Picture Us in the Light – Kelly Loy Gilbert Danny Cheng has always known his parents have secrets. But when he discovers a taped-up box in his father’s closet filled with old letters and a file on a powerful Silicon Valley family, he realizes there’s much more to his family’s past than he ever imagined. Danny has been…
A Possibility of Whales by Karen Rivers Summary Twelve-year-old Natalia Rose Baleine Gallagher loves possibilities: the possibility that she’ll see whales on the beach near her new home, the possibility that the transgender boy she just met will become her new best friend, the possibility that the paparazzi hounding her celebrity father won’t force them to move again. Most…
Books to Read, Love, and Share: Americanized by Sara Saedi Description from Goodreads: At thirteen, bright-eyed, straight-A student Sara Saedi uncovered a terrible family secret: she was breaking the law simply by living in the United States. Only two years old when her parents fled Iran, she didn’t learn of her undocumented status until her older sister wanted to…
For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood by Christopher Emdin In For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education, Christopher Emdin shares his experience of learning and teaching in an urban setting and offers up a new approach to education. He dismantles stereotypes and advocates for a student-centered…
Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood Ivy grew up in her great-grandmother’s house under the constant gaze of old portraits of distinguished Milbourn women and wrapped in the dust of old prizes and journals. She comes from a long line of bright and brief stars, each taken too soon by mental illness or murder. Her grandfather pushes her to find…
Fifteen Lanes by S. J. Laidlaw Noor, the daughter of a sex worker, has grown up in a brothel through hardship, cruelty, and sadness. Grace, the daughter of a successful CEO, has her reputation tarnished by a vicious bout of cyber-bullying and spirals into depression. Can these very different girls learn from each other and eventually save one another?…
The Love that Split the World by Emily Henry Natalie’s last summer before college is off to a fine start, except that she has to drive her siblings around and her best friend is off at soccer camp. Then, Natalie starts seeing things that can’t possibly exist: houses that weren’t there before, friends who don’t even recognize her, and…
Underwater by Marisa Reichardt After a terrible tragedy, Morgan is too afraid to leave her apartment. She casts aside friends and hobbies for life as a shut-in. However, her brother just got cast in a play and a new boy, Evan, has just moved in next door. Now, more than ever, she longs to take the first step back…
Everything, Everything Madeline, who can’t leave her Clean House for fear of dying from an allergy to an unknown trigger, wants more. She wants to feel the ocean in between her toes and smell the musty old spines in a used bookstore. She reads thousands of pages to escape the confines of a white-on-white filtered-air house, but knows in her…
Read Nouvelle: We Were Liars and many more! I recently signed up to receive Advance Reader Copies through NetGalley. If you haven’t tried this before, you should! Basically, as educators, we have the power to influence what books our schools teach and what books our students read. Given that, we can ask publishers for ARCs and read books before they…
Teaching Historical Fiction: Ideas for Fever 1793 I love Historical Fiction, and my new favorite is Laurie Halse Anderson’s Fever 1793. I wanted to share this book with you today so that you may 1) love it and 2) teach it. This book came out in 2000, long before I lived in Philadelphia or told the story of Yellow Fever…