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Diverse Youth Titles: October Releases

  • Ashley S.
  • Friday, June 24, 2022

“Diversity’ should just be called ‘reality.’ Your books, your TV shows, your movies, your articles, your curricula, need to reflect reality.” - Tananarive Due

diverse titles

Here at Richland Library we are committed to fostering an inclusive culture that celebrates and respects our differences and unique learning styles. Each month a blog post will go live that showcases forthcoming diverse youth titles that have been purchased by the library. From differences in race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, ability and more, these titles are great reads for the entire family.

Be sure to check out the 5 titles that I'm most excited for in the slideshow below as well as the curated list of releases at the bottom of this post.

Enjoy!

Cover of Obie is Man Enough

Obie knew his transition would have ripple effects. He has to leave his swim coach, his pool, and his best friends. But it’s time for Obie to find where he truly belongs.
 
As Obie dives into a new team, though, things are strange. Obie always felt at home in the water, but now he can’t get his old coach out of his head. Even worse are the bullies that wait in the locker room and on the pool deck. Luckily, Obie has family behind him. And maybe some new friends too, including Charlie, his first crush. Obie is ready to prove he can be one of the fastest boys in the water—to his coach, his critics, and his biggest competition: himself.

Cover of The Me I Choose to Be

What will you choose to be? 
A free spirit? 
A weaver of words? 
A star dancing across the night sky? 
A limitless galaxy? 

The possibilities are endless in this uplifting ode to the power of potential. With lyrical text by bestselling author Natasha Anastasia Tarpley and images by Regis and Kahran Bethencourt—the team behind CreativeSoul Photography—each page of The Me I Choose To Be is an immersive call for self-love that highlights the inherent beauty of all Black and brown children. 

Cover of This is Our Rainbow

A boyband fandom becomes a conduit to coming out. A former bully becomes a first-kiss prospect. One nonbinary kid searches for an inclusive athletic community after quitting gymnastics. Another nonbinary kid, who happens to be a pirate, makes a wish that comes true--but not how they thought it would. A tween girl navigates a crush on her friend's mom. A young witch turns herself into a puppy to win over a new neighbor. A trans girl empowers her online bestie to come out.

From wind-breathing dragons to first crushes, This Is Our Rainbow features story after story of joyful, proud LGBTQA+ representation. You will fall in love with this insightful, poignant anthology of queer fantasy, historical, and contemporary stories from authors including: Eric Bell, Lisa Jenn Bigelow, Ashley Herring Blake, Lisa Bunker, Alex Gino, Justina Ireland, Shing Yin Khor, Katherine Locke, Mariama J. Lockington, Nicole Melleby, Marieke Nijkamp, Claribel A. Ortega, Mark Oshiro, Molly Knox Ostertag, Aisa Salazar, and AJ Sass

Cover of Chaiwala

When their train makes a 10-minute stop at the station in Jaipur, a young girl and her mother hurry to get in line for a cup of chai. While the girl waits for her mug of milky spiced tea, readers are treated to the sights, sounds, and smells of the Chaiwala’s cart. The aroma of ginger, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon sticks swirls in the air. Tea leaves rustle, milk bubbles, and the hot drink is poured back and forth until―clink!―the cups are filled and placed on the stand. With a biscuit and a rusk added to their order, it’s time to find a spot to sit and enjoy!

Inspired by the author’s childhood visits to India, Chaiwala! celebrates the pleasures of taking time for food, family, and tradition―even for a brief moment. Illustrated in lively cut-paper collages and filled with scrumptious sensory details, this book is just like a cup of chai―warm, comforting, and good to the last drop.

Cover of Everythin Within and In Between

For Ri Fernández’s entire life, she’s been told, “We live in America and we speak English.” Raised by her strict Mexican grandma, Ri has never been allowed to learn Spanish.

What’s more, her grandma has pulled Ri away from the community where they once belonged. In its place, Ri has grown up trying to fit in among her best friend’s world of mansions and country clubs in an attempt try to live out her grandmother’s version of the “American Dream.”

In her heart, Ri has always believed that her mother, who disappeared when Ri was young, would accept her exactly how she is and not try to turn her into someone she’s never wanted to be. So when Ri finds a long-hidden letter from her mom begging for a visit, she decides to reclaim what Grandma kept from her: her heritage and her mom.

But nothing goes as planned. Her mom isn’t who Ri imagined she would be and finding her doesn’t make Ri’s struggle to navigate the interweaving threads of her mixed heritage any less complicated. Nobody has any idea of who Ri really is—not even Ri herself.

