This month we are moving together to transform the world! November is also National Native American Heritage Month. It’s a time to recognize the many sacrifices, contributions and achievements of Native American people, as well as celebrate their rich and vibrant culture. Discover the varied selection of books below, including one illustrated by the first woman of color to win the prestigious Caldecott Medal. We invite you to read these on your own or consider using one for a book club small group.
We Are Water Protectors
(2021, Roaring Brook Press) By Carol Lindstrom; illustrated by Michaela Goade
Illustrated by the first woman of color to win the prestigious Caldecott Medal, We Are Water Protectors is a children’s book that brings life to a culture that respects and protects the environment through powerful words and vibrant pictures. Inspired by the many Indigenous-led movements across North America, this book issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth’s water from harm and corruption.
Carole Lindstrom is Anishinabe/Métis and is a proud member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe Indians. She was born and raised in Nebraska and currently makes her home in Maryland. She is also the author of Girls Dance, Boys Fiddle. Michaela Goade is an illustrator and graphic designer living and working in Juneau, Alaska, where she was also raised. Forever inspired by the coastal wilds of Southeast Alaska, she works to capture its magic and honor its vibrant cultures. She is from the Raven moiety and Kiks.ádi Clan from Sitka, Alaska. Goade is also the illustrator of I Sang You Down from the Moon, Encounter, and Raven & the Tide Lady.
Unopened Letters From God: Using Biblical Dreams To Unlock Nightly Dreams
(2010, Haden Institute.com) By Rev. Robert L. Haden Jr.
Unopened Letters from God is a transformative workbook for dream groups and individuals. It is for the beginner, but also for those who already know and experience this reality – yet need the support, encouragement and wisdom of the dream community. Each of the 14 chapters explores a Biblical dream in its own context, suggests a method to work that dream, and shares similar contemporary dreams with exercises leading you to your own dream “ahas.”
Rev. Bob Haden, M.Div., S.T.M., D.A.P.A. is an Episcopal priest, founder and director of The Haden Institute. A former rector, he is a practicing pastoral counselor and spiritual director with a Jungian orientation. He is a diplomate of The American Psychotherapy Association with more than 30 years of experience in teaching the Dream. He received a BA from The University of The South, Sewanee, TN, a M.Div. from The Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, VA, and has a Master¹s degree in The Use of Dreams in Spiritual Direction from The General Theological Seminary, New York, NY, and did graduate studies at the C.G. Jung Institute in Switzerland. He is co-author of Soul¹s Labyrinth.
What’s So Amazing About Grace?
(2021, HarperChristian Resources) By Philip Yancey
What’s So Amazing About Grace explores the concept of grace—the one thing the world cannot duplicate and the one thing it craves above all else—and explores what it looks like in action. Through compelling and true portraits of grace’s life-changing power, the book also examines how Christians, as the sole dispensers, are doing at lavishing the grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy.
Philip Yancey has written 12e Gold Medallion Award–winning books and won two ECPA Book of the Year awards for this book and The Jesus I Never Knew. Four of his books have sold over one million copies. He lives with his wife in Colorado. Learn more at philipyancey.com.
Heal: Discover Your Unlimited Potential and Awaken the Powerful Healer Within
(2019, Atria Books) By Kelly Noonan Gores
Heal, which is based on the groundbreaking documentary of the same name, follows two people on their healing journeys, while combining science-backed research and real-world testimonials from experts like Marianne Williamson, Bruce Lipton, Deepak Chopra, Bernie Siegel, Anita Moorgani, Kelly Brogan, and many others, to offer hope and alternative treatments for the many people suffering from a variety of chronic illnesses.
Kelly Noonan Gores has been working in entertainment for twenty years. In 2012 she transitioned to writing, directing and producing and started Elevative Entertainment with the intention to create conscious media that informs, inspires and empowers. She considers Heal her greatest passion and life’s work. Learn more at HealDocumentary.com.
Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm
(2021, Beacon Press) By Dr. Robin DiAngelo
Nice Racism, a followup to the New York Times bestseller, White Fragility, explores how a culture of niceness inadvertently promotes racism. As GNJ delves into having uncomfortable conversations as part of A Journey of Hope, this book explains White Fragility in greater depth. Drawing on her background as a sociologist and over 25 years working as an anti-racist educator, the author picks up where White Fragility left off and moves the conversation forward.
Dr. Robin DiAngelo is an affiliate associate professor of education at the University of Washington. She has been a consultant, educator and facilitator on issues of racial and social justice for more than 25 years. She is the author or coauthor of several books. Her work has been praised by Ibram X. Kendi, Michael Eric Dyson, Claudia Rankine and Jonathan Capehart, among others. More information can be found at robindiangelo.com.
Plantation Jesus: Race, Faith, and a New Way Forward
(2021, Herald Press) By Skot Welch, Rick Wilson and Andi Cumbo-Floyd
Plantation Jesus looks at history, church and pop culture in detailing the manifold ways that racism damages the church’s witness. With the addition of common responses by white Christians to racial injustice, such as I never owned a slave, I don t see color; only people, and We just need to get over it and move on, this book calls call out the church’s denials and dodges and evasions of race, and it invites readers to encounter the Christ of the disenfranchised. Using practical resources and Spirit-filled stories, Plantation Jesus nudges readers to learn the history, acknowledge the injury, and face the truth.
Skot Welch is the principal/founder of Global Bridgebuilders, a firm focusing on cultural transformation and inclusion that serves a wide range of clients in the U.S. and in more than seven countries. He has worked in international business and diversity and inclusion management for 20 years. Rick Wilson was an Emmy-winning producer and writer in print and broadcast media. He was cohost, with Skot Welch, of the popular radio program, “Radio in Black and White,” which covered topics related to race, ethnicity, and cultural competence. Wilson died in 2014. Andi Cumbo-Floyd is a writer, editor and writing coach whose books include The Slaves Have Names, a book of creative nonfiction that tells the story of the people who were enslaved on the plantation that she calls home. She and her husband, Philip run a small farm in central Virginia.
What Do You Say?
(2021, Xlibris US) By Dr. Garfield Greene
What Do You Say is about Jesus Christ as the center of the Christian faith. Jesus has a conversation with his disciples about his identity. He asks them a question concerning his christology. This happens a short time before his crucifixion. They have been living with him for nearly three years now, and they are still not sure about his true identity. He questions them, and they give him different answers.
Dr. Garfield Greene was honorably discharged in 1961 after serving as an American Airman in the U.S. Air Force. He earned a BA in French from Morgan State College, an MSW from the University of Maryland at Baltimore, a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary and a D.Min. from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. He has been employed as a chaplain at the Trenton State Prison, a Clinical Social Worker for the Dept. of the Army and for the Veterans Administration and has served as a United Methodist pastor in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He also published Ordinary People.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
(2008, Sarah Crichton Books) By Ishmael Beah
A Long Way Gone, which has been published in 30 different languages and nominated for a Quill Award in 2007, tells a riveting story of a boy in Sierra Leone during the decade-long civil war, who at the age of 12 fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By 13, he had been picked up by the government army, and although at heart a gentle boy, found himself capable of truly terrible acts.
Ishmael Beah, born in 1980 in Sierra Leone, is a UNICEF Ambassador and Advocate for Children Affected by War; a member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Advisory Committee; an advisory board member at the Center for the Study of Youth and Political Violence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; visiting scholar at the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University; visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Genocide, Conflict Resolution, and Human Rights at Rutgers University; cofounder of the Network of Young People Affected by War (NYPAW); and president of the Ishmael Beah Foundation. He has spoken before the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and many panels on the effects of war on children. He is a graduate of Oberlin College with a B.A. in Political Science and resides in Brooklyn, NY.