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Roald Dahl Day, September 13th

  • Dahl, Roald.
    Fantastic Mr. FoxSummary:
    Three farmers, each one meaner than the other, try all-out warfare to get rid of the fox and his family.


  • Dahl, Roald
    Matilda
    Summary:Matilda, a brilliant, sensitive little girl, uses her talents and ingenuity to seek revenge on her crooked father, lazy mother, and the terrifying Miss Trunchbull, her wicked headmistress, and save her beloved teacher, Miss Honey.


  • Dahl, Roald
    James and the giant peach
    Summary:A young boy escapes from two wicked aunts and embarks on a series of adventures with six giant insects he meets inside a giant peach.


  • Dahl, Roald.
    Boy : tales of childhood
    Summary:Presents humorous anecdotes from the author’s childhood which includes summer vacations in Norway and an English boarding school.


  • Dahl, Roald.
    Charlie and the chocolate factory
    Summary:Each of five children lucky enough to discover an entry ticket into Mr. Willy Wonka’s mysterious chocolate factory takes advantage of the situation in his own way.


  • Dahl, Roald.
    The Twits
    Summary:The misadventures of two terrible old people who enjoy playing nasty tricks and are finally outwitted by a family of monkeys.


  • Dahl, Roald.
    The BFG
    Summary:Snatched from her orphanage by a BFG (Big Friendly Giant), who spends his life blowing happy dreams to children, Sophie concocts with him a plan to save the world from nine other man-gobbling cannybull giants.


  • Dahl, Roald.
    George’s marvelous medicine
    Summary:George decides that his grumpy, selfish old grandmother must be a witch and concocts some marvelous medicine to take care of her.


  • Dahl, Roald.
    The witches
    Summary:A young boy and his Norwegian grandmother, who is an expert on witches, together foil a witches’ plot to destroy the world’s children by turning them into mice.


  • Dahl, Roald.
    The magic finger
    Summary:Angered by a neighboring family’s sport hunting, an eight-year-old girl turns her magic finger on them.


  • Dahl, Roald
    The enormous crocodile
    Summary:The enormous crocodile devises secret plans and a few clever tricks to secure his lunch only to have them foiled by his neighbors.


  • Dahl, Roald.
    Esio Trot
    Summary:Shy and lonely Mr. Hoppy devises a plan to win the heart of his true love, Mrs. Silver, by teaching her a spell to make her beloved pet tortoise grow bigger.

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    Labor Day, September 7th

  • Ehrenreich, Barbara.
    Nickel and dimed : on (not) getting by in America
    Summary:Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, the author decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job, any job could be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on six to seven dollars an hour? To find out, she left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered as a woefully inexperienced homemaker returning to the workforce. So began a grueling, hair raising, and darkly funny odyssey through the underside of working America. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly "unskilled," that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.


  • Tirado, Linda
    Hand to mouth : living in bootstrap America
    Summary:The author, in her signature brutally honest yet personable voice, takes all of these preconceived notions of what it means to be poor and smashes them to bits. She articulates not only what it is to be working poor in America (yes, you can be poor and live in a house and have a job, even two), but what poverty is truly like, on all levels. In her thought-provoking voice, she discusses how she went from lower-middle class, to sometimes middle class, to poor and everything in between, and in doing so reveals why "poor people don’t always behave the way middle-class America thinks they should." — Provided by publisher.


  • Moretti, Enrico.
    The new geography of jobs
    Summary:From the author, an economist, this book is an examination of innovation and success, and where to find them in America. An unprecedented redistribution of jobs, population, and wealth is under way in America, and it is likely to accelerate in the years to come. America’s new economic map shows growing differences, not just between people but especially between communities. In this book, the author provides a fresh perspective on the tectonic shifts that are reshaping America’s labor market, from globalization and income inequality to immigration and technological progress, and how these shifts are affecting our communities.


  • Von Drehle, Dave.
    Triangle : the fire that changed America
    Summary:Describes the 1911 fire that destroyed the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York’s Greenwich Village, the deaths of 146 workers in the fire, and its implications for twentieth-century politics and labor relations.