Accused

Accused

My Story of Injustice
Bah, Adama, 1988- author.
Published in 2021
"Launching a propulsive middle grade nonfiction series, a young woman shares her harrowing experience of being wrongly accused of terrorism. Adama Bah grew up in East Harlem after immigrating from Conakry, Guinea, and was deeply connected to her communityand the people who lived there. But as a thirteen-year-old after the events of September 11, 2001, she began experiencing discrimination and dehumanization as prejudice toward Muslim people grew. Then, on March 24, 2005, FBI agents arrested Adama and herfather. Falsely accused of being a potential suicide bomber, Adama spent weeks in a detention center being questioned under suspicion of terrorism. With sharp and engaging writing, Adama recounts the events surrounding her arrest and its impact on her life-the harassment, humiliation, and persecution she faced for crimes she didn't commit. Accused brings forward a crucial and unparalleled first-person perspective of American culture post-9/11 and the country's discrimination against Muslim Americans, andheralds the start of a new series of compelling narrative nonfiction by young people, for young people"-- Provided by publisher.
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Book
 
African Icons

African Icons

Ten People Who Shaped History
Baptiste, Tracey, author.
Published in 2021
"Full-color portraits illustrate the stories of ten people-rulers, educators, inventors, scholars, and explorers-who helped shape the African continent and the world from ancient times through the tumultuous sixteenth century"-- Provided by publisher.
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Book
 
Vial of Tears

Vial of Tears

Bishara, Cristin, author.
Published in 2021
When Samira receives a strange vase with some ancient coins, she and her sister Rima are pulled into Baalbek, a Phoenician underworld where they are caught up in the a struggle between deities, shapeshifters, and ghouls--and Eshmun, who wants his obol, his burial coin, back.
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Book
 
Keeping It Real

Keeping It Real

Chase, Paula, author.
Published in 2021
Fourteen-year-old Marigold's family owns Flexx Unlimited, a hip-hop lifestyle company, and she attends the elite school Flowered Arms Academy, but she has never felt entirely comfortable in the mostly White school, and she prefers to hang out with Justice, relatively new to the school, but a star basketball player; so enrolling in Style High with him, a trainee program funded by Mari's family, seems like a good way to spend the summer--until she meets Kara, who obviously hates Mari and seems determined toturn Justice against her.
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Book
 
Tu Youyou's Discovery

Tu Youyou's Discovery

Finding a Cure for Malaria
Daemicke, Songju Ma, author.
Published in 2021
"Tu Youyou had been interested in science and medicine since she was a child, so when malaria started infecting people all over the world in 1969, she went to work finding a treatment. Trained as a medical researcher in college and healed by traditional medicine techniques when she was young, Tu Youyou started experimenting with natural Chinese remedies. The treatment she discovered through years of research and experimentation is still used all over the world today"-- Provided by publisher.
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Book
 
Frankie & Bug

Frankie & Bug

Forman, Gayle, author.
Published in 2021
In the summer of 1987 in Venice, California, ten-year-old Bug and her new friend Frankie learn important lessons about life, family, being your true self, and how to navigate in a world that is not always just or fair.
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Book
 
What About Will

What About Will

Hopkins, Ellen, author.
Published in 2021
"Trace's relationship with his older brother Will become increasingly complicated after Will suffers a traumatic brain injury and becomes addicted to pain pills"-- Provided by publisher.
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Book
 
Defiant

Defiant

Growing Up in the Jim Crow South
Hudson, Wade, author.
Published in 2021
"The memoir of Wade Hudson, a Black man and Civil Rights activist who came of age in the 1960s at the height of the Civil Rights Movement"-- Provided by publisher.
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Book
 
Kingston and the Echoes of Magic

Kingston and the Echoes of Magic

Moses, Rucker, author.
Published in 2021
When his magician father's old rival, Maestro, finds a way to overwrite reality with an alternate timeline in which he rules over all, Kingston, Too Tall, and V must find a way into the Realm and travel back through time to stop Maestro and save Brooklynbefore it is erased for good.
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Book
 
The City Beautiful

The City Beautiful

Polydoros, Aden, author.
Published in 2021
"Death lurks around every corner in this unforgettable Jewish historical fantasy about a city, a boy, and the shadows of the past that bind them both together. Chicago, 1893. For Alter Rosen, this is the land of opportunity, and he dreams of the day he'll have enough money to bring his mother and sisters to America, freeing them from the oppression they face in his native Romania. But when Alter's best friend, Yakov, becomes the latest victim in a long line of murdered Jewish boys, his dream begins to slip away. While the rest of the city is busy celebrating the World's Fair, Alter is now living a nightmare: possessed by Yakov's dybbuk, he is plunged into a world of corruption and deceit, and thrown back into the arms of a dangerous boy from his past. A boy who means more to Alter than anyone knows. Now, with only days to spare until the dybbuk takes over Alter's body completely, the two boys must race to track down the killer--before the killer claims them next." -- Amazon.com.
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Some Days

Some Days

A Tale of Love, Ice Cream, and My Mom's Chronic Illness
Stamm, Julie A., author.
Published in 2021
Some days Wyatt and his mom have big adventures and some days, when his mom's multiple sclerosis flares up, they have small adventures.
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Book
 
Disability Visibility

Disability Visibility

17 First-person Stories for Today
Wong, Alice (EDT)
Published in 2021
"A young adult adaptation of Alice Wong's Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century"-- Provided by publisher.
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Author

Ashley S.

Collection Strategist - Youth
Series
Diverse Youth Titles
Tags
Book Recommendations
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Audience
Parents
Families
Young children (0-5 years)
Toddlers (19 months-2 years)
Preschoolers (3-5)
School age children (6-12 years)
6-8 years
9-12 years
Teens (12-18 years)

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