Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award

Ghost Boys

Jerome is twelve and mostly just a quiet kid, until one day when he is playing with a friend’s toy
gun. A police officer mistakes him for a threat and shoots him. But this isn’t the end of Jerome’s
story. As a ghost, Jerome meets Emmett Till, another boy who was killed in a racially charged
misunderstanding. Jerome learns about Emmett’s life and the aftermath of his own death. Through
the two stories, more questions are asked than answered, in a necessary exploration about the
prejudices of society.

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It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel

Dumas, Firoozeh. It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel

Recently moved to Newport Beach, California, Zomorod Yousefzadeh’s plan for fitting in at her new middle school starts with having an American name, Cindy— like on The Brady Bunch. She dreams of joining the Girl Scouts, making American friends, having a beanbag chair, and fitting in for once. It’s the late 1970s, and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes headlines with protests, a revolution, and finally the taking of American hostages.

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Unbound

Burg, Ann E., Unbound: A Novel in Verse.

Grace’s mamma makes her promise to “keep her eyes down and her mouth closed” when she leaves their slave cabin to work at the big house. Grace cannot remain silent as she witnesses the cruel treatment of slaves at the hands of a heartless missus and master.  Her spoken thoughts trigger a series of events which force Grace to lead her family through the Great Dismal Swamp in search of freedom.

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Full Cicada Moon

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In 1969, twelve-year-old Mimi and her family move to an all-white town in Vermont, where Mimi’s mixed-race background and interest in “boyish” topics like astronomy make her feel like an outsider.

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Night on Fire

ibg.common.titledetail.imageloaderA nuanced and many-layered journey of self-awakening through the eyes of a white girl in small town Alabama in the 1960’s. When Billie hears that the Freedom Riders will be traveling through her town on the way to Montgomery, she begins to question her own beliefs and has to decide whether to remain silent or stand up to her family and speak out against the racism she discovers around her.

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Stella by Starlight

When the Ku Klux Klan’s 9780316381321unwelcome reappearance rattles Stella’s segregated southern town, bravery battles prejudice in this Depression-era story story.  Stella’s community—her world—is upended as she begins to see people in a different light.

 

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