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The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person by Frederick Joseph

Hi, I am Sarah. I am fifteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.

The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person is for the white people who want to do better in a legacy of white supremacy and systemic racism. Frederick Joseph offers himself as the “Black Friend,” as a person who uses their experience of racial oppression to educate the un-oppressed. This is a position that no one should be forced into. This book and it’s insight is a gift to white people with a hope that they will do better, be better, and help dismantle the system of racial oppression, while being certain not to further its harm. 

 With simple, vulnerable, and often humorous writing, Frederick Joseph brings the reader through a multi-step course of white conduct, with chapters covering how mainstream culture is mainly white culture, or how color blindness is really just refusing to see someone for all they are. But it isn’t a textbook with plain and boring text. It is a request for humanity, for empathy, in order to create a better world for everyone in it.

I, a white person, benefited immensely from this book, and I think that every white person should read it too. In many cases, the root problem is a lack of education. In this book, Frederick Joseph offers people both that education and the opportunity to be better, an opportunity all should take. 

Find it in print here.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Hi, I am Sarah. I am fourteen years old and an avid reader; it is one of my favorite things to do. Inspired by authors’ creations of magnificent places and surprising havens built by simple letters, I aspire to be an author and, meanwhile, nurture the love to write.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is an ecologist, trained in the ways of science. Through her botany, she looks at plants through an objective lense, and her vocabulary is full of eutrophication and chloroplasts. But she’s also a poet, and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. There she has learned that the natural world is our oldest teacher; that it nurtures us like a mother; that its treasures are given in love and it only asks for gratitude and love in return.

Science does not teach this. To have a wider, worldly consciousness, one must embrace such indigenous wisdom. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer unites her two lenses of knowledge and shows the harmonious relationship humans can have with the land, drawing extensively from her knowledge of botany and Native American and Western Cultures. 

From lessons in vegetable gardens to the creation story of Skywoman, Kimmerer guides the reader in a healing and restorative journey. As a teacher, she knows how to phrase something so that one will learn. As a poet, her prose is gorgeous, thoughtful, and introspective. As a mother, as an indigenous person, she knows how to appreciate the gifts of the world and give her own gifts in return. Braiding Sweetgrass is a nonfiction for anyone who wants to nurture a healthier relationship with the world they live in. This gorgeous, well-written book will teach the reader how to to not only listen to the world, but learn from it, and protect it for the years to come. 

Find it in print, ebook, eaudiobook and CD here.

The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

My name is Judah and I am in the 6th grade. I enjoy playing soccer and baseball. In the winter, I enjoy Nordic and alpine skiing. When it comes to reading,  adventure books are my favorite.

The Two Towers is the second book in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy written by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is an exciting and entertaining book that includes hobbits, dwarfs, elves, men and much more. The Two Towers takes place in a mythical land called Middle Earth. Frodo, Sam, Marry and Pippin are the hobbits. Aragorn is a man. Legolas is an Elf. Gimli is a Dwarf and Gandalf is the wizard. Together, they form the fellowship of the ring. Their mission is to destroy the evil dark lord Sauron and his ring that gives him his power. If Sauron gets the ring, he can use it to rule Middle Earth.

Frodo and Sam split up from the fellowship to go to Mordor alone on a secret mission without being detected by Sauron and his evil eye. Frodo and Sam’s quest is to return the ring to its place of origin which is the middle of Mordor to the deep scorching lava cracks in Mount Doom, as this is the only place the ring can be destroyed.

Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and Gandalf set off on their own mission. Their mission is to restore Aragorn as the king of Gondor, a region of Middle Earth, of which he is the rightful hidden heir to the throne.

This is my favorite book because it is packed with action and detailed descriptions.  The author uses very descriptive words that depict places and characters in such a vivid way that the reader feels like they are a part of the story. I recommend this book for ages ten and up as it is a fun, exiting and enjoyable book.

Find it in the library catolog here.

The Words We Keep by Erin Stewart

My name is Jasmine. I am 11 years old and live in Ketchum, Idaho. I love ski racing, snow/winter, and many other fun things.

