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Mar 22, 2021

Wrapping up my links to 2021 NOTABLE TRADE BOOKS for YOUNG READERS from NCSS: Grades 6-12

 Rather than repeat what that title is all about, check out my first post, featuring titles for grades K-2, HERE. Then move right along for a look at the titles for grades 3-5, HERE. While you're on those pages you'll see what a wealth of resources and recommendations result from this annual listing from an expert curating team of members of National Council of Social Studies. I'm always pleased to see how many of the featured titles have been among ones I've read, reviewed, and recommended in the prior year. (Smug? Certainly not! Simply happy to see them celebrated with wider audiences than I could ever reach. Maybe just a bit smug.) 

I'm even more thrilled to find acclaimed titles from the past year that I somehow missed, which accounts for a couple of follow-on posts on new favorites as my library hold list came through for me (HERE and HERE). 

These books include very few picture books, but in many cases I could immediately recall one or more picture books related to these content/topic. Several are in Graphic Novel/Nonfiction format, giving many of them the visual narrative advantage and accessibility of picture books. For anyone with your own children, grandchildren, students, or even adults you know who may have an interest in the subject matter, this is a list of potential titles to read, discuss, and share. At the risk of sounding like a broken record (does anyone even remember what that figure of speech refers to?) there are many important books on the previous lists for "younger" grades that offer deep and important content for readers in these older grades.


Bold color highlight of a few titles below will link to reviews of mine.

SIXTH TO EIGHTH GRADE

Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier. Jim Ottaviani. lllus. Maris Wicks. 176pp. ISBN 9781626728776. Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / First Second. 6-8     Graphic Novel format, nonfiction

Big Ideas For Young Thinkers: 20 Questions About Life and the Universe. Jamia Wilson. lllus. Andrea Pippins. 64pp. ISBN 9780711258358. Quarto Group / Wide Eyed Editions. 6-8   Nonfiction picture book, 60 pages, Q/A explorations about justice, freedom, bias, and other big ideas.

BOX: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom. Carole Boston Weatherford. lllus. Michele Wood. 56pp. ISBN 9780763691561. Candlewick Press. 6-8 (Picture book, stallion my library HOLD list)

Displacement. Kiku Hughes. 288pp. ISBN 9781250193537. Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / First Second. 6-8  Graphic Format version of a Japanese Internment camp story.

Fish Out of Water. Joanne Levy. 144pp. ISBN 9781459826595.Orca Book Publishers. 6-8 

History Comics: The Challenger Disaster: Tragedy in the Skies. Pranas T. Naujokaitis. 128pp.  ISBN 9781250174291. Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / First Second. 6-8

Mighty Justice (Young Readers’ Edition): The Untold Story of Civil Rights Trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree. Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Katie McCabe. 208pp. ISBN 9781250229007. Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / Roaring Brook Press. 6-8

Normal: One Kid’s Extraordinary Journey. Magdalena Newman and Nathaniel Newman. lllus. Neil Swaab. 336pp. ISBN 9781328631831. Houghton Miin Harcourt / HMH Books for Young Readers. 6-8

On the Horizon. Lois Lowry. lllus. Kenard Pak. 80pp. ISBN 9780358129400. Houghton Miin Harcourt / HMH Books for Young Readers. 6-8  Novel in Verse, Hawaii, Pearl Harbor

Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation. Candy J. Cooper and Marc Aronson. 256pp. ISBN 9781547602322. Bloomsbury Children’s Books. 6-8

Powwow: A Celebration through Song and Dance. Karen Pheasant-Neganigwane. 88pp. ISBN 9781459812345. Orca Book Publishers. 6-8

Radium Girls: Young Readers’ Edition: The Scary but True Story of the Poison that Made People Glow in the Dark. Kate Moore. 432pp. ISBN 9781728209470. Sourcebooks Explore. 6-8

A Sporting Chance: How Ludwig Guttmann Created the Paralympic Games. Lori Alexander. lllus. Allan Drummond. 128pp. ISBN 9781328580795. Houghton Miin Harcourt / HMH Books for Young Readers. 6-8

Strongman: The Rise of Five Dictators and the Fall of Democracy. Kenneth C. Davis. 272pp. ISBN 9781250205643. Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / Henry Holt BYR. 6-8

The Sufragist Playbook: Your Guide to Changing the World. Lucinda Robb and Rebecca Roberts. 160pp. ISBN 9781536210330. Candlewick Press. 6-8

We Are Power: How Nonviolent Activism Changes the World. Todd Hasak-Lowy. 320pp. ISBN 9781419741111. ABRAMS / Abrams Books for Young Readers. 6-8