  • Tomsky, Jacob.
    Heads in beds : a reckless memoir of hotels, hustles, and so-called hospitality
    Summary:"A humorous memoir by a veteran hospitality employee that reveals what goes on behind the scenes of the hotel business. Includes tips on how to get the most out of your hotel stay."


  • Ford, Martin
    Rise of the robots : technology and the threat of a jobless future
    Summary:Examines the effects of accelerating technology on the economic system.,"In Silicon Valley the phrase "disruptive technology" is tossed around on a casual basis. No one doubts that technology has the power to devastate entire industries and upend various sectors of the job market. But Rise of the Robots asks a bigger question: Can accelerating technology disrupt our entire economic system to the point where a fundamental restructuring is required? Companies like Facebook and YouTube may only need a handful of employees to achieve enormous valuations, but what will be the fate of those of us not lucky or smart enough to have gotten into the great shift from human labor to computation?"


  • Crawford, Matthew B.
    Shop class as soulcraft : an inquiry into the value of work
    Summary:Called “the sleeper hit of the publishing season” (The Boston Globe), Shop Class as Soulcraft became an instant bestseller, attracting readers with its radical (and timely) reappraisal of the merits of skilled manual labor. On both economic and psychological grounds, author Matthew B. Crawford questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a “knowledge worker,” based on a misguided separation of thinking from doing. Using his own experience as an electrician and mechanic, Crawford presents a wonderfully articulated call for self-reliance and a moving reflection on how we can live concretely in an ever more abstract world.


  • Watson, Bruce
    Bread and roses : mills, migrants, and the struggle for the American dream
    Summary:The 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts was a watershed moment in labor history as significant as the Haymarket bombing in Chicago and the Triangle fire in New York. In a history with the narrative drive of a novel, journalist Watson provides the first full-length account of the strike that began when textile workers stormed out of the mills on a frigid January day. Despite owners’ predictions to the contrary, the walkout soon became a protracted Dickensian drama that included 23,000 strikers from fifty-one nations singing as they paraded through Lawrence, bayonet-toting militiamen patrolling the streets, and the daring evacuation of the strikers’ tattered and hungry children to Manhattan, where they lived with strangers and wrote loving letters to their parents on the picket line.–From publisher description.


  • Korschun, Daniel
    We are Market Basket : the story of the unlikely grassroots movement that saved a beloved business
    Summary:On June 23, 2014, the long-time CEO of a popular New England supermarket chain was ousted by his board of directors, led by his cousin. What transpired over the next two months is an inspiring tale of epic loyalty to a man who had impacted his community far beyond that of providing groceries.In We Are Market Basket, readers will learn more than simply the story of the strike heard round the world. How did a single CEO garner so much respect from his company’s managers and rank-and-file workers that they walked out
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    Banned Books Week 2020 : Top 10 Challenged Books of 2019

  • Richardson, Justin
    And Tango makes three
    Summary:At New York City’s Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches.


  • Herthel, Jessica
    I am Jazz
    Summary:Presents the story of a transgender child who traces her early awareness that she is a girl in spite of male anatomy and the acceptance she finds through a wise doctor who explains her natural transgender status.


  • Gino, Alex
    George
    Summary:"When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she’s not a boy. She knows she’s a girl. George thinks she’ll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte’s Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can’t even try out for the part . . . because she’s a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte — but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all" —


  • Silverberg, Cory
    Sex is a funny word
    Summary:"A comic book for kids that includes children and families of all makeups, orientations, and gender identies, Sex Is a Funny Word is an essential resource about bodies, gender, and sexuality for children ages 8 to 10 as well as their parents and caregivers. Much more than the "facts of life" or "the birds and the bees," Sex Is a Funny Word opens up conversations between young people and their caregivers in a way that allows adults to convey their values and beliefs while providing information about boundaries, safety, and joy. The eagerly anticipated follow up to Lambda-nominated What Makes a Baby, from sex educator Cory Silverberg and artist Fiona Smyth, Sex Is a Funny Word reimagines "sex talk" for the twenty-first century."–


  • Kuklin, Susan
    Beyond magenta : transgender teens speak out
    Summary:"Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves." — Amazon.com, viewed February 12, 2014.


