100 books like Sunday Dinner

Harlem Grown is the story of the beginnings of the Harlem Grown program. The Harlem Grown program is a program that supports and mentors youth through urban gardening.

In New York City there was a vacant lot across from PS 175 full of junk and trash. The author Tony Hillery became part of the PS 175 community and decided to work with the students to transform that 'haunted' lot. Together, Tony and four hundred students made that garden into their own farm, then invited the neighbors to share their adventure.

This first successful project led to an organization of twelve Harlem gardens, sustained by their communities but supported by full time staff. It is a beautiful story of recognizing our ability to create impact and how that can be amplified in community.  

Jamilah Thomkins-Bigelow has threaded a beautiful story around Abdul and his love of telling stories but finds it challenging to transition them into written form.

Abdul describes not seeing himself or his community in the books read in the curriculum at school, which amplifies the doubt in his voice and stories being worth of being in a book. One day a class has a visitor, a writer, who Abdul is able to see himself in. While Abdul continues to struggle with self-doubt in his writing abilities, the visitor allows him to break free from the limitations planted and amplified within himself.

In collaboration with Tiffany Rose's illustrations, Jamilah weaves a beautiful reminder for all Black children who have ever had a doubt— that their stories have and will always matter. 

School Library Journal invited Sandra, three other authors and myself to participate in their May 18th SLJ Day of Dialog to present our upcoming books centered around belonging. My first discovery of Sandra's book, We Belong to the Drum was through this event and collaboration.

Sandra's son is the star of the story, starting in the womb before Nikosis was born. The story centers around his Ancestral connection to the drum and the community found in gatherings and powwows. When Nikosis starts daycare he has separation anxiety and feels lonely in this new environment. Nikosis's mom has the brilliant idea to bring their Cree identity through music and drumming into the classroom which empowered both Nikosis and his peers.

It is a beautiful book of proudly walking in one's identity and communities welcoming that identity.

Kaz Windness, the author-illustrator wrote Bitsy for herself and anyone who is neurodivergent and experiencing something for the first time.

Bitsy is nervous about starting school and her family makes space for her to practice and prepare for her first night at school. She begins school and tries to go about the day in ways that feel natural to her but is quickly judged by others, being expected to do things the way her classmates do things.

While Bitsy had a rough first day, she is reminded that she is a star by being herself. She steps into her power and heads into her second day of school to help others do the same. My biological niece from my maternal-side was just recently diagnosed with autism. I was happy to be able to add this book to her bookshelf as she is navigating the world. 

This is absolutely a new classic - an award-winning coming-of-age story about the Sunday a soul food cooking grandmother finally opens up her culinary secrets to the next generation. Winsome Bingham’s vivid language is perfectly matched with C.G. Esperanza’s electric illustrations. I also appreciate the tiny details like the uncle who watches the football game on an itty bitty TV. Brings me back (kids will never understand that pre-smartphone life!) And apparently, the mac n’ cheese recipe is on point, so don’t miss that.

As a transplant to Atlanta from Los Angeles, I’ve been fascinated by the regional cuisines and culinary traditions of the south. But after being caught up in the romance of pimento cheese, mint juleps, and fried chicken, I knew there was so much more to the story that I was missing.

This book tells that untold story, showing us the immeasurable debt southern food owes to Africa and enslaved peoples brought to America. What I love about this book is not just the history being told but how Twitty tells it, combining a mix of genres, from narrative nonfiction to genealogical documentation, historical account to personal memoir.

Just as cooking is a highly creative act that fuses together diverse flavors and ingredients, writing about food needs to be equally creative and equally diverse.

This is a brilliant book about race, gender, and politics in the United States. While there is a lot of work on racial inequality this book stands out in its focus on the ways in which culture shapes our politics and responses to inequality. It does so by centering Black women. It is also very timely and analyzes the way in which public figures like Michelle Obama and Condoleeza Rice have shaped the American political imagination.  

Kwame Alexander is a creative force of nature, an award-winning author of poetry and children’s fiction, such as Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets, Becoming Muhammad Ali, co-authored with James Patterson, and The Crossover, soon to be a Disney+ television series. In The Undefeated, Alexander displays masterful lyrical language skills, and by telling us what we are not, shows us what we are: resilient, strong, and brave. Read this book to Black children and bask in the love.

Speaking of outsiders, Around Harvard Square follows a superstar student-athlete from small-town USA who assumes he’s made it big when he’s admitted to Harvard University. However, as a young, Black man, Tosh Livingston soon discovers the ways in which he does not belong and finds that admissions committees aren’t the only gatekeepers. This novel really digs deep into issues of race and class, insiders and outsiders. And while the topics feel timely, they are also timeless—not only in the world at large but also in that microcosm, the campus. There have always been those who are kept out and always those with special access, such as legacies and athletes. The protagonist in this novel also comes up against a secret society, an underground facet of campus life and the epitome of exclusivity, which really set my own creative juices in motion. Funny and fast-paced, this novel epitomizes a protagonist’s struggle… show more.

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.