Things We Couldn’t Say by Jay Coles

Gio is 17 and living with his preacher father and loving stepmother when his birth mother - who deserted the family eight years ago  - arrives back in  town and wants to see him and his younger brother Theo who suffers with PTSD.  

Gio is  getting through school and playing on the  basketball team, supported by his friends Olly and Ayesha, when his mother arrives on the scene.   And complicating  matters is a new student at Gio’s school who just arrived from Kansas,  is a painter,  also on the basketball team,  and also bi,  and who now may be Gio’s new crush.  

Brimming with emotional intelligence, author Coles invites the reader to empathize with Gio’s storm of difficult feelings as his birth mother makes a bid for his attention while romance with his new friend is in the air.  

Confident teen readers looking for realistic fiction and a little romance may enjoy this title from the author of Tyler Johnson Was Here.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

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.

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

In writing this book, I wanted to be as authentic and truthful about my experience as possible.  I wanted my story to be told in totality: the good, the bad, and the things I was too afraid to talk about publicly.  This meant going to places and discussing some subjects that are often kept away from teens for fear of them being “too heavy.”

So begins Johnson as he introduces his memoir manifesto with an author’s note.  As the reader wades in, the heaviness is inevitable, but what Johnson’s first words do not prepare the reader for are the love and joy he conveys in describing his beautiful close knit family and their senses of humor and fierce devotion to one another.  

After his note and introduction, the author breaks his story up into four “acts,” collections of essays relayed in a conversational tone to a young adult audience.  He concludes with an afterword.  Teachers may wish to simply share the Introduction to bring this essential voice of our time into the classroom and allow students to select to read it in full as independent reading.  --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Johnson, George M.  All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

Click here for discussion questions from the loft.org.

Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon

“The best way to eliminate a group is to demonize them, such that their disappearance is seen as an act of justice, not discrimination.”  These words from the forward of Beyond the Gender Binary could appear in any book about New York City youth experiencing detainment.  Vaid-Menon uses this short and powerful frame to challenge the reader to shake oneself from the ignorance and complicity of transphobia.  Trans folks, non-binary people, and students with friends and family members whose identities go beyond the gender binary will find this book essential.  Which is to say: everyone. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Vaid-Menon, Alok.  Beyond the Gender Binary.  New York: Penguin Random House, 2020. ebook.

Click here for a short interview with the author from the publisher.

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.

Artemis: Wild Goddess of the Hunt by George O’Connor

“I am wild, untamed, unattached, unfettered.”  O’Connor does not disappoint when he finally allows us to hear Artemis’ voice, but he takes a while to get there, permitting several other voices to narrate Artemis’ story.  While the transitions do not always go smoothly, it is a small price to pay for the overall effect of O’Connor’s manner of weaving together multiple storylines to present an Artemis with a rare emotional complexity and challenging family situation.  The quality of care and creativity displayed in the storytelling and artwork is surprisingly paralleled in the front- and backmatter, which includes a very helpful family tree, character pages, discussion questions, annotated bibliography, and notes.  The latter two do an admirable job conveying the author’s humorous and playful attitude toward his seriously well-done research and thus conveys the persona of a researcher/writer/artist in a context generally skipped over by casual young readers.  Artemis is a valuable teaching text students will be motivated to read independently.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

O’Connor, George.  Artemis:  Wild Goddess of the Hunt.  New York: First Second, 2017. 

Princess Jellyfish Volume 1 by Akiko Higashimura

Tsukimi is a young woman whose passion in life is jellyfish and whose mother has passed away, leading Tsukimi to move into a women-only building in Tokyo. While she finds community with her new neighbors, her newfound independence amongst the like-minded amars is threatened when she is befriended by an attractive cross-dressing boy who happens to be the son of a powerful Japanese politician.   Will the amars be able to accept Tsukimi’s new friend?  Will their community survive a developer’s attempt to take it over?  These volumes collect the Princess Jellyfish series which was originally published in 2008 in serial format and was released as anime in 2010.  Fans of anime will enjoy reading the print, and female manga readers who are not yet familiar with the characters will enjoy the discovery that awaits them, blending otaku culture, humor, suspense, and romance, along with a plotline that involves the politics of gentrification.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Higashimura, Akiko.  Princess Jellyfish (Book 1).  New York: Kodashna Comics, 2016.  Print.

Black History in its Own Words by Ron Wimberly

Angela Davis, Saul Williams, Laverne Cox.  Dave Chappelle, Spike Lee, Arturo Schomburg.  Shirley Chisholm.  Serena Williams.  Cheryl Dunye.  Ice T.  Katherine Johnson.  Jimi Hendrix.

bell hooks.

Each of these luminaries, along with twenty-six others, some more famous, some less, are featured in this handsome volume which takes a less-is-more approach, text-wise, and combines with a slick handmade aesthetic to make a book that is hard not to pick up and virtually unputdownable until it is over, too soon for this reader who would like to see at least five hundred more additions.  

Each two-page spread features a grey scale portrait of its subject, and includes a short quote within its brightly colored frame.  The adjacent page provides one or two simple and usually intriguing statements describing the subject and usually cites the source of the quote.  Intended for older teens, this title will be sure to engage many who profess they do not like to read.  Perfect for teachers and librarians seeking an entry point to discuss the citing of sources. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Wimberly, Ron.  Black History in its Own Words.  Portland: Image Comics, 2017.  Print.

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Gabe is so close to high school graduation and the rest of his life as a trans teen.  While he is trying to navigate bathroom decisions, the pitfalls of dating girls, and the adoption of his new name, Gabe, from his birth name, Elizabeth, he encounters a vicious pair of bullies who literally threaten his life.  Feeling unsupported by the police, Gabe has to choose which risks to take and when to stand up for himself--choices many teen readers will be able to relate to.  While this story is set in Minnesota and depicts the lives of middle-class caucasian teens, urban high school readers who can get past those differences will be richly rewarded for taking a walk in Gabe’s shoes as he makes his transition.  Cronn-Mills closes the book with a six-page narrative primer on the transgender umbrella and web resources for LGBTQ teens and their teachers, parents and supporters.  Recommended for more experienced teen readers. --Jesssica Fenster-Sparber

Cronn-Mills, Kirstin.  Beautiful Music for Ugly Children.  Woodbury: Flux, 2012.  Print.

Click here for a Beautiful Music for Ugly Children web-based instructional unit complete with common core standards, discussion questions, and links.

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

Imagine a future in which everything is the same as it is now, except a new breakthrough in brain science has made it possible for specially trained surgeons to erase memories.  The procedure is in high demand, and teens can’t opt in without a parent’s signature and a bunch of money.  What would you do if you were Aaron--sixteen years old and unable to shake the memory of finding your father dead from suicide?  Set in NYCHA projects in the Bronx, this novel’s protagonist has a strong and unique voice and comes across as sensitive and seemingly self-aware.  A supporting cast of familiar, less-developed characters as Aaron’s family and friends comes together to tackle heavy themes of identity, memory, family, love, and loss with several surprising twists and some unusual chronology.  Highly recommended for more sophisticated readers ready to move beyond titles like How it Went Down and I Hunt Killers, and a must-read for fans of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Silvera, Adam.  More Happy Than Not.  New York: Soho Press, 2015. Print.