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November 23, 2022
Resources can help with the long-overdue conversation about race relations in America
The mission of Worthington Libraries—connecting people to a world of ideas and each other—is so crucial in this moment in history. We believe our library must be a resource to encourage civil discourse that will allow our community to have the difficult, but necessary conversations to finally face the legacy of racial inequality, bias and a system that has left far too many behind for far too long.
We have put together the following list of resources to help you get started and will look for additional ways to engage with our community around this issue. It is our hope that this is just the beginning of this important and long overdue conversation.
Children
Fiction
Count Me In
2019
Told from two viewpoints, sixth-graders Karina and Chris use social media to stand up to racism in Houston, Texas, after an attack puts Karina's Indian American grandfather in the hospital.
Lexile level
680
I Am Ruby Bridges
2022
When Ruby Bridges was six years old, she became the first African American student to integrate an elementary school in the South. Told in the perspective of her six year old self and based on the pivotal events that happened in 1960, Ruby tells her story of hope, innocence and courage.
Two White Rabbits
2015
Traveling with her migrant worker father on the roof of a train known as The Beast, a little girl watches the passing scenery, from animals to soldiers, while making regular stops for her father to earn money as they move toward the U.S. border in search of a better life.
Lexile level
490
Troublemaker
2022
Amid rioting in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, a 12-year-old Korean American boy must come to terms with the racism within and affecting his community while trying to protect his father, a store owner.
Susan A loved this! Find out why »
Blended
2018
Piano-prodigy Isabella, 11, whose black father and white mother struggle to share custody, never feels whole, especially as racial tensions affect her school, her parents both become engaged and she and her stepbrother are stopped by police.
Heather W loved this! Find out why »
I Am Not a Number
2016
When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened and homesick. When she goes home for the summer, her parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But what will happen when they disobey the law?
Lexile level
640
Ophie's Ghosts
2021
Discovering her ability to see ghosts when a cruel act ends her father's life and she is forced to move in with relatives in 1920s Pittsburgh, young Ophelia forges a helpful bond with a spirit whose own life ended suddenly and unjustly.
April O loved this! Find out why »
When Stars Are Scattered
2020
Omar and his younger brother Hassan live in a refugee camp, and when an opportunity for Omar to get an education comes along, he must decide between going to school every day or caring for his nonverbal brother.
Lexile level
530
Amina's Voice
2017
Amina, a Pakistani-American Muslim girl, struggles to stay true to her family's culture while dealing with the vandalism of the local Islamic Center and mosque and her best friend Soojin's new friendship with their former nemesis.
Lexile level
800
We Are Water Protectors
2020
When a black snake threatens to destroy Earth and poison her people's water, one young water protector takes a stand to defend Earth's most sacred resource.
Marisa W loved this! Find out why »
A Good Kind of Trouble
2019
After attending a powerful protest, Shayla starts wearing an armband to school to support the Black Lives Matter movement, but when the school gives her an ultimatum, she is forced to choose between her education and her identity.
Beauty Woke
2022
Beauty--who is of Taino Indian, African, and Boricua heritage--was taught to be strong and proud, but hatred toward people who look like her bruises her heart until her community opens her eyes to the truth.
Ghost Boys
2018
After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till.
Love in the Library
2022
In this elegant love story that sheds light on a dark chapter of American history after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tama works in a prison library where she befriends a man who also seeks solace in pages bursting with color and light.
Carmi D loved this! Find out why »
Sugar in Milk
2020
The folktale depicted in this book was a part of author Thrity Umrigar's Zoroastrian upbringing as a Parsi child in India, but resonates for children of all backgrounds, especially those coming to a new homeland
Other Words for Home
2019
Sent with her mother to the safety of a relative's home in Cincinnati when her Syrian hometown is overshadowed by violence, Jude worries for the family members left behind as she adjusts to a new life with unexpected surprises.
Lexile level
930
Kate F loved this! Find out why »
Nonfiction
The Undefeated
2019
This love letter to black life in the United States 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.
