February's SJBC theme is "Land, Race, and Acknowledgement," and our meeting will focus on racism in Canada, Indigenous reconciliation, and how we can be better. On Tuesday, February 11th, interested teens should join us at 3:30 pm at our Central branch. Here is a list of suggested titles to get you thinking...
Teen Fiction: The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive after the world is nearly destroyed by global warming and the Indigenous peoples of North America become hunted. It's discovered that they are the only people who have retained the ability to dream and that their bone marrow can provide a cure.
Teen Fiction: Baggage by Wendy Phillips
Thabo has been abandoned at the airport by the "grandmother" who brought him to Canada. He doesn't know anything about her, but before she left she took his papers.
Teen Fiction: Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe
When Norris, a Black French Canadian, starts his junior year at an Austin, Texas, high school, he views his fellow students as clichés from "a bad '90s teen movie."
Teen Fiction: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Teen Fiction: Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 17-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him.
Adult Fiction: Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
Everyone knows a guy like Jared: the burnout kid in high school who sells weed cookies and has a scary mom who's often wasted. Jared is only sixteen but he struggles to keep everything afloat...and sometimes he blacks out. And he puzzles over why his maternal grandmother has never liked him, why she says he's the son of a trickster, that he isn't human. Mind you, ravens speak to him--even when he's not stoned. You think you know Jared, but you don't. (Contains mature themes).
Graphic Novel: This Place: 150 Years Retold by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm et al.
Explore the last 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators. Journey through magic realism, serial killings, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact.
Graphic Novel: A Girl Called Echo by Katherena Vermette
Echo Desjardins, a 13-year-old Métis girl, is struggling with her feelings of loneliness while attending a new school and living with a new foster family. Then an ordinary day in history class turns extraordinary: Echo finds herself transported to another time and place — a bison hunt on the Saskatchewan prairie — then back again to the present.
Non-Fiction: Making It Right: Building Peace, Settling Conflict by Marilee Peters
Relates true stories of young people who are working in innovative ways to further peaceful resolution of conflict and to heal past wounds.
Non-Fiction: Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga
Subtitled Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City. Presents the story of seven Indigenous high school students who died in Thunder Bay, Ontario, from 2010 to 2011. They were sent hundreds of kilometres away from their families because there was no sufficient high school on their reserves.
Non-Fiction: 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act by Robert P. C. Joseph
A guide to understanding the Indian Act and its impact on generations of Indigenous Peoples, as well as an examination of how Indigenous Peoples can return to self-government, self-determination, and self-reliance.
Non-Fiction: White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin J. DiAngelo
Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by such emotions as anger, fear, and guilt and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what can be done to engage more constructively.
Non-Fiction: I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter to My Daughter by David Chariandry
Canadian author David Chariandy writes a letter to his teenage daughter to share with her the story of his life and to talk to her about the politics of race in her world.
Non-Fiction: How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.
