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.” 

Young and Restless By Mattie Kahn

YOUNG AND RESTLESS by Mattie Kahn is subtitled “the Girls who Sparked America's Revolutions.” This title offers a unique look at lesser-known American girls like Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, the first woman to receive a PhD from Columbia and campaigner for women's suffrage. Students may recognize those, like Linda Brown and Claudette Colvin, who are associated with civil rights struggles. More contemporary examples include Alice de Rivera who broke the barrier at all-male Stuyvesant High School in New York or Naomi Wadler who (like X González, Jaclyn Corin, Samantha Fuetes, and Delaney Tarr) led protests for gun reform after the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. YOUNG AND RESTLESS appears on the Next Big Idea Book Club list for June 2023 and was heralded by both Vogue and Glamour as one of the Best Books so far of 2023. Students will likely be surprised and inspired by many of the stories. Notes and a bibliography make up roughly forty percent of the text, providing ample options for follow-up research efforts. In the past, we have also offered projects on health advocacy by teens and on Malala or older international activists.

Up to Speed by Christine Yu

UP TO SPEED by Christine Yu is an extremely informative text about “The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes.”  Yu, a lifelong athlete, yoga teacher, and award-winning journalist,  begins with a story about her own experiences and remarks, “I’ve noticed that even as women have excelled in sports, there’s an underlying sense that women and their bodies are an anomaly in the athletic world.” From there, she goes on to document and discuss important issues like the bias against women in biomedical research. After broadly looking at how discrimination has impacted women in sports, additional chapters focus on specific topics like menstruation, nutrition, and sports gear. Yu reviews changes to women’s bodies during adolescence (and pregnancy and menopause), including individual stories like that of Mary Cain. Our student athletes, their parents and coaches will find much of interest in this well-written book.  In addition to over 140 interviews, Yu read several hundred scientific papers and roughly twenty percent of UP TO SPEED is devoted to extensive notes which will be tremendously helpful to student researchers.

Girlhood by Masuma Ahuja

Today is International Women’s Day and that prompted me to post a review for GIRLHOOD: TEENS AROUND THE WORLD IN THEIR OWN VOICES by Masuma Ahuja. The voices range from Alejandra who is 17 in Argentina to Viona, 15, in Kenya. In between are teen girls from India, Iraq, Mongolia, South Africa, Sweden and more for a total of 30 girls from 27 countries. As Ahuja says in her afterward, “I thought about how rarely we get to see the world through girl’s eyes … about what life looks like for us and for everyone else.” This collection of diary entries, quotes, photographs and other images includes a roughly 7 to 8 page scrapbook-like “collage portrait” of each participant. Award-winning journalist Ahuja adds context and analysis of news stories to each, rounding out the pictures of these lives. She includes some shocking statistics like “about 130 million girls between the ages of 6 and 17 are not in school” and “one in five girls around the world marries before the age of 18.” The book is recommended for those in middle school and early high school and I wish it would be on the shelves everywhere. The opportunities to reflect on common themes – finding identity and pursuing dreams, separating from parents, developing friendships and struggling to fit in – deserve the time and space that is often not allocated to girls and their issues.  It would be fascinating for advisories (homerooms) to read and share these stories as well as to use them for a model to create their own. Somewhat similar stories for older teens was created a few years ago when The New York Times’ Jessica Bennett shared “What 18 Looks Like Around the World” with the #ThisIs18 project.  Coincidentally, The New York Times posted today “Teens on a Year That Changed Everything” – an absolutely stunning commentary on the last 12 months from a teenage perspective.