2024
Education for Mission
THE BOOK of ROSY: A MOTHER’S STORY of SEPARATION at the BORDER -
Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie This wrenching story shares the plight of the many families separated at the United States and Mexico border. Here, Rosayra “Rosy” Pablo Cruz pens her agonizing tale of seeking asylum in the U.S. after fleeing her home country of Guatemala with her two young boys. After the brutal journey, they arrived at the Arizona border—only to be seized and forcibly separated under the Department of Homeland Security’s new “zero tolerance” policy. She shares her painful but inspiring story about the cruelty of detention and the unbearable agony of being separated from her children in a strange land. |
THE DEATH and LIFE of AIDA HERNANDEZ: A BORDER STORY - Aaron Bobrow-Strain
This book tells the story of a Mexican teen mother, Aida, journeying through the U.S. immigration system and the obstacles she faces. Aida was born in Mexico in 1987. When Aida was 8 years old, her mother took her and her siblings to live in Arizona, where she grew up undocumented. After her deportation, Aida found herself in a Mexican city marked by violence, in a country not hers, and separated from her son. To get back to the United States and reunite with her son, she embarked on a harrowing journey, enduring detention centers, immigration courts, and more. |
Leadership Development
BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY: A MEMOIR - Qian Julie Wang
Seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York full of curiosity—and overwhelmed by fear and scarcity. While in Chinese, the word for America translates to “beautiful country,” her new life is anything but beautiful. Formerly professors, now Qian’s parents labor in sweatshops and fight constantly, desperate to survive in poverty in the richest country in the world. Shunned by her classmates for her limited English, Qian turns to books—and small joys that keep her going. This New York Times bestseller reveals a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light. |
I AM a GIRL FROM AFRICA: A MEMOIR of POWER, COMMUNITY and HOPE -
Aelizabeth Nyamayaro When she was eight years old, a severe drought hit Nyamayaro’s village in Zimbabwe. Unable to move from hunger and malnourishment, she encountered a United Nations aid worker who gave her a bowl of warm porridge and saved her life—a transformative moment that inspired her to dedicate herself to giving back to her community, continent, and world. Nyamayaro’s incredible memoir takes readers from the near-death experience of an African girl to a lifelong dedication to real change. It is a story of persevering through great odds and finding one’s true calling while delivering an important message of hope, empowerment, and interdependence. |
Nurturing Community
A LITTLE PIECE of LIGHT: A MEMOIR of HOPE, PRISON and LIFE UNBOUND - Donna Hylton
Donna Hylton’s early life was a nightmare of abuse. In 1986, she took part in a horrific act and was sentenced to 25 years to life for kidnapping and second-degree murder. This tells the tale of her journey back to life as she faced the truth about the crime that locked her away for 27 years, as well as the family she found inside prison that ultimately saved her. Alongside this generation’s most infamous criminals, she learned to fight, then thrive. Since her release in 2012, she has emerged as a leading advocate for criminal justice reform and women’s rights. |
CRYING in H MART: A MEMOIR - Michelle Zauner
This memoir spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list. Penned by Michelle Zauner, the Korean American indie rockstar behind the solo musical act Japanese Breakfast, the book explores family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American. Particularly, it addresses mother-daughter relationships, as it was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal cancer when Michelle was 25 that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her. |
Social Action
RUNNING - Natalia Sylvester * Suitable for youth
When 15-year-old Cuban American Mariana Ruiz’s father runs for president, Mari starts to see him with new eyes. In this debut novel about privacy, waking up, and speaking up, her father’s presidential campaign brings a new level of scrutiny to sheltered Mariana and the rest of her family, from a 60 Minutes-style tour of their house to tabloids doctoring photos and inventing scandals. As tensions rise within the Ruiz family, Mari realizes her father is not the man she thought he was. But how do you find your voice when everyone’s watching? |
THE NICKEL BOYS / LOS CHICOS DE NICKEL - Colson Whitehead
When Elwood Curtis, a Black boy in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, the world is crooked, and the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands, The Nickel Boys dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced. |
Spiritual Growth
GLORY in the MARGINS: SUNDAY POEMS - Nikki Grimes
This collection of poetry from New York Times bestselling author and poet Nikki Grimes explores the many hours Jesus spent with people in the margins. In the book of Job, a suffering man pours out his anguish to his Maker. From the depths of his pain, he reveals a trust in God’s goodness stronger than his despair, giving humanity some of the most beautiful and poetic verses of all time. Grimes’ poetry reflects a spirit of unvarnished honesty and tenacious hope. Her collection is a gentle, beautiful and provocative collection that opens up Scripture in a fresh and welcome way. |
LAND of SILENCE - Tessa Afshar
Before she stole healing by touching the hem of his garment, Elianna was a young girl crushed by guilt. After her only brother is killed in her care, Elianna tries to earn forgiveness by working for her father’s textile trade and caring for her family. When another tragedy places Elianna in sole charge of the business, her talent for design brings enormous success, but never absolution. Then illness strikes, isolating Elianna from everyone and stripping everything she has left. No physician can cure her—until she hears whispers of a man whose mere touch can heal. |