Uphill

Henry Holt Paperbacks
Paperback
256 pages • $18.99
ISBN: 9781250624369

A Memoir

Jemele Hill

“With a skilled hand, Hill captures the nuances of workplace discrimination and its toll while also providing a guide for others—especially women of color—to persevere.”

—Rajpreet Heir, The New York Times

When Jemele Hill called President Trump a “white supremacist,” the world came crashing down on her. But she didn’t buckle. Growing up in Detroit, Hill had faced tougher adversaries than a tweeting president. Born to a teen mother and a heroin-addicted father, Hill had the kind of childhood that seemed to destine her for inheriting her mother’s and grandmother’s pain. Yet within herself Hill found the steel will to break her family’s cycle of intergenerational trauma. She escaped by writing. Once Hill started to speak her mind with truth and conviction, she began rising—and never stopped, becoming one of America’s most recognizable, trusted journalists. In this unapologetic, eloquent, and empowering memoir, Jemele Hill finally shares her whole journey Uphill.

© CNN

Jemele Hill is the Emmy Award–winning former cohost of ESPN’s SportsCenter and 2018 NABJ Journalist of the Year. Hill is a contributing writer for The Atlantic, where she covers the intersection of sports, race, politics, and culture. She is also the producer of a Disney/ESPN documentary with Colin Kaepernick. She grew up in Detroit, graduated from Michigan State University, and now lives in Los Angeles.

Crossing the Line

St. Martin’s Griffin
Paperback
304 pages • $17.99
ISBN: 9781250837165

A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever

Kareem Rosser

“Crossing the Line is truly a special book. It will not just
leave you with hope, but also ideas on how to make that
hope transferable. Kareem’s remarkable story is one that
should be read and understood by all.”

—Wes Moore, former White House Fellow, and New York Times bestselling author of The Other Wes Moore

Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Kareem thought he and his siblings would always be stuck in “The Bottom,” a community and neighborhood devastated by poverty and violence. Riding their bicycles through Philly’s Fairmount Park, Kareem’s brothers discover a barn full of horses. Noticing the brothers’ fascination with her misfit animals, Lezlie Hiner, founder of the Work to Ride stables, offers them their escape: an after-school job in exchange for riding lessons. What starts as an accidental discovery turns into a love for horseback riding that leads to the Rossers’ newfound passion for polo. Pursuing the sport with determination and discipline, Kareem earns his place among the typically exclusive players in college, becoming part of the first all-Black national interscholastic polo championship team—all while struggling to keep his family together. Crossing the Line is a story of the bonds of brotherhood, family loyalty, the transformative connection between man and horse, and overcoming impossible odds.

© Daymar Rosser

Kareem Rosser is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. in economics from Colorado State University (CSU). While at CSU, he led his collegiate polo team to a national polo championship. At the same time, he was honored as the Intercollegiate Polo Player of the Year. After graduation, Kareem began working as a financial analyst at an asset management firm. Also, he serves as the Executive Director of a nonprofit fundraising arm called Friends of Work to Ride.

Crossing the Line has been adopted for First-Year Experience programs at:

Arcadia University (PA); Elms College (MA); and South Dakota State University

Brothers on Three

Celadon Books
Paperback
384 pages • $19.99
ISBN: 9781250210692

A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana

Abe Streep

“Streep draws out the adolescent boys—no small feat—and writes evocatively about their community, their dreams beyond their tiny town and the pull that keeps them close. What emerges is an immersive portrait of a small tribal town where shared history runs deep, opportunity feels elusive, and basketball is a visceral expression of collective pride, hope and grit that Streep says sits ‘somewhere between escape and religion.’”

—Sam Dolnick, The New York Times

March 11, 2017, was a night to remember: in front of the hopeful eyes of thousands of friends, family members, and fans, the Arlee Warriors would finally bring the high school basketball state championship title home to the Flathead Indian Reservation. The game would become the stuff of legend, with the boys revered as local heroes. The team’s place in Montana history was now cemented, but for starters Will Mesteth Jr. and Phillip Malatare, life would keep moving on—senior year was just beginning. In Brothers on Three, we follow Phil and Will, along with their teammates, coaches, and families, as they balance the pressures of adolescence, shoulder the dreams of their community, and chart their own individual courses for the future. Brothers on Three is not simply a story about high school basketball, state championships, and a winning team. It is a book about community, and it is about boys on the cusp of adulthood finding their way through the intersecting worlds they inhabit and forging their own paths to personhood.