  • Atwood, Margaret
    The handmaid’s tale
    Summary:Set in a future society that has reverted to, and gone beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans, this story is told through the eyes of Offred, a so-called handmaid. While her job as a surrogate mother to a sterile marriage conveys an elevated status, she longs to escape.


  • Rowling, J. K.
    Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s stone
    Summary:Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches.


  • Telgemeier, Raina.
    Drama
    Summary:Callie rides an emotional roller coaster while serving on the stage crew for a middle school production of Moon over Mississippi as various relationships start and end, and others never quite get going.


  • Twiss, Jill
    Last week tonight with John Oliver presents a day in the life of Marlon Bundo
    Summary:"Meet Marlon Bundo, a lonely bunny who lives at the Naval Observatory with his Grandpa, the Vice President of the United States. But on this Very Special Day, Marlon’s life is about to change forever …"–Front dust jacket flap.


  • Haack, Daniel
    Prince & knight
    Summary:A prince and a knight in shining armor find true love in each other’s embrace after fighting a dragon together.

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    Adult Memoirs

  • Díaz, Jaquira
    Ordinary girls : a memoir
    Summary:"Jaquira Díaz writes an unflinching account of growing up as a queer biracial girl searching for home as her family splits apart and her mother struggles with mental illness and addiction. From her own struggles with depression and drug abuse to her experiences of violence to Puerto Rico’s history of colonialism, every page vibrates with music and lyricism."


  • Talusan, Meredith
    Fairest : a memoir
    Summary:"A heartrending immigrant memoir and a uniquely intersectional coming-of-age story of a life lived in duality and the in-between, and how one navigates through race, gender, and the search for love."


  • Harper, Michele
    The beauty in breaking : a memoir
    Summary:"A series of connected personal stories drawn from the author’s life and work as an ER doctor that explores how we are all broken–physically, emotionally, and psychically–and what we can do to heal ourselves as we try to heal others."


  • Sellers, Bakari
    My vanishing country : a memoir
    Summary:"The CNN analyst and youngest state representative in South Carolina’s history illuminates the lives of America’s forgotten rural, Black working-class men and women."


  • Deb, Sopan
    Missed translations : meeting the immigrant parents who raised me
    Summary:"Approaching his 30th birthday, Sopan Deb had found comfort in his day job as a writer for the New York Times and a practicing comedian. But his stage material highlighting his South Asian culture only served to mask the insecurities borne from his family history. Sure, Deb knew the facts: his parents, both Indian, separately immigrated to North America in the 1960s and 1970s. They were brought together in a volatile and ultimately doomed arranged marriage and raised a family in suburban New Jersey before his father returned to India alone. But Deb had never learned who his parents were as individuals–their ages, how many siblings they had, what they were like as children, what their favorite movies were. Theirs was an ostensibly nuclear family without any of the familial bonds. Coming of age in a mostly white suburban town, Deb’s alienation led him to seek separation from his family and his culture, longing for the tight-knit home environment of his white friends. His desire wasn’t rooted in racism or oppression; it was born of envy and desire–for white moms who made after-school snacks and asked his friends about the girls they liked and the teachers they didn’t. Deb yearned for the same. Deb’s experiences as one of the few minorities covering the Trump campaign, and subsequently as a stand up comedian, propelled him on a dramatic journey to India to see his father–the first step in a life altering journey to bridge the emotional distance separating him from those whose DNA he shared. Deb had to learn to connect with this man he recognized yet did not know–and eventually breach the silence separating him from his mother. As it beautifully and poignantly chronicles Deb’s odyssey, Missed Translations raises questions essential to us all: Is it ever too late to pick up the pieces and offer forgiveness? How do we build bridges where there was nothing before–and what happens to us, to our past and our future, if we don’t?"–Amazon


  • Chung, Nicole
    All you can ever know : a memoir
    Summary:Chung investigates the mysteries and complexities of her transracial adoption in this chronicle of unexpected family for anyone who has struggled to figure out where they belong.


