Books for the Summer Olympics

The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Games of the Olympiad, are a major international multi-sport event typically held once every four years. The Games were first held in 1896 in Athens, Greece, and were most recently held in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After a yearlong postponement, the 2021 Summer Olympics are

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U.S. News & World Report Recommends 9 Penguin Random House Titles in Their List of “10 Books to Read Before College”

U.S. News & World Report, which publishes the most widely quoted annual set of rankings for American colleges and universities, recently shared their list of “10 Books to Read Before College.” Describing these books as “assigned texts [that] are regularly used in freshman-level classes and offer students a chance to come together to discuss a

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Comics Education in Conversation: Shiamin Kwa

Shiamin Kwa is Associate Professor and Chair of East Asian Languages and Cultures and Comparative Literature at Bryn Mawr College. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Classical Chinese Literature from Harvard University and her B.A. in English Literature from Dartmouth College. She is the author of Regarding Frames: Thinking with Comics in the Twenty-First Century  (RIT

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Books for LGBTQ+ Pride Month

In June we celebrate Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Pride Month, which honors the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. First, President Bill Clinton declared June “Gay & Lesbian Pride Month” on June 2, 2000. In 2009, President Barack Obama declared June “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.” LGBTQ+ Pride events attract millions

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A Special Message to Educators & Librarians from Michelle Obama

  Former First Lady Michelle Obama has a special and inspiring message for librarians and educators everywhere, thanking them for the invaluable work they do in guiding our nation’s young people to become critical thinkers, engaged citizens, and empathetic leaders. Mrs. Obama’s memoir, Becoming, is now available as a young readers’ edition and in paperback.

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Comics Education in Conversation: Margaret Galvan

Margaret Galvan is Assistant Professor of Visual Rhetoric in the Department of English at the University of Florida. She is finishing a book, In Visible Archives of the 1980s, under contract with the University of Minnesota Press, which examines how publishing practices and archives have shaped understandings of the visual within feminist and queer activism.

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Books for Days of Remembrance

On April 8th, the nation observes Days of Remembrance in an effort to remember the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust as well as honor survivors and pay tribute to liberators. To learn more about Days of Remembrance, click here.   Franci’s War The engrossing memoir of a spirited and glamorous young fashion designer who

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Books for Women’s History Month

March is Women’s History Month, which recognizes the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history in a variety of fields. Beginning as “Women’s History Week,” a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California in 1978, the movement spread across the country as other communities initiated their own Women’s History Week celebrations the following year.

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Penguin Random House ALA Midwinter Award Winners & Honorees for Secondary Education

The American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter announced their 2021 literary award winners and honorees at its virtual annual meeting. Below you can find which Penguin Random House titles appropriate for Middle School and High School students were among the winners.  To see which Elementary School titles were honored, click here. Printz Honor Every Body Looking

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Books for Black History Month

Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. Also known as African American History Month, the event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Find more on the

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Read Kevin Young’s Introduction to African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song

From the introduction:  The Difficult Miracle                                  This is the difficult miracle of Black poetry in America:  that we persist, published or not, and loved or unloved: we persist.                                                                                                 –June Jordan For over 250 years, African Americans have written and recited and published poetry about beauty and injustice, music and muses, Africa and America, freedoms

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A Note to Teachers From Pity the Reader Author Suzanne McConnell

By: Suzanne McConnell As a teacher of fiction writing at Hunter College, I was always on the look-out for a book to use in classes that was instructive but not academic.  I wanted a non-textbook text that was compelling, entertaining, encouraging, and practical – one that delivered helpful news about writing in such a way

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