National Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month is observed from September 15 – October 15. We’re celebrating our Hispanic authors, illustrators, and creators this month (and every month) and sharing Hispanic stories. Keep reading to discover new books and revisit your favorites!
Discover books for National Hispanic and Latinx Heritage month here →
Share these remarkable books from the ALA’s Top 100 Most Challenged Books 2010-2019.
Find ALA’s 10 Most Challenged Books from 2020 here.
Find more ideas to fight censorship at your school or library
on ALA’s Banned Books Week website.
Watch our anti-racist education webinar, featuring authors Dr. Crystal M. Fleming (Rise Up: How You Can Join the Fight Against White Supremacy), Bethany C. Morrow (So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix), and Aminah Mae Safi (Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix). In this conversation moderated by Julia Torres, a teacher-librarian in Denver Public Schools, the authors discussed how educators and librarians can build a more inclusive collection for their schools and libraries.
Find more resources mentioned during the event below:
More Resources for Continuing Anti-Racist Education:
ILA Children’s Right to Read
NCTE Intellectual Freedom Center
NCTE Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English (CARBTE)
American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual FreedomDisrupt Texts
Diversity in Children’s Books Infographic (2018) by Sarah Park Dahlen
More Anti-Racist Book Lists to Build Your Collection
Social Justice Books
We are KidLit Collective
Nonfiction to Pair with So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow:
Time Full of Trial: The Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony, 1862-1867 by Patricia C. Click
Nonfiction to Pair with Travelers Along the Way by Aminah Mae Safi:
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf
Nonfiction to Pair with Rise Up by Crystal M. Fleming:
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
Check out our list nonfiction and fiction books to add to your anti-racist collections and classroom curriculums. Create more inclusive, representative and equitable collections by incorporating these newly published works and backlist favorites into your school and library collections!
Download the teacher’s guides for these must-read nonfiction books by Philip Hoose,
perfect for your classroom library!
Phillip Hoose is an award-winning author of books, essays, stories, songs and articles. Although he first wrote for adults, he turned his attention to children and young adults in part to keep up with his own daughters. His book Claudette Colvin won a National Book Award and a Newbery Honor. He is also the author of It’s Our World, Too!; The Race to Save the Lord God Bird; The Boys Who Challenged Hitler; and We Were There, Too!, a National Book Award finalist, and Attucks! He has received a Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, a Christopher Award, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and multiple Robert F. Sibert Honor Awards, among numerous honors.
Download teacher’s guides here →
Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers by Juliet Menéndez
Latinitas (Spanish edition): Una celebración de 40 soñadoras audaces by Juliet Menéndez
(On sale September 21, 2021)
Dream big with the Latinitas in Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers.
Discover how 40 influential Latinas became the women we celebrate today! In this collection of short biographies from all over Latin America and across the United States, Juliet Menéndez explores the first small steps that set the Latinitas off on their journeys. With gorgeous, hand-painted illustrations, Menéndez shines a spotlight on the power of childhood dreams.
From Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to singer Selena Quintanilla to NASA’s first virtual reality engineer, Evelyn Miralles, this is a book for aspiring artists, scientists, activists, and more. These women followed their dreams—and just might encourage you to follow yours!
The book features Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Juana Azurduy de Padilla, Policarpa Salavarrieta, Rosa Peña de González, Teresa Carreño, Zelia Nuttall, Antonia Navarro, Matilde Hidalgo, Gabriela Mistral, Juana de Ibarbourou, Pura Belpré, Gumercinda Páez, Frida Kahlo, Julia de Burgos, Chavela Vargas, Alicia Alonso, Victoria Santa Cruz, Claribel Alegría, Celia Cruz, Dolores Huerta, Rita Moreno, Maria Auxiliadora da Silva, Mercedes Sosa, Isabel Allende, Susana Torre, Julia Alvarez, Sandra Cisneros, Sonia Sotomayor, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Mercedes Doretti, Sonia Pierre, Justa Canaviri, Evelyn Miralles, Selena Quintanilla, Berta Cáceres, Serena Auñón, Wanda Díaz-Merced, Marta Vieira da Silva, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Laurie Hernandez.
Descubre cómo cuarenta latinas influyentes se convirtieron en las mujeres que hoy celebramos. En esta colección de biografías cortas de personajes de toda América Latina y de Estados Unidos, Juliet Menéndez explora los primeros pasitos con los que estas latinitas iniciaron su camino. Con hermosas ilustraciones, hechas a mano, Menéndez pone en relieve el poder que tienen los sueños de la infancia.
Desde la jueza de la Corte Suprema Sonia Sotomayor hasta la cantante Selena Quintanilla y la primera ingeniera de realidad virtual de la NASA, Evelyn Miralles, este libro aborda figuras que servirán de inspiración a futuras artistas, científicas, activistas y más. Ellas hicieron realidad sus sueños ¡y hasta puede que te alienten a alcanzar los tuyos!
