By Celeste Trimble, Saint Martin’s University
Adult nonfiction titles adapted for young readers are excellent for engaging secondary and even undergraduate students in vital contemporary issues and conversations. This WOW Dozen highlights newer titles that make essential books written for adults accessible to younger readers. Many adaptations include contextual information that is not included in the original version because of assumed prior knowledge. Also, by using more familiar vocabulary or defining unfamiliar language, and other strategies for increasing accessibility, young readers are invited into the essential understandings and concepts from popular adult nonfiction, encouraging intergenerational community dialogue.
-
-
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Monique Gray Smith (adapter) & Nicole Neidhardt (illus.), 9781728458991, Zest Books, 2022.
An Indigenous lesson in how listening to the plants around us can help develop ecological awareness & deep gratitude.
-
-
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Life in Native America by David Treuer & Shiela Keenan (adapter), 9780593203477, Viking Books for Young Readers, 2022.
Personal narratives, well-researched history, & contemporary Indigenous issues are combined to tell a full, complex & compelling story of Native America.
-
-
Disability Visibility: 17 First Person Stories for Today, by Alice Wong (ed.), 9780593381700, Ember, 2023.
17 first-person narratives of people with diverse disability experiences are counternarratives to prevalent disability stereotypes & the rampant silencing & invisiblizing of members of the disability community.
-
-
Rolling Warrior: The Incredible, Sometimes Awkward, True Story of a Rebel Girl on Wheels who Helped Spark a Revolution, by Judith Heumann with Kritin Joiner, 9780807003596, Beacon Press, 2021.
A memoir of Jewish disability rights activist Judish Heumann, who led the longest sit-in protest in US history.
-
-
Never Caught: The Story of Ona Judge, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar & Kathleen Van Cleve (adapter), 9781534416185, Aladdin, 2020.
A woman enslaved by George & Martha Washington plans & executes an escape to New England.
-
-
The Sum of Us: How Racism Hurts Everyone by Heather McGhee, 9780593562628, Delacorte Press, 2023.
This book is a call to action for a new understanding of how racism impacts all people through economic policy & more.
-
-
One Life by Megan Rapino, 9780593203415, Razorbill, 2021.
The memoir of soccer star & queer activist tells the story of her childhood & works to inspire young readers to take action for what they believe in.
-
-
A Queer History of the United States for Young People by Michael Bronski & Richie Chevat (adapter), 9780807056127, Beacon Press, 2019.
A broad history of LGBTQI+ people in the United States over the past 400 years including many biographical narratives.
-
-
Dear America: The Story of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas, 9780062914613, Harper Collins, 2019.
Vargas was brought to the US from the Philippines as a child and hid his illegal immigration status for years as he worked as a journalist.
-
-
Spare Parts: The True Story of Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot and an Impossible Dream, by Joshua Davis & Reyna Grande (adapter), Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 9780374388621, 2023.
Four undocumented Mexican secondary students living in Phoenix, AZ win a national robotics competition despite having few resources.
-
-
Proud: Living my American Dream by Ibtihaj Muhammad, 9780316477048, Little Brown Book for Young Readers, 2019.
A memoir of the Black Muslim American Olympic medalist in fencing.
-
-
We’re In This Together by Linda Sarsour, 9781534439290, Salaam Reads, 2022.
This memoir shares the life events that helped shape Palestinian American Sarsour into an activist, helping to organize one of the largest single day protests in United States history.
WOW Dozen features a list of 12 global books for children and adolescents around a theme, topic, issue or personal favorites. Each Dozen consists of ten newly-published titles with two older “must have” books. Please share or recommend additional books that fit the theme in the comments section or on social media using #WOWDozen. Use the printer icon in the upper left corner of this post to print or save this list as a PDF.
- Themes: Alice Wong, Braiding Sweetgrass, Celeste Trimble, David Treuer, Dear America, Disability Visibility, Erica Armstrong Dunbar, Heartbeat of Wounded Knees, Heather McGhee, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Jose Antonio Vargas, Joshua Davis, Judith Heumann, Kathleen Van Cleve, Kritin Joiner, Linda Sarsour, Megan Rapino, Michael Bronski, Monique Gray Smith, Never Caught, Nicole Neidhardt, One life, Proud: Living My American Dream, Queet History of the United States, Reyna Grande, Richie Chevat, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Rolling Warrior, Shiela Keenan, Spare Parts, Sum of Us, We're In This Together
- Descriptors: WOW Dozen