Teaching for Black Lives grows directly out of the movement for Black lives. We recognize that anti-Black racism constructs Black people, and Blackness generally, as not counting as human life. Throughout this book, we provide resources and demonstrate how teachers connect curriculum to young people's lives and root their concerns and daily experiences in what is taught and how classrooms are set up. We also highlight the hope and beauty of student activism and collective action. ​

The indispensable resource for social justice elementary educators in six parts:
Part 1: Building Classroom Community
Part 2: Reading and Writing Toward a More Just World
Part 3: Minding Media
Part 4: Math is More than Numbers
 Part 5: Laboratory for Justice: Science Across the Curriculum
 Part 6: The Classroom, The School, The World

Tessa"s Picks. Social Justice, People of Color, Global Perspectives, History

When Allie's crayon breaks, she is furious, fuming, frustrated, and so, so, sooo, angry! But with a little help from her brother, she is slowly able to calm down until she's his loving sister again.

This is a short book, but it is full of SEL wisdom. I like how well the boy deals with his sister's tantrum and also that it takes multiple techniques to calm her down. Each tool makes her a little bit calmer, which the book shows visually by having her shed a layer of her suit. The tools vary from squeezing a toy to a mindful breathing exercise. This is a great book for children--especially those with toddler siblings!

Erica's Picks
Allie All Along by Sarah Lynne Reul

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This picture book tells the story of a young student in Bangladesh who has to make a project for his science fair. He notices that his mother has a cough from cooking indoors during the rainy season, and he analyzes the needs of his user and does some research to come up with a solution. A great tie-in for units on inventors. The book takes place during Ramadan and they use his new oven to make a feast for Eid al-Fitr, so there could be a tie in there as well. 

The book has a large format and the warm colored pencil illustrations make it perfect for sharing in a classroom setting. Additional backmatter includes more information about clean cookstoves and information on how to make one yourself.

Erica's Picks
Iqbal and his Ingenious Idea by Elizabeth Suneby and Rebecca Green

Tags: global perspectives, people of color, picture books

​(This is a book for mature readers as it addresses issues of homophobia, child abuse, hate crimes, Islamophobia and sexual abuse).
Rukhsana loves the laws of physics and plans to become an engineer.  In a few months she will be attending Caltech on a scholarship. With her girlfriend Ariana. Only her parents who are conservative Muslims living in the Bengali community of Seattle would probably disown her if they found out about her relationship.  When she and Ariana are caught kissing by her mother, events spiral into a terrifying path.
Falsely told that her grandmother in Bangladesh is gravely ill, Rukhsana and parents catch the next plane.  The truth is soon apparent that they are there to force her into an arranged marriage. Her parents are convinced that their lives would be over if the truth about her sexuality came out. 
Rukhsana learns some secrets of her own mother’s past when her grandmother gifts her the diary of her early life, marriage and motherhood. Gathering strength from her grandmother who encourages her to fight for her freedom of choice, she also gains sympathy for her mother's dark childhood. Cousins and other family members are allies and memorable characters adding to the cultural experience of a large Bengali family
One of the proposed marriage partners turns out to be gay and the two form a friendship and eventually a plan to help them both escape back to the states. Rukhsana must find the courage to fight for her love and her freedom and hopefully keep the culture and family she loves.

Tessa's picks, 8th summer 2019, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Family life, Global perspectives, Issues fiction, People of color.

I loved this book!  Not only is it about FASHION, it has heart and soul and tough hardships to overcome. And it is laugh-out-loud hilarious!  Charlie Dean has had to overcome a deceased mother, a recovering (sometimes) addict father, and dirt-common beginnings and boy, has she. Like her inspirations Diana Vreeland and Wallis Simpson, she has achieved near perfection. (If you don’t know who they are, look them up.) Her room is a fashion design studio complete with sewing machines, dress forms and refurbished elegance and she has the talent to match it.
 In answer to her dreams the exclusive Green Pastures Academy of Art and Applied Designs Emerging Talent is offering a scholarship to be awarded to a student who shows talent in fashion design in a competitive runway event.
In alternate chapters we meet John Thomas-Smith, bitter, sarcastic and a talented artist in medal who will do anything to get into Green Pastures including recasting himself as a fashion designer. All the characters are quirky, memorable and have their own back story which allows you to feel empathy for their flaws.
And the drama…models assaulted, dresses destroyed, friendships in danger, kidnapping (sort of), addiction, passion!
There is lots of diversity in representation of race, ability, and sexual orientation; this book has it all
Even if you HATE fashion, read this book!  It is so much fun.

​Tessa's Picks, 8th summer 2019, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Humor, LGBTQ, People of color

​This is a sweet summer story with depth and heart. Cat who is about to enter 6th grade, has always felt a strong sense of responsibility and love for her younger brother, Chicken, who is on the autism spectrum. Her mom illustrates children’s books and they are all grieving for the loss of her father.  Mom needs to work without distractions so the children are going to meet their grandparents for the first time and stay with them on their island home off the coast of North Carolina.  Over the summer Cat learns to love her grandparents and comes to understand the reason why her mom has kept them apart.  Her faith in her grandparents allows her to loosen up and let them help with her brother so that she can have time to be a kid herself.
There are a few moments where Cat and Chicken being bi-racial come up and are important in establishing their identity.  I found myself putting in markers to save the words of wisdom that I would come upon; “Being a parent is a kind of promise. A promise to stand by someone even if you think they’re making a mistake. To love who you get, not who you think you’re going to get.”
Along with all this growing, Cat makes some great friends, enters a fishing contest and learns that even someone you thought was an enemy has a mix of good with his bad.
A beautiful story about family and forgiveness with a wonderful cast of characters.

