stories introducing/celebrating diversity for 8-12 yr olds (without being preachy)

[AGD]

Where we live isn't very multi-cultural and I'd love some books that introduce cultural, ethnic and other diversity to 9yo DD without being issue-led or preachy. Anyone recommend any?

We read The Weight of Water which was definitely a good one to start a conversation about immigration. She loved My Name's Not Friday which is sort of about diversity in that it is an african american voice in the past.

thanks

How about...
Tall Story by Candy Gourlay
Ash Mistry books (adventure series) by Sarwat Chadda
I will try and think of some more!

Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman is fab, but probably a bit old for her at the moment.

Rick Riordan's follow up series to Percy Jackson has mixed race protagonists - one apparently white and one apparently African American, and he does some interesting stuff with it in passing. His third series (Heroes of Olympus) has a team carefully representing every single major racial group in the US, which is arguably a bit gimmicky but nicely done. I suspect he's consciously redeeming himself from some slightly questionable choices in the original Percy Jackson books, and really working hard at it.

Oh I forgot to say that the first series I'm talking about is the Kane Chronicles.

Oh and the Wells and Wong mysteries (Arsenic for Tea etc) are excellent for the upper end of that age range. Our narrator is a Hong Kong Chinese girl in a 1934 girl's boarding school. Excellent treatment of the realities of subtle racism.

Ah, yes. Well done santa. Wells & Wong are fab. The first one is called Murder Most Unladylike.

Oh, also The Dreamsnatcher by Abi Elphinstone has a Romany protagonist. It's not an issues book, more fast-paced fantasy.

Don't know if these are too issue led but my dd (9) enjoyed Underground to Canada about slavery. There is also the fantastic Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, about a black family in 1930s Mississpi but she might be too young, as the ending is very sad. My 11 year old liked it.

There are the Tillerman books by Cynthia Voight. All worth reading but second one, Dicey's song, might be what you are looking for.

My dd also enjoyed A Village by yhe Sea by Anita Desai about two children in India.

Roberts that is a trip down memory name I had all those books 35 years ago!

DD read a book called 'The Skin I'm In' which she said was good.

wow, thanks everyone! V excited by all those recommendations. Mumsnetters rock :)

The Lionboy series happen to have a mixed race protagonist and over the course of the series, the protagonist finds his way to Africa. It's not explicitly multicultural but there is quite a lot of tangential references and part of the series is set in parts of Africa and there are some plotlines about being in exile. I read them to my DD (9) - she's a good reader but these are pretty densely written and therefore quite long and I'm not sure she'd have enjoyed them so much on her own.

It'll be for the older end of the age group but there is a series of books by Joan Lingard about characters called Kevin and Sadie which are set in Belfast. One of them is Catholic and one of them is Protestant and they are set at the height of the troubles. Worth reading.

A girl, a Jewish boy and a mute: Roman Mysteries

A mighty girl