Books like Milkweed
12 books with a reading profile close to Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli. Inward-looking, clear-cut and thought-provoking; an easy read.
-
1
The Pearl That Broke Its Shell
Also inward-looking and clear-cut · history, narrative
Rahima is a girl in Kabul whose father is addicted to opium, and whose family is desperate for money.
-
2
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See
Also inward-looking · history, narrative
Set in nineteenth-century Hunan province, the narrative follows Lily, a girl born into a modest farming family during the Qing dynasty.
-
3
A Piece of the World
history, narrative
Set in the coastal town of Cushing, Maine, this novel imagines the life of Christina Olson, the subject of Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World.
-
4
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
history, narrative
On New Year's Eve in 1984, eighty-five-year-old Lillian Boxfish sets out for a walk around Manhattan.
-
5
Dominicana
by Angie Cruz
history, narrative
Ana Cancion is fifteen when she marries Juan Ruiz, a man twice her age, in the Dominican Republic in 1965, so that her family can eventually emigrate.
-
6
White Chrysanthemum
Also clear-cut · history, narrative
Hana lives in a Korean fishing village during the Japanese occupation in 1943, where she is a young woman who dives for a living.
-
7
The Red Tent
Also inward-looking · history, narrative
Dinah, the only daughter of the biblical patriarch Jacob, narrates her life against the backdrop of ancient Mesopotamia and Canaan.
-
8
Yellow Wife
Also inward-looking and thought-provoking · history, narrative
Born into a life of relative privilege on a Virginia plantation, Pheby Delores Brown is promised her freedom at age eighteen.
-
9
The German Girl
history, narrative
In 1939 Berlin, twelve-year-old Hannah Rosenthal and her family board the SS St.
-
10
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
by Lisa See
history, narrative
Li-yan belongs to the Akha people, an ethnic minority living in a remote mountain village in Yunnan, China, where life centers on harvesting puer tea.
-
11
The Wind Knows My Name
history, narrative
In 1938 Vienna, Samuel Adler is a five-year-old Jewish boy whose father disappears on Kristallnacht, and who is sent to England on the Kindertransport.
-
12
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
by Dai Sijie
history, narrative
Set during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the narrative follows two city-bred teenagers, Luo and the unnamed narrator, who are sent to a remote mountain village for forced Maoist re-education.
Get picks matched to your own reading on papr.
Get papr
