Authors of Being An Ally: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up and Trying Again

Dana Alison Levy: Everyone loves to root for an underdog, at least in a story. But reality — as always — is murkier and more difficult. The challenges that make a good story often make a terribly difficult life, and we don’t always get the stories that deal honestly with the impact of these challenges. One book that does this beautifully is Ellen Oh’s novel for young readers, Finding Junie Kim.

Junie is a Korean-American middle school student in the United States during Trump’s presidency. She deals with subtle and not-so subtle racism, and tries her best to keep her head down and stay out of trouble. We see the toll this takes on Junie’s relationships with her friends and family, and ultimately her mental health. But when an assignment leads her to interview her grandparents and learn about their bravery and compassion as kids in Korea during wartime, she finds courage in her history, and finds a way to be the hero she needs.

While Finding Junie Kim offers all the growth and honesty and hope that books for kids should, it also transcends a typical underdog story. It gives an honest and beautiful look at what it takes to fight through challenges, and why we all deserve to be the heroes in our own stories.

Shakirah Bourne: It is easy to get lost in books with sword-wielding heroes and spellbinding magic, but in The Color of Her Words by Lynne Joseph, authoritarian forces challenge a 12-year-old girl who is armed only with a pencil and notepad, and her journey is just as epic as any fantastical adventure.

In a village in the Dominican Republic, Ana Rosa dreams of being a writer; a dangerous dream in a place where words are feared. She knows it would be safer to keep her words inside, but it is impossible not to write poems and stories about the music of the ocean, dancing at fiestas and on the beach with her Papi, a first crush, or her brother’s search for a future.

Ana Rosa’s family depends on income from her brother’s job to put food on the table, but her life is far from poor; it is rich with love, friendship, community, music and dance. But when her way of life is threatened by an oppressive government eager to seize their homes, Ana Rosa will realise that in a country where silence is self-defence, her words are as powerful as bullets.

It is a short book, great for reluctant readers. Ana Rosa’s journey shows the power of self-belief and importance of the written word in inciting change and preserving memory.