© Stephanie Joyce

Abe Streep has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Outside, The California Sunday Magazine, Wired, The Columbia Journalism Review, and Harper’s Magazine. His writing has been anthologized in Best American Sports Writing; and noted by Best American Essays; and Best American Science and Nature Writing. He was a recipient of the 2019 American Mosaic Journalism Prize for deep reporting on underrepresented communities.

Dream Town

Henry Holt and Co.
Hardcover
400 pages • $31.99
ISBN: 9781250834416

Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity

Laura Meckler

In this searing and intimate examination of the ideals and realities of racial integration, award-winning Washington Post journalist Laura Meckler tells the story of a decades-long pursuit in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and uncovers the roadblocks that have threatened progress time and again—in housing, in education, and in the promise of shared community. In the late 1950s, Shaker Heights began groundbreaking work that would make it a national model for housing integration. And beginning in the seventies, it was known as a crown jewel in the national move to racially integrate schools. The school district built a reputation for academic excellence and diversity, serving as a model for how white and Black Americans can thrive together. Meckler—herself a product of Shaker Heights—takes a deeper look into the place that shaped her, investigating its complicated history and its ongoing challenges in order to untangle myth from truth. She confronts an enduring, and troubling, question—if Shaker Heights has worked so hard at racial equity, why does a racial academic achievement gap persist? In telling the stories of the Shakerites who have built and lived in this community, Meckler asks: What will it take to fulfill the promise of racial integration in America? What compromises are people of all races willing to make? What does success look like, and has Shaker achieved it? The result is a complex and masterfully reported portrait of a place that, while never perfect, has achieved more than most and a road map for communities that seek to do the same.

© Jeanne Van Atta

Laura Meckler is national education writer for The Washington Post, where she covers the news, politics, policies, and people shaping American schools. She previously reported on the White House, presidential politics, immigration, and health care for The Wall Street Journal, as well as on health and social policy for the Associated Press. Her honors include a Nieman Fellowship and a Livingston Award for National Reporting, and she was part of a team that won the George Polk Award for Justice Reporting. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two sons.

The Manicurist’s Daughter

Celadon Books
Hardcover
320 pages • $30.00
ISBN: 9781250835048

A Memoir

Susan Lieu

Susan Lieu has long been searching for answers. About her family’s past and about her own future. Refugees from the Vietnam War, Susan’s family escaped to California in the 1980s after five failed attempts. Upon arrival, Susan’s mother was their savvy, charismatic North Star, setting up two successful nail salons and orchestrating every success—until Susan was eleven. That year, her mother died from a botched tummy tuck. After the funeral, no one was ever allowed to talk about her or what had happened. For the next twenty years, Susan navigated a series of cascading questions alone—why did the most perfect person in her life want to change her body? Why would no one tell her about her mother’s life in Vietnam? And how did this surgeon, who preyed on Vietnamese immigrants, go on operating after her mother’s death? Sifting through depositions, tracking down the surgeon’s family, and enlisting the help of spirit channelers, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of beauty. The Manicurist’s Daughter is much more than a memoir about grief, trauma, and body image. It is a story of fierce determination, strength in shared culture, and finding your place in the world.

© Tamara Staples

Susan Lieu is a Vietnamese-American author, playwright, and performer who tells stories that refuse to be forgotten. A daughter of nail salon workers, she took her autobiographical solo theatre show 140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother on a 10-city national tour with sold out premieres and accolades from L.A. Times, NPR, and American Theatre. Eight months pregnant, she premiered her sequel OVER 140 LBS as the headliner for ACT Theatre’s SoloFest. Within one year she held 60 performances to over 7,000 people. Her award-winning work has been featured at Bumbershoot, Wing Luke Museum, The Moth Mainstage, On The Boards, The World Economic Forum, RISK!, CAATA ConFest, Viet Film Fest, and she has spoken at more than a dozen universities around the country. She serves as an Artists Up mentor, Artist Trust instructor, “Model Minority Moms” podcaster, and board member for international NGO Asylum Access. As an activist, she worked with Consumer Watchdog to pass a law to raise medical malpractice caps. Susan and her sister co-founded Socola Chocolatier, an artisanal chocolate company based in San Francisco. She is a proud alumnus of Harvard College, Yale School of Management, Coro, Hedgebrook, and Vashon Artist Residency. Susan lives with her husband and son in Seattle where they enjoy mushroom hunting, croissants, and big family gatherings. The Manicurist’s Daughter is her first book. Learn more at http://www.susanlieu.me and follow her on instagram @susanlieu.

