San Mateo County Reads
San Mateo County Reads
San Mateo County Reads fosters community and discussion through literacy by inviting people to share a reading experience. The program is designed to inspire enthusiasm for reading and spark conversations that promote understanding of important social issues and topics. Research shows that when families and communities are involved, students' educational opportunities are increased as well as their academic achievement. Reading widely and often is a fundamental practice that is happening less often in our digital age but has a large effect on student achievement. A shared reading experience can promote conversations, create connections, and deepen the motivation to continue reading for other purposes.
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ABOUT THE BOOKS
Hair Love
It’s up to Daddy to give his daughter an extra-special hairstyle in this ode to self-confidence and the love between fathers and daughters, from Academy-Award winning director and former NFL wide receiver Matthew A. Cherry and New York Times bestselling illustrator Vashti Harrison.
Academy Award winning filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry is a Chicago native and a former NFL wide receiver who played for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Panthers and the Baltimore Ravens. Cherry’s latest project “Hair Love” is an animated short film about an African American father attempting to do his daughters hair for the first time. The short, which made its theatrical debut in August 2019 with Sony Pictures Animation’s “The Angry Birds Movie 2,” won the Academy Award in 2020 for Best Animated Short Film and has an accompanying picture book which is a 6-time New York Times Bestseller.
Matthew A. Cherry
Black Brother, Black Brother
From award-winning and bestselling author Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful coming-of-age story about two brothers, one who presents as white, the other as black, and the complex ways in which they are forced to navigate the world, all while training for a fencing competition.
Jewell Parker Rhodes is the award-winning author of several books for youth including Black Brother, Black Brother, named Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best 2020, and the New York Times bestseller Ghost Boys which has garnered over 30 awards and honors including the Jane Addams Peace Award. Jewell is also the author of Towers Falling, winner of the 2017 Notable Books for a Global Society, and the celebrated Louisiana Girls’ Trilogy: Ninth Ward, winner of a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, Sugar and Bayou Magic.
Jewell Parker Rhodes
Stamped
A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration of racism – and anti-racism – in America. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.
Jason Reynolds is the New York Times best-selling author of All American Boys, the Track series, Long Way Down, For Everyone, and Miles Morales-Spider-Man. He is an American author who writes novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audiences, including Ghost, a National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature.
Jason Reynolds
Ibram X. Kendi is one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. He is a National Book Award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of seven books. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi is a contributor writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News Racial Justice Contributor. He is also the 2020-2021 Frances B. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. In 2020, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Ibram X. Kendi
Our Time is Now
A recognized expert on fair voting and civic engagement, Abrams gives a chilling account of how the right to vote has been and continues to be under attack. The book compellingly argues for the importance of robust voter protections, an elevation of identity politics, engagement in the census, and a return to moral international leadership. Our Time Is Now draws on extensive research from national organizations and renowned scholars, as well as anecdotes from Abrams’ own life.
In her new book, Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America, Abrams offers her blueprint to end voter suppression, empower citizens and ensure the most popular candidates win. The book also makes a compelling argument for the importance of robust voter protections, an elevation of identity politics, engagement in the census and a return to moral international leadership.
Stacy Abrams
