Category: Picturebooks

#MeetSomeoneNewMonday: One Teacher’s Year-Long Celebration of Picturebook Biographies

5/3/2022

By Mary Ann Cappiello, Jennifer M. Graff and Melissa Quimby on behalf of The Biography Clearinghouse

Over the last two years, we’ve enjoyed sharing excerpts from The Biography Clearinghouse website. We hope that our interviews with book creators and our teaching ideas focused on using biographies for a variety of classroom purposes has been helpful to the CLA membership and beyond. This month, we’re very excited to share something different - a voice directly from the classroom.

Melissa Quimby, a 4th grade teacher in Massachusetts, has written the inaugural entry in our new feature “Stories from the Classroom.” Melissa is the genius behind #MeetSomeoneNewMonday, a weekly initiative that has spread from her classroom to her grade level team to an entirely different school in just three years.

This initiative launched when Melissa decided to share her passion for picturebook biographies with her students through interactive read-alouds. They were hooked! As Melissa writes, “Over time, I molded this project in intentional ways, and it evolved into an adventure that focused on identity, centered marginalized and minoritized communities, and cultivated thoughtful, strategic middle grade readers.” What started as a way to share nonfiction picturebooks as an engaging and compelling art form developed into a more nuanced exploration of global changemakers–past and present. With their weekly reading of picturebook biographies, students grow as readers and thinkers and deepen their individual and collective sense of agency.

In the following excerpts, Melissa describes how she reveals each week’s notable changemaker to her students and shares some of her picturebook biography selections.

Monday Read-Aloud Routines

Reveal Slide Example

On Monday mornings, we gather together as a reading community. In an effort to build excitement, our reveal slide is projected on the board as students arrive. Some weeks, copies of the backmatter wait on the rug, inviting students to preview the figure of the week. This could be the author’s note, a timeline, or a collection of real-life photographs. Once all readers are settled, we watch a video to learn a little bit about the person in the spotlight.

Some weeks, interactive read aloud time happens on Monday morning immediately following the reveal. On some Mondays, it works best for us to huddle up in the afternoon. Occasionally, we steal pockets of time throughout our busy schedule to enjoy the biography of the week in smaller doses. When we read the text is not as important as how we read the text. The heart of this work truly lies in how we generate emotional investment within our students and how we help our students’ reactions and ideas blossom into new thinking about the world and ways that they can take action in their own lives for themselves and others. Sometimes, we simply read the biography to love it. In those moments, readers are silent with their eyes glued to the book, scanning the illustrations, wide-eyed when something surprising happens. Perhaps they whisper something to their neighbor, let out an audible gasp or share a comment aloud. Sometimes, we read to grow ideas. In these moments, readers are tracking trouble, considering how the figure responds to obstacles. They are ready to turn to their partner and reach for a precise trait word or theme and supporting evidence.

Meet Someone New Monday: A Sampling of Picture Book Biography Selections

To read more about #MeetSomeoneNewMonday, including Melissa planning process with her grade level team and student responses, visit Stories from the Classroom on The Biography Clearinghouse website

You can also reach out to Melissa through her website (QUIMBYnotRamona) or Twitter (@QUIMBYnotRamona) to discuss how to implement #MeetSomeoneNew initiative in your classroom or school.

Inspired by Melissa’s picturebook biography initiative or done something similar? Share your ideas and stories with us via email: thebiographyclearinghouse@gmail.com. Or, chime in on Twitter (@teachwithbios), Facebook, or Instagram with your own #teachwithbios ideas and picturebook biography recommendations.

Melissa Quimby teaches fourth grade in Massachusetts. She is passionate about helping young writers improve their craft, and her to-be-read list is always stacked with middle grade fiction. Melissa shares her love of children’s literature on Teachers Books Readers and shares about her literacy instruction with the Choice Literacy community. You can connect with her at her website, QUIMBYnotRamona, or follow her on Twitter @QUIMBYnotRamona.

Mary Ann Cappiello teaches courses in children’s literature and literacy methods at Lesley University, blogs about teaching with children’s literature at The Classroom Bookshelf. She is a former chair of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction K-8.

Jennifer M. Graff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia where her scholarship focuses on diverse children’s literature and early childhood literacy practices. She is a former committee member of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction K-8, and has served in multiple leadership roles throughout her 16+ year CLA membership.

A Lesson from Faith Ringgold about the Radical Power of the Picturebook

4/19/2022

By Jessica Whitelaw

Last week I was able to visit the long-awaited Faith Ringgold exhibit, American People, at the New Museum in New York. Many know Ringgold from her book Tar Beach, but this retrospective - her first - features Ringgold as artist/organizer/educator and showcases paintings, murals, political posters, sculptures, and story quilts that span the Harlem Renaissance, the Black Arts Movement, critical feminism, and reach into the landscape of contemporary Black artists working today. After years of a relationship with the book version of Tar Beach, it was moving to stand in front of the original story quilt that the book is based on, this intimate everyday object upon which she wrote, painted, and stitched, to push the boundaries of white western art traditions and explore themes of gender, race, class, history, and social transformation.

Woman on a Bridge #1 of 5: Tar Beach, 1988
Acrylic paint, canvas, printed fabric, ink, and thread
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Gift, Mr. and Mrs. Gus and Judith Leiber, 1988

But from an educator perspective, this important exhibit left out something important about the arts, access, and critical literacy. It didn’t pay much attention to the radical act of making this story quilt, and all of the ideas that it explores, available to young people in the form of another everyday object, the picturebook. In the book version of Tar Beach, narrator Cassie Louise Lightfoot, “only eight years old and in the third grade,” invites readers into an experience and conversation that the story quilt was asking museum audiences to consider. Cassie’s is a story of resistance and self-definition and an invitation through art and words, to encounter issues of class, race, place, history, and the future through what Ringgold has called a “fantastical sensibility.” Cassie’s story offers a word/picture narrative marked by sharp observation and critique but also beauty and humanization.

I left the exhibit thinking about how Tar Beach provides an object lesson in how the arts can support critical literacy. With its imprint on the social and cultural imagination of so many, Tar Beach reminds us that we can look to the humble picturebook to find sources of radical power. In these everyday objects that can traverse home, school, and everyday life, we can seek out art and words to explore issues of cultural significance, often with an eye toward joy and justice at the same time.

So how can we harness the power and possibility of the arts that can be found in picturebooks? How can we invite and encourage deep critical literacy and inquiry?

Below is a protocol adapted from the steps of art criticism that can be used to support students in developing picturebook practices that engage critical literacy and inquiry. It can be used with Tar Beach, whose content is both accessible and complex enough to use with both younger and older readers. But it offers a flexible participation structure that teachers can use with any picturebook that has rich visual/verbal content. Like most protocols, it works best as a flexible tool not a prescriptive device.

Picturebook Read Aloud Protocol

Adapted from the steps of art criticism, this protocol provides a framework for sharing picturebooks that aims to cultivate a critical practice. It guides the reader through a process of looking closely to notice what they might otherwise overlook and to use what they know about words and pictures to analyze and make sense of what they see. The stages offer a helpful way to support students of any age through a process and unfolding of critical engagement that relies upon attention to specific details in the work to guide thoughtful engagement and response. The protocol is intended as a facilitation guide for teachers. Wording should be adjusted for the audience/age of the reader.

LOOK CLOSELY

Take inventory. Examine the cover of the book, the dust jacket and the endpapers. Look closely at the typography, the pictures, the words. Describe what you see and notice in detailed, descriptive language.

ANALYZE

Use what you know about picturebooks and design to analyze the words and the pictures. Look at the colors, the lines, shapes, textures. Try to determine the media the artist used to make the pictures. Examine the style of the language the writer used. Look for patterns, repetition, rhyme. Draw attention to the picturebook as a unique form of the book that relies on the synergy of the words and the pictures by asking how the words and pictures work together: What do the words tell you that the pictures do not? What do the pictures tell you that the words do not? What happens in between the openings?

QUESTION

Use questions together to probe and deepen. Stop and ask questions about pages that are visually and/or verbally rich or complex. What sense do you make of this page? How do you know that? Why do you think the author or illustrator chose to do it the way they did? What questions does the page raise for you, make you wonder about?

CRITIQUE

What do you think the author/illustrator is trying to do or say or show in this book? Who do we see in this book? Who is the audience for this book? Who do you think should read it? Whose voice/voices do we hear? Who do we not hear from? What ideas do you have about the topic/topics in the book? What do you think the storyteller in this book believes or thinks or wants us to know? What questions do you have about what the storyteller is saying and showing? What genre/category does the book belong to? What other work has this author and/or illustrator created and how is it similar to or different from this book?

RESPOND

After having looked closely at the book, what does this text mean to you? What does the story make you wonder about? How could this story mean different things? To you? To different readers?

Additional Teaching Resources for Tar Beach

Watch Faith Ringgold read Tar Beach

Create a paper story quilt

Listen to Faith Ringgold’s favorite songs

Explore a Faith Ringgold Text Set:

We Came to America
Cassie’s Word Quilt
The Invisible Princess
Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky
Harlem Renaissance Party
If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks
Henry Ossawa Tanner: His Boyhood Dreams Come True

For Older Readers: Watch the Ted Talk by Kimberlé Crenshaw on intersectionality

Examine how Tar Beach explores identity and power at several intersections. Examine other artworks of Faith Ringgold such as her For the Women’s House mural at the Brooklyn Museum or her America series of paintings on the artist’s website

Read Ringgold’s feminist artist’s statement from her memoir, We Flew Over the Bridge. Look for themes that connect across and examine how the different art forms allow the themes to be explored differently. Read other excerpts from We Flew Over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith Ringgold, and examine how ideas from her life take shape in Tar Beach. Consider the different forms of visual and verbal storytelling that she employs in her work and how ideas are conveyed through different modalities in each.

Jessica Whitelaw is faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania in the Graduate School of Education and a member of CLA.

Books to help you spring into nature…

3/29/2022

By Kathryn Will and River Lusky

As we emerge from a long winter with the lengthening of days to warm the earth, I am drawn to books that get us thinking about nature–the plant and animal life in the world. As the NCBLA committee will tell you, I love books about nature, and this year many of the books we reviewed for the 2022 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts award list were about the natural world.

For this text set we chose three books that leverage nonfiction, poetry, and a picture book to develop content knowledge, build vocabulary, and encourage divergent thinking about the natural world. They invite readers to be curious about nature in both big and small ways. Teachers can easily deepen and extend the texts through a variety of activities, and we have created a few to get you started.

Wonder Walkers

In the book Wonder Walkers, written and illustrated by Micha Archer and published by Penguin House, readers are invited to notice and wonder in the everyday natural world around them through metaphorical thinking. The children in the story examine the world around them with varying perspectives, asking questions such as, “Are trees the sky’s legs? Is the wind the world breathing?” The text and beautiful collages synergistically invite the readers to imagine what they see with genuine curiosity, to observe and ask questions about the natural world around them.

After reading the book, take your classroom outside for a walk to provide students with the opportunity to notice nature. Invite them to sketch something they find before giving them time for quiet reflection while listening to the natural world around them as they make their own wonderings like the children in the book. The individual wonderings could even be combined for a class book. Our Wonder Walk Resource can be helpful in supporting students' note-taking. To access the document and create a copy for your use, click on the "Make a Copy" button.

If you are interested in learning more about how Micah Archer creates her collages check out the two videos below. The first provides a a brief glimpse of her printmaking, and the second offers a much more extensive look into how she creates the collage materials and assembles them for the book.

What's inside a flower and other questions about science and nature

What's inside a flower and other questions about science and nature, written and illustrated by Rachel Ignotofsky, published by Crown Books for Young Readers, invites the reader into the how and why of flowers. In this book the reader journeys through a flower with detailed and mature illustrations down to the roots, up the stem, and into the bud highlighting each intricate aspect of the parts of a flower. The exploratory journey through the biology of flowers as well as what other creatures assist and benefit from flowers, will have students on the edge of their seats asking questions. With rich backmatter, the book encourages further exploration of this topic.

After an initial read of What’s Inside a Flower the students may use it as a reference book, as students use cut flowers to sketch, dissect, and label the parts of the flower. To amplify this lesson, teachers could turn their classroom into a garden or use their school gardens if available. Having each student plant their own flower and record daily or weekly observations, perhaps adding variables like amount of sunlight, presence of earthworms, or watering rate to allow students to compare and contrast their plant growth rate. Rachel Ignostofsky has created multiple free resources for you to use for these activities.

Author Read Aloud. Brightly Storytime is is a co-production of Penguin Random House.

The dirt book: Poems about animals that live beneath our feet

The dirt book: Poems about animals that live beneath our feet, written by David L. Harrison, illustrated by Kate Cosgrove, published by Holiday House is a book of vertical panoramas with one poem per page. The 15 poems in this book might pique your interest in the world beneath your feet not often thought of. The reader journeys with creatures like a doodlebug and a chipmunk through a series of poems with beautifully detailed illustrations that depict their below ground habitats. An author’s notes and bibliography invite the reader to extend their learning.

These poems are perfect for choral reading and micro episodes of reader’s theater. Try a reader’s theater by having groups of students pick a favorite poem and after multiple reads, act it out for the class. Or as a class, you might consider choosing something like a creek or a tree in your school environment and using the structure of this text to consider purposeful research about the various creatures who live within the boundary of place to create a book of poems.

An interview with the author on Deborah Calb's Blog provides interesting insights into the book.

Announcing the 2022 NCBLA list

Celebrating the 2022 Notable Children's books

These are just three of the 774 books the seven members of the Notable Children’s Books in Language Arts book award committee read and reviewed for consideration of selection for the 30-book list created annually. The careful analysis and rich discussions over monthly (and sometimes weekly) Zoom sessions allowed us to create a thoughtful list that meets the charge of the committee.

The charge of the seven-member national committee is to select 30 books that best exemplify the criteria established for the Notables Award. Books considered for this annual list are works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written for children, grades K-8. The books selected for the list must:

be published the year preceding the award year (i.e., books published in 2015 are considered for the 2016 list);
have an appealing format;
be of enduring quality;
meet generally accepted criteria of quality for the genre in which they are written; and
meet one or more of the following criteria:
1. deal explicitly with language, such as plays on words, word origins, or the history of language;
2. demonstrate uniqueness in the use of language or style; and/or
3. invite child response or participation.

2022 NCBLA Committee members

Kathryn Will, Chair (University of Maine Farmington) @KWsLitCrew
Vera Ahihya (Brooklyn Arbor Elementary School) @thetututeacher
Patrick Andrus (Eden Prairie School District, Minnesota) @patrickontwit
Dorian Harrison (Ohio State University at Newark)
Laretta Henderson (Eastern Illinois University) @EIU_PKthru12GEd
Janine Schall (The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley)
Fran Wilson (Madeira Elementary School, Ohio) @mrswilsons2nd

*All NCBLA Committee members are members of CLA

Kathryn Will is Assistant Professor Literacy at the University of Maine Farmington. She served as Chair of the 2022 Notable Children’s Books in Language Arts committee.
River Lusky is an undergraduate student at the University of Maine Farmington.

Exploring Notable Poetry Books for Advocacy with Children

3/15/2022

By Ted Kesler

I have just completed my position as chairperson of the NCTE Poetry and Verse Novels for Children Committee. Our list of notable poetry and verse novels that were published in 2021 as well as other information about the award can be found on the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children page.

In this blog post, I discuss three notable poetry books from this list that promote advocacy and provide lesson plan ideas to do with children.

Photo Ark ABC

Photo Ark ABC: An Animal Alphabet in Poetry and Pictures, poetry by Debbie Levy and photos by Joel Sartore (National Geographic Kids, 2021).

