Fresh Reads, Honest reviews, Educator-approved
Eric Gansworth shatters and reclaims a painful slur in Apple (Skin to the Core), a heartbreaking memoir-in-verse. Chronologically tracking his youth on the Tuscarora Nation Reservation, Gansworth confronts the dark history of government boarding schools alongside the struggles of poverty and identity.
Hilarity, heart, and historical charm collide in Not Your All-American Girl which delivers a lighthearted yet deeply relevant look at racism, microaggressions, and identity in the 1980s. Centering on a half-Jewish, half-Chinese sixth grader navigating theater typecasting and friendship which promotes inclusivity, cultural pride, and self-advocacy.
On a spring morning in 1986, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work–Chernobyl–has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who’ve always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina’s estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna.