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. 

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

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.

​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.

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.
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1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

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. 

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

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

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.

Starting in 1994, the Children's Literature Assembly (CLA) has sponsored a Master Class at the annual NCTE Convention. This session provides K-12 teachers and teacher educators, as well as other members of the organization, the opportunity to gain insight about the use of diverse children's literature through interactions with leading scholars, authors, and illustrators in the field.  
         
The 28th annual Master Class is titled “Reading Queerness at the Intersections: Using LGBTQ-Inclusive Literature to Move Toward Equity, Justice, and Antiracist Teaching.” This year’s session will take place on Saturday, November 20th from 5:15-6:30 p.m. (Eastern) in the virtual platform of NCTE’s annual meeting (1).
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The 2021 Master Class will include a presentation, panel, and discussion with the following esteemed teacher-educators, authors, and illustrators of children’s literature:

The 2021 Master Class will focus on how children's literature can provide vital depictions of – and be used to facilitate important conversations about - intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1991), specifically where race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and/or gender expression and identity meet and further marginalize. In this session, we bring together scholars, authors, and illustrators of books for young readers whose knowledge, experiences, and published works provide avenues for considering literature’s nuanced portrayal of individuals’ myriad identities. Moreover, both in viewing the presentation and participating in the synchronous dialogue, attendees will have the opportunity to engage in and reflect on conversations that allow them to create paths toward equity, justice, and antiracist teaching in their professional lives.  
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Participating in the 2021 Master Class will help attendees gauge their knowledge of and comfort with using LGBTQ-inclusive literature in classrooms. Additionally, attendees will learn about the affordances of children's literature that presents stories showing the intersections of diverse identities, especially the voices of individuals whose race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity or expression has been – and continues to be – used to censor or erase them. The Master Class speakers and co-chairs hope attendees leave the session with a reaffirmed and deeper understanding 1) of the need for inclusive representations of marginalized communities and 2) that any move toward equity, justice, and antiracist teaching requires being more inclusive of - and attentive to - intersectional identities.

References:
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299.

(1) The 2021 Master Class is designated by NCTE to be a “pre-recorded/scheduled” format. The recording will be shown in the conference platform at the scheduled time. Following the recording, there will be opportunities for live discussion between presenters and attendees. 

In Classified, Sorrell notes that “whenever Mary received awards, she always thanked her colleagues because she knew no one person deserved credit for what everyone had done together.”  As students explore whichever permutation of texts you select, ask them to consider the ways in which teamwork is represented. In what ways are individuals featured? In what ways is their collective and collaborative work represented? Use this conversation as an opportunity to discuss the process of “doing science” as collaborative rather than singular work. This can also serve as a springboard to critical considerations regarding the ways inventions and scientific breakthroughs are often attributed to specific individuals instead of to the team as a whole, changing our understanding of what makes change possible. Change happens when groups of people work together over time. 

To see more classroom possibilities and helpful resources connected to Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer, visit The Biography Clearinghouse.  Additionally, we’d love to hear how the interview and these ideas inspired you. Email us at thebiographyclearinghouse@gmail.com with your connections, creations, and questions.