Celebrate National Native American Heritage Month in your school or library! Keep reading to find more book recommendations, download resources for your classroom—including a teacher’s guide for Saints of the Household and an activity kit for Autumn Peltier, Water Warrior—and hear from H.E. Edgmon about their middle grade novel The Flicker!
Find more books for National Native American Heritage Month here →
This month’s Author Spotlight is Maysa Odeh, debut author of A Map for Falasteen, a heartfelt picture book about a Palestinian American child’s search for home illustrated by Aliaa Betawi.
September is National Deaf Awareness Month. Looking for titles to share that celebrate the deaf and hard-of-hearing community in your classroom or library? Discover critically acclaimed and award-wining titles below, plus a spotlight on Butterfly on the Wind by Adam Pottle and Ziyue Chen.
DISCOVER BOOKS TO SHARE FOR NATIONAL Deaf Awareness Month ->
This month’s Author Spotlight highlights Kalela Williams, author of Tangleroot, a debut YA novel about a girl who must face hard truths about blood and family, history and mystery.
Read below to find our staff picks for September 2024 and learn more about these must-reads!
Thirsty: A Novel
By Jas Hammonds
Ages 14-18
On Sale Now!
From Jas Hammonds, award-winning author of We Deserve Monuments, comes a gripping read about a girl willing to risk it all for the chance to join an underground sorority with her wealthy best friends—perfect for fans of the show Euphoria and Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow.
It’s the summer before college and Blake Brenner and her girlfriend, Ella, have one goal: join the mysterious and exclusive Serena Society. The sorority promises status and lifelong connections to a network of powerful, trailblazing women of color. Ella’s acceptance is a sure thing—she’s the daughter of a Serena alum. Blake, however, has a lot more to prove.
As a former loner from a working-class background, Blake lacks Ella’s pedigree and confidence. Luckily, she finds courage at the bottom of a liquor bottle. When she drinks, she’s bold, funny, and unstoppable—and the Serenas love it. But as pledging intensifies, so does Blake’s drinking, until it’s seeping into every corner of her life. Ella assures Blake that she’s fine; partying hard is what it takes to make the cut . . .
But success has never felt so much like drowning. With her future hanging in the balance and her past dragging her down, Blake must decide how far she’s willing to go to achieve her glittering dreams of success—and how much of herself she’s willing to lose in the process.
DOWNLOAD THE THIRSTY DISCUSSION GUIDE HERE →
This month’s Author Spotlight highlights Craig Kofi Farmer, author of Kwame Crashes the Underworld, a stunning middle grade fantasy novel about a boy hurled into the Ghanaian underworld to help his grandmother save humanity!
Winner of the Pura Belpré Award and Walter Dean Myers Award for Young Adult Literature!
Saints of the Household is a haunting contemporary YA about an act of violence in a small-town–beautifully told by a debut Indigenous Costa Rican-American writer–that will take your breath away.
Max and Jay have always depended on one another for their survival. Growing up with a physically abusive father, the two Bribri American brothers have learned that the only way to protect themselves and their mother is to stick to a schedule and keep their heads down.
But when they hear a classmate in trouble in the woods, instinct takes over and they intervene, breaking up a fight and beating their high school’s star soccer player to a pulp. This act of violence threatens the brothers’ dreams for the future and their beliefs about who they are. As the true details of that fateful afternoon unfold over the course of the novel, Max and Jay grapple with the weight of their actions, their shifting relationship as brothers, and the realization that they may be more like their father than they thought. They’ll have to reach back to their Bribri roots to find their way forward.
Told in alternating points of view using vignettes and poems, debut author Ari Tison crafts an emotional, slow-burning drama about brotherhood, abuse, recovery, and doing the right thing.
Find even more educator resources here!
READ MORE ABOUT SAINTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD →Watch our MacKids School & Library Fall 2024 Preview Event where we previewed upcoming picture books, middle grade, and young adult titles! You’ll hear from talented creators, including authors Lydia Corry (Wildflower Emily), Tony Weaver, Jr. (Weirdo), and H.E. Edgmon (The Flicker).
Debut keynote author J. S. Lemon joined live to talk about her fiercely original middle grade novel, Greta. Also, don’t miss National Book Award finalist and 2022 John Steptoe Award recipient Amber McBride, who joined us to reveal the heartrending inspiration behind her new middle grade novel Onyx & Beyond.
Timestamps:
3:39 – Q&A with J. S. Lemon and Joy Peskin
15:49 – Picture Books
26:26 – Middle Grade
30:24 – Weirdo, Tony Weaver
33:04 – The Flicker, H.E. Edgmon
35:45 – Wildflower Emily, Lydia Corry
40:28 – Young Adult
50:33 – Q&A with Amber McBride and Liz Szabla
