Top 5 Books To Spark Important Conversations // #ReadYourWorld Book Jam 2023

Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry, and Alexis Bunten, illustrated by Garry Meeches, Sr.

Keepunumuk tells the American Thanksgiving story from a Native American point of view. Created by an all-Native team, this book tells the Thanksgiving story through the eyes of the Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, and Squash. It reminds readers that we as people are part of the world around us, and rely on Nature–and each other–to thrive. It also creates a new, more inclusive Thanksgiving story to unite a divided country. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Homes, illustrated by Nikkolas Smith

Born on the Water shows how the trauma of slavery transformed the culture and lives of Black people in America.  Though historically questionable–the first European slaves were Indigenous, not Black–it shows how America’s birth and growth rested on slavery and oppression.  This sparks a conversation on how to address slavery–both the scars of the past and the continued exploitation of people of color today–as the country explores how to create a more just society. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade

We Are Water Protectors describes the deep relationship between Native peoples and Nature, through the traditional Anishinaabe story of a black snake that threatens the water that gives us all life.  Building on the fight for water at Standing Rock, it urges readers to protect water and the wider world around us; by helping the world, we help ourselves.  This sparks wider conversations on the changes we can make to lead more sustainable lives. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

I’m So Glad You Were Born: Celebrating Who You Are by Ainsley Earhardt, illustrated by Kim Barnes

I’m So Glad You Were Born shows readers that, wherever we come from and whoever we are, we have value as human beings.  This is a helpful reminder at a time when our country faces great division over its identity and future.  We may disagree, but it helps to remember our humanity from our earliest days as we try to find solutions to the challenges we face. [picture book, ages 4 and up]

Something Happened in Our Town by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin

This powerful book explores justice through the eyes of children who hear about a Black man’s death at the hands of the police.  It shows how justice is not blind, but biased, and the pain this injustice causes.  It also shows how we as individuals can bring about change through our own actions toward others.  By standing up for what’s right in our own daily lives, we can create a better world. [picture book, ages 4 and up]