While working as a nurse and as a librarian, Nella Larsen also managed signifcantly to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s with two novels: Quicksand and Passing. The latter is still often taught in classrooms today, for its heartrending treatment of a character compelled to hide their race and heritage to avoid the perils of early 20th century American racism, and the difficulties with questions of identity and belonging that arise as a result.
Patricia Wrede’s Dealing with Dragons was my Spring Awakening, let me correct myself - my Summer awakening. At the time I was reading her book, in the Summer of Grade 9, I was in Canada for three years. My Summer goal that year was to read more books. My classmates were probably reading A Wrinkle in Time, The Book Theif or maybe Hunger Games. None of those books were yet accessible to me. (I did end up reading them a bit later though, never too late to pick up a book) Patricia Wredes instantly transported me to a hilarious world of a proud princess and clever dragons. I worked my way through the words tirelessly and stubbornly trying to decipher the story behind the words. It took me until the end of the book, without looking the word up, to figure out what “knod” meant. I fell in love with the story.
Learning about Particia for our writing entry has been equally illuminating. She describes herself as an avid reader from the first, talking about her three sisters and a brother she says. “I grew up surrounded by books (pretty much literally–we had bookshelves on nearly every flat wall in the house, and there were books in the back of the linen cupboard, books in the bathroom storage shelves behind the cleaning supplies and towels, and books in all the closets.)” Her love for reading turned into casual writing, serious writing, creation of an “Interstate Writers’ Workshop, aka the Scribblies” and a prolific career as an author. She is still following her passion, writing and publishing her enchanting adventures to this day.
Eleven-year-old Avery Lee loves living in Hickory Valley, Maryland. She loves her neighborhood, school, and the end-of-summer fair she always goes to with her two best friends. But she's tired of feeling squished by her six siblings! They're noisy and chaotic and the younger kids love her a little too much. All Avery wants is her own room -- her own space to be alone and make art. So she's furious when Theo, her grumpy older brother, gets his own room instead, and her wild baby brother, Max, moves into the room she already shares with her clinging sister Pearl! Avery hatches a plan to finally get her own room, all while trying to get Max to sleep at night, navigating changes in her friendships, and working on an art entry for the fair. And when Avery finds out that her family might move across the country, things get even more complicated.
Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter have once again teamed up to tell a funny, heartfelt, and charming story of family, friendship, and growing up.
In this immersive first-person account, Innu author Melissa Mollen Dupuis teams up with award-winning author and illustrator Elise Gravel to take readers on a journey through Innu culture, from creation legends to life today.
The Innu word Nutshimit signifies the physical and social space to practice traditional activities and language. Join author Melissa Mollen Dupuis on a guided walk deep through the forest to learn some of the rich culture of the Innu people.
Readers will discover the importance of natural world and learn a few Innu words along the way. Thoughtfully brought to life by Elise Gravel’s signature comic style illustrations, Melissa’s colloquial narrative and anecdotes detailing her lived experiences offer a deeply personal look at Innu life.
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.
At least, he's not a beast all the time.
As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin-and his world-forever.
From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.
Ruby Red is a time-travel, humour-filled and mystery-driven trilogy from a German author Kerstin Gier. Her heroine Gwyneth Shepherd, a 16-year-old student, unexpectedly finds herself in the lineage of time travelers. She has to navigate the rules of her new life and uncover the secrets about her family members lost in history. Gwen is funny, approachable, smart and honest. Her adventures teach her the most important lessons of life. She learns that to be strong can look different in different scenarios. She learns that honesty and truth will always make a way for her through a tough situation. Gwen is a definition of feminine heroine for me, the likes of Éowyn was a shieldmaiden of Rohan. It is only fitting that for a Women’s History Month we could take a plunge back into the fictional past to uncover secrets of life with Gwen.
One of the most influential artists of the 20th Century, Frida Kahlo is famous for painting images of Mexican culture and the female experience in bold self portraits and vibrant colours. In this charming retelling of Kahlo's life, Monica Brown recounts the stories of the artist's animal companions – two monkeys, a parrot, three dogs, two turkeys, an eagle, a black cat, and a fawn. Brown playfully considers how Kahlo expressed the fun and quirky qualities of each of her pets.
Monica Brown, PhD, is an award winning Peruvian-American author. She is best known for her books Waiting for the Biblioburro, Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match, and the Lola Levine chapter book series. Frida and Her Animalitos was the winner of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book of the Year 2017, Barnes & Noble Best Book 2017, and the Smithsonian Top Ten Best Children’s Books 2017.
During the WWII Germans were terrified of the Slavic women in the Soviet airforce. Why? Because the all-female military aviators of the 588th Night Bomber Regiment were fearless--they would take their planes high into the sky where no one would hear them, turn off their engines and maneuver silently above the enemy lines, dropping silent bombs and waging war in the middle of the night.They earned the unflattering name Night Witches.
Laura Mucha is a favourite poet of mine. She started not as a writer but as a lawyer and has been helping people navigate the war like times of their lives. She is passionate about justice and children. Her poetry always makes me smile even if I am crying while reading it. Night Flight might not have anything to do with WWII and planes but it reminds me of the fearlessness we need when we take a chance on something that scares us. It reminds me to continue exploring and to dive in, sometimes under the cover of night.
Writer Joshua Whitehead carries many selfs--Canadian, Oji-Cree, two-spirit, poet--all of which weaves together in intricate language experiments that are his poems. Most known for his poetry collection Full-Metal Indigiqueer and novel Jonny Appleseed, Whitehead explores intersectionality through the manipulation, subversion, and annhilation of English lanuage conventions, as seen in a poem from the former collection, "Full Metal Oji-Cree."
Selina Boan is a Nehiyaw (Cree)-white settler living on the traditional and unceded terrories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-waututh), and sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) peoples. Boan has been a standout in Canadian poetry every since she was shortlisted for the 2016 and 2020 CBC Poetry Prize. She published a series of poems titled "Undoing Hours" in 2021 which went on to win the Pat Lowther Memorial Award for the best book of poetry by a Canadian woman. "Undoing Hours" cover topics such as lose, love, grief and belonging while condisdering how we "undo, inherit, reclaim and (re)learn." Her Poem from “All You Can Do is the Best You Can Do" is about hope in the face of anger, shame, pain and fear.
Richard Calmit Adams, a member of the Delaware Tribe, is recognized for his central role in legally representing his tribe as a spokesperson in Washington D.C., conducting legal battles alongside the Cherokee against the Dawes Commission which sought to convince tribes to cede their lands. His literary accomplishments include Tecumseh’s Father and A Delaware Indian Legend and the Story of Their Troubles. His poem The Clans describes how tribes are known for the animals which have significantly assisted them in the past, whether it be taking care of the children or providing for the warriors.
“Passive Voice” by Laura Da’ uses the grammatical idea of the passive voice to discuss the suffering of an Indigenous village, where the inhabitants are acted upon by violence or conflict. The author, Da’, is both a poet and a teacher, winning awards like the 2016 American Book Award and producing the Tecumseh Motel chapbook and the collection Instruments of True Measure. In her own words, Da’ walks “a parallel path through life as a citizen of many nations,” drawing inspiration from her background as a member of the Eastern Shawnee of Oklahoma, the Seneca, and the Miami.
An internationally acclaimed spoken word poet, Kateri Akiwonzie-Damm hails from the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation, Saugeen Ojibway Nation, in Ontario. Kateri's poem sturgeon encompasses the idea of being weary of what one consumes. The bond between wildlife and humanity is ever so present when one takes even the slightest glimpse of a sturgeon's journey from the rainy river to the kitchen table. Kateri masterfully describes the heartbreaking process behind having such a fish on one's plate and reasons why she herself does not eat sturgeon.
Nola Gregory is a descendant of the Gija/Bardi peoples of the East and West Kimberly and has been writing poetry since 1995. Her passion for poetry writing is what keeps her going. Nola writes poems that she hopes reach deep down inside the person reading them.
"Fatty Legs" follows the powerful story of residential schools. The story follows the experience of Pokiak-Fenton, an eight year old girl who goes to residential school. She begged her parents to go, as it was her dream to learn how to read. However, when she arrives to residential school, it is not what she imagined. This book talks about the terrible and traumatic treatment that she received at the school, specfically from one nun. Pokiak-Fenton describes the experience of having her hair cut, being held in a locked, dark basement, and the humiliation and embarassment of wearing red socks as a punishment for her actions. This story teachers us about the devastating and traumatic reality of the residential school system. In 2010, "Fatty Legs" was named one of the best children's books of the year by the Globe and Mail.
Melanie Florence is an author of Cree and Scottish heritage who writes about the experiences that her grandfather went through at one of Canada's most infamous residential schools. Her relationship with her grandfather sparked her interest in writing about issues affecting Indigenous people. She loves writing books for both children and young adults, and one of her most famous children's books is "Stolen Words". It won The Children's Book Review's Best Picture Books of 2017, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award 2018, and many more. This story shows the pain that Indigenous people had to go through when their culture and language was taken away from them and how that agony got passed on to the next generation. This is a sensitive and warm book that is perfect for exploring how the residential school system can separate Indigenous families.
A Mojave America poet, Natalie Diaz is the author of poetry collections When My Brother was an Aztec and Postcolonial Love Poem, the latter of which won the Pulizer Prize for Poetry in 2021. Diaz's work focuses on the intersection between Indigenous, queer, feminine, and Latina identities, which extends beyond her involveent in literature particularly in Mojave language activism. This poem. "
Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation" wittily examines the tensions in enduring colonial patterns in Native American life, and in the English language structures.
Of Delaware descent and a noted playwright and poet, Daniel David Moses has won and been nominated for many literary awards. His poem Hotel Centrale, Rotterdam addresses the many questions of identity Moses faces—who he is, even where he is—becomes of ever such importance falling asleep under an unfamiliar and unwelcoming roof. Moses longs to meet and greet new faces, though saddened by the fact he may not communicate with them as they are not of similar tongue as him. As he drifts off, he ponders of a dream suspended in the blue and frost of dawn.
Joy Harjo was born in 1951 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and part of the Muscogee (Cree) Nations. She is a poet, playwrite, musician and author. She served three temrs as the 23rd poet lauraate of the United States (2019-2022) and in 2023, she won Yale's Bollinger Prize for American Poetry. Harjo delivered the 2021 Windham-Campbell Lecture at Yale. She has also won many other awards. As a poet, Harjo has written ten books, several plays and childrens book, two memoirs and numerous poems, including her newest release a poem for young listeners titled Remember. As a musician, she has produced seven award-winner albums, including I Pray for my Enimies and Winding through the milky way. At 71, Harjo is still writting and composing and is the chancellor of the Academy of American Poets among many of the other roles she has.
The poem “Victory” by Sherman Alexie explores the guilt that the speaker experiences after stealing a pair of basketball shoes. Being too scared to confess, they suffered through the season, only to confess at the end and see his father crying of shame. Alexie is the acclaimed author of many other poems and novels, including The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which won the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and Reservation Blues, which won the 1996 American Book Award. Many of his works are memoirs of his own experiences as a Spokane-Coeur d'Alene Native American.