Move into seasons of joy and light with an eye for justice and restored community.
Observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day (October 11) and Native American Heritage Month (November) by engaging Indigenous stories and histories – with all ages:
Set in the ancient Inka (sometimes spelled Inca) empire, Peruvian-born Mariana Llanos‘ Run, Little Chaski! (Barefoot) indigenous hero teaches Littles about the Inka trail and the power of compassion; includes a glossary of Quechua words.
Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids (Heartdrum) shares an abundance of stories for tweens & teens authored by Native writers and “bursting with hope, joy, resilience, the strength of community, and Native pride”.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz urges adult readers to “embrace a more complex and honest history of the United States” in, Not a Nation of Immigrants: Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion (Beacon).
For more options see our Indigenous Voices lib guide.
Continue the clarity and complexity with Ten Lives, Ten Demands: Life and Death Stories, and a Black Activist’s Blueprint for Racial Justice (Beacon), Solomon Jones’ compilation of stories of people whose lives and deaths pushed the Black Lives Matter movement forward; includes strategies to address crimes committed by our “justice” system.
Shed light on Evelyn Hooker and the Fairy Project (Magination) so tweens & teens can learn how this extraordinary woman brought about the end of the “Homosexuality” mental health diagnosis.
Develop intergenerational clarity around mental health sharing:
What to Do When the News Scares You: A Kid’s Guide to Understanding Current Events (Magination), which tackles children’s anxieties.
Slaying Digital Dragons: Tips and Tools for Protecting Your Body, Brain, Psyche, and Thumbs from the Digital Dark Side (Free Spirit) a “comprehensive reference book [that] empowers young adults to take charge of their digital life and improve their mental health and well-being”.
And Not Quite Fine: Mental Health, Faith, and Showing Up for One Another (MennoMedia), which wonders how the body of Christ can “become a healing community for its members in pain”.
Let creation inform your vision of the future church with Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred (Broadleaf).
Find additional resources for Reimagining Church in our lib guide.
Get a glimpse of Advent & Christmas – with a justice lens – with Traveling with Our Ancestors Advent Devotional (Chalice), which includes wisdom from both biblical and more contemporary ancestors, such as Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, and Father Greg Boyle.
There’s no season like the present for opening our eyes and expanding God’s reign of equity and love!