RaiseThemRighteous: Children's Book Reviews from the Left

I blog about inclusive, socially engaged, children's picture books. I am judging the Cybils Awards for the first time this fall and I'm very excited!

[raisethemrighteous]

Joy Michael Ellison's Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution (2021)

Joy Michael Ellison’s Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution (2021)

Written by Joy Michael Ellison and colorfully illustrated by Teshika Silver, Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution (2021) is a fantastic snapshot of queer activist history. In the picture book, Marsha and Sylvia are often represented walking down a city street, arms linked, a golden halo surrounding them. Marsha has dark-brown skin and flowing honey-colored hair. Sylvia’s skin is light-brown; her…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Rob Sanders' The Fighting Infantryman: The Story of Albert D.J. Cashier, Transgender Civil War Soldier (2020)

Rob Sanders’ The Fighting Infantryman: The Story of Albert D.J. Cashier, Transgender Civil War Soldier (2020)

The Fighting Infantryman: The Story of Albert D.J. Cashier, Transgender Civil War Soldier (2020), written by Rob Sanders and illustrated by Nabi H. Ali, provides young audiences access to a fascinating queer historical figure. Like most picture book biographies, this one begins when the protagonist is a child. As a result, instead of meeting Albert D.J. Cashier on the first page of the book,…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara's RuPaul

Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara’s RuPaul

Little People, Big Dreams’ recent picture book biography, simply called RuPaul, is written by Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara and illustrated by Wednesday Holmes. The cover features a visual trope often found in picture books about transgender characters. A young Ru with short hair wears masculine, albeit flamboyant clothes. The child holds up a mirror. It reflects a pink-cheeked Ru with wavy blond…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Lisa Robinson's Were I Not a Girl: The Inspiring and True Story of Dr. James Barry (2020)

Lisa Robinson’s Were I Not a Girl: The Inspiring and True Story of Dr. James Barry (2020)

“We cannot define the interior life of James Barry. If Barry did identify as another gender—if he was a transgender man as it is understood today—he would not have had the language to say so. But we have his actions, and these reflect someone who lived as a man for nearly half a century and wished to be known as a man after his death. In this way, James Barry is a reminder that LGBTQ+ stories are…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Diary of a Forty-Something First Year Teacher

Diary of a Forty-Something First Year Teacher

Kimberly N. Parker’s Literacy is Liberation rests on the denim-clad legs of a Birkenstock-wearing white woman. A senior dog, likely a Boxer, photo-bombs the awkward image. 5/9/22 Yesterday, I tendered my resignation at the state university I’ve worked at for 10+ years, most recently as a NTT English Lecturer. The lecturer gig pays $35,000 to teach a 5-5 load. Since beginning the position…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

40 % Off The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books

40 % Off The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children’s Picture Books

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Book Mail!

This fall, I’m starting a new chapter in my career. Let’s call it “The Forty-Something First-Year High School Teacher.” I’m almost finished with my teacher certification course work as well as field observations, and I just passed the ELAR 7-12 content test. I’ve had my first interview and received a tentative offer; I have another lined up in a couple weeks. Things are going well, I’m already…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Veronica Chambers and Jennifer Harlan’s Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter (2021)

Veronica Chambers and Jennifer Harlan’s Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter (2021)

Veronica Chambers and Jennifer Harlan’s Call and Response: The Story of Black Lives Matter is an essential overview of the Black Lives Matter movement (2021). The creators bring the movement to life through photographs, timelines, graphics, and accessible text. This is a book that belongs in every library and classroom serving students 10 and up. In the first chapter, readers are introduced to…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

B.B. Alson’s Amari and the Night Brothers (2021)

B.B. Alson’s Amari and the Night Brothers (2021)

B.B. Alson’s Amari and the Night Brothers (Supernatural Investigations, 1) is a fast-paced, high-stakes fantasy novel sure to delight middle-grade readers. I appreciated the myriad moral dilemmas, real-world social critiques, and quirky inclusion of yetis. The magical world-building is tons of fun. There’s so much detail and suspense – wow! Amari Peters, a preteen Black girl, lives in the…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Moses and Gangi’s Kingston and the Magician's Lost and Found (2021)

Moses and Gangi’s Kingston and the Magician’s Lost and Found (2021)

With so many amazing nominations for the Cybils Awards’ Middle-Grade Speculative Fiction category, some of our favorite books are bound to be left off the shortlist. Rucker Moses and Theo Gangi’s Kingston and the Magician’s Lost and Found is that book for me. I fell in love with the characters and the plot. Set in Brooklyn, this story follows three young African American not-quite-teens as they…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Kyle Lukoff’s Too Bright to See (2021)

Kyle Lukoff’s Too Bright to See (2021)

I don’t know if the title of Kyle Lukoff’s debut middle-grade novel Too Bright to See (2021) was inspired by Lesléa Newman’s Too Far Away to Touch (1998), but I sure am curious. Both books explore a child’s relationship with their amazing gay uncle. Both books are haunted by love and loss. However, the ghosts in Too Bright to See actually move things. This book swept me away. I loved the…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

J. P. Miller's Bayard Rustin (2021)

J. P. Miller’s Bayard Rustin (2021)

Bayard Rustin (2021), written by J. P. Miller and illustrated by Markia Jenai, is a Rourke Education Media publication. The press creates texts that align with curriculum standards and primarily promotes to libraries and schools. Bayard Rustin is part of their Leaders Like Us series, which includes biographies of other Black leaders including Henry Louis Gates Jr., Shirley Chisholm, and Rebecca…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Preorder for a GREAT price NOW!

Preorder for a GREAT price NOW!

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Jimmy Matejek-Morris’s My Ex-Imaginary Friend (2021)

Jimmy Matejek-Morris’s My Ex-Imaginary Friend (2021)

Jimmy Matejek-Morris’s My Ex-Imaginary Friend (2021) creatively explores the deliberate silences and painful experiences of invisibility that comprise one young boy’s childhood. Ten-year-old Jack has a part-walrus, part-human imaginary friend named George. The first-person narrative shifts between their point-of-view, which brings their shared experiences of abandonment and shared feelings of…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Eden Royce’s Root Magic (2021)

Eden Royce’s Root Magic (2021)

Eden Royce’s Root Magic (2021) brilliantly balances some of my favorite things: smart social commentary, beautiful writing, and horror. The horror in this middle grade novel is as much a result of the racism that haunts the text as it is the ghouls. Set in rural South Carolina during the 1960s, Royce brings Gullah Geechee language and culture to life for readers. The spiritual practices present…

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Cybils 2021

My adventure as a 2021 Cybils Round One Panelist for the Middle Grade Speculative Fiction Category has begun and I’m already having so much fun! I’m loving Eden Royce’s Root Magic.

View On WordPress

[raisethemrighteous]

Alyssa Bermudez's Big Apple Diaries (2021)

Alyssa Bermudez’s Big Apple Diaries (2021)

Book review by Raise Them Righteous guest blogger Eleanor Hamilton Warren. Eleanor is a 9 year-old reader living in Dallas, TX. This is her first book review for the blog. Big Apple Diaries, by Alyssa Bermudez, is a gripping and interesting graphic memoir about a girl who is experiencing the normal troubles of middle school in Queens. It is set in the time period 2000-2002 and is based on…

View On WordPress