LibGuides: The Big Read: 2020-2021 High School Big Read

August

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
Call Number: 363.25 SLA
Publication Date: 2017
If it weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment.

A Tale of Two Oaklands Colliding on 'The 57 Bus'
An interview with author Dashka Slater.
The Fire on the 57 Bus in Oakland
This article from the New York Times was written shortly after the event happened.

September

Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
Call Number: B Anderson
Publication Date: 2019
(Laurie Halse Anderson will visit AES in October.) Anderson shares reflections, rants, and calls to action woven between deeply personal stories from her life that she's never written about before. Searing and soul-searching, this important memoir is a denouncement of our society's failures and a love letter to all the people with the courage to say #MeToo and #TimesUp, whether aloud, online, or only in their own hearts.

Laurie Halse Anderson's official website

October

Proud (Young Readers Edition) by Ibtihaj Muhammad
Call Number: B MUHAMMAD
Publication Date: 2018
At the 2016 Olympic Games, Ibtihaj Muhammad smashed barriers as the first American to compete wearing hijab, and she made history as the first Muslim American woman to win a medal. But before she was an Olympian, activist, and entrepreneur, Ibtihaj was a young outsider trying to find her place. Growing up in suburban New Jersey, Ibtihaj was often the only African American Muslim student in her class.

They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
Publication Date: 2019
Actor, author, and activist George Takei recounts his childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps for Japanese Americans during World War II and the impact the experience had on his later life.

Review: George Takei’s ‘They Called Us Enemy’ shows injustice through a child’s eyes

Welcome to The Big Read!

For the 20/21 Big Read, students and faculty will have a chance to read a variety of nonfiction books that feature teens/young adults.

Books were selected to promote a diversity of voices and a variety of formats.
The library will have multiple copies of each of the books for students and faculty to borrow. Most are also available on Sora.
Participants are welcome to read just one book or read several.
Students can choose to attend book discussions and activities during homebase. Students not participating in the Big Read will continue with regular homebase activities.
Discussions and events will be held throughout the school year, and participants can read the books at any time. The month listed with each book title is to indicate when one of the homebase book discussions will be held.
The goals of the Big Read: to promote reading and build community.

November

Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran
Publication Date: 2020
In this coming-of-age memoir told through the themes of great books such as The Metamorphosis, The Scarlet Letter, The Iliad, and more, Tran navigates the push and pull of finding and accepting himself despite the challenges of immigration, feelings of isolation, and teenage rebellion, all while attempting to meet the rigid expectations set by his immigrant parents.

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Call Number: GRAPHIC F KROSOCZKA
Publication Date: 2018
In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life. His father is a mystery -- Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents -- two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along. Hey, Kiddo is a profoundly important memoir about growing up in a family grappling with addiction, and finding the art that helps you survive.

December

Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers
Publication Date: 2019
Deceptively simple in both its visuals and narrative, Hot Comb reflects on growing up black with a combination of humor and biting rage. Its throughline is hair – Ebony Flowers shows how hair is the nucleus of every African American girl’s self-image, an ever-present and ever-shifting symbol of difference, mutability, glamour and even the power of capitalism. It’s a thread running through stories of coping with overworked parents, racist classmates and pushy strangers. Flowers’ intuitive, unruly drawing style gives her lighter anecdotes gonzo verve and her darker stories immediacy.

January

Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos
Call Number: B GANTOS
Publication Date: 2004
In the summer of 1971, Jack Gantos was an aspiring writer looking for adventure, cash for college tuition, and a way out of a dead-end job. For ten thousand dollars, he recklessly agreed to help sail a sixty-foot yacht loaded with a ton of hashish from the Virgin Islands to New York City, where he and his partners sold the drug until federal agents caught up with them. For his part in the conspiracy, Gantos was sentenced to serve up to six years in prison. In Hole in My Life, this prizewinning author of over thirty books for young people confronts the period of struggle and confinement that marked the end of his own youth.

The official Jack Gantos website
Newbery Medal Winner Jack Gantos Plays Not My Job
This is hilarious and worth a listen!

February

Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs
Call Number: B BRENNAN-JOBS
Publication Date: 2018
A frank, smart and captivating memoir by the daughter of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Born on a farm and named in a field by her parents--artist Chrisann Brennan and Steve Jobs--Lisa Brennan-Jobs's childhood unfolded in a rapidly changing Silicon Valley. When she was young, Lisa's father was a mythical figure who was rarely present in her life. As she grew older, her father took an interest in her, ushering her into a new world of mansions, vacations, and private schools. His attention was thrilling, but he could also be cold, critical and unpredictable.

March

Unbecoming by Anuradha Bhagwati
Call Number: 306.76 BHA
Publication Date: 2019
A raw, unflinching memoir by a former US Marine captain chronicling her journey from dutiful daughter of immigrants to radical activist effecting historic policy reform.After a lifetime of buckling to the demands of her strict Indian parents, Anuradha Bhagwati abandons her grad school career in the Ivy League to join the Marines - the fiercest, most violent, most masculine branch of the military - determined to prove herself there in ways she couldn’t at home.

A Former Marine Looks Back on Her Life in a Male-Dominated Military
From the New York Times

April

Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir by Yashica Dutt
Call Number: INDIA 305.568 DUT
Publication Date: 2019
Dalit student Rohith Vemula’s tragic suicide in January 2016 started many charged conversations around caste-based discrimination in universities in India. For Yashica Dutt, a journalist living in New York, this was the moment to stop living a lie, and admit to something that she had hidden from friends and colleagues for over a decade—that she was Dalit. In Coming Out as Dalit, Dutt recounts the exhausting burden of living with the secret and how she was terrified of being found out.

May

I Was Their American Dream by Malaka Gharib
Publication Date: 2019
Drawing comics with characters of diverse races is a fraught task. It’s supremely difficult to make race visible without reinscribing stereotypes, so Malaka Gharib’s strategy is usually to not draw race at all. In her pages, a Korean American looks pretty much the same as a white person. Not that Gharib thinks everyone’s all alike – quite the opposite. She argues that it’s not color, but culture that makes a person. Gharib fills her book with the things that do matter: the beliefs, values, food, music and experiences that make an Egyptian Filipino American (and NPR editor) who she is.