Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: A historical fiction picture book for 7- to 11-year-olds about the challenges of traveling for African American families during the Jim Crow era. As Ruth travels with her family from Chicago to Alabama to visit her grandmother, she learns that the Green Book provides a […]
Unbound: A Novel in Verse
Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: When Grace, the enslaved protagonist of this beautiful novel-length poem, turns 9, she is sent to live and work in the big house, forcing a heart-wrenching separation from her family. Then Grace hears that her mother and younger brothers will be placed on the auction […]
Rad Women Worldwide: Artists and Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History
Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: From the authors of Rad American Women A-Z, Rad Women Worldwide has a similarly defiant and playful approach, featuring a few women students may have heard of, but mostly introducing little-known “rad” women who are “passionate, purposeful, and totally powerful.” It’s hard not to fall in […]
Fannie Never Flinched: One Woman’s Courage in the Struggle for American Labor Rights
Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: This beautiful book about early 20th-century labor organizer Fannie Sellins begins with her murder by sheriff’s deputies, in broad daylight, at the age of 47. No one is prosecuted. Mary Cronk Farrell then jumps back 20 years to trace Sellins’ life organizing garment and mine […]
All the Colors We Are: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color (Bilingual Spanish)
Reviewed by Rethinking Schools Book Author: We’re delighted to see this 20th anniversary edition of Katie Kissinger’s classic book, All the Colors We Are. Kissinger—author of the memorable Rethinking Schools article “Holding Nyla”—has written a book that deals with skin color in a straightforward, scientifically accurate, child-friendly manner. Young children are curious about why people have […]
Milo’s Museum
Teaching Ideas | Teaching Stories Reviewed by Deborah Menkart Review Source: Rethinking Schools Book Author: Milo’s Museum by Zetta Elliott is a beautifully illustrated, empowering story of a young girl (Milo) who is excited to go on a school field trip to a museum. Her grandfather explains, “Museums hold all the things that people feel are […]
