May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s also the last full month of school for traditionally-scheduled districts. I think mental health is the last thing on our minds as we rush through final units, encourage students to turn in missing work, improve those failing grades to passing ones, and...
My favorite thing about Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Boxby Evette Dionne is that it’s accurate, and the author highlights Black women who fought hard during the Women’s Suffrage era to get women of color to the ballot box and voting in American elections. It’s not just...
In Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s Fighting Words, 10-year-old protagonist Della gives readers a front row seat to her daily life in foster care with her 16-year-old sister Suki who has been her main caregiver since she was born. Their life hasn’t been easy—with their birth mother far away,...
In recent months, the Taliban in the Middle East has taken over once again after American troops removed themselves. The first person I thought of was Malala Yousafzai and what in the world she was going to do about this. Her story is one of strength under impossible torture and pain.
The main character in The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré, Adunni, is on a personal journey to give herself the best life she can despite insurmountably hard circumstances. Her mother dies prematurely and her father needs to pay the bills in Nigeria, so Adunni is sold to a man as his third...
If we all trace our lineage back generation by generation, you will almost always find a fearless woman at the forefront of care, kindness, and the ability to multitask just about everything. Women are strong. We’ve fought for our right to vote, own our own property, and we are still fighting for...
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood is a memoir by Trevor Noah about his upbringing in South Africa and how he became a popular comedian in America as host of The Daily Show.
Tokyo Ever After: A Novel by Emiko Jean has been climbing the charts as one of the most popular books right now for young adults. With Netflix’s “The Crown” and Katharine McGee’s American Royals being the rage, this book has emerged among them successfully.
Adi Alsaid has released many young adult books since his first title, Let’s Get Lost, but I can promise you, this one blazes through as just as good, if not better than the rest. A new beginning can start at any time, declared by the person who needs one. In this story, the main character, Leila,...
Many students endure the (not-so-fun) ritual of moving schools mid-year. In Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan, this is the reality of one of the two main characters, Morgan, as she is forced to transfer schools. Morgan is an elite track star at her Catholic private high school, but is kicked out...
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