Spare Parts

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Paperback
240 pages • $15.00
ISBN: 9780374534981

 Teaching Guide
•
Los Inventores
Spanish Language Edition
Paperback
224 pages • $14.00
ISBN: 9780374284503

Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream

Joshua Davis

Finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize

“Spare Parts illuminates the human side of two polarizing political issues: immigration and education.”

—The Washington Post

In 2004, four undocumented Latino teenagers arrived at the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition at the University of California, Santa Barbara. No one had ever suggested to Oscar, Cristian, Luis, or Lorenzo that they might amount to much—but two inspiring science teachers had convinced these kids from the desert who had never even seen the ocean that they should try to build an underwater robot. They were going up against some of the best collegiate engineers in the country, including a team from MIT. This was never a level competition, and yet, against all odds . . . they won! But this is just the beginning for these four, whose story will go on to include first-generation college graduations, deportation, bean-picking in Mexico, and service in Afghanistan. Joshua Davis’s Spare Parts is a story about overcoming insurmountable odds and four young men who proved they were among the most patriotic and talented Americans in this country—even as the country tried to kick them out.

“Spare Parts is an unforgettable tale of hope and human ingenuity. Joshua Davis offers a moving testament to how teamwork, perseverance, and a few good teachers can lift up and empower even the humblest among us.”—Héctor Tobar, author of Deep Down Dark

“It’s the most American of stories: how determination and ingenuity can bring triumph over long odds. There are too few stories like these written about Latino students. Poignant and beautifully told, Spare Parts makes you feel their frustration at the obstacles and indignities faced by Cristian, Lorenzo, Luis, and Oscar—and to cheer as they rise to overcome each one of them.”—Sonia Nazario, author of Enrique’s Journey 

“This is important reading . . . Young adults will benefit from from reading and discussing this realistic, eye-opening chronicle . . . Davis pulls no punches as he describes the grim sociopolitical atmosphere that allows the oppression of talented people for no morally acceptable reason. The four young inventors and their struggles helped spur the DREAMers movement.”—Donna Chavez, Booklist (starred review)

“A gratifying human interest story that calls attention to the plight and promise of America’s undocumented youth.”—Library Journal

“Davis takes what could have been another feel-good story of triumphant underdogs and raises the stakes by examining the difficulties of these young immigrants in the context of the societal systems that they briefly and temporarily overcame.”—Publishers Weekly

© Sebastian Mlynarski

Joshua Davis is a contributing editor at Wired, co-founder of Epic magazine, and the author of The Underdog, a memoir about his experiences as an arm wrestler, backward runner, and matador. He has also written for The New Yorker, and his writing is anthologized in The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best Technology Writing. He lives in San Francisco, California.

Spare Parts has been adopted for over fifty-four First-Year Experience programs:

Alamo Heights High School (TX); Broward College (FL); The Browning School (NY); California State University – Los Angeles; California State University – Maritime; Cedar Valley College (TX); Chemeketa Community College (OR); Concordia University (TX); Crafton Hills College (CA); Des Moines Area Community College (IA); Eastfield College (TX); Greenville Technical College (SC); Hesston College (KS); Hood College (MD); Johns Hopkins University (MD); Kansas State University; Lafayette Public Library and School District (LA); Lewis University (IL); Metropolitan Community College – Maple Woods (MO); Miami University (OH); Monroe Community College (NY); Naugatuck Valley Community College (CT); Nash Community College (NC); North Iowa Area Community College; North Lake College (TX); Norwalk Community College (CT); Oakland University, The Honors College (MI); Pasadena City College (CA); Providence College (RI); Queensborough Community College (NY); Rensselear Polytechnic University (NY); Rutgers University, Honors College (NJ); Sacramento State University (CA); Salem State University (MA); Santa Ana College; San Jose State University (CA); Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ); Stony Brook University (NY); Texas A&M University; Texas A&M University Commerce; Texas Lutheran University; Towson University’s Honors College; University of Alaska – Southeast; University of Houston – Clear Lake (TX); University of North Carolina – Charlotte; University of South Alabama; University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science; University of Michigan College of Engineering; Washington State University, Vancouver; Winthrop University (SC)

Dark Days

Graywolf Press
Hardcover
232 pages • $26.00
ISBN: 9781644452417

Fugitive Essays

Roger Reeves

“Stunning . . . Reeves captures the sorrows inherent in the way we live today even while keeping a keen eye toward opportunity for joy.”