The diverse and playful poetry forms in Photo Ark ABC oscillate with vibrant pictures to create fascination with each animal that is represented. Here is one example:

“O is for Octopus” from Photo Ark ABC.

The book is part of the Photo Ark Project, that aims to “document every species living in the world’s zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, inspire action through education, and help save wildlife by supporting on-the-ground conservation efforts” [Back Book Cover]. Therefore, the book provides wonderful online resources to use with children, which expand opportunities for classroom explorations. Here are some ideas:

Visit the National Geographic Photo Ark Project online, and have students research and present about one of the animals they find fascinating or that is endangered.
Locate each animal in the backmatter of Photo Ark ABC on a world map. Then, use the Google Earth feature that is connected with this Photo Ark project.
Study the poems as mentor texts, and have students write an original poem for the animal they studied.
Students can then create their own full page spread of the photo and poem, along with an information text box.
Pursue other explorations using the Photo Ark resource: www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/photo-ark/education/

The Last Straw

The Last Straw: Kids vs. Plastics, poetry by Susan Hood, illust. by Christiane Engel (HarperCollins, 2021).

The Last Straw fits into the hybrid genre of poetic nonfiction (Kesler, 2012), as every page combines poetry with expository writing about a specific topic. Topics include microplastics, plastic bags and straws, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and other environmental issues. The poetry also has diverse forms, such as odes, concrete poems, limericks, elegy, and persona.

The book also provides resources for each topic in the back matter. Here is one look inside:

“Be Straw Free” from The Last Straw.

Ultimately, like Photo Ark ABC, The Last Straw promotes advocacy. Here are some instructional ideas for classrooms:

School-Based Research Project:

Have students generate a list of all the disposable plastics that people use in the school as they go about their school day.
Problem-solve with children ideas to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Research alternatives to one of the disposable plastics that is commonly used in the school (e.g., sporks). Develop a plan for change that includes interviews, cost analysis, speech writing, petitions, etc.

2. Reading:

In small groups, students can find a page they love. Practice and then perform the poem.
Read the other sources of information on the page.
Then, read the information about that poetry page in the “Sources and More” section in the back matter.
Have groups present to each other how the sources of information on the page all fit together.

3. Writing:

Provide laptops or other digital devices to each group to research the sites that are provided for their topic.
Make a group presentation to the class about what they discovered and one way to make a difference.

My Thoughts are Clouds

My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness, poetry by Georgia Heard, illust. by Isabel Roxas (Roaring Brook Press, 2021).

As the title implies, My Thoughts Are Clouds guides children to quiet their minds, which, in the words of Georgia Heard, allows them “to feel calmer, more joyful, more focused, less anxious, and to find the space and peace to live in the present moment.” In “Mindful World,” Heard proclaims, “When I become calm on the inside, / the world becomes calm on the outside.” This book ultimately leads readers towards kindfulness.

While taking readers through the dimensions of mindfulness, many of the poems also instruct, calling out to try it, like a how-to manual, poems such as “Counting Breaths,” “Square Breathing,” “In and Out Breath,” “Nature Walk,” “Come Home to Your True Self,” “Butterfly Body Scan,” “The Music of the Moment,” “Three-Way Loving Kindness Meditation.” Here is one look inside:

“Butterfly Body Scan” from My Thoughts Are Clouds.

You might choose any of these poems for shared reading, or assign it to a small group to practice reading aloud beautifully, and then guide the class through the activity that the poem describes.

Many poems also call out like writing notebook prompts, similar to the mindful prompts in Heard’s book, Writing Towards Home: Tales and Lessons to Find Your Way (Heinemann, 1995). Poems such as “My Thoughts Are Clouds,” “Consider a Raisin,” “Open Your Eyes,” “Cultivate Tenderness,” “Kindfulness” all would provide rich writing notebook explorations. For example, I imagine students copying the poem “My Thoughts Are Clouds” on the left-side of a full-page spread in their notebook, and then on the right-side, creating their own thought clouds.

Finally, I think “Empowerment Mantra Haiku” (see image below) would provide an outstanding activity. The entire class could compose their own affirmative heard-shaped messages for a class empowerment “take one, add one” bulletin board that each child can hold onto as a gift and a reminder to be good to themselves and others throughout the day.

“Empowerment Mantra Haiku” from My Thoughts Are Clouds.

Ted Kesler, Ed.D. is an Associate Professor at Queens College, CUNY and has been a CLA Member since 2010. He served as chairperson of the NCTE Poetry and Verse Novels for Children Committee from 2019 to 2021.
www.tedsclassroom.com | @tedsclassroom | www.facebook.com/tedsclassroom)

Reading "How War Changed Rondo" to Open Conversations about the War in Ukraine

3/8/2022

by Oksana Lushchevska

It takes a village to heal warriors – and it takes a warrior to teach the village how” state Raymond Monsour Scurfield and Katherine Theresa Platoni in their scholarly text Healing War Trauma: A Handbook of Creative Approaches.

Following the horrific news from Ukraine, an independent, rapidly developing country located in eastern Europe, US educators and literature advocates seek tools to facilitate starting conversations about the devastating effects of war on humanity and the support every individual can offer, regardless of where they are.

Children’s books can serve as a great tool to start deliberate, responsible conversations through classroom dialogue. Jella Lepman (1891-1970), a German journalist, author, and translator who founded the International Youth Library in Munich right after WWII, believed that children’s books are couriers of peace. She was certain that if children read books from other countries, they would realize that they share common human values and strive to preserve them.

I believe that we, as global-minded educators and literature advocates, should, to use Scurfield and Platoni’s words, become warriors of peace; peacemakers who prepare our children to grow into wise, understanding, and sympathetic global citizens who have the will and the capacity to heal the world. Being originally from Ukraine and witnessing this horrific war unfolding in my country, where all my family and friends live, I feel the cruciality of this duty urgently and viscerally. Thus, I want to bring to your attention the picturebook How War Changed Rondo, which is a Ukrainian export. The book has been recognized as a Kirkus Best Book of 2021 and as a USBBY Outstanding International Book of 2022.

Interestingly, this book was created by the Ukrainian book creators Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv in 2014. The book won the 2015 Bologna Ragazzi Award, which is one of the most prestigious European Awards in children’s literature. I translated this book as soon as it was written. It was an imperative for me to bring it to the attention of English-speaking readers as it highlights a vital turning point in Ukraine's independent history: Russia’s annexation of Crimea and occupation of the eastern part of Ukraine in 2014 (Ukraine has been an independent country since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991). I also felt responsibility to share with global young readers that we, as human beings, all want peace and democracy; we want to create and to thrive. In the picturebook, through the fictionalized characters, Danko (a light bulb), Fabian (a pink balloon dog), and Zirka (an origami bird), Romanyshyn and Lesiv depict the horrors of invasion of one’s own country, the impact of war, and the destruction in brings to everyone.

When I translated the text, I brought it to my classroom. It was 2015 and I taught a Children’s Literature course at the University of Georgia. When my students, who were future educators, read the text of How War Changed Rondo (the book was not yet published in the US), their empathy was sharp and deep. What’s important to know – I read the text without showing them the illustrations, so they could imagine the characters by themselves. After the reading, I invited them to write down their responses or/and to draw them. In particular, I invited them to imagine who the characters of the book are and what their injuries might look like. This was a very fruitful experience that further connected my students emotionally with the text and grounded their empathy. Finally, I showed them Andriy Lesiv’s original illustrations and they were touched by the perspective they created. You can use a similar approach when reading this picturebook in your classroom, or you can do it your own way. The possibilities are endless. You might also like to pair it with a short professional animated video of The War That Changed Rondo recently done by Chervony Sobaka (Red Dog Studio). This will be a good set to bring an intelligent perspective on such an important topic.

The War That Changed Rondo from Chervony Sobaka on Vimeo.

