TTT: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Books

I created a list last year about myself as a reader. Please visit that post if you'd prefer to read that list. Follow this link.

Top Ten Tuesday: Books about Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity that I  

a) Recommend 

b) Hope to Read Soon. 

Recommendations:

1. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram Kendi

A YA version of Kendi's adult book, Stamped from the Beginning. The book is written in a way that appeals to teens.

2. Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

Poetry and essays written by Black woman. After reading this fantastic book I felt like I woke up to see the issues around racism that I was blind to before. 

3. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. If you want to start someplace impactful, start here. "A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice — from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time." 

 

 

4. Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad. Bite-sized chapters give the reader space and time to think over the issues and terminology, allowing room for change.

 

5. Apple (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gansworth. A memoir written in verse by an artist who is an enrolled member of the Ononadaga Indian tribe in New York. Reading the book helped me understand the experience of being an 'outsider' in a culture. "When we are born outsiders, we sometimes / find bridges we can make with our own stories / embracing the ways they are connected, instead / of pointing out the gaps between two sides"(284). And calling an Indian 'Apple' is to accuse him of being red on the outside but white on the inside. It is hard to be an outsider who is always accused of doing or being something wrong.

 

6. One Person No Vote: How Not All Voters are Treated Equally by Carol Anderson with Tonya Bolden. "In gripping, enlightening detail Anderson explains how voter suppression works, from photo ID requirements to gerrymandering to poll closures. And with vivid characters, she explores the resistance: the organizing, activism, and court battles to restore the basic right to vote to all Americans as the nation gears up for the 2020 presidential election season." I got so angry I wanted to throw this book against the wall. There is lots of room for action on this topic. This is the YA version of the adult book by the same title.

 

 

7. Something Happened In Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin. "Something Happened in Our Town follows two families -- one White, one Black -- as they discuss a police shooting of a Black man in their community. The story aims to answer children's questions about such traumatic events, and to help children identify and counter racial injustice in their own lives."  

8. Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatum. Almost 10 years before Brown vs. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California.

 

 

9. We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom. A Children's book about Native traditions to save our fresh water. Has a fabulous back section with materials that foster further discussion and study.

 

Want to Read:

 

 

1. 35 Dumb Things Well-Intended People Say: Surprising Things We Say That Widen the Diversity Gap by Maura Cullen 

 

 

2. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

 

3. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Laura Wilkinson

4. It Began With a Page: How Gyo Fugikawa Drew the Way by Kyo Maclear and Julie Morstad

5. Children of the Land by Marcello Hernandez Castillo

6. We Too Sing America by Deepa Iyar

7. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Boy by Tony Medina and 13 Artists 

 

Know any other good books you recommend about diversity, equity, and inclusion? Please leave their titles in the comments below.  -Anne