In the wake of the tragic killings of two black men by police this week, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, librarians around the country have been looking for ways to support and educate their communities. Chelsea Couillard-Smith, a librarian for Hennepin County (MN) Library, created a #BlackLivesMatter booklist for teens.
The idea for the booklist begin as Couillard-Smith, who shares a juvenile title on Twitter every week for #FridayReads, thought about recent events and which books might provide a starting point for reflection and conversation. “I really wanted to promote both How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon and All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely. It quickly evolved into this list. I selected a small number of titles that I thought would be good conversation starters for teens engaged in discussions about race and justice,” she explained.
