Birthday Book Drive 2020
It has been a doozy of a week. COVID-19, aka coronavirus, has tested our humanity, resolve, and resources. Many of us are working remotely, school is out for six weeks in parts of Washington, and many are concerned for friends and family. I have no new words to offer about the present situation, except to say take care of each other and yourselves.
What I will share this week is the 2020 Birthday Book Drive, Reading for Pride & Justice. Last year my friend Carrie and I decided to celebrate our February birthdays by hosting a book drive. A third grader wrote in their thank you card to us we’re doing it all wrong — we’re supposed to get gifts on our birthday. The kid was thankful we birthday-ed wrong and loved the books. While it is traditional to get gifts for one’s birthday, we decided we didn’t need gifts for ourselves and instead asked our friends to share books by poc authors or about disabilities to donate to several public schools in our community. Our friends and family are wonderful and donated over 170 books, that went to two high schools and three elementary schools in South Seattle.
Why Reading for Pride & Justice – Why Books?
This year Carrie and I came up with a theme to help make this year’s book drive a little different and to focus the book selection a little differently than last year. We landed on a theme of Changemakers and looked for titles along these lines for our wishlist. The changemaker theme allowed us to focus some of the books and ensure we were digging deeper into finding new titles to share with schools.
Books by authors of color and books about disabilities are important “mirrors and windows” for children to learn about the world around them with compassion, empathy, and understanding. The books in my kid’s school library are well-loved and many of the popular titles, especially the graphic novels, are held together with tape and the spines so frayed the titles are impossible to read. There are also some poc authored books or books about disabilities, but it takes hunting to find them. By donating more quality books by pocs and about disabilities we want to increase the odds that students will find themselves in the books, or their teachers will have a new resource to teach with.
This year we worked to make sure many of the titles on our wishlist would be appealing to kids. We requested a lot of graphic novels by authors of color or about disabilities; these are often gateway books for many readers. We wanted to make sure we donated books kids would want to read, not academic books that would just sit on shelves unread. We aimed for diversity in race and ethnicity, disabilities, language, etc. For the books about disabilities, we prioritized first-person narratives, nothing that perpetuates inspiration porn, and we avoided books about death.
A thank you tweet
A special thank you to our friends, colleagues, supporters, and family who donated to the book drive. We are so lucky to have you in our community and your generosity to this project makes it special. When we delivered the books to schools everyone we met ohhhed and ahhed over the books. Hands immediately went into the crates of books and people were pulling them out to see what was in there. Becca, a friend and second/third-grade teacher, said she didn’t even get a chance to shelve the books since her third-graders saw the books and started reading them.
We’re sharing the booklist so you can help to find new titles to read. Order these from your favorite POC bookseller, independent bookstore, request them from the library, and make library purchase suggestions if they don’t have it in the catalog. Most of all, share them with young people in your life.
2020 Reading For Pride & Justice Book List
| Title | Author | Category (Notations are my best guess) |
| Lead From the Outside | Abrams, Stacey | POC – African American/Black |
| The Poet X | Acevedo, Elizabeth | POC – Latinx |
| One Person No Vote | Anderson, Carol | POC |
| We Are Not Yet Equal | Anderson, Carol | POC |
| Dear America | Antonio Vargas, Jose | POC – Latinx |
| She Came to Slay | Armstrong Dunbar | POC – African American |
| Never Caught the Story of Ona Judge, YA Edition | Armstrong Dunbar, Erica and Kathleen van Celeve | POC – African American/Black |
| Sosu’s Call | Asare, Meshack | POC / Disability |
| Brazen | Bagieu, Penelope | POC |
| El Deafo* | Bell, Cece | Disability |
