“My mother has two tongues. With one tongue, she speaks Malayalam. With the other, she speaks English.” Young Sumi (Indian American) explains that her mother changes the language she speaks depending on who she’s with and what she’s doing.
Book of the Week
Jimmy’s Rhythm and Blues: The Extraordinary Life of James Baldwin
“Home is brick brown, / Harlem, uptown, / trains rumbling by.” An exquisitely composed picture book biography of James Baldwin illuminates his interest in the arts and development as a writer from a young age.
Fire from the Sky
Teenage Ánte loves his life in a small northern Swedish town. His Sámi family herds reindeer, although they’re no longer nomadic. Indeed, he’s living a settled, 21st-century life, going to high school, texting with friends, engaging (or not) on social media. Ánte has no desire to go anywhere but wonders if he’ll be able to stay: He doesn’t know anyone else who is gay.
Code Red
Eden (white) is struggling to find her middle school footing after an injury ended the gymnastics career that once consumed her life. Although Eden is proud of her mom’s rags-to-riches story as the founder and CEO of a menstrual products company, she’s dismayed when her mom is invited to give a talk on Career Day and humiliated by the unpredictable period jokes and teasing that ensue.
Boyogi: How a Wounded Family Learned to Heal
A young boy’s father has returned “from far away,” where he was a soldier, changed. Daddy used to be fun, but now he’s angry and sad and spends a lot of time in his room. The boy’s mother explains that Daddy’s mind is hurt by bad things that happened while he was gone, and she assures the boy that they are trying to figure out how to help Daddy feel better.
Darwin’s Super-Pooping Worm Spectacular
Charles Darwin’s belief that worms were amazing contributors to the natural world was not shared by the public, who considered them nothing more than garden pests. Determined to prove his opinion scientifically, Darwin tested worms’ vision, learning they didn’t have eyes but used sensors in their skin to detect light.
An Impossible Thing to Say
Iranian American Omid lives with his family in Tucson, Arizona, in 2001. At the private high school he attends, Omid is shy and lacks confidence. But he hits it off with new student Emily (white) and the two convince each other to try out for the school play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
A Pocketful of Stars
Safiya, 13, thinks her mom doesn’t understand her; she certainly doesn’t understand Safiya’s passion for gaming. Safiya (multiracial) suspects that the tension between them wasn’t helped when she chose to live with her dad (white) after her parents’ divorce.
All the Faces of Me
A young girl fascinated by her Nana’s set of traditional nesting dolls notes that they all have identical smiles. Deciding the dolls shouldn’t be stuck with the same smiles, the girl “fixes” them, adding a range of expressions to their faces.
More Than a Dream: The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
This fresh, insightful account of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom documents the event from initial idea through behind-the-scenes planning to the tensions and triumphs of the day.