Racial justice stories

 I've been looking for titles for my library that will help drive a conversation about racial justice in our community.  These two titles will help with that!

The first one is a young adult book.  It's called "Dear Justyce" by Nic Stone.  Nic won acclaim with her novel "Dear Martin" a couple of years back, which is about a young black man attending a prestigious high school in Atlanta while living in an impoverished neighborhood.  That one was great and this one might be even better.  It connects some of the characters from the first book to this one.  This one is told mostly from the point of view of Quan, who is writing letters to Justyce because he is in jail, awaiting trial for the murder of a police officer.  The story unfolds in flashbacks to different times and circumstances, which allows the reader to see how Quan came to be in such a position.  There are parts of the story that are hard to read-passages about abuse and neglect, about disrespect and disparagement, but it's also about hope and healing and the importance of having a family or at least a group of people that you feel committed to.  I enjoyed this one a lot and although it probably won't live in my elementary school library, I will definitely be recommending it to anyone I can. 

Here's the cover. 

Here is Nic reading the first chapter.  

Here's the book trailer.

The second one is more in my wheelhouse of elementary libraries.  It's called "For Beautiful Black Boys Who Believe in a Better World" by Michael W. Walters.  The picture book  opens with the main character, Jeremiah, asking his parents if he can grow is hair in locs.  His parents agree but tell him that it's going to take some time and effort on his part.  Each subsequent page has tells about an event that Jeremiah finds upsetting, like the shooting of Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown or the people at the Mother Emmanuel AME church in South Carolina.  Each time, Jeremiah doesn't want to talk about it.  Until finally he does want to talk about it.  He approaches his parents and they talk about some of things they can do to affect a change on racial inequalities.  The art work is modern and a little blocky, almost like a graphic novel, which support the immediacy of the topic.  I thought this one was terrific.  I loved how the author used Jeremiah's hair to compare to the struggle for justice-that it's not just a one day event, it takes time and patience and perseverance.   This will be a wonderful conversation starter for people to talk about why these things continue to happen and how we might be able to affect a change.  

Here's a book trailer.

And here's the cover image.