If You Want to Read Something Profound

These powerful stories pack an emotional punch.

Speak Up by Miranda Paul and Ebony Glenn

A diverse class of students learn that when something really matters, one voice can make a big difference. Early grades


Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne et al

Poetry is a great medium for social change, and these inspiring poems by poets including Brown, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Olivia Gatwood, will make kids want to express their ideas about justice and injustice through poems and art, too. Early grades


Small Matters by Heather Ferranti Kinser

Powerful images from an electron scanning microscope show how tiny details can make a big difference in this eye-opening picture book. Early grades


Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe by Jo Watson Hackl

Cricket believes she can bring her vanishing mama back if she finds the secret room that featured in so many of her childhood stories — so takes her only clue (a coin from a Mississippi ghost town) and sets off into the woods to find the truth about her family. Middle grades


Sylvia and Aki by Winifred Conkling

Sylvia and Aki faced different kinds of prejudice: Sylvia’s family had to start a legal battle to get her into school, and Aki’s family was relocated to an internment camp during World War Two. By coincidence, Sylvia’s family rents the house that Aki’s family was forced to leave behind. Middle grades


Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Like all of Acevedo’s work, the language in this verse narrative is the star. When their father’s plane crashes, two sisters — one in New York City and one in the Dominican Republic — discover each other’s existence and their father’s double life. High school


Parachutes by Kelly Yang

Class conflict, the Asian diaspora, and rape culture come together in this story about a wealthy international student from Shanghai who rents a room from a Filipino-American family. High school


Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings

In this eerie fairy tale, a rural Australian girl investigates the disappearance of her two older brothers. High school


Lose Your Mother: A Journey along the Atlantic Slave Route by Saidiya Hartman

You may well want to add this chronicle of the author’s journey along a slave route in Ghana to your high school history reading list — it’s a fascinating (and sad) look at a side of history we often gloss over. High school

This was originally published in the summer 2020 HSL reading guide.


Amy Sharony

Amy Sharony is the founder and editor-in-chief of home | school | life magazine. She's a pretty nice person until someone starts pluralizing things with apostrophes, but then all bets are off.

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