Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2022) Nominations Round-Up, Summer

Each quarter, the Selected Lists teams compile the titles that have been officially nominated to date. These books have been suggested by the team or through the title suggestion form, read by multiple members of the team, and received approval to be designated an official nomination. At the end of the year, the final list of nominations and each Selected List’s Top Ten will be chosen from these titles.


Across the Tracks: Remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre. By Alverne Ball. Art by Stacey Robinson. Abrams/Megascope, $15.99 (9781419755170).

Greenwood—also known as Black Wall Street—was a bustling district in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with many successful Black-owned businesses. In 1921, a white mob descended on Greenwood, destroying businesses and devastating the community. One hundred years later, Across the Tracks pays homage to Greenwood.

Alone. By Megan E. Freeman. 2020. Penguin Random House/Crown, $17.99 (9780593176399).

Maddie finds herself completely, totally alone when she wakes up from a secret sleepover and discovers that everyone was evacuated overnight from her town, her state, and maybe her whole half of the country. She has to survive natural disasters, the elements, looters, wild animals, and her own crushing loneliness.

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Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2022) Featured Review of Take Back the Block by Chrystal D. Giles

Take Back the Block Cover Art

Take Back the Block by Chrystal D. Giles
Random House Books for Young Readers/Penguin Random House 
Publication Date: January 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0593175170

Wes is very familiar with two things in life: accompanying his parents to protests and loving his neighborhood. When a real estate developer rolls into Kensington Oaks offering to buy their homes, Wes and his friends must take things into their own hands to fight back against an issue even greater than they imagined. 

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