Tag Archives: Educators

Butterflies and Blades of Grass: Cindy Trumbore and Susan L. Roth in Conversation

In this blog post, we’re highlighting author Cindy Trumbore and Susan L. Roth‘s titles! The Sibert Award-winning team has collaborated on four Lee & Low titles including Butterfly for a King: Saving Hawai’i’s Kamehameha Butterflies, Prairie Dog Song, Parrots Over Puerto Rico, and The Mangrove TreeIn time for Earth Day and World Environment Day, authors Cindy Trumbore and Susan L. Roth share their favorite moments and fascinating tidbits about each collaboration.

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Encouraging Literacy in the Youngest Readers with I’ll Build You a Bookcase

Slider Image of all four bilingual editions of I'll Build You a Bookcase to the left of image of people of diverse backgrounds in a park surrounding two bookshelves

Last year, we were thrilled to announce our collaboration with William Penn Foundation and OpenIDEO on the Early Childhood Book Challenge. The winning story, I’ll Build You a Bookcase, releases today!

Written by early literacy specialist and parent educator, Jean Ciborowski Fahey, and illustrated by the award-winning Simone ShinI’ll Build You a Bookcase is for children birth to age 3. Told in simple, sweet rhyme, it celebrates the joy of reading and discovering new stories and is designed to inspire parents and caregivers to read to their child every day.

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Social-Emotional Learning & Diverse Books: One Cannot Exist Without the Other

In this blog post, Katie Potter, Senior Literacy Specialist at Lee & Low Books, offers guidance on curating a social-emotional learning library and reinforces the necessary role that diverse books play in building an SEL collection. This blog post first appeared on  the Center Of Responsive Schools’ Two Sides of the Same Coin

As teachers, we know how difficult it is to explain and define emotions in concrete terms. A situation arises and we grapple with how best to approach it with the students. What are the right words to say that will resonate with them after a disagreement? How do we explain empathy or resolve a student conflict in a way that young people will understand? It can be a challenge to act quickly and make a meaningful impact when there is minimal time to prepare.

This is where books can come into play. By allowing the characters and engaging storyline to do the heavy lifting, books can take the onus off of teachers, presenting to children both the problem and the solution in a safe way that will reverberate with them.

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Anti-Racism Diverse Books for Grades 6-8+

Are you looking to add anti-racist books to your library but don’t know where to start? Have you been thinking about how to have meaningful conversations with young people about race, but lack confidence in how to begin? The books in our Anti-Racism Reading List will help you take the first steps or continue the critical discussions about anti-racism work relevant to your setting.

In this blog post, we’ve rounded up books from our anti-racism reading list for grades 6 and up. You can find more of our anti-racism titles in our Anti-Racism Diverse Reading List and the corresponding book collection.

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Anti-Racism Diverse Books for Grades 3-5

Are you looking to add anti-racist books to your library but don’t know where to start? Have you been thinking about how to have meaningful conversations with young people about race, but lack confidence in how to begin? The books in our Anti-Racism Reading List will help you take the first steps or continue the critical discussions about anti-racism work relevant to your setting.

In this blog post, we’ve rounded up books from our anti-racism reading list for grades 3-5. You can find more of our anti-racism titles in our Anti-Racism Diverse Reading List and the corresponding book collection.

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Teaching Social Justice in Schools: Facing Institutional Opposition

What We Believe: A Black Lives Matter Activity Book is a collaboration between Laleña Garcia and Caryn Davidson, both professional educators and activists with the Black Lives Matter at Schools NYC organizing group. Learn the story behind What We Believe here and how the author and illustrator define activism and allyship in the first two installments.

Today, in the third installment of our conversation, Laleña and Caryn share tips and suggestions for educators who face institutional opposition when bringing learning about BLM, social justice, and activism into their classrooms: Continue reading

Anti-Racism Diverse Book List for Grades PreK-8

What does it mean to be anti-racist? Several definitions exist, but Ibram X. Kendi’s embodies the actionable steps behind anti-racist work: “The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it– and then dismantle it.” Continue reading

Black History Month Resources Roundup

For Black History Month, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite resources for readers and educators alike. Though this month is dedicated to uplifting Black history, culture, movements, and gamechangers, we must remember that Black history IS American history and should be celebrated all year round.

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Watch the Webinar: Black Lives Matter in the Classroom

We had the largest virtual turnout ever for last week’s webinar, “Black Lives Matter in the Classroom: A Conversation with Experts” with Laleña Garcia and Caryn Davidson, author and illustrator of What We Believe: A Black Lives Matter Principles Activity Book, and Jesse Hagopian and Denisha Jones, co-authors of Black Lives Matter at SchoolAnd as promised, the recording is finally here! If you missed it live (or just want to watch again), you can access the webinar below, or here on YouTube. Keep reading for links to resources and booklists shared during the webinar.

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Free Upcoming Webinar: Black Lives Matter in the Classroom

Learn about how to bring the Black Lives Matter movement into your school, classroom, library or home in this powerful discussion on Wednesday, January 20th at 4:00 PM ET.

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