Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a great must read book for young adults read by Jason Reynolds in his own awesome style! Adults will want to read this book that examines race from the beginning and reimagines Dr. Ibram X Kendi’s book Stamped. Dr Kendi also introduces this book before Jason Reynolds begins to read and Kendi is arresting and powerful in his heavily researched anti-racism, racism, abolitionists and assimilationist. Both authors offer hope through their histories.

View all my reviews

Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein

Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Book Group and Disney-Hyperion for the ARC, Black Dove, White Raven by Elizabeth Wein. Once again, Elizabeth Wein has crafted masterful historical fiction you can’t put down. Teo and Emilia’s lives are unconventional; they are raised together as brother and sister; but they are not. Really nothing in their life is normal. Their mothers are women stunt pilots; one white, one black with an enduring friendship and devotion to family. When Teo’s mom, Delia (Black Dove) dies in a freak stunt accident; Em’s mom, Rhoda (White Raven) raises Em and Teo as her children. But in the 1930’s being black and raised by a white woman is fraught with all kinds of problems. Rhoda flees to Ethiopia, where Delia dreamt of an equal future for her son where racism did not exist. As they fall in love with their new life in Ethiopia; history, war, and slavery threaten to disillusion this family of pilots and dreamers. Wein has thoroughly researched this engaging tale told from Em and Teo’s point of view through letters, school assignments, flight logs, and fantastical adventures. Beautiful, gripping, and tense, you will root for Rhoda and her brood, as war threatens to decimate their tranquility.

View all my reviews