Bust a gut. Laugh your rear-end off. Laugh yourself silly, until you almost cried, it’s the best medicine. Had you rolling in the aisles, holding your sides coz they hurt. When something’s funny, you know it but what does humor look like across racial lines? In the new book, “That’s How They Get You,” edited by Damon Young, it might get the last laugh. When he was a kid in Pittsburgh, Damon Young thought his friend, Var Butler “was the funniest person I’d ever met.” Var didn’t go for nasty humor and he didn’t hurt people who couldn’t defend themselves.…
Author: Terri Schlichenmeyer
Your Dad is the best. He gives great hugs, first of all. He teaches you things, fixes what’s broken, and he likes to play with you sometimes. Dad works hard, he’s really smart, and he picks great books to read before your bedtime, books like these… Who doesn’t like to go camping with Dad? In the new book, “You Make the World” by Múon Thi Văn, illustrated by Phùng Nguyȇn Quang & Huynh Kim Liên (Orchard Books, $18.99), a young child goes out in nature with their father, and learns a few things about what makes the world go ‘round…
Your parents both hate being late. It’s never bad to be where you’re supposed to be, you know: on time, ready, and eager for whatever’s next. A party, your church service, lunch at Grandma’s house, it’s always best to arrive at the start with a smile. Being prompt is just good manners or, as you’ll see in “The Juneteenth Alphabet” by Andrea Underwood Petifer, pictures by Ana Latese, it could become a much bigger matter. After the Civil War ended in April of 1865, four million formerly enslaved people embraced the end of bondage, but enslaved people in Texas did…
“Use your brain!” If you had a dime for every time a teacher, parent, or supervisor told you that, you’d be rich. Stop fooling around. Consider what you’re about to do. Act with resolve, not impulse. It’s the best way to work, the optimal method for learning and, as in the new book “The Battle for the Black Mind” by Karida L. Brown, it’s what so many have fought for. In the months after the Civil War ended, it became apparent to both Black and white people in both North and South that education for four million suddenly-freed former slaves…
Mom never had to worry. After she reminded you to look out for your siblings, she didn’t have to tell you again. From then on, you had one another’s backs, you were a team that nobody messed with. And all these years later, today, you still watch out for them because, in your house and in “Blair Underwood Presents Sins of Survivors,” by Joe McClean, family comes first. Every now and then, Benjamin Carter woke up, remembering. He was a youngster when white men killed his father in a way that still caused the nightmares. It’d been decades since then,…
Who will remember you in fifty years’ time? A handful of friends – at least those who are still around – might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later. Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did…
Every day, your Mom or Grandma does nice things for you. She fixes your lunch and dinner, makes sure your clothes are clean and that you have a safe place to sleep. Whose cookies are best? Mom’s! Who hugs better? Grandma does (but Mom’s a close second!) They love you a lot, you know, so why not share one of these great books about Moms, Grandmas, and kids for Mother’s Day this year… The littlest readers – those who are 1-to-3-years-old – will love a read-aloud with “My Mama Bear and Me” by Sophie Beer (Dial, $12.99). Polar bears live…
Take care. Do it because you want to stay well, upright, away from illness. Eat right, swallow your vitamins and hydrate, keep good habits and hygiene, and cross your fingers. Take care as much as you can because, as in the new book, “Love, Rita” by Bridgett M. Davis, your well-being is sometimes out of your hands. It was a family story told often: when Bridgett Davis was born, her sister, Rita, then four years old, stormed up to her crying newborn sibling and said, ‘Shut your… mouth!’ Rita, says Davis, didn’t want a little sister then. She already had…
c.2025, Wm. Morrow $30.00 320 pages Three hundred thirty-six little pockmarks. Placed atop a thick sliver of wood, the ball they’re on presents a challenge. Whack that dimpled sphere into 18 holes in the ground, do it in as few swings as possible, and you can ace the game. Do it and, as in the new book, “Together We Roared” by Steve Williams and Evin Priest, you could be a champion of a different stripe. When the first call came, Steve Williams thought it was a prank. It was a late spring night in 1999 and the voice on…
“The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir” by Martha S. Jones c.2025, Basic Books $30 315 pages “Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families” by Judith Giesberg c.2025, Simon & Schuster $29.99 309 pages Who do you think you are? That’s a question that can be taken a multiple of ways. It’s in-your-face, aggressive, angry. Or it’s inquisitive and open, asking for introspection. Where did your family come from, and who do you think you are? Or, as in these books, is that question to be answered? For author Martha S. Jones,…