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Yusuf Azeem is Not a Hero, Wandering in Strange Lands and The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley are books of note for this month.  This literature intends to expand our awareness, theology and/or acceptance of diverse viewpoints. We in Neighbor-to-Neighbor hope you’ll discover how these writings from various generations embrace what it means to be human and to walk in spirit. …

Yusuf Azeem is Not a Hero by Faruqi, Saadia
Yusuf is excited to start middle school in his small Texas town, but with the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, it feels like the country's same anger and grief is all focused on his Muslim community. -- For grades 4-7. 

 Wandering in Strange Lands by Jerkins, Morgan
While the great migration of African Americans from south to north in the early/mid 20th century provided black people with new economic opportunities, it also disconnected them from their roots, their land, and their sense of identity. In this deeply personal exploration, the writer recreates her ancestors' journeys across America, following the migratory routes they took from Georgia and South Carolina to Louisiana, Oklahoma, and California. 

The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley by Waldstreicher, David
Admired by George Washington, ridiculed by Thomas Jefferson, published in London, and read far and wide, Phillis Wheatley led one of the most extraordinary American lives. Seized in West Africa and forced into slavery as a child, she was sold to a merchant family in Boston, where she became a noted poet at a young age. Mastering the Bible, Greek, and Latin, she composed elegies before and after her emancipation, for local elites, celebrated political events, praised warriors, and used her verse to variously lampoon, question, and assert the injustice of her enslaved condition.