In wrapping up, I wanted to leave you with some insights from the experiences of the Ukrainian people faced with the recent events. Children are not afraid to talk about serious topics. In fact, they are willing and eager to do it. While many of my Ukrainian colleagues are hiding in bomb shelters, they seek children’s books to soothe their children through the difficulties and hardship. Ukrainian publishers have distributed free digital copies of contemporary Ukrainian children’s books, some of which are books about peace and war. In this way, children can choose what they want to read and talk about. Some of them ask to read about peace to strengthen their hope. Others ask to read about war to have the possibility for catharsis.

Ukrainian Publishers and Literary Agencies Participating in the Free Book Initiative

Crocus/Krokus Publishers

Old Lion Publishing House/ Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva

Barabooka Literary Agency

Ranok Publishers

Vivat Publishers

Vydavnytstvo Publishers

While Ukraine is going through this terrible experience, we here in the USA have a responsibility to help our young readers to grow into empathetic adults who will definitely create better, life-altering history for humanity to avoid tragedies such as this. In addition, I want to invite all US publishers to seek out contemporary Ukrainian books, especially books that might portray a unique perspective on the subject of war, tyranny, and shared human values. I suspect that there will be a lot of books soon, as many writers, myself included, are writing down their experiences to create a solid piece of history for the future generations. Such books can keep us accountable to the past, inspire endless possibilities of anti-war art such as the Never Again War poster created by Käthe Kollwitz in 1924, and guide us to do our best to prevent wars and create a bright hopeful future.

For more information about Ukrainian children’s books, please write to:

olushchevska@gmail.com

Translated from Ukrainian and readily available in the United States:

Picturebooks:

How Many? (By Halyna Kyrpa and illustrated by Olha Havrylova. Translated by Oksana Lushchevska. Bratske Publishers, 2014. Kindle Edition.)

Mr. Catsky, Mira, and the Sea (By Oksana Lushchevska and illustrated by Violetta Borigard. Bratske Publishers, 2015. Kindle Edition.)

And more from the team of Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv:

Sound: Shh…Bang…Pop…BOOM! (Chronicle Books, 2021)

Sight: Glimmer, Glow, Spark, Flash! (Chronicle Books, 2020)

Stars and Poppy Seeds (Tate, 2019)

Loudly, Softly, in a Whisper (Wonder House Books, 2017)

I See That (Wonder House Books, 2017)

Chapter Books and Longer Books:

Letters on the War: Children Write to Soldiers (Edited by Valentyna Vzdulska, Oksana Oksana, Julia Berezenko, and illustrated by Olena Staranchuk. Translated by Oksana Lushchevska and Michale Naydan. Bratske Publishers, 2015. Kindle Edition.)

Heart in Flames: Tales of Action and Intrigue (By Antaoly Koetesky and illustrated by Olexandr Zastanchenko. Translated by Oles Kovalenko and Vasil Baryshev. Dnipro Publishers, 1990.)

Set in Ukraine or Related to Ukraine:

Picturebooks:

The Mitten (By Jan Brett. Putnam’s Sons, 2009.)

The Mitten (By Alvin Tresselt and illustrated by Yaroslava. HarperCollins, 1989.)

The Birds' Gift: A Ukrainian Easter Story (Retold by Eric A. Kimmel and Illustrated by Katya Krenina. Holiday, 1999.)

The Spider's Gift: A Ukrainian Christmas Story (Retold by Eric A. Kimmel and Illustrated by Katya Krenina. Holiday, 2010.)

Chapter Books and Longer Books:

Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis (By Susan Hood with Greg Dawson. HarperCollins, 2022.)

The Midnight Zoo (By Sonya Harnett. Candlewick, 2011.)

The Blackbird Girls (By Anne Blankman. Puffin (Reprint Edition), 2021.)

The Winter Horses (By Philip Kerr. Knopf, 2014.)

My Real Name is Hanna (By Tara Lynn Masih, 2018.)

Radiant Girl (By Andrea White, Black Spot Books, 2018.)

The Secret of Priest's Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story (By Peter Lane Taylor & Christos Nicola, Kar-Ben, 2007.)

Donating to Help

If you are looking for donation options to support the people of Ukraine, here are some outlets for your consideration.

Polish Literacy Foundation: Raising funds to buy books for refugee children from Ukraine (and support Ukrainian publishers at the same time)
- For details, you can read Joanne O'Sullivan's article on Publishers Weekly: Polish Literacy Foundation Leads Relief Efforts for Ukrainian Kids
Ukrainian Red Cross: They organize educational services, provide sanitary materials and coordinate blood donations.
UNICEF: They provide medical aid, food, and psychological support to children.
Voices of Children: They provide psychological services to Ukrainian children impacted by armed conflict. You may be interested intheir digital storytelling project.
International Rescue Committee: The IRC provides food, medical care and emergency support services to refugee families in several countries, including Ukraine.
Come Back Alive: They provide assistance to around 100 combat units of the Ukrainian armed forces to cover the real-time needs of defending Ukraine.

ArmySOS: They provide support to the Ukrainian army.
Future Ukraine Fund: They support the most vulnerable children in Ukraine. Currently they provide assistance to the Ohmadit Children’s Hospital in Kyiv that cares for children and mothers affected by the war.
Help Ukraine Win: They are fundraising to provide essential supplies to Ukrainian people who fight against Russian aggression on the front line.

References
Lepman, J. (2002). A bridge of children’s books: the inspiring autobiography of a remarkable woman. Dublin, Ireland: The O’Brien Press, Ltd.
Romanyshyn, R., Lesiv A., How War Changed Rondo. New York: Enchanted Lion Books.
Scurfield, R. M., Platoni, K. Th. (2012). Healing War Trauma: A Handbook of Creative Approaches. New York: Routledge.

Oksana Lushchevska, Ph.D. is an independent children's literature scholar and a Ukrainian children's book author and translator. She is a publishing industry and government consultant in Ukraine and founder of Story+I Writing Group. She was a recipient of the 2015 CLA Research Award.
Website: http://www.lushchevska.com

Meet Wu Chien Shiung, the “Queen of Physics” and “First Lady of Physics”

2/21/2022

By Jennifer M. Graff, Jenn Sanders, and Courtney Shimek on behalf of The Biography Clearinghouse

Picturebook biographies are some of the best ways to get to know global change-makers, understand the immense sacrifices made when pursuing one’s passion, and recognize injustices that typically accompany activist work. They enable us to connect with the people behind the discoveries. Thanks to Teresa Robeson and Rebecca Huang’s (2019) award winning picturebook, Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom we can meet Wu Chien Shiung (aka “Madame Wu”), a renowned female nuclear and particle physicist who transformed our understandings of physics and became an unwavering mentor to and advocate for women in science. While Wu Chien Shiung was overlooked for the Nobel Prize in Physics three times, a sampling of Wu Chien Shiung’s accomplishments in the table below, showcases why she is referred to as the “Queen of Physics” and “The First Lady of Physics.”

A Sampling of Wu Chien Shiung’s Accomplishments and Accolades
(Robeson, 2019)

The first woman to

teach science (1942) at and receive an honorary doctorate (1958) from Princeton University
have an asteroid named after her (1965)
be elected president of The American Physical Society (1975)
receive Israel’s Wolf Prize in Physics (1978)

She also received

the President’s National Medal of Science (1997)
her own U.S. Commemorative Forever stamp (2021)

The Biography Clearinghouse’s latest entry includes interdisciplinary teaching ideas and resources that

help build historical knowledge about China
highlight historical and contemporary Asian American and Pacific Islander activists
offer award-winning children’s picturebooks connected to contemporary issues such as family separations and the importance of names, and
detail arts-based activities focused on character creations and personal identities.

This entry also features interviews with Robeson and Huang about their inspirations for this picturebook biography, connections to Wu Chien Shiung, and details about their research and composing processes, among other interesting topics. Below are three instructional ideas from this entry.

Wu Chien Shiung. Columbia University, 1958. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Public Domain Image

Mentoring Via Peer Conferencing

Mentorship is one of the motifs present throughout Wu Chien Shiung’s life. It is also a significant factor in Robeson’s development of her poetic narrative in Queen of Physics [see her interview at 24:24]. Peer conferencing can serve as a similar opportunity for young writers to get feedback on their writing (Sanders & Damron, 2017). Once students are explicitly taught how to effectively peer conference and learn some strategies, peer conferencing can be a truly collaborative and mutually beneficial learning experience for the writer and peer mentor. In their book about writing peer tutoring, Sanders and Damron recommend apprenticing students in these five processes:

"Watch for ideas and organization first.”
Teach the mentor/tutor to pay attention to the writer’s ideas before worrying about spelling conventions.

“Respect the writer and the writer’s paper.”
Make the writer feel comfortable, be an active listener, and don’t write on the person’s paper.

“Involve the writer by asking questions.”
Teach mentors/tutors to ask open ended questions that get the writer talking about their ideas, their writing purpose, or their process.

“Teach the writer.”
Mentors/tutors share writing strategies that can be applied to the current piece but also across other pieces, rather than just trying to fix or revise the one piece they are discussing.

“Encourage the writer.”
Mentors/tutors provide encouragement by noting something specific that the writer did really well and offering one or two suggestions for revision (p.127).

Students can also focus their conferences on any previously taught writer’s craft lesson. Engaging in regular peer conferences helps young writers understand the value of feedback throughout the writing process and counters the myth of the isolated, independent writer.

Teachers can also invite students to consider the role of mentorship in their own lives. Students can identify individuals who have served as mentors to them and explore mentorship patterns and practices that are helpful and empowering to them as learners.

Advocacy and Activism

Queen of Physics features Wu Chien Shiung’s acts of persistence and resistance throughout her life. As a child, Wu Chien Shiung defied gender norms and expectations and led student protests and strikes in China for free speech. At the age of 24, she relocated to the U.S. to pursue her professional dreams as an advanced student of science. While enduring the hardships of war, life-long familial separation, and multiple episodes of racism and sexism, Wu Chien Shiung persisted in her pursuit of scientific discoveries and mentorship of female scientists in the U.S. and China. Wu Chien Shiung’s experiences remind us of other significant female Asian and Asian American activists to know. We share four female activists below, with more included in the The Biography Clearinghouse entry for Queen of Physics.

Yuri Kochiyama was a political activist from California who fought with Malcom X to work for racial justice, civil and human rights, and anti-war movements. She went on to work in the redress and reparations movements for Japanese Americans and continued to fight for political prisoners until she passed away in 2014.
Pranjal Jain is an Indian-American activist who has been organizing since she was 12 years old. As a current undergraduate at Cornell University, she is the founder of Global Girlhood, a women-led organization that inspires intercultural and intergenerational dialogue in online and offline spaces.
Stephanie Hu is a Chinese American who founded Dear Asian Youth while she was a high school student as a support website for marginalized young people as a result of the rise in anti-Asian racism and violence during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Anna May Wong was the first Chinese American movie star to appear in U.S. box offices. Although she was often relegated to smaller roles that perpetuated Asian stereotypes, her career spanned silent films, talkies, theater, and television, and she helped blaze the trail for Asian American performers after her. See Paula Yoo and Lin Yang’s (2009) picturebook biography, Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story, published by Lee & Low Books.

Printmaking a Character for Fiction Writing

Rebecca Huang uses a medium called printmaking to create the illustrations in Queen of Physics. Two basic relief printmaking techniques are woodblock and linocut in which printmakers carve a reverse or mirror image of their final picture onto linoleum or wood blocks. Then they use ink rollers called brayers to roll ink across the carved block and either hand rub or use a special press machine to press the inked block onto paper to create the final artwork. Often, a printmaker will carve multiple layers in the block, stopping to print each layer in a different color, to create a multicolored print. Check out the following online resources to learn more about printmaking techniques: Pace Prints and printmaking techniques. The back matter in Duncan Tonatiuh’s award-winning picturebook biography about the printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada, Funny Bones also includes information about printmaking techniques.

By using basic supplies such as styrofoam plates and markers for printmaking, students can create a character to print and use in their own creative story. Watch this short video of a teacher demonstrating the styrofoam printmaking process.

If you have 1-2 hours….	If you have 1-2 days…	If you have 1-2 weeks…
Each student can design a main character for a story they write, and then draw and marker-print the character on paper. In this activity, students will experience a process of printmaking that helps them understand the steps and all the work that goes into making printed images.	After students create their printed character (see the If you have 1 to 2 hours . . . column), students can draft the story in which their character experiences a problem, challenge, or adventure. Based on their story, they can add a background setting in their picture to place their character in the context of their story. Students will simply draw the background setting and objects around their character on their printed picture.	Students can print their character four to six times, on separate pieces of paper, to create a storyboard with multiple scenes. Save one of these prints to make a title page for the story. For this activity, we recommend students leave the background of the styrofoam plate empty so they can draw in different backgrounds as the story progresses. Then, they can divide their corresponding written story into sections (three, four, or five, depending on the number of prints they made). For each story section, they can draw in a related background setting, additional characters, or objects to help complete the scene. In the end, they will have a multimedia print that has their character marker-printed and the background drawn in with pen, marker, or other tools.

Visit The Biography Clearinghouse website for additional teaching ideas connected to Queen of Physics as well as other biographies for young people.

Reference

Sanders, J., & Damron, R.L. (2017). They’re all writers: Teaching peer tutoring in the elementary writing center. NWP & Teachers College Press.

Jennifer M. Graff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia where her scholarship focuses on diverse children’s literature and early childhood literacy practices. She is a former committee member of NCTE’s Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction K-8, and has served in multiple leadership roles throughout her 16+ year CLA membership.

Jennifer Sanders is a Professor of Literacy Education at Oklahoma State University, specializing in representations of diversity in children’s and young adult literature and writing pedagogy. She is co-founder and co-chair of The Whippoorwill Book Award for Rural YA Literature and long-time member of CLA.

Courtney Shimek is an Assistant Professor in the department of Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies at West Virginia University. She has been a CLA member since 2015.

Reflections of Realities and Renewals: USBBY’s 2020-22 Outstanding International Books (OIB) Text Sets

2/8/2022

By Bettie Parsons Barger and Jennifer M. Graff

For so many of us, books can feel like best friends, close family members, long-lost relatives, or trusted mentors. We gravitate toward them through our desire to connect or understand, to be inspired, or to experience a new or fresh perspective. As educators and literature advocates we also strive to help youths develop relationships with books, often relying on their curiosity about themselves and the unknown to help forge those connections.The United States Board of Books for Young People’s Outstanding International Books (OIB) lists are excellent resources for such pursuits. Shared in previous CLA Blog posts, each OIB list highlights 40-42 international books that are available in the United States. In 2021, the OIB committee read over 530 books prior to selecting the 42 titles for the 2022 list. These titles represent outstanding literature from 24 different countries and 2 indigenous territories in Canada.

OIB Selection Criteria*
*Not every book will meet every criterion equally.*

represent the best of children’s literature from other countries
introduce readers in the U.S. to outstanding artists and writers from other countries
help children in the U.S. see the world from other points of view
provide perspectives or address topics otherwise missing from children’s literature in the U.S.
exhibit distinct cultural flavor, help counteract stereotypes, bridge cultural gaps, build connections, and engage and prove accessible to young readers in the U.S.

See the USBBY website for additional content and presentation considerations.

As we look at the past three years of OIB lists, we recognize how our current realities are reflected in the committees’ selections. Julie Flett’s (2021) We All Play/ Kimêtawânaw illustrates humans’ innate connection to nature and the joyous experiences of playing outdoors, as the current pandemic has encouraged. The Elevator (Frankel, 2020) speaks to the power of humorous storytelling to unite strangers who unexpectedly find themselves in close quarters. The current Ukrainian-Russian tensions mirror the conflict in How War Changed Rondo (2021). Silvia Vecchini’s (2019) graphic novel, The Red Zone: An Earthquake Story, and Heather Smith’s (2019) picturebook, The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota’s Garden, are stirring testimonies about ongoing global natural disasters, such as the recent volcano eruption and subsequent earthquake and tsunami that have devastated the Pacific nation of Tonga.

