This month we’re exploring the many ways diverse reading invites us to listen deeply. Deep listening brings us into the realm of compassion and points out the importance of listening to your heart. Deep listening calls us to center the voices and experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Listening to nature, another way to listen, can be healing. When we practice deep listening to nature, we are taken to a place of calm, knowing that we are part of something interconnected. We can also learn through listening. Some of the wisest people are our elders. They have many years of life experience. Listening to their journey and their stories can help guide us in our own. These sources of deep listening often overlap and intermingle, entwining stories of heart and earth, wisdom and justice, the voices of our deepest selves with the voices of those who have too often been silenced.* How might these stories and books help you engage in deep listening this month?
All of the books listed below - and more - are in our Children’s Diversity & Justice Library collection and available for checkout by library patrons, as well as TVUUC members and families! Click “Borrow A Book” to learn how to bring these and other books home.
*Monthly themes adapted from the work of Soul Matters Sharing Circle https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com
Listen to Your Heart (mindfulness, compassion, heart)
Board Books
My Heart Fills with Happiness by Monique Gray Smith
Picture Books
The Seed of Compassion: Lessons from the Life and Teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama by His Holiness The Dalai Lama
You Hold Me Up /Ki Kîhcêyimin Mâna by Monique Gray Smith
Teen
Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith
This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kheryn Callender
Listen to Your Self
Picture Books
The Girl and the Wolf by Katherena Vermette
47,000 Beads by Koja Adeyoha
Listen to Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) Voices (Anti-racism)
Board Books
Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi
Picture Books
Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard
Bilal Cooks Daal by Aisha Saeed
I, Too, Am America by Langston Hughes
The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson
Middle Grades
The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander
Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You! by Marley Diaz
A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce
Teen
The Day Tajon Got Shot by Beacon House Writers
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning by Jason Reynolds
American Eyes: New Asian-American Short Stories for Young Adults by Lori Carlson
#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women by Charleyboy (Editor)
Adult
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Listen to Nature/the Earth
Board Books
Nibi is Water by Joanne Robertson
Picture Books
Listen to Our Ancestors
Picture Book
All Around Us by Xelena Gonzalez
My Two Grannies by Floella Benjamin
Middle Grades
The Women Who Caught The Babies: A Story of African American Midwives by Eloise Greenfield
Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai