#GRLPWR: YA Novels and Fierce Females

Today, I’m thrilled to share with you a new series I’m starting called #GRLPWR. It’s a blog series that will feature strong women making a difference (both in the past and in their communities today), paired with a YA novel with a similar vibe.

I’m ECSTATIC to bring you the first match-up!

It’s Nupol Kiazolu and DEAR HAITI, LOVE ALAINE by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite.

LET’S DIVE IN TO THE FIERCENESS!

NUPOL KIAZOLU

Background: Nupol Kiazolu has plans. BIG PLANS. With a poster on her wall reading “2036,” she has her sights set on being the President of the United States one day.

An activist since she was thirteen years old, where she wore a hoodie to school with the word, “Do I look suspicious?” on it after Trayvon Martin’s murder, she is already flexing her presidential muscles. She is the founder and CEO of Vote 2000 and was the President of the Youth Coalition for Black Lives Matter of Greater New York prior to starting college at Hampton University in Virginia. Last year, she was named a member of Teen Vogue’s 21 Under 21 class of 2018 and has been recognized by Women in the World and DoSomething.Org,

Quote: “You’re never too young to stand up for what’s right! Don’t ever let the phrase ‘you’re too young’ hold you back from anything you set your mind to.”

DEAR HAITI, LOVE ALAINE

My Review: DEAR HAITI, LOVE ALAINE is one of those books that will stay with you for a long time. The authors created a witty, believable protagonist going through some rough stuff, but who manages it all with her smarts and sense of humor. The snapshots of Haiti presented me with a visual of this country's landscape and history I'd never seen before. Through texts, letters, tables, graphics, index cards, postcards, emails, recipes, tests, and school book reports (among other media!) I watched history and curses unfold. I highly recommend this to readers everywhere, but to teachers especially who want to share an easy-to-read, history-rich, diverse, #OwnVoices story with their classrooms. WELL DONE!

Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW:"The Moulite sisters' well-conceived debut is an alternately funny and bittersweet story of loss, regret, love, and sacrifice... Seamlessly blending story lines and allusions to Haiti's history and culture, the authors create an indelible, believable character in Alaine-naive, dynamic, and brutally honest-who stretches and grows as her remarkable, affectingly rendered family relationships do." -

THE #GRLPWR CONNECTION

Brutal honesty. Sometimes you need to slap someone in the face with the truth, especially when people don’t listen to you. In DEAR HAITI, LOVE ALAINE, Alaine isn’t afraid to dig to the heart of the matter to find out what’s really going on, nor is she afraid to tell the truth even when it isn’t convenient for her. Likewise, Nupol Kiazolu, at just thirteen years old, spoke her truth as loudly as she could then went on to fight for the truth she believed in with everything in her.