The Story of My Anger by Jasminne Mendez

The aptly titled THE STORY OF MY ANGER by Jasminne Mendez has been published just in time for Banned Book Week (Oct. 5 to 11, 2025). Mendez writes about Yuli, a Texas high school junior and young woman of color, who is struggling to be seen, to find her voice, and to use her anger in a constructive manner. She and her friends (Aleeyah, Ty, and Madison) have bonded over their love of theater and music despite not being cast for leading roles in the local school plays, like Our Town. (At one point, Yuli muses: … but if Black girls like me/are never given the chance/ to play the part of Emily/how are we ever expected to feel/like we're a part of this great/American story?) In addition to using poetry and verse, including haiku (It's not my skin that's/a problem, it's their lack of/imagination.), Mendez also employs stage directions and play structure to help set the scenes. In this way, readers learn that the friends value Mr. G and the way his Ethnic Studies class introduces them to a variety of authors (like Maya Angelou, Octavia Butler, or Yuli’s favorite, Ntozake Shange) and viewpoints. The classmates are understandably upset and frustrated when the classroom library is removed by the administration, and they stage a protest and petition to get the books re-instated. Tensions escalate and emotions flare for Yuli, her activist brother, and supportive Mami. Based in part on events from 2012, THE STORY OF MY ANGER received starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus (“A compelling drama with a firecracker protagonist that stuns with its strikingly beautiful writing”). Jasminne Mendez is Pura Belpré Honor Award recipient and a Dominican-American poet, playwright and author of several books for children and adults. The Spanish language edition of THE STORY OF MY ANGER will be available in mid-November. I read this very engaging story in a day. Highly recommended.

The Black Family Who Built America

THE BLACK FAMILY WHO BUILT AMERICA is written by Cheryl McKissack Daniel, the award-winning president and CEO of McKissack & McKissack. Her family’s company is America’s oldest minority-owned construction firm and she shares the history of its development, founding, and works throughout the twentieth century until today. However, unlike Invisible Generals or The Warmth of Other Suns, THE BLACK FAMILY WHO BUILT AMERICA is written in a rather dense style, making it difficult to fully appreciate the many anecdotes about “projects like the Morris Memorial Building, Capers C.M.E. Church, John F. Kennedy International Airport, and Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.”

Cheryl McKissack Daniel strives to be inspiring, noting, for example, “Without any hesitation, I said, ‘McKissack will do it!’ That became my motto. If I heard anything that needed to be done, I'd say, ‘we'll do it!’ It didn't matter whether we had any idea how to do it or not. I had a talented staff; I knew we could figure it out.” The multi-generation legacy is quite remarkable and readers can further appreciate the design talent described by Cheryl's twin in this video hosted by CNBC:

Resist by Rita Omokha

RESIST by Rita Omokha is subtitled “How a Century of Young Black Activists Shaped America.” The author is an award-winning Nigerian American journalist and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. In RESIST she traces people and events from the 1920s (time of Scottsboro Nine) through the Civil Rights Era (Brown v. Board and education) to protests over Trayvon Martin and George Floyd and beyond. In late 2020 Omokha traveled over 13,000 miles (thirty states in thirty-two days); she spoke with 127 people and several of their stories are included. Omokha calls herself a storyteller ("drawn to the unsung. To the disenfranchised. To those often relegated to the shadows.") and says it is "important for me to make history personal." Her eloquent writing is filled with emotion: “Today's youth have become a generation forced to witness, from infancy, the perpetuation of injustice and the normalization of othering and subjugation. But in recent years, when such injustices occur, these atrocities pop up on their screens nonstop.” I learned much from Omokha’s book and the social justice efforts of people like Ella Baker, the Bates Seven at NYU, and defenders of the Jena Six, students at a Louisiana high school. Plus, she highlights numerous new – to me – details about other, more famous, activists or events (e.g., Obama’s 1981 speech against apartheid in South Africa). Omokha has included extensive notes and a helpful index. RESIST received a starred review from Booklist (“both incredibly detailed and accessibly readable … an essential text”).

