In the years between World War I and World War II, aviation fever was everywhere, including among Black Americans. But what hope did a Black person have of learning to fly in a country constricted by prejudice and Jim Crow laws, where Black aviators like Bessie Coleman had to move to France to earn their wings?
American Wings follows a group of determined Black Americans: Cornelius Coffey and Johnny Robinson, skilled auto mechanics; Janet Harmon Bragg, a nurse; and Willa Brown, a teacher and social worker. Together, they created a flying club and built their own airfield south of Chicago. As the U.S. hurtled toward World War II, they established a school to train new pilots, teaching both Black and white students together and proving, in a time when the U.S. military was still segregated, that successful integration was possible.
Books are disappearing from shelves across the country.
What does this mean for authors, illustrators, and—most crucially—for young readers?
This bold collection of fiction, memoir, poetry, graphic narratives, essays, and other genres explores book bans through various lenses, and empowers teens to fight back. From moving personal accounts to clever comebacks aimed at censorship, fifteen legendary YA authors and illustrators confront the high-stakes question of what is lost when books are kept from teens.
Contributors include Elana K. Arnold, Nikki Grimes, Ellen Hopkins, Kelly Jensen, Brendan Kiely, Maia Kobabe, Bill Konigsberg, Kyle Lukoff, MariNaomi, Trung Lê Nguyễn, Ashley Hope Pérez, Isabel Quintero, Traci Sorell, Robin Stevenson, and Padma Venkatraman; the collection is a star-studded must-listen that packs strength and power into every last word.
Striking illustrations from Ignatz-nominated artist Debbie Fong pair perfectly with the searing, impactful narrative. Resources include tips from the Vandegrift Banned Book Club and other teen activists, as well as extensive recommended book lists, a How to Start Your Own Little Free Library flier, and more.
From preschool to higher education and everything in between, Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School focuses on the experiences Black and Brown students face as a direct result of the racism built into schools across the United States.
The overarching nonfiction narrative follows author Tiffany Jewell from early elementary school through her time at college, unpacking the history of systemic racism in the American educational system along the way. Throughout the book, other writers of the global majority share a wide variety of personal narratives and stories based on their own school experiences.
Contributors include New York Times bestseller Joanna Ho; award winners Minh Lê, Randy Ribay, and Torrey Maldonado; authors James Bird and Rebekah Borucki; author-educators Amelia A. Sherwood, Roberto Germán, Liz Kleinrock, Gary R. Gray Jr., Lorena Germán, Patrick Harris II, shea wesley martin, David Ryan Barcega Castro-Harris, Ozy Aloziem, Gayatri Sethi, and Dulce-Marie Flecha; and even a couple of teen writers!
They came for our water, but they'll settle for your blood.
On Fathom Fall's leaderboard, player Wyatt “DoctorDoctor” Docherty ranks at number three. In real life, he's seen only as the privileged kid of head engineers at Hydrexo, the company that supplies 75% of North America's water. He has easy access while others must line up to pay exorbitant prices at public water taps, and he feels totally useless.
To prove he's more than a spoiled Water Baby, Wyatt wants to win the upcoming Fathom Fall competition and finally make a name for himself. But when he starts seeing Bluddites – the water-guzzling monsters from the game – in real life, Wyatt suspects that the tournament is about more than just prize money.
Wyatt wants to win, but as the tournament approaches, he starts to worry: Why won't anyone tell them what's really going on? Why would the game – the military, even – be training kids to hunt monsters for them? And how far is he willing to go to prove himself?
Drawing from original interviews with the author, Holler is an illustrated look at six inspiring changemakers. Denali Nalamalapu, a climate organizer in their own right, introduces readers to the ordinary people who became resisters of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project that spans approximately 300 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia—a teacher, a single mother, a nurse, an organizer, a photographer, and a seed keeper.
In West Virginia, Becky Crabtree, grandmother of five, chains herself to her 1970s Ford Pinto to stop construction from destroying her farm. Farther south, in Virginia, young organizer Michael James-Deramo organizes mutual aid to support community members showing up to protest the pipeline expansion. These (and more) are the stories of everyday resistance that show what difference we can make when we stand up for what we love, and stand together in community. When the world tells these resisters to sit down and back off, they refuse to give up.
More than anything, Holler is an invitation to readers everywhere searching for their own path to activism: sending the message that no matter how small your action is, it’s impactful. The story of the Mountain Valley Pipeline is one we can all relate to, as each and every one of our communities faces the increasing threats of the climate crisis, and the corporations that benefit from the destruction of our natural resources. Holler is a moving and deeply accessible—and beautifully visual—story about change, hope, and humanity.
Nathan Savage has always been fascinated by anything that moves; he sees movement others don’t notice. But what he sees now out his living room window sets off major alarm bells—the massive landfill across the road is shifting, and could be heading toward a catastrophic landslide.
The landfill is also where Nathan’s dad works, on the top of the heap driving the huge compactor that crushes the garbage with its enormous metal wheels. The more Nathan watches the landfill, the more worried he becomes. What will happen to his father if he’s at work when the garbage hill collapses? A fate that seems closer and closer to happening every day if Nathan doesn’t act soon. But how does a ten-year old boy stop a force of nature? In this fascinating and fast-paced story, author Betty Culley exposes kids to lots of garbage, and the natural and environmental impact country landfills have on local towns.
