Celebrating the Lights of Diversity: Holiday Storytime

We truly kindled the lights of joy this holiday season during our Celebrating the Lights of Diversity holiday stortyime.

We shared three of our favorite holiday books and lit all the lights we could find while learning about each one. We included a tiny Christmas tree, a Menorah, a Kinara, an Advent wreath, a flaming chalice, a Yule log and a Havdallah candle. All were featured in our stories. We were only missing the St. Lucia crown.

Winter Candle by Jeron Ashford in which a single candle unites a building of neighbors by being shared from tradition to tradition as needed.

An Anishinaabe Christmas by Wab Kinew in which an Anishinaabe family visits "the Rez" on the winter solstice and Baby learns all about an Anishinaabe Christmas and the weaving together of traditions on the long drive home.

The Ninth Night of Hanukkah by Erica S. Perl. Neighbors help a family who's just moved in find all they need to celebrate Hanukkah when their box of supplies hasn't arrived, and in turn, on the ninth night, a new traditional of thanks and gathering is created.

March 2024 Storytime: Music Makes Room for Everyone

Please join us at 1pm in the Children’s Diversity & Justice Library on Sunday March 24 for stories in which music takes the stage. We plan to be joined by musicians to accompany our stories and may even have the chance to make some music ourselves.

Music is found in all cultures and all people. Books featuring music and musicians can be found in all 14 of the primary dimensions of diversity around which the CDJL is organized. And music has long been joined with and used by social justice movements to share messages of resistance and hope. Come hear stories in which music is the thread that unites and calls to action across all races, religions, colors, genders, sexes, classes, ages, educational levels, levels of wealth, abilities, relationship status, famly makeup and any other dimension of diversity.

What kind of music is your favorite?

February 2024 Storytime: A Birthday for Everyone

Please join us at 1pm in the Children’s Diversity & Justice Library on Sunday February 4 for stories featuring birthdays as well as games and activities that celebrate everyone’s birthday.

Every day, all around the world, in all kinds of settings, people celebrate birthdays. Sometimes they’re able to celebrate together, sometimes they’re not. Sometimes the gathering includes chosen family, sometimes birth families, sometimes friends or community, and sometimes all of them together. All birthdays that are celebrated include cultural rituals, but they may not be the same as the ones your culture observes. Some birthdays include presents we wish for, some include presents we didn’t know we needed and all include the present of being alive!

This month, the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church that hosts the Children’s Diversity & Justice Library is celebrating its 75th birthday! A birthday that includes having witnessed many important aspects of diversity and justice in our community including being the first predominantly white church to integrate in Knoxville, TN, the first church in Knox County, Tennessee to perform a federally recognized same gender marriage, and the church of Jack LaFlore who participated in sit-ins that helped end segregation in Knoxville among many others.

Did you ever realize birthdays could be so diverse, or could celebrate events of justice?! Join us on Sunday February 4th to learn and celebrate together with A Bithday for Everyone!

January 2024 Storytime: What's New?

Please join us at the Children’s Diversity & Justice Library on Sunday January 7 at 1pm for stories of newness.

The Gregorian calendar, the calendar we in the United States, and most of the world, use begins a new year on January 1. Happy New Year!

What other kinds of newness can we discover in our CDJL collection? New ideas. New family members. New schools. New places to go or live. New feelings. New skills. New friends. New names. New jobs. New homes. New books. We have all experienced being new, or something new, at some point. Come discover newness with us, and tell us — what’s new with you?

Programs for Thoughtfully Engaging with Thanksgiving: November 5

Please join us at the Children’s Diversity & Justice Library on Sunday November 5 for three opportunities to thoughtfully engage with Thanksgiving.

At 1pm in the CDJL we will share at least three stories written by Native authors and / or centering the voices of Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples to help us rethink what we’ve been told and taught about Thanksgiving.

Storytime starts at 1:00pm and runs for approximately 30 minutes. After storytime you will have the chance to participate in some activities such as exploring the  Native Land Digital interactive online map to learn about who's land we are inhabiting, decorating land acknowledgement table tents for your Thanksgiving table and creating thank you notes for anyone who has helped you. Additional activities to work on or take home may include coloring pages from one of our books and a Spirit Plate activity described in Keepunumuk. Following the activities, childcare will be available until 3pm.

