The books Southern indie booksellers are recommending to readers everywhere!

Prejudice & Racism

I am Ruby Bridges by Ruby Bridges

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I am Ruby Bridges by Ruby Bridges
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Elementary school. Ruby tells her story, as she experienced it, when she was just six years old. Adapted for the youngest readers, this edition has beautiful illustrations that demonstrate Ruby’s words. There is a glossary to help children learn key terms. For older readers, the author and illustrator have included their own personal notes of what inspired this version. This is an excellent book to help encourage family discussions about America’s history of education. This is a children’s book. It is told from the eyes of a child. It is illustrated showing the world through a child’s eye. It is beautiful! I loved Ruby’s sass, especially when it came to her very old name. I loved her innocence and her spunk. She is, indeed, Ruby Bridges, the First!

I am Ruby Bridges by Ruby Bridges, (List Price: $18.99, Orchard Book, 9781338753882, September 2022)

Reviewed by Nicole McManus, My Sister’s Books in Pawley’s Island, South Carolina

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Gender Identity for Kids by Andy Passchier

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Darkhearts by James L. Sutter
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This fun and educational book by Andy Passchier helps kids understand the importance of understanding, respecting, and being kind towards everyone and understanding yourself with fun characters, illustrations, and more! This is a great book for young and old, people who already know a thing or two about the subject but want to learn more, people who know nothing at all, and people who know all about it. You are sure to enjoy this helpful guide to being and knowing yourself, and you most likely will learn something from it.

Gender Identity for Kids by Andy Passchier, (List Price: 15.99, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 9780316411226, June 2023)

Reviewed by Adah Fitzgerald, Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina

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Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed

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Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed
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Ahmed masterfully weaves together so many difficult topics that it’s hard to say what this book is about in any concise way. It’s painful, it’s beautiful, it’s haunting. It shines a light on horrific topics with sensitivity and grace and does so through the lens of two characters that are some of the most realistic I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Safiya didn’t really know Jawad, and she still felt the pain of his loss deeply. Upon finishing this book, I too feel his loss as if I knew him. I cannot remember ever reading a book so impactful, so relevant, and so emotionally gripping. If I had my way, everyone would read this book

Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed, (List Price: $18.99, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 9780316282642, May 2022)

Reviewed by tee arnold, Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina

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Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide

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Ace of Spades
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At the start of senior year, Devon and Chiamaka are two high-achieving students–prefects, in fact–with promising futures. But soon, mass text messages start going around the school telling their darkest secrets, and start to drive their friendships and all of the hard work they’ve done over the past four years apart. Are Chiamaka and Devon only coincidentally victims of Aces? Or does the anonymous bully targeting the only two Black students at Niveus Academy have a deeper, more disturbing motive? Àbíké-Íyímídé’s thriller brings the psychological subterfuge and toxic relationships of high school social life to light, as two seniors attempt to figure out whether or not their downfall is their own, or a result of a sinister conspiracy.

Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide (List Price: $18.99, Feiwel & Friends, 9781250800817, 6/1/2021)

Reviewed by Cat Chapman, Oxford Exchange in Tampa, Florida

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The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris

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The Cost of Knowing
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Alex is a teenager with a secret–he can see the future when he touches objects and people. Sometimes it’s mundane, like seeing him put on his own shoes, and sometimes it’s devastating, like seeing his little brother Isaiah’s gravestone. Alex knows he probably can’t change the future, can’t stop all the ways death might come for his brother–especially in a neighborhood gripped with racial tension–but maybe he has time to connect with Isaiah before he loses him for good. This book will gut you in all the right ways.

The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris (List Price: $18.99, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 9781534445451, 4/6/2021)

Reviewed by Kate Towery, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia

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