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Story by James McBride

THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE by award-wining author James McBride is a complex, difficult novel to describe, but one that deserves your attention. Here are some thoughts from the author’s interview on PBS NewsHour:

Encouraging writers to forget race and focus on humanity, McBride says, “Self-definition is the first step towards self-control. ... just appreciate everyone for who they are.” He develops rich characters in his latest novel which centers on Pottstown Pennsylvania’s Chicken Hill neighborhood where Moshe and Chona Ludlow integrated a theater and ran a grocery store although the community was mostly filled with Black residents, including de facto community leader Nate (the theater’s janitor) and his wife, Addie. A skeleton is found in 1972, but relevant events from 40 years earlier drive the mystery and McBride's empathetic social commentary about marginalized groups (Jews, Blacks, Italian immigrants) in America. THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE was a LibraryReads selection for August 2023 and received multiple starred reviews: Booklist (“Funny, tender, knockabout, gritty, and suspenseful”), Kirkus (“pitch-perfect dialogue”), Library Journal (“compellingly written, and not to be missed”), AND Publishers Weekly (“endlessly rich saga”). For additional perspective, especially about the novel’s rather slow pace, here is the New York Times review.

Accountable by Dashka Slater

ACCOUNTABLE by Dashka Slater (The 57 Bus) is subtitled “The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed” and relates events that occurred in 2017 in Albany, California (liberal Bay Area) when a Korean American high school junior posted racist and misogynist memes on Instagram. Even though he initially had only 13 followers, many of the posts dealt with classmates and people they knew, especially Black and biracial girls. The New York Times recently published a lengthy article written by Slater who described, “competing narratives about how exactly the events should be interpreted, with some seeing them as a calamity that occurred despite Albany’s particular virtues (small, liberal, educated, interconnected) and others as a consequence of Albany’s particular shortcomings (too white, too insular, too wealthy, too obsessed with academic achievement).” Clearly, there is MUCH opportunity for teaching, for reflection (e.g., Am I racist? What makes someone racist? Why had no-one said anything earlier?) and for discussion (e.g., Does not taking action imply approval of content? How could the account followers and its subjects attend school together? Do the statistics Slater share correspond to our school? Are these events about race, gender or both?) with adolescent students. ACCOUNTABLE received a starred review from Booklist which says in part that this text “should be required reading for any teen before they create, comment, or even like a media post.” 

A Most Tolerant Little Town by Rachel Louise Martin

Today, August 28th, is the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. As we reflect on that, here is an excellent new text which deals with racial tensions in America:

According to her publisher, author Rachel Louise Martin is an historian interested in “the politics of memory” and “the power of stories to illuminate why injustice persists in America today.” Since arriving as a research fellow in 2005, she has interviewed over sixty townsfolk from Clinton, Tennessee and has subsequently written A MOST TOLERANT LITTLE TOWN, chronicling “the forgotten story of the first school to attempt court-mandated desegregation in the wake of Brown v. Board.” Readers will feel the tension in the air as ten students walked down from the Hill to join two others; these 12 were met by white adult and white student protestors, some wearing signs around their necks, like in the haunting image on the book’s cover.  Here is a short video summarizing those events:

More video and additional resources are available through PBS Learning Media. Like the Tulsa race massacre and Juneteenth, events at Clinton High School should be taught as part of American history, not be ignored and dismissed as DeSantis’ illiberal education (recently labeled by The Wall Street Journal) would likely do. 

Martin’s A MOST TOLERANT LITTLE TOWN is a valuable contribution and illuminates not only the larger societal trends, but importantly allows readers to better understand and to feel compassion for the students and their families. Her epilogue includes a perceptive 1960 quote from a Clinton High School teacher: “Desegregation involves the admittance of Negro students into a white school in compliance with the law. Integration involves the conversion of the two groups into a smooth-running system, with a working relationship free of tensions.” Martin’s commitment and zeal are evident in her extensive research conducted over several years; at least forty percent of her text is devoted to detailed notes and a wide-ranging bibliography.