Starting at 2pm, adults may participate in a forum “Parenting & Educating for Justice at Thanksgiving”. How can we help children understand the real history and harm that undergirds the “traditional” celebration of Thanksgiving, while also holding onto meaningful family rituals of giving thanks? What do we do to counter misinformation about the history of the United States and the lived experience of Native Americans that our kids learn at school and from others? How do we figure out how and when to have these conversations with our kids? Join us as we ask big questions, do some learning, share some resources, and offer a space to discuss the challenges of parenting for justice at Thanksgiving (and throughout the year). Facilitated by Catherine Farmer Loya in the Lizzie Crozier Room at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church at 2pm.

Storytime Returns with Fall 2023 Series

We are thrilled to bring back our live storytime events with a four date fall series starting Sunday September 10!

Each month we will share at least three stories from our diversity and justice collection of over 1900 titles. Often, we will have time for activities that pair with our stories such as crafts, physical movement, service, cooking, etc.

For our kickoff event we’ll be sharing three fall favorite stories and practicing one of our favorite fall activities - voting! Attendees will have the chance to vote on the next three books to add to the CDJL collection.

September is also National Library Card Sign-Up month and we will be happy to create library cards for anyone who doesn’t have one. We look forward to seeing you there!

New Books for Pride Month and More!

In honor of Pride Month, we have made a commitment to increase our LGBTQIA and GENDER resources.

With assistance from a generous donor, and after thoroughly reviewing our current wishlist of LGBTQIA and/or GENDER books, we selected and ordered 18 new titles prioritizing those not currently available in local lending collections, including the public libraries, as well as those with the best reviews.  They will be on our shelves as soon as we can catalog them!

In addition, the first six months of 2023 have seen 255 titles added to our collection with one quarter of those added just this past month alone!  These new books also included some titles in the LGBTQIA and GENDER diversity dimensions.  *If you haven’t been to visit us in a while - what are you waiting for?!  

An amazing number of additions this year have been through donations from readers and supporters just like you!  THANK YOU!  

By working together, YOU make it possible for us to help readers access the books they want to read regardless of the current political and cultural climate.  Many people who aren’t local, and can’t check out our books, still use our catalog and blog posts to guide their reading.  *For additional and local Pride themed book lending check out the Knoxville Rainbow Library as well as our Pride Book Recommendations list from earlier this month here https://tinyurl.com/fol-cdjl-pride.

If you haven’t had the chance to donate to the little library that love built yet, there is always time! Our general wishlist is available here https://tinyurl.com/wishlistCDJL. Our LGBTQIA wishlist subset is available here https://tinyurl.com/CDJL-lgbtqiawish and our GENDER wishlist subset herehttps://tinyurl.com/CDJL-genderwish\

*During June and July, we are open 10am - 3pm Monday - Thursday and 9:30am - 12:30pm on Sundays.  Expanded hours will begin again this fall. 

Pride additions June 2023:

Board Books:

• Together: A First Conversation About Love written by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli with illustrations by Anne/Andy Passchier

•  Bye Bye, Binary words by Eric Geron, illustrations by Charlene Chua

• Clive and His Bags by Jessica Spanyol 

Picture Books

• The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish by Lil Miss Hot Mess; illustrated by Olga De Dios

•  When Langston Dances words by Kaija Langley; illustrations by Keith Mallett

• Girl Running written by Annette Bay Pimentel, illustrated by Micha Archer

• Two Grooms on a Cake author, Rob Sanders; illustrator Robbie Cathro 

• Ho’onani: Hula Warrior written by Heather Gale; illustrated by Mika Song

• Calvin written by J. R. Ford & Vanessa Ford; illustrated by Kayla Harren

• Twas the Night Before Pride written by Joanna McClintick; illustrated by Juana Medina 

Juvenile

• Different Kinds of Fruit author Kyle Lukoff

Middle Grades

• This is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, Us edited by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby

• The List of Things that Will Not Change written by Rebecca Stead

• The Pants Project, Cat Clarke

Teen

• Girl Mans Up written by M - E Girard

• Boys Don’t Knit (in public), T. S. Easton

• Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo

Adult

• The Educator’s Guide to LGBT* Inclusion, Kryss Shane

• Rethinking Sexism, Gender and Sexuality, Editors and Authors Rethinking Schools, Kim Cosier, Rachel Harper, Jeff Sapp, Jody Sokolower, Melissa Bollow Tempel, Annika Butler-Wall

• The Stonewall Reader by The New York Public Library edited by Jason Baumann

Outdoor Storytime Returns!

We are excited to bring back our outdoor storytime events this fall!

Join us outdoors on the lawn at 2931 Kingston PIke, Knoxville for storytime from 3 - 3:30pm. This month we'll be sharing some of our favorite stories about Welcoming New Beginnings.

If you picked up a summer reading log you can bring it back, we will add your reading efforts to our wall sized community tracker and you can pick up your prize pack!

If you didn't get a reading log yet, there's no time like today (or September 18) to start! Logs are available for everyone. Add 15 stars for 15 books, or 15 twenty minute reading sessions, and bring back your log for a prize. How diversely can you read?!

The library will also be open for browsing and check out after the event. Assistance is available to set up accounts, check books out, and select and pack up books If you prefer not to be inside with other people, at this time.

Come join us!

Our 2022 Summer Reading Program is in full swing & you can still Join Us!

New features:  

• Since our last summer reading challenge, we’ve added two new primary diversity elements to track,

1) Asian Asian-American and Pacific Islander, and 

2) Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples.

• Together we’ll be creating a giant community tracker displayed in the CDJL so we can see how many books in how many categories we can all read together. 

By using our reading tracker and placing a sticker or check mark or smiley face or whatever you like on the colored bar that matches the diversity elements in the books you read, you’ll get a sense of how broadly, deeply and diversely you’re reading!  Use one sticker or check mark for each book read, or every twenty minutes of reading independently or together.  

• What goal will you set for yourself?  

• How deeply and broadly can you read?  

• Can you read at least one book in every diversity element?

• What new tales and truths will you discover?

Need a tracker?  Get a tracker! Two ways:

• Pick one up at the CDJ Library:  

  • We are located inside the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church at 2931 Kingston Pike Knoxville, TN 37919 Room H.  

  • The CDJ Library is open during TVUUC office hours.  Weekdays typically 9:30am - 4:30pm Monday - Thursday.  Sundays 10:00am - 12:30pm.  Check the TVUUC website calendar for updates at www.tvuuc.org/calendar.  

• Download the 8.5 x 11 inch full color reading tracker pictured above by clicking here or navigating to this link https://tinyurl.com/CDJLSummer2022.   

Find books:

• Read and track books from the Children’s Diversity & Justice Library by following the steps to Borrow A Book from our menu above or navigate to this link to learn how https://cdjlibrary.org/borrowcdjl

• Read and track books that match our 14 primary diversity elements from the libraries and bookstores of your choice.  You can use our online library catalog to give you great ideas for what to look for (https://www.librarycat.org/lib/CDJLibrary/).  Maybe you’ll find something new to us too!

Create a community tracker & get prizes starting as early as August 15:

• Bring in your tracker starting as early as August 15, and anytime afterwards, and together we’ll create a giant community tracker in the library (you can keep your tracker too, just bring it in so we can add you to the collective tracker).  

• How many books can we collectively read in each category?!  What’s your guess?  100?  1000?  A million kazillion trillion?  

• The first 24 trackers that come in can also receive a prize pack filled with fun diversity, community & justice themed activities and keepsakes.

We hope you’ll have a great time reading the rainbow this summer!  Any questions contact cdjlib@gmail.com

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month Book List and Diversity Element Announcement

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are integral members of our American cultural mosaic.  

AAPI communities are diverse, consisting of approximately 50 ethnic groups speaking over 100 languages with connections to 30 - 50 countries depending on the geographic scheme followed.  Over 24 million Americans, or 7.3% of the U.S. population, identify as AAPI and by some accounts they are the fastest growing racial or ethnic group in the United States.