  • Iguodala, Andre
    The Sixth Man : a memoir
    Summary:"A standout sports memoir from NBA powerhouse, a swingman and NBA All-Star of the Golden State Warriors."


  • Caldwell, Gail
    Bright precious thing : a memoir
    Summary:"Frank and revealing, this memoir chronicles what it was like for Gail Caldwell to grow up across the decades of the women’s movement. She confronts personal turning points, from abortion and illicit love to date rape and alcoholism, up through the #MeToo movement, that led her to see life as a bright precious thing. Another bright precious thing is a young neighborhood girl with whom Gail shares stories. The wise voice and deep feelings for life from Caldwell’s bestseller Let’s Take The Long Way Home are present again in Bright Precious Thing."


  • Valentine, Sarah
    When I was white : a memoir
    Summary:"At the age of 27, Sarah Valentine discovered that she was not, in fact, the white girl she had always believed herself to be. She learned the truth of her paternity: that her father was a black man. And she learned the truth about her own identity: mixed race. And so Sarah began the difficult and absorbing journey of changing her identity from white to black. In this memoir, Sarah details the story of the discovery of her identity, how she overcame depression to come to terms with this identity, and, perhaps most importantly, asks: why? Her entire family and community had conspired to maintain her white identity. The supreme discomfort her white family and community felt about addressing issues of race–her race–is a microcosm of race relationships in America. A black woman who lived her formative years identifying as white, Sarah’s story is a kind of Rachel Dolezal in reverse, though her ‘passing’ was less intentional than conspiracy. This memoir is an examination of the cost of being black in America, and how one woman threw off the racial identity she’d grown up with, in order to embrace a new one."


  • Shapiro, Dani
    Inheritance : a memoir of genealogy, paternity, and love
    Summary:"In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA, Dani Shapiro received the astonishing news that her beloved deceased father was not her biological father. Over the course of a single day, her entire history–the life she had lived–crumbled beneath her. In just a few hours of Internet sleuthing, she was able to piece together the story of her conception and, remarkably, find a YouTube video of her biological father–his face and mannerisms eerily similar to her own. [This] is a book about
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    YA Memoirs

  • DePrince, Michaela
    Taking flight : from war orphan to star ballerina
    Summary:Michaela DePrince was known as girl Number 27 at the orphanage, where she was abandoned at a young age and tormented as a “devil child” for a skin condition that makes her skin appear spotted. But it was at the orphanage that Michaela would find a picture of a beautiful ballerina en pointe that would help change the course of her life. In this engaging, moving, and unforgettable memoir, Michaela shares her dramatic journey from an orphan in West Africa to becoming one of ballet’s most exciting rising stars.


  • Dunkle, Elena
    Elena vanishing : a memoir
    Summary:Seventeen-year-old Elena has a voice in her head that tells her what she needs to do in order to be perfect: Put on her makeup. Be charming and poised. Make top grades. Work two or even three jobs. And never, ever eat. This is the voice that she calls her conscience. And listening to it just might kill her. As Elena’s body starts to break down and she goes from one hospital to another, she comes to understand that her inner voice is her greatest demon. And in order to defeat it, she will have to face a secret she’s hidden for years. This is the story of a girl whose armor against anxiety is artillery against herself, a girl battling on both sides of a lose-lose war, a girl struggling with anorexia nervosa.


  • Engle, Margarita
    Enchanted air : two cultures, two wings : a memoir
    Summary:"In this … memoir, Margarita Engle, the first Latina woman to receive a Newbery Honor, tells of growing up as a child of two cultures during the Cold War"–Amazon.com.,In this poetic memoir Engle, the first Latina woman to receive a Newbery Honor, tells of growing up as a child of two cultures during the Cold War. Her heart was in Cuba, her mother’s tropical island country, a place so lush with vibrant life that it seems like a fairy tale kingdom. But most of the time she lived in Los Angeles, lonely in the noisy city and dreaming of the summers when she can take a plane through the enchanted air to her beloved island. When the hostility between Cuba and the United States erupted at the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Engle’s worlds collided in the worst way possible. Would she ever get to visit her beautiful island again?


