BOOKS: AGES 13+
The Hate U Give
by Angie Thomas
This story is about sixteen-year-old Starr Carter, who watched her best friend, Khalil, get shot by a police officer without reason. As Starr lives between two worlds: a poor neighborhood and the privileged, fancy preparatory school she attends, she will need to speak out for her people's rights, along with her family's and Khalil's.
The Giver
by Lois Lowry
A futuristic dystopia about a boy named Jonas who lives in a society without sadness or crime. In this society, children who reach the age of 12 are assigned to specific jobs. Every choice is decided for a person. It's up to Jonas to put a stop to it and regain freedom.
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
by Langston Hughes
This collection comprises over 800 poems spanning five decades of Langston Hughes’ career, and it is the definitive sampling of a writer called the poet laureate of African America. This body of work reflects the variety of the American experience as well as the diversity of thoughts and dreams Hughes saw common to all human beings.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
Henrietta Lacks, a poor black tobacco farmer, was known to scientists as HeLa. Her cancer cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951 and have since been used as one of the most important tools in medicine. The HeLa cell line was vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning and gene mapping. These cells have been bought and sold by the billions. Henrietta’s story is told at the intersection of ethics, race and medicine.
Kindred
by Octavia E Butler
Dana, a young writer, is transported in time and space between her California home in 1976 and a pre-Civil War plantation in Maryland. She meets her ancestors and becomes entangled with the plantation community. Dana makes hard choices to survive slavery and return safely to her own time.