February 2023 - Page 8 of 14

Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement
by Sandra Neil Wallace (Author) and Bryan Collier (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Diane grew up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1940s. As a university student, she visited the Tennessee State Fair in 1959. Shocked to see a bathroom sign that read For Colored Women, Diane learned that segregation in the South went beyond schools–it was part of daily life. She decided to fight back, not with anger or violence, but with strong words of truth and action.

Finding a group of like-minded students, including student preacher John Lewis, Diane took command of the Nashville Movement. They sat at the lunch counters where only white people were allowed and got arrested, day after day. Leading thousands of marchers to the courthouse, Diane convinced the mayor to integrate lunch counters. Then, she took on the Freedom Rides to integrate bus travel, garnering support from Martin Luther King Jr. and then the president himself–John F. Kennedy.

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Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

BIG LIES: from Socrates to Social Media
by Mark Kurlansky (Author) and Eric Zelz (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop

Booktalk: Big lies are told by governments, politicians, and corporations to avoid responsibility, cast blame on the innocent, win elections, disguise intent, create chaos, and gain power and wealth. Yes, big lies are as old as civilization. They corrupt public understanding and discourse, turn science upside down, and reinvent history. They prevent humanity from addressing critical challenges. They perpetuate injustices. They destabilize the world.

The modern age has provided ever-more-effective ways of spreading lies, but it has also given us the scientific method, which is the most effective tool for finding what is true. In the book’s final chapter, find out how you can deconstruct an allegation. Ask if there is credible, testable evidence to support it. If not, suspect a lie. A scientific theory has to be testable, and so does an allegation. Then ask more questions! Who is the source? Who benefits? Is there a money trail? Especially in the age of social media, critical thinking counters lies and chaos. Are you ready to think for yourself?

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