…and speaking of building better tomorrows, we’re delighted to see Ibram X. Kendi has cleverly put out a baby board book. Timing is everything, and nothing happens overnight in book publishing, which makes the arrival of Antiracist Baby this week a marvel. Kendi, whose Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America and How to …
One of my childhood favorites. Justin doesn’t like to do “women’s work,” but a few days at his grandfather’s ranch teaches him more lessons than he can ask for! Great middle grade read! –Derrick, The Well-Read Moose, Coeur d’Alene, ID Revisit old book friends and introduce them to new readers at The Well-Read Moose and …
What a clever and realistic accounting of how we demonstrate what it looks like to stand up and be a true friend: through sickness and health, through buggers and bullies, swiping pocket change and wiping out on skateboards, first crushes and first kisses. This story is told through ten vignettes of individual kids who are …
Compelling narrative. Fantastic pre-teen middle reader that does an excellent job of exploring race and race-related issues via the clever mechanism of a young Black student who begins her middle school journey with some color-blind ideas and anti-Black biases that prevent her from forming meaningful relationships with other Black students. Great book to approach students …
I ordered this book around what would have been Bookstore Day in late April and it languished in a stack of to-be-read books until I watched the KidLit4BlackLives Rally—the author was one of the speakers. I pulled it out this morning and was charmed by Ryan and her family; I’m so glad to see that …
No better $35 can be spent for a book in this country than this collection of James Baldwin’s collected non-fiction— what were published as five books, from Notes of a Native Son through The Devil Finds Work, with a selection of essays not previously collected included. Timely in their day, this writing feels prophetically and astoundingly true …
From The Paris Review 3/8/19: Mitchell S. Jackson’s debut novel The Residue Years was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize, and it was the winner of both the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and a Whiting Writers’ Award winner. He …
A bare-knuckled love letter steeped in fatherly wisdom written to Coates’s son that rendered me speechless, angry, and hopeful. Coates writes with an urgency and a sensitivity that begs to be shared with those looking toward a future in which systemic oppression has no home in this country. –Blair, Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle, WA Find …
On August 18, the Hugo Awards were handed out. This is a big deal mostly in the Science Fiction and Fantasy community, but, this year it should be a big deal to everyone who values inclusive writing, especially the voices of women and more particularly women of color. For years, Science Fiction and Fantasy were …
