Books like Go Girl! — picked by fans

Travel has always been more than just a passion for me; it’s a way of life. As a travel content creator and author, I’ve explored countless destinations, immersing myself in different cultures and uncovering stories that often go untold. I believe in traveling with curiosity, finding hidden gems, and experiencing places beyond the typical tourist spots. My journeys have taken me across Europe and beyond, and I love sharing practical tips and personal insights to inspire others. Travel should be exciting, accessible, and deeply enriching, and I hope this list helps spark that same sense of adventure in you.

Travel has always been more than just a passion for me; it’s a way of life. As a travel content creator and author, I’ve explored countless destinations, immersing myself in different cultures and uncovering stories that often go untold. I believe in traveling with curiosity, finding hidden gems, and experiencing places beyond the typical tourist spots. My journeys have taken me across Europe and beyond, and I love sharing practical tips and personal insights to inspire others. Travel should be exciting, accessible, and deeply enriching, and I hope this list helps spark that same sense of adventure in you.

Travel has always been more than just a passion for me; it’s a way of life. As a travel content creator and author, I’ve explored countless destinations, immersing myself in different cultures and uncovering stories that often go untold. I believe in traveling with curiosity, finding hidden gems, and experiencing places beyond the typical tourist spots. My journeys have taken me across Europe and beyond, and I love sharing practical tips and personal insights to inspire others. Travel should be exciting, accessible, and deeply enriching, and I hope this list helps spark that same sense of adventure in you.

Travel has always been more than just a passion for me; it’s a way of life. As a travel content creator and author, I’ve explored countless destinations, immersing myself in different cultures and uncovering stories that often go untold. I believe in traveling with curiosity, finding hidden gems, and experiencing places beyond the typical tourist spots. My journeys have taken me across Europe and beyond, and I love sharing practical tips and personal insights to inspire others. Travel should be exciting, accessible, and deeply enriching, and I hope this list helps spark that same sense of adventure in you.

I am passionate about talent development and college access. I started my journey as a researcher when I learned that high school valedictorians’ adult success depends in large part on their race, social class, and gender. This work led me to life-long questions. How do we recognize talent and give young people opportunities without requiring their total assimilation into the dominant culture? How do we change our schools and colleges to welcome everyone and to benefit from the viewpoints and voices of all of our students? Answering these questions is imperative for our collective well-being in our changing society and world. 

I am a lifelong lover of books. As a child, one of my most prized possessions was my library card. It gave me entrance to a world of untold wonders from the past, present, and future. My love of reading sparked my imagination and led me to my own fledgling writing efforts. I come from a family of storytellers, my mother being the chief example. She delighted us with stories from her childhood and her maturation in the rural South. She was an excellent mimic, which added realism and humor to every tale. 

I have a youthful spirit, but an old soul. Perhaps, that’s why I love African American history and gravitated to Black Studies as my undergraduate degree. My reverence for my ancestors sends me time and again to African-American historical fiction in an effort to connect with our past. Growing up, I was that kid who liked being around my elders and eavesdropping on grown-ups' conversations. Now, I listen to my ancestors as they guide my creativity. I’m an award-winning hybrid author writing contemporary and historical novels, and I value each. Still, it’s those historical characters and tales that snatch me by the hand and passionately urge me to do their bidding. 

Before I’m a scholar, author, or policy wonk, I’m a Christian who believes that God has shown us that our highest and greatest call after loving God is to love each other—and thus we are to value people’s and communities’ well-being above profit, wealth, and status. Thus, I come to sociology with a sense of mission: to use the tools of social science to understand the mechanisms creating inequitable resource access and, with that insight, to imagine and work alongside like-minded others to build economic and political systems that foster communal and individual prosperity. By studying the Black middle class, specifically, I gain traction for understanding how racial status distorts our economic and political systems.

Good question. Why would a white guy be passionate about nineteenth-century African American community building and activism? It’s a long story, but the short version is that by the time I reached graduate school, I could no longer avoid the realization that I had been dramatically miseducated about American history, and that the key to American history—one important key, anyway—is African American history. You can’t understand what it means to be an American if you don’t know this history, and you can’t understand our own very troubled times, or how to respond to these times, how to turn frustration into action, unless you know this history. So I developed my expertise over the years. 

Long before I became a writer, I was a mom and a teacher. Over some 25 years, I read hundreds, thousands of picture books to kids.  I fell in love with the lyrical language, the amazing variety, and the ways picture book authors and illustrators tell a complete story, engage kids (and adults!), and keep readers turning the pages. To me, picture books are an extraordinary gift not only for a young audience, but also for the parents, caregivers, teachers, and librarians who share them with kids. I hope these picture book suggestions inspire you to create special memories with the children you know and love.