Despite having been integral members of our country since colonization, the US has a history of racism towards, and oppression of, Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities and peoples.  Examples include the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese Incarceration (Internment) camps, the 2012 Wisconsin Sikh Temple shooting and the Atlanta spa and massage shooting just over one year ago.  Between March 2020 and September 2021, more than 10,300 incidents of hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were reported to the Stop Asian Hate website. This must stop.  

The mission of the Children’s Diversity & Justice Library is to empower young people to celebrate diversity and seek justice in their lives and communities.  We do that by providing a curated free lending community library of books all written by or about under-published communities and people who identify with communities that are under-represented in literature, particularly children’s literature.  We also offer programs and resources such as this booklist that help people find diverse justice related literature.  

In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this May, and as further action in realizing our mission, we are pleased to announce we have catalogued the over 150 AAPI books in our collection in a newly identified primary diversity element ASIAN ASIAN-AMERICAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER.

From now on, searching or browsing this keyword tag in our collection will bring forward all resources reflective of these communities.  All AAPI books in our physical collection can be identified by a lime green dot on their spine.  We will continue to catalogue our books with more specifically descriptive tags as well, such as specific languages, cultures and countries within the diverse AAPI category such that more specific searches can be conducted and the diversity within this broad diversity element is not lost.  In addition, after reviewing several resources defining and describing AAPI geography and cultures, and considering reader needs and desires in searching and identifying literature, for the purposes of our collection, and recognizing that we will change our practices as we learn more and as needs develop, we have decided to include the Central Asia, Eastern Asia, South-eastern Asia, and Southern Asia subregions in the United Nations geoscheme for Asia as Asian Asian-American and Pacific Islander.  For now, Western Asia, a geographical region commonly referred to as the Middle East including for example Kuwait, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Qatar will not be labeled AAPI.  

As one way to lift up, celebrate and recognize the contributions, successes and struggles of AAPI communities, our May booklist consists of some of our favorite titles from our AAPI collection, board book through adult, all written by or about people and communities that identify as Asian, Asian-American, and/or Pacific Islander.  

For additional resources about AAPI communities, AAPI social justice, AAPI Heritage Month and for additional booklists, we recommended the following:

• Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

• Stop AAPI Hate

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice

• Asian / Pacific American Librarians Association Literature Award Winners

• Social Justice Books: Asian Americans and Asia book list

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May 2022 CDJL Asian, Asian-American & Pacific Islander Booklist

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Board Books

• Holi Colors by Rina Singh 

• Diwali (Celebrate the World) - words from Hannah Eliot; illustrations from Archana Sreenivasan

• Will You Wear a Blue Hat? By Children’s Press 

Picture Books

• Binny’s Diwali - author Thity Umrigar and illustrator Nidhi Chanani

• A Dog Named Haku: A Holiday Story from Nepal - authors, Amish Karanjit, Margarita Engle and Nicole Karanjit; illustrator, Ruth Jeyaveeran

• Beautifully Me written by Nabela Noor, illustrations from Nabi H. Ali

• The Seed of Compassion: Lessons from the Life and Teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama - written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, illustrated by Bao Luu

• Is Nothing Something?: Kids' Questions and Zen Answers About Life, Death, Family, Friendship, and Everything in Between - by Thich Nhat Hanh, illusrated by Jessica McClure

• A Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin

• Watercress written by Andrea Wang, illustrations by Jason Chin

• Just Add One Chinese Sister: An Adoption Story written by Patricia McMahon and illustrated by Karen Jerome

• Colors of Aloha written by Kau-Arteaga, illustrations by J. R. Keaolani Bogac-Moore

• When Lola Visits written by Michele Sterling, pictures by Aaron Asis

• Golden Threads written by Suzanne Del Rizzo and illustrated by Miki Sato

• Mali Under the Night Sky: A Lao Story of Home words and illustrations by Youme Landowne

• My Name is Yoon written by Helen Recorvits, with illustrations by Gabi Swiatkowska

