School for our kids and all kids is on our mind this fall more than any other fall. 

‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.’
                               —Nelson Mandela

Summer’s over. The sign has been sitting in my apartment for months, seen by no one but me. Signs want to be seen. It needs me to hold it. When schools start here in a couple weeks, I’d like to be in my spot in front of the Dept. of Education. I don’t know what the sidewalk traffic will be like. And what about the subway to get me there? I’ll be going in rush hour. I’ll have to see. It’s too far to walk. I can’t take cabs five days a week. For seven years I’ve held that sign. I’m going to try. 

The poet and playwright Claudia Rankine talks to Afua Hirsch about power, race and class, and her experience of being a first-generation immigrant living in the US today. I’m going to get her book this week. Here’s a discussion she had in today’s Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/sep/05/claudia-rankine-by-white-privilege-i-mean-the-ability-to-stay-alive

James Fugate has run the Black author-focused Eso Won Books in LA since 1990, and he's never seen a sales surge like the one he's experiencing now. Here’s an article in ‘Inc.’ on him in this unusual year:
https://www.inc.com/lindsay-blakely/eso-won-books-james-fugate-black-business-owner.html

Not many books were published this spring or summer. They’re coming out now. Tomorrow I’m going to walk over to the West Village with my middle daughter to Three Lives Bookstore, my favorite, which she told me about years ago when she lived close by it. TIME magazine put together a list of the top 42 books coming out. Here it is:
https://apple.news/AWSedWlxHTkil_q5p7yRj1w

Writers Rebel is a group of London artists who stand against those who minimize the dangers of climate change. This piece was in today’s Guardian. Here’s the link:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/02/ground-zero-of-lies-on-climate-artists-protest-at-london-thinktanks

NPR had a panel pick the 100 best books for young readers. You’ll certainly recognize some of the titles and dust jackets. They all look good. Of course there are those books that are just the right ones for just the right kid. We each had such a book or books that worked for us. Here’s the list they made:
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/31/905804301/welcome-to-story-hour-100-favorite-books-for-young-readers