— Maris Kreizman, Vulture

In his debut work of nonfiction, award-winning poet Roger Reeves finds new meaning in silence, protest, fugitivity, freedom, and ecstasy. Braiding memoir, theory, and criticism, Reeves juxtaposes the images of an opera singer breaking the state-mandated silence curfew by singing out into the streets of Santiago, Chile, and a father teaching his daughter to laugh out loud at the planes dropping bombs on them in Aleppo, Syria. He describes the history of the hush harbor—places where enslaved people could steal away to find silence and court ecstasy, to the side of their impossible conditions. In other essays, Reeves highlights a chapter in Toni Morrison’s Beloved to locate common purpose between Black and Indigenous peoples; he visits the realities of enslaved people on McLeod Plantation, where some of the descendants of those formerly enslaved lived into the 1990s; and he explores his own family history, his learning to read closely through the Pentecostal church tradition, and his passing on of reading as a pleasure, freedom, and solace to his daughter, who is frightened the police will gun them down. Together, these groundbreaking essays build a profound vision for how to see and experience the world in our present moment, and how to strive toward an alternative existence in intentional community underground. “The peace we fight and search for,” Reeves writes, “begins and ends with being still.”

© Ana Schwartz

Roger Reeves is the author of two poetry collections, King Me and Best Barbarian. His essays have appeared in Granta, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of a Whiting Award and teaches at the University of Texas at Austin.

This I Believe

Holt Paperbacks
Paperback
320 pages • $18.00
ISBN: 9780805086584

The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women

Edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman

Foreword by Studs Terkel

Introduction by Jay Allison

Based on the NPR series of the same name, this book features eighty essayists—from the famous to the unknown—completing the thought that begins the book’s title. Each piece compels readers to rethink not only how they have arrived at their own personal beliefs but also the extent to which they share them with others. Featuring a well-known list of contributors—including Isabel Allende, Colin Powell, Gloria Steinem, William F. Buckley Jr., Penn Jillette, Bill Gates, and John Updike—the collection also contains essays by a Brooklyn lawyer; a part-time hospital clerk from Rehoboth, Massachusetts; a woman who sells Yellow Pages advertising in Fort Worth, Texas; and a man who serves on the state of Rhode Island’s parole board. The result is a trip inside the minds and hearts of a diverse group of people whose beliefs—and the incredibly varied ways in which they choose to express them—reveal the American spirit at its best.

Included are guidelines for students writing their own This I Believe essays.

“Essays from the original series are interleaved with contemporary essays (selected from more than 11,000 submissions) to create a resounding chorus.”—Donna Seaman, Booklist

© Nubar Alexanian

© Nubar Alexanian

Jay Allison is an independent broadcast journalist and a six-time Peabody Award winner. He hosted and produced This I Believe on NPR and is the founder of the public radio station on Cape Cod.

Dan Gediman is currently the Executive Director of This I Believe, Inc., a non-profit organization based in Louisville, Kentucky.

This I Believe has been adopted for more than ninety First-Year Experience programs:

Aquinas College (MI); Avila University (MO); Baker University (KS); Barry University (FL); Bates College (ME); Bellarmine University (KY); Bethel College (KS); Bluefield College (VA); Bowling Green State University (OH); Bucknell University (PA); California State University, San Marcos; Cathedral High School (MA); Cedar Crest College (PA); Central Washington University; Clemson University (SC); Coker College (SC); College of Dupage (IL); Columbus State University (GA); Concord University (WV); Craven Community College (NC); Dakota Wesleyan University (SD); Dominican College (NY); Eastern Illinois University; Elmhurst College (IL); Endicott College (MA); Florida Atlantic University; Florida State University; Georgia College; Georgia Highlands University; Gettysburg College Ascent Program (PA); Harrison High School (NY); Jacksonville State University (AL); Jacksonville University (FL); Kaskaskia College (IL); Kent State University (OH); LIM College (NY); Lindsey Wilson College (KY); Louisburg College (NC); Louisiana Tech University; Loyola University, Chicago; Medaille College (NY); Middle Tennessee State University; Minnesota State University, Mankato; Mitchell College (CT); Morehead State University (KY); Northern Arizona University; Northern Kentucky University; Pace University (NY); Penn State Berks (IL); Penn State Berks (PA);  Ripon College (WI); Roberts Wesleyan College (NY); Roosevelt University (IL) (two consecutive years!); Seton Hall University (NJ); Seton Hill University (PA); Shepherd University (WV); Shorter University (GA); Southern Connecticut State University;  Southern Vermont College; Springfield College (MA); Stonehill College (MA); St. Mary’s High School (NY); SUNY, Binghamton; SUNY, Brockport; Tufts University (MA); University of Alabama; University of Central Arkansas, Honors College; University of Dayton (OH); University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; University of Louisiana, Monroe (two years!); University of Louisville (KY) (three consecutive years!); University of New Orleans; University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; University of Vermont; Washburn University (KS); William Paterson University (NJ); William Woods University (MO)