| Super Sorda, El Deafo (Spanish) | Bell, Cece | Disability |
| Courage to Soar | Biles, Simone | POC – African American/Black |
| Emergent Strategy | brown, adrienne marie | POC |
| The Pretty One | Brown, Keah | Disability / POC – Black |
| A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin | Bryant, Jen | Disability |
| Laughing at my Nightmare | Burcaw, Shane | Disability |
| I Am Enough* | Byers, Grace | POC – Black / African American |
| 72 Hour Hold | Campbell, Bebe Moore | POC – Black/ African American, Disability |
| When the Beat was Born, DJ Kool Herc And the Creation of Hip Hop | Carrick Hill, Laban | POC – Black |
| Pashmina | Chanani, Nidhi | POC |
| We Gon’ Be Alright – Notes on Race and Resegregation* | Chang, Jeff | POC – Asian / Pacific Islander |
| Freedom Soup | Charles, Tami | POC |
| Major Taylor | Cline-Ransome, Lesa | POC – African American |
| The Water Dancer | Coates, Ta-Nehisi | POC – African American/Black |
| The Truth as told by Mason Buttle | Connor, Leslie | Disability |
| Eloquent Rage | Cooper, Brittney | POC – African American/Black |
| Firebird | Copeland, Misty | POC – African American/Black |
| Misty Copeland, Life in Motion – Young Readers Edition | Copeland, Misty | POC – Black / African American |
| Harriet Tubman, Demon Slayer I & II | Crownson, David | POC – African American/Black |
| Claire of the Sea Light | Danticat, Edwidge | POC |
| The Labyrinth’s Archivist: A Broken Cities Novella | Day, Al-Mohamed | Disability |
| The Day Abuelo Got Lost | de Anda, Diane | Disability |
| Mixed Me | Diggs, Taye | POC – African American |
| Never Caught the Story of Ona Judge, YA Edition | Dunbar, Erica | POC |
| An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States | Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne | POC – Native American |
| Geek Love | Dunn, Katherine | Disability |
| Milo’s Museum | Elliott, Zetta | POC – African American/Black |
| Freshwater | Emezi, Akwaeke | POC – Black |
| Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen* | Florence, Debbi Michiko | POC – Asian |
| Jasmine Toguchi, Flamingo Keeper* | Florence, Debbi Michiko | POC – Asian |
| Like a Mother* | Garbes, Angela | POC – Filipinx |
| Rooted in the Earth | Glave, Dianne | POC – African American/Black |
| Macy McMillan and the Rainbow Goddess | Green, Shari | Disability |
| Real Friends | Hale, Shaonnon | Disability |
| Autobiography of Malcolm X | Haley, Alex | POC – African American/Black |
| The Truths We Hold | Harris, Kamala | POC |
| New Power | Heimans, Jeremy and Henry Timms | |
| Imagine | Herrera, Juan Felipe | POC – Latinx |
| The Reason I Jump | Higashida, Naoki | POC – Asian / Disability – Autism |
| Como Pez En El Arbol | Hunt, Lynda Mullaly | Disability |
| (Don’t) Call me Crazy, 33 Voices
start the conversation about mental health |
Jensen, Kelly | Disability |
| Remember Balloons | Jessie Oliveros, Dana Wulfekotte | Disability |
| The Magical Monkey King Mischief in Heaven | Ji-Li Jiang | POC – Asian |
| The Parker Inheritance | Johnson, Varian | POC – African American / Black |
| How to be an Antiracist | Kendi, Ibram X. | POC – African American/Black |
| Amina’s Voice | Khan, Hena | POC – Middle Eastern |
| Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns – A Muslim Book of Colors* | Khan, Hena | POC – Muslim |
| when they call you a terrorist – a black lives matter memoir | Khan-Cullors, Patrisse and Asha Bandele | POC – African American/Black |
| Amulet* | Kibuishi, Kazu | POC – Asian |
| Miracle Creek | Kim, Angie | POC |
| Braiding Sweetgrass* | Kimmerer, Robin Wall | POC – Native American |
| Go Show the World, a Celebration of Indigenous Heroes | Kinew, Wab | POC – Native American |
| Inside Out & Back Again | Lai, Thanhha | POC |
| Bridge of Flowers* | Lakshimi Piepzna-Samarashinha, Leah | POC – Disability (This is from a micro-press with tons of wonderful titles) |
| Green Lantern – Legacy* | Lê, Minh | POC -Asian (First ever Asian Green Lantern) |
| March 1, 2, 3* | Lewis, John | POC – African American |
| The Year of the Dog | Lin, Grace | POC – Asian |
| When Adrian Became a Brother* | Lukoff | POC illustrator / LGBTQ |
| Ten Ways not to Commit Suicide | McDaniels, Darryl | POC – African American/Black, Disability |
| Merci Suarez Changes Gears | Medina, Meg | POC – Latinx |
| Where Are You From | Mendez, Ymile Saied | POC – Latinx |
| Redefining Realness | Mock, Janet | POC – African American/Black |