Ellie K loved this! Find out why »
Denied, Detained, Deported
2019
J 325.73 BAU
Examines the history of American immigration, particularly those lesser-known stories of immigrants denied entrance into the United States or detained for security reasons, including the story of a ship of Jewish refugees.
Lexile level
1170
Something Happened in Our Town
2018
Following a police shooting, two families-- one White and one Black-- discuss the event, its aftermath and what they can do to help.
What Is a Refugee?
2019
J 325.21 GRA
Combining bold artwork with comprehensive text, this picture book explains who refugees are, why they had to leave their homes and why they are not always welcomed elsewhere.
Lexile level
680
From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry
2021
TEEN 364.1523 YOO
An account of the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin shares insights into how a miscarriage of justice in the wake of a hate crime rallied the Asian-American community throughout a groundbreaking civil rights trial.
Movies for families
Separate Is Never Equal
2014
After Sylvia Mendez was denied enrollment in a Whites-only school in the 1940s, her parents took action by organizing the Hispanic community and filing a lawsuit in federal district court. Their success eventually brought an end to the era of segregated education in California.
Websites for families
Teens
Fiction
Don't Ask Me Where I'm From
2020
Liliana Cruz does what it takes to fit in at her new, nearly all-White school, but when family secrets come out and racism at school gets worse than ever, she must decide what she believes in and take a stand.
This is My America
2020
While writing letters to Innocence X, a justice-seeking project, asking them to help her father, an innocent black man on death row, teenaged Tracy takes on another case when her brother is accused of killing his white girlfriend.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
2021
A story of love and duty set in San Francisco's Chinatown during the 1950s.
All American Boys
2015
When 16-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend.
Patron Saints of Nothing
2019
Setting aside his college ambitions when he learns his cousin has been murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, a high school senior travels to the Philippines to uncover the truth, and the part he may have played in it.
Lexile level
840
Hearts Unbroken
2018
Breaking up with her first real boyfriend when he makes racist remarks about her Native American heritage, high school senior Louise Wolfe teams up with a fellow school newspaper editor to cover a multicultural casting of the school play and the racial hostilities it has exposed.
Lexile level
760
The Hate U Give
2017
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends.
Meredith R loved this! Find out why »
We Are Not from Here
2020
When the dangers that surround them become all too real, three teens know they have no choice but to flee from their country, their families, from their beloved home.
The Grief Keeper
2019
Wanting to enjoy an amazing life in America like her favorite television characters, an undocumented 17-year-old bargains for her asylum by becoming a grief keeper to save someone else's life.
Lexile level
610
Black Enough
2019
This collection of short stories explores what it is like to be young and black, centering on the experiences of black teenagers and emphasizing that one person's experiences, reality and personal identity are different than someone else.
Nonfiction
#NotYourPrincess
2017
970.004 NOT
Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful future, the powerful voices of indigenous women across North America resound in this book.
Lexile level
910
Rise Up!
2021
T 305.8 FLE
Fleming breaks down the origins of racial injustice and its continued impact today. She shares the knowledge and values that unite all antiracists: compassion, solidarity, respect and courage in the face of adversity.
Unequal: A Story of America
2022
T 323.1196 DYS
Spotlighting courageous Black figures throughout history, these interconnected stories present a picture of racial inequality in America, revealing both the systemic discrimination in all areas of society and the unbroken line of Black resistance to this inequality.
Dark Sky Rising
2019
Real-life accounts from the age of Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era are used to explore the African American experience in post-Civil War United States.
Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American
2022
305.895 GAO
Seamlessly toggling between past and present, this funny graphic memoir follows a queer Chinese American's immigration to Texas where she just wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school and figure out why she is attracted to girls.
Meredith R loved this! Find out why »
Speaking Our Truth
2017
This title examines how we can foster reconciliation with Indigenous people at individual, family, community and national levels.
Lexile level
1050
Almost American Girl
2020
Moving abruptly from Seoul to Alabama, a Korean teen struggles in a hostile blended home and a new school where she does not speak English before forging unexpected connections in a local comic drawing class.
