Ms. Mounsey
January 6, 2023
“I like to take some time off and just read fiction sometimes,” Ms. Mounsey said. “Some of the nonfiction I read can be pretty emotionally and psychologically hard sometimes.”
Director of Equity and Inclusion Ms. Kiah Mounsey’s top three reads of 2022 include “This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work” by Tiffany Jewell, “George” by Alex Gino, and “Dear White Woman, Please Come Home: Hand Me Your Bias, and I’ll Show You Our Connection” by Kimberlee Yolanda Williams.
“Tiffany Jewell is a speaker who just really resonates,” Ms. Mounsey said. “She also identifies as a Black, multiracial woman, which I do as well. And there were a lot of great lessons and tips in here, and also the illustrations are beautiful.”
Ms. Mounsey thinks that Jewell’s book is “really for anyone,” she said. “I think it’s accessible and digestible, whether it’s for students or adults.”
“George” by Alex Gino is “about a boy who wants to transition to a girl and is in elementary school and really wants to be Charlotte in the play ‘Charlotte’s Web,’” she said. “It was really well written, but the story was incredible about how some of his classmates, his best friend in particular, just surrounded him in love and encouraged him to do what he wanted to do and be true to himself.”
Another reason Ms. Mounsey loves the book is because one of her close friends wrote it. “I just feel like I have this personal connection to this book,” she said.
While Williams’ novel’s title reads “Dear White Woman,” Ms. Mounsey said that anyone looking for a change in perspective should read this book because of the “really interesting and intimate examples of discrimination and racism that’s happening in this world,” she said.