Dream Town by Laura Meckler

DREAM TOWN by Laura Meckler has much to say about the local values and efforts to foster and maintain an integrated community in a Cleveland suburb throughout the twentieth century and more recently. Meckler, a writer for the Washington Post, recounts the “Quest for Racial Equity” by sharing stories and exploring the idea of “belonging.” She identifies essential questions like “How can and do people of different races live together? And what does it take to make diverse communities succeed?” In her conclusion, she writes, “Seven decades of experience show us that creating shared community is hard and takes constant commitment, constant work. The forces of systemic racism and white privilege, the tendency of the Black community to disengage, mistakes made by flawed human beings -- they are all real.” Honestly, the beginning of Meckler’s text is probably too focused on the local characters and history of Shaker Heights, Ohio, to hold the interest of our students, but there are numerous parallels to their experience on the North Shore near Chicago. Both students and faculty would likely relate to those she interviews, particularly student-teacher-administrative interactions like those described in the chapter on Olivia McDowell and Jody Podl. Excerpts from Meckler’s text would certainly prompt important discussions. Meckler, who spent five years interviewing more than two hundred and fifty people, includes a Note on Sources, a Selected Bibliography, an Index, and copious Notes (at least fifteen percent of the book). DREAM TOWN received a starred review from Booklist.

Moonrise Over New Jessup by Jamila Minnicks

MOONRISE OVER NEW JESSUP by Jamila Minnicks is a debut novel and Winner of the 2021 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction which is exciting, but I felt that the preview I saw needed further edits. Minnicks sets the story in the late 1950s in a small Alabama town whose residents are all Black. That means they have more flexibility, independence and freedom (e. g., no “Colored” back entrances) than Black citizens who live elsewhere, particularly in the rural South. That absence of fear is initially a shock to Alice Young who ends up in New Jessup after having to flee an abusive landlord in another small Alabama town. Over time and through the kindness of New Jessup residents like the Pastor and local dressmaker, Alice comes to value the quiet certitude which of her new life, even falling in love and getting engaged. There is tension, though, when her boyfriend, Raymond, and his friends impatiently embrace National Negro Advancement Society (NNAS) principles and advocate for municipality rights for New Jessup. Agitators want to push for full integration and town elders prefer to preserve the status quo. The text felt repetitive and slow in places, but Minnicks ably illustrates the courage which was needed to face opposition from multiple sides and to risk the loss of current rights while fighting for equal privilege. Readers may appreciate a warning due to use some offensive racial epithets.

Unequal plus Seen and Unseen

UNEQUAL by Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau is subtitled “A Story of America” and it deals with racial injustice through the stories of over two dozen individuals. Dyson, a Georgetown University sociology professor and award-winning author, and Favreau, who has also written several commended books, have collaborated to produce a text which is geared to teens. Our students will recognize many of the people and actions which are profiled; examples include Ida B. Wells, Michelle Alexander (The New Jim Crow), and Malcolm X.  And, I have a student working on a project about John Carlos and Tommie Smith right now. Other names (Susan Moore, Catherine Flowers, Fannie Lou Hamer) may be less familiar, but several students have been researching discrimination in health care, environmental racism, and voting rights which are all issues addressed in this informative text. Each section begins with a short vignette and photo, followed by a more in-depth review of resistance to inequality. Sadly, Dyson and Favreau felt it necessary to begin by saying, “This is a book of truth. So we’ll start by telling you the stone-cold fact that there are many people who do not want you to read it. … Some will undoubtedly try to ban this book.” That does seem to be a pattern in the early online reader reviews even though UNEQUAL received starred reviews from both Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. It contains an impressive list of other suggested readings and source notes and will soon be available for our student researchers and their teachers.

