August Book Club

8/2/2021

Baby Books & Picture Books Up to Age 5



Ten Magic Butterflies

By Danica Mckellar

This book mixes magic and math for young children. This is New York Times bestselling author Danica McKellar’s second book, and she sneaks in secret addition and subtraction concepts to help make numbers fun.


We Are Together

By Britta Teckentrup

This beautiful book celebrates the power of love, teamwork, and friendship with vibrant artwork, illustrations and story by award winning author Britta Teckentrup.


Books for Ages 5-8



Roscoe Riley Rules

By Katherine Applegate

Roscoe just can’t help break rules while trying to help in the most hilarious ways in this series by award winning author Katherine Applegate (known also for The One and Only Ivan, Wishtree).


Exquisite - The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks

By Suzanne Slade

A 2021 Coretta Scott King Book Award Illustrator Honor Book A 2021 Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor Book; Gwendolyn Brooks was the first Black per son to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. She is known for her poems about love, family, poverty. This book is a picture book biography exploring her life and the beauty of her writing.


Books for Ages 8-12



Restart

By Gordan Karman

Chase Ambrose was a football star with a lot of friends at his school and also the biggest bully. A fall from a roof wipes out Chase’s memory, and he has to restart his life. Upon returning to school, Chase is puzzled by the differences in the way that others treat him. Some are happy to see him while others steer clear of him. Can Chase figure out who he was before?


The Journey of Little Charlie

By Christopher Paul Curtis

The narrator is Charlie Bobo, the 12-year-old son of a white sharecropper, whose family can’t catch a break: “In life, there was good luck followed by no luck, followed by bad luck, followed by tragical luck, followed by the luck of the Bobos.” This is a tense, powerful novel of boy and slave catcher in 1858.


Books for Middle-Schoolers & Tweens



Finding Mighty

By Sheela Chari

Along the train lines north of New York City, twelve-year-old neighbors Myla and Peter search for the link between Myla’s necklace and the disappearance of Peter’s brother, Randall.


Harbor Me

By Jacqueline Woodson

In her first middle-grade novel since Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories in a safe space, covering topics from deportation to incarceration.


Books for  Young Adults



Feathers

By Jacqueline Woodson

This historical novel was first published in 2007. The story is about a sixth-grade girl named Frannie growing up in the '70s. One day an unexpected new student causes much chaos to the class because he is the only white boy in the whole school.


Additional Resources


Inclusive History of the USA

  • Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West - By Dee Brown
  • Crossing the Danger Water: Three Hundred Years of African-American Writing - Edited by Deirdre Mullane
  • March: Books 1-3: A Book Series about the Civil Rights Movement - By John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, & Nate Powell
  • My Soul Is Rested: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South - By Howell Raines
  • Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 - By Taylor Branch
  • The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America - By Richard Rothstein
  • The Fire Next Time - By James Baldwin
  • The New Jim Crow - By Michelle Alexander
  • The Warmth of Other Suns - By Isabel Wilkerson
  • The 1619 Project from the New York Times (also a Podcast)

 These books are merely suggestions from COPC and not an endorsement. Our aim is to foster empathy, and some of the books, as in life, may deal with new or touchy subjects, which in our minds provides the perfect opportunity for family discussions with the developing child in a loving safe environment. 

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