Little Red Riding Hood

 Retold by: Trina Schart Hyman

First line: Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Elisabeth who lived with her mother in a house on the edge of a village.

Why you should read this book: An absolutely gorgeous picture book, this visit to the familiar old story won a Caldecott Honor for its sumptuous, evocative illustrations. The story follows a most traditional path through the woods, to grandma’s house, and so on, and while this old-fashioned version, with its huntsman hero and Red’s final vow to never again stray from the path, has fallen out of favor in the face of more feminist iterations where the empowered child rescues herself, or turns the wolf into an ally, it’s a beautiful example of an archetype coming to life. Very satisfying.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: You don’t want your daughters waiting around to get rescued.

The Plot

Written by: Will Eisner

First line: Whenever one group of people is taught to hate another, a lie is created to inflame the hatred and justify a plot.

Why you should read this book: Eisner poured his soul and a large portion of the last part of his life into this historical graphic story, which details the deceitful origins of the hateful, anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. From its late nineteenth century inception as a fraud plagiarized from earlier French revolutionary documents for the purpose of halting modernity in czarist Russia while justifying pogroms and other racist behaviors, these lies have been associated with the perpetuation of evil throughout the years; the book seeks to debunk the pervasive attitudes that have allowed a demonstrable hoax to take on a life of its own, despite ample proof that it is nothing more than a lie enjoyed by people who love to hate. Eisner originally felt certain that if he could only compile all the data into one easy-to-read volume, he could kill The Protocols once and for all, but eventually he ended the book with the realization that anti-Semitism is a choice made by racists whose confirmation bias prevents them from understanding the evidence, and it is justified, rather than inspired, by the document.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: The Dunning-Kreuger effect.

Saint Francis Sings to Brother Sun

 Retold by: Karen Pandell

First line: Throughout his life, Saint Francis of Assisi boldly brought a sense of sacred joy into everyday life.

Why you should read this book: Weaving together autobiographical fables and Saint Francis’s own ecstatic spiritual writings, this volume for younger readers introduces the nature-centric religious life of this most beloved of historic religious figures. The stories illustrate his mystical connection with animals, while the passages from his “Canticle of Brother Sun” illustrate his intense adoration of and connection with the divine. Rich gold-tinted drawings suggest the medieval time period of his life.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: You demand empirical proof, or you hate animals.

The Green Child

Written by: Herbert Read

First line: The assassination of President Olivero, which took place in the autumn of 1861, was for the world at large one of those innumerable incidents of a violent nature which characterise the politics of the South American continent.

Why you should read this book: I thought it was going to be an anarchist fairy tale, but it's really more of a Marxist parable. Oliver, or Don Olivero, depending on which continent he's on, leaves home, magically becomes the leader of a worker's utopia for twenty-five years, then returns home to learn the fate of the green children, a pair of strange creatures who appeared around the time he embarked on his adventures. Then he helps the surviving thirty-year-old "child" return to her magical crystalline origins under the ground, where he finds true happiness in a strange austerity.

Why you shouldn't read this book: More political posturing than magic.

Show Way

 Written: Jacqueline Woodson

First line: When Soonie’s great-grandma was seven, she was sold from the Virginia land to a plantation in South Carolina without her ma or pa but with some muslin her ma had given her.

Why you should read this book: This reconstructed narrative takes the knowledge the author has of her own ancestral history and combines it with a poetic voice and a story about freedom, equality, risk, and quilt making. From the unnamed ancestor who learned how to sew “Show Way,” beautiful quilts that secretly hid in them maps that slaves could use to escape to the north and freedom, the story spills down through the ages, marking the birth of girl child after girl child, learning how to sew, dreaming of a better day. Eventually freedom comes, along with the knowledge of reading and writing, but, in the author’s family, the habit of sewing stars from fabric to create knowledge and history and meaning, is ingrained.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: You don’t have anything to pass on to your kids.

Coming on Home Soon

Written by: Jaqueline Woodson

First line: Mama’s hands are warm and soft.

Why you should read this book: To Ada Ruth’s mama, the hiring of colored women in Chicago, to clean trains, no less, is an amazing opportunity, not just to work with dignity while the men are away at war, but also to make some money she can send on home to her family; to Ada Ruth, it’s a reason for tears; her mother is leaving, and she doesn’t know when she’s coming back. Ada Ruth’s mother stays away a long time, without sending money or even a letter, but Ada Ruth hugs her grandma, keeps writing to her mama, and takes up with a scrofulous black and white kitten her grandmother says they can’t keep, even though they do. Finally, a letter arrives in Mama’s beautiful cursive, with money falling out of it and the sweetest thing of all—the knowledge that she’s coming home soon.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: You’re going away soon.