Back-to-school season usually means new notebooks, fresh schedules, and figuring out which classes you’re going to rush to in the mornings. But if Xolo Books were designing a college syllabus, we’d make sure the reading list went beyond the traditional canon. For an introductory course in history, identity, race, and liberation, these are three books we’d put on the syllabus.

Pride Month is a celebration of LGBTQ+ communities, but it's also an opportunity to reflect on the power of stories. Books have long offered queer readers what the world sometimes could not: visibility, possibility, and the freedom to imagine themselves fully.

Lately, it feels like we’ve been looking up again. With missions like Artemis II on the horizon and stories like Project Hail Mary capturing people’s attention, there’s been a quiet return to something we don’t always make space for in our daily lives: curiosity. Not the kind tied to productivity or answers, but the kind that simply wonders. What’s out there? What could exist beyond what we know?

April is a month for growth, curiosity, and asking questions, and there’s no better way to do that than through books that challenge the world around us. This month, we’re spotlighting banned and challenged books for young readers (and the young at heart), stories that have sparked conversation, pushed boundaries, and, in some cases, faced censorship for doing exactly what literature is meant to do: tell the truth!!