Celebrate America’s 250th Birthday
Check out this month’s staff recommendations!
Recommended Reading for Adults
Non-Fiction
American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795 by Edward J. Larson
From a Pulitzer Prize winner, a powerful history that reveals how the twin strands of liberty and slavery were joined in the nation’s founding.
Non-Fiction
Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution by Elie Mystal
By using humor and an engaging writing style, he explains the Constitution and our rights without legal jargon. He simplifies complex topics and offers solutions to perfect our imperfect union.
Non-Fiction
1774 : the long year of Revolution by Mary Beth Norton
From one of our most acclaimed and original colonial historians, a groundbreaking book tracing the critical “long year” of 1774 and the revolutionary change that took place from the Boston Tea Party and the First Continental Congress to the Battles of Lexington and Concord.
Recommended Reading for Young Adults
Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons: The Story of Phillis Wheatley by Ann Rinaldi
Kidnapped from her home in Senegal and sold as a slave in 1761, a young girl is purchased by the wealthy Wheatley family in Boston. Phillis Wheatley–as she comes to be known–has an eager mind and it leads her on an unusual path for a slave–she becomes America’s first published black poet.
Recommended Reading for Children
Picture Book
Players in Pigtails by Shana Corey
One determined girl made her way to the big leagues & found a sisterhood of players in pigtails.
Juvenile Biography
What Emma Wrote: The Woman Behind the Words on the Statue of Liberty by Ann Koffsky
A picture book biography about Emma Lazarus, who stood up for immigrants and wrote the famous poem that is engraved on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
Juvenile Fiction
Rebellion 1776 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Thirteen-year-old Elsbeth Culpepper struggles to survive amid a smallpox epidemic, the public’s fear of inoculation, and the seething Revolutionary War.
Juvenile Non-Fiction
America Celebrates : The Most Incredible and Influential People, Places & Events of the Last 250 Years by Aubre Andrus
Juvenile Non-Fiction
The United States of Sports : An Atlas of Teams, Stats, Stars, and Facts for Every State in America by Bill Syken
Juvenile Non-Fiction
Strong Voices : Fifteen American Speeches Worth Knowing