Life is full of both joy and sorrow, opportunity and challenge, dark and light. Sometimes it’s all so good we feel we might burst! Other times, trying to hold it all is so difficult it can be hard to remain hopeful.
At times when everything feels like it’s falling apart - the climate, racism, the pandemic, book banning, political divides we need to believe that goodness is real. We need to know that more is possible. We need to renew our awareness of all that is good in and around us, all the possibilities that already exist.
Where can we find renewal? How do we keep hope alive? In what can we place our faith that everything is going to be OK?
“Once a reporter asked A.J. Muste, "Do you really think you are going to change the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night in front of the White House with a candle?"
Muste replied softly: "Oh I don't do this to change the country. I do this so the country won't change me.”
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Your mileage may vary. The answers are different for different individuals, and different communities. But faith may be more of an action than a thing upon which we can place hope. Maybe its practice can bring about renewal. Maybe it’s more about remembering what we love, who we want to be, and how we want the world to be, than about trust that things will work out.
Renewal comes in many forms, and varies from person to person. For some, it’s laughing and joining in a group that makes us feel joyful and alive. For others, its moments of stillness, meditation, or long walks in fresh air. It might be watching movies, exercising, knitting, or reading, or maybe even reading or sharing some of the books on this list. It might come from commitment or rededication to promises, it might come from sunsets. This month, we share books about finding Renewal in places available to us all:
Ourselves - the practice of trusting our gifts
Promises - the practice of making and honoring agreements
Each Other - the practice of joining together
Simple Things - the practice of noticing the richness we already, and always, possess
The books in the curated list below, all written by or about people with identities and/or from communities that are under-published and under-represented in literature, each draw upon these themes. These, and hundreds more, are available for loan to our library patrons. Click “Borrow A Book” to learn how to bring these and other books home. If you’re not local to our lending program, please refer to these suggestions when looking for books. May this list help you and yours to find renewal.
*Monthly themes adapted from the work of Soul Matters Sharing Circle https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com
Finding Renewal in Ourselves - the practice of trusting our gifts
Board Books
I Can Do it Too! - Karen Baicker, author; Ken Wilson-Max, illustrator
Hands Can - Cheryl Willis Hudson, author; John-Fracis Bourke, photographer
Picture Books
Uniquely Wired:A Story About Autism and its Gifts - Julia Cook, author; Anita DuFalla, illustrator
Rae’s First Day written by Danny Jordan and illustrated by Agustina Perciante
Red: A Crayon’s Story, written and illustrated by Michael Hall
Magnificent Homespun Brown: A Celebration - written by Samara Cole Doyon, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita
The Girl and the Wolf written by Katherena Vermette, pictures by Julie Flett
Aaron Slater, Illustrator (The Questioneers) written by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts
Juvenile
The Boy Who Grew Flowers - Jen Wojtowicz, author; Steve Adams, illustrator
My Story, My Dance: Robert Battle’s Journey to Alvin Ailey written by Lesa Cline-Ransome, with a foreword by Robert Battle
Middle Grades
The Real Boy - Anne Ursu, author; Erin McGuire illustrator
Adult
Special Topics in Being a Human: A Queer and Tender Guide to Things I’ve Learned the Hard Way about Caring for People, Including Myself, written by S. Bear Bergman with illustrations by Saul Freedman-Lawson
Finding Renewal in Promises and Commitments - the practice of making and honoring agreements
Board Books
Nibi is Water by Joanne Robertson
Picture Books
I Have the Right to be a Child written by Alain Serres, illustrated by Aurelia Fronty, translated by Helen Mixter
The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist - Cynthia Levinson, author; Vanessa Brantley-Newton
Vote for Our Future! - Margaret McNamara, author; Micah Player, illustrator
All the Way to the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything - Annette Bay Pimentel, author; Nabi Ali, illustrator.
V is for Voting - written by Kate Farrell; illustrations by Caitlin Kuhwald
Juvenile
The Promise written by Nicola Davies, with illustrations from Laura Carlin
The Book Rescuer: How a Mensch from Massachusetts Saved Yiddish Literature for Generations to Come; writing by Sue Macy, artwork by Stacy Innerst
Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
Juvenile & Middle Grades
What’s the Big Deal About Elections; writing by Ruby Shamir, illustrations by Matt Faulkner
Middle Grades
Every Human Has Rights: A Photographic Declaration for Kids by National Geographic with foreword written by Mary Robinson
This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy
Teen
Adult
Basic Facts about the United Nations, edited by the United Nations Publications
Road Map for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism, and Advocacy for All; Elisa Camahort Page, author.
Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books - Aaron Lansky
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption - Bryan Stevenson
Raising the Race: Black Career Women Redefine Marriage, Motherhood, and Community (Families in Focus) - Riché J. Daniel Barnes
Finding Renewal in Each Other - the practice of joining together
Board Books
Together - author, Mona Damluji; illustrator, Innosanto Nagara
Daddy, Papa, and Me written by Leslea Newman, illustrated by Carol Thompson
Mommy, Mama, and Me written by Leslea Newman, illustrated by Carol Thompson
The More We Are Together by Children’s Press
PIcture Books
Love is Powerful written by Heather Dean Brewer, with illustrations by LeUyen Pham
47,000 Beads, written by Koja Adeyoha and Angel Adeyoha
Because written by Mo Willems, illustrated by Amber Ren
My Family Plays Music - Judy Cox, author; Elbrite Brown, illustrator
Sometimes People March by Tessa Allen
Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins written by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue Lagarrigue
Si, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can! Janitor Strike in L.A. by Diana Cohn
Juvenile
IntersectionAllies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson
Middle Grades
Take Back the Block by Chrystal D. Giles
The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust by Karen Gray Ruelle
Middle Grades & Teen
A Dream of Freedom: the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1968 by Diane McWhorter
Together We March: 25 Protest Movements that Marched into History by Leah Henderson, illustrated by Tyler Feder
Teen
March, Book One; March, Book Two; March, Book Three - John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, authors; Nate Powell, illustrator
Adult
The Interfaith Family Journal - Suan Katz Miller
Finding Renewal in Simple Things - the practice of noticing the richness we already, and always, possess
Board Book
My Heart Fills with Happiness by Monique Gray Smith
Hands Can - Cheryl Willis Hudson, author; John-Fracis Bourke, photographer
Little You - Richard Van Camp and Julie Flett
Picture Book
Layla’s Happiness by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, with illustrations by Ashleigh Corrin
Lily Brown’s Paintings, written by Angela Johnson, with illustrations by E. B. Lewis
All We Need written by Kathy Wolff, illustrated by Margaux Meganick
Here and Now by Julia Denos
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
You Matter by Christian Robinson
Juvenile
Love Your Body, Jessica Sanders
Children Just Like Me: A Unique Celebration of Children Around the World - Anabel Kindersley with Unicef
Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco
Middle Grades
Lucky Broken Girl - Ruth Behar, writer
Middle Grades & Teen
Hope in the Holler - Lisa Lewis Tyre, author
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate - Jaqueline Kelly, author
The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate - Jaqueline Kelly, author
Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World, Rachel Ignotofsky author