Social Justice Books

Avoid summer slide and make sure the kids in your life READ while school is out! Teaching for Change recently launched a new site, Social Justice Books, and you can find their 2017 Summer Reading List here. I’m honored that MILO’S MUSEUM is one of their recommended titles! They also have a guide to finding anti-bias books for kids, and you can also read reviews of the best (and worst) books. When educators and parents ask me where to find inclusive books for their kids, I send them to Teaching for Change because I trust Deborah Menkart and her team of reviewers to separate the wheat from the chaff…

I’ve been reading a lot lately; I don’t post reviews on Goodreads, but I do track the titles I finish. Instead of rating a book, I’d much rather reflect on my particular reading experience; I can appreciate and respect a book without enjoying it, and I can value originality and good storytelling even when the writing itself is lackluster. Sometimes a book has it all—like Katherina Vermette’s The Break—and then I urge everyone I know to read it. But I still don’t write a review, and maybe I need to reconsider that since I certainly appreciate readers who post reviews of my books online (this one just came in). Right now I’m reading NK Jemisin’s The Shadowed Sun and yesterday I finished Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti: Home. Both books make me very aware of my limitations as a writer. “I could never do that!” is a phrase I hear in my head again and again. But recognizing the strengths of others also makes me want to explore my own potential. I don’t think I’ll ever write science fiction; I’m not that interested in spaceships, alien species, and distant planets. But I’m fascinated by the way these women writers make science and technology appear meaningful and *organic* in the lives of Black people. I never thought I’d write a dystopian novel but I’ve got one underway right now. That’s why reading widely is so important—the more books I read, the more I realize that writers GROW, they evolve over time precisely because THEY KEEP ON WRITING. I don’t feel my books have to be perfect and that empowers me to finish up and move on without agonizing over small (or even big) issues. Each time I finish a story, I learn more about myself as a writer and a reader. And I’m SO grateful that there are so many amazing women writers out there doing things I can’t do…yet.

Today is one of my last gigs for the school year. I’m looking forward to talking about books with Joseph Bruchac at the Middle School Quality Initiative. Michele Weisman from Meet the Writers kindly invited me to present, and the 100 attendees will receive a copy of Ship of Souls. It feels like I wrote that book a lifetime ago, but it’s exciting to share my process and priorities with educators and administrators. I had the opportunity to talk about legacies at Weeksville Heritage Center with outgoing executive director Tia Powell Harris and Brooklyn Historical Society president Deborah Schwartz. I want to leave behind a body of work, but I also hope people remember that I took some chances—in my writing and my advocacy. I’m not fearless, but do hope to prove that there’s more than one way to be a writer who serves her community.