Our daughter has a birthday coming up and I am excited to give her her first baby doll. Not only did I love playing with dolls when I was young, but research shows that playing with dolls helps children grow the parts of their brains associated with empathy and social skills (even for boys, by the way, … Continue reading
As Black History Month begins, there are a plethora of lists circulating on the web of resources to use for learning more about Black History. Black history is American history. In this space, I wanted to briefly share the stories of some girls who were visible parts of the Civil Rights Movement. When I wrote … Continue reading
Thus summer, after the killing of George Floyd, there was a movement in Catholic circles on Instagram calling Catholics to #RendYourHearts, praying 18 days for racial justice. There was also an emphasis put on the stories of Black Catholics about their experiences and how the Church can repair from a history of racism and injustice. … Continue reading
The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed The Black Kids is set in Los Angeles in 1992, beginning just before the verdict in the Rodney King trial is handed down. Seventeen-year-old Ashley and her prep school friends are busy preparing for the prom. Underneath the dayglow exterior of their lives, though, Ashley has a lot … Continue reading
This Is My America by Kim Johnson This Is My America reminds me of if you crossed The Heartbeats of Wing Jones with The Hate U Give with Just Mercy. At the center of the story are two murder mysteries. While seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont is consumed by getting Innocence X (clearly a stand-in for The Innocence Project) to take up the appeal … Continue reading
In a previous blog, I provided some discussion questions for Dear Martin by Nic Stone. This September, a sequel/companion novel is set to come out called Dear Justyce. In this book, Justyce’s classmate, Quan, writes letters to him from jail. Justyce gave the notebook of letters he wrote to Martin Luther King, Jr. to Quan and Quan reads … Continue reading
{I first published this list in December 2014, after the grand jury decisions in the killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. I’m revisiting it today as there are riots across the country after a string of events including the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN. So much has happened in between and yet … Continue reading
White People Really Love Salad: What My Childhood Taught Me About Diversity, Equity & Inclusion by Nita Mosby Tyler, Ph.D. I have had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Nita Mosby Tyler of The Equity Project speak at three different trainings for the library system in which I work. She is wonderful and a total hero (literally … Continue reading
What a lovely, lovely, important book. Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement by Janet Dewart Bell includes interviews with nine black women about their work in the Civil Rights Movement, often emphasizing their focus on their intersectional experiences of race, gender, and class. In Lighting the Fires of Freedom, Bell has … Continue reading
Issues of race in American culture have been at the forefront of the news lately, with the grand jury decisions in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases. With all the complicated and strong feelings, chances are kids have both been exposed to the news and have questions about it. There are tons of books … Continue reading
Ph.D.s and Pigtails 