People + Places Book List for Kids
2024 Edition
We are grateful to the Young Adult Librarians from the Los Angeles Public Library’s Teen’Scape department who helped curate this year’s teen list and to members of the Southland Council of Teachers of English and L.A. Conservancy Volunteers who designed reading guides to accompany the books.
Elementary School (Ages 6+)
The Apartment House on Poppy Hill
Written by Nina LaCour
Reading Guide
Nine-year-old Ella is the expert on her quirky old San Francisco apartment building, the people who live there, and the surrounding community.
Curve & Flow: The Elegant Vision of L.A. Architect Paul R. Williams
Written by Andrea J. Loney
Reading Guide
Learn how legendary architect Paul R. Williams overcame obstacles and designed buildings all over Los Angeles.
Where I live: Poems about My Home, My Street, and My Town
Written by Paul B. Janeczko
Reading Guide
Poems about the places we live, the things we do, and how they all add up to home.
Once upon a fairy tale house: The True Story of Four Sisters and the Magic They Built
Written by Mary Lyn Ray
Reading Guide
Four imaginative sisters grow up in Santa Barbara and begin designing and building houses that look like they came out of fairy tales – at a time when women weren’t doing anything of the sort.
Paletero Man
Written by Lucky Diaz
Reading Guide
A young boy races down 8th Street to buy an icy sweet paleta (popsicle). A celebration of the sights, sounds, community, and flavors of downtown Los Angeles. Also available in Spanish.
Middle School (Ages 11+)
Audrey Covington Breaks the Rules
Written by Karina Evans
Reading Guide
Audrey and her grandmother set off on an unexpected adventure of a lifetime in Hollywood.
Stand up, Yumi Chung!
Written by Jessica Kim
Reading Guide
In LA’s Koreatown, 11-year-old Yumi Chung juggles her parents’ high expectations with her love for comedy. Her secrets unravel when she sneaks into a comedy camp by pretending to be someone else.
Who’s got mail?: The History of Mail in America
Written by Linda Barrett Osborne
Reading Guide
“In America, one of the first things done in a new State is to have the mail come.” -Alexis de Toqueville, 1835. An engaging narrative nonfiction for middle-grade readers about a topic everyone in the United States has in common — the mail.
Parachute Kids
Written by Betty C Tang
Reading Guide
In 1981, three siblings who were staying in California while their parents returned to Taiwan grappled with identity, fitting in, and the risks of being undocumented as they created a new home together.
Two Tribes- Graphic Novel
Written by Emily LBowen Cohen
Reading Guide
Mia, who is Jewish and Indigenous, navigates her mixed heritage while attending school in Los Angeles. Longing to connect with her indigenous roots, she visits family in Oklahoma, attends a powwow, and learns about Muscogee Nation culture.
High School (Ages 14+)
Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
Written by Damian Duffy
Reading Guide
In an eerily prescient post-apocalyptic Los Angeles riven by gun violence and environmental catastrophe, Black teen Lauren leaves her family to journey north in search of safety. She collects her ideas into a religion called Earthseed.
There Goes the Neighborhood
Written by Jade Adia
Reading Guide
Rhea and her friends try to save their South LA neighborhood from gentrification by creating a fake gang using social media posts and fireworks, which turns into a real problem when one of the wealthy developers is murdered and the fake gang gets blamed for the crime. Rhea and her friends solve a murder mystery while coming of age in a tight-knit, working-class Los Angeles neighborhood.
The Blackwoods
Written by Brandy Colbert
Reading Guide
A riveting intergenerational story of a Black Hollywood family, it follows movie star Blossom Blackwood’s great-granddaughters, Hollis and Ardith, as they navigate Blossom Blackwood’s legacy and the tabloid attention after her death.
Chasing Pacquiao
Written by Rod Pulido
Reading Guide
After being forcibly outed and bullied, Filipino American high schooler Bobby Agbayani turns to boxing, inspired by Manny Pacquiao, but must reconcile his hero’s homophobic comments with his own identity. Bobby Agbayani fights to be authentic even when his hero fails him.
Major funding for the Los Angeles Conservancy’s educational programs is provided by the LaFetra Foundation and the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation.
