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

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