Staff Picks: Leah Schiano’s Favorites
Hello fellow book lovers! I’m Leah Schiano and I’m an Associate Manager of Preschool Marketing at Penguin Young Readers. I specialize in marketing books for children ages 0-10, but I love reading books of all kinds. When I’m not reading or working, I love attending concerts and traveling the world (when there’s not a global pandemic!). You can find me at @leahschiano on Instagram.
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Add to BookshelfKnow My Name
by Chanel Miller
You know that book that makes you feel so many things at one time? The one that is hard to keep working through because of how emotional it makes you but you also can’t put down? Yeah, that’s Know My Name by Chanel Miller. One of the most important memoirs, if not books, I’ve ever read, Know My Name chronicles Chanel’s sexual assault on Stanford’s campus and her emotional, physical, and mental reckoning with it all. It’s moving, poignant, and all together un-put-downable.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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We Are Okay
by Nina LaCour
Reading a Nina LaCour book is always an experience. It’s most like a heartfelt and cathartic conversation with a best friend. You’ll most likely end up crying and feel utterly changed after. We Are Okay grips you from the very first page and keeps you turning those pages until you find yourself in the same spot 5 hours later. It just hits different.
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$12.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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I Am Every Good Thing
by Derrick Barnes
I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a picture book in this list. One of the most important books to hit shelves in recent years is I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James. A shining light of Black boy joy and an overall showcase of how special and unique every child is in this world. Every child’s bookshelf should have a copy of this one (and maybe a back-up due to repeat readings).
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$18.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Circles All Around Us
by Brad Montague
Okay, one more picture book, just for good measure! The Circles All Around Us is a beautiful introduction to community and how it grows as you do. Perfect for all of those #pandemicbabies or for little ones going off to school for the first time, I already know this will become an instant classic.
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$18.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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Beach Read
by Emily Henry
I have been a fan of Emily Henry since her first YA book The Love That Split the World. She was born to write romance and she does not disappoint in Beach Read. Enemies to lovers is my jam (even if they’re only enemies in one person’s mind). Don’t let the title fool you—this book is good to read anywhere.
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$16.00Buy from Other Retailers:
