Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
by The Educator Collaborative fellow, Lois Barker
I consider myself an avid reader. For many years, I found myself caught in creating reading collages, posters, or logs to track annual reading. I set loft goals for myself- I will read 35 books this year… I will read 50 books this year. I wanted to set an example for students, next came my daughter, and later the teachers I coached. Then December would roll around, and I would look at my log and either revel in my reading victories or frown because I terribly fell short of my goal. However, that shame was usually felt in private. But with social media came reading bingo posts and websites to track reading. While I lived to see what everyone else read at the end of the year, I also realized the dread some readers shared when they didn’t meet their lofty goals. In fact, I stopped sharing and eventually stopped tracking.
That number came as a burden–not a challenge, not a goal. I realized that for the last 3 years, I have been reading based on a vibe. To start the year, I wanted to reread a self-help book I found grounding. Perhaps I am grappling with a particular pain point in my instructional practice, and I have identified three professional readings that can help me address those challenges. Maybe I walked into a bookstore, fell in love with a book cover, and wanted to see if the story was just rich and impactful. I read on need and vibes.
This year, I plan to continue reading based on need and vibes. I am an educator in a state where scripted curriculum is becoming the default. I believe in a society where marginalized voices are being actively erased and whose histories are being rewritten. I am also a mother to a toddler and to a teen preparing to attend college. I am a woman who has been mistreated by the medical system and want to truly take more ownership of my health to live another 30-4 years to see my daughters flourish. With that in mind, I set three words to guide me this year:
- Intentionality: I want to be intentional with my commitments and relationships—no frivolous yeses, especially to unpaid labor. I want to be intentional with the information I take in. I seek wonder, the challenge of old thought, and truth.
- Consistency: I need to maintain consistent habits to improve my physical, mental, and financial health.
- Attentiveness: I need to listen to my body, so I know when to rest. I also need to pay attention to those around me–know when to check in, give space, etc.
I will let these three words set the tone for my 2026 reading journey. There will be some re-readings and new readings to enter my life. So what am I thinking about reading?
- Kuleana: A Story of Family, Land, and Legacy in Old Hawai’i by Sara Kehaulani Goo is an essential addition to our understanding of Indigenous land rights and cultural preservation. Award-winning journalist Goo traces her family’s fight to retain ancestral Hawaiian land granted by King Kamehameha III in 1848. Through personal narrative woven with investigative journalism, she examines the systemic displacement of Native Hawaiians while exploring the profound Hawaiian concept of kuleana—responsibility, privilege, and stewardship bound together. This speaks to me as someone who grew up on an island and whose family has land passed down through generations. It speaks to me because buying land in my country is becoming more and more difficult for the local person, as “expats” –really immigrants–come in and buy up prime real estate because their currency carries a certain weight. They price out locals and drive up prices.
- Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls won the Pulitzer Prize for Memoir for good reason. This powerful book follows three generations of Chinese women through war, revolution, and displacement. Hulls explores her relationship with her mother and grandmother, uncovering silence and inherited trauma from the Sino-Japanese War and Maoist China. The visual storytelling adds meaning that words alone can’t provide. It’s the kind of book that helps students see how form and content work together, and it’s also a great example of research, memory, and narrative structure.
- America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History by Ariel Aberg-Riger offers a fresh way to teach U.S. history. Using collaged photos, maps, documents, and handwritten notes, Aberg-Riger shares 21 visual stories that question the myths we believe. This Kirkus Prize Winner links struggles across time, from celebrity influence on immigration to the lasting effects of housing discrimination. It’s the kind of book that encourages students to think critically about all historical stories.
- Unboxing the Curriculum: Personalize the Program, Center Your Students, and Teach with Agency by Katie and Maggie Robert promises to be a great one. It will be released soon. It speaks to addressing the scripted curriculum and to taking inventory of what we are actually teaching. In a session at NCTE’s annual conference in Denver last year, Maggie previewed the tools this box offered educators to navigate boxed/scripted curriculum. What really pulled me in were the steps provided to help educators truly understand the difference between teaching and covering standards.
- After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones won the This Is Horror Award and was nominated for the Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Awards for this work. This collection of fifteen stories looks at both supernatural and everyday horrors with sharp, lyrical writing. Jones is a leading voice in horror and Indigenous literature, and his stories stay with you long after you finish them. Two years ago, I read his book The Only Good Indians and was fascinated by the connections between Native American and Caribbean beliefs. It made me want to read more of his work and explore other Indigenous and African horror writers.
- The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer is another fantastic read. The Serviceberry offers a vision for orienting our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community. Here, Kimmerer examines the gift economy through the lens of the serviceberry tree, which distributes its abundance to meet the needs of its natural community. It challenges our scarcity-driven economic thinking and reminds us that wealth comes from the quality of our relationships. For educators thinking about sustainability, community care, and alternative economic models, this is essential reading.
- Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano is a timely read and remains a foundational text for understanding colonialism and its lasting impact. First published in 1971, this work traces five centuries of exploitation across Latin America, examining how resources—gold, silver, sugar, coffee, rubber, oil—were extracted to build wealth in Europe and the United States while impoverishing the continent. Galeano blends history, political economy, and storytelling with passionate, poetic prose. For social studies teachers, this book provides vital context for discussions about global inequality, dependency, and resistance.
The goal isn’t to read every book on this list. The real goal is to stay curious, engaged, and connected to the books that support me in this work. When we read with purpose in areas that matter to us, we show our students what it means to be lifelong learners. We teach them that reading isn’t just a checklist—it’s a way of living. So how are you shaping your reading journey this year? However you go about it, I hope that the journey is rich, rewarding, flexible, and memorable.
References
Aberg-Riger, A. (2023). America redux: Visual stories from our dynamic history. Balzer + Bray.
Galeano, E. (1997). Open veins of Latin America: Five centuries of the pillage of a continent (C. Belfrage, Trans.). Monthly Review Press. (Original work published 1971)
Goo, S. K. (2025). Kuleana: A story of family, land, and legacy in old Hawai’i. Flatiron Books.
Hulls, T. (2024). Feeding ghosts: A graphic memoir. MCD Books.
Jones, S. G. (2014). After the people lights have gone off. Dark House Press.
Kimmerer, R. W. (2024). The serviceberry: Abundance and reciprocity in the natural world (J. Burgoyne, Illus.). Scribner.Roberts, K., & Roberts, M. B. (2025). Unboxing the curriculum: Personalize the program, center your students, and teach with agency. Heinemann.
