Our project, "One Book, One District," aims to engage our school communities in the study and discussion of one book.

The Woodland Hills School District is one of the most unique in the country. We were formed as the result of a court ordered desegregation that occurred in the late 1980s. Woodland Hills is not a place you can point to on a map, rather it is composed of twelve diverse communities: Braddock, Braddock Hills, Chalfant, Churchill, East Pittsburgh, Edgewood, Forest Hills, North Braddock, Swissvale, Turtle Creek, Rankin, and Wilkins. The Woodland Hills High School Library Media Center is focused on serving the needs of our students in the best way possible. Part of our mission in our service to the students of our school is to engage them in the discussion of relatable and meaningful text. We have many programs to accomplish this. One such program is the Woodland Hills Interaction Series (WHIS). WHIS is a speaker series that has hosted over 60 authors since its inception in 2013. These events are the culmination of an intense study of an author's work. The students are then able to ask authors the burning questions they had while reading their work. Our student book club also regularly engages students in the discussion of books and encourages the submission of original writings for in house publication.

2025 Selection: Nigerian Jones by Ibi Zoboi

Nigeria is a teen raised in a Black separatist group led by her father. Homeschooled, vegan, and part of traditional rituals, Nigeria's life shifts dramatically when her mother vanishes. Forced to care for her baby brother, she discovers her mother had secret dreams for her children, including a life beyond the Movement. Defying her father, Nigeria attends a Quaker school, where she begins to explore new perspectives. Her quest to find her mother unveils shocking truths that challenge her beliefs, sparking a journey of self-discovery and personal revolution.

2024 Selection: Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Friday Black - a piercingly raw story collection; a treacherously surreal, and, at times, heartbreakingly satirical look at what it’s like to be young and black in America. In Friday Black, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s writing will grab you, haunt you, enrage and invigorate you. By placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Adjei-Brenyah reveals the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities of life in this country.

2023 Selection: Long Division by Kiese Laymon

After his meltdown on a televised quiz show goes viral, 14-year-old Citoyen “City” Coldson becomes an overnight celebrity. The next day, he’s sent to stay with his grandmother in a small town where a young girl has recently disappeared. Before leaving, City is given a strange book without an author called Long Division with a main character that shares his name. What follows is a satirical, genre-bending, coming of age story about race in America and the power of the words we use.

2022 Selection: Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five young men in her life―to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: Why? And as she began to write about the experience of living through all the dying, she realized the truth―and it took her breath away.