Three Writers on History, Hardship & Healing

Cora and Quinn, the main characters in Jasmine Warga’s The Shape of Thunder (Balzer + Bray), are best friends but haven’t spoken in a year. They live next door to each other, but they exist in separate worlds of grief. Cora is still grappling with the death of her sister in a school shooting, and Quinn is carrying the guilt of what her brother did. On Cora’s 12th birthday, Quinn leaves a box on her doorstep with a note. She’s decided that the only way to fix things is to go back in time to the moment before her brother changed all their lives forever – and stop him. Despite herself, Cora wants to believe. And so, the two former friends begin working together to open a wormhole in the fabric of the universe. But as they attempt to unravel the mysteries of time travel to save their siblings, they learn that the magic of their friendship may be the key to saving themselves. Publishers Weekly noted that “Warga’s lyrical language and credible rendering of both middle school life and of the tensions of two families coping differently with personal devastation make for a perceptive, sensitively told novel about the effects of gun violence.”

Saadia Faruqi is a Pakistani American writer, interfaith activist, and cultural-sensitivity trainer, and the author of the early-reader Yasmin series and A Thousand Questions. In Yusuf Azeem Is Not a Hero (Quill Tree Books), the title character is almost 12 and excited to start middle school. He has spent all his life in the small town of Frey, Texas, and nearly that long waiting for the chance to participate in the regional robotics competition, which he just knows he can win. His father is the beloved owner of the local dollar store, but the upcoming 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks has everyone in his Muslim community on edge. With “Never Forget” banners everywhere, the appearance of a group calling themselves The Patriot Sons, and protests about the new mosque, Yusuf realizes that the country’s anger from two decades ago hasn’t gone away. Can he hold onto his joy – and his friendships – in the face of heartache and prejudice? Kirkus called it a “timely, emotional story full of hope and love even in the face of discrimination and prejudice.”

Maggie Collins is a curator with a deep passion for books and social justice, and the co-founder of the feminist book podcast Rebel Girls Book Club.

Harmony Birch is a former journalist and current Master of Information student who works in academic and school libraries. She is also the co-founder and host of Rebel Girls Book Club, a feminist literary analysis podcast.

Ruth Behar was born in Havana, grew up in New York, and has also lived in Spain and Mexico. The first Latina to win a MacArthur “Genius” Award, Behar also won the Pura Belpré Award for Lucky Broken Girl. She writes for young people but her work also includes poetry, memoir, and travel books, such as An Island Called Home and Traveling Heavy. Behar is an anthropology professor at the University of Michigan and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In Letters from Cuba (Nancy Paulsen Books), she tells the story of Esther, who follows her father’s escape to Cuba as the situation for Jews worsens in Poland on the eve of WWII. Before embarking on her journey she promises her beloved sister, who is staying behind, to write to her sharing everything she experiences until they reunite. In those letters, Esther records both the good – the kindness of the Cuban people and her discovery of a valuable hidden talent – and the bad: Nazism has found a foothold even on the tiny island nation. The New York Times celebrated the book as “a quiet story of determination, and an openly loving tribute to the author’s grandmother, who made the real journey that inspired Esther’s fictional one.”