The 2018 In the Margins booklist – a list of books of interest to and partially selected by “youth who are marginalized, on the streets, incarcerated, drug-addicted, or struggle with combinations of these issues” – has been announced! The top winners for this year are
Fiction
Beacon House Writers. The Day Tajon Got Shot. 230p. Shout Mouse Press. March 2017. PB $14.80. 9780996927451.
Young black male, white police officer, tough neighborhood, fear, preconceived ideas and alternating perspectives–all the ingredients for another shooting in America. This time, though, the own-voice authors are ten female students who committed two years of their lives to work on the story’s production, in order to make it clear that Black Lives Matter.
Nonfiction
Porinchak, Eve. One Cut. 256 p. Simon Pulse. May 2017. 241p. HC $19.99. PB. $10.99. 9781481481311.
A good kid dies. Or was he murdered? Or is there more to the story than meets the eye? This book pulls from the true story that sent a white suburb into chaos, opening up the possibility that the good kids aren’t all that they seem.
Social Justice / Advocacy
Ross, Richard. Juvie Talk. 271p. MacArthur Foundation. 2017. PB $24.95. 9780985510626.
Life is a play and we are all the characters. The children who have had their lives affected by the juvenile justice system are also “playing parts that have been written for them by society” (R. Ross). Juvie Talk takes the voices of those youth and allows them to tell their stories. But this book goes further–allowing students and teachers to create plays on the book’s website. Unique, creative and inspirational.
See the press release for the awards list on School Library Journal.
See the full list, including nominees, at the In the Margins site.
Dr. Jeanie Austin 