Youth Development Summer Media List 2020
with contributions from education researchers and other youth development enthusiasts
For six years, our staff have generated an annual multi-genre reading list to share books that have encouraged our own self-renewal as it pertains to a subject we all take to heart: youth development. This year, we are expanding the concept to include other forms of media, like podcasts, television shows, and documentaries.
Books
Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer Eberhardt
Penned by a Stanford psychologist, this book takes an investigative, scientific, and personal approach to exposing racial bias in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and criminal justice system. The author offers tools and language to address the persistent problems of inequity and disparity in our society.
Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond
Rooted in neuroscience research, this book puts forth a groundbreaking approach for educators to provide instruction that is both culturally responsive and compatible with the way the brain processes information. Here you will find ten “key moves” that can better prepare students to become independent learners, as well as prompts for self-reflection and action.
Educating Latino Boys: An Asset Based Approach by David Campos
This book highlights culturally shared experiences of Latino boys, the problems of systematic exclusion and disengagement, and the power of culturally responsive practices. It operates as a how-to guide. How do we interrupt these troubling trends from a strength-based approach?
Fiebre Tropical: A Novel by Juli Delgado Lopera
In multilingual and irreverent prose, an observant teenage protagonist chronicles her family’s early experiences upon having moved to Miami, Florida from Bogotá, Colombia. Much of the action is set in an evangelical church community, where Francisca explores family, faith, longing, and queer romance in a sharp, clever voice you won’t soon forget.
How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Ibram X. Kendi interweaves memoir, history, theory, and cultural criticism to examine the ways that racism manifests in our systems and in ourselves. This vital and timely book encourages readers to make actionable choices to contribute to a just and equitable society.
Middle-class students secure advantages in school, not only by complying with teachers’ expectations, but also by requesting (and successfully attaining) extra support. Following a group of middle- and working-class students from third to seventh grade, this book traces this pattern from its origins at home to its consequences in the classroom.
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
The protagonist of this middle-grade novel is Ivan, an easygoing, artistic, and melancholy silverback gorilla who has lived in captivity for 27 years. When Ivan befriends Ruby, a baby elephant taken from the wild, he must come to terms with their shared legacy of trauma and the need to experience kinship and belonging.
This necessary book draws on a four-year longitudinal study in which the authors engaged with more than 300 students of color in five urban high schools. Through vivid portraits, learn how educators can support Black and Latinx young people in developing their critical consciousness and analyzing, navigating, and challenging racial injustice.
This author’s mother named her son Sir so that everyone would address him with a title of respect regardless of the power relations he would encounter as a black man in society. Deeply rooted in the history of Louisville, Kentucky, this multigenre memoir combines family narrative, archival materials, and poetry to explore inter-generational motherhood, sense of belonging, gender, and race.
This book offers an in-depth profile of an ambitious full-service community school district in Oakland, California. The authors explore a nearly ten-year effort to transform all 86 schools in the district into community schools in order to better meet the academic and personal needs of all students.
You Can’t Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson
In this insightful series of personal essays, stand-up comedian Phoebe Robinson discusses race, gender, and pop culture through a feminist lens. Listen to the audio book to get a sense of Robinson’s considerable wit and humor in her own voice.
This coming-of-age novel follows a young boy who was born with a genetic facial anomaly as he transitions from home school to prep school in the fifth grade. Told from multiple points of view, it highlights how one community grapples with difference, empathy, friendship, and kindness.
Film & Television
This gripping ten-part docu-series was filmed during the 2015–16 school year in the mostly affluent suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. It follows twelve students to explore how the intersections of race, class, and gender affect their experiences and outcomes in high school.
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution
This Netflix documentary chronicles a group of teenagers with disabilities who met at the groundbreaking Camp Jened in the early 1970s. Having formed strong bonds during their summers in the Catskills, many campers went on to be active participants in the Disability Rights Movement in Berkeley, CA and beyond.
Adapted from Elena Ferrante’s bestselling Neapolitan novels, this television series tells the story of a passionate and dynamic friendship between Lenù and Lila. The first season focuses on their girlhood years on the outskirts of Naples in the 1950s, where they endure despite violence in their community.
Shot over the course of seven years in the 1980s, this groundbreaking documentary sheds light on the Black and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Particularly resonant are the scenes depicting mentoring relationships between LGBTQ elders and young people.
Podcasts
This ten-part podcast reintroduces adult listeners to Fred Rogers, the host of the beloved children’s television show, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Guests include writers and thinkers like Ashley C. Ford, Eve Ewing and W. Kamau Bell, along with some of the show’s producers and Rogers’ biographer. The series begs the question “how can we be better neighbors to one another?”
Hosted by veteran educator, mentoring expert, and executive director of the Youth Mentoring Action Network (YMAN), Dr. Torie Weiston-Serdan, this podcast seeks to explore ways to re-think and re-make the systems that serve young people.
