In celebration of National Poetry Month, Emma Otheguy, the author of the forthcoming title Martí’s Song for Freedom/Martí y sus versos por la libertad created an amazing activity guide for readers. Modeled after a poem by José Martí, readers can create their own poem after reading his inspirational story as well as excerpts from his seminal Versos sencillos.
Category Archives: ELL/ESL and Bilingual Books
Bebop Books: Guided Reading Book Sets for the Classroom
Bebop Books is an exclusive imprint of LEE & LOW BOOKS that offers leveled books for guided reading and assessment in the classroom—all with the same commitment to diversity and cultural authenticity that sets all LEE & LOW books apart. In this blog post, we want to spotlight this special imprint and all it offers.
In 2014, children of color became the new majority in America’s public schools, so now more than ever, it’s important that classroom books and materials reflect today’s students. Our Bebop Books resources are used in classrooms across the country to support literacy learning content for beginning readers, with multicultural content that affirms identity for all students. Continue reading
25 Books from 25 Years: Marisol McDonald and the Monster
LEE & LOW BOOKS celebrates its 25th anniversary this year! To recognize how far the company has come, we are featuring one title a week to see how it is being used in classrooms today and hear from the authors and illustrators.
Today, we are celebrating the latest installment of our extremely popular Marisol McDonald series, Marisol McDonald and the Monster/Marisol McDonald y el monstruo. In this endearing bilingual story, Marisol confronts her greatest fear: monsters!
Plan Your Month Roundup: October Holidays
The weather is crisp and the leaves are starting to change color…it must be fall! Now that we’ve made it to October, we wanted to help you plan out the month with these book recommendations and resources: Continue reading
Building Classroom Community in Kindergarten
Check out LEE & LOW BOOKS’ Building Classroom Community Unit for Kindergarten! The FREE and downloadable unit consists of eight read aloud lesson plans to inspire your best classroom community yet.
Plan your Month Roundup: New Resources for September
It’s finally September, which means back-to-school season has officially begun! Plan out your month with these book recommendations and resources to get you ready for the autumn season:
10 Reasons to Celebrate Bilingual Books
Last year, we gave our 10 favorite reasons to read diversely. One reason being that we live in a diverse world, so why not the books that we read? Books help us see the world through someone else’s eyes, and in the case of bilingual books, through another language.
MAMÁ THE ALIEN/Mamá la extraterrestre Blog Tour with René Colato Laínez
To celebrate the release of Mamá the Alien/Mamá la extraterrestre, author René Colato Laínez will be stopping by the following blogs from August 15th to the 24th! Follow along as René Colato Laínez discusses his writing process, his thoughts on diversity in kidlit, and the recent debate over the term “illegal alien.” Continue reading
The Heart of Writing: The Revision Process
It’s August and with the New Voices Award deadline approaching in just seven weeks, participating writers may be starting to feel the heat. No sweat! The New Voices Award blog post series has got you covered from the summer sun of stress.
At this stage, you’ve probably got your cover letter and story written down. You’ve also read July’s post on the importance of voice in a story and made your narrative even more engaging to readers. Congrats! That’s two essential checks on the New Voices To-do list –but don’t seal the envelope just yet! Now that your story is down it’s time to begin the revision process.
Revision is an important part of the writing experience. It’s about revisiting what you’ve written, identifying what needs to be strengthened, and rewriting to improve your story. Every writer’s revision process is different so to provide some guidance we interviewed two New Voices Award Winners, Linda Boyden (The Blue Roses) and Jennifer Torres (Finding the Music/ En pos de la musica), about how their revision processes helped them prepare their stories for the New Voices Award.
Diversity 102: The Library of Congress Battle Over “Illegal Alien”
Over the past several months, a quiet battle has been raging among librarians and politicians over the term “illegal alien.” For many years, immigrant rights activists have argued against using the term, which has taken on a decidedly pejorative meaning. Activists and legal experts note that while actions can be “illegal,” human beings cannot – to refer to them as such criminalizes existence itself.
While several news outlets have pledged to cease using the term “illegal alien,” there’s one place where the term still stands: the Library of Congress. But while subject headings don’t usually claim a lot of media attention or political interest, the Library of Congress has become a battleground for those who want to replace the term, and for those who won’t give it up. Here’s a timeline of the issue (for more detail, check out this excellent Library Journal piece): Continue reading