Flowers in the Gutter author Kristina R. Gaddy tells the story of America’s tumultuous years leading up to the Civil War and of the war itself from the viewpoints of four children of famous abolitionists, including those of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. Gaddy crafts a surprisingly contemporary coming-of-age narrative, supported by meticulous research and featuring dozens of primary documents. Each of these four young people—two white, two Black—was strongly committed to the anti-slavery cause but felt just as keenly a need to make their own names, away from the often over-protective or disapproving shadows of the famous adults in their lives. This is a true story of how a torch of resistance is passed and how a new generation makes its mark.
Renowned thought leader Michael Eric Dyson and widely celebrated author Marc Favreau shine a light on the fight for democratic representation, an ongoing and epic quest to build the democracy promised in the Constitution. Each chapter takes on a new battle between champions of freedom and those who stand in the way of their right to vote—from the American Revolution straight up to the present day as we approach the 2024 presidential election.
Drawing clear lines from then to now, with impeccable research and exhilarating prose, Represent weaves this crucial struggle for democracy into an enthralling American drama that will help readers understand our past, present, and future.
In the early 2000s, Judge Mark Ciavarella and Judge Michael Conahan of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania were known as no-nonsense judges. Juveniles who showed up in their courtrooms faced harsh words and even harsher sentencing. In the post-Columbine era, many people believed that was just what the county needed to ensure its children and teens stayed on the straight and narrow path. But as more and more children faced shocking sentences for seemingly benign crimes, and a newly built for-profit detention center filled up further and further, a sinister pattern of abuses and bribery emerged. Through extensive research and original reporting leading into contemporary times, award-winning journalist Candy J. Cooper tells the story of a scandal that the Juvenile Law Center calls 'one of the largest and most serious violations of children’s rights in the history of the American legal system.'
Imogen Quinn is pissed off. She's having a sensory-overload panic attack at her first Pride parade, and her friends ditched her. Fabulous.
But Imogen isn't the kind of girl to stay knocked down, so she ditches her bad friends and decides to start an activist club to fight for a school where everyone can feel welcome--and that includes putting on a Pride celebration that's accessible for autistic people like her. The problem? She has no friends, no support, and no money, and her small-minded principal hates her guts.
Enter Ollie Armstrong. The openly gay, unexpectedly kind captain of the football team is everything Imogen is not. He's popular, he's respected . . . but he's also completely miserable. His parents' divorce is secretly eating him alive, and he has no real friends to talk to. So when Imogen ambushes him with a plan to fight against everyone who is pissing her off and a plea for his help, Ollie is too in his own head to think of an excuse.
With Ollie on board, it doesn't take long before they are joined by the infuriatingly perfect head girl and a delightful crew of classmates who have their own axes to grind. But it's Ollie and Imogen leading the charge and opening up to each other in ways they never imagined possible.
Inspired by this unlikely friendship, Ollie is on the hunt for answers about his parents' divorce and his own feelings about gender. And Imogen is empowered to stand up for herself and stop taking anyone's shit.
Yulieta Lopez is angry. Angry at her racist drama teacher who refuses to cast Black students in lead roles. Angry at the school board threatening her favorite teacher for teaching works of literature that they deem “controversial.” Angry that she has to keep quiet until she can head to college and leave Texas forever.
Yuli is accustomed to playing various roles: the diligent daughter, the honorable hija, the good girl who serves everyone else before serving herself. But as the fire of Yuli's rage spreads and lights her up, she can no longer be silent. Determined to find a way to fight back, Yuli and her friends start a guerilla theatre club which stirs things up and gets people talking, and finally, Yuli steps into the role she was always meant to play.
It starts as an update at one Chicago high school: copies of a certain book are no longer allowed in the classrooms or the library. But it’s not just one high school—it’s all Chicago public schools. Not even the principals know why this is happening; they just know they must comply with the order. One thing is clear: The book, which tells a story of oppression, survival, and resistance against authoritarian power, is seen as a threat, dangerous enough to ban. One other thing is clear: Some of the students aren’t going to let this go without resistance of their own.
As the extent of the ban becomes known, the students rise up. They organize a school-wide walkout and library sit-in. They publicize the banning in every forum they can: social media, the press, classes, clubs, the school paper. And most of all, they get everyone they know to read the book: Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi.
Told from multiple perspectives, based on extensive interviews with the real-life students and teachers who were affected, and written by the librarian who exposed key information about the Chicago Public Schools censorship decision, Wake Now in the Fire is a fictionalized account of a true event that galvanized a community. With illustrations by Alex Award-winner AJ Dungo that perfectly capture the everyday joys, heartbreak, and stresses of high school, this graphic novel is an inspiring portrayal of student activism taking on one of the most urgent issues of our time, and a passionate reminder of why protecting the books we love matters.
“If we stay here, if we keep wandering without a real plan, we won’t last. Maybe The Hill is dangerous. But maybe it’s not. It’s the only plan we have.”
Seventeen-year-old Aurora knows how to survive. Life in the foster system has taught her how to stay quiet, stay smart, and stay ready. But nothing could prepare her for this: a never-ending storm that swallows cities, drowns forests, and turns the world into a flooded wasteland.
Trapped in a collapsing house with her strict prepper foster parents, Aurora is forced to live by their rules just to stay alive. Until the day they disappear without a trace.
Alone. Abandoned. And running out of time.
All Aurora has is a waterlogged scrap of paper and a name: “The Hill.”
With looters closing in and the floodwaters rising higher each day, she’s left with one impossible choice—stay and wait for the storm to take her, or risk everything on a journey through the drowned remains of the world, to a find a place that may or not exist.
It’s forward or nothing.