Six New Things – Week of November 10, 2025

Equip and empower young ones to step up with hope and courage; support and honor wise elders to step back with hope and grace.

ONE

It’s Native American Heritage Month.

Honor Indigenous wisdom and affirm youth with You Were Made for This World: Celebrated Indigenous Voices Speak to Young People (Tundra), a ‘joyful, proud, and groundbreaking collection of letters and art for young people’.

Expand joy, amplify pride, and deepen relationships with self and all kin with Brave (Kokila), ‘an affirming, heartfelt picture book about a Native American boy proudly growing out his hair and basking in the knowledge that braids are beautiful’; and Moon Song (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), which ‘invites us to discover the wonder and comfort of a winter’s night’ as ‘a girl spins a story for her worried cousin’.

Find more in our Tweens & Teens: Identity/Coming of Age; FF: Parenting / Diversity: Indigenous Voices; and Spiritual Practices: Awe, Wonder, & Curiosity lib guides.

TWO

Further explore relationship with all in, The Ancients: A Novel (Penguin), which offers ‘a post-apocalyptic vision of hope and optimism’ amidst a ‘rapidly changing climate’ and a ‘struggle for the future of humanity’; We Love You: An Optimistic Guide to Life on a Rock Floating Through Space (Penguin Random), leads readers on ‘a journey to deepen your relationship with… everything’, as it affirms that ‘with a little hope, kindness, and understanding, all of our lives on this rock…can be so much better’.

Find more in our Tweens & Teens: Fiction / Justice; Faith Formation: Belonging and  lib guides.

THREE

Heavy doses of hope are needed in our current realities. Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley (Bloomsbury Continuum), outlines the ‘erratic influence of tech elites… around the world’.

Counter radical toxicity with Rewilding Prayer: God Beyond Gender, Faith Beyond Formulas (Cascade), which exudes ‘a gritty hope’, positing that ‘prayer is the call to the real’.

Find more in our Faith Formation: Doctrines & Theologies – Exploring God and Social Justice: Toxic Masculinity lib guides.

FOUR

A ‘concise and hopeful’ counterpoint is found in, The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity (Knopf), which ‘envisions a future where technological advances can serve the greatest possible good’ via ‘a better economic balance and prosperity for all’.

Homebrewed Christianity interviewed Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, author of Building a Moral Economy: Pathways for People of Courage and editor of the Building a Moral Economy series (Fortress) – a roadmap ‘for people who want to live in ways that build justice, joy, and life-giving relationships with people far and near’.

Find more in our Social Justice: AI/Social Media/Tech, Reimagined Democracy & Moral Economy, and  lib guides

FIVE

Taking on Big Tech – or any barrier to justice – is a daunting task. But We Can Be Brave: How We Learn to Be Brave in Life’s Decisive Moments (Dutton Books for Young Readers) is Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s and Episcopal priest Bryan Bliss’s invitation to follow ‘adults and kids throughout history [who] have faced these moments and heeded the call to be brave in challenging times’.

The adult version is How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith (Avery, 2023).

Pairing the two for an intergenerational discussion on bravery amidst current realities feels like a no-brainer.

Join the authors discussion and book signing in St Paul on November 24!! Learn more here.

Find more in our Courageous Spaces Toolkit: Including Children & Teens and our Young Leaders lib guides.

SIX

Light the path toward a more equitable future with insight to our past. How the Word Is Passed (Adapted for Young Readers): Remembering Slavery and How It Shaped America (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) provides ‘a new understanding of the hopeful role that memory and history can play in making sense of our country, and shows how they can reckon with the past and present to become better stewards of their future’.

Adults can join the conversation with The Cost of Racial Equality (Cascade), which claims that ‘by refusing to calculate the costs involved and choosing to pay little or nothing for racial equality, the nation is defaulting to the highest cost options… Not knowing the costs for racial equality threatens American democracy.’

Find more in our Anti-Racism: Adults and Tweens & Teens: Mindfulness, Compassion, & Healing / Perspectives & Stories lib guides.

SEVEN

It’s easier to be brave when one is well-rested. Goodnight, Crayons (Philomel) and Ms. Rachel and Bean and the Bedtime Routine: Encouraging a Calm and Comforting Good Night (Random House for Young Readers) offer humorous and heartwarming invitations to developing a joyful bedtime routine.

Growing in God’s Love: A Family Devotional (WJK) ‘offers readings and conversations that will help you grow closer to God and one another’ as you gather for bedtime.

Find more in our Spiritual Practices: Sabbath & Rest and Family, Small Group, and Congregation lib guides.

EIGHT

Hope is a spiritual practice. Develop hope – even amidst the longest hours of dark – with Keeping Vigil for Hope through the Longest Night, part of A Sanctified Art’s Advent series, ‘What Do You Fear? Insisting on Hope This Advent‘, which ‘is an invitation to engage compassionately with fear, catalyzing it into deep faith, bold courage, and resilient hope’. The Longest Night Vigil, ‘is a way to make space for difficult emotions during the holiday season, particularly surrounding the fear of the world’.

Follow that up with The Magi, A Feminist Lens (see above comments on Toxic Masculinity if you need justification for why this lens is important), a Commentary for Epiphany: Fear Doesn’t Stop Us invites us to ‘ponder how the magi show us another way’.

Carry this lens of hope through the entire year with Diana Butler Bass’s A Beautiful Year: 52 Meditations on Faith, Wisdom, and Perseverance (St Martin’s Essentials), an exploration of the church calendar, how it ‘shapes our understanding of faith’, the tension with ‘the secular calendar (mostly an inheritance from the Roman Empire)’ and this shared ‘cycle of sacred stories that compose a larger narrative of love, hospitality, mercy, justice, and gratitude.’

Find more in our Worship: Longest Night / Epiphany / and Lectionary & Preaching lib guides.