Praise for Latinitas:
“This is an engaging and important book that should stimulate young Latinas to become the best they can be—and I am delighted to be in such good company!” —Susana Torre, acclaimed architect featured in Latinitas
“What will pull young people in is that Menéndez depicts these women as children (Latinitas), both visually and anecdotally . . . What will keep these readers engaged is how their soon-to-be heroines bloom into their future selves on the page.” —The New York Times Book Review
★ “Will inspire young children to follow their own dreams . . . This book belongs in any child’s hands.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Add the Grishaverse books to your classroom library! With a second season of the hit Shadow and Bone Netflix original series in the works, now’s the perfect time to revisit Leigh Bardugo’s bestselling series and introduce new readers to the Grishaverse!
Want to create a lesson plan for Shadow and Bone? Download our Shadow and Bone teacher’s guide with discussion questions, extended learning activities, and more!
Download the discussion guide for A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix, part of our new Remixed Classics brand! In Remixed Classics, authors from diverse backgrounds take different literary classics from centuries past and reinterpret them through their own unique cultural lens. This collection will serve YA readers as both a series of fun, engaging reads as well as a subversive overall look at what our society has deemed “classic” — works that are overwhelmingly cishet, white, and male.
A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix by C.B. Lee
On Sale September 7, 2021
Ages 12-18
Two intrepid girls hunt for a legendary treasure on the deadly high seas in this YA remix of the classic adventure novel Treasure Island.
1826. The sun is setting on the golden age of piracy, and the legendary Dragon Fleet, the scourge of the South China Sea, is no more. Its ruthless leader, a woman known only as the Head of the Dragon, is now only a story, like the ones Xiang has grown up with all her life. She desperately wants to prove her worth, especially to her mother, a shrewd businesswoman who never seems to have enough time for Xiang. Her father is also only a story, dead at sea before Xiang was born. Her single memento of him is a pendant she always wears, a simple but plain piece of gold jewelry.
But the pendant’s true nature is revealed when a mysterious girl named Anh steals it, only to return it to Xiang in exchange for her help in decoding the tiny map scroll hidden inside. The revelation that Xiang’s father sailed with the Dragon Fleet and tucked away this secret changes everything. Rumor has it that the legendary Head of the Dragon had one last treasure—the plunder of a thousand ports—that for decades has only been a myth, a fool’s journey.
Xiang is convinced this map could lead to the fabled treasure. Captivated with the thrill of adventure, she joins Anh and her motley crew off in pursuit of the island. But the girls soon find that the sea—and especially those who sail it—are far more dangerous than the legends led them to believe.
Praise for A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix:
“Vividly realized and brimming with romantic adventure. Rooted in the legend of Chinese pirate queen Ching Shih, C.B. Lee’s A Clash of Steel is richly imagined and thrilling to the end.”
—Malinda Lo, bestselling author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club
“Lavishly drawn and studded with jewels from the original, C.B. Lee has written a remix that delves deep into questions of family, love, and treasure. This is a book I wish I’d had as a young, queer teen and it deserves a spot in any collection.”
—Natalie C. Parker, author of the Seafire trilogy
“A Clash of Steel is an action-packed tale of fierce friendship and queer found family, with a playful sapphic romance that will make your heart flutter! C.B. Lee immerses you in the world of the Qing dynasty with vivid and authentic detail—you will feel the danger of the waves and yearn for the tastes and smells of the markets.”
—Julia Ember, author of Ruinsong
Browse all of our September new releases, including new picture books, middle grade, and young adult books!
Download the bilingual teacher’s guide for the English and Spanish editions of this powerful new picture book!
I Wish You Knew by Jackie Azúa Kramer; illustrated by Magdalena Mora
When Estrella’s father has to leave because he wasn’t born here, like her,
She misses him.
And she wishes people knew the way it affects her.
At home. At school.
Always.
But a school wrapped around a hundred-year-old oak tree is the perfect place to share and listen.
Some kids miss family,
Some kids are hungry,
Some kids live in shelters.
But nobody is alone.
A story about deportation, divided families, and the importance of community in the midst of uncertainty.
Ojalá supieras by Jackie Azúa Kramer; illustrated by Magdalena Mora
Un cuento oportuno y conmovedor sobre la incertidumbre que siente una joven cuando deportan a su padre—y la empatía que crece cuando compartimos y nos escuchamos unos a los otros.
Cuando el papá de Estrella tiene que irse
porque no nació aquí como ella,
Estrella lo extraña.
Ella desea que la gente supiera como le afecta.
En su casa. En la escuela.
Siempre.
Su escuela rodea un roble centenario,
y ese árbol es el lugar perfecto para compartir.
Algunos niños extrañan a su familia,
algunos niños tienen hambre,
algunos viven en refugios.
Pero nadie está solo si otros están dispuestos a escuchar.
Un cuento sobre la deportación, familias separadas, y la importancia de comunicad en momentos de incertidumbre.
Remembering this Day: On the morning of September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by a terrorist group known as al Qaeda. The terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes and crashed two of them into the Twin Towers and one into the Pentagon. Passengers on the fourth plane fought against their captives, but the plane went down with no survivors. Nearly 3,000 people died as a result of these attacks, leaving the United States, and the world, in a state of grief.
We’ve put together a selection of books and resources you can use to reflect on this day and teach students about this important historical event. Find a list of books to share with your students and watch a video with Alyssa Bermudez, creator of Big Apple Diaries!
Find more information to share with students about the 9/11 attacks here and here.
Learn more about these books here →