Sonia Sotomayor | My Beloved World
Justice Sonia Sotomayor is the first Hispanic Justice of the United States Supreme Court whose extraordinary determination and drive led her from a Bronx housing project childhood to a post on the most esteemed bench in the United States. During her three decades of distinguished service, she has worked on nearly every level of the judicial system and served as the first Latina on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit under President Clinton. A sharp and fearless jurist, she mentors young students from troubled neighborhoods. In a surprisingly candid memoir, Justice Sotomayor discusses America’s infinite possibilities.

Wes Moore | Discovering Wes Moore
Wes Moore is a youth advocate, Army com­bat vet­eran, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Other Wes Moore, a memoir that explored the chilling possible fates of fatherless urban boys. A Rhodes Scholar and former White House fel­low to Sec­re­tary of State Con­doleezza Rice, Moore serves on the board of the Iraq Afghanistan Vet­er­ans of Amer­ica and The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity. The host of Beyond Belief on the Oprah Winfrey Network, he’s the founder of a mentoring program that works with Bal­ti­more youth involved in the crim­i­nal jus­tice system. Discovering Wes Moore explores success and failure and the challenges of growing up and making difficult choices.

Julie Otsuka | The Buddha in the Attic
The One Book, One Philadelphia Selection Committee has chosen the recent PEN/Faulkner Award Winner and National Book Award finalist, The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka for its 2013 selection. This powerfully moving, poetic novel tells the tragic story of the Japanese “picture brides” who travelled from Japan to San Francisco in the early 1900s, tracing their collective and individual experiences as wives, mothers, breadwinners, and marginalized members of American society during both peacetime and the onset of World War II. One Book, One Philadelphia is a joint project of the Mayor's Office and the Free Library of Philadelphia that has the goal of promoting literacy and encouraging the Philadelphia community to come together through reading and discussing a single book. Each year, lectures, discussions, films, workshops, exhibitions, and performances illuminate both specific and universal themes within a featured selection.

G. Neri | Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty
G. Neri is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, illustrator, and youth advocate whose books include Chess Rumble, a free-verse middle-grade novella, and Ghetto Cowboy, recipient of the 2012 Horace Mann Upstanders Children's Book Award. Yummy, a gritty graphic novel about Chicago gang violence, received numerous awards, including the 2011 Coretta Scott King Honor. Dramatizing the haunting real-life events of an 11-year-old boy’s death in Chicago in 1994, the book vividly describes the “terrifying perils of life on the margins that will have all readers pondering the heady question of moral responsibility” (Kirkus).

Elisa Ludwig | Pretty Crooked
In Pretty Crooked,  Elisa Ludwig’s first book in a whip-smart trilogy that unfolds in the halls of Valley Prep High School, a modern-day Robin Hood takes from the trust-funded rich—“the Glitterati”—and gives to the poor scholarship students, winding a caper full of moral complications. Previously a freelance writer for multiple platforms, Ludwig is also the author of June of Rock.

Patricia McCormick | Never Fall Down
Patricia McCormick’s characters experience life-changing events that bring forth inspiring courage. Her critically acclaimed books include Purple Heart, a suspenseful psychological novel that explores the moral traumas of war; Sold, an account of Nepalese teens sold into prostitution that was selected by the American Library Association as one of the Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults in 2006; My Brother’s Keeper, a realistic view of teenage substance abuse; and Cut, an intimate portrait of self-injury. Her second National Book Award finalist, Never Fall Down is based on the true story of Arn Chorn-Pond, an 11-year-old Cambodian boy who survived the Khmer Rouge by playing music in the Killing Fields.