67
IT FEELS GOOD
TO BE YOURSELF
Theresa Thorn; illustrated
by Noah Grigni
Engaging art and simple
explanations encourage even
the youngest readers to freely
express themselves.INTERSECTIONALLIES
Chelsea Johnson, LaToya
Council and Carolyn Choi;
illustrated by Ashley
Seil Smith
Diversity takes center stage
in this welcoming introduction
to intersectional feminism, a
joyous affirmation of how we
are all connected.LIKE A LOVE STORY
Abdi Nazemian
Three teens in New York
City come out and come of
age during the era of the
AIDS crisis.
ÑCady Langone of the hurdles in adapting Lies
came in the section on the Vietnam
War, which in the “grownup” version
is told through that conflict’s iconic
photography. Were those images so
brutal that schools wouldn’t want a
book containing them? Loewen decided
to leave some out, replacing them with a
note explaining that choice.
Other challenges go beyond the
pages of the books. Though historians
widely agree about the benefits of
studying the past from more diverse
points of view, says James Grossman,
executive director of the American
Historical Association, debate remains
about how to achieve a good balance.
Efforts to change how schools teach the
American story can provoke backlash,
but educators calling for more resources
are clearly willing to keep trying to get
it right. After all, it’s one thing to ask
adults to reconsider their long-held
ideas about American history—and
another to offer young people a more
robust view in the first place. ThroughouT The promoTion of
Beacon Press’ ReVisioning American
History series—in which each book tells
the nation’s story through the lens of a
marginalized group—the authors kept
getting the same question, usually from
a teacher: Is there a version of this for
kids?
“They are hungry for resources,”
says Beacon senior editor Joanna
Green. “They know their students want
something that’s more radical.”
So Beacon is responding, starting
with A Queer History of the United States
for Young People. The adapted version of
a 2011 book by Michael Bronski, released
in time for the 50th anniversary of the
Stonewall uprising this month, is full of
stories of people who prove that issues
of gender and sexuality have always
been part of the American narrative.
In July, the series will continue with a
YA adaptation of ReVisioning’s take on
the indigenous perspective. And these
aren’t the only books offering students
a different take on the stereotypical
textbook version of the American past.
Separately, the New Press published the
first young readers’ edition of James W.
Loewen’s 1995 classic, Lies My Teacher
Told Me, in April.
Demand for what Green calls
“counter- textbooks” has been fueled
by factors including student desire for
more diverse stories; requirements
like the California law that now
mandates LGBT- inclusive social-
studies curriculums; and larger
shifts in the field of history, as the
idea trickles down to classrooms
that a study of the past is
incomplete if it highlights only the
perspective of the powerful.
But packaging new history
texts for kids isn’t just about
using shorter sentences and
vocabulary words. Loewen says
HISTORY
Truths beyond the textbooks
By Lily Rothman
CHILDREN’S AND YA
Open pages,
open minds
It’s never too early to discover
diversity. From exploring
gender identity to defining
intersectionality, these
summer books for young
readers celebrate inclusivity.▷ Walt Whitman,
Bayard Rustin and others
feature in the book