The Woman’s Hour (Adapted for Young Readers): Our Fight for the Right to Vote. Elaine Weiss. 224pp. ISBN 9780593125182. Random House Children’s Books / Random House BFYR. 6-8

Chance: Escape from the Holocaust. Uri Shulevitz. 336pp. ISBN 9780374313715. Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR. 6-12

Go With the Flow. Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann. lllus. Lily Williams. 336pp. ISBN 9781250305725. Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / First Second. 6-12

Street of Storytellers. Doug Wilhelm. 230pp. ISBN 9781578690169. Rootstock Publishing. 6-12

Strong Voices: Fifteen American Speeches Worth Knowing. Tonya Bolden. lllus. Eric Valasquez. 128pp.ISBN 9780062572042. HarperCollins Children’s Books. 6-12

We Are Not Free. Traci Chee. 400pp. ISBN 9780358131434. Houghton Miin Harcourt / HMH Books for Young Readers. 6-12

Yes No Maybe So. Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed. 448pp. ISBN 9780062937049. HarperCollins Children’s Books / Balzer + Bray. 6-12


NINTH TO TWELFTH GRADE

Atomic Women: The Untold Stories of the Scientists Who Helped Create the Nuclear Bomb. Roseanne Montillo. 272pp. ISBN 9780316489591. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 9-12

Call Me American (Adapted for Young Adults): The Extraordinary True Story of a Young Somali Immigrant. Abdi Nor Iftin. 272pp. ISBN 9781984897114. Random House Children’s Books / Delacorte BFYR. 9-12

Cat I Never Named, The: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival. Amra Sabic-El-Rayess and Laura L. Sullivan. 384pp. ISBN 9781547604531. Bloomsbury YA. 9-12

Dear Justyce. Nic Stone. 288pp. ISBN 9781984829665. Random House Children’s Books / Crown BFYR. 9-12 The Degenerates. J. Albert Mann. 288pp. ISBN 9781534419353Simon & Schuster / Atheneum BFYR. 9-12  Sequel to DEAR MARTIN

Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From. Jennifer De Leon. 336pp. ISBN 9781534438248. Simon & Schuster / Atheneum / Caitlyn Dlouhy Books. 9-12

Don’t Read the Comments. Eric Smith. 368pp. ISBN 9781335016027. Harlequin Trade Publishing / Inkyard Press. 9-12

Finding a Way Home: Mildred and Richard Loving and the Fight for Marriage Equality. Larry Dane Brimner. 112pp. ISBN 9781629797519. Boyds Mills & Kane / Calkins Creek. 9-12

Grown. Tiany D. Jackson. 384pp. ISBN 9780062840356. HarperCollins Children’s Books / Katherine Tegen Books. 9-12

Heads Up: Changing Minds on Mental Health. Melanie Siebert. lllus. Belle Wuthrich. 192pp. ISBN 9781459819115. Orca Book Publishers. 9-12

Jane Against the World: Roe v. Wade and the Fight for Reproductive Rights. Karen Blumenthal. 400pp. ISBN 9781626721654. Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / Roaring Brook Press. 9-12

No True Believers. Rabiah York Lumbard. 304pp. ISBN 9780525644255. Random House Children’s Books / Crown BFYR. 9-12

Parachutes. Kelly Yang. 496pp. ISBN 9780062941084. HarperCollins Children’s Books / Katherine Tegen Books. 9-12

Running. Natalia Sylvester. 336pp. ISBN 9780358124351. Houghton Miin Harcourt / Clarion Books. 9-12 Saving Savannah. Tonya Bolden. 272pp. ISBN 9781681198040. Bloomsbury YA. 9-12

Stamped: Racism Antiracism and You. Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. 320pp. ISBN 9780316453691. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 9-12

This Is My America. Kim Johnson. 416pp. ISBN 9780593118764. Random House BFYR. 9-12
This Light Between Us: A Novel of World War II. Andrew Fukuda. 384pp. ISBN 9781250192387. 

Unrig: How to Fix Our Broken Democracy (World Citizen Comics). Daniel G. Newman. lllus. George O’Connor. 288pp. ISBN 9781250295309. Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / First Second. 9-12   Accessible and important nonfiction Graphic Novel

What I Carry. Jennifer Longo. 336pp. ISBN 9780553537710. Random House Children’s Books / Random House BFYR. 9-12

When They Call You a Terrorist (Young Adult Edition): A Story of Black Lives Matter and the Pow- er to Change the World. Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Asha Bandele, and Benee Knauer. 272pp. ISBN 9781250194985. Macmillan Publishers / Wednesday Books. 9-12


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