Dear Martin by Nic Stone

Dear Martin by Nic Stone was published in 2017. I've been actively seeking out books written by authors and illustrators of color.  Nic Stone tells an important story about bias and racism in our current day.

I liked this story because of the tie to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I liked that the main character is introspective. I think this would be a good book to teach at the high school level.

Justyce, the main character, attends a mostly white school with his best friend Manny. Justyce is an excellent student who experiences daily micro-aggressions and often blatant racism. The story opens with Justyce being detained and put in handcuffs even though he has not committed a crime. This experience haunts him throughout the story.

One day while driving with Manny, the radio turned way up, they encounter an off-duty cop who in anger shoots at the boys. The media fallout is brutal. This story has mature language. It's an important story where Justyce continually tries to live his life in the manner of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but finds there are no easy answers to What would Martin do?

Link to our NICU book registry to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo was published in 2018 and is a novel written in verse. This is one of my favorite books that I read this year. Acevedo's writing is beautiful. I listened to the novel and it was brilliantly narrated by the author. In fact as soon as it ended, I began listening to it again - it's that good. 

Xiomara Batista is the main character and she is a poet. She tells her story through poems. Often she shares the feelings of her heart, but in reality, she doesn't share those thoughts with anyone else. Through her story the reader knows what it is like to be sexually harassed, to have a first period, to be a twin, to feel your voice is being silenced, to feel you have a voice, to question religion, to question one's relationship to those they love, and to feel responsible for unwanted attention from men. 

This story is about Xiomara finding her voice in a home and a society who tries to quiet her, and her voice is strong, powerful, and beautiful. One of my favorite poems was "How I Feel about Attention" I'll share the first and last verse of this poem. 

"If Medusa was Dominican 

and had a daughter, I think I'd be her. 

I look and feel like a myth. 

A story distorted, waiting for others to stop

and stare. 

"If I was her kid, Medusa would tell me her secrets:

how it is that her looks stop men

in their tracks            why they still keep on coming. 

How she outmaneuvers them when they do" (48). 

I plan on buying all Acevedo’s other books. 

Angela Jensen donated 13 copies of If You Give a Dog a Donut by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond to our NICU book project. 

We’ve been able to give books to every baby who has been in our NICU this year because of all our generous donors. Thank you. 

 Link to our NICU book registry to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

When We Were Alone by David A. Robertson and Julie Flett

When We Were Alone written by David A. Robertson and  illustrated by Julie Flett was published in 2016. Robertson tells the story of a child helping her kokom (grandmother) in the garden and asks her questions about why she likes so many colors among other questions. Through these question, the child learns about her kokom's experience of being sent to a residential school with her brother and how restrictive the school was. 

Everything was taken from her and her brother: their long hair, their language, their brightly colored clothing, and their families. She explains how she was able to get through that hard experience and how she appreciates having all of those things in her life now. She explains to her granddaughter how when they were alone, she and her friends and brother would get around the rules. 

This book introduces children to the reality of residential schools. Both the author the illustrator are Native Americans. Julie Flett's illustrations are beautiful as always and portray the emotion of the story. I like the use of Native language in the story and the gentle way Robertson tells the story. I always love a story with a wonderful grandmother because I was blessed with such a good one. 

Teresa Moore donated 20 hardbacks to our NICU book project. I appreciate her support of our project, and hardbacks are always in short supply for us. 

Link to our NICU book registry to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.