The best YA novels that place an American kid in another culture

No realism is spared in this gripping story of an American girl at a bonobo sanctuary in the Congo that’s brutally overrun in a spasm of civil war. This is a powerful narrative, vividly written, with mind-opening honesty about what two species of primates (bonobo and human) are capable of in life-threatening situations.

This very involving story centers on two boys who find themselves in Brussels. Max’s American family is here for his dad’s posting with NATO; Ahmed, a young Syrian, is broke and alone after losing his family in the civil war. Getting to know Ahmed brings a sense of purpose to Max’s life—but one he has to hide from almost everyone. Nowhere Boy pulls us in as its characters struggle and everyone is swamped by the confusing tension that the flood of Muslim refugees has brought to Europe. There are no simple answers here, but one simple truth: The vast majority of refugees are just people and families, not furthering violence but seeking safety from it.

Thirteen-year-old Clare is a doctor’s daughter whose mom died last year. She joins her dad for two months in a jungly rural district deep in Malawi, where he works for a medical charity and she attends a local school. Claire is deep in her grief—but in Mzanga Village Primary she makes deep connections, then has to confront heartbreak all over again. It’s funny and inspiring to witness the ways the village kids cope with privations and challenges far beyond any Clare has ever known. Burg’s characters rise easily from her pages to life; and her novel pries open our hearts, even just a little, right along with Clare’s.

Awkward, unconfident Darius travels with his Iranian mom and American dad to Yazd, his mother’s hometown, where his grandfather has a brain tumor. Darius struggles with depression, and in Yazd he discovers friendship, an ancestral culture with great food, and a sense of belonging and mattering. The author aims to share the experience of depression, stripping it of shaming and easy answers; he also makes a very different culture both distinctive and ordinary, with people who can be small-minded but are mostly kind and generous. Darius makes a friend who also struggles, and their opening to each other is not simple; but as he learns to embrace more of who he is, we come to understand that there’s a whole lot more he can be.

In this novel by a Palestinian-American poet, Liyana is an observant teenager whose family suddenly relocates from the U.S. to a tense, polarized, injustice-ridden Jerusalem. Habibi gives us Jerusalem and its surroundings from the Palestinian side, bringing to life the community and its traditions, frustrations, and shattering losses. Then the novel introduces a young Israeli to whom Liyana is strongly drawn—and things get complicated, as it seems they inevitably do in this place of complexities that are both age-old and ever-present. As Liyana and Omer grow close, the story opens into one that’s broader, deeper, and honestly challenging. The only real answer, Habibi seems to insist, is our own humanity.