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The CLA Blog

Sharing Books We “Love” to Support On-Going Work During Troubling Times

2/13/2024

 

By Adam Crawley and Elizabeth Bemiss on behalf of the CLA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity Committee

We are living and navigating in troubling times. Across the country, educators (e.g., K-12 teachers, librarians, teacher educators, etc.) experience censorship of and challenges to texts that center historically marginalized races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and other ways of being. In several states (e.g., Florida, Georgia, Utah), legislation explicitly restricts such representations and discussions in K-12+ schools. Simultaneously, cities across the country are supporting newcomers bussed from the U.S.-Mexico border, and schools and libraries specifically are trying to aid these families with daily needs (e.g., food, shelter) and other aspects (e.g., school transitions, providing books in Spanish). Meanwhile, unrest in Africa, the Middle East, and Ukraine continue to weigh heavily on many of our minds and hearts; mass shootings in schools and other public settings remain prevalent; and the upcoming 2024 U.S. Presidential election causes increased tension across politically opposed ideologies. In the midst of all of this, we want to retain hope. We also know that reading and discussing children’s literature with youth can be vital for promoting social justice.

To support educators’ on-going work - and in the spirit of Valentine’s Day week - we asked 2023 and 2024 CLA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity (DEI) Committee members to share about books they “love” for their representation and ability to foster DEI work. While we recognize that no single book can address all of the world’s current complexities, we hope the recommendations in this list are helpful resources and provide a sense of solidarity for your own contexts.
Book cover: Bathe the Cat
Bathe the Cat
by Alice B. McGinty, illustrations by David Roberts (February 2022, Chronicle Books)

​I read this book as part of my sabbatical research that I completed (in part) at the Center for Research in the Humanities at the New York Public Library. I love the representation of diversity in race, gender, and sexual orientation in this wonderfully loving family, but it’s the cat who steals the show! Teachers can use this book to talk about doing chores and organizing for visitors.  Students will crack up about the shenanigans that can happen when directions get mixed up! Such a fun book! (contributor: Craig A. Young)

Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series 
by Traci Sorell, illustrations by Arigon Starr (April 2023, Kokila)

I first learned about this book at the 2023 CLA breakfast and read it immediately. The book is complex and gripping. The contrast between the tension in the media versus the camaraderie portrayed between the Native American athletes speaks volumes about the construction of Native Americans in the U.S. The childhoods of each of the players were fascinating. The artistry by Arigon Starr depicts art that is rooted to each of the athlete’s tribes. Apart from the compelling story, Sorell provides information about other Native baseball players until today, quotes, and an author’s note. (contributor: Laura Ascenzi-Moreno)
​
Book cover: Contenders
Book cover: Forget Me Not
Forget Me Not
by Ellie Terry (May 2018, Square Fish)

As a neurodivergent reader, I love middle grade stories that share the realities of our existence without relying on stereotypes or assumptions, especially when those stories are by neurodivergent creators. One great example is Forget Me Not by Ellie Terry, a dual-perspective novel - half in verse - about a young girl with Tourette’s syndrome (TS). (It’s important to note that the book’s author has TS, too.) It’s a story of friendship and hope and rejecting the idea that it’s better if you hide—your TS, your neurodivergence, who you are. Terry eloquently recognizes the difficulty, but also the brilliance, in finding your own voice and being your most authentic self. (contributor: Jennifer Slagus)
Book cover: Jo Jo Makoons
Book cover: Jo Jo Makoons Fancy Pants
Book cover: Jo Jo Makoons Snow Day
Jo Jo Makoons Series
by Dawn Quigley, illustrations by Tara Audibert (Heartdrum)

