Celebrate Pride Month!

Celebrate Pride Month by reading some great LGBTQ literature!

MMSD's ebook/audiobook platform Sora (also known as OverDrive) has a collection to celebrate Pride Month.  Once you sign in scroll down a bit and you will see a link to the collection: 

You can also click on the collections link from the upper right of the main page, and see this and other collections. 

Recommendations from me: 

The Gravity of Us, by Phil Stamper - I listened to this and thoroughly enjoyed it!  We have it as an audiobook or an ebook on Sora.

I'll Give you the Sun, by Jandy Nelson - I can't tell you how wonderful this book is!  Everyone who I know who has read it, teachers and students, has loved the story and the characters. We have this only available as an ebook. 

If you want some nonfiction I recommend The 57 Bus, by Dashka Slater that tells a story about not only LGBTQ issues, but also about criminal justice. 

Black Lives Matter

Resources for anyone and everyone to check out about the Black Lives Matter movement and how to be antiracist. I'm working everyday to educate myself on the history of racism in America, the systems in place to keep racism going, and how to be a better ally and co-conspirator to Black and brown people and to truly live my life as an antiracist.  

A padlet full of antiracism resources for people of all ages!

From the National Museum of African American History and Culture - information on being antiracist.

If you are a student looking to learn more about race in America and the Black Lives Matter movement, check out this document that tells you how to access books on these topics for free online.

Simmons University has a great list of resources and links on the topic of antiracism. 

A terrific Google Doc of Antiracism Resources listing a variety of articles, shows, movies, books, etc. to read in your journey to be an antiracist.

Here is an interview - you can read and/or listen to it on this website - with Dr. Ibram X Kendi the author of the book How to be an Antiracist. This was published article and listen are from 2019.

Today he (Dr. Kendi) published an article on The Atlantic website entitled: The American Nightmare: To be black and conscious of anti-black racism is to stare in the mirror of your own extinction. This is a powerful piece about some of the history of racism and how we have come to where we are today... June 1, 2020. 

I also highly recommend reading Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds, which is a book adapted for young people of Dr Kendi's scholarly book Stamped:From the Beginning.  Reynolds adaptation is interesting, entertaining, thought provoking and this book will teach you about some of this history you were not taught before... you will learn about the history of racism and you will learn how and why to be an antiracist.  I can't recommend this book enough!  We have it through OverDrive/Sora with MMSD... if you are looking for it and can't get it, let me know and I'll see if I can't hurry that up for you!

Post Edit:  I took many of the resources I have found and created a website for families, students, and educators... although a work in progress and not quite full of content on all pages yet, it has many of the resources that I feel will help us all learn more about being antiracist and the systemic racism that we need to eliminate from our country.