Some of My Best Friends by Tajja Isen (grades 10+)

In this debut series of essays, Tajja Isen tackles topics from colour-blind casting in the animation industry to the literary industry's pursuit of diversity to the false illusion of progress that social media justice results in when it comes to addressing racism. At times both darkly comic, sharply observant, and necessarily tragic, Some of My Best Friends combines Isen's lived experiences as a voice actor and a person of colour with critiques about what society says, values, and does and the obliviousness and hypocrisy behind those messages and actions.

Tajja Isen is a Gemini Award winning Canadian voice actor whose credits range from The Berenstain Bears, Time Warp Trio, and the titular character in Atomic Betty. As a younger actress, she was nominated for a Young Artist Award for her work in The Berenstain Bears and won for her role in Jane and the Dragon. She is currently the editor-in-chief of Catapult magazine.

Maizon at Blue Hill by Jacqueline Woodson (grades 4-6)

In the second of a triology, Maizon, a scholarship student, is one of five black students at an exlcusive school in Connecticut. Overcoming feeling like an outcast, Maizon decides to friend no one as she really does not fit in with either side. Through the sensitivity of some students, and loneliness overriding her decison to find a place where she can feel like she belongs, this story embarks on her journey.
Jacqueline Woodson is an American writer of books for adults, children and adolsecent audiences. Her National Book Award Winning memoir Brown Girl Dreaming and her Newbery Honor winning titles After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. Her picture books The Day You Begin and The Year We Learned to Fly were NY Times Bestsellers. After serving as the Young People's Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature by the Library of Congress for 2018-2019. She was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2020. In the same year, she was named a McArthur Fellow.

The ABCs of Black History Month by Rio Cortez (grades 1-3)

Rio Cortez is a New York Times bestselling author for her picture book The ABCs of Black History and The River Is My Sea. this August, Golden Ax, her debut poetry collection, is going to be from Penguin Poets.Cortezz was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah however she now lives, writes, and works in Harlem. She works in sales and marketing at Harper Collins, where her goal is to amplify the voices and opportunities for BIPOC writers in the day.She also works at the Schomburg Cneter for Research in Black Culture. She attended Sarah Lawurence for her undergrad and then NYU where she reiveed her MFA in poetry. She's been living with her fammily in her husband's hometown of Harlem, New York.

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad (grades 10+)

Starting as a social media challenge for her followers to examine the inherent biases and prejudices that they held as white people, Me and White Supremacy became a 28-day workbook of writing and reflection exercises for readers to tackle. Divided into three parts, the book covers "The Basics" before tackling "Anti-Blackness, Racial Stereotypes, and Cultural Appropriation", before concluding with a section on "Allyship".

Me and White Supremacy has been downloaded over 100,000 times since its inception. Layla F. Saad has a Bachelor of Laws from Lancaster University and is the current host of the Good Ancestor podcast.

A Creed of Faith by Mychal Wynn (grades 7-9)

Mychal Wynn is a CEO, father, and author. He promotes equity and access in communities. He grew up poor and was out up for adoption early into his life. In this poem, he writes about the impermanence of life and the challenges, changes, and adversity that you will experience.

The Last Slave by Marilyn Nelson (grades 4-6)

Born to a military family in Cleveland, Ohio, Marilyn Nelson started her career as a poet in her elementary school. Her father was one of the last to graduate from Tuskegee Airmen, primarily African American military pilots and airmen who fought in World War II. Marilyn is an author and translator for over 20 books for children and grownups. She was a Poet Laureate of Connecticut (2001-2006). Nelson’s work is described as “examining complex issues around race, feminism, and the ongoing trauma of slavery in American life in narratives poised between song and speech.” Her book The Homeplace (1990) depicts her family’s history dating back to the sale of Nelson’s great-great-grandmother into slavery.

Don't Touch My Hair! by Sharee Miller (grades 1-3)

Aria loves her hair. It's soft and bouncy, and grows up toward the sun like a flower.

But what will Aria do when curious hands can't resist touching her curls?

Sharee Miller lives and works in Jersey City with her husband and their two cats, Pumpkin and Spice. Her illustrations combine bright colors, patterns, and expressive characters to tell the stories she wishes she had as a kid.

