Set of All (4) Ballou Story Project Books
Set of All (4) Ballou Story Project Books
Get the complete collection of Shout Mouse Press teen books by the authors of Ballou High School.
This set contains four powerful memoir collections by at-risk t teens in Washington, DC. These books are ideal for:
educators, social workers, and concerned citizens who want to understand the lives of teens growing up in marginalized or under-served communities
teen readers, including reluctant readers and those with literacy challenges
everyone who wants to be inspired by stories of determination and everyday courage
Books In This Set
Proceeds from book sales go to a Ballou HS scholarship fund and to empower new authors.
The students of Ballou High School know a different Washington, DC than do the more than 18 million tourists who visit our nation’s capital each year. They live in Southeast DC, across the Anacostia River, and the tour buses don’t go through their neighborhoods. Some travel guides explicitly call the communities East of the River “areas to avoid.” Even some residents of the District don’t often visit Wards 7 and 8, as the river acts as not only a literal boundary, but a metaphorical one. The bridge that should connect these two Washingtons is all too rarely crossed.
The statistics about poverty or crime or violence in this community tell such a limited story, and it’s not the only story to tell. Those statistics should not build a wall that hides the humanity on the other side. Young people grow up in these neighborhoods, often too quickly, facing adult challenges too young. But they also grow up as all young people do: with joy. With talent. With pride. With love for their families, both biological and chosen. With style and humor and ambition and charm. For them, Southeast DC, and their own Ballou High School, is more than the headlines that others write -- it is home. And for the educators who work with these young people every day, they know that the stories we tell--and hear--about ourselves make all the difference.
ISBN: 978-1945434006
Age: 12+
Lexile: 830L
Page Count: 88
Published: 2016
2015 INDIEFAB Finalist: YA Nonfiction Book of the Year
2015 INDIEFAB Finalist: Child Author Book of the Year
Proceeds from book sales go to a Ballou HS scholarship fund and to empower new authors.
Through the course of a historic year of civil unrest and the emergence of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement, thirty teen writers from Frank W. Ballou High School in Washington, DC came together to take part in this national conversation about race, inequality, violence, and justice. Through their powerful, personal stories these writers intend to Change the Narrative about youth of color. We are not thugs, they say. We are not victims. We are big sisters and sports stars, academic strivers and everyday heroes. We speak out for justice. We dream big dreams. These writers want more for themselves, more for their community, more for their generation. And they are challenging their readers to listen, and to recognize in each story a common humanity worthy of dignity, support, and respect. This riot of voices must be heard.
ISBN: 978-0692455388
Age: 12+
Lexile: 820L
Page Count: 88
Published: 2015
Proceeds from book sales go to a Ballou HS scholarship fund and to empower new authors.
"Your Story Is Your Strength." This is the mantra that emerged from a six-month writing project at Ballou High School in Washington, DC, in which eleven dedicated freshmen and six determined seniors told their stories of ambition and struggle in what came to be known as The Ballou Story Project. Together their poignant, powerful voices come together to tell a collective story of How To Grow Up Like Me, a kind of instruction manual for determination, grit, and daily acts of hope and courage.
ISBN: 978-0692309568
Age: 12+
Lexile: 770L
Page Count: 88
Published: 2014
Recognition & Impact
Dreonna Richardson, one of the essayists in How To Grow Up Like Me, who was featured in WAMU 88.5's series Beating the Odds, in which education reporter Kavitha Cardoza profiles students in the Washington, D.C. area who have overcome struggles and found ways to thrive academically and socially.
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This set includes:
Bright Before Us, Like a Flame
A landmark anthology spanning ten years of Shout Mouse Press with memoir, poetry, fiction, comics, and children’s literature from underrepresented youth authors, offering both a retrospective and a call to action for a new generation of writers as well as teachers.
The Light Looks Like Me: Words on Love from Queer Youth
A stunning, affirming collection of poems, stories, art, and comics by queer youth authors that celebrates love, identity, and self-expression in all its forms.
Passing the Mic: Building a Poet-Athlete City
A powerful portrait of Washington, D.C., this collection showcases three decades of DC SCORES poet-athletes who use soccer, poetry, and service to imagine and build a better future.
Stock your classroom with 20 copies of this powerhouse anthology and teaching tool. Or give it as a gift to a teacher or class! Even better — pair it with the Bright Before Us Inspiration Set!
By the Young Writers of Shout Mouse Press
For ten years, Shout Mouse Press has championed the voices of young writers, publishing their authentic and necessary stories. Now, this landmark anthology of youth writing celebrates a decade of storytelling—and invites readers to pick up their pens and write the path ahead.
Spanning memoir, poetry, fiction, comics, and children’s literature, Bright Before Us, Like a Flame is more than a retrospective—it’s a creative writing resource and a call to action. Taking its title from Langston Hughes’ poem “Youth,” this collection ignites both hope for the future and the power to shape it. Through stories of immigration, identity, social justice, and resilience, young authors confront today’s most urgent topics with insight and empathy. Their words challenge, inspire, and invite readers to add their own voices to the conversation.
ISBN: 978-1-950807-82-6
Age: 12+
Page Count: 304
Get the complete set of books featured in Bright Before Us, Like a Flame. A perfect classroom companion or a gift for a teacher. Pair it with the Bright Before Us Classroom Set.
Curated by your favorite authors and SMP Megaphone Board members, Jason Reynolds, Clint Smith, Elizabeth Acevedo, Hena Khan, Meg Medina, and Wendy Shang, this set contains books for young people ages 12+
Get the full set of books by Beacon House teen writers. These books contain middle grade and young adult fiction centering the stories of Black youth.
This set includes:
Black Boys Dreaming, a collection of illustrated stories written in poetry and prose by four middle middle school Black boys. Over the course of a historic year characterized by the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests, and widespread social reckoning, these authors from Beacon House came together virtually, to dream.
The Day Tajon Got Shot, an extraordinarily brave multi-perspective novel about prejudice and police brutality by ten teen girls from Beacon House.
Trinitoga, a novel-in-stories by middle-school authors of Beacon House. These young writers created a fictionalized neghborhood and populated it with an endearing and heartbreaking cast of characters, not unlike people they have encountered in their own lives.
Curriculum is available for these titles!
Proceeds from book sales go to a Ballou HS scholarship fund and to empower new authors.
This book, the fifth volume of The Ballou Story Project, was initiated by these young people in response to a challenging year for the community. They wanted to illuminate the Ballou not often represented in the media--one full of love, hard work, and transformation. They set their mission: to change the story about their school and the people who call it home. To combat stereotypes and assumptions. To motivate the next generation to persevere, and to believe in themselves, no matter what.
Most importantly, these young people wanted to speak for themselves, not to be spoken about. They remind us that there are many sides to every story, and that all voices should be valued and heard. “This is our last line of defense,” they write. “These are our stories. This is the Ballou We Know.”
The Ballou We Know is the fifth volume of The Ballou Story Project, a program that provides a platform for these students to tell their own stories and act as leaders in their community. Learn more.
ISBN: 978-1945434914
Age: 12+
Lexile: 760L
Page Count: 72
Published: 2018