A Selection of Recent Diversity and Social Justice Titles from Marymount’s Upper, Middle, and Lower School Libraries
Upper School
Create Dangerously: the Immigrant Artist at Work by Edwidge Danticat. Haitian American writer Edwidge Danticat describes how her exile from her native country influenced her work and explores how other artists have been influenced by horrors that drove them from their homelands.
The Enough Moment by John Prendergast. Discusses the activities of engaged citizens, famous or otherwise, to fight rape, genocide, and the occurrence of child soldiers in Africa, with advice on how readers can participate in the movement by forming alliances, communicating with Congress, utilizing social media networks, and more.
The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Anthony Appiah. Investigates the role honor plays in social reform, discussing moral revolutions from throughout history and arguing that the mobilization of a sense of collective honor may be useful in bringing honor killings to an end.
Inseparable: Desire between Women in Literature by Emma Donoghue. Explores the literary theme of desire between women, examining writings by such authors as William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Bowen, and Agatha Christie, considering whether such desire is represented as good or evil, and delving into the various basic girl-girl plots and how they have changed–or not–over the centuries.
Out with It: Gay and Straight Teens Write about Homosexuality. A collection of essays in which teenagers examine issues related to homosexuality, such as coming out, homophobia, and relationships with family and friends.
The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time by Judith Shulevitz.
Examines the notion of the Sabbath and its value in modern society, covering its history within the Jewish and Christian traditions as well as within the poetry of William Wordsworth, the science of neuropsychology, and other areas of study while pondering the influence of a fast-paced life that can leave little time for reflection.
The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights by Irene Khan. Argues that poverty is not just an economic issue but a violation of global human rights, and that continually defining it as an economic issue prevents governments and individuals from taking the necessary measures to end poverty and protect the basic rights of all humans.
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. Chronicles the decades-long migration of African-Americans who fled the South for northern and western cities between 1915 and 1970, discussing how they altered the cities of America and the African-American community.
Middle School
90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis. Julian’s parents, hoping to protect him from the dangers of the turmoil in Cuba, send him to the United States in 1961 as part of Operation Pedro Pan, not realizing that life in a Miami refugee camp holds its own perils.
Trouble Don’t Last by Shelley Pearsall. Samuel, an eleven-year-old Kentucky slave, and Harrison, the elderly slave who helped raise him, attempt to escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad.
Keeper by Kathi Appelt. Ten-year-old Keeper heads to a sandbar in a small boat along with her dog BD and a seagull named Captain in order to find her mother, a mermaid who left her when Keeper was only three.
The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan. A fictionalized biography of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who grew up a painfully shy child, ridiculed by his overbearing father, but who became one of the most widely-read poets in the world.
Lower School
Some Kids Are Blind, Some Kids Are Deaf, Some Kids Have Autism, Some Kids Use Wheelchairs, Some Kids Wear Leg Braces by Lola M. Schaefer. Series of books that sensitively describe various disabilities and how children can live full lives despite them.
Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill. Chronicles the life of Dave, a nineteenth-century slave who went on to become an influential poet, artist, and potter.
Black Elk’s Vision: a Lakota Story by S.D. Nelson. Recounts how a childhood vision shaped the life of Black Elk, a Lakota-Oglala medicine man who was involved in the battles of Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee.
Joha Makes a Wish: a Middle Eastern Tale by Eric A. Kimmel. An original story, based on the Joha tales of the Arabic-speaking world, in which a hapless man finds a wishing stick that brings him nothing but bad luck. Includes an author’s note about the history of Joha tales.