White Privilege by Kyla J. Lacey (grdes 10+)

(Warning: Poem contains mature language)

In her powerful and poignant slam poem, White Privilege, Kyla Jenee Lacey explores both the obvert and subtle privileges that white people experience on a day-to-day basis that BIPOC do not. Through repetition, alliteration, and rhetorical questions for the audience, Lacey demonstrates the inherent contradications and logical fallacies that lead to white people being able to navigate society with ease, but disenfranchise and strip Black people of agency or power. There are few better examples of poems that lay out in plain terms the types of prejudices that Black people have to experience day-to-day that white people would never have to conceive of experiencing.

Kyla Jenee Lacey is an accomplished slam poet whose work has been viewed more than 50 million times on the Internet. She has spoken at over 300 post secondary institutions in over 40 states and has written for publications like Huffington Post, BET.com, and Root magazine.

Memories of my Youth by Douglas Gary Freeman (grades 7-9)

Douglas Gary Freeman is the Mississauga-based author of Blue Cage at Midnight inspired by his life as a Black man in the United States during the civil rights movement. Freeman grew up in an inner city neighborhood in Washington, D.C., became an activist in turbulent Chicago, and shot a white police officer in self-defense when he was 19. He fled to Canada in 1969, got married, had four children, and worked as a research librarian in Toronto. Blue Cage at Midnight drew together decades of his poems as he hung in limbo, arrested in 2004 and awaiting extradition to the U.S.—the start of 11 terrible years of legal wrangling. Freeman’s poems, are “spiky, tough, explosive.”

Africville by Shauntry Grant (grade 4-6)

Shauntay Grant is an author, poet, multimedia artist, and a playwright. Her work is influenced by her storytelling roots in the historic Black communities of Nova Scotia - which is evident in her book, Africville. Africville is a poetric and dreamy picture book about a child longing for the culture and celebration of Africville. Filled with back matter, we learn that Africville is an important place to the Black Nova Scotian community, but was torn apart and destroyed by the Halifax city officials in the 1960s. Now, residents return to the area to hold the Africville festival and keep its roots alive.

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander, Kadir Nelson (Ilt) (grades 1-3)

Originally performed for ESPN's The Undefeated, this poem is a love letter to black life in the United States. It highlights the unspeakable trauma of slavery, the faith and fire of the civil rights movement, and the grit, passion, and perseverance of some of the world's greatest heroes. The text is also peppered with references to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and others, offering deeper insights into the accomplishments of the past, while bringing stark attention to the endurance and spirit of those surviving and thriving in the present. Robust back matter at the end provides valuable historical context and additional detail for those wishing to learn more.

Burning the Old Year by Naomi Shihab Nye (grades 10+)

"Burning the Old Year" describes the annual scene of the speaker setting fire to the remnants of her past year and the conflation of the items with the air around her. It touches upon the impermanence of every year, how most of it is combustable and how once burned, one must start anew with little to nothing. The speaker lastly reflects on how the only thing the fire lacks are "the things [she] didn't do".

Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri and is the Poetry Foundation's Young People's Poet Laureate. Earning her BA from Trinity University in San Antonio, Nye has received countless awards and honors for her work including the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement, several Pushcart Prizes and many more. Her work draws from her experience of the many cultures she is a part of and she tends to focus on the minute qualities of life as well as the perspectives of everyday ordinary people.

Instructions on Not Giving Up by Ada Limon (Grades 7-9)

Ada Limón is the USA’s 24th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2022-2023. “Ada Limón is a poet who connects,” Congressional Librarian Hayden said. “Her accessible, engaging poems ground us in where we are and who we share our world with. They speak of intimate truths, of the beauty and heartbreak that is living, in ways that help us move forward.” Ada Limón was born in Sonoma, California, in 1976 and is of Mexican ancestry. She is the author of six poetry collections, including “The Carrying” (Milkweed Editions, 2018), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry; “Bright Dead Things” (2015), a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Books Critics Circle Award; “Sharks in the Rivers” (2010); “Lucky Wreck” (Autumn House, 2006); and “This Big Fake World” (Pearl Editions, 2006). She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University and is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and the Kentucky Foundation for Women.

