This cold weather makes us want to sip on hot chocolate under a warm blanket with a brand new book. And what better book than King for a Day, out today from Lee & Low Books!
In this beautiful story, Rukhsana Khan takes us to Lahore, Pakistan for Basant, the springtime kite-flying festival. Guiding his kite into leaps and swirls, our hero Malik slashes strings to capture the other kites in the sky, including those flown by the bully next door.
The temperatures across the USA are freezing, but we’re offering you a chance to take a (literary) vacation from the polar vortex . . . to Puerto Rico! Released this past fall, Parrots Over Puerto Rico takes readers above the treetops of Puerto Rico and delves into the history of this unique parrot. Once abundant, they almost became extinct due to centuries of foreign exploration and occupation, development, and habitat destruction. Luckily, the parrots were saved thanks to the efforts of the scientists of the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program (PRPRP) and they have continued to thrive since!
We interviewed Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore to get a better sense of the research and creativity that went into writing and illustrating Parrots Over Puerto Rico. Below is an excerpt from their BookTalk:
Jill Eisenberg, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching English as a Foreign Language to second through sixth graders in Yilan, Taiwan as a Fulbright Fellow. She went on to become a literacy teacher for third grade in San Jose, CA as a Teach for America corps member. She is certified in Project Glad instruction to promote English language acquisition and academic achievement. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.
We’re in the process of updating our lists of recommended books for special holidays! Our diverse books cover a wide range of holidays, celebrations, and important moments in history. Whether you are looking to rejuvenate your holiday read alouds in the classroom or purchase a gift to remember a special moment, you’ll find the perfect title on our list. Here’s what we’re celebrating – and reading – in January:
JANUARY 20
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday
The Bus Ride
We hope you all had a peaceful holiday season filled with delicious food, friends & family, and some quiet time with a good book. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled blogging next week, but meanwhile, they’re forecasting 5-8 inches of snow here in the New York area tonight. Obviously, that means one thing:
Snowball fight!
In preparation, I thought I’d put together a list of my five favorite books to cuddle up with during snow days:
Jill Eisenberg, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching English as a Foreign Language to second through sixth graders in Yilan, Taiwan as a Fulbright Fellow. She went on to become a literacy teacher for third grade in San Jose, CA as a Teach for America corps member. She is certified in Project Glad instruction to promote English language acquisition and academic achievement. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.
As the holidays charge forth, many teachers reach for their tried-and-true holiday read-aloud bin. It can be very tricky to select just the right text for the holidays. November and December are wonderful months to expose our children to as many cultures as possible and share how different families celebrate holidays in their homes. I encourage teachers, librarians, and literacy advocates to use this time of year not only to explore rituals, traditions, and core values, but also to recognize and celebrate the different kinds of families our children have.
Like many of our literacy partners, we are always looking for fresh stories that demonstrate the core values of the season: empathy, respect, gratitude, service, honesty, community, self-reflection, and responsibility. What better way to teach these abstract concepts than with books that reflect our students’ experiences at home and relationships? 
Oh the weather outside is frightful, but a middle school sense of humor is so delightful! When the temperature is freezing, what better way to spend your time than by reading a hilarious book? We’ve put together a list of middle grade humor books (all of which feature diverse main characters), so get ready to have your funny bone tickled!
Note: In general, middle grade books are appropriate for kids ages 8-12. If any of these books fall outside that range, we’ve tried to note that below.
For you visual learners, we’ve also pinned these titles on Pinterest:
These books have been recommended in various places – we haven’t (yet) read them all ourselves. If you have other recommended humorous middle grade titles that feature characters of color or are written by authors of color, let us know in the comments! For more on middle grade humor, check out Cat Girl’s Day Off author Kimberly Pauley’s guest post she wrote on How to Write Humor for Young Readers.
Let the giggles and laughs commence!
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Babies, Burglars, and Other Bumps in the Night by Lenore Look, ill. by LeUyen Pham: Alvin Ho is an Asian American second grader who is afraid of everything—elevators, tunnels, girls, and, most of all, school. But at home he’s a very loud superhero named Firecracker Man, a brother to Calvin and Anibelly, and a gentleman-in-training, so he can be just like his dad.
As we near the end of the 2013, we enter the season when major newspapers and magazines release their “Best of [enter year] lists”. So naturally we were curious about the level of representation of authors of color in last year’s New York Times Top 10 Bestsellers list. We chose to look at their most general bestsellers list, Combined Print & E-Book Fiction (adult), and looked at the top ten books for all 52 weeks of 2012. The results were staggering, if not surprising in light of our past Diversity Gap studies of the Academy Awards, The Tony Awards, The Emmy Awards, the children’s book industry, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Films, US politics, and Silicon Valley where we analyzed yearly/multi-year samplings and found a disturbingly consistent lack of diversity. Continue reading
School visits from authors and illustrators are a great way to encourage literacy, bring books to life, and allow students to view themselves as creators. For a fee, many authors and illustrators will do in-person or virtual school visits, but there are ways to incorporate an author’s perspective into literacy units that work for any budget. Here are a few suggestions:
Guest blogger Howey McAuley graduated with a BFA in Surface Design from East Carolina University. The best job she ever had was managing school book fairs for an independent bookstore. These days most of her artwork centers around crafts with her children. You can find her on Twitter at @23catsinaroom.
Several weeks ago my daughter Boogie (who just turned 5) had a Barbie doll eaten by one of our dogs. Normally this would lead to a meltdown of epic proportions. This time, however, she shrugged nonchalantly and said, “She’s just the Black one.” Keeping my voice calm (while internally freaking out) I asked her if that made the Barbie less important. She said yes. YES. What?
Jill Eisenberg, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching English as a Foreign Language to second through sixth graders in Yilan, Taiwan as a Fulbright Fellow. She went on to become a literacy teacher for third grade in San Jose, CA as a Teach for America corps member. She is certified in Project Glad instruction to promote English language acquisition and academic achievement. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.
While teachers are always encouraging their students to write, the presence of an author can be the turning
point that hooks students on writing—especially when the visiting author has written one of the first books that really resonates with students.
“I literally have no idea where my next book will come from until I stumble across something in the real world that absolutely floors me,” asserted G. Neri, author of Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty and Chess Rumble, recently to a room of seventh-graders in Spanish Harlem.
