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Two young women—one in Harlem, New York City, one in Dominican Republic—both 16, just four months apart, they look a lot alike when they finally meet. They have SO much in common, but Camino from the island is lighter skinned. Yahaira is darker. They didn’t know anything about the other until Papi died in a plane crash. Told in breathtaking poetry.
In this time when Black Lives Matter has picked up momentum, such that one feels, maybe we’ll actually make big progress against racism this time around, it’s the time to check our antiracist beliefs. Read the authors’ account of the history of racism and marvel. Assess the work of so many world leaders over decades and centuries. Think about your experience with racism. What could you do better?
Known as one of the greatest dancers in history, Vaslav Nijinsky, born in 1890 to Polish parents living in Russia, briefly led a stellar life that quickly turned tragic. His avant-garde choreography along with Stravinsky’s music caused a riot in Paris in 1913. His fame is based on the memory of people who witnessed his dancing, on photos, and hearsay. Very unfortunately, no film of his dancing exists.
For young people disillusioned with the status quo: racism, patriarchy, colonialism, white privilege—it’s all here in the remarkable richly-imagined, quirky writing of A.S. King. It will give readers grounds for activism at a time when it couldn’t be more needed. This book will help the world and society toward much needed change, through page-turning fiction at its best.
Set in the stark beauty of sheer rock escarpment where the northern Atlantic waters beat the Scottish stac, and where birds like puffins, gannets, petrels breed and summer, boys from an inhabited island are sent to “fowl” or harvest birds in 1727. But the boat doesn’t return to fetch them home. How will the boys survive on sheer nearly vertical rock after the birds leave? Has the world ended? This Printz Honor book is gorgeously written—a positively unique read.
Aphrodite, goddess of love, tells the story of lovers, Hazel and James, Colette and Aubrey, in WWI France. War separates them and causes tragedies. Race separates Colette and Aubrey, setting up more tragedy. But hardship and tragedy intensifies their love. Aphrodite uses the lovers’ stories to plead her case of adultery to her husband—while in a luxury Manhattan apartment of WWII.
“I wasn’t depressed because I was gay. I was depressed and gay.” That statement comes late in the book but is so important. Coming out is certainly challenging, but harder for Shaun than some—and that’s why. The title describes the story. Everyone should be able to see himself in literature.
Each Kindness conveys a powerful message about how even the smallest act of kindness can spread out and makes the world a little better.
Two sisters are abandoned to an orphanage in 1930s Chicago. As they grow, World War II begins, Frankie falls in love with a soldier—also an orphan—but off he goes to war. The story is narrated by another young woman—a ghost. Who is she? How do their stories relate?
What connects race riots, war explosives, Prohibition, and women’s suffrage? Give up? Molasses. And the explosion of one vat of said molasses in the North End of Boston in January of 1919. The National Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature is nonfiction (that in itself is worthy of note) begins with that horrific molasses explosion and the reader never stops turning pages.
Author Ruta Sepetys researches lesser known history and writes page-turning historical fiction. This one is set in Madrid, 1957-1977, during the reign of dictator Generalissimo Franco. An American teenager, Daniel, from Texas, falls in love with Ana, from an oppressed Spanish family. Ana and her family are restricted by the Franco regime. Daniel and his family couldn’t be more privileged. Can this work?
The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank is a classic for all generations. Anne Frank and her family hide in an attic annex in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. The story begins when she is 13, she falls in love with Peter whose family is hiding with theirs. The story ends two years later when Nazi officers discover them and send them all to concentration camps. This is the remarkable graphic novel adaptation.