The words we keep inside of us are the words we don’t say to cover up our true feelings. All those words get bottled up inside of us until we just can’t stand it anymore. They start to become these monsters inside our heads that tell us we are not good enough. Lily Larkin, a high school girl, struggles with these monsters every day. Everyone sees Lily as a perfect straight A student, amazing athlete, and friend. But inside she’s falling apart bit by bit. After Lily finds her sister Alice in the bathroom hurting herself, the monsters start to get worse. Lily ignores them and focuses on being the perfect girl she’s supposed to be. However, a few months later Alice comes home from her treatment program, and it’s getting harder for Lily to ignore the monsters. Peculiarly, when she meets Micah, a boy who went to the same treatment center as Alice. Micah is determined to get Lily to not only understand Alice but herself too.

Lily isn’t so sure about this because she has secrets too. However, it’s going to be hard to keep her secrets when Lily and Micah are placed as partners in a huge poetry/art project that involves finding poetry in unexpected places. The words that Lily holds back desperately want to come through and maybe they’re the answer to writing the best poetry. Yet if she shares them, what will Micah and the world think of her then?

This book has magical poetry that reaches so deep, romance, action, love, healing, grief, family, and most importantly acceptance. I would recommend this book to anyone else, for it gives a huge look into mental illness, even if you’re not suffering through it yourself it’s interesting to see how other people might feel during their experience.

Find it in print and eaudiobook here.

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

My name is Jasmine. I am 11 years old and live in Ketchum, Idaho. I love ski racing, snow/winter, and many other fun things.

The Thing About Jellyfish follows a middle school aged girl named Suzy Swanson, heartbroken, but healing. Suzy Swanson is a girl who’s quirky and different, not afraid to speak what’s on her mind. That is until she finds out that her former best friend, Franny, drowned during a vacation to Maryland. Suzy is heartbroken and can’t get over the fact she’s dead. While grieving Suzy falls in a state where she refuses to talk, shutting herself out from conversation. Suzy just can’t believe Franny drowned, for she was such a great swimmer. However, as she enters 7th grade, she starts to form a theory about how a very rare jellyfish, the Irukandji, stung Franny causing her to die. The more she investigates this, the more convinced she is that she’s right. Suzy becomes obsessed with proving her theory, stopping at nothing to do it.

Suzy copes with the heartbreak of Franny dying along with the memory of poor choices and unfortunate decisions. She wishes she could fix things between her and Franny. But it’s too late, and now she has lost a friendship. Is there nothing left but regrets? Somehow by proving Franny didn’t drown, maybe she could make up for how bad of a friend she was to her in 6th grade. As Suzy’s theory gets realistic, she formulates a bold plan to travel across the globe.

Moving and heartfelt, you’ll find yourself wanting to read more of this book. Even though the book is magical, I would not recommend it to readers who prefer a long and action-packed story.

Find it in print, CD, and eaudiobook here.

Space Case by Stuart Gibbs

I am Thijs. I enjoy reading (maybe a little too much) and being outdoors. I have a younger brother and my favorite dessert is root beer floats.

Space Case is a fantastic choice if you want a great book with twists and turns. This book is about a kid named Dashiell who is one of the first people to live on the moon. The base is a boring place to be with nothing to do. The only reason he is even up there is that his parents are scientists which makes them the perfect residents. Originally, they said “no,” they would not go to the moon but then NASA said it would be a blast and they would be famous but only the famous part was true. So, they went up to stay on the moon for three years. Six months in the base physician Dr. Ronald Holtz walks out of the main airlock without permission and with his space suit on incorrectly and dies. Was Dr. Holtz just losing his mind or could it be possible if there was a murder and if so who would have done it? And why would they have done it? I really thought this was an over-the-top five-star book it will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole way through. So now it’s your turn to explore the mysterious Space Case with Dashiell. Read the book and find out actually what happens in this suspenseful story!

Find it in print and ebook here.