Becoming Brave: Finding the Courage to Pursue Racial Justice Now Booklist from Sno-Isle Libraries
Books for Children
Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You, Sonia Sotomayor
In this creative non-fiction story that celebrates the many differences among humans, Sonia and her friends plant a garden, and each one contributes in his or her own special way. In this warm and inclusive story by U.S. Supreme Justice Sonia Sotomayor, inspired by her own childhood diagnosis of diabetes, readers join along as differently abled kids use their strengths to work together and learn about each other.
A Kids Book About Racism, Jelani Memory
Yes, this really is a kids book about racism. Inside, you'll find a clear description of what racism is, how it makes people feel when they experience it, and how to spot it when it happens. This is one conversation that's never too early to start, and this book was written to be an introduction for kids on the topic.
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, Wade Hudson
What do we tell our children when the world seems bleak, and prejudice and racism run rampant? With lavishly designed pages of original art and prose, fifty diverse creators lend voice to young activists.
I Am Every Good Thing, Derrick Barnes
Illustrations and easy-to-read text pay homage to the strength, character, and worth of a child.
Parker Inheritance, Varian Johnson
Twelve-year-old Candice Miller finds the letter that got her grandmother dismissed from her city job many years ago. She and her new friend find themselves caught up in the mystery and set out to exonerate her grandmother and expose an injustice once committed against an African American family in Lambert.
Books for Teens
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, Jason Reynolds
The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. Racist ideas are woven into the fabric of this country, and the first step to building an antiracist America is acknowledging America's racist past and present. This book takes you on that journey, showing how racist ideas started and were spread, and how they can be discredited.
Say Her Name, Zetta Elliot
Inspired by the #SayHerName campaign launched by the African American Policy Forum, these poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists insisting that Black Lives Matter. Elliott engages poets from the past two centuries to create a chorus of voices celebrating the creativity, resilience, and courage of Black women and girls.
We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide, Carol Anderson
When America makes progress toward racial equality, the systemic response is a backlash that rolls back those wins. This edition adapted from the author's White Rage especially for teens illuminates these dark moments of history.
This Book is Anti-racist, Tiffany Jewell
Learn about identities, true histories, and anti-racism work ... This book is written so young people will feel empowered to stand up to the adults in their lives. This book will give them the language and ability to understand racism and a drive to undo it. When America makes progress toward racial equality, the systemic response is a backlash that rolls back those wins. This edition adapted from the author's White Rage especially for teens illuminates these dark moments of history.
Punching the Air, Ibi Aanu Zoboi
Award-winning, bestselling author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five comes a powerful YA novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. A moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth, in a system designed to strip him of both.
Books for Adults
How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi
In this book, Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science, bringing it all together with an engaging personal narrative of his own awakening to antiracism. How to Be an Antiracist is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond an awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a truly just and equitable society.
So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo
Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor, Layla F. Saad
This eye-opening book challenges you to do the essential work of unpacking your biases, and helps white people take action and dismantle the privilege within themselves so that you can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin Diangelo
Speaking as a white person to other white people, Dr. DiAngelo clearly and compellingly takes readers through an analysis of white socialization. She describes how race shapes the lives of white people, explains what makes racism so hard for whites to see, identifies common white racial patterns, and speaks back to popular white narratives that work to deny racism.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson
In this book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
View this booklist on the Sno-Isle Libraries website at this link: https://bit.ly/3mYuZMd
To Purchase this book locally, please visit The Edmonds Bookshop