Reloading the Canon

Posted August 28, 2019
By Ed. Magazine

Looking for new books to offer your students that might offer other perspectives? Us too. So we asked Pamela Mason, M.A.T.’70, Ed.D.’75, senior lecturer and director of the Ed School’s Language and Literacy Program (along with librarian Adrienne Almeida) and Jabari Sellars, Ed.M.’18, middle school English teacher in Washington, D.C., for some new ideas. Here’s what they recommended:

American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang)
America: The Life and Times of America Chavez (Gabby Rivera)
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Benjamin Alire Sáenz)
Born Confused (Tanuja Desai Hidier)
Brown Girl Dreaming (Jacqueline Woodson)
Children of Blood and Bone (Tomi Adeyemi)
Finding Langston (Lesa Cline- Ransome)
Hey, Kiddo (Jarrett Krosoczka)
It’s Not Like It’s Secret (Misa Sugiura)
Kindred and Kindred, a graphic novel adaptation (Octavia Butler)
Miles Morales: Spider-Man (Jason Reynolds)
Prince of Cats (Ron Wimberly)
Some People, Some Other Place (J. California Cooper)
Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller)
Swing or Rebound (Kwame Alexander)
Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers (various authors)
The 57 Bus (Dashka Slater)
The Marrow Thieves (Cherie Dimaline)
Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston)
This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story in the Fight for School Equality (Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy)
Toil & Trouble (Mairghread Scott)
Your Black Friend (Ben Passmore)