Native Americans have a great love of laughter. In this series, author Dawn Quigley (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe) introduces a spunky seven-year-old named Jo Jo Makoons who lives on an Ojibwe reservation. Jo Jo’s worldview is truly one-of-a-kind as she learns to be friendly, fancy, and imaginative. I love Jo Jo’s hilarious adventures, which are similar to a younger Amelia Bedelia experience. Readers will meet Jo Jo’s Ojibwe family and community (and her pet cat Mimi) as she moves through contemporary, everyday events. Illustrator Tara Audibert (Wolastoqiyik First Nation heritage) adds her comical, cartoon-style artwork to each story in the series. First and second-grade readers will make connections with Jo Jo’s realistic experiences, her feelings in those situations, and learn how she solves her problems. These books are upbeat and humorous, making them a very enjoyable read. (contributor: Andrea M. Page Hunkpapa Lakota)
Book cover: Our Skin
Our Skin: A First Conversation about Race 
by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli, illustrations by Isabel Roxas (May 2021, Rise x Penguin Workshop)
​
Have you ever struggled with finding the language to talk about race and racism with young children? In Our Skin: A First Conversation about Race, authors Megan Madison, Jessica Ralli and Isabel Roxas provide a template for building children’s (and adults’) racial awareness and racial literacy in simple language. Madison and Ralli’s straightforward language introduces terms like skin color, race, racism, and injustice, while Roxas’s art showcases our commonalities and differences in physical attributes that children will likely recognize. Dismantling racism is a centuries-long process that will likely continue into our future. As difficult as it may be, it is necessary to keep the conversation going. As author and activist James Baldwin once said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” This book provides a pathway for parents, teachers, and librarians to face and dismantle racism by creating a brave space to have more courageous conversations with young readers. (contributor: Nadine Bryce)
The House that Lou Built 
by Mae Respicio (June 2018, Wendy Lamb Books)

Growing up as a first generation Filipina-American, I never saw myself or my lived experiences reflected in any book I read as a child. I am beyond thrilled that Filipinx and Filipinx-American writers and Filipinx-American characters are finally represented in children’s literature. While the work of Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly may be most known, I wanted to share the work of Mae Respicio as well. The House That Lou Built is one of Respicio’s novels that I would recommend for upper elementary and middle school readers. The protagonist, Lou, defies gender and cultural stereotypes to make her dream of building a tiny house come true, especially when she realizes what is at stake. A coming-of-age novel that is full of family, friendships, Filipino culture, and heart. (contributor: Grace Enriquez)
Book cover: The House That Lou Built
Book cover: The Year We Learned to Fly
The Year We Learned to Fly
by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrations by Rafael López (January 2022, Nancy Paulsen Books)

In The Year We Learned To Fly, young readers living in cities see the setting they call home represented in familiar ways.  Woodson draws our attention to nature with mentions of spring rain and the early darkness that accompanies autumn in her story of a brother and sister struggling with boredom. The fashionable Afrocentric grandmother encourages her granddaughter and grandson to use their imagination and helps them to see the world in new ways. The grandmother’s wisdom and sense of history becomes their own. I love the homage to Virginia Hamilton’s The People Could Fly in the story, afterword, and in Lopez’s illustrations. There are beautiful ties to the African American literary tradition related to flying. The book lends to discussions about imagination and ancestry linked to enslavement. (contributor: Susan Browne)
This is Our House 
by Hyewon Yum (April 2023, Square Fish)

This Is Our House, written and illustrated by Hyewon Yum, shows one “normal” Korean American family’s growth in the United States. In the house in New York, babies grow, become adults, and get married. Seen from a granddaughter's viewpoints, this book showcases that Asians are also one of the fabric of the United States. This book also shows interracial marriage as a part of the story. The story and illustrations are peaceful on the surface, however, teachers and students can share their own diverse aspects of their own families, which should be considered as “normal” in the first place. (contributor: Eun Young Yeom) ​
Book cover: This is Our House
Book cover: We Still Belong
We Still Belong
by Christine Day (August 2023, Heartdrum)

I love how We Still Belong by Christine Day showcases the importance of Native heritage, the impact of stereotypes, the value of kindness, and the importance of community all while captivating young readers. Indigenous People’s Day is a central part of the story, and it can inspire readers to learn more about this day and its significance. This book is perfect for beginning discussions about exploring one's identity and what it really means to belong. The publisher created an Educator Guide that will help with discussions. (contributor: Kasey Short)
These poignant and powerful texts that are well loved by CLA DEI committee members illuminate many issues surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion. These texts speak to issues of race, gender, heritage, and sexual orientation, to name a few, and could be used in the classroom to evaluate the impact of stereotypes or assumptions, to face and dismantle racism, to highlight the value of kindness, or to provide a realistic portrayal of diversity for readers to see themselves and their lived experiences represented in texts.