Poem for Selling Silliness by Fan Chengda (Grades 4-6)

Fan Chengda was one of the best known poets of the Song Dynasty in addition to serving as a government official, and an academic authority in geography. He often wrote employed a narrative and prose style approach to writing about one's travel experiences, which was popular in China during the Song Dynasty. He, along with Yang Wanli, Lu You, and You Mao, are considered to be the "four masters" of Southern Song dynasty poetry.
This poem details the ancient Lunar New Year practice of "selling silliness", which brings wishes, both for a long life and increased intelligence.

January's Sparrow by Patricia Polacco (Grades 1-3)

In the middle of the night, The Crosswhites - including young Sadie - must flee the Kentucky plantation they work on. Dear January has been beaten and killed by the plantation master, and they fear who may be next. But Sadie must leave behind her most valuable possession, the wooden sparrow carved for her by January. Through the Underground Railroad, the Crosswhites make the slow and arduous journey to Marshall, Michigan, where they finally live in freedom. And there they stay, happily, until the day a mysterious package shows up on their doorsteps. It is January’s sparrow, with a note that reads, “I found you.” How the Crosswhites, and the whole town of Marshall, face this threat will leave readers empowered and enthralled. This is a Polacco adventure that will live in the minds of children for years.

December 24, 1971 by Joseph Brodsky (grades 10+)

Iosif Alexandrovich Brodsky was forced to move out of his native country. He later altered his name to fit the western interpretation to Joseph Brodsky. Joseph was born in the middle of WWII to Jewish parents in the Soviet Union. His keen intellect, ironic wit, fiery spirit and thirst for knowledge didn’t align with the ideologies and politics of Soviet Russia and for these reasons he was practically exiled from his home land. Persecuted for his pursuit of artistic and individual voice he was tried and even sent to a labour camp by the government. Described in his own words “They have simply kicked me out of my country, using the Jewish issue as an excuse.” Having moved to Michigan in 1972 Brodsky subsequently taught, pursued his career in writing and was even a recipient of a Nobel Prise for his work.

On My Way to Liberation (For Pa Howie) by H.Melt (grades 7-9)

Writing out of Chicago, H. Melt is a poet, editor and writer, whose books The Plural, The Blurring and On My Way to Liberation focuses on trans and non-binary experience in America. Their work spans multiple disciplines, and has the stated purpose of working "to help keep trans people alive." "On My Way to Liberation" considers the authors family history in relation to their own experience of seeing freedom.

The Last Cuentisia by Donna Barbra Higuera (grades 4-6)

In this fascinating science fiction novel, Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children have been selected to journey to a new planet. Twelve-year-old Petra and her family are among those chosen to help humanity begin again on their new home in the stars. During the centuries-long voyage, they are cryogenically frozen to preserve their bodies, but when they at last wake up, Petra discovers she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether. Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she keep humanity's history alive?

In The Last Cuentista, author Donna Barba Higuera weaves outer space adventure and Mexican folklore together into a thrilling and thought-provoking adventure.

Writing prompt: Imagine you were leaving earth behind and traveling to a new planet. You can only take one object from home with you. Describe the object you would bring and why you would choose it.

The Mole and the Sparrow by Kim Schreuder Horn (grades 1-3)

The Mole and New Beginnings is a children's rhyme storybook about being open minded and go on with postivie attitudes to help embrace our fears of change and be grateful of the things that we do have. Author Kim Schreuder Horn says that all of her books hold an important underlying message that will help young children navigate the paths of life and how they chose to live it as the type of person they truly are. Her ideas werefiled from her office, which she had forgetten about. One day as she was doing some office clearning of documents, she came across her writings to rediscover the character of the mole, and the joy for her children's creative writing again.
She works the full time job of being a mother to two teenage girls, a wife, and the Principal Attorney of the law firm she established 20 years ago.

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu (grades 10+)

Ken Liu’s short story, The Paper Menagerie deals with the alienation that many first and second generation immigrants feel– both from and towards their host and home culture. This piece explores the relationship between a mother and her son Jack, both who deal with expectations from their society and family differently. To his mom, Jack’s existence is proof that her culture is capable of bringing her joy, and not just the racism that she continually experiences in this foreign land. To Jack, his mom and Chinese heritage are nothing but stumps from an uprooted tree.

Ken Liu is a multiple Hugo Award-winning author in science fiction and fantasy. An innovative writer and pioneer of the “silkpunk” genre with his Dandelion Dynasty series, Ken Liu is a mainstay of modern-day fiction for young adults.