Atul Gawande is a surgeon and a truly amazing writer. I first came across his work years ago in The New Yorker and have been a fan ever since. Far from the all-knowing, stereotypical doctor, he is willing to share what he is learning and how the medical field can improve by embracing what it doesn't yet know. His books Complications and Better have influenced other fields too, with many different industries curious about how even simple things like checklists can improve work.

Being Mortal is an investigation into how we die. But it's not a morbid read. It has fascinating history as well as interesting reflections for us to consider with our families as we near the end of our lives. I was most curious about Gawande's conversations with palliative care doctors and nurses and the way in which they engage patients to put their needs and wishes at the center of conversations about their care. This book prompted a lot of reflection for me, as two of my grandparents passed away this year -- it made me think about the conversations we had, and didn't have, and how that impacted the last months of their lives. I really don't think you need to be engaged in these decisions now in order to get something from this book--indeed, one of the lessons I take is that it's never to early to start really thinking about what makes life worth living.

Written in part as a response to the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, Amal Unbound tells the story of Amal, a young girl in Pakistan. Amal is bright and hopes to be a teacher. However, she is also proud and will not back down to anyone. When the feudal lord of the village encounters her one day, she is disrespectful and pays an incredibly high price. I don't want to spoil this book for you, so I won't give it away! However, you should read it and let me know what you think!

Did you know that in some parts of the South during Jim Crow, the student-teacher ratio for black students was 85:1? Or that following Brown v. Board of Education, Prince Edward County, in Virginia, closed its public schools for five years, rather than comply with the order to desegregate? We Are Not Yet Equal is an adaptation of Dr. Carol Anderson's book White Rage, which chronicles the history of white people in America manipulating systems to privilege themselves over people of color, especially African-Americans. The trigger for white rage, Anderson writes, "inevitably, is black advancement. It is not the mere presence of black people that is the problem; rather, it is blackness with ambition, with drive, with purpose, with aspirations, and with demands for full and equal citizenship." While it is awful to learn about the terrible history of our country, it is doubly disturbing, and urgently necessary, to understand how this racism shows up today. Anderson documents egregious violations of voting rights and the devastating impact of mass incarceration on the black community in America. We will look at excerpts from this book when we study To Kill A Mockingbird, but it really is worth your time to read the whole thing.

Wow, this book is great. I listened to this one on my drives back and forth to Diamond over the past few weeks. The characters are totally engaging and it's a great story of our world and the spirit world. Akata Witch is set in Nigeria. Sunny, the main character, was born in Nigeria, then moved to America before returning years later. She is Albino, so she sticks out. She is also, unbeknownst to her, a "leopard person." Leopard people are witches, wizards, shaman, etc. in other cultures. Sunny meets mentors and peers who help her adjust to her powers and help her learn how to wield them. This book has a great plot, is incredibly creative, and is both very funny and very intense.

Patty ain't no junk. I really loved Ghost, Jason Reynolds's first book in the Track series. Patina is, I think, even better. It's funny, it's heartfelt, and it is a great representation of determination and perseverance. It also reflects deeply on the meaning of family, and how sometimes the family we have doesn't look exactly like everyone else's. I listened to this on audiobook with my kids while we took a car trip over vacation, and the reading is excellent.

I saw this book on lists of some of the best YA books of 2018 and I can definitely see why. It's a really compelling story about teenager, Darius, whose mom is from Iran and dad is a white man from America. Darius and his family travel back to Iran to see Darius's grandparents. His grandfather has a brain tumor, so it is their last chance to see him. Darius also has clinical depression, as does his father. The book is not full of action, but it is emotional and does a really good job conveying how depression functions, how it can be unexpected, and is really, really difficult to explain. I loved Darius and his little sister Laleh, and especially loved the friend he makes in Yazd, Sohrab. No one in this book is perfect, and that also made me really enjoy it--everyone has flaws and everyone has positive qualities. It's a fantastic look at feeling out of place and finding a way to be accepting of who you are.

This is the true story of a terrible situation that happened a few years ago in Oakland, California. Sasha, a non-binary white teenager, was riding, and sleeping on the 57 bus, on their way home from school. (Sasha uses they/their pronouns.) Richard, a cisgender African-American and some friends noticed Sasha, wearing a skirt. Richard's friends started playing with a lighter around the hem of the skirt. Richard ultimately set Sasha on fire.

The book is mostly about these two teenagers and how their lives collided. But it also concerns the justice system. What is the right punishment for harm that was unintentional, but still very harmful? What can communities do to help repair that harm? What do individuals do?

This book is really powerful and thought-provoking. Highly recommended.

Scythe is the YA Book Club selection for January, so that prompted me to read this one, but I have been eyeing it for a while. A lot of students on Team Justice have said they like dystopian novels, so this will be right up your alley if The Hunger Games or Divergent were interesting to you. The premise of this book is that humans have solved the challenges of disease and natural death. To keep the population in balance with natural resources, a group of ordained Scythes are charged with "gleaning" people--that is, killing them. The book follows two teenagers who are apprentice Scythes as they train to take on this role and responsibility. It is intense but is also pretty philosophical, posing questions like, "Is immortality actually a desirable state?" and "How does death make life more precious?" The plot clips along at a very fast pace and the sequel, Thunderhead, comes out January 9, so I know people will be lining up for that one.

