Wolk, Lauren. Wolf Hollow.
In this complex coming-of-age book, blond city girl Betty Glengarry is sadistic, cruel, and frankly terrifying – and when she moves to Annabelle’s small rural Pennsylvania town in 1943, Annabelle has to cope with threats and problems she had never before imagined. Not least of these is her determination to protect Toby, a reclusive, shell-shocked World War I veteran, from Betty’s manipulations.
Dumas, Firoozeh. It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel
Recently moved to Newport Beach, California, Zomorod Yousefzadeh’s plan for fitting in at her new middle school starts with having an American name, Cindy— like on The Brady Bunch. She dreams of joining the Girl Scouts, making American friends, having a beanbag chair, and fitting in for once. It’s the late 1970s, and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes headlines with protests, a revolution, and finally the taking of American hostages.
Bayard, Louis, Lucky Strikes.
When fourteen-year-old Melia’s mother dies, resourceful Melia – a clever mechanic – is determined to run the family auto repair shop and gas station, care for younger siblings Earle and Janey, survive the tough days of the Depression in rural Virginia, and stave off Standard Oil shill Harley Blevins, who has an eye on Melia’s business. To do so, they need an adult parent – so Melia co-opts Hiram Watts, a drunken hobo, to impersonate their father. A wonderful and heartwarming story.
When the Ku Klux Klan’s 
unwelcome reappearance rattles Stella’s segregated southern town, bravery battles prejudice in this Depression-era story story. Stella’s community—her world—is upended as she begins to see people in a different light.