Outstanding! November 2022
Biography
Maya’s Song, by Renee Watson, illustrated by Bryan Collier, HarperCollins, 2022
The life of poet and activist Maya Angelou is presented through a series of free verse poems accompanied by beautiful collage and watercolor illustrations. Covers a lot of ground, and traumatic events are deftly handled for young readers. (Grade 2-6)
Fiction
Ain’t Burned All That Bright, by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Jason Griffin, Atheneum/Caitly Dlouhy, 2022
This is a profound take on the events of 2020-2021 as seen through the eyes of a young Black boy. (Grade 6-Adult)
Different Kinds of Fruit, by Kyle Lukoff, Penguin/Random House, 2022
This one-of-a-kind book is set in middle school but manages to look at the history of female-to-male transgender folks, prejudice, community and what it means to become a man vs. identifying as nonbinary. (Grades 4-8)
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