Community Summer Reading

Headwaters School
Each summer, our faculty and staff are invited to read from a selection of books. We do this to build community and in August, when we gather, we’ll separate into book groups to explore these texts and how they connect to our work. Last year, we invited the parent community to join us. Our 2021 Summer Reading choices are listed below. Community members are welcome to read one (or all) of these books. If you’d like, we even set up a special digital storefront with local, independent bookseller Black Pearl Books' online bookshop for you to purchase these titles at this link.
  • The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., by Dr. Peniel E. Joseph. Dr. Joseph was our keynote speaker on Civil Rights Day on the River Campus back in January. To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense vs. nonviolence, black power vs. civil rights, the sword vs. the shield. The struggle for black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. Dr. Joseph’s book is a dual biography in which he details how the two men’s lives intersected and how they influenced each other’s work.
  • Permission to Feel by Marc Brackett, Ph.D. combines rigor, science, passion, and inspiration in equal parts to lay out a case for understanding and mastering our emotions. If you like this book, check out his app called Mood Meter that helps us acquire a granular understanding of our own emotions. For those who might be interested, the book describes a school-based program that helps children self-regulate.
  • Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. You may be familiar with this novel from the award-winning series on Hulu. If you were moved by the series, please consider reading this novel, set in the Cleveland area. It touches on themes of race, class, privilege, and access. It’s a page turner.
If you are interested in continuing the conversation with other parents on one or more of these books, please fill out this form and we will organize it if we have interest. Don't forget to tag #HWreads if you post on social media!
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