Literature transforms human experience

I read Dear Martin by Nic Stone as soon as it came out. And, I loved it. It is a raw and essential look at growing up black in America.  

Then, this past weekend at YALSA I heard Kwame Alexander speak on a panel during the opening session. This quote by Rudine Sims Bishop came up:

“Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of a larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books.” ― Rudine Sims Bishop

The panel was asked by the moderator about windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors in books.  And, I loved Kwame's response, which was along the lines of:   teens of color have been reading about white characters for years... and due in part to that... teens of color can manage well in a white world. Perhaps it's finally time for white teens to read about black characters. He went on to say that The Hate You Give isn't just a book for teens of color - he suggests putting THUG in the hands of white teens.

The same can be said for Dear Martin.  The book explores racial injustice and police brutality from the teen perspective.

In Dear Martin, Justyce McAllister is at top of his graduating class and set for admission to an Ivy League college. But none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. And despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, Justyce can’t escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates.

Justyce asks himself, "What would Martin do?" And begins a journal of letters to the late Martin Luther King.

Get this book for all the teens you know.