Partnering the beliefs that books including hostile and traumatic events “can provoke reflection and inspire dialogue that sensitizes readers . . .” (Raabe, 2016, p.58) and that “stories are important bridging stones; they can bring people closer together, connect them, and help overcome alienation” (Raabe & von Merveldt, 2018, p.64), we created a sampling of five text sets that can be readily used in K-12 classrooms.

A Sampling of Outstanding International Books Text Sets (2020-2022)
(Book covers are organized by younger-to-older audience gradation.)

Wars and Revolutions
(civil, border, global, & cultural)

2022 OIB Books

Countries represented: Sweden, Ukraine, England/Germany, Japan, Austria/Poland/England, Portugal, China

2021 OIB Books

Countries represented: Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Myanmar

2020 OIB Books

Book cover: Questions I Am Asked about the Holocaust

Book cover: Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black

Countries represented: US/Mexico Border, China, United Kingdom, Sweden, United Kingdom, Philippines

Human Resilience
(civil, border, global, & cultural)

2022 OIB Books

Book cover: Peter Lee's Notes from the Field

Book cover: Coffee, Rabbit, Snowdrop, Lost

Book cover: The Big Bad Wolf in my House

Book cover: Carry On: Poetry by Young Immigrants

Countries represented: Canada, Denmark, Canada: Northwest Territories, Mexico, Canada, Canada, Venezuela, UK: England, Canada

2021 OIB Books

Countries represented: Sweden, Canada, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom

2020 OIB Books

Book cover: The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota's Garden

Book cover: The Red Zone: An Earthquake Story

Countries represented: China, Norway, Japan, Indonesia, Italy, Norway, United Kingdom, Norway, El Salvador/US

Telling Stories and Sharing Memories
(personal, biographical, cultural, geographical, historical, traditional, philosophical, intergenerational, visual, epistolary)

2022 OIB Books

Book cover: My Words Flew Away like Birds

Book cover: Sona Sharma, Very Best Big Sister

Book cover: Africa, Amazing Africa: Country by Country

Countries represented: Greece, Canada, India, Canada, Vietnam/Canada, Nigeria, Entire Continent of Africa, Venezuela, Canada, Norway, Canada, China

2021 OIB Books

Book cover: The Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River

Countries represented: Belgium, Central African Republic, Canada, United Kingdom, United Kingdom, Argentina, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Russia, China

2020 OIB Books

Book cover: Hicotea: A Nightlights Story

Book cover: The Apartment: A Century of Russian History

Countries represented: South Korea, India, Canada, United Kingdom, United Kingdom, Iran, Russia, Canada, Canada, Canada

Connecting with Nature
(accentuating humans’ relationships with the natural world)

2022 OIB Books

Book cover: Almost Nothing, yet Everything

Book cover: Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright!

Countries represented: Canada, Canada: Anishinaabewaking, Australia, England, Germany, Mexico, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, United Kingdom

2021 OIB Books

Countries represented: Finland, West Africa, Portugal, Canada

2020 OIB Books

Countries represented: Switzerland, Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom, China, Canada

Creative Outlets
(Playful approaches to familiar topics, how play and curiosity can foster connections and community, and the role of imagination in creating new possibilities and realities, benefits of unexpected journeys)

2022 OIB Books

Book cover: On the Other Side of the Forest

Book cover: Molly and the Mathematical Mysteries

Countries represented: South Korea, Canada, Norway, France, Canada, Dominican Republic, Canada, United Kingdom, Canada

2021 OIB Books

Book cover: There Must Be More than That

Countries represented: Belgium, New Zealand, Norway, Netherlands, Ukraine, Japan, Netherlands, United Kingdom

2020 OIB Books

Book cover: One Fox: A Counting Book Thriller

Countries represented: United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Chile

2022 OIB Bookmark & Annotations

2021 OIB Bookmark & Annotations

2020 OIB Bookmark & Annotations

Featuring over 100 OIB books from the 2020-2022 lists, including all of the 2022 books, these text sets are intentionally broad in scope and varied in format to enable numerous groupings or pairings. Here are a couple of possible groupings.

Creative Outlets

Making Friends and Building Community through Play	Engaging Math Explorations
Agnes’s Place (OIB 2022) All Along the River (OIB 2021) Cannonball (OIB 2021) Daniel and Ismail (OIB 2020) Moon Pops (OIB 2022)	Count on Me (OIB 2020) Everybody Counts (OIB 2021) Molly’s Mathematical Mysteries: Ten Interactive Adventures in Mathematical Wonderland (OIB 2022) One Fox: A Counting Thriller (OIB 2020)

Wars and Revolutions

WWII and Holocaust Survivor Stories	Family Separations
Catherine’s War (OIB 2021) Maurice and His Dictionary: A True Story (OIB 2021) Questions I’m Asked about the Holocaust (OIB 2020) The Story of Bodri (OIB 2022) Soul Lanterns (OIB 2022) When the World Was Ours (OIB 2022)	A Taste of Rain (OIB 2020) Crossing the Farak River (OIB 2021) Freedom Swimmer (OIB 2022) Mexique. A Refugee Story from the Spanish Civil War (OIB 2021) Our Castle by the Sea (OIB 2020) When the World Was Ours (OIB 2022) Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black (OIB 2020)

We hope these possible text sets and sub-groupings serve as a springboard for additional text sets that center international stories in our academic and personal lives and help us not only better understand the past but also negotiate the present to help build a more informed, inclusive, and joyous future.

For more information about OIB books and USBBY, please join us in Nashville, Tennessee, March 4-6, 2022 for USBBY’s Regional Conference.

References
Rabbe, C. (2016). “Hello, dear enemy! Picture books for peace and humanity.” Bookbird: A Journal of Children’s LIterature, 54(4), 57-61.

Rabbe, C. & von Merveldt, N. (2018). “Welcome to the new home country Germany: Intercultural projects of the International Youth Library with refugee children and young adults.” Bookbird: A Journal of Children’s LIterature, 56(3), 61-65.

Bettie Parsons Barger is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education Core at Winthrop University and has been a CLA Member for 10+ years.

Jennifer M. Graff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia, is a former CLA President and Member for 15+ years.

Standards-Based Virtual Libraries for Elementary Classrooms

12/7/2021

By Erin Knauer and Katie Caprino

Teaching and learning during COVID-19 has made us all think about our instructional practices and how we prepare future teachers. During the height of remote learning, virtual libraries with teacher read-alouds were erupting left and right. Many teachers gave other teachers complete freedom to use and/or adapt the virtual libraries. In addition, because many publishers made their products more shareable, many teachers would include links to videos of them reading the texts aloud. But with publishers’ rules returning to pre-pandemic times, we asked Is there still a place for virtual libraries? And, we, a future early childhood educator and a literacy teacher educator, say yes.

In this blog post, we will share our definition of standards-based virtual libraries, how they can help support preservice teachers as they progress in their development as teachers, and tips for how to build these virtual libraries.

What are Standards-Based Virtual Libraries?

Literacy standards support the content through academic vocabulary, knowledge building, and engaging in literacy practices as they pertain to the academic grade level of students. Standards-based virtual libraries function as a display of books that are age-appropriate, relevant, and applicable to the standards intended for a literacy-enriched classroom.

How Creating Standards-Based Virtual Libraries Help Preservice Teachers?

During the pandemic, Katie had her language and literacy development students create YouTube videos of themselves reading books aloud and link these videos to the cover images. She thought that having her students engage in what so many teachers were doing during the height of the remote learning moment gave her students an authentic assignment. However, as copyright permissions about recorded read-alouds have since changed, Katie no longer requires students to link a read-aloud video. (Preservice teachers could still link to publisher-approved read-alouds that do not infringe on any copyright matters.)