​Tessa's Picks, 5th summer 2019, Character driven, Friendship, Family, People of color

Nadia has immigrated to Canada from World War II Germany with a Ukranian man and woman who she calls mother and father although they are not. This kind and loving couple have rescued her from a situation and past that she does not remember. She is haunted by flashbacks and dreams that make her question her past and wonder if she might have been a Nazi.  Blond and blue-eyed Nadia is confused about her parentage.   She remembers being part of a German family and attending rallies. Her new “parents” assure her that she is not a Nazi but what is she and what is her place in the world? 
This story brings to light the Lebensborn Program in which the Nazis took children who fit their ideal of “Aryan” perfection from their parents and gave them to German families.  Hundreds of thousands of children were torn from their families in this horrifying “experiment to increase the “Aryan” German population.
The reader feels Nadia’s anguish as she finds her place in the new world.

Tessa's Picks,5th summer 2019, Historical fiction.

If you read one book this year, have it be this one.  The year is 2002, one year after 9/11, a politically turbulent time for a sixteen-year old Hijabi Muslim.  Shirin’s immigrant parents have moved the family each year to find better job opportunities and better school districts. This makes it even harder to walk the halls of a new school surrounded by rampant Islamophobia and xenophobia.  Slurs and stereotyping and even violence have built a guarded shell around Shirin that she can never let down. Invisibility is her goal and loneliness her companion. 
One day her brother introduces her to his break dancing crew and she finds herself belonging somewhere.  Then she meets Ocean. Not since Augustus in A Fault in Our Stars, have I encountered a young male character whose innocence, kindness, integrity and tenderness break your heart.  He is the perfect complement to Shirin’s toughness.  But I had never, ever touched someone and felt like this: like I was holding electricity inside of me. Their romance is so sweet and yet you fear that Shirin may be right that the cruelty of students, teachers and families will destroy it.
Shirin is an amazing narrator, fierce and angry as well as funny and loving.  Her family and their Persian culture is heartwarmingly portrayed.  I laughed and cried over this book.
I just want to include the following written by a young reader from Good Reads:
“Everything about this book fitted right into the hollows of my heart. When I first heard that this is the story of a fellow teen Muslim, my hope came so sharp that I didn’t dare speak it. My joy, now, is inarticulate—I could never quite explain the blaze of connection, the feeling of being seen and set apart that planted seeds of gratitude that would come to flower.”

​Tessa's Picks, 8th Summer 2019, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Issues fiction, People of color, Romance

​Shayla and her friends call themselves the United Nations because Shay is black, Isabella is Puerto Rican and Julia is Japanese American. But is seems like the start of 7th grade is shaking up the peace. There is some girl drama and some boy drama and Shay doesn’t know what to think about who is a friend and who isn’t.  Shay hates trouble so much it makes her hands itch but sometimes what you believe in can get you into trouble.
When an unarmed black man is shot by police in her neighborhood she realizes that some rules are worth breaking. Her older sister Hana is involved in Black Lives Matter and Shay starts wearing an armband to school in support.  As the movement at school grows, the principal announces that armbands are against the dress code. She must face a very real problem.
Crushes, identity, friendship and racism infuse this book about being brave enough to stand up for what you believe.

​Tessa's Picks,7th summer 2019, 8th summer 2019, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Issues fiction, People of color.

The backdrop for this novel is the 2015 Syrian crisis and the November 13th Paris nightclub attack that lead to a manhunt in Brussels, followed by the bombing of the Brussels airport. Thirteen-year old Max and his family have moved from America so his father can be a defense consultant to NATO. They now live in an upscale neighborhood in Brussels and while sister Claire attends The American School, Max is enrolled in a Belgian school where classes are taught in a language he barely understands.  He is bullied and feels stupid in class.
Fourteen-year old Syrian refugee Ahmed has lost his entire family in the Syrian War and during their escape to Europe.  He finds himself stranded in Brussels after having lost his last family member, his father, and his money and cell phone to an unscrupulous smuggler. He takes refuge behind an unlocked door to the unused wine cellar in Max’s townhouse.
The boys meet and bond and so begins the dangerous story of hiding Ahmed from the authorities and finding a place for him to thrive.
They make some friends and together learn about a historical parallel that took place in the same residential block seventy-three years earlier. During WW II someone hid an orphan Jewish refugee from the holocaust.  He was turned in by neighbors who were Nazi collaborators.  The boys are determined that this will not happen to Ahmed but as the police search for terrorists the danger escalates. 
 
"A resistance novel for our time." - The New York Times
"A hopeful story about recovery, empathy, and the bravery of young people." - Booklist 
"This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace." - Kirkus, Starred Review

Tessa's Picks, 5-8th grade, Character Driven, Fast paced, Global perspectives, Historical Fiction.
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