Melrose Public Library Announces 74 New Books Centered On Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The following was submitted but the City of Melrose:

Melrose, MA –– The Melrose Public Library has announced there are 74 new books on its shelves that are either written by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) authors or highlight themes and promote messages of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The library was able to purchase the books through DEI funding provided by Melrose Mayor Paul Brodeur last year in honor of Juneteenth.

“Last year, we made a commitment to help Melrose move closer to becoming one community, open to all. This is that vision coming to life,” said Mayor Brodeur. “I’m grateful and proud of our amazing team at the Melrose Public library who curated a wide variety of materials that cover key diversity, equity, and inclusion topics. I encourage anyone with questions – about age appropriate books, or the selection itself, to turn to our expert librarians and library staff – their resourcefulness knows no bounds.”

The Melrose Public Library and the City of Melrose encourages everyone to check out one of these 74 titles in honor of Black History Month. There are books and graphic novels for every age group and reading level, and the Melrose Public Library librarians and staff are ready to help visitors looking to check one out.

“Out of these 74 new books, there is a title for everyone, for every age,” said Melrose Public Library Director Linda Gardener. “These books help to bring an awareness to LGBTQ+, diversity, equity, and inclusion topics, and a large portion of them are written by BIPOC authors. Our librarians and staff join the Educators at the National Museum of African American History and Culture, who believe books are one of the effective ways to introduce diversity and help create an environment where it’s safe to discuss our human differences, such as race, gender, and more.”

A list of the new titles can be found below:

• Unsung: Unheralded Narratives of American Slavery & Abolition
• Blackout
• Kindred (the graphic novel)
• Parable of Sower (the graphic novel)
• Black Boy Joy
• Baseball's leading lady: Effa Manley and the rise and fall of the Negro Leagues
• Something to Say
• Shirley Chisholm dared
• Pushout: the criminalization of black girls in school
• An Indian Among Los Indigenas: a native travel memoir
• How to talk so kids Can Learn About Anti-racism and Social Justice
• Meeting Mimi
• Teach your Dragon About Diversity
• Bamboozled by Jesus: How God Tricked Me into the Life of My Dreams
• What We Don't Talk About
• Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South
• Edge case
• L.A. Weather
• In Every Mirror She's Black
• Ramadan Ramsey
• Silent Winds, Dry Seas
• Build Your House Around my Body
• Songs for the Flames
• William Still: The Underground Railroad and the Angel of Philadelphia
• Angel of Greenwood
• It doesn't Take a Genius
• The Stars and the Blackness Between Them
• Wake: The Hidden History of Women-led Slave Revolts
• We Still Here: Pandemic, Policing, Protest and Possibility
• Bouncing Back with Big Bird: A book about resilience
• Caring with Bert & Ernie: A Book about empathy
• Everyone Has Value with Zoe: A Book about respect
• Keep Trying with Abby: A book about persistence
• Looking on the Bright Side with Elmo: a book about positivity
• Me Love to share with Cookie Minster: a book about generosity
• Black from the future
• The joy of living while black
• Why we fly
• America on Fire: the untold story of police violence and black rebellion since the 1960s
• Black American History for Dummies
• Conversations in Black
• Dear Black girl: Letters from Your Sisters on Stepping into Your Power
• Footnotes: The Black Artists Who Rewrote the Rules of the Great White Way
• Invisible Men: The trailblazing Black Artists of Comic Books
• Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture
• Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments
• Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen
• Overnight Code: The Life of Raye Montague, the Woman Who Revolutionized Naval Engineering
• Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought
• Your Turn: How to be an Adult
• Demystifying Disability
• A Smart Girl’s Guide: Race and Inclusion
• Black Birds in the Sky
• Textures: The History and Art of Black hair
• The Mirror and the Palette: Rebellion, Revolution, and Resilience: Five Hundred Years of Women's Self
• Portraits
• Child of the Flower-song People
• Race to the Sun
• When We say Black Lives matter
• Read this to Get Smarter about Race, Class, Gender, Disability and More
• Being Seen
• Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from Across the African Diaspora [A Cookbook]
• We Are Not Like Them
• Ridgeline
• Civilizations
• The Other Talk
• This is Our rainbow
• Your Legacy
• Until I am free
• My Monticello
• The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware

• Your next level life
• Black Art: A Cultural History
• African Artists: From 1882 to Now
• Opal Lee and What It Means to be Free