This summer a highly anticipated title is the YA debut by the author of the adult title Mem. Morrow sets her story in a contemporary alternative world where portions of the population have various mythical abilities and identities. Inherent in these identities are built in assumptions and prejudices, the most heightened of which are towards “sirens,” …
Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Nickel Boys, is out in paperback. . . The Nickel Boys follows Elwood Curtis as he is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy. Curtis falls in with a fellow “delinquent” named Turner, and the novel explores the very different reactions to the terrible system that …
Saidiya Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments contains some of the most imaginative, inventive, and radical history writing I’ve ever encountered. Taking as her subjects the black women excluded from the US historical archive, Hartman challenges and unsettles dominant understandings of who “makes” history. In vibrant and ecstatic prose, Hartman tells the story of how the wayward, the …
Treat yourself to an immersion in the community feeling and sense of self-worth that shine throughout this gorgeous book. It’s difficult to choose, but I think my favorite pages might be the second-to-last about tipping the barber. This picture book has earned many crowns: Winner of the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers A Newbery …
…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 …
Watch this video recommendation by Hanna from Rediscovered Books in Boise, ID. The Poet X won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award. More praise, this time from favorite authors: “Crackles with energy and snaps with authenticity and voice.” —Justina Ireland, author of Dread …
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 …
No matter your age, there is value for you in this video of an event hosted by The Brown Bookshelf, a group of authors and illustrators who came together to push awareness of the myriad of African American voices writing for young readers. The Brown Bookshelf is honoured to host the KidLit4BlackLives Rally that took …
