Holidays and Celebrations

What do Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur Celebrate?

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Over the summer, our former intern Mitul shared her take on what Ramadan celebrates. Continuing in that tradition, since I’m Jewish I thought I’d share a bit about Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. If you’re not Jewish, you may have seen these holidays on the calendar – or, if you’re lucky, even gotten off from school for them. But what are they really about?

Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year (in Hebrew, it literally means “Head of the Year”) and celebrates the beginning of Apples and honeythe new Hebrew year. Because the Jewish calendar is based on the moon, the actual date of Rosh Hashana varies from year to year, but it always falls somewhere in the fall. For Jews, Rosh Hashana is a holy day, but a happy one: although it’s solemn and most people celebrate it by spending time in synagogue praying, it is a holiday focused on hope for a sweet new year. Because of that, the traditional food associated with Rosh Hashana is apples dipped in honey.

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New Releases

The Steelpan: A Sound of Trinidad and Tobago

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In preparation for the release of our fall title Drummer Boy of John John, we wanted to share the sounds of the Caribbean with our readers. Drummer Boy of John John tells the story of young Winston and his dream to have a band at Carnival so he can win the prize of free rotis from the Roti King. Using metal objects found in a junkyard and ingenuity, Winston discovers a new type of sound and creates a band of his own!

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Holidays and Celebrations

Happy birthday, Richard Wright

Richard Wright

Author Richard Wright was born on September 4, 1908 on a plantation in rural Mississippi. He attended school through the first few weeks of high school before he dropped out to work, but always maintained a deep love of reading. As a black man in the South at that time, he was not allowed to borrow books from the library, so he borrowed the library card of an Irish American co-worker to access books. He later became a respected author of such classics as Native Son and his autobiography, Black Boy. Happy birthday, Richard Wright!

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Book Lists by Topic, Educator Resources

Diverse Dystopias: A Book List

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In honor of the upcoming release of our new YA anthology, Diverse Energies, we thought we’d put together a list of dystopias with diversity. For the purposes of this list, our definition of diversity is: 1.) A book with a main character of color (not just secondary characters), or 2.) A book written by an author of color. Of course, all types of diversity are worth celebrating, so if you know of other diverse dystopias (with, for example, LGBT diversity) please share them in the comments as well.

Note: I have not personally read all of these books, but have tried to confirm the inclusion of diverse main characters whenever possible. However, mistakes are bound to be made, so if you’ve read something and don’t think it belongs on this list, please let us know. Likewise if we’ve missed something that should be here.

If you’re a visual learner, the whole thing is on Pinterest:

Diverse Dystopias book list

And now, onward:

Above World, by Jenn Reese: (middle grade) In this dystopia, overcrowding has led humans to adapt so that they can live under the ocean or on mountains.

The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout: (middle grade) In this dystopia, the last boy on earth teams up with an overprotective broken robot to survive.

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Activities and Events

Giveaway: win a copy of PUFFLING PATROL in our puffling scavenger hunt!

Puffling Patrol front coverWant to win a signed copy of Puffling Patrol by Ted and Betsy Lewin? Join us for our puffling scavenger hunt!

Puffling Patrol takes place in the Westman Islands off the coast of Iceland, where hundreds of thousands of puffins gather every spring. These small black-and-white seabirds spend their time caring for their newly hatched chicks, who are ready for sea by the end of summer.

But sometimes the baby puffins, or pufflings, get confused by the street lights and find themselves lost in the town’s streets. That’s when The Puffling Patrol gets to work, carefully searching for the confused little birds to help them to the ocean. In Puffling Patrol, Ted and Betsy Lewin accompany two of the youngest members, Erna and Dáni, as they rescue the stranded pufflings.

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General

Happy Birthday, Duke Kahanamoku!

Today is the birthday of Duke Kahanamoku, the first Hawaiian ever to swim in the Olympics. He was born on August 24, 1890 in Honolulu and was an incredible swimmer with a passion for surfboarding. By the end of his twenty-year Olympic career, he was a six-time medal winner! He also introduced the art of surfing to Australia and the east and west coasts of the United States. You can read more about Duke in Surfer of the Century: The Life of Duke Kahanamoku by Ellie Crowe and illustrated by Richard Waldrep.

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Educator Resources

Three Books for the First Weeks of School

Jaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In her column she offers teaching and literacy tips for educators.

Ready or not, the 2012-2013 school year is upon us!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwcYbo7pjto]

And while parents are stocking up on pencils and notebooks (and, if the Target Music Teacher is to be trusted, potentially an inordinate amount of denim), teachers are busy planning for the first weeks of school.

Educators, for your planning pleasure, here are three titles to get students back in the right mindset for those first days back in the classroom:

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General

When did the word “Dummy” become derogatory?

Our marketing intern, Maryann Yin, explores the origins of the word “Dummy”:

When we first read Silent Star, William “Dummy” Hoy’s nickname perplexed many Lee & Low staff members. We found it strange that the celebrated baseball player embraced the nickname “Dummy.” Shouldn’t he feel hurt by it?Silent Star

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Interviews with Authors and Illustrators

Where can you see Bill Traylor’s artwork?

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Traylor drawing
Bill Traylor draws on a street corner in a scene from “It Jes’ Happened”

Bill Traylor’s story is the stuff of legend: he was born into slavery in Alabama, lived most of his life as a sharecropper, and started drawing at the age of eighty-five, while living homeless in Montgomery, Alabama. His drawings once decorated a street corner; now he’s known as one of America’s most important folk artists.

You can learn more about Traylor’s life story in our picture book biography, It Jes’ Happened, but there’s nothing like seeing Traylor’s artwork in person. Most of it is concentrated at a few museums in the southeast, but luckily, right now there’s a traveling exhibition making its way around the US with over 60 of Traylor’s works. The paintings, borrowed from permanent collections at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, represent some of the best examples of Traylor’s unique folk art style. Here’s where the exhibit will be:

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Educator Resources

Goal Setting for Reading Success Part 4:

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DETERMINING AND DELIVERING STRONG “MAGIC THREE” QUESTIONS

Jaclyn DeForgeJaclyn DeForge, our Resident Literacy Expert, began her career teaching first and second grade in the South Bronx, and went on to become a literacy coach and earn her Masters of Science in Teaching. In this series for teachers, educators, and literacy coaches, Jaclyn discusses different strategies for ensuring students hit end-of-year benchmarks in reading.

I’ve talked about how to set individual reading goals for students, the importance of student motivation and regular assessment and, most recently, about turning the running record assessment time into a meaningful conference by sending students back to their seats with their own personal “Magic Three,” a set of three questions to focus on while they read.  So where do “Magic Three” questions come from?

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