As delineated in the CLA Bylaws, the DEI committee encompasses a steadfast commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusivity within CLA:
 
"The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity Committee Chair and members shall help ensure CLA’s commitment to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusivity. The committee shall help create and/or review CLA policies and position statements shared with CLA members and/or the greater public. The committee shall work with membership and nominating committees for recruitment as well as help distribute calls for CLA-related applications. Committee members shall also serve as resources for CLA Standing Committee Chairs when they are developing materials and programs." 
 
For more information about the DEI committee, please contact committee chairs Adam Crawley ([email protected]) or Elizabeth Bemiss ([email protected]).
Adam Crawley is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the School of Education at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He serves as the 2023 and 2024 CLA DEI Committee chair.

Elizabeth Bemiss is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of West Florida. She is a CLA Board Member and chair of the 2023 and 2024 CLA DEI Committee.

Editors' Introduction from the Spring 2020 Issue of the Journal of Children's Literature

5/12/2020

 

BY THOMAS CRISP, MARY NAPOLI, VIVIAN YENIKA-AGBAW, & ANGIE ZAPATA

Changing the Stories We Share: Transforming the Children’s Literature Landscape


Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and malign. But stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009)

Stories summon us to wisdom, strength, and delight and make the richness of imagination available to all of us in order to envision a better world and to take action that makes a difference. Stories have the power to direct and change our lives and world--if we provide the time and space necessary for their role in meaning making, life making, and world making.
—Kathy G. Short (2012, p. 17)

AS PROFESSORS OF EDUCATION, literacy, and children’s and young adult literature, we value the unique position that the Journal of Children’s Literature (JCL) occupies in the field, bridging theory and practice by publishing research-based and theoretical manuscripts that have immediate implications for the ways in which children’s books are shared in elementary and middle-grade classrooms and discussed in communities outside of the classroom.

With the November 2015 approval of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) “Resolution on the Need for Diverse Children’s and Young Adult Books,” JCL is committed to the recognition of diverse voices; to the support of emerging Indigenous, Black, and People of Color (IBPoC) scholars and researchers; and to excellence in interdisciplinary research and scholarship in the field of children’s literature. Therefore, we welcome submissions that center literature studies in relation to issues of social justice and equity, representations of populations that have been historically marginalized or underrepresented in children’s texts and culture, and the intersections between popular culture and identity.

Our team shares a commitment both to children’s literature and the field of education. We understand how children’s texts contribute to learning and the development of critical literacies and also serve as powerful cultural artifacts that inform the ways readers view and understand themselves and the world in which they live. We believe that all of us concerned with children’s texts (e.g., teachers, teacher educators, librarians, researchers) must attend to the content of children’s books as literary, cultural, and political objects.

About Our Team

Generally speaking, our professional work is grounded in theories of reader response, critical multiculturalism, and culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogies, and is informed by research and scholarship in education, literary, and cultural studies. Here and elsewhere, the co-editors are listed alphabetically. We are, however, a team of co-editors with shared responsibilities. The order of editors’ names does not indicate any sort of rank.
THOMAS CRISP, PHD
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF LITERACY,
GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY

Thomas Crisp is an associate professor of literacy and children’s literature in the Department of Early Childhood Education in the College of Education at Georgia State University. His research and scholarship center primarily on topics related to justice and the representation of populations that have been traditionally marginalized and underrepresented in children’s media and culture (with particular concern toward gender and sexual identities). His involvement with the Children’s Literature Assembly (CLA) includes serving as communications co-chair; chair and co-chair of the Master Class; chair and co-chair of the Awards Committee; co-chair of the Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; and a member of the board of directors. He also coauthored the CLA’s position statement on the importance of critical selection and teaching of diverse children’s literature. In addition to his work with CLA and NCTE, he currently serves as the vice president/president-elect of the Children’s Literature Association
VIVIAN YENIKA-AGBAW, PHD
PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION,
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY PARK