Still, virtual libraries serve an important role in providing ideas for texts that would make excellent in-class read-alouds. Additionally, these libraries provide a fun way for preservice teachers to organize and arrange books while learning about how to support their students meet state literacy standards and skills. It puts learning about standards in the context of authentic literature. In addition, they provide ideas for books that could be used in small center exploration and can be used as a means by which to provide parents ideas about texts that they may want to read to their children outside of the classroom. Preservice teachers can customize their library to be academically engaging to their students and encourage ample exploration.

How Does a Standards-Based Virtual Library Look?

Below is a snapshot of a standards-based virtual library Erin created for Katie’s course. Kid-friendly and visually-appealing, Erin’s library includes an original Bitmoji figure and the covers of ten contemporary picture books she selected. Creating a Bitmoji helps preservice teachers envision themselves in the role of teacher and makes the virtual library more personal. If you would like more information about virtual libraries, please see Minero’s Edutopia article “How to Create a Digital Library That Kids Eat Up.”

Each of the books below relate to a specific first-grade Pennsylvania state standard.

Figure 1. Standards-Based Virtual Library by Erin Knauer (Images from Google. Bitmoji created with Bitmoji app.)

We acknowledge that Google Slides can be used to create virtual libraries and that attribution can be given for each image added to a virtual library. We also acknowledge that many teachers gave permission to other teachers to use their virtual libraries. We would encourage each teacher educator to think about how to address attribution when assigning virtual libraries.

What types of books are featured in Erin's Virtual Library?

In the assignment, students were asked to select contemporary picture books (written within the last 10 years) that would help them teach literacy standards at a particular grade level. The chart below documents two books that are featured in Erin's standards-based virtual library to show the types of books that could be included. We acknowledge that each state has its own literacy standards, so rather than identify specific standards met, we consider the overarching literacy skills that could be met by each.

Book Cover

Title & Author

Quick Summary

Literacy Skills Met

Ada Twist. Scientist by Andrea Beaty (2017)

Through the life of young Ada Marie Twist, we see a character who is so full of questions that her parents struggle to keep up with answers. When Ada is presented with a puzzling problem, she experiments and uses scientific reasoning to try and figure it out, leaving chaos in her wake.

Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message.
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe characters, setting, or events.
Writing personal narratives about exploration.
Non-LA books featured

You Matter by Christian Robinson (2020)

This picture book enunciates that all beings have value, from the smallest bug under the lens to a dinosaur away from its group, whether you succeed or fail, regardless of race or age, even when you feel alone.

Can assist in socioemotional learning and validation.
Using illustrations to describe what is happening in a story.

Figure 2. Featured Books in the Virtual Library by Erin Knauer

What are Five Tips for Creating Standards-Based Virtual Libraries?

After completing the assignment, Erin considered five tips she would recommend to fellow preservice teachers.

1

Find books that are award winners or award honorees. Whereas new books can certainly be appropriate additions to the library, looking at award lists can help teachers find books that are vouched for by accredited institutions. It is a good starting point for developing a supported list of resources for students.

2	Identify books that can supplement lesson content. Books can support the standards for literacy or for other areas of content matter as a means of integrating literacy across domains and centers.

3	Make sure that the resources are accessible and user-friendly. Before publishing the virtual library, make sure that any links (if used) are all useable and that the library is navigable to users.

4	Collaborate with colleagues. Acknowledging that each person brings different resources to the table, work with peers to find books that are important to the virtual library and to share ideas.

5

Be creative! This resource has the potential to be a fun and engaging resource for fellow preservice teachers and students, so it is important that your excitement for reading is conveyed through the presentation of the virtual library. There are several resources available online to help you build your virtual library.

Books in
Erin's Library

Alexander, Kwame and Kadir Nelson. The Undefeated. Versify. 2019.

Beaty, Andrea. Ada Twist, Scientist. Abrams Books for Young Readers. 2017.

Blackall, Sophie. Hello Lighthouse. Little, Brown, and Company Books for Young Readers. 2018.

Cordell, Matthew. Wolf in the Snow. Feiwel & Friends. 2017.

Long, Ethan. Up, Tall, and High. G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers. 2012.

Mattick, Lindsay and Sophie Blackall. Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear. Little, Brown, and Company Books for Young Readers. 2015.

Pizzoli, Greg. The Watermelon Seed. Little, Brown, and Company Books for Young Readers. 2014

Robinson, Christian. You Matter. Antheneum Books for Young Readers. 2020.

Tabor, Corey R. Fox the Tiger. Balzer + Bray. 2018.

Tatsukawa, Maya. The Bear in My Family. Dial Books. 2020.

We are super excited to see examples of your standards-based virtual libraries!

The authors would like to thank the Mellon Foundation for funding for this blog post.

Erin Knauer is a junior Early Childhood Education Major and Music Minor at Elizabethtown College. She excitedly looks forward to having her own classroom and continuing to keep up with the latest educational research. She is a member of the Children’s Literature Assembly.

Katie Caprino is an Assistant Professor of PK-12 New Literacies at Elizabethtown College. She taught middle and high school English in Virginia and North Carolina. She holds a BA from the University of Virginia, a MA from the College of William and Mary, a MA from Old Dominion University, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Katie researches and presents on children’s, middle grades, and young adult literature; the teaching of writing; and incorporating technology into the literacy classroom. You can follow her on Twitter at @KCapLiteracy and visit her book blog at katiereviewsbooks.wordpress.com. She is a member of the Children’s Literature Assembly.

Uncovering the Past with Indigenous Archaeologist, Julio C. Tello in Sharuko.

11/30/2021

By Amina Chaudhri and Julie Waugh, on behalf of The Biography Clearinghouse

One of the most profoundly devastating schemes of the colonial project was to erase Indigenous knowledge: religious, intellectual, social, cultural, aesthetic, scientific. In the Afterword of Sharuko, Monica Brown extends readers’ knowledge of the importance of Julio C. Tello’s work as an archaeologist in undoing the damage of colonial erasure. He spent his life raising awareness about Indigenous Peruvian ways of knowing, as evidenced by his research. Julio C. Tello was Indigenous and spoke Quechua, so his investment in countering the dominant narrative was personal as well as professional. Today, he is a celebrated figure in Peru, and through Sharuko, young readers can come to value his accomplishments as well.

This entry of The Biography Clearinghouse offers a variety of teaching and learning experiences to use with Sharuko: el Arqueólogo Peruano/Peruvian Archaeologist, a bilingual biography of Julio C. Tello, written by Monica Brown, and illustrated by Elisa Chavarri. In addition to a recorded interview with the author in which she discusses her research process and the craft of creating picturebook biographies, we include suggestions for learning about Peruvian textiles, the Quechua language, and variations on the trait of bravery. Below are two ideas inspired by Sharuko.

Connecting the Past and the Present

Sharuko is the biography of a man who lived from 1880 - 1947, yet his work as an archeologist and conservationist is relevant today. His legacy includes the Museum of Anthropology, in Lima Peru, that houses the artifacts he discovered and wrote about. His research spotlights the accomplishments of Indigenous Peruvians and tells the story of Peru’s past that colonialism tried to erase. In her interview, Monica Brown tells us about a “magic moment” in the process of creating this book, in which she imagined a Quechua word - sharuko- emblazoned across the front as its title. In this way she continues Tello’s legacy, using her privilege as an established writer to highlight the Quechua language and the contributions Tello, an Indigenous scholar, made to the world.

Begin by reading Sharuko aloud with students, inviting them to note the chronology of his life, from boy to researcher, the people who supported him along the way, and his connections to history as depicted in the text and images. In analyzing this biography, teachers might scaffold students’ understandings of:

The character traits that Monica Brown includes in her representation of Julio C. Tello.
The integration of history through text and image.
The linear chronology on which the narrative rests, like an annotated timeline.

