald T. Takaki

The Distance Between Us: Young Readers Edition *

By Reyna Grande

Emilio

By Julia Mercedes Castilla

Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings: A Memoir *

By Margarita Engle, Edel Rodriguez (Illustrator)

Enrique's Journey: The True Story of a Boy Determined to Reunite with His Mother*

By Sonia Nazario

Front Desk*

By Kelly Yang

How Tia Lola Saved the Summer

By Julia Alvarez

I Came as a Stranger: The Underground Railroad

By Bryan Prince

Journey of the Sparrows

By Fran Leeper Buss, Daisy Cubias

Journey of Dreams

By Marge Pellegrino

Kids Like Me: Voices of the Immigrant Experience

By Judith M. Blohm, Terri Lapinsky

La Linea *

By Ann Jaramillo

Manuelito

By Elisa Amado

Moving North: Caribbean Connections

By Keith Warner, Catherine Sunshine

My Ocean

By Enrique Perez Diaz, Trudy Balch (Translator)

The Only Road*

By Alexandra Diaz

Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth

Edited by José Manuel, Cesar Pineda, Anne Galisky, and Rebecca Shine

Return to Sender*

By Julia Alvarez

Somos Como Las Nubes / We Are Like the Clouds*

By Jorge Argueta, Alfonso Ruano (Illustrator), Elisa Amado

This Land Is Our Land: A History of American Immigration

By Linda Barret Osborne

Tonight, by Sea

By Frances Temple, Tim O'brien (Illustrator)

Voces Sin Fronteras: Our Stories, Our Truth

By the Latino Youth Leadership Council of LAYC

A Young People's History of the United States: Columbus to the War on Terror

By Howard Zinn, Rebecca Stefoff

Across a Hundred Mountains

By Reyna Grande

Anna In-Between

By Elizabeth Nunez

Breath, Eyes, Memory

By Edwidge Danticat

Brown Girl, Brownstones

By Paule Marshall

Brick Lane

By Monica Ali

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

By Junot Diaz

The Complete Persepolis

By Marjane Satrapi

Do They Know I'm Running?

By David Corbett

First Crossing: Stories about Teen Immigrants

By Donald R. Gallo (Editor)

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

By Julia Alvarez

Ink Knows No Borders

Edited by Patrice Vecchione, Alyssa Raymond

The Knife and the Butterfly*

By Ashley Hope Perez

Love Hate & Other Filters*

By Samira Ahmed

Mother Tongue

By Demetria Martinez

The Radius of Us

By Marie Marquardt

SanTana's Fairy Tales*

By Sarah Rafael Garcia

Zeitoun

By Dave Eggers

The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization

By Rinku Sen, Fekkak Mamdouh (With)

Border Film Project: Migrant and Minutemen Photos from U.S. - Mexico Border

By Rudy Adler, Victoria Criado, Brett Huneycutt

Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Fourth Edition

By Gloria Anzaldua

Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees

By Deborah Ellis

The Distance Between Us

By Reyna Grande

First Crossing: Stories about Teen Immigrants

By Donald R. Gallo (Editor)

Harbor Me

By Jacqueline Woodson

Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America

By Juan Gonzalez

Hunting Season: Immigration and Murder in an All-American Town

By Mirta Ojito

In the Darkness of the United States

By Peter Orner (Editor), Sandra Hernandez (Editor), Luis Alberto Urrea (Prologue by)

Kids Like Me: Voices of the Immigrant Experience

By Judith M. Blohm, Terri Lapinsky

Migra Mouse: Political Cartoons on Immigration

By Lalo Alcaraz

The Other Side: Stories of Central American Teen Refugees Who Dream of Crossing the Border

By Juan Pablo Villalobos

The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration

By David Bacon

They Take Our Jobs!: And 20 Other Myths about Immigration

By Aviva Chomsky

Underground America: Narratives of Undocumented Lives

By Peter Orner (Editor)

Un Dia Sin Immigranes, 15 Voces Y Una Causa

By Gina Montaner

We Are All Suspects Now: Untold Stories from Immigrant Communities After 9/11

By Tram Nguyen

The Line Between Us: Teaching about the Border and Mexican Immigration

By Bill Bigelow

Made in America: Immigrant Students in Our Public Schools

By Laurie Olsen

Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World

By Bill Bigelow (Editor), Bob Peterson (Editor)

---

If you value this book list, please help us promote it and create more book lists.

Donate Today