I decided to read this book after hearing Greg Boyle's incredible interview on the "On Being" podcast. His humor and insight were inspiring to me. Because I'd heard him speak about his "homies," I could really hear his voice as I read this memoir. It made me think about the ways in which compassion can really break down some of the barriers we have in our society and how we view each other. Boyle talks about gang members as people who are experiencing a tragic lack of hope and that they are always, always running from something when they join a gang. The stories of how homies were treated as children are painful and very sad; the stories of how those same people become parents who show their children love are inspiring. There is senseless death in this book and that can be hard to read about; but it feels important to know that we have a lot of work to do and to acknowledge that while many lead lives of privilege in America, there are many who see no other option as a young person than to join a gang. Here is a link to the "On Being" interview I heard that first drew me to Greg Boyle's work: https://onbeing.org/programs/greg-boyle-the-calling-of-delight-gangs-service-and-kinship/

I picked this up because it is the YA Book Club book for December. If you are interested, we'll meet after school on December 18, from 3-4 pm. The club is only open to faculty and eighth graders.

This novel is told in verse form, and it clips along because if its incredibly engaging writing style and because the main character, Xiomara, is just someone you want to root for. She is Dominican-American, and is a tenth grader. Her mother is an extremely devout Catholic, and Xiomara is getting close to making her confirmation (a rite where young people become adults in the eyes of the Church) and Xiomara is very uncertain about it. The novel also reflects quite a bit on gender--on the standards that women and men are held to and how much of Xiomara's life is spent fending off unwelcome comments or harassment. She handles herself incredibly well, but it's an important reminder of the emotional cost of harassment. There's a LOT more to say about this book--check it out and let me know what you think!

Oh my gosh. READ THIS BOOK! Or listen to it--that's what I'm doing. I finished this just before Thanksgiving break, listening to it on my drive back and forth to school.

It would be great for folks who like fantasy, magic, and strong female characters. The story is told from the perspectives of different children in the African kingdom of Orisha. Eleven years ago, the king conducted "The Raid," in which he killed all the Magi--people who had a connection to the Gods and could use magic. Some of the children are tasked in the book with bringing magic back; others are working for the king to stop them. This book is exciting, totally gripping.

John Green's books are no joke. He is a master at developing characters that you really come to care about. Anyone who has read his incredible novel, The Fault In Our Stars, is sure to be able to testify to his ability to make his readers just crumble. Turtles All The Way Down features one of my favorite narrators I've met in a long time: Aza is a teenage girl dealing with the challenges--sometimes fleeting, sometimes debilitating--of obsessive compulsive disorder. She very much wants to help her estranged friend find his father, who is missing; and she also wants to have "normal" relationships and friendships and romance. Both of these goals are compromised by her ability to navigate the world once a thought grips her mind. She is funny and self-deprecating and her friends in the book are fantastic. Green wrote the book in part because of his own struggles with OCD and knew that it's a subject that has had little attention in fiction. The book can be difficult to read at times, but it's well worth it. (This book is also a choice for our upcoming theme unit.)

Dear Martin, by Nic Stone, was interesting to read after having read The Hate U Give. Both books focus on the impact of police shootings and both feature African-American teenagers who are caught between worlds of privilege and poverty. Both lead characters struggle with their identity and what it means to have great opportunities in America and to feel like their skin color can reduce them so quickly, because of others' racism and bias. In this book, which some of you will get a chance to read in our second unit of study, Justyce writes letters to Martin Luther King, Jr., wrestling with how far we have, or have not, come in our country's work for racial justice. It's a really compelling story and doesn't shy away from other aspects of adolescent identity: our friendships, romantic relationships, and mentors who can help us become the people we're meant to be.

I just finished Everything Everything, by Nicola Yoon, and I recommend it! It's a compelling story about a teenage girl with a rare disorder, forcing her to live in her house and never venture out. Her immune system is compromised to the point where she is essentially allergic to everything--yes, everything. Despite these challenges and the loneliness of a life spent basically only with her mother and her nurse, she is super funny, smart, thoughtful, and ambitious. And then this really cool kid moves in next door and she really wants to meet him. So, there's a tension that develops--should she risk her health in order to connect with Olly? One of the things I like about the book is that some chapters are told in traditional narrative fiction, while others are in emails, or online chats, or diary entries, or graphics. I think that kind of variety kept the book intriguing and helped me think about the different ways that you can tell a story.

I read The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, this summer. It was a gripping read. The main character, Starr, is caught between her home in the inner city and the wealthy private school she attends. When police violence impacts her directly, it places her at the center of a national media circus. But more importantly, it makes her question and examine her identity and the type of person she wants to be. This books pulls no punches and feels like it speaks to the questions many people are asking in this country about race, racism, policing, housing, education, and identity. What I really appreciated about this book too is that characters are far from one-dimensional, so it pushes past us and them thinking and makes you think about people more deeply.

I read Brown Girl Dreaming while on vacation in Maine this summer. Wow. First, just look at the cover: there is barely room for the author and title because of all the awards! The National Book Award is consistently awesome; the winners and finalists have never disappointed me. The Pulitzer....not so much. But that's another story.

The book is told in poems and it is a memoir of Woodson's upbringing in Ohio, South Carolina, and New York. I've always appreciated books that blend genres like that, and there are certainly poems in here that say more in a few lines that most people are able to in several pages.

This would be a great book to read before we read To Kill A Mockingbird in the spring.