Vivian Yenika-Agbaw is a professor of literature and literacy in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Pennsylvania State University, University Park. Her research and scholarship center on children’s and young adult literature and are informed by theories of critical multiculturalism, postcolonialism, and reader response. She publishes and presents primarily on topics related to social justice and the representation of populations that have been historically marginalized and underrepresented in children’s texts and culture (with particular concern toward race, class, gender, and disabilities). She has been a member of the CLA since 2009 and a member of NCTE for over 20 years, serving in various capacities. She has reviewed book manuscripts for NCTE; served as a member of the Notable Books for a Global Society committee; chaired the College Luncheon Committee at the NCTE annual conference in Philadelphia; reviewed students’ essays for NCTE’s National Awards; served as the vice president for colleges for the Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (PCTELA); served as the Assembly on Adolescent Literature (ALAN) of NCTE state representative for young adult literature; and served on the NCTE Commission on Media. She served recently on the International Research Society for Children’s Literature Board.
MARY NAPOLI, PHD
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF READING,
PENN STATE HARRISBURG

Mary Napoli is an associate professor of reading in the School of Behavioral Sciences and Education, where she teaches both undergraduate and graduate literacy courses, including children’s and adolescent literature. She is currently the professor-in-charge of the master of education in literacy education and K–12 reading specialist certification graduate program. Her research and scholarship are informed by theories of critical multiculturalism and reader response. Mary has been a member of NCTE since 2001 and a member of the CLA since 2003, serving both in various capacities. She has been a member of several professional committees, including the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award committee, Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts committee, and the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children committee.
ANGIE ZAPATA , PHD
A
SSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF LEARNING, TEACHING, AND CURRICULUM,
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

Angie Zapata is an associate professor of language and literacy for social transformation (LLST) in the Department of Learning, Teaching and Curriculum at the University of Missouri. She is a longtime elementary teacher of bilingual and multilingual children; a teacher educator of undergraduate students preparing to be teachers of language and literacy in diverse, elementary settings; and an advisor to doctoral students in LLST. She teaches undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral courses focused on language, literacy, identity, and literature for children and youth in both online and face-to-face settings. The research methodologies she employs are oriented toward bridging the gap between theories of humanizing pedagogies and ethical classroom practice through collaborative teacher–researcher inquiry in literature-based and transling-ual contexts. She has been a long-standing member of the NCTE and the CLA; served on the Charlotte Huck Children’s Book Award Committee; served as co-chair of the Committee on Equity and Inclusion and as a member of CLA’s board of directors; and coauthored the Interna-tional Literacy Association Statement on Expanding the Literature Canon and the CLA position statement on the importance of critical selection and teaching of diverse children’s literature.

Our Work with JCL

Like so many other readers, our understanding of the field of children’s literature has been shaped and informed by the articles published in JCL, selected, refined, and coordinated by editorial teams including, most recently, Donna Adomat, Karla Möller, and Angela Wiseman; Jonda McNair, Miriam Martinez, and Sharon O’Neal; and Cyndi Giorgis, April Bedford, and Jennifer Fabbi. During our time as editors, we hope to carry on the tradition of excellence cultivated by these and all other editors of the Journal of Children’s Literature.

Our team is committed to building upon the work of previous editors by bringing together master teachers, recognized scholars and researchers, and emerging voices (e.g., new scholars, doctoral students) across disciplines as contributors to JCL. We recognize that under the guidance of previous editorial teams, the theoretical content of JCLhas increased. We view this shift as particularly important for teachers and teacher educators in the current context of high-stakes testing (e.g., the edTPA), educational initiatives (e.g., the Common Core State Standards), and the “deprofessionalization” of teachers and the teaching profession. Through JCL, we want to foreground the attention to reader response, critical literacies, critical multiculturalism, and social justice.