Thinking Like an Archeologist

Sharing Sharuko can provide a similar introduction to the complexities and exciting puzzles that define the field of archeology. Archeology is about telling the human story. Invite your students to act as archeologists, researching, writing, and considering the different perspectives that inform archeological work. Teachers can find teaching ideas related to archeology on the website of The Society of American Archeology.

The teaching and learning suggestions below are designed for teachers to plan experiences that involve thinking like an archeologist:

If you have 1-2 hours . . .	If you have 1-2 days . . .	If you have 1-2 weeks . . .
No matter the time period being studied - historical or contemporary - the close examination of artifacts involves honing keen observational and critical thinking skills. Teachers can present students with a selection of objects or parts of objects and invite them to examine them to see what stories they reveal. As an extension activity, students can bring their own artifacts from home, adding to the archaeological analysis.	Invite students to learn enough about an artifact (and its discoverer) to create a museum exhibit about the artifact. (Julio C. Tello may have done this for his found artifacts.) Use the Smithsonian Learning Lab Museum Descriptions as mentor texts to help students discover what they may want to include in a museum description of their own.	Combine archeological museum exhibits to make a museum for learning in your school community. Invite other classes, parents, and the larger community. Create an archeological museum of the “future.” Invite students to pretend they are 500 years in the future and challenge them to create a museum showcasing archeological artifacts that showcase school life in the 2020s. This will invite them to think deeply and use the skills and strategies of an archeologist. Which artifacts in their classroom may survive for that long? How could you write about these artifacts to describe them for someone who does not recognize them? Create museum exhibits and a museum. Invite outside learners.

For more teaching and learning suggestions, visit the complete entry on Sharuko, on The Biography Clearinghouse website.

Amina Chaudhri is an associate professor at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, where she teaches courses in children's literature, literacy, and social studies. She is a reviewer for Booklist and a former committee member of NCTE's Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children.

Julie Waugh shares a 4th grade teaching position at Zaharis Elementary in Mesa, AZ and serves as an Inquiry Coach for Mesa Public Schools. She delights in the company of children surrounded and inspired by books. A longtime member of NCTE, and an enthusiastic newer member of CLA, Julie is a former committee member of NCTE's Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children.

Stories from Asian America: Picturebooks of Lived Experiences

11/9/2021

By Joanne Yi

At the tail end of 2020, I completed my dissertation, a large-scale study of Asian American children’s literature. In total, I immersed myself in over 350 Asian American picturebooks, published across the last 25 years. This number surprises many, in part, because it is admittedly a large number to study, but also because few Asian American, bicultural stories are popularly known beyond perennial classroom favorites such as The Name Jar (Choi, 2001) and My Name is Yoon (Recorvits, 2003). Below, I share an adapted excerpt of this work and suggest titles for teachers, librarians, and parents to read and learn about beautiful and resilient Asian American identities and experiences:

The last few years have brought to light the increasing importance of the #OwnVoices movement in publishing, which highlights and buoys stories that authentically reflect their authors. In my analysis of Asian American picturebooks, it was evident the stories written by Asian American authors were often tomes of lived experience. They included family histories in prison camps, refugee journeys, memories of grandparents, difficult immigration experiences, and much more.

As I read Love As Strong As Ginger (Look, 1999), Hannah is My Name (Yang, 2004), A Different Pond (Phi, 2017), and Drawn Together (Le, 2017), I felt pangs of recognition as I recalled my childhood. These picturebooks were Asian American counterstories (Delgado, 1989), narratives that were different in content, perspective, and ideology from those reflecting the mainstream. The latter often racializes Asian American characters, stereotyping them as a monolith, as perpetual foreigners, and as model minorities. In contrast, the power of counterstories is, as Couzelis (2014) wrote, their “potential to destabilize dominant national myths that act as ‘universal’ histories” (p. 16).

It is important to realize that many of these stories were intentionally created to provide Asian American representation. Many stories were inspired by the authors’ own childhoods in the United States and were often tied to specific memories, such as playing with cousins while the adults played mahjong or fishing for that evening’s supper, rather than general experiences, such as moving or acclimating to a new school.

Several of the texts that disrupted stereotypical tropes did so because the illustrators figuratively drew themselves into stories not originally written with Asian American characters in mind. It’s no small matter that illustrator Louie Chin depicted Asian American siblings in a silly story about dinosaurs crashing a birthday party (Don’t Ask a Dinosaur, 2018), for example, or that Yumi Heo perceived Bombaloo, an imagined manifestation of anger and petulance, as a little Korean American girl (Sometimes I’m Bombaloo, 2002). These stories are meaningful, not because the starring role in a “White” story was filled by an Asian American, but because the stories finally aligned with the imaginations and realities of Asian American children themselves.

The difference lies in stories from Asian Americans and storying about Asian Americans. Myths of the model minority are laid bare with authors’ own stories and family histories of poverty, post-immigration traumas, language barriers, and cultural clashes. They are in stark contrast to those more commonly heard tales of joyous overseas adoptions, racially ambiguous people, fearsome ninjas, and fragile origami, and the myths that come with them. Such stories do not produce connections or reflections for readers. Rather, the defining characteristic of the most notable picturebooks was their commitment to authenticity and the telling of lived experiences.

Recommendations for Picture Books

I encourage educators and families to explore the diverse richness of Asian America and share these stories with the children in their care.

Drawn Together (2018) written by Minh Le, illustrated by Dan Santat

In this familiar story about intergenerational language barriers, a young boy who speaks only in English, struggles to communicate with his grandfather, who speaks only in Thai. They find commonality in their love of drawing and learn to bridge understandings and connect in new ways.

Where’s Halmoni? (2017) written and illustrated by Julie Kim

Two Korean American siblings, Joon and Noona [older sister], arrive at their grandmother’s house to find her missing. As they call out for their halmoni [grandmother], they stumble upon a hidden world straight out of a Korean folktale and meet a chatty rabbit, hungry dokkebis [goblins], a fierce tiger, and more. Guaranteed to bring a smile to kids’ faces, this lighthearted and adventurous tale explores Korean folklore, language, and culture in a way that never feels didactic, just pure fun.

Amira’s Picture Day (2021) written by Reem Faruqi and illustrated by Fahmida Azim

Amira, a young Pakistani American girl, may burst from delight over Eid al-Fitr and the celebrations, treats, and fun it brings. However, her excitement over skipping school to celebrate is dampened when she realizes it is also Picture Day. This gentle story casts a spotlight on the importance of events and special days for children and how home and school lives may conflict, particularly for those who do not identify as part of the majority.

Watercress (2021) written by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin

This autobiographical story centers on a Chinese American family who, on a long drive through rural Ohio, spots wild watercress growing on the side of a road in a muddy ditch. They stop and forage the plants, which are later cooked for dinner. The young protagonist is at first embarrassed by her parents’ actions but as she learns more about her Chinese heritage, she begins to feel cultural and familial pride.

When Everything Was Everything (2018) written by Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay, illustrated by Cori Nakamura Lin

This story is based on the author’s own memories but will be intimately familiar to many other Southeast Asian American immigrants and refugees who grew up in working class Minneapolis. The poetic text, which reflects the author’s spoken word roots, describes everyday, ordinary bits of life, from food stamps to ESL classes to public housing, from the perspective of a Lao American child.

Book cover: When Everything Was Everything

Dissertation excerpt adapted from
Yi, J. H. (2020). Representations, Racialization, and Resistance: Exploring Asian American Picturebooks, 1993–2018 (Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University).

References
Couzelis, M .J. (2014). Counter-storytelling and ethnicity in twenty-first-century American adolescent historical fiction (UMI No. 3620806) [Doctoral Dissertation, Texas A&M University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Delgado, R. (1989). Storytelling for oppositionists and others: A plea for narrative. Michigan Law Review, 87(8), 2411–2441.

Joanne Yi earned her PhD in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education from Indiana University. A proud MotherScholar and former elementary teacher from Philadelphia, her research interests include critical literacies, textual analysis of diverse children’s literature, issues of inclusion and belonging in elementary and early childhood contexts, and reading education.

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