This I Believe II

Holt Paperbacks
Paperback
288 pages • $18.00
ISBN: 9780805090895

More Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women

Edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman

With John Gregory and Viki Merrick

“By turns moving, thoughtful, cheering and heartbreaking, in an age of irony these essays offer a little something to believe in.”

—Colette Bancroft, St. Petersburg Times

This second collection of This I Believe essays gathers seventy-five more essayists—including writers known and unknown—who complete the thought that begins in the book’s title. Among the contributors are musicians Yo-Yo Ma and Bela Fleck, Elie Wiesel, the founder Craigslist.org, and an anthropology student at the University of Chicago. Each piece, whether poignant or humorous, compels the reader to think about how they have formed their own personal beliefs and about the extent to which they express them to others. This edition also contains an appendix on how to write a This I Believe essay.

© Nubar Alexanian

© Nubar Alexanian

Jay Allison, the host and curator of This I Believe, is an independent broadcast journalist.

Dan Gediman is the executive producer of This I Believe.

This I Believe II has been adopted for more than thirty First-Year Experience programs:

Aquinas College (MI); Barry University (FL); Broward College (FL); Eastern Illinois University; Endicott College (MA); Hanover College (IN); Ivy Tech Community College, Kokomo (IN); LIM College (NY) (two consecutive years!); Lindsey Wilson College (KY); Longwood University (VA); Lynchburg College (VA); Marietta College (OH); Miami University at Ohio; Middle Tennessee State University; Middlesex Community College (MA); North Central College (IL); Northern Illinois University; Penn State University, Brandywine; Rivier University (NH); Rowan University (NJ); Stockton College (NJ); Tennessee Tech University (two consecutive years); Texas Woman’s University; Union College (KY); University of Dayton (OH); University of Wisconsin, Parkside; Virginia Tech; Washington & Jefferson College (PA)

Punished for Dreaming

St. Martin’s Press
Hardcover
352 pages • $29.00
ISBN: 9781250280381

How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal

Bettina L. Love

“Blends brilliance, warmth, and a deep commitment to the pursuit of justice for all our nation’s children.”

—Brittney Cooper, bestselling author of Eloquent Rage

In this groundbreaking prequel to The New Jim Crow, award-winning educator Dr. Bettina Love serves up a blistering account of four decades of educational reform through the lens of people who lived it. In Punished for Dreaming, Dr. Love makes the case that Reagan’s presidency ushered in a war on Black children, pathologizing and penalizing them in concert with the war on drugs. New policies punished schools with policing, high-stakes standardized testing, loss of funding, and closure in the name of reform. All the while, white saviors’ efforts increasingly allowed private interests to infiltrate the system. These changes implicated children of color and Black children in particular as low-performing, making it all too easy to turn a blind eye to their disproportionate arrest, conviction, and incarceration, and the harmfulness of reform. There is little national conversation today about a structural overhaul of American schools; instead, education is awash in book and curriculum bans and the attempt to eliminate even the mention of anti-racism or equity. Dr. Love never lets us forget the profound lifetime effect of reform on individuals. She zeroes in on the powerful stories of twenty-five Black Americans, as well as her own educational experiences as a child of the eighties. Finally, she puts a price tag on the miseducation of Black children. With input from leading U.S. economists, Dr. Love offers a road map for repair, arguing for reparations with transformation for all children at its core.

© Tiffany Stubbs

Dr. Bettina L. Love is the William F. Russell Professor at Teachers College at Columbia University and the bestselling author of We Want to Do More Than Survive. In 2022, the Kennedy Center named Dr. Love one of the Next 50 leaders who are making the world more inspired, inclusive, and compassion – ate. She is a cofounder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network (ATN), whose mission is to develop and support teachers and parents fighting injustice within their schools and communities. ATN has granted more than $250,000 to abolitionists around the country. She is also a founding member of the task force that launched the program In Her Hands, distributing more than fifteen million dollars to Black women living in Georgia. Dr. Love is a sought-after public speaker, and in 2018 she was granted a resolution by Georgia’s House of Representatives for her impact on the field of education.