We will continue to center scholarship and research and explore how theory can guide the ways in which researchers, teachers, teacher educators, and librarians view and explore children’s literature. We plan to make JCL relevant to both educators and scholars by publishing practical yet scholarly pieces that allow readers to think deeply about children’s literature (including visual and multimodal texts) and how it can directly influence the lives of children in their classrooms. To this end, during our tenure as editors, JCL will include the following features:
PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
Each issue of JCL will feature up to four research-based, scholarly articles that explore contemporary issues in the fields of education and children’s literature. These articles will address topics of interest to elementary and middle-grade teachers, scholars and researchers of children’s literature, teacher educators, and librarians.
TEACHERS’ VOICES
EDITED BY SUZANNE M. KNEZEK AND PAUL RICKS

The Teachers’ Voices column is a space that privileges the research of educators in all their myriad settings, highlighting both the realities of classroom learning situations and the important work that occurs elsewhere (e.g., in libraries, in community centers, in correctional facilities, online, at home).
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
In addition, we will continue featuring reports, articles, and forums relevant to the Children’s Literature Assembly. These will include interviews and commentaries with authors and illustrators, the Notables list, the Master Class article, and more.
CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS
WRITTEN/EDITED BY EDITH CAMPBELL
The Critical Conversations column is a space that encourages spirited debates on children’s texts (contemporary and classic). It also affords contributors an opportunity to critically examine texts for biases and to recognize innovations that might expand or complicate the ways educators see, think, and talk about children’s texts in and out of the classroom.
PODCAST
This issue of JCL marks the first time the journal is published in an online-only format. Moving online provides a number of affordances, one of which is our ability to offer a podcast focused on current issues relevant to the field of children’s literature. The podcast will consist primarily of lively conversations between a small group of individuals with a range of perspectives and expertise as scholars or creators of children’s literature.
Finally, as we transition the journal online, our team is committed to making all past issues of JCL available to members of the Children’s Literature Assembly. We are currently scanning all past issues of JCL and its predecessors (e.g., Ripples) and will be making those available in the Members Only section of the Children’s Literature Assembly website. We are grateful to CLA historian Dr. Amy McClure for entrusting us with the assembly’s copies of these archival materials. We are also indebted to Dr. Evie Freeman, who provided us with her personal copies of JCL for use in our scanning.

Additional Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following individuals and institutions for their support of our work with the Journal of Children’s Literature:
  • Donna Adomat, Karla Möller, and Angela Wiseman, who generously and tirelessly answered our questions, provided materials, and met with us as we transitioned into this role
  • Jennifer Graff, Lauren Liang, Ruth Lowery, and the CLA board for entrusting us with this journal‡‡.
  • Xenia Hadjioannou for creating the online format for the journal and working with us as we scanned issues, created calls for manuscripts, and so much more
  • Laura May for her insights and advice on creating a podcast
  • Our editorial assistants, Abigail Snyder (Georgia State University)and Jolynn Sullivan (Penn State Harrisburg)
  • Our university department chairs and deans for their support, including release time, equipment, and student assistants
  • Our editorial review board members for their commit-ment to the journal and insightful feedback on manuscripts

References

Adichie, C. N. (2009, July). Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story/transcript

Short, K. G. (2012). Story as world making.
Language Arts, 90(1), 9–17.

Editorial Note to CLA Members

CLA Members can use their CLA online account credentials to access the Spring 2020 JCL issue (VOLUME 46, ISSUE 1) and our growing collection of JCL's past issues.
Picture

Locating Resources on Global Children’s and YA Literature

4/28/2020

 

BY KATHY G. SHORT

Worlds of Words Logo
Many authors, illustrators, publishers, and literacy organizations offer valuable resources during this time of mandated on-line learning. An ongoing issue, however, is that only a few of these resources highlight global literature, books set in global cultures outside of the U.S. At Worlds of Words, a Center of Global Literacies and Literatures, our goal is to support educators and families in engaging readers with global literature to encourage intercultural understanding across cultures.

If you are a teacher educator searching for on-line readings and book lists for your courses or a teacher creating new inquiry units that are global in focus, the following resources can support your work. You can also use these features as examples for students to create their own reviews, vignettes, or book recommendations:


  • Articles and Classroom Vignettes:
​Articles and vignettes in the online journal, WOW Stories, provide access to the voices of teachers sharing their experiences with global books. These short, practical articles are accessible for undergraduate students as well as teachers and include many examples of children’s work, book ideas, and descriptions of engagements. Teachers can also submit their own experiences with global literature to consider for publication. ​
  • A Guide for Integrating Global Literature into the Classroom
Exploring International and Intercultural Understanding through Global Literature is a short descriptive guide to the work of teacher study groups to integrate global literature into their classrooms. The guide gives a quick overview of their strategies, linked to their vignettes so educators can read about the ideas that most interest them. The guide is organized around different levels of integration so teachers can consider what might work best in their context.

