This month we’re exploring Healing and using books that raise up justice and are written by, or prominently include, identities under represented in children’s and adult literature to help us.
Healing can be hard work, especially when we work to untangle knots of hurt. One way we can help untangle such knots is by telling the truth. As we enter November, the month in which many of us celebrate Thanksgiving, we are including an extended section on healing by telling the truth of Thanksgiving and the colonization of North America. Emphasizing gratitude can be a way to heal, as can finding ways to comfort ourselves such as by engaging in comforting rituals, spending time with loved ones, talking about our feelings, and learning tools we can use to bring ourselves to a place of comfort and healing. Naturally, many of us want to help others heal when they are hurting, especially if we feel we ourselves have caused hurt. This is a wonderful aspect of our humanity. However, it’s important to remember to listen to those we wish to help before we try to help so that we ensure we are treating others as they would like to be treated and not as we believe they would like to be.
We have curated a list of books, board book through adult, that each reflect these themes of Healing*:
the hard work of healing
let gratitude heal you
listen before you try to help and heal others
heal by telling the truth . . . . of Thanksgiving
find ways to comfort yourself
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. If you’re not able to check books out, please refer to these suggestions when looking for books that focus on healing. How might these stories and books help you engage with healing this month?
*Monthly themes adapted from the work of Soul Matters Sharing Circle https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com
The hard work of healing (untangling and healing knots of hurt)
Board Books
Antiracist Baby written by Ibram X. Kendi
Picture Books & Juvenile
Rescue and Jessica: A Life-Changing Friendship by Jessica Kensky
Hot Day on Abbott Avenue written by Karen English
All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything written by Annette Bay Pimental
You Hold Me Up / Ki Kîhcêyimin Mâna by Monique Gray Smith, Danielle Daniel (illustrator) and Mary Cardinal Collins (Translator)
Middle Grades
Sharing Our Homeland: Palestinian and Jewish Chikdren at Summer Peace Camp by Trish Marx and Cindy Karp
Teen
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National BGook Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning by Jason Reynolds
Adult
The Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education: Fostering Responsibility, Healing, and Hope in Schools (Justice and Peacebuilding) by Katherine Evans
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Let Gratitude Heal You
Picture Book
We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell
Thanks A Million by Nikki Grimes
Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message (Reading Rainbow Book) by Chief Jake Swamp, illustrated by Erwin Printup
Middle Grades
Refugee by Alan Gratz
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
Teen
The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe
Nevertheless, We Persisted: 48 Voices of Defiance, Strength, and Courage; Edited by In This Together Media
Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation by Anne Frank with Ari Folman adapter and David Polonsky illustrator
Adult
The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui
Listen Before You Try to Help and Heal Others (Do unto others as they would want done to them)
Picture Books
Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You by Sonia Sotomayor, illustrated by Rafael Lopez
I Am Jazz by Jazz Jennings
Middle Grades
Teen
#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women by Charleyboy
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
Adult
American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures by America Ferrara
Heal by Telling the Truth...of Thanksgiving
Picture Books & Juvenile
When We Were Alone by David Alexander Robertson (Picture Book)
I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis (Juvenile, 7 - 11 years)
When I Was Eight by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard (PIcture Book 6 - 9 years)
Middle Grades
1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (National Geographic) - By Catherine O’Neill Grace
How I Became A Ghost - A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story (Book 1 in the How I Became a Ghost Series) by Time Tingle
When a Ghost Talks, Listen (Book 2, How I Became a Ghost series) by Time Tingle
Teen
This Place: 150 Years Retold (graphic novel)
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People (ReVisioning American History for Young People) by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza
Find Ways to Comfort Yourself (the ways we can comfort ourselves are as diverse and universal as we are)
Board Book
Calm Down Time by Elizabeth Verdick
Hugs of Three: My Mommies and Me by Dr. Stacey Bromberg and Dr. Joe Taravella / Hugs of Three: My Daddies and Me by Dr. Stacey Bromberg
My Heart Fills with Happiness by Monique Gray Smith
Picture Book & Juvenile
Me and My Fear by Francesca Sanna
The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh by Supriya Kelkar
B is for Breathe: The ABCs of Coping with Fussy and Frustrating Feelings by Dr. Melissa Munro Boyd
The Princess and the Fog: A Story for Children with Depression by Lloyd Jones
Teen
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram