Harbor Me

• Genre: Fiction; middle grade realistic
• Originally Published: 2018
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 630L; grades 5-8
• Structure/Length: 40 chapters; approx. 192 pages; approx. 3 hours, 50 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: Six fifth-graders with a variety of learning needs attend a Brooklyn school. They are permitted to spend the last hour of each school day in a room together just to talk. They open up to each other on a range of topics, including the fear of being deported, police violence, and racism.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Family members imprisoned or in detention for immigration status; deportation; discussion of racism and police violence; bullying

Jacqueline Woodson, Author

• Bio: Born in 1963 in Ohio; lives in Brooklyn, NY; author of almost 30 books for young and adult readers; Young People’s Poet Laureate (2015-2017); won the National Book Award for Brown Girl Dreaming (2014) and the Newbery Honor for Show Way (2005), Feathers (2007), and After Tupac & D Foster (2008), among many other awards
• Other Works: Hush (2002); Brown Girl Dreaming (2014); Another Brooklyn (2016); Before the Ever After (2020)
• Awards: Kirkus Prize for Young Readers’ Literature (finalist; 2018); Boston Globe Best Middle Grade Books (2018)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Maturation and Childhood
• Discovering a Sense of Belonging
• Storytelling and Personal Identity