Sugar

Growing up on a plantation during Reconstruction with her grandparents, 10-year-old Sugar is inquisitive and adventurous.

So when Chinese workers are brought in chains for the harvest, Sugar is determined to figure out where they came from and to befriend them. She has to overcome not only the barriers of language and culture, but also the concerns of the older African Americans, who wonder if these new, younger workers threaten their meager yet vital employment.

This middle school chapter book offers a chance to learn an untold story of Reconstruction that was a precursor to the Great Migration.

Credit: By Jewell Parker Rhodes. Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2013.