• The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi

• A Different Pond by Bao Phi

• It Began with a Page: How Gyo Fujikawa Drew the Way written by Kyo Maclear with illustrations by Julie Morstad

• Bilal Cooks Daal written by Aisha Saeed, illustrated by Anoosha Syed

• Drawn Together written by Minh Le with illustration by Dan Santat

Juvenile and up

• Front Desk by Kelly Yang 

• Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes 

• Rickshaw Girl written by Mitali Perkins, with pictures by Jamie Hogan

• Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen and _______ from the Jasmine Toguchi series written by Debbi Michiko Florence, illustrated by Elizabet Vikovic

• Dia’s Story Cloth written by Dia Cha with illustrations by Chiie Thao Cha and Nhia Thao Cha

• Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story by Paula Yoo

Middle Grades and up

• The Breadwinner Trilogy written by Deborah Ellis

• Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Series by Grace Lin

  • Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (vol 1)

  • Starry River of the Sky (vol 2)

  • When the Sea Turned to Silver (vol 3)

• Pie in the Sky a graphic novel by Remy Lai

• Aru Shah and the End of Time, Book 1 in the Pandava Series - written by Rokshani Chokshii

• Dragonwings by Laurence Yep

• Takedown by Laura Shovan

• Sylvia & Aki by Winifred Conkling

• When You Trap A Tiger by Tae Keller

• Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park

• American Born Chinese a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang

• Stories for South Asian Supergirls by Raj Kaur Khaira

Teen

• The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan

• The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee 

• Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman

• Lovely, Dark, and Deep by Justina Chen

• Picture Us In The Light  by Kelly Loy Gilbert 

• The Authentics by Abdi Nazemian

• They Called Us Enemy a graphic novel written by George Takei, Justin Eissinger and Steven Scott, illustrated by Harmony Becker

• Frankly in Love by David Yoon

Adult

• Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, Jose Antonio Varga author

• Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations, Mira Jacob author

• The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir a graphic novel by Thi Bui

• Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

Announcing Spring 2022 Monthly CDJL Book Pack Loans

We are excited to announce the Spring 2022 dates for our monthly book pack loans!

You tell us the age level and diversity elements you’re interested in, and we choose 3 - 5 books we think you and/or the readers in your life will love, check them out to you, and pack them up. You pick them up at the designated time for a one month loan! Just bring them back at the next month’s pick-up / return opportunity.

It’s the easiest (and safest) way to get a steady stream of great diversity & justice reads when you’re not able to come in in person to browse our collection, and don’t have the time to browse our online collection.

Sign up here: https://tinyurl.com/CDJLBookPack

All sign ups need to be in by midnight of the sign up date. All pickups are between 3pm and 4:30pm at 2931 Kingston Pike (contactless curbside pickup available). If you cannot come at the designated time, that does not mean you can't participate - let us know on your signup and we'll work with you to find an alternate time to get your book pack.

Sign up by Wednesday February 2, 2022 ---------> Pick Up on Sunday February 6, 2022

Sign up by Wednesday March 2, 2022 ---------> Pick Up on Sunday March 6, 2022

Sign up by Wednesday March 30, 2022 ---------> Pick Up on Sunday April 3, 2022

Sign up by Wednesday April 27, 2022 ---------> Pick Up on Sunday May 1, 2022

Pick-ups are made at the doors closest to the Kingston Pike parking lot entrance, across from the Little Free Pantry. Books are loaned for four weeks and can be returned at the next pick-up / drop-off event or during regular the current regular office hours of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in which we are housed: Mondays 10 - 4pm, Tuesdays and Wednesdays 10 - 3pm.

Lending is available to all CDJL patrons. If you're not a patron yet, we'll create an account for you once we receive your sign up. A small one-time donation of $15, suggested when becoming a library patron, helps the library continue to put and keep the best diversity and justice titles on the shelves for everyone to enjoy. To make that donation, visit https://onrealm.org/tvuuc/give, enter the amount you want to give and select Diversity Library Gift from the "Fund" drop down and click Continue to move through the prompts. Donation is NOT required to participate.

