Be loving enough
to absorb evil
and understanding enough
to turn an enemy into a friend. –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

When books are selected for the Massachusetts Children’s Book Award Program, the selection committee carefully considers genre, the quality of the writing, and the inclusion of a variety of cultural groups. As I look at the list every year and introduce them to children, I discuss each book’s uniqueness. I also point out similarities in style or theme. Two of this year’s nominated books are written in verse, but that isn’t the important similarity. The protagonists in the books must learn to navigate in a society that often discriminates against them. They work to turn prejudice into acceptance.

Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton (Penguin) is a novel written in first person. The narrator, a young girl, has moved with her family to Vermont. Her heritage is half-black and half-Japanese, and in 1969, Vermont was mostly white. Mimi Yoshiko Oliver finds out that to answer her classmates’ and adults’ questions about “what she is”, she needs to figure out “who she is”. Mimi defies stereotypes, and she also wants to be an astronaut, an opportunity that wasn’t open to women at that time.

brown girl dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (Penguin) is also written in first person, and it is an autobiography. This book has already received numerous awards, among them was a commendation as a Newbery Honor Book. Woodson writes about living in South Carolina and Brooklyn, New York. Her family were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and she experienced racial and religious discrimination. For me, one of her most poignant selections is “because we’re witnesses”.

because we’re witnesses

No Halloween.
No Christmas.
No birthday.
Even when
other kids laugh as we leave the classroom
just as the birthday cupcakes arrive
we pretend we do not see the chocolate frosting,
pretend we do not want
to press our fingertips against
each colorful sprinkle and lift them,
one by sweet one
to our mouths.

No voting.
No fighting.
No cursing.
No wars.

We will never go to war.

We will never taste the sweetness of a classroom
birthday cupcake
We will never taste the bitterness of a battle.