I remember reading this book - A Girl Called Boy - when I was in maybe 5th grade or so?

This is a young adult book - Liar - but it's really good.

Will have to think about some more ...

Some of the best children/young adult books about historical figures or times are written by Anne Rinaldi. I picked one up at Mt. Vernon for my godson, and found out a great deal about Juneteenth that I hadn't known. Ann Rinaldi's Great Episodes series are historical, but also reader-friendly.

Come Juneteenth (Great Episodes)
by Ann Rinaldi

By "people of colour", does your friend specifically mean African American/African descent, or any non-white people?

I need to dig into my childhood bookshelves and memories...I know I've got some stuff featuring Asian and Hispanic characters.

One of my favorite books when I was around that age is called "The Clay Marble" by Minfong Ho. It's about a young Cambodian girl and her family and how they live during a war there. I loved it because it shows the maturing process that everyone (hopefully lol) goes through. It's really inspirational but it's not heavy, and it has its funny parts :)

Are non-fiction books out of bounds?

I remember being fascinated by biographies at that age, and generally they're pretty accessible and straight forward.

This is a wonderful book and I hope that your friend will consider it (it's definitely age appropriate).

"Journey to the River Sea" by Eva Ibbotson

While the protagonist is white, she is sent to live in Brazil and starts to become intrigued the native people and their ways. Ethnocentricity is one of the themes, along with friendship, tolerance, new beginnings etc. One of my nieces said it was the best book that she ever read. I've read it twice myself and loved it. No sex, no violence and definitely suitable for a girl to read.

"Sent in 1910 to live with distant relatives who own a rubber plantation along the Amazon River, English orphan Maia is excited. She believes she is in for brightly colored macaws, enormous butterflies, and "curtains of sweetly scented orchids trailing from the trees." Her British classmates warn her of man-eating alligators and wild, murderous Indians. Unfortunately, no one cautions Maia about her nasty, xenophobic cousins, who douse the house in bug spray and forbid her from venturing beyond their coiffed compound. Maia, however, is resourceful enough to find herself smack in the middle of more excitement than she ever imagined, from a mysterious "Indian" with an inheritance, to an itinerant actor dreading his impending adolescence, to a remarkable journey down the Amazon in search of the legendary giant sloth."

PS Jen - Assuming that your friend lives in Vancouver, tell your friends to check out Kidsbooks in Edgemont Village or on West Broadway. The staff there are so knowledgeable and will be able to make great recommendations.

I LOVED Ann Rinaldi. One book to think of that I read when I was younger was The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. One of the main characters is white, but there are also Native Americans and a couple from South America. There is a slight mention of sexual abuse, but it is minor. I just realized there was a sequel and am just finishing it.

Maybe someone else should chime in on if this is acceptable for a 10 year old. I read just about everything my hands were on whether it was appropriate or not.