| Sick Kids in Love | Moskowitz, Hannah | Disability |
| The Proudest Blue | Muhammad, Ibtihaj | POC – Muslim |
| Proud, Living my American Dream | Muhammad, Ibtihaj | POC – Muslim |
| Fish in a Tree | Mullaly Hunt, Lynda | Disability |
| A is for Activist | Nagara, Innosanto | POC |
| Counting on Community | Nagara, Innosanto | POC |
| We Should All Be Feminists | Ngozi Adichie, Chimamanda | POC – Black |
| Sulwe | Nyong’o, Lupita | POC – African American/Black |
| Becoming* | Obama, Michelle | POC – African American/Black |
| Shuri, Black Panther | Okorafor, Nnedi | POC – African American/Black |
| The Remembering Balloons* | Oliveros, Jessie | Disability |
| So You Want to Talk About Race | Oluo, Ijeoma | POC – African American/Black |
| There There | Orange, Tommy | POC – Native American |
| Anger is a Gift | Oshiro, Mark | Disability |
| The Witch Boy | Ostertag, Molly Knox | |
| Hawking | Ottaviani, Jim | Disability |
| Wonder & 365 Days of Wonder | Palacio, | Disability |
| The Astonishing Color of Afer | Pan, Emily, X.R. | POC – Asian |
| Nya’s Long Walk — A Step at a Time | Park, Linda Sue | POC — Asian / Black / Immigrant |
| A Single Shard | Park, Linda Sue | POC – Asian, Korean / Disability |
| Parachute | Parker, Danny and Matt Ottley | Disability – Anxiety |
| A Different Pond* | Phi, Bao | POC – Asian |
| Patina | Reynolds, Jason | POC – African American |
| As Brave as You | Reynolds, Jason | POC – African American/Black |
| Jake Makes a world, Jacob Lawrence, a Young Artist in Harlem* | Rhodes-Pitt, Sharifa | POC – African American/Black |
| Juliet Takes a Breath | Rivera, Gabby | POC – Latinx |
| M is for Melanin* | Rose, Tiffany | POC – Black / African American |
| Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories | Sakade, Florence | POC – Asian |
| Gang of Four* | Santos, Bob and Gary Iwamoto | POC – Cross racial |
| You Failed Us | Savage, Azure | POC |
| Tea with Milk | Say, Allen | POC – Asian |
| Silent Days, Silent Dreams | Say, Allen | Disability |
| American Journal | Smith, Tracy K. | POC – Black |
| Pasando páginas | Sotomayor, Sonia | POC – Latinx |
| My Beloved World | Sotomayor, Sonia | POC – Latinx |
| Just Mercy, YA edition | Stevenson, Bryan | POC – African American/Black |
| Chicken with Plums | Strapi, Marjane | POC – Middle East |
| Yayoi Kusama From Here to Eternity | Suzuki, Sarah | POC – Asian / Disability |
| They Called Us Enemy* | Takei, George | POC – Asian |
| The Opposite of Fate | Tam, Amy | POC – Asian |
| I Love My Hair | Tarpley, Natasha Anastasia | POC – African American/Black |
| Guts | Telgemeier, Raina | Disability – anxiety |
| Ghosts* | Telgemier, Raina | Disability |
| Baby Sitters Club – The Truth about Stacey | Telgemier, Raina | Disability – Diabetes |
| My First 50 Tigringna Words* | Tesfamariam, Elinor K. | POC – Black |
| The Hate You Give | Thomas, Angie | POC – African American |
| Down These Mean Streets | Thomas, Piri | POC – Latinx |
| How I Became a Ghost | Tingle, Tim | POC – Native American |
| Stone River Crossing* | Tingle, Tim | POC – Native American |
| Separate is Never Equal | Tonatiuh, Duncan | POC – Latinx |
| Ojichan’s Gift* | Uegaki, Chieri and Genevieve Simms | POC- Asian, Disability – memory loss, aging |
| Trickster* | Various authors | POC – Native American |
| My Fate According to the Butterfly | Villanueva, Gail D. | POC – Asian Filipinx |
| Magic Ramen, the story of Momofuku Ando* | Wang, Andrea | POC – Asian |
| Stargazing | Wang, Jen | POC – Asian, Disability |
| Other Words for Home | Warga, Jasmine | POC |
| We Speak for Ourselves | Watkins, D. | POC – African American/Black |
| Voice of Freedom, Fannie Lou Hamer (Note: It has the n-word and b-word in it) | Weatherford, Carole Boston | POC – African American/Black |
| Home for Chinese New Year: A Story Told in English and Chinese* | Wei Jie, Xu Can | POC – Asian, bilingual |
| The Collected Schizophrenias | Weijun Wang, Esme | Disability / POC |
| Red at the Bone | Woodson, Jacqueline | POC – African American/Black |
| Malala, My Story of Standing Up for Girls Rights | Yousafzai, Malala | POC – Muslim |
| I am Malala | Yousafzai, Malala | POC – Muslim |
| Malala’s Magic Pencil* | Yousafzai, Malala | POC – Muslim |
| Yasmin in Charge* | Faruqi, Saadia | POC – Muslim |
| Krip Hop | Disability | |
| Animals — Braille | Disability / bilingual (Braille) |
*Erin’s recommendation
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