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“The Undefeated” (2019) is a free verse children’s poem by poet and novelist Kwame Alexander. The poem, published as a picture book, celebrates Black Americans, highlighting the struggles the Black community has endured and overcome throughout America’s history, with particular attention on great figures from history, including artists, athletes, and civil rights activists. While the poem’s target audience is children, Alexander and the book’s illustrator, Kadir Nelson, address serious topics like slavery and police brutality... Read The Undefeated Summary

The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America is a work of narrative, historical non-fiction written by John Demos, a professor of history at Yale University. Published in 1995, it won the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Set in 18th-century New England, The Unredeemed Captive explores the historical events surrounding a Mohawk raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts on February 29, 1704. The... Read The Unredeemed Captive Summary

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America is a 2013 work of contemporary political science and history by the American journalist George Packer. It won the National Book Award in 2013 and was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award. The book explores the trajectory of the United States from 1978 to 2012 and argues that those years saw a diminishing of the institutions, promises, and social connections that had... Read The Unwinding Summary

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Published in 2010, The Warmth of Other Suns is a sweeping ethnography of the Great Migration—the mass exodus of African-Americans from the South to Northern and Western US cities dating from approximately 1914-1970. The book traces the history of racism in the Jim Crow South as well as the reasons, successes, and failures of those African-Americans who left the place of their birth in order to seek better economic and social opportunities elsewhere in the... Read The Warmth Of Other Suns Summary

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Published in 1995, The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis is a realistic middle grade novel told from the point of view of 10-year-old Kenneth Watson. The Watson family lives in Flint, Michigan, in 1963. The early chapters of the book detail Kenny’s family life, school days, classmates, and older brother Byron’s exploits. When Byron takes one of his “adventures” too far, Kenny’s parents decide a family road trip to Birmingham, Alabama, is... Read The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 Summary

The Way to Rainy Mountain by Navarre Scott Momaday was first published in 1969. Momaday is a member of the Kiowa nation, a PhD-holding literary scholar, and a prominent American writer largely credited with initiating the Native American Literary Renaissance. On his father’s side, Momaday traces his family to Guipahgo (Lone Wolf), the last Principal Chief of the Kiowas, and this lineage features prominently in the book’s storytelling. The book is a work of creative... Read The Way to Rainy Mountain Summary

The essay begins as Poor Richard addresses his audience, “Courteous Reader,” and admits that few “other learned authors” have quoted him, despite his being “an eminent author of almanacs annually now a full quarter of a century” (1). Poor Richard does take solace in the fact that “[his] writings produce [him] some solid pudding” (1) thanks to the people who buy his work, whom he describes as “the best judges of [his] merit” (2). Because... Read The Way To Wealth Summary

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Gary Schmidt’s middle grade novel, The Wednesday Wars, follows seventh grader Holling Hoodhood as he navigates the difficulties of junior high in the late 1960s. Published in 2007, Schmidt’s novel blends historical fiction with a coming-of-age theme, and was given the Newbery Medal in 2008. Other works by Schmidt include Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (2004), Okay for Now (2011), and The Labors of Hercules Beal (2023).This guide refers to the Clarion Books 2009... Read The Wednesday Wars Summary

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The Woman’s Hour (2018) is a nonfiction chronicle of the final battle for ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, which gave American women the right to vote. The book explores the blood, sweat, and tears required to gain women’s suffrage in this country. Contrary to popular opinion, the process was neither quick nor easy. The events chronicled in the book take place during July and August of 1920 in Nashville, Tennessee. The author’s uses... Read The Woman's Hour Summary

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