Thread by @djolder

"How many students chose slavery as the reason the South seceded?
Eight percent."
Our schools continue to fail to teach any semblance of what really happened in American history, often because of white teachers' discomfort.

n.pr/2GEsQR8

☝Speaking of how badly America tells its own story to itself...👇

I'm really really really excited to announce my new Middle Grade series DACTYL HILL SQUAD on @MrSchuReads. In it, a bunch of kids from the Colored Orphan Asylum ride dinosaurs around Civil War era New York mrschureads.blogspot.fr/2018/02/cove-r…

Amazing cover by the amazing @nilaffle

*dinosaurs and pterosaurs

Now that I'm sitting down, I wanted to say that as soon as DACTYL HILL SQUAD went from Dreamform to Will Actually Be A Book-form I knew I wanted @nilaffle to be a part of it.

She did such an amazing job.

Also that beautiful DACTYL HILL SQUAD title art is by the incredible @AfuChan1 who I believe also worked on @HenryLienAuthor's PEASPROUT CHEN, which makes them sister books ayyyy @Tiff_Liao

lmao! This response to the DACTYL HILL SQUAD cover is a mess (already!) but it does get at exactly why i wrote the book — tho unintentionally.

First of all, the kids are being chased by an evil racist magistrate dude who's trying to kill them. I'd be mad!

Second of all, Magdalys is smiling! She doesn't look angry at all, but it's amazing how kids of color having fun, being determined, and proactive immediately becomes "violent" or "anger" or "furtive" whether on the street or on a book cover

I think often of that bell hooks essay "Killing Rage", where she wonders about where the rage is in historical accounts, and where it is today...where does it go when it's suppressed?

Kids today have a right to be angry at this broken world that we've handed them, and they have a right to read books that will honor that rage and process it with them.

And now allow me to take you on a little tour of @nilaffle's amazing DACTYL HILL SQUAD cover. This is Magdalys Roca. Do NOT jack up her name, she hates that. She's connected to dinos in a way no one can even fathom yet...

This is Two Step. He's a helluva dancer and Magdalys' best friend

This is Amaya. She actually doesn't care much for dinos but she's really good with any tech you give her, esp the kinds that make big bangs and put holes in things.

Ah and here is Mapper. He has an absurd ability to always know exactly where he is and memorize all types of geographic information. Basically a human GPS system. Also loves bad jokes. Terrible singer. Great on dactylback.

This is Magistrate Richard Riker. He was a real person, and he really was a member of the Kidnapping Club, which snatched Black New Yorkers off the streets and sold them into slavery. Couldn't make up a more villainous villain.

Counteracting the Kidnapping Club, and also a part of the DACTYL HILL world, was the Vigilance Committee, started by David Ruggles, who inspired another character in the book: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rug…

Also in the DACTYL HILL world, there is a theater inspired by the African Grove— the first all Black Shakespearean acting company in the US en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_G…

sidenote: according to the 'pedia that is a wiki, Rikers Island is not named for Richard Riker, altho it would make sense. Abraham Rycken has that honor. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikers_Is…

There is a fun historical note at the end of DACTYL HILL SQUAD that explains which stuff is real and when things happened and all that

low key high key feel like I've been gearing up my whole life to write this series #DactylHillSquad