*RETURNS: If you can't make the next pick-up / drop-off date to return your books, books can be returned to the office of the church which houses the library - open Mondays 10 - 4pm and Tuesdays 10 - 3pm. The CDJLibrary office is also open Wednesdays 8am - 3pm. If those times don't work, just contact us at cdjlib@gmail.com and we'll work something out so you can return your books.

Sign up here: https://tinyurl.com/CDJLBookPack

For all the details on your CDJLibrary patron account, borrowing books, book recommendations, events and more, visit www.cdjlibrary.org

Questions? Contact us at cdjlib@gmail.org

Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples - New Primary Diversity Element Added

We are happy to share the news that the CDJL now includes a 13th primary diversity element - Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples!

Since our inception, we have catalogued and lent dozens of books written by and about native and indigenous people.  Adding this diversity element as a standard tag in our online catalogue and on the spine of included books means finding these books will be that much easier for browsers and borrowers.  

The Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples tag includes all our books written by and about Native Americans, First Nations, Aboriginal, Native, and Indigenous peoples worldwide.  Each book within this diversity element is also tagged with additional attributions to allow more specific searches such as Native American, First Nations, tribe and nation specific names such as Choctaw, Mohawk, Cherokee, etc., Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Taino, etc. For example, while there are 77 books currently catalogued as Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples, there are 67 related to Native Americans.    

The CDJL’s 13 main diversity elements are used as primary means by which the collection can be searched online, and, thanks to our color-coded dot system on the spine of each book, easily identified on our shelves.  

To browse the collection online by the new Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples diversity element, head to our online catalogue home page and select the Browse By highlighted text for “Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples” or click this link https://tinyurl.com/cdjlNNIP.

Our wishlist includes many more Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples books, including many “own voices” and lesser-known titles, that we’d love to add to our collection.  To browse our wishlist for this diversity element see https://tinyurl.com/cdjlwishNNIP.  To browse our entire wishlist see https://tinyurl.com/wishlistCDJL. 

Library work is never finished.  Next on our list to include as a primary diversity element is Asian American and Pacific Islander.  We’ll begin working on sorting and properly tagging all our titles in that area after the beginning of 2022 and hope to announce our 14th primary diversity element soon!  Then, you’ll be able to more easily identify all the books in our collection written by and about people who identify as Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islanders. 

A community Sourced Book & Media List Created for the Zinn Education Project #TeachTruth Pledge "Days of Action"

In response to state lawmakers passing bills asking teachers to remain silent or lie about the role of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and oppression through US history, last week, we, along with our partners Center for Children's and Young Adult Literature, thebottomknox, Tennessee Association of School Librarians, participated in the ZinnEducationProject's "Days of Action" to "Teach the Truth" campaign August 27 - 29, 2021.  Visit TeachTruthPledge.org to learn more.  

We invited teachers, educators, parents and others to share titles that have helped them, or the young readers’ in their lives, understand our nation's full history particularly from the perspective(s) of minoritized fictional or real-life people.  With thanks to all who submitted titles of books and other resources, we’ve curated the following list of our favorite suggestions.  All the books on this list can be borrowed from the CDJLibrary by following the directions on our Borrow A Book page except those marked with an asterisk*.  Asterisked* books are not yet available in our collection and can be donated.  Visit our Get Involved page to learn how.    

We hope these suggestions and the words contributor’s shared about their impact in their lives, shared on the CDJL facebook page, help you continue to #TeachTruth, read truth, learn truth and share truth.

Picture Books

• Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins, by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Jerome Legarrigue Legarrigue

• We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade

• *The Teachers March!: How Selma’s Teachers Changed History by Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace, illustrated by Charly Palmer

Juvenile

• Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine

• Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

• Front Desk, by Kelly Yang

• *Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968, by Alice Faye Duncan, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

• *As Good as Anybody: Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom, by Richard Michelson, illustrated by Raul Colon.

Middle Grades

• Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford

• One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, adapted by Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza

• This Book is Anti-racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work, by Tiffany Jewell, illustrations by Aurelia Durand.

