Maybe the problem is that today’s school libraries engage in censorship. In the 1960s (when I was in elementary school) I read books like:
And Now Miguel?
Call It Courage
The King’s X
Paddle to The Sea.
Lots of books about kids of color — Asian, Hispanic, Native American, African, Pacific Islander. Good reads, if not necessarily hewing to the political correct mores of today. Wonder what happened to them?
.......Paddle to The Sea.......
And don’t forget “The Tree In The Trail”
Sometime back actually I visited the starting point of Paddle to the Sea and traced the route as far as lake Michigan.
I purchased a used copy of Paddle to the Sea on Amazon for my grandson and it is in the library I am making for him.