Stamped
2020
305.8 REY
This book shines a light on the many forms of racist ideas and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.
Hillary K loved this! Find out why »
Americanized: Rebel without a Green Card
2018
TEEN 305.8915 SAE
Learning as a teenager that her Iranian family is undocumented, 13-year-old, straight-A student Sara Saedi juggles the challenges of trying to obtain a green card with the stressful realities of being an everyday American teen.
Lexile level
1030
They Called Us Enemy
2019
TEEN GRAPHIC NOVEL 940.5317 TAK
This book details the author's experiences as a child prisoner in the Japanese-American internment camps of World War II, reflecting on the choices his family made in the face of institutionalized racism.
Lexile level
680
What the Eagle Sees
2019
TEEN 970.004 YEL
Tells the stories of what Indigenous people did when invaders arrived on their homelands, sharing accounts of the people, places and events that have mattered in Indigenous history from an Indigenous viewpoint.
Websites for teens
Adults
Nonfiction
Asian American Histories of the United States
2022
973.0495 CHO
Illuminates how an over-century-long history of Asian migration, labor, and community formation in the United States is fundamental to understanding the American experience and its existential crises of the early twenty-first century.
Eloquent Rage
2018
A leading young Black feminist illuminates how organized anger, friendship and faith can be powerful sources of positive feminist change, explaining how targeted rage has shaped the careers of such African-American notables as Serena Williams, Beyonce and Michelle Obama.
Homelands
2018
973.0468 COR
The last great Mexican migration to America is described from the perspective of four friends who met in a Philadelphia restaurant in 1987 to share in their common roots and their love of tequila.
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race
2017
305.8 EDD
Exploring issues from eradicated Black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge examines what it is to be a person of color in Britain today.
Minor Feelings
2020
305.895 HON
A ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged exploration of the psychological condition of being Asian American.
How To Be an Antiracist
2019
Ethics, history, law and science are combined with a personal narrative to describe how to move beyond the awareness of racism and contribute to making society just and equitable.
When They Call You a Terrorist
2018
A memoir by the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement explains the movement's position of love, humanity and justice, challenging perspectives that have negatively labeled the movement's activists while calling for essential political changes.
Stefanie S loved this! Find out why »
The Sum of Us
2021
305.8 MCG
Heather McGhee embarks on a deeply personal journey across the country from Mississippi to Maine, tallying up what we lose when we buy into the zero-sum paradigm: the idea that progress for some of us must come at the expense of others.
The Displaced
2018
325 DIS
A collection of personal essays by prominent international refugees shares candid reflections on the Trump administration's 2017 executive order to limit or ban Muslim refugees from America.
So You Want to Talk about Race
2018
A contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement and the "N" word.
Kate F loved this! Find out why »
How We Go Home
2020
970.004 HOW
Contemporary, Indigenous stories share the long and ongoing fight to protect Native land and life.
They Called Me a Lioness
2022
956.942 TAM
Ahed Tamimi's father was born in 1967, the year that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank began, and every aspect of their family's life has been touched by it.
Under the Skin
2022
362.1089 VIL
In America, Black people "live sicker and die quicker" that their white counterparts. Linda Villarosa, journalism professor and writer for the New York Times Magazine, presents a portrait of the forces in American society that each year rob Black Americans of years of life.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
2020
305.5122 WIL
A portrait of how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system and the ways that caste is experienced every day.
Podcasts
Movies
Resistance at Tule Lake
2018
The long-suppressed story of 12,000 Japanese Americans who dared to resist the U.S. government's program of mass incarceration during World War II.
Whose Streets?
2017
Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising.
I Am Not Your Negro
2017
Master documentary filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin's original words and a flood of rich archival material.
Websites
Get involved
Coleman M
I'm a librarian who loves reading literary books, environmental treatises, short stories, calls to social action, graphic novels and anything with a dark sense of humor. When I'm not helping library patrons, you can find me debating the merits of Star Wars, feeding my YouTube addiction or attempting to emulate my favorite authors by writing stories of my own.
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