2018 Social Justice and Advocacy

 

2018 SOCIAL JUSTICE ADVOCACY AWARD RECIPIENT 

Ross, Richard. Juvie Talk. 271p. MacArthur Foundation. 2017. PB $24.95.  9780985510626.  Adult for Teen.  Life is a play and we are all the characters. The children who have had their lives affected by the juvenile justice system are also “playing parts that have been written for them by society” (R. Ross). Juvie Talk takes the voices of those youth and allows them to tell their stories. But this book goes further–allowing students and teachers to create plays on the book’s website. Unique, creative and inspirational.

 

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2018 Social Justice Advocacy List

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  means Advocacy Award

Amir, Tyson.  Black Boy Poems:  An Account of Black Survival in America. Freedom Soul Music Press.  279p.  October 2017.  $15.00 PB.  ISBN 9780997798517.  Adults.  Tyson Amir uses his poetry as a platform to call out to those who face oppression and are marginalized, to take ownership of the means that leads to their freedom. Very much in the tone of Huey P. Newton, The Last Poets, and the late great Amiri Baraka, Tyson’s is a voice of liberation.

 

 

 

Behnke, Alison.  Racial Profiling: Everyday Inequality. 160p. Twenty-First Century Books. April 2017. Library $35.97. 9781512402681. Ages 14 and Up.  Everyday, people across the country are are stopped, harassed, detained and sometimes killed for the simple reason of being brown or black.  This book places real life stories next to the facts to make clear that this is happening at an alarming rate and must be stopped.  Useful for all those looking to stand against injustice.

 

 

 

Lowery, Wesley. “They Can’t Kill Us All”: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement.  Little, Brown and Company. 256p. Nov 2016. HC $27.00. 9780316312479. Adult for Older Teens. Lowery offers a historical view of police aggression and civil unrest which brought about today’s current struggle against social injustice in the black community.  In this journalistic account are the stories of the author’s experiences as a reporter.

 

 

 

 

Robinson, Darrin. V.O.I.D: Victory Over Incarceration and Distractions. 114p. CreateSpace. August 2016. PB $14.99. 9781537050331. Ages 12 and Up.  Through the hardships of childhood and the loss of his mother, Darrin Robinson made it through.  Although some decisions were not the wisest, he learned from his mistakes and uses this book to share his message to the youth of today as a guidepost of what not to do in order to aim high in life and succeed.

 

 

 

• Ross, Richard. Juvie Talk. 271p. MacArthur Foundation. 2017. PB $24.95.  9780985510626.  Adult for Teen.  Life is a play and we are all the characters. The children who have had their lives affected by the juvenile justice system are also “playing parts that have been written for them by society” (R. Ross). Juvie Talk takes the voices of those youth and allows them to tell their stories. But this book goes further–allowing students and teachers to create plays on the book’s website. Unique, creative and inspirational.

 

 

 

Sidney II, Ronnie (author) and Traci van Wagoner (illustrator). Rest in Peace RaShawn Reloaded (Book 4). 38p. Creative Medicine: Healing Through Words. November 2017. PB $12.99.  9789780990022. Ages 12 to 16. The intention of this graphic installation is to inspire confidence and social awareness in American youth. For black youth, this particularly supplies some of the much needed skills on how to navigate through obstacles they face when confronted by police.  Book number 4, is an update of the front cover from the original Rest in Peace RaShawn (March 2017), along with additional research in the area of guns, gang influence, police confrontation, and social justice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Germain, Jim. A Stone of Hope: A Memoir. 304p. HarperCollins. July 2017. HC $27.99, (PB release:  May 2018.  $15.99). 9780062458797.  Ages 16 and Up.  As a first-generation Haitian-American, Jim grew up in Brooklyn running drugs and losing friends in the process. His story is reminiscent of the lives of many similar kids who ended up in juvenile detention facilities.  When he was sentenced to the Boys’ Town rehab program in Brooklyn, his perspective was so altered that he devoted the rest of his young life to changing how juvenile detention programs operate and now sits on a national board for juvenile incarceration programming.  Mr. St. Germain has also been recognized by President Obama for his efforts.

 

 

 

Styslinger, Mary E., Gavigan, Karen, and Albright, Kendra (Eds.). Literacy Behind Bars: Successful Reading and Writing Strategies for Use with Incarcerated Youth and Adults. 93p. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. January 2017. PB $45.00. 9781442269255.  Professional.  This is a practitioner’s resource for those who work with the literacy curriculum programs with both youth and adults who are incarcerated.  The publication includes literacy practice plans, ideas for book clubs, writing workshops, and directives on establishing school libraries in juvenile detention facilities.

 

 

 

 

Wade, Malik. Pressure. 282p. Pressure Publishing. May 2017. PB $16.95. 9780998616704.  Adult for Older Teens.  Malik was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list by the time most people were learning to handle their liquor.  Slinging coke and running drugs got him what he wanted, until he found himself facing 14 years before his 30th birthday.  Not one to be stopped, Malik wanted more: a better life for himself and people who faced the same struggles he faced.  This is his story of getting out, reassessing his lifestyle and ultimately making a difference to others facing similar situations, and making a difference.

 

 

Wurth, Erika T. Buckskin Cocaine. 118p. Astrophil Press. June 2017. PB $15.95. 9780982225271.  Adult for Older Teens.  With each vignette filled with power-punching assaults from a different protagonist, this present-day novella allows readers a peek into the seedy world of the Native American underground film industry.  The poor choices made by the First Nation young adults featured in the stories are understandable when taken into account the flashbacks of their dysfunctional childhood and teen years filled with non-parenting, abuse, and poverty.  ITM sees this title as advocacy for the desperate conditions our Indigenous youth find themselves in, when all they seek is to survive.