Welcome to the Bank Street Children's Book Committee's (CBC) Searchable Best Books List, a tool designed to help educators, families, librarians, and others access developmentally appropriate and engaging books for young readers (ages birth - 18).
Our online Searchable Best Books List draws from the committee's annual Best Children's Books of the Year-beginning with the list of books published in 2000-with each featuring more than 600 high-quality titles for young readers.
To share feedback about the tool, please feel free to email bookcom@bankstreet.edu. To learn more about the CBC, visit https://www.bankstreet.edu/cbc/.
How to Perform a Search and Save a List
Respect the Mic: Celebrating 20 Years of Poetry From a Chicagoland High School
Hanif Abdurraqib, Franny Choi, Peter Kahn, Dan "Sully" Sullivan, editors, foreword by Tyehimba Jess
Illustrator: Timba Smits
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Publisher: Penguin Workshop/Penguin Random House
ISBN: 978-0-593-22681-0
Keywords: poetry, identity, education, addiction, abuse, survival, alienation, neighborhoods, free verse
Culled from a decades-long high school writing and poetry slam project, these powerful varied verses are deeply personal, urgent and affecting. An inspiring model for replication in other educational settings. Black-and-white-spot illustrations.