100 books like Nell Plants a Tree

“Pie is for sharing. It starts out whole and round. Then...you can slice it into as many pieces as you wish. Almost.” Each time I read these opening lines I know I am in the hands of a master poet.

I adore everything about this book. Who doesn’t want to share a slice of pie? It’s perfect for sharing! But so is a book, a ball, “And a tree? A tree is always shared...” With exquisite lyrical text, and gorgeous illustrations by a Caldecott artist, Pie Is for Sharing is about families, friends, picnics, celebrations, and, most importantly, the experiences we share with one another.     

When one of her family members goes to school to learn English, Luli passes the time in the classroom next door with other children her age. She can’t speak English, and neither can they.

“All around the room, children played alone.” Luli notices that although the kids don’t share the same language, many do speak the language of tea. And that’s when she decides to plan a tea party for her friends. “Hands curled around warm cups. Mouths curved into shy smiles.” The mood shifts. The playroom is no longer quiet. Luli’s teapot is empty, “but her heart was full.”

Beautifully written, with charming illustrations, Luli and the Language of Tea is about community, shared traditions, and the language of small thoughtful acts that bring people together. 

I love the lyricism of this book. Set in the Tongass National Forest, I love how the girl and her grandmother gather the bounty of the earth, including lots and lots of berries. I never knew so many different kinds of berries existed.

I like the nod to their ancestors singing to them and their voices dancing on the water. They sing, too, so they will always remember their ancestors and their land.

Doughnuts and friends. Need I say more? This adorable rhyming picture book is a gem.

LouAnn has cooked up a delicious snack in anticipation of a long, winter nap when, Ding-Dong! A forest friend arrives. “Do you have enough for a neighbor to share?” asks Woodrow the woodchuck. “Sure,” says LouAnn, and she pulls up a chair. Can you imagine what comes next? Ding-Dong another visitor at the door!

Reminiscent of the old favorite, The Doorbell Rang, by Pat Hutchins, Dozens of Doughnuts is a counting book, but so much more. It’s about generosity, and the kind of open-hearted sharing that happens between good friends. 

I knew about the history of enslaved people and the institution of slavery in the Americas. Still, until I read Jones’ book, I did not appreciate how slavery affected African-American women’s lives in so many different ways, even after the institution itself formally ended. 

I also gained a new understanding of their bravery, ingenuity, persistence, and contributions to their communities and American society more generally.  Jones tells their stories with empathy and great wisdom, shattering stereotypes and insisting that we pay attention to these women and their lives.

Because the buying and selling of enslaved people was enormously profitable and entirely legal in the United States before the Civil War, even free Black people lived in fear that they might be kidnapped, sold illegally as slaves, and never heard from by their friends and families again. Though many Americans are familiar with the experience of Solomon Northup, as relayed in his memoir Twelve Years a Slave and the film of the same name, Richard Bell demonstrates how kidnapping was widespread in the nineteenth century and how thin the line could be between freedom and slavery.

The gold standard of family sagas. A treasure trove of oral history, indomitable spirit, narrative genius, and breathtaking empathy even for those who might not deserve it. A spellbinding combination of scenery, history, dialogue, emotion, and suspense.

The chapter about the ocean crossing aboard the slave ship shook me physically yet held me firmly in place, for I knew I might never experience literature as muscular as this again.

I loved Ayo, this book’s fourteen-year-old main character. She’s burnt out on activism, having been raised by a famous activist mom fighting for Black rights in America. All Ayo wants is to take a break and live a normal teen life. This makes so much sense to me—why do people who are at a disadvantage have to spend their time fighting for basic rights—what if they just want to spend their time making art or writing books like selfish white dudes are free to do?

But when something terrible happens at a big march, Ayo skipped, all the education and activist spirit her mom drilled into her no longer feels like a burden. I loved how she figured out she wanted to fight and really came into her own.

While the origins of northern police in this country were rooted in the development of a new set of class relations among white people, discussions of policing today cannot be untangled from the history of African Americans.

Trotter shows that Black people have always been a crucial part of this country’s workforce. Racism itself is rooted in the ways that Black workers’ position has been shaped by capitalists, non-black workers, and Black workers themselves, and this has been true since the dawn of slavery.

In his last chapters, Trotter brilliantly illustrates how the problems created for the entire working class by the end of the post-World War II economic boom were inflicted out of all proportion on the Black population. In other words, the relatively well-paying jobs were destroyed, and it was Black workers in particular who lost them.

The rise of mass incarceration since the 1970s and the violent… show more.

Chocolate City covers the last few centuries of history in DC.

This tome provides an in-depth overview of the history of race in Washington, DC from its founding to the present. It traces the history of race and democracy in the nation’s capital – from its days as a trading post for enslaved persons to its emergence as a booming metropolis.

By putting racial dynamics, tensions, and demographics at the center of the narrative, the authors develop a cohesive narrative that helps us to understand the multiple and consistent ways that Black DC residents have been disenfranchised and dispossessed.