Multicultural Stories

Everyone has a birthday! But do you know that birthdays are celebrated differently around the world? Explore the history of birthday traditions in countries such as the invention of the birthday cake in Greece, why noodles are eaten in China, and why in Russia they pull on an ear! It's a global celebration.

White Rabbit, an Ojibwe Native American, helplessly watches as her village begins to suffer from a deadly winter disease. When her brother Running Wolf falls ill, she plans to bring back more healing herbs from a neighboring village. When White Rabbit races through the snow, she ends up leaving behind a new flower that appears in the spring.

In this story from the Abenaki people, the Native Americans who lives in New England long ago, you’ll learn how one starving man learned to grow a new crop to feed himself.

Children of the Seminole Nation would listen to stories such as this to learn about the Florida Everglades where they lived. In this story, you’ll learn about the beginning of life in the Florida Everglades.

In this story from the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, you’ll learn how the trickster raven brings light back to the world from a greedy chief.

Carrie is a young Navajo dancer who lives in Arizona. When she was in grade school, she decided to become a fancy shawl dancer. Traditional dances are important to the Navajo, a way of praying, healing, and celebrating. Carrie discusses some of the clothing she wears at a powwow.

Welcome to the Entrada, home to these everyday Americans, including the new kid on the block, who is both homesick and curious; a Popsicle-bridge builder, a ghost hunter, and a lion dancer; and their families, friends, and neighbors from all around the world! Published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, this uplifting anthology features award-winning authors Tracey Baptiste, David Bowles, Adrianna Cuevas, Sayantani DasGupta, Debbi Michiko Florence, Adam Gidwitz, Erin Entrada Kelly, Minh Lê, Ellen Oh, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Andrea Wang, and Jasmine Warga.

In dreams, Wren can see her again: her eyes, her hair, her smile. She can even hear her laugh. Her mother, one of hundreds of Native Americans considered missing or murdered in Oklahoma. Sometimes it seems like Wren and her grandmother are the only people still looking. Even more frustrating, Wren's overprotective father won't talk about it. Wren refuses to give up, though. And an opportunity to find lost pets seems like a real way to hone her detective skills. But everything changes when one of the missing pets is found badly hurt. Soon, there are others.

At Hurston Middle School, best friendship is a big deal. And Zariah Brown makes the best best friendship bracelets in town. Business is booming; Zariah can hardly keep up with orders. The problem is, Zariah doesn’t have a best friend of her own. As the entire seventh grade gears up for their big Pajama Jam weekend, it seems as if everyone else is paired up except her.

Kelsi is starting school in Sweden, but English is her first language. She would like to learn Swedish so she can make some school friends. Soon Kelsi discovers that she is not the only immigrant student in her class and befriends a girl named Sanaa.

Keegan knows there’s something off about Happy Town. The isolated, high-tech company town is too perfect—with a dome keeping out bad weather and self-driving vehicles rumbling throughout the town delivering residents to work and school. Still, Keegan is excited to grow his art skills at Happy Town’s ultra-modern middle school, even if he has less time to see his mom and stepdad because of their new jobs.

How did a young girl born in South London grow up to be a Tony and Grammy Award-winning star? Find out in this Who HQ Now biography about Cynthia Erivo and her exciting career from The Color Purple on Broadway to starring as Elphaba in the Wicked movie!

Skye Nickson’s world changed forever when her dad went on the run with her brother, Finn. It’s been four years without Finn’s jokes, four years without her father’s old soul music, and four years of Skye filling in as Rent-a-Finn on his MIA birthdays for their mom. Finn’s birthday is always difficult, but at least Skye has her best friends, Reece and Jax, to lean on, even if Reece has started acting too cool for them. But this year is different because after Finn’s birthday, they get a call that he’s finally been found.

A young boy named Moki has visions of planting seeds during a time of conflict between Spanish missionaries, known as Black Robes, and the Hopi tribe, known as the People. Can the two groups find a way to share the valley in harmony?

For so many of us, the first introduction to Black history begins with lessons about slavery. While slavery is a crucial part of African-American history, it is not the beginning. In fact, there is a rich history tied to the continent of Africa that deserves to be told and to be marveled at—which is exactly what Maisha Oso does in Before the Ships. With sparse yet moving text, Maisha takes us back in time to before the advent of the Transatlantic slave trade.

Afraid her sister (and maybe even herself) could lose sight of their Vietnamese identity, twelve-year-old Bom writes a poetic memoir to help them both remember—a love letter in verse to sisterhood and the places we leave behind. Bom can't believe that her sister doesn't see herself as Vietnamese, only American. She says she doesn't remember Vietnam or their lives there, their family there, their house and friends. How could her sister forget the terrible journey through Saigon and the airplanes and . . . everything?

This is the story of growing up between cultures, American and Cambodian. “A Dozen Delicious Donuts” touches on the universal theme of family and has a message of love and resilience that captures the journey of the immigrant experience. Chanda Ouk Wolf brings listeners an enriching tale that fosters a sense of self. “A Dozen Delicious Donuts” uses food to bring communities together and celebrates the sharing of traditions across generations.

August Wilson grew up open to the creative inspiration in everything he encountered: in library books, in music, in artworks, in the lively conversations overheard in the restaurants and barbershops lining the Pittsburgh neighborhood of his childhood. August paid attention. He listened. And when he got older, he got ideas about what to do with everything he’d seen and heard—ideas that would make him one of the greatest playwrights in American history.

A young girl named Annushka is helping her Mommika Grandma make plum dumplings when she finds an incomplete set of Hungarian nesting dolls. The set of three dolls were a gift to Annushka’s mother from her great-grandmother. Where could the other two dolls be?

Who were Pocahontas and the Powhatan Indians? They were the Native Americans living in Virginia who met the English settlers when they arrived in 1607. Learn about their culture and how they celebrated their harvest every year!