The Thread®

MPR recently tapped independent bookstore owners and young readers for recommendations on good books for young people to read right now. Here’s some of the best of what they told us.

Host Kerri Miller’s second Talking Volumes event of the season took place on Thursday, Sept. 30, with Kate DiCamillo, whose latest book is “The Beatryce Prophecy.”

Leading up to Halloween, Jordyn Stocks of Piragis Northwoods Company in Ely, Minn., recommended the mystery novel “The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” by Stuart Turton.

“When Stars Are Scattered” is the story of Omar Mohamed's years at a refugee camp in Kenya. He cared for his brother and found the courage to dream big. The book was a National Book Awards finalist.

Don’t despair! That’s the message from climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. There is a path forward when it comes to saving the planet. And it begins with you.

The influence of Korean culture has reached the pages of the Oxford English Dictionary: 26 new words related to Korean culture were added and 11 words were revised.

In her debut book, “My Monticello,” author Jocelyn Nicole Johnson asks what it means to claim a home in a place like Charlottesville, Va., — where whom the city belongs to has long been in question.

Margaret Verble's novel follows a young Cherokee woman whose life as a horse-diver in Tennessee zoo is derailed by a terrible accident. It's unfocused at times, but definitely a ride worth taking.

Victoria Chang traces her family history through letter writing in her book, “Dear Memory.” In an NPR interview, she talks facing micro and macro aggressions and staying silent, just like her parents.

Orlean's descriptions of the animals on the Hudson Valley farm where she once lived may evoke a warm feeling — but those of donkeys in Fez and others in her essays may conjure other emotions.