Langston Hughes famous poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, speaks to his life and the broader African-American experience. Illustrator E.B. Lewis pays tribute to his words using beautiful watercolor images.
Corey Brooks has fallen hard for the new girl, lovely, pale Anna Corwin. But while Corey can think of nothing but Anna, most of his friends have never even heard of her, much less seen her themselves. When Anna disappears abruptly, Corey goes to her house on the infamous Fear Street, determined to find out her secret, whatever the cost.
When J.J.’s mother says time’s what she really wants for her birthday, J.J. decides to find her some. He’s set himself up for an impossible task … until a neighbor reveals a secret. There’s a place where time stands still—at least, it’s supposed to. J.J. can make the journey there, but he’ll have to vanish from his own life to do so. Can J.J. find the leak between the two worlds? Will a shocking rumor about his family’s past come back to haunt him? And what does it all have to do with the village’s new policeman … ?
Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today’s leading activists and artists. In this installment, The New Queer Conscience, Voices4 Founder and LGBTQIA+ activist Adam Eli offers a candid and compassionate introduction to queer responsibility. Eli calls on his Jewish faith to underline how kindness and support within the queer community can lead to a stronger global consciousness. More importantly, he reassures us that we’re not alone. In fact, we never were. Because if you mess with one queer, you mess with us all.
The book actually succeeds on three fronts - it brings the time alive for the reader, it has literary merit, and it actually has a child friendly focus that will make it a Newbery book that a wide variety of children can read (or listen to) and enjoy
It’s 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders. Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn’t know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. But even if her country has been ripped apart, Nisha still believes in the possibility of putting herself back together. 2019 Newbery Honor Book and Walter Honor Book, Younger Readers Category.
Julia Baskin, Leslie Newman, Sophie Pollitt-Cohen, Courtney Toombs
The real-life diaries of four New York teens read like episodes of Gossip Girl or The Hills and show that teen lit is more realistic than many adults want to imagine. The girls write candidly about their vulnerabilities and their mistakes.
Classics, Fairy Tales, Folktales and Myths, Poetry
Age Level:
YA
Odysseus just wants to get home to his wife and son after being away for more than ten years fighting in the Trojan War. On his journey (odyssey) back, he encounters all manner of obstacles including a cyclops, temptresses, ghostly spirates, pirates, and a six-headed monster.Looking for companion text? Waiting for Odysseus by Clemence McLaren traces Odysseus’s journey through the eyes of the women in his life: his wife Penelope, the seductive Circe, the goddess Pallas Athene, and his childhood nurse Eurycleia.
How much would you allow someone else to suffer so that you could be happy? When the residents of Omelas, a place with no sadness, come of age, they are forced to make the decision: live happily but with the knowledge of someone’s extreme suffering or leave their beloved city.