  • Ha, Robin
    Almost American girl : an illustrated memoir
    Summary:"A powerful and moving teen graphic novel memoir about immigration, belonging, and how arts can save a life. For as long as she can remember, it’s been Robin and her mom against the world. Growing up as the only child of a single mother in Seoul, Korea, wasn’t always easy, but it has bonded them fiercely together. So when a vacation to visit friends in Huntsville, Alabama, unexpectedly becomes a permanent relocation–following her mother’s announcement that she’s getting married–Robin is devastated. Overnight, her life changes. She is dropped into a new school where she doesn’t understand the language and struggles to keep up. She is completely cut off from her friends in Seoul and has no access to her beloved comics. At home, she doesn’t fit in with her new stepfamily, and worst of all, she is furious with the one person she is closest to–her mother. Then one day Robin’s mother enrolls her in a local comic drawing class, which opens the window to a future Robin could never have imagined"–Amazon.com.


  • Henigson, Jeff
    Warhead : the true story of one teen who almost saved the world
    Summary:"A memoir about Jeff Henigson’s teen Starlight Children’s Foundation wish after being diagnosed with brain cancer: to meet Mikhail Gorbachev and plea for nuclear disarmament and world peace."


  • Johnson, George M.
    All boys aren’t blue : a memoir-manifesto
    Summary:In a series of personal essays, prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson explores his childhood, adolescence, and college years in New Jersey and Virginia. From the memories of getting his teeth kicked out by bullies at age five, to flea marketing with his loving grandmother, to his first sexual relationships, this young-adult memoir weaves together the trials and triumphs faced by Black queer boys.


  • Lee, Sungju
    Every falling star : the true story of how I survived and escaped North Korea
    Summary:"Every Falling Star, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named Sungju who is forced at age twelve to live on the streets and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly re-creates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, his ‘brothers’; to be hungry and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. This riveting memoir allows young readers to learn about other cultures where freedoms they take for granted do not exist."


  • Mah, Adeline Yen
    Chinese Cinderella the true story of an unwanted daughter
    Summary:Adeline is just three days old when her mother dies. She is blamed for the death and considered bad luck. For years, she tries to please her family, wanting only acceptance and love, but often facing rejection. Finally, after discovering literature, she is given the chance to succeed.


  • Myers, Walter Dean
    Bad boy : a memoir
    Summary:Children’s author Walter Dean Myers describes his childhood in Harlem in the 1940s and 1950s, discussing his loving stepmother, his problems in school, his reasons for leaving home, and his beginnings as a writer.


  • Saedi, Sara
    Americanized : rebel without a green card
    Summary:In San Jose, California, in the 1990s, teenaged Sara keeps a diary of life as an Iranian American and her discovery that she and her family entered as undocumented immigrants.

  • Takei, George
    They called us enemy
    Summary:"A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George
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    Readalikes for “The Vanishing Half”

    Here’s a list of Readalikes for “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett, recommended by the Readers’ Advisory section of the Massachusetts Library Association.

  • We wear the mask : 15 true stories of passing in America
    Summary:For some, passing means opportunity, access, or safety. Others don’t willfully pass but are passed in specific situations by someone else. We Wear the Mask, edited by authors Brando Skyhorse and Lisa Page, is an illuminating and timely anthology of original essays that examines the complex reality of passing in America


  • Bennett, Brit
    The vanishing half
    Summary:"The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect? W"–


  • Gray, Anissa
    The care and feeding of ravenously hungry girls
    Summary:The Butler family has had their share of trials, as sisters Althea, Viola, and Lillian can attest, but nothing prepared them for the literal trial that will upend their lives. Althea, the eldest sister and substitute matriarch, is a force to be reckoned with and her younger sisters have alternately appreciated and chafed at her strong will. They are as stunned as the rest of the small community when she and her husband Proctor are arrested, and in a heartbeat the family goes from one of the most respected in town to utter disgrace. The worst part is, not even her sisters are sure exactly what happened. As Althea awaits her fate, Lillian and Viola must come together in the house they grew up in to care for their sister’s teenage daughters.


