Bookology Magazine

Community in Action

This book list began with Book by Book: An Anno­tat­ed Guide to Young Peo­ple’s Lit­er­a­ture with Peace­mak­ing and Con­flict Res­o­lu­tion Themes, pre­pared by Car­ol Spiegel and pub­lished by Edu­ca­tors for Social Respon­si­bil­i­ty (Cam­bridge, MA) in 2010. That infor­ma­tion is shared with the author’s and pub­lish­er’s per­mis­sion. We have added more recent­ly pub­lished books. You will find clas­sics and new­er books among the recommendations.

Click on a book cov­er to order the book through Bookshop.org.

The Canning Season

The Can­ning Sea­son
Pol­ly Hor­vath
Far­rar, Straus & Giroux, 2003

One night out of the blue, Ratch­et Clark’s ill-natured moth­er tells her that Ratch­et will be leav­ing their Pen­saco­la apart­ment momen­tar­i­ly to take the train up north. There she will spend the sum­mer with her aged rel­a­tives Pen­pen and Tilly, insep­a­ra­ble twins who couldn’t look more dif­fer­ent from each oth­er. Stay­ing at their seclud­ed house, Ratch­et is treat­ed to a pas­sel of strange fam­i­ly his­to­ry and local lore, along with heaps of gen­eros­i­ty and care that she has nev­er expe­ri­enced before. Also, Pen­pen has recent­ly espoused a new phi­los­o­phy — what­ev­er shows up on your doorstep you have to let in. Through thick wilder­ness, down for­got­ten, bear-rid­den roads, come a vari­ety of char­ac­ters, drawn to Pen­pen and Tilly’s open door. It is with vast reser­va­tions that the cau­tious Tilly allows these unwel­come guests in. But it turns out that unwel­come guests may bring the great­est gifts.

The Color of My Words

The Col­or of My Words
Lynn Joseph
Harper­Collins, 2000

Ana Rosa is a blos­som­ing young writer grow­ing up in a poor sea­side vil­lage in the Domini­can Repub­lic. At twelve, she finds her­self faced with turn­ing points that will make up who she is — watch­ing her broth­er’s search for a future, learn­ing to dance and to love, and find­ing out what it means to be a part of a community.

But in a coun­try where words are feared, Ana Rosa must strug­gle to find her own voice and the means for it to be heard. Grad­u­al­ly she learns that her words have the pow­er to trans­form the world around her — cel­e­brat­ing what is most beau­ti­ful on her island and tran­scend­ing even the most unthink­able of tragedies. The Col­or of My Words explores the pain and the poet­ry behind what it means to be part of a fam­i­ly, what it takes to find your place in the world-and what it feels like to write it all down.

Elijah of Buxton

Eli­jah of Bux­ton
Christo­pher Paul Cur­tis
Scholas­tic Press, 2007

Eleven-year-old Eli­jah lives in Bux­ton, Cana­da, a set­tle­ment of run­away slaves near the Amer­i­can bor­der. Eli­jah’s the first child in town to be born free, and he ought to be famous just for that — not to men­tion for being the best at chunk­ing rocks and catch­ing fish. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, all that most peo­ple see is a “fra-gile” boy who’s scared of snakes and tends to talk too much. But every­thing changes when a for­mer slave steals mon­ey from Eli­jah’s friend, who has been sav­ing to buy his fam­i­ly out of cap­tiv­i­ty in the South. Now it’s up to Eli­jah to track down the thief — and his dan­ger­ous jour­ney just might make a hero out of him, if only he can find the courage to get back home.

Follow the Moon Home

Fol­low the Moon Home:
A Tale of One Idea, Twen­ty Kids,
and a Hun­dred Sea Tur­tles
Deb­o­rah Hop­kin­son and Philippe Cousteau
illus­trat­ed by Mei­lo So
Chron­i­cle Books, 2016

Activist Philippe Cousteau and author Deb­o­rah Hop­kin­son team up to offer a sto­ry of the pow­er­ful dif­fer­ence young peo­ple can make in the world. Meet Viv, who has a new home and a new school by the sea and fol­low her as she finds her way in a new place and helps bring togeth­er a whole com­mu­ni­ty to save the sea tur­tles of the South Car­oli­na coast.

Hana's Suitcase

Hana’s Suit­case:
The Quest to Solve a Holo­caust Mys­tery
Karen Levine
Crown Books for Young Read­ers, 2006

In March 2000, Fumiko Ish­io­ka, the cura­tor of a small Holo­caust edu­ca­tion cen­ter in Tokyo, received an emp­ty suit­case from the muse­um at Auschwitz. On the out­side, in white paint, were the words “Hana Brady, May 16, 1931, Orphan.” Fumiko and the chil­dren at the cen­ter were deter­mined to find out who Hana was and what hap­pened to her all those years ago, lead­ing them to a star­tling and emo­tion­al dis­cov­ery.

