*The Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality by JoAnn Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy. Bloomsbury, 2019, 309 pages including appendix Reading Level: Teen, ages 12-15 Recommended for: ages 12-up When someone says an ugly word about us/ because we are black,/ I know they are ignorant./ Ignorant of God,/ ignorant of what it means to be one of God’s children. I know they are backward,/ and I look forward. Clinton, Tennessee wasn’t a bad place for a black girl to grow up, even in the 1950s. There were rules, of course, most unwritten: no going into the library or pool; balcony only at the…

Inventing Victoria by Tonya Bolden.  Bloomsbury, 2019, 257 pages. Reading Level: Teen, ages 12-15 Recommended for: ages 14-up Judy 12, 1881, Savannah, Georgia: Essie Mirth stands by her mother’s grave, her thoughts darting into the past as the minister’s voice drones through a graveside service.  She thinks—desperately hopes—she has escaped that past, but a biracial woman in the postwar south is on precarious ground.  One big blessing in her life is Ma Clara, a former slave who has covertly protected Essie from her mother’s white clients—the ones who come mostly at night and creak the bedsprings loud enough for the girl to hear in her attic bedroom.  Clara’s interference has…

Literaritea is a fresh series in which Megan offers a taste of her experiences reading picture books and poetry aloud to her five boys, ages 2-12. Ideally we have teatime with our literature, but not always. These are the books that resonate with all of us and if I don’t own these titles yet, I am in the process of acquiring them–they’re that good. Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling, adapted and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. Morrow Junior Books, 1997. 48 pages. My two older boys were participating in a library research program this morning, and I had an hour to spend with my 2, 5 and 7yo sons. It’s tough to compete with the lone library game tablet and a Garfield book, but I decided to read aloud anyway and assume they would listen in spite of themselves. The story of a cuddly cobra-killer and the boy…

Me: “That school must be named after Lise Meitner. Didn’t she do something with uranium?” {the school in question was on a TV show and was “for the gifted.”} My PhD Engineer hubby: “I have no idea. Never heard of her.” Me: “You haven’t?! Wow. Amazing what you can learn from children’s literature!” It’s true: you can learn a LOT from nonfiction picture books, no matter how old you are! The nonfiction picture books below are excellent examples and profile a wide variety of people. Several are recent award winners/honors, and one should have been. Don’t miss the starred review at the end! Bonus: many will work for Black History…

We’re taking some time and giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the Redeemed Reader team. Today, Hayley interviews our Associate Editor and Staff Writer, Megan Saben. My mother read Charlotte’s Web and books by Lois Lenski, Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and many others. What is your first reading memory? Are there some books you remember a parent reading aloud to you? I grew up surrounded by books, a condition that has followed me into adulthood. I was always an avid reader of fairy tales and my mother despaired that I was wasting my time and would never read the classics. Although there are many classics I wish I had read,…

Three recent novels for middle-grade through YA feature characters with schizophrenia or depression. Where the Watermelons Grow by Cindy Baldwin.  HarperCollins, 2018, 245 pages. Reading Level:  Middle grades, ages 10-12 Recommended for: ages 10-15 Della Kelly thought her mother was on the way to recovery until that night she caught Mama up late, sitting at the dining table, scooping watermelon seeds and flipping them to the ceiling.  This is all too reminiscent of the time Mama ended up in the hospital after Della’s little sister was born.  During that time she didn’t even recognize her own family, and the bad time lasted for weeks.  Mama’s problem has a name: schizophrenia. …