What I Leave Behind

What I Leave Behind
Author: Alison McGhee
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1481476580

“An artful exercise in melancholy…Every reader will love openhearted Will.” —Booklist (starred review) “Haunting, introspective.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Emotionally raw…[A] piercing narrative.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “McGhee artfully illustrates the tangled web wherein grief intertwines with the mundane.” —BCCB After his dad dies of suicide, Will tries to overcome his own misery by secretly helping the people around him in this exquisitely crafted story made up of one hundred chapters of one hundred words each, by award-winning and bestselling author Alison McGhee. Sixteen-year-old Will spends most of his days the same way: Working at the Dollar Only store, trying to replicate his late father’s famous cornbread recipe, and walking the streets of Los Angeles. Will started walking after his father committed suicide, and three years later he hasn’t stopped. But there are some places Will can’t walk by: The blessings store with the chest of 100 Chinese blessings in the back, the bridge on Fourth Street where his father died, and his childhood friend Playa’s house. When Will learns Playa was raped at a party—a party he was at, where he saw Playa, and where he believes he could have stopped the worst from happening if he hadn’t left early—it spurs Will to stop being complacent in his own sadness and do some good in the world. He begins to leave small gifts for everyone in his life, from Superman the homeless guy he passes on his way to work, to the Little Butterfly Dude he walks by on the way home, to Playa herself. And it is through those acts of kindness that Will is finally able to push past his own trauma and truly begin to live his life again. Oh, and discover the truth about that cornbread.

They Say Blue

They Say Blue
Author: Jillian Tamaki
Publisher: Abrams
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2018-03-13
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1683352777

Now available as a board book, the award-winning They Say Blue is a playful, poetic exploration of color and point of view In captivating paintings full of movement and transformation, we follow a young girl through a year or a day as she examines the colors in the world around her. Egg yolks are sunny orange as expected, yet water cupped in her hands isn’t blue like they say. But maybe a blue whale is blue. She doesn’t know; she hasn’t seen one. Playful and philosophical, They Say Blue is a book about color as well as perspective, about the things we can see and the things we can only wonder at.

This is Our Constitution

This is Our Constitution
Author: Khizr Khan
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2017
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1524770914

The author traces his family's experiences immigrating to the U.S. to introduce the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, explaining how it represents America's democratic values and discussing the importance of the documents' history.

Pie Is for Sharing

Pie Is for Sharing
Author: Stephanie Parsley Ledyard
Publisher:
Total Pages: 37
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1626725624

"You're invited to a glorious Fourth of July picnic where you'll learn all about sharing, the good things along with the bad"--

Slaying Goliath

Slaying Goliath
Author: Diane Ravitch
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2020-01-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0525655387

From one of the foremost authorities on education in the United States, Slaying Goliath is an impassioned, inspiring look at the ways in which parents, teachers, and activists are successfully fighting back to defeat the forces that are trying to privatize America’s public schools. Diane Ravitch writes of a true grassroots movement sweeping the country, from cities and towns across America, a movement dedicated to protecting public schools from those who are funding privatization and who believe that America’s schools should be run like businesses and that children should be treated like customers or products. Slaying Goliath is about the power of democracy, about the dangers of plutocracy, and about the potential of ordinary people—armed like David with only a slingshot of ideas, energy, and dedication—to prevail against those who are trying to divert funding away from our historic system of democratically governed, nonsectarian public schools. Among the lessons learned from the global pandemic of 2020 is the importance of our public schools and their teachers and the fact that distance learning can never replace human interaction, the pesonal connection between teachers and students.

NEA Handbook

NEA Handbook
Author: National Education Association of the United States
Publisher:
Total Pages: 802
Release: 1951
Genre:
ISBN:

The Book Tree

The Book Tree
Author: Paul Czajak
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2019-02-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1782854401

When young Arlo accidentally drops a book on the Mayor’s head, the Mayor decides books are dangerous and destroys all the books in town! But thanks to Arlo’s imagination and perseverance, the Mayor finds that suppressing stories cannot stop them from blossoming more beautifully than ever. This timely allegorical tale will be a useful tool for starting conversations with children about the power of activism and the written word.