“Since Grandpa died, Dally’s days are dull and restricted. She’s eleven and a half years old, and her exacting single mother is already preparing her to take over the family business. Starved for adventure and release, Dally rescues a mysterious envelope from her mother’s clutches, an envelope Grandpa had earmarked for her. The map she finds inside leads straight to an ancient vault, a library of secrets where each book is a portal to a precise moment in time. As Dally “checks out” adventure after adventure—including an exhilarating outing with pirates—she begins to dive deep into her family’s hidden history. Soon she’s visiting every day to escape the demands of the present. But the library has secrets of its own, intentions that would shape her life as surely as her mother’s meticulous plans. What will Dally choose? Equal parts mystery and adventure—with a biracial child puzzling out her identity alongside the legacy of the past—this masterful middle-grade fantasy rivets with crackling prose, playful plot twists, and timeless themes.” — publisher […]
Authors: Magoon, Kekla
Ketanji: Justice Jackson’s Journey to the U.S. Supreme Court
“Ketanji Brown Jackson is no stranger to people trying to stand in her way.
When a guidance counselor told her she should set her sights lower than Harvard, she decided to go to Harvard for her undergraduate degree and her law degree.
When she became a public defender and was confronted with systemic inequalities in the justice system, she used her legal skills to advocate for people who needed her help, but couldn’t afford an attorney.
Ketanji’s path to the Supreme Court may have been unique—she’s the only current Justice to have been a public defender and one of just a few who went to public school—but it is distinctively powerful and heartening, and will present a generation of readers with a new inspirational figure.” — publisher […]
Read More… from Ketanji: Justice Jackson’s Journey to the U.S. Supreme Court
She Persisted: Simone Biles
Simone Biles didn’t always have it easy as a child. When her birth mother was no longer able to take care of her and her siblings, they moved in with her grandparents. But she always loved to run, jump, and bounce around. After trying gymnastics for the first time on a field trip at age six, Simone continued with the sport, working hard and facing many challenges along the way. Eventually, she reached a professional level, competing in world championships and at the Olympics. She kept competing and persisted, going on to become the most decorated US gymnast of all time. She also used her fame to speak up on important issues and to help other people. Through it all, she inspired kids everywhere to follow their dreams. […]
The Highest Tribute: Thurgood Marshall’s Life, Leadership, and Legacy
“Growing up, Thurgood Marshall saw that things weren’t fair. Baltimore, his hometown, was segregated—laws said Black and white people couldn’t use the same resources, like schools, parks, or water fountains. When Thurgood had to read the Constitution as punishment for a prank at school, his eyes were opened. Thurgood knew Jim Crow laws were wrong, and he was willing to do whatever it took to change them.
His determination to make all Americans equal led him to law school and then the NAACP, where he argued cases like Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in front of the Supreme Court before Lyndon Johnson appointed him as a justice. But to get to the highest court in the land, Thurgood had to make space for himself every step of the way.” — publisher […]
Read More… from The Highest Tribute: Thurgood Marshall’s Life, Leadership, and Legacy
Revolution in Our Time
“In this comprehensive, inspiring, and all-too-relevant history of the Black Panther Party, Kekla Magoon introduces readers to the Panthers’ community activism, grounded in the concept of self-defense, which taught Black Americans how to protect and support themselves in a country that treated them like second-class citizens. For too long the Panthers’ story has been a footnote to the civil rights movement rather than what it was: a revolutionary socialist movement that drew thousands of members—mostly women—and became the target of one of the most sustained repression efforts ever made by the U.S. government against its own citizens.” — publisher […]