  • Gyasi, Yaa
    Homegoing : a novel
    Summary:Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising half-caste children who will be sent abroad to be educated in England before returning to the Gold Coast to serve as administrators of the Empire. Her sister, Esi, will be imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castle’s women’s dungeon, and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, where she will be sold into slavery.–


  • Ruffin, Maurice Carlos
    We cast a shadow : a novel
    Summary:"In a near-future Southern city, everyone is talking about a new experimental medical procedure that boasts unprecedented success rates. In a society plagued by racism, segregation, and private prisons, this operation saves lives with a controversial method–by turning people white. Like any father, our unnamed narrator just wants the best for his son Nigel, a biracial boy whose black birthmark is getting bigger by the day. But in order to afford Nigel’s whiteness operation, our narrator must make partner as one of the few black associates at his law firm, jumping through a series of increasingly absurd hoops–from diversity committees to plantation tours to equality activist groups–in a tragicomic quest to protect his son."–


  • Weiner, Jennifer
    Mrs. Everything : a novel
    Summary:"A smart, thoughtful, and timely exploration of two sisters’ lives from the 1950s to the present as they struggle to find their places–and be true to themselves–in a rapidly evolving world. Mrs. Everything is an ambitious, richly textured journey through history–and herstory–as these two sisters navigate a changing America over the course of their lives"–


  • Woodson, Jacqueline
    Red at the bone
    Summary:It is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody’s birthday celebration in her grandparent’s Brooklyn brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, escorted by her father to the soundtrack of Prince, she wears a special, custom-made dress. But the event is not without poignancy. Sixteen years earlier, that very dress was measured and sewn for a different wearer: Melody’s mother, for her own sixteenth birthday party and a celebration which ultimately never took place.

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    Reading for Change: Antiracism Books: Adult Nonfiction

    Reading for Change — Recommended reading from Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association
    Read more “Reading for Change: Antiracism Books: Adult Nonfiction” » Read more

    Reading for Change: Antiracism Books: Adult Nonfiction

    Reading for Changes — Recommended reading from Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association

  • Ewing, Eve L.
    1919
    Summary:The Chicago Race Riot of 1919, the most intense of the riots that comprised the "Red Summer" of violence across the nation’s cities, is an event that has shaped the last century but is widely unknown. In 1919, award-winning poet Eve L. Ewing explores the story of this event–which lasted eight days and resulted in thirty-eight deaths and almost 500 injuries–through poems recounting the stories of everyday people trying to survive and thrive in the city. Ewing uses speculative and Afrofuturist lenses to recast history, and illuminates the thin line between the past and the present.


  • Coates, Ta-Nehisi
    Between the world and me
    Summary:"For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he’s sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him–most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear … In [this book], Coates takes readers along on his journey through America’s history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings–moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago’s South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America’s ‘long war on black people,’ or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police"– Provided by publisher.


  • Perry, Imani
    Breathe : a letter to my sons
    Summary:"Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love–finding beauty and possibility in life–and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition. Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ida B. Wells. She shares vulnerabilities and insight from her own life and from encounters in places as varied as the West Side of Chicago; Birmingham, Alabama; and New England prep schools. Breathe offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience"–


  • Rankine, Claudia
    Citizen : an American lyric
    Summary:"Claudia Rankine’s bold new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV–everywhere, all the time. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person’s ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship. In essay, image, and poetry, Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named ‘post-race’ society"–Publisher’s description.