The dual nar­ra­tive inter­twines Fumiko’s inter­na­tion­al jour­ney to find the truth about Hana Brady’s fate with Hana’s own com­pelling sto­ry of her life in a qui­et Czech town, which is shat­tered by the arrival of the Nazis, tear­ing apart the fam­i­ly she loves. This sus­pense-filled work of inves­tiga­tive non­fic­tion draws in young read­ers and makes them active par­tic­i­pants in the search for Hana’s identity.

Karthik Delivers

Karthik Deliv­ers
Sheela Chari
Har­ry N. Abrams, 2022

Karthik Ragha­van is good at remem­ber­ing things. Like his bike routes. Or all the rea­sons he likes Juhi Shah — even if she doesn’t even know he exists. It does­n’t help that she seems to have a crush on his arch neme­sis, Jacob Don­nell, whose only job is to humil­i­ate Karthik (and get his name wrong). Then Karthik’s luck changes when he secret­ly agrees to be in a play about the famous musi­cian, Leonard Bern­stein. But he can’t tell his par­ents. The fam­i­ly store is in jeop­ardy, and they need him deliv­er­ing gro­ceries on his bike to help save it. His mom is also wor­ried about the Finan­cial Cri­sis, and she’s con­vinced that study­ing hard and stay­ing focused is the only way to suc­ceed. But Karthik is hav­ing fun being Lenny. Besides, what if act­ing is Karthik’s spe­cial tal­ent? And what if act­ing is the one way to catch Juhi Shah’s atten­tion? With all the pres­sure from his fam­i­ly to suc­ceed, will Karthik be able to real­ly imag­ine and hope when he’s not sure what will hap­pen next?

Let the Circle Be Unbroken

Let the Cir­cle Be Unbro­ken
Mil­dred D. Tay­lor
Dial Books, 1981

It is a fright­en­ing and tur­bu­lent time for the Logan fam­i­ly. First, their friend T.J. must go on tri­al for mur­der — and con­front an all-white jury. Then, Cousin Suzel­la tries to pass for white, with humil­i­at­ing con­se­quences. And when Cassie’s neigh­bor, Mrs. Lee Annie, stands up for her right to vote, she and her fam­i­ly are dri­ven from their home. Oth­er neigh­bors are destroyed and shat­tered by the greed of landown­ers. But through it all, Cassie and the Logans stand togeth­er and stand proud — prov­ing that courage, love, and under­stand­ing can defy even the deep­est prejudice.

The Liberation of Gabriel King

The Lib­er­a­tion of Gabriel King
K.L. Going
G.P. Put­nam’s Sons, 2005

Gabriel King is afraid of every­thing: spi­ders, the rope swing over the lake, and most of all, going to fifth grade. Fri­ta Wil­son, his best friend, decides Gabriel needs some lib­er­at­ing from his fears, so they make a list and plan to tack­le each one. But one of the rea­sons Fri­ta is so deter­mined to help Gabe is that she needs his help too. Hol­low­ell, Geor­gia in 1976 isn’t exact­ly the most inte­grat­ed place, and Frita’s the only black stu­dent in school in a town with an active Ku Klux Klan.

The Lucky Ones

The Lucky Ones
Lin­da Williams Jack­son
Can­dlewick Press, 2022

It’s 1967, and eleven-year-old Ellis Earl Brown has big dreams. He’s going to grow up to be a teacher or a lawyer — or maybe both — and live in a big brick house in town. There’ll always be enough food in the ice­box, and his mama won’t have to run her­self ragged look­ing for work as a maid in order to sup­port Ellis Earl and his eight sib­lings and niece, Vera. So Ellis Earl applies him­self at school, soak­ing up the lessons that Mr. Fos­ter teach­es his class — par­tic­u­lar­ly those about famous col­ored peo­ple like Mr. Thur­good Mar­shall and Miss Mar­i­an Wright — and bor­row­ing books from his teacher’s book­shelf. When Mr. Fos­ter presents him with a copy of Char­lie and the Choco­late Fac­to­ry, Ellis Earl is amazed to encounter a fam­i­ly that’s even worse off than his own — and is delight­ed by the Buck­ets’ very hap­py end­ing. But when Mama tells Ellis Earl that he might need to quit school to help sup­port the fam­i­ly, he won­ders if hap­py end­ings are only pos­si­ble in sto­ry­books. Around the his­tor­i­cal touch­stone of Robert Kennedy’s south­ern “pover­ty tour,” Lin­da Williams Jack­son pulls from her own child­hood in the Mis­sis­sip­pi Delta to tell a detail-rich and poignant sto­ry with mem­o­rable char­ac­ters, sure to res­onate with read­ers who have ever felt con­strict­ed by their circumstances.