SEEN AND UNSEEN by Marc Lamont Hill and Todd Brewster is a fascinating look at “Technology, Social Media, and the Fight for Racial Justice.” These two dynamic authors are respected intellectuals who have both taught at Temple University. In this text, they reflect upon the ways in which smartphones, video, and its quick dissemination on the internet have impacted our collective reactions to cases like those of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Christian Cooper (Central Park bird-watching incident). They truly stress the broader history of communications – the role of photography and television during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, for example. They also discuss John Filo’s famous photo of May Ann Vecchio kneeling in horror after National Guard violence at Kent State in May 1970.  We know this image, but don’t have ready references for similar violence occurring within that month at historically Black institutions of Jackson State and South Carolina State.  Similarly, they comment on contrasts between coverage and reactions to events in Selma, Little Rock, and more recently, Charlottesville. SEEN AND UNSEEN assumes a fairly broad knowledge of American History – which our students are just developing. However, the text contains copious endnotes and sources and could possibly function as a starting point for discussion, contrasting past and contemporary activities.

School desegregation - a case study

YOUR CHILDREN ARE VERY GREATLY IN DANGER by Justin Murphy deals with School Segregation in Rochester, New York. Murphy, the education reporter for the local paper named Democrat and Chronicle, explores the history of school segregation from the time (mid 1800s) when Frederick Douglass lived there to the present day, describing Rochester as a test case with state and national implications. He identifies three main themes: “persistent white opposition to racial integration… [which] tended to soften only where it would benefit white families in some way … [and] victories were earned through the long advocacy of Black parents.” Although he presents quotes and arguments from all sides, Murphy states, “the consensus … is clear; desegregation and integration offer the greatest opportunity to improve population-level educational and economic outcomes for children of color in the United States.” YOUR CHILDREN ARE VERY GREATLY IN DANGER is a fascinating read which concludes with ambitious recommendations for direct, concrete action: a comprehensive report assessing the viability of a unified countywide school system; written policies for greater equity relative to the Urban-Suburban program; and “intensive antiracism education for children and adults in all Rochester-area school districts.” I agree that there is application in other areas and I know of several Junior Theme students who will be interested in the material which Murphy so eloquently presents.

The Chosen One by Echo Brown

THE CHOSEN ONE is written by a recent Dartmouth college graduate, Echo Brown, and builds upon her experiences there. The fictional account details how out of place she felt on a campus filled with rich, white students.  After being hypnotized, the main character begins to see portals and openings everywhere and starts questioning her own sanity.  For our privileged students this would likely be a difficult, although important, read that offers new perspective.

For those interested in learning more about organizations which work with first generation college students, be sure to inquire about programs sponsored at individual colleges and universities and also start by looking into these (some national, some local) which work with multiple schools:

• Posse Foundation
• QuestBridge
• OneGoal  founded in Chicago
• Link Unlimited with over 50 years of working with economically disadvantaged African American high school students in the Chicago area, working towards graduation and college acceptance.

As research has repeatedly shown, more knowledge and support lead to greater success for first generation students.  Echo Brown has won a number of awards for her writing, including Black Girl Unlimited which was named a William C. Morris Award Finalist, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a New York Public Library Best Book of the Year.  THE CHOSEN ONE received starred reviews from Booklist (“powerful and vulnerable”) and Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

Me (Moth) by Amber McBride

ME (MOTH) by Amber McBride is a new work in verse that will surprise young adults. The cover of this debut novel is so appealing and eye-catching, isn’t it? It captures the feelings of cocooning and becoming in this story about Moth and Sani, a young Black girl and a half Navajo/half White boy. Both are hurting due to their family situations and some mental health issues. They travel together across the United States, visiting places like Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia and Fort Smith National Historic Site in Arkansas, ultimately arriving at the Navajo Nation in Four Corners, New Mexico. The efforts to confront ghosts along the way is a spiritual quest that helps with reconnecting to a love of dance and music. The writing is beautiful, but like so much poetry requires the reader to really contemplate emotions, feelings, and the writer’s message. Woven throughout are references to HooDoo and Moth’s gray-bearded Grandfather and to Native American Creation Myths and other stories. ME (MOTH) received starred reviews from Booklist (“excellent choice for lovers of poetry and for those who see the beauty in sadness”) and School Library Journal (grades 8 and up).