Staff Picks

Which inventor would you choose for a classroom presentation? Thomas Edison? Madam C.J. Walker? Steve Jobs? Silas chooses the 1970's baseball player, Glenn Burke. Maybe you never heard of him, but he was important--not just for inventing the high five, but also for inspiring Silas to truly be himself.

 

Publisher's description:

When sixth grader Silas Wade does a school presentation on former Major Leaguer Glenn Burke, it’s more than just a report about the irrepressible inventor of the high five. Burke was a gay baseball player in the 1970s—and for Silas, the presentation is his own first baby step toward revealing a truth about himself he's tired of hiding. Soon he tells his best friend, Zoey, but the longer he keeps his secret from his baseball teammates, the more he suspects they know something’s up—especially when he stages one big cover-up with terrible consequences. This is a powerful story about the challenge of being true to yourself, especially when not everyone feels you belong on the field.

 

A picture book broken into short chapters, The King's Equal is about an arrogant prince who can only become king once he finds a bride that he considers his equal. Seeing nothing short of perfection in himself, he rejects many of his potential princesses outright, before encountering the beautiful and mysterious Rosamund. As a peasant in disguise, Rosamund challenges the king's perception of perfection and equality when she flips the king's task on its head, and tricks him into living as a peasant for a year in order to prove he is equal to her. Beautifully illustrated with a message that resonates in contemporary culture, this fairy tale is an unjustly overlooked classic.

 

Publisher description;

Prince Raphael is as rich and as handsome as a prince should be. He is also arrogant, greedy, and selfish. Knowing Raphael to be an unfit ruler, the dying king decrees that his son shall not wear his crown until he marries a woman who equals him in appearance, intelligence, and wealth. Then a magic wolf brings Rosamund, the daughter of a poor farmer, to the castle. The prince and his advisors - amazed by Rosamund's cleverness and beauty - joyfully pronounce her the king's equal. But the story is not as simple as that. For not only must Rosamund be Raphael's equal - Raphael must be hers.

 

This book explores the history of the United States through the eyes of hundreds of indigenous communities who existed on the land long before there was an America. This re-telling of US history explores the disease, war, trade, resistance, peace, and endless struggle for resources which proved so crucial to the formation of America. I left this book feeling like I finally picked up the missing piece of our collective history puzzle, shattering any narrative I might have still had left over from history class in school.

 

Publisher description: 

Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US empire.

With growing support for movements such as the campaign to abolish Columbus Day and replace it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day and the Dakota Access Pipeline protest led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is an essential resource providing historical threads that are crucial for understanding the present. In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.”
 
Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.

 

This genre-bending, razor-sharp satire imagines an alternate universe in which an unexplained "mass anthropomorphizing event" in the mid-1960s results in a new species: rabbits of human size, intelligence, and awareness. Five decades later, with the United Kingdom still largely hostile to the rabbit community, one small English village is turned upside down by the arrival of their first-ever rabbit residents. Told through the eyes of a human villager who has long tried to stay "neutral" in rabbit matters, the story raises questions about systemic oppression, complicity, and redemption. Fans of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series will enjoy seeing him revisit some of his favorite themes with passion, eloquence, and humor to spare as he effortlessly immerses readers in this absurdly familiar (familiarly absurd?) world.

 

Publisher's description: England, 2022. There are 1.2 million human-size rabbits living in the UK. They can walk, talk, drive cars, and they like to read Voltaire, the result of an Inexplicable Anthropomorphizing Event fifty-five years before. A family of rabbits is about to move into Much Hemlock, a cozy little village in Middle England where life revolves around summer fetes, jam making, gossipy corner stores, and the oh-so-important Best Kept Village awards. No sooner have the rabbits arrived than the villagers decide they must depart, citing their propensity to burrow and breed, and their shameless levels of veganism. But Mrs Constance Rabbit is made of sterner stuff, and her and her family decide they are to stay.

Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy stems from The Mortal Instruments series, but it is a separate book entity. The book follows Simon Lewis, a former human and vampire, who has lost his memories. He is now training to become a warrior called a Shadowhunter at a school made for that exact purpose. It deals with the ideas of loneliness and confusion that multiple characters go through. The book is split into short stories, so I found it to cover more plot lines and keep my attention. 

- Gianna, 11th grade teen volunteer

Publisher's description:

Simon Lewis has been a human and a vampire, and now he is becoming a Shadowhunter. The events of City of Heavenly Fire left him stripped of his memories, and Simon isn’t sure who he is anymore. So when the Shadowhunter Academy reopens, Simon throws himself into this new world of demon-hunting, determined to find himself again. Whomever this new Simon might be. But the Academy is a Shadowhunter institution, which means it has some problems. Like the fact that non-Shadowhunter students have to live in the basement. At least Simon’s trained in weaponry—even if it’s only from hours of playing D&D.

This beautiful classic is a lovely read aloud to share over the holidays. My favorite edition is illustrated by Edward Ardizzone. You can also find the original recording read by the author online.

 

Publisher description:

A reminiscence of Christmas, from the viewpoint of a young boy, that has been a holiday favorite for decades. In rich, humorous, magical prose, poet Dylan Thomas recalls the church-going, the tree-trimming, the food, the carols and games of his childhood Christmases. And, of course, Mrs. Prothero and the firemen. It is one of Thomas' most popular works.

Find A Child's Christmas in Wales in our online catalog

A lovely, easy romance read. I love books that are set in London, and this one is in Notting Hill. I really felt like Jess would be a great friend to have.

 

Publisher description: 

Two people. One house. A year that changes everything. Twenty-nine-year-old Jess is following her dream and moving to London. It's December, and she's taking a room in a crumbling, but grand, Notting Hill house-share with four virtual strangers. On her first night, Jess meets Alex, the guy sharing her floor, at a Christmas dinner hosted by her landlord. They don't kiss, but as far as Jess is concerned the connection is clear. She starts planning how they will knock down the wall between them to spend more time together. But when Jess returns from a two-week Christmas holiday, she finds Alex has started dating someone else--beautiful Emma, who lives on the floor above them. Now Jess faces a year of bumping into (hell, sharing a bathroom with) the man of her dreams...and the woman of his.

 

This book is a wonderful introduction to the origins of the Pride flag and marches, as well as a touching biography of Harvey Milk. Great for kids and adults of all ages!

 

Publisher's description: The very first picture book about the remarkable and inspiring story of the Gay Pride Flag! In this deeply moving and empowering true story, young readers will trace the life of the Gay Pride Flag, from its beginnings in 1978 with social activist Harvey Milk and designer Gilbert Baker to its spanning of the globe and its role in today's world. Award-winning author Rob Sanders's stirring text, and acclaimed illustrator Steven Salerno's evocative images, combine to tell this remarkable - and undertold - story. A story of love, hope, equality, and pride.

 

I always feel so calm reading Zen Shorts. The stories that the panda, Stillwater, tells have crept into my mind and built homes there.

 

Publisher description: 
Michael, said Karl. There's a really big bear in the backyard. This is how three children meet Stillwater, a giant panda who moves into the neighborhood and tells amazing tales. To Addie he tells a story about the value of material goods. To Michael he pushes the boundaries of good and bad. And to Karl he demonstrates what it means to hold on to frustration. With graceful art and simple stories that are filled with love and enlightenment, Jon Muth -- and Stillwater the bear -- present three ancient Zen tales that are sure to strike a chord in everyone they touch.

 

 

If you are as hopelessly obsessed with chocolate as I am, then this book is the only one you'll ever need to satisfy your chocolate curious mind. Every possible detail you could imagine is in here, from this history of chocolate making, the ingredients that go into chocolate, and the process of turning your love into a business. With some tantalizing recipes at the end, this book is a cover to cover delight that will make you salivate with yearning.

 

Publisher's description: A guide from the chocolate maker Dandelion Chocolate offers their approach to making chocolate with only cocoa beans and sugar and covers everything from bean-sourcing tips through their chocolate-making method, along with recipes from their kitchen.