Being a teen in this country can be scary, especially for teens worried about being targeted by the police for their skin color.
All American Boys tell the story of two teens – one white and one black – who learn first hand that racism is still very much alive in their hometown. All sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the store is a bag of chips. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave as resisting arrest, and mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance. But there were witnesses: Quinn Collins and a video camera. And soon the beating is all over the news, and everyone in Quinn and Rashad’s lives are having to choose a side.
The Hate U Give tells the story of Starr Carter, a sixteen-year-old who moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Khalil’s death soon becomes a national headline. Some are calling him a thug. Starr’s best friend at school suggests he may have had it coming. And the police have little interest in investigating the shooting. Protesters all over the country take to the streets, and Starr’s neighborhood becomes the center of the opposition. Everyone wants to know what really went down that night, and the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could destroy her community. It could also endanger her life.
Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil is written by the mother of Michael Brown, an eighteen-year-old who was shot and killed by a police officer in 2014. After the system failed to deliver justice to her son, Lezley McSpadden and thousands of others across America took it upon themselves to carry on his legacy in the fight against injustice and racism. Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil is a portrait of our time, an urgent call to action, and a moving testament to the undying bond between mothers and sons.
When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. Told through Rashad and Quinn’s alternating viewpoints. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby or as eAudio on OverDrive/Libby.
After witnessing her friend’s death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter’s life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died. You can also check out this title as eBook on OverDrive/Libby, as eAudio on OverDrive/Libby, as eBook on Hoopla or as eAudio on Hoopla.
When Michael Orlandus Darrion Brown was born, he was adored and doted on by his aunts, uncles, grandparents, his father, and most of all by his sixteen-year-old mother, who nicknamed him Mike Mike. Lezley McSpadden never imagined that her son’s name would inspire the resounding chants of protestors in Ferguson, Missouri. In Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil, McSpadden picks up the pieces of the tragedy that shook her life and the country to its core, and reveals the unforgettable story of her life, her son, and their truth. This title is also available on Hoopla as an eAudio and on Overdrive as an eBook.