Enjoy The Monthly PS 87 Family Book Club!

Title: The WIlliam Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game

Author: Nancy Churnin

Illustrator: Jez Tuya

Read by: Dawnica Conyette

Discussion: Monday, February 7th @ 6 pm

Ever wonder why we all make the same signal for 'you're outta here?" You can thank William Hoy, a deaf baseball player in the 1900s for bringing body language to the game. Whether you're a baseball fan or not, you'll appreciate the story of a person who not only overcame obstacles to play the game he loved, but left his mark on it as well.

Title: Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine

Author: Laurie Wallmark
Illustrator: April Chu
Read by Dawnica Conyette

Family Book Club Discussion: Monday, December 6, 2021 at 6:00 pm.

Ada Lovelace is recognized as the designer of the first computer program for her work back in the 1800s. During a time that we usually think of as the olden-days of horse and buggies, and no flush toilets, Ada Lovelace, an amazing mathematician, foresaw a time when computers would help design flying machines (airplanes didn't exist yet), compose music, make art, play games and help with schoolwork. She had a vision for the future that is still coming true.

If you'd like to read it yourself, the book is available on EPIC and can be borrowed from the New York Public Library.

Title: Girls with Guts: The Road to Breaking Barriers and Bashing Records
Author: Debbie Gonzales
Illustrator: Rebecca Gibbon
Read by Dawnica Conyette

Book Club Discussion: Monday, June 7th at 6:00 pm

Hard to believe in the time of Serena Williams and the US Women's Soccer team, but girls used to be discouraged from playing sports. Girls with Guts is about the athletes and the laws that led to the change in attitude.

If you'd like to read it yourself, Girls with Guts is available on EPIC and can be borrowed from the New York Public Library.

All the Way to the Top
by Annette Bay Pimentel
Illustrator: Nabi H. Ali
Read by: Dawnica Conyette

Book Club Discussion: Date: Monday, May 3rd, 6 PM

Description: All the Way to the top is the biography of Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, a little girl whose involvement in the Disability Rights movement helped pass the law that allows people with disabilities to go to their local schools, take public transportation, and have access to all buildings. The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) was made into law after Jennifer and her fellow protesters marched on Washington, abandoned their wheelchairs at the bottom of the U.S. Capitol and pulled themselves up the building's steps to make sure that lawmakers heard their voices!

If you'd like to read it yourself, All the Way to the Top is available on Epic and can be borrow from the New York Public Library.

Each Kindness
by Jacqueline Woodson
Illustrator: E.B. Lewis
Read by: Dawnica Conyette

Book Club Discussion: Monday, April 5th, 6 PM

Description: Not every story has a happy ending. Each Kindness captures what it feels like when you know you've done the wrong thing, and you just can't make it right.

The book is also available to borrow from the New York Public Library and to purchase from bookstores.

Freedom Summer
by Deborah Wiles
Illustrator: Jerome Lagarrigue
Read by: Dawnica Conyette

Historical fiction about best friends of different skin colors confronting the changing laws of the desegregating south.

If you'd like to read the text yourself, it's available to borrow from the New York Public Library
Book Club Discussion: Monday, March 1st @ 6 pm.

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family's Fight For Desegregation

The true story of the Mendez family lawsuit, in 1945, to desegregate California schools. As a result of the lawsuit Mexican-American children won the right to attend white schools.

Reading by Dawnica Conyette

If you'd like to read the text yourself, this title is also available on Epic.
Book Club Discussion: Monday, February 1st @ 6 pm