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When It All Syncs Up (When It All Syncs Up #1)
By Maya Ameyaw. 2023
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Disabilities fiction, Friendship stories, General fictionGeneral non-fiction, Social issues, Arts and entertainment
Human-narrated audio
“A stunning read [. . .] simmering with tension and gripping to the final word.” —Debbie Rigaud, New York Times…
bestselling author of Simone Breaks All the Rules and A Girl’s Guide to Love & MagicNow in paperback! A Black teen dancer with dreams of landing a spot in a prestigious ballet company must learn to dance on her own terms in this explosive debut about the healing power of art and friendship, perfect for fans of Heartstopper and Tiny Pretty Things.Ballet is Aisha’s life. But when discrimination at her elite academy pushes her to her breaking point, she decides to pivot. At her new public arts school, Aisha scores more dance opportunities than she’s ever had before. And it doesn’t hurt that she gets to take classes with her bestie . . . and with Ollie, an adorably shy musician who keeps throwing off her usually impeccable balance.Yet even as Aisha navigates friendships, family conflict, and first love, questions about her dance career open up new and old wounds. Aisha must find strength in herself and place her trust in others to make her next move."At times hopeful and beautiful but also heartbreakingly devastating, When It All Syncs Up is a story of love in so many forms. But maybe most important of all, it is about the love we give ourselves, and allow ourselves to be given, even at our most broken."—Jonny Garza Villa, author of the Pura Belpré Honor Book Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun
Black boys like me: Confrontations with race, identity, and belonging
By Matthew R Morris. 2024
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Biography, Politics and government, Social issues
Human-narrated audio
*INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER* &“ Black Boys Like Me ignited parts of me I honestly didn't believe any book could ever…
know. . . . Seldom do incredibly titled books earn their titles. Matthew R. Morris earns this classic title with a classic book about our insides.&” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy Startlingly honest, bracing personal essays from a perceptive educator that bring us into the world of Black masculinity, hip-hop culture, and learning. This is an examination of the parts that construct my Black character; from how public schooling shapes our ideas about ourselves to how hip-hop and sports are simultaneously the conduit for both Black abundance and Black boundaries. This book is a meditation on the influences that have shaped Black boys like me. What does it mean to be a young Black man with an immigrant father and a white mother, teaching in a school system that historically has held an exclusionary definition of success? In eight illuminating essays, Matthew R. Morris grapples with this question, and others related to identity and perception. After graduating high school in Scarborough, Morris spent four years in the U.S. on multiple football scholarships and, having spent that time in the States experiencing &“the Mecca of hip hop and Black culture,&” returned home with a newfound perspective. Now an elementary school teacher himself in Toronto, Morris explores the tension between his consumption of Black culture as a child, his teenage performances of the ideas and values of the culture that often betrayed his identity, and the ways society and the people guiding him—his parents, coaches, and teachers—received those performances. What emerges is a painful journey toward transcending performance altogether, toward true knowledge of the self. With the wide-reaching scope of Desmond Cole&’s The Skin We&’re In and the introspective snapshot of life in Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Black Boys Like Me is an unflinching debut that invites readers to create braver spaces and engage in crucial conversations around race and belonging