• *I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Readers Edition) by Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick

• *Stamped (for kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, illustrated by Rachelle Baker, and adapted by Sonja Cherry-Paul

Teen

• March, Books One - Three, by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell. All three books are owned and loaned by the Children’s Diversity & Justice Library, only book one is listed here.

• Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

• The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros

• They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei, illustrated by Harmony Becker

• Beyond the Gender Binary, by Alok Vaid-Menon

adults

• We Want to do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, by Bettina Love

• Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, by James W. Loewen

• Caste: The Origins of our Discontent, by Isabel Wilkerson

• How to be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi

• *Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, by Cathy Park Hong

• *Postcolonial Love Poem, by Natalie Diaz

• *There There, by Tommy Orange

• *The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin

• *The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein

• *A Little Devil in America: notes in Praise of Black Performance, by Hanif Addurraquib

• *A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn

• *A Raisin in the Sun (a play) by Lorraine Hansberry

• *all about love: New Visions by bell hooks

• *Beloved, by Toni Morrison

• *Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

• *Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown

• *We Will Not Cancel Us by Adrienne Maree Brown

• *Faces at the Bottom of the Well, by Derrick Bell

• *Heads of the Colored People, by Nafissa Thompson-Spires

Other Media

In addition to the titles above, several people recommended additional media sources including,

• Roots Miniseries by Alex Haley

• American Indians in Children’s Literature blog

• I am Not Your Negro (documentary) directed by Raoul Peck and based on the writings of James Baldwin

• Legacy of Exiled NDNZ, a short film by Navajo filmmaker Pamela J. Peters

• Seeing White Scene on Radio podcast by John Biewan

• The 1619 Project (New York Times)

• When They See Us (a film in four parts), 13th, and other films by Ava DuVernay

• #TeachTruth 1
• AAPI 1
• Agreements 1
• Anti-racism 3
• Asian Asian-American and Pacific Islander 1
• Becoming 1
• Beloved Community 2
• Book Packs 1
• Canadian Truth and Reconciliation 1
• Catalogue 1
• Change 1
• Christmas 2
• Comfort 1
• Committment 2
• Community 4
• Compassion 2
• Connectedness 1
• Conscience 1
• Courage 1
• Curiousity 1
• December 1
• Earthday 1
• Family 2
• February 1
• First Nations 2
• GENDER 1
• Gratitude 1
• Hanukkah 2
• Healing 1
• Heterosexism 1
• Holidays 2
• Identity 1
• Imagination 1
• Inner Voice 1
• Kindle Hope / Welcome Light 2
• Kwanzaa 2
• LGBTQIA 1
• Letting Go & Letting In 1
• Listening 1
• Mindfulness 1
• Native American Boarding Schools 1
• Native Americans 3
• Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples 2
• New Year 1
• Oppression 1
• Parenting 1
• Possibilities 1
• Pride 1
• Primary Diversity Elements 1
• Promises 1

Summer Reading Challenge: How Diversely Can You Read?

Our first ever Summer Reading Challenge has launched and you can play along at home!

By using our reading tracker (pictured above, downloadable below) and placing a sticker or check mark on the colored bar that matches the diversity elements in the books you read, you’ll get a sense of how broadly, deeply and diversely you’re reading! Use one sticker or check mark for each book read, or every twenty minutes of reading. What goal will you set for yourself?

Download the 8.5 x 11 inch full color reading tracker pictured above by clicking here or navigating to this link https://tinyurl.com/CDJLSummer.

To easily find books that match these 12 diversity elements, browse our catalog home page where you’ll find links to all the titles in our collection for each of these 12 main diversity elements. You can then look for the titles that interest you at your local libraries or book stores. Or, have fun matching any books you’re reading to these diversity elements . How many others can you identify? These 12 are certainly not the only diversity elements found in books! In fact, our catalog can also be searched by hundreds of other keywords such as Native American, First Nations, Asian American, inclusion, art, sports, food or anything else that interests you. While you’re reading this summer, we’ll be working on our catalog so that soon, we’ll have more main diversity elements for next summer’s challenge.

Have fun reading! We’d love to see pictures of your trackers as you fill them in, or hear back from you as to how you’re enjoying the challenge. To share with us, head to our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CDJLibrary.