  • Glaude, Eddie S., Jr.
    Democracy in black : how race still enslaves the American soul
    Summary:"A powerful polemic on the state of black America that savages the idea of a post-racial society America’s great promise of equality has always rung hollow in the ears of African Americans, but today the situation has grown even more dire. From the murders of black youth by the police, to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, to the disaster visited upon poor and middle-class black families by the Great Recession, it is clear that black America faces an emergency–at the very moment the election of the first black president has prompted many to believe we’ve solved America’s race problem. Democracy in Black is Eddie S. Glaude Jr.’s impassioned response. Part manifesto, part history, part memoir, it argues that we live in a country founded on a "value gap"–with white lives valued more than others–that still distorts our politics today. Whether discussing why all Americans have racial habits that reinforce inequality, why black politics based on the civil-rights era have reached a dead end, or why only remaking democracy from the ground up can bring real change, Glaude crystallizes the untenable position of black America–and offers thoughts on a better way forward. Forceful in ideas and unsettling in its candor, Democracy In Black is a landmark book on race in America, one that promises to spark wide discussion as we move toward the end of our first black presidency"–


  • Prater, Loretta P.
    Excessive use of force : one mother’s struggle against police brutality and misconduct
    Summary:Police brutality and misconduct have been under the microscope for the last several years. Loretta Prater confronts the far-reaching consequences of police brutality through the personal case of her son, numerous examples of other cases, and a review of related research.


  • Kendi, Ibram X.
    How to be an antiracist
    Summary:""The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it — and then dismantle it." Ibram X. Kendi’s concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America — but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it. In this book, Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science, bringing it all together with an engaging personal narrative of his own awakening to
    • Read more “Reading for Change: Antiracism Books: Adult Nonfiction” » Read more

    ALA Book Awards

    • Newbery Medal — The John Newbery Award is given annually for the greatest contribution to children’s literature
    • Caldecott Award — The Randolph Caldecott Award is given annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.
    • Michael L. Printz Award — The Michael L. Printz Award is given annually to a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature. It is named for a Topeka, Kansas, school librarian who was a long-time active member of the Young Adult Library Services Association. The award is sponsored by Booklist, a publication of the American Library Association
    • Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal — The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal is awarded annually to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published in the United States in English during the preceding year. The award is named in honor of Robert F. Sibert, the long-time President of Bound to Stay Bound Books, Inc. and is administered by the Association for Library Service to Children, American Library Association.
    • Sydney Taylor Book Awards — The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience. Presented by the Association of Jewish Libraries since 1968, the award encourages the publication and widespread use of quality Judaic literature.

    How to Get a Library Card

    Any Massachusetts resident can register for a library card at any NOBLE library. Be sure to bring a photo ID, such as a current Massachusetts drivers’ license or Massachusetts State Identification Card with current address, or a photo ID plus proof of current residence.

    Each user may only have one NOBLE public library account. Students, faculty or staff of NOBLE academic institutions may have a card from their academic institution in addition to their public library account. You can have your existing library card from another Massachusetts network added to NOBLE’s user database.

    Cards issued by any NOBLE member library may be used in any other NOBLE library.

    Access to electronic resources will be controlled by where you live or your academic affiliation, and not by where you signed up for the library card.

    Member libraries may set their own policies for borrowing by out-of-state residents.

    You must have a valid library card account to borrow items, with no significant fines or charges. Once you have an account, other acceptable means of account identification for borrowing include a valid photo ID or the barcode image from within the NOBLE smartphone app.

    Lending policies, such as loan durations and overdue fines, are set by each library for their own items. Items sent from other NOBLE libraries share a uniform loan period.

    Member Libraries share most materials, but may retain new and high demand items for local borrowing for a limited period. Electronic content purchased locally may be reserved for residents or those affiliated with the academic institution. Access to museum passes, PC workstations, and other special collections and services may also be restricted according to local policy.

    Materials may be returned at any NOBLE library. Fines and charges may be paid at any NOBLE library, or online with a credit card through your library card account.

    By getting a library card, you agree to be responsible for all materials borrowed on that card, and any fines, fees, or charges. You also agree to notify library staff if the card is lost, stolen, or if you change address. You should not let others use your card, as you will be responsible for any charges. Read more “How to Get a Library Card”

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