Diversity, equity, and inclusion resources for College LAUNCH Scholars and the broader community. Enhance your DEI knowledge with readings that coincide with Heritage Months.
November 2024: Native American Heritage Month
- Book: Moccasin Thunder: American Indian Stories for Today by Lori Marie Carlson
- The ten stories that make up this collection are raw, original, and fresh. Although they are all about American Indians, they are as different from one another as they are from anything you’ve read before.
- Harper Collins
- Amazon
December 2024: National Human Rights Month
- Book: What Are My Rights? Q&A About Teens and the Law by Thomas Jacobs
- The Teens & the Law series familiarizes young readers with our legal system, dispels myths and mysteries, and shows that the law is by and for the people—including teens.
- Amazon
January 2025: Poverty Awareness Month
- Book: Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond
- The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
- Penguin Random House
- Amazon
February 2025: Black History Month
- Book: Black Enough by Kekla Magoon
March 2025: Women’s History Month, Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month,
- Book: We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Drawing extensively on her own experiences and her deep understanding of the often masked realities of sexual politics, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman now—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.
- Amazon
April 2025: Earth Month,
- Book: Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty
- The winner of the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing in 2020, Dara McAnulty chronicles a year spent observing the wildlife of Northern Ireland. In between lyrical descriptions of encounters with blackbirds, hen harriers, frogs, dandelions, bats and Irish hares, he offers insights into the everyday struggles of a teenager living with autism.
- Amazon
- Milkweed Editions
May 2025: Mental Health Awareness Month, National Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
- Book: Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotype by Rocky Callen
- In this inspiring and unflinching mixed-genre collection, sixteen diverse and notable authors draw on their own lived experiences with mental health conditions to create stunning works of fiction that will uplift and empower you, break your heart and stitch it back together stronger than before.
- Penguin Random House
- Amazon
- Book: The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui
- This beautifully illustrated and emotional story is an evocative memoir exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family. Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s, and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves.
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
June 2025: LQBTQ+ Pride Month
- Book: Queer, There, and Everywhere by Sarah Prager
- A LGBTQ chronicle for teens shares facts about 23 influential gay and gender-ambiguous notables from the era of the Roman Empire to the present, exploring how they defied convention to promote civil rights, pursue relationships on their own terms and shape culture.
- Amazon
- sarahprager.com