Lucy Rose Working Myself to Pieces & Bits

Lucy Rose:
Work­ing Myself to Pieces and Bits
Katy Kel­ly
Dela­corte Books, 2007

I’m Lucy Rose and here’s the thing about friends: I am lucky in them. And here’s the thing about that: some­times they are in need, indeed, espe­cial­ly when one of them buys a plumb­ing store and needs to diva it up so it can turn into a bak­ery. That is one job that takes work and costs plen­ty, and even 72 or more McBees could­n’t get that job done by them­selves. But between all the stuff you have to do in fourth and my bin­go-call­ing and keep­ing track of my gigan­tic vocab­u­lary and try­ing to keep away from the word thief Ash­ley and try­ing to stop the worst rumor you ever heard and dream­ing up a mon­ey-mak­ing scheme that does­n’t cost us mon­ey and plus hav­ing to build that bak­ery, I am work­ing myself to pieces and bits. I would say most peo­ple would be so beat tired they’d col­lapse on the spot, but here’s what I say to that: I am one busy bee who loves my friends.

Simon Sort of Says

Simon Sort of Says
Erin Bow
Dis­ney Hype­r­i­on, 2023

Simon O’Keeffe’s biggest claim to fame should be the time his dad acci­den­tal­ly gave a squir­rel a holy sacra­ment. Or maybe the alpaca dis­as­ter that went viral on YouTube. But the sto­ry the whole world wants to tell about Simon is the one he’d do any­thing to for­get: the one star­ring Simon as a famous sur­vivor of gun vio­lence at school.

Two years after the infa­mous event, twelve-year-old Simon and his fam­i­ly move to the Nation­al Qui­et Zone — the only place in Amer­i­ca where the inter­net is banned. Instead of talk­ing about Simon, the astronomers who flock to the area are busy lis­ten­ing for signs of life in space. And when Simon makes a friend who’s deter­mined to give the sci­en­tists what they’re look­ing for, he’ll final­ly have the chance to spin a new sto­ry for the world to tell.

stella by Starlight

Stel­la by Starlight
Sharon M. Drap­er
Atheneum, 2015

Stel­la lives in the seg­re­gat­ed South — in Bum­ble­bee, North Car­oli­na, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can’t. Some folks are right pleas­ant. Oth­ers are a lot less so. To Stel­la, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn’t both­ered them for years. But one late night, lat­er than she should ever be up, much less wan­der­ing around out­side, Stel­la and her lit­tle broth­er see some­thing they’re nev­er sup­posed to see, some­thing that is the first flick­er of change to come, unwel­come change by any stretch of the imag­i­na­tion. As Stella’s com­mu­ni­ty — her world — is upend­ed, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ash­es don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly sig­ni­fy an end.

Sweetness All Around

The Sweet­ness All Around
Suzanne Sup­plee
Hol­i­day House, 2023

Almost-eleven-year-old Josephine is NOT pleased to be mov­ing into the Hap­py World trail­er park over the sum­mer of 1974. She miss­es her beau­ti­ful bed­room with bal­leri­nas on the wall and her pret­ty, well-dressed friends. Hap­py World isn’t hap­py. It’s dingy and depress­ing! Noth­ing like the world that head­strong Josephine wants for herself.

But when Josephine learns that her would-be next door neigh­bor in Hap­py World was kid­napped months ago, she devel­ops a begrudg­ing inter­est in her new home. A kid­nap­ping is excit­ing — and all signs point to Josephine being meant to find ten-year-old Molly.

Despite her efforts to stay detached, Josephine inves­ti­gates Molly’s dis­ap­pear­ance with help from the eccen­tric cast of char­ac­ters liv­ing in Hap­py World. It turns out the rough edges of her com­mu­ni­ty are soft­er and sweet­er than they first seemed. And the unex­pect­ed friend­ships she forms might be more pre­cious than any­thing she’s ever owned.

With Courage and Cloth

With Courage and Cloth:
Win­ning the Fight for a Wom­an’s Right to Vote
Ann Bausum
Nation­al Geo­graph­ic Kids, 2004

High­ly read­able, non­fic­tion book with pri­ma­ry sources about the women who fought to be allowed to vote under the 14th amend­ment. So many facts are well-researched and shared about the Suf­frag­ists who marched and planned and were arrest­ed and strode for­ward to secure the vote for women. It took 72 years. This is his­to­ry every per­son should know.

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