Fresh Reads, Honest reviews, Educator-approved
In her lyrically written memoir, Thicker than Water, award-winning actor and activist Kerry Washington shares an intimate journey of self-discovery, identity, and resilience. Confronting family secrets, childhood trauma, and anxiety with profound honesty, this moving book acts as an empowering resource for older teens navigating who they truly are.
Clean Getaway is a phenomenal, middle-grade road-trip mystery that loops together past and present American race relations. Following eleven-year-old Scoob and his eccentric G’ma through the segregation history of the American South, this layered novel balances historical realities with contemporary suspense.
Finding Me is a raw, autobiography that offers a brutally honest look at growing up Black in America. While tracking her journey from an impoverished childhood to the world stage, the book’s non-chronological formatting and jarring structural organization make it a challenging read.
A masterpiece that reimagines antebellum slavery with striking grace. Following an enslaved girl’s heart-wrenching march from the Carolinas to Louisiana, this novel beautifully interweaves historical brutality with magical realism and allusions to Dante’s Inferno.
Don P. Hooper’s gripping YA debut, True True, is a powerful, addition to high school libraries. Following a Black Brooklyn teen navigating a hostile Manhattan prep school using Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, this fast-paced contemporary novel masterfully tackles institutional racism and performative diversity. It is an enticing, thought-provoking read that will keep students hooked while sparking vital conversations about equity, identity, and resilience.