  • Critical Reviews of Multicultural and Global Literature
Critical reviews of multicultural and global literature in the online journal, WOW Review, focus on cultural authenticity and related books. These reviews can be used to locate authentic books for units or as models on writing critical reviews. Students can also submit a book review for consideration to connect an assignment with a broader audience.

  • Authentic Literature in Spanish
Authentic literature in Spanish can be difficult to locate and so the online journal, WOW Libros, highlights reviews of books originally published in Spanish from around the world.

  • Global Issues Blog
WOW Currents has weekly blog entries around a monthly theme on issues related to global literature. The April theme is on the progress in diversifying children’s literature for specific marginalized groups, while February focused on how to critically analyze the linguistic landscapes of bilingual/multilingual books. These blog entries provide quick accessible readings around current issues and can serve as models for writing about current issues.
WOW Stories
Wow Review
WOW Libros
  • Dialogue Between Readers
My Take/Your Take is a dialogue between two readers with different connections and interpretations of the same global book. Other readers are invited to add their comments. Students could add their perspectives to these dialogues on WOW, or a similar assignment could be developed where students with differing perspectives work in pairs to dialogue about a book and post that dialogue on the class site to invite comments from other class members.

  • Global "Book of the Month"
WOW Recommends is a global “book of the month,” a book not to be missed. These highly recommended books provide an excellent starting point for someone new to global literature or as an example of an assignment where students nominate their own book of the month, the one book they would most strongly recommend to classmates.
PictureSpanish/Mexican Language and Culture Book Kit
  • Interviews with Global Authors
Read an interview with a global author in Authors’ Corner as a way to get to know an author who writes global or multicultural literature.

  • Global Reading Lists
​Global K-12 Reading Lists provide recommended grade-level global book lists that are updated annually and include text complexity information as well as annotations to help locate book titles that fit the needs of readers. In addition, the lists include paired books where global books are paired with classic books, such as Pride and Prejudice or The Secret Garden.

  • Book Lists on Global Cultures
Another example of useful global book lists are the Language and Culture Book Kits around a specific global culture, like China or Peru, and Global Story Boxes, which focus on books around a global culture for young children. In addition, the Family Story Backpacks go home with children to invite family stories around themes that families often tell stories about, such as the story of my name, birthday traditions, or losing a tooth. The books and artifacts in these backpacks are listed on the site. Other book lists include an extensive annotated list of children’s and YA literature highlighting refugee experiences.

  • Book Search
A book search to locate book titles around a country or theme is located at the top of the home page and will soon be replaced with an advanced search where you can search based on multiple factors such as theme, age level, country, author, and genre.

  • Global Literacy Community Grants
Finally, global literacy community grants are available to small groups of teachers wanting to explore the use of global literature in their contexts. The grants are due on July 15, 2020.

In this time of global crisis, the need to broaden our world views and develop empathy and knowledge about cultures beyond our own is increasingly critical. Reading globally invites readers to enter story worlds to experience how people live, feel, and think around the world, providing the potential to transform their world views through understanding their current lives and imagining beyond themselves.
Open a Book…Open a Mind…Change the World

​Kathy G. Short, University of Arizona

Worlds of Words images used with permission.

    Authors:
    CLA Members

    Supporting PreK-12 and university teachers as they share children’s literature with their students in all classroom contexts.

    Disclaimer
    The opinions and ideas posted in the individual entries are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of CLA or the Blog Editors.

    Blog Editors

    Liz Thackeray Nelson
    Emmaline Ellis
    Jennifer Slagus
    Sara K. Sterner
    Megan Van Deventer

    contribute to the blog

    Instructions to Authors

    If you are a current CLA member and you would like to contribute a post to the CLA Blog, please read the Instructions to Authors and email co-editor Liz Thackeray Nelson with your idea.


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