One dollar. That’s not a lot of cash when it’s your turn to pick the tunes and you want to hear your song now. Just a buck for the juke box and everybody can enjoy what you’ve chosen. That’s not a lot for four minutes of entertainment, especially when, as in the new book “Well of Souls” by Kristina R. Gaddy, it features your favorite instrument. In 1687, the English slave ship, the Benjamin, left the coast of Loango with a cargo of 375 adults and children headed for Jamaica and lives of slavery. Three hundred sixty-nine people arrived but…
Author: Terri Schlichenmeyer
Your entire life is like a gigantic game of “Chutes and Ladders.” Shake the dice, move two steps ahead, and you hit a ladder that takes you to higher places on the game board. Three more squares, and you hit a chute that sends you back to the bottom. Life and children’s games are alike in this way: as in the new book “The Light We Carry” by Michelle Obama, the only way to win is to keep playing. Pandemic, recession, political divide, market volatility. For many months, you’ve wondered every morning what fresh chaos you’ll deal with that day.…
It’s possible. Not now, but probably later… if at all. The thing is, you’re patient and you can wait. It’ll happen eventually, one way or the other, and you’re fine with things as they are in the meantime. You’re good. Whatever you hope for, it’s possible – except when, as in the new novel “Someday, Maybe” by Onyi Nwabineli, life has other plans. She prayed that he hadn’t read the last texts she sent to his phone. Eve Ezenwa-Morrow had been angry at her husband, Quentin. She’d sent him a flurry of “where are you?” messages that escalated until she…
It looks like your ticket was purchased the day you were born. Your destination was unknown and the journey takes a lifetime, but a seat was reserved for you that no one can take away. And yet, you could change courses any time you wished, for greener pastures or safer homes. In the new book “From Underground Railroad to Rebel Refuge” by Brian Martin, your fellow travelers are good with that. Even in the earliest days, there were slaves. In 1501, says Martin, a Portuguese explorer came to the easternmost shores of what’s now Canada with at least one slave.…
Raise your hand. If something’s going to get done around here, you’re volunteering because things need to be different and you’re ready and willing to make it happen. This starts with you because, well, who else? As in the new book “Half American” by Matthew F. Delmont, there’ll be no more doing things halfway. In the time before America entered World War II, Black Americans kept their eyes on what was happening overseas, particularly in Spain. The rise of fascism during the Spanish Civil War was of particular interest to them because “fascism was Jim Crow with a foreign accent.”…
Sometimes, you burn with a white-hot anger. So many roadblocks in front of you, so many injustices, damage, and danger. One day, this old world will be yours to run, and you wonder what kind of shape it’ll be in then. Will changes be made by adults or will kids like you have to make them happen? In answer: read “We Were the Fire: Birmingham 1963” by Shelia P. Moses, and put your work clothes on. For eleven-year-old Rufus Jackson Jones Jr., life on Bull Hill in Birmingham was a struggle, but his family got by. His mother worked hard…
About a size seven. That’s how big your mouth must be, because you just stuck your size-seven foot into it – which is great, because now things are awkward and you never meant harm. You want to have the right conversation about race, you strive to be respectful, and “Courageous Discomfort” by Shanterra McBride and Rosalind Wiseman can help. So your foot is back on the ground now and that didn’t feel good, did it? Probably not, but McBride and Wiseman say that discomfort is necessary for (eventually) doing good in order to make change. Recognizing that everyone has a…
You can’t not look for the whoop. When that sound registers in your brain, let’s face it: you’re gonna rubberneck. You wonder if someone you know is inside that whooping vehicle, in an accident, or worse. You might even thank a higher power that it’s not you in there. And once you’ve read “American Sirens” by Kevin Hazzard, you’ll think of the heroes in the back of that ambulance. When John Moon saw what was happening to the old homeless man on the street, he carefully stepped in, assuring the police that he could help. He knew the old man;…
You know this truth: The curl’s the thing. Short and close to your head, wound around your finger, standing tall in a pineapple, you love how your hair curls around your face, over your shoulders, and down your back. The curl’s the thing – it might even be something you’re known for – but in “Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution” by Sherri Winston, it’s a thing to get someone in trouble. Everything was fine before the paper airplane. Well, maybe it was more like fine-ish. On her first day at a new magnet school near Miami Beach, Lotus Bloom…
Almost every problem has a solution. Sometimes, a fix is right in front of your face, and you can make it without anybody’s help. Other times, well, another set of eyes or hands can help you find the right path, or a crisis can lead you to an “AHA!” Just remember: almost every problem has a solution, and as you’ll see in “Kid Trailblazers” by Robin Stevenson, illustrated by Allison Steinfeld, you don’t have to be an adult to figure it out. Sometimes, being a kid is frustrating. You might feel powerless, like you can’t do anything. So how does…