February 2020 - Page 13 of 15

Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
by Jason Reynolds (Author)

Booktalk: A novel told in ten blocks, showing all the different directions kids’ walks home can take.

Snippet: In the cafeteria, instead of people leaving Ty alone, instead of them cracking their stupid jokes to each other, a bunch of them had decided to sit with him. Crowd around him at the lunch table. Tease him to his face. Including Slim.

By the time Bryson got there, they were calling Ty all kinds of names. Names that bite. Names that stick and mark. Names that catch fire and leave a burnt smell in the air.

Hear the author talk about his inspiration for this book.

Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment
by Parker Curry (Author), Jessica Curry (Author) and Brittany Jackson (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Two-year-old Parker, along with her baby sister and her mother, and her best friend Gia and Gia’s mother, walk the halls of a museum, seeing paintings of everyone and everything from George Washington Carver to Frida Kahlo, exotic flowers to graceful ballerinas. Then, Parker walks by Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama–and almost passes it. But she stops…and looks up!

When a nearby museum-goer snapped a photo of a mesmerized Parker, it became an internet sensation. Now Parker tells her own story, with the help of her mother.

Snippet: