Check out our virtual do-it-at-home book clubs! The best part? Everyone who participates gets to keep the book!
There are four age categories: grades K-3, grades 3-5, grades 5-8, and grades 9-12. There’s some overlap so you can choose which book you’d prefer to read. Every book comes with links to explore, a blank review form, a few questions, and some activities. Each book will have a post on www.splyouth.org for anyone who wants to discuss the book or comment on any of the questions or activities.
If you’d prefer not to go online, fill out the included sheet(s) and get them back to the library. Everyone who either posts on our site or brings back anything included with the book will get a small prize. Supplies are limited, so grab yours today!
Grades 9-12: Riot by Walter Dean Myers
“As the Civil War rages, another battle breaks out behind the lines. During a long hot July in 1863, the worst race riots the United States has ever seen erupt in New York City. Earlier that year, desperate for more Union soldiers, President Abraham Lincoln instituted a draft – a draft that would allow the wealthy to escape serving in the army by paying a $300 waiver, more than a year’s income for the recent immigrant Irish. And on July 11, as the first drawing takes place in Lower Manhattan, the city of New York explodes in rage and fire. Stores are looted; buildings, including the Colored Foundling Home, are burned down; and black Americans are attacked, beaten, and murdered. The police cannot hold out against the rioters, and finally, battle-hardened soldiers are ordered back from the fields of Gettysburg to put down the insurrection, which they do – brutally. Fifteen-year-old Claire, the beloved daughter of a black father and Irish mother, finds herself torn between the two warring sides. Faced with the breakdown of the city… Claire must discover the strength and resilience to address the new world in which she finds herself,” (Riot, 2016).