Hoop Kings 2: New Royalty by Charles R. Smith Jr.

When a new student recently told me  I should ”get a poetry book about LeBron James” I knew I’d found the perfect reader for Charles R. Smith Jr.’s Hoop Kings. All the copies of Hoop Kings copies were checked out from my site’s library but  I was happy to discover  that author Smith had published a sequel back in 2021 in the midst of the pandemic.

 Hoop Kings 2: New Royalty  is an appealingly  slim volume that includes  a poem entitled “Royalty” about none other than LeBron James.

Similar in style to the first  Hoop Kings, the bold graphic design of this sequel, the large size of the font, and the brevity,  specificity,  and rhythms of the ten or so poems are made entirely accessible to developing readers. 

The  backmatter includes poem notes and short paragraphs by the poet fleshing out a bit of his poetic process, thoughts, struggles and goals for each poem, a perfect snippet to help new, young poets think about their art.  Highly recommended for older emerging and developing readers who love basketball.  --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Smith J., Charles R.  Hoop Kings 2: New Royalty.  Somerville: Candlewick Press, 2021.

Click here for a teaching guide from the publisher.  Contains a few ideas for content area applications in Social Studies, Math, and Art in addition to ELA/Writing.

Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present by Adrienne Keene, illustrated by Ciara Sana

Did you know that Billy Frank Jr. was arrested for fishing as an act of civil disobedience?  That tattooing has been part of Inuit culture for millennia?  That Lili’uokalani was the first woman to rule Hawai’i and the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom before the US illegally overthrew the monarchy?  That baller Kyrie Irving has been “welcomed home” by the Lakota Sioux?  

This book about 50  “notable natives” interweaves historical context with short sections on topics like “settler colonialism 101,”  “whose land are you on?” and  “who belongs?”   

Highly accessible short biographies of 2-4 paragraphs each,  and portraits of the 50 subjects make this book a good choice for readers at middle school level or above.  Students will likely find something to whet their appetite to learn more,  and the index makes topics,  locations,  as well as biographical subjects easy to find.  --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Keene, Adrienne.  Illustrated by Ciara Sana.  Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and Present. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2021.  Print.

Queer, There and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager and Zoe More O’Ferrall

Full disclosure: I received this book in conjunction with a meet-the-author event at Andrea Swenson’s amazing school library.  And I’m so glad I did because I think every school librarian serving high school students will want a copy of Prager’s chatty collective biography of queer history on their shelves.  Brief as they are, her twenty-two biographical chapters on twenty-three historical figures are intriguing and leave the reader wanting to know more.  Through the brief lives examined, the casual reader will start to grasp the bigger outlines of queer histories.  Prager’s considered and inclusive stance will aid younger readers in exploring multiple perspectives in a world wracked with adversarial and exclusionary politics.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

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Prager, Sarah and Zoe More O’Ferrall.  Queer, There and Everywhere:23 People Who Changed the World.  New York: HarperCollins, 2018.