young adult Archives - Page 78 of 103

Bold Women in California History
by Kay Moore (Author)

Booktalk: From Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, to Yoshiko Uchida, Japanese internment camp survivor turned children s author, to Elvira Virginia Mugarrieta, who dressed as a man in order to do things women of the time could not, the thirteen women portrayed in this collection broke down barriers of sexism, racism, and political opposition to emerge as heroines of their time. Whether that meant pushing for change in the state senate, as Rose Ann Vuich did, or escaping slavery and later doing good for the community, as Bridget Biddy Mason did, each and every one of these stories, unique as they are, show ways in which women have created lasting change.

Snippet:
Tarea Hall Pittman
When the United States entered World War II, many blacks headed to the West Coast to find employment. It is estimated that more than forty-six thousand African-Americans moved to the Bay Area between 1941 and 1945. Tarea not only helped the new arrivals integrate into the local communities, especially Oakland and Richmond, she also organized protests against the discrimination occurring in the local war industries.

Find a Women’s March in your area this weekend.

The Lives of Desperate Girls
by MacKenzie Common (Author)

Booktalk: Sixteen-year-old Helen Commanda is found dead just outside Thunder Creek, Ontario. Her murder goes unremarked, except for the fact that it may shed light on the earlier disappearance of Chloe Shaughnessy. Chloe is beautiful, rich, and white. Helen is plain, and from the reservation. They had nothing in common except that they were teenage girls from an unforgiving small town. Only Chloe’s best friend Jenny Parker knows exactly how unforgiving, but she’s keeping some dangerous secrets of her own.

Snippet: I look back on February 22, 2006, as the day they found Helen, but that isn’t really true. You can’t find something if you were never really looking for it. How could they care about Helen when a girl like Chloe, so pretty and white, had disappeared only three weeks earlier? The truth was that they didn’t find Helen on that snowy morning. They stumbled over her.