Wrapping Our Children in Picturebook Love

credit: Jarrett Krosoczka @studiojjk

The #hugsfromkidlit movement on social media has gained serious traction over the past couple of days.  Whether we are teachers, librarians, parents, or book creators, we all want to create a safe space for our children.  One way we do that is with the books we feature and share with our students.  We recently contributed to a post on Book People’s blog about building a thoughtful library.  You can see the full post here: https://bookpeopleblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/07/modern-first-library-starting-the-conversation-with-aisd-educators/  In the post we discussed how a book can be a spark for deeper thinking and open up conversations about a wide range of topics.  The books we choose for our collections are opportunities. Opportunities for children to learn how to share and spread kindness.  Opportunities for children to see others that are the same, and different from them.  Opportunities to learn how to help others who might be feeling lonely or scared.  By opening the door to these conversations, children have a safe space to discuss situations that might seem difficult or scary, and figure out what they can do to help others.  When we share diverse books with children, they see themselves, and others, in important positions.

credit: Lauren Castillo @studiocastillo

Librarians can be a great resource when teaching children about diversity, tolerance, and empathy.  They can help parents and teachers gather books and resources that will teach and empower their children to be better friends and citizens.  By teaching our children about tolerance and empathy, children will feel more empowered when they see someone being mistreated.  In order to begin this empowerment, school and public library collections, as well as personal library collections need to be diverse.  At the end of this post, you will find a digital advocacy story that was created for librarians, teachers, and parents to explain the need for a diverse library.

We have collected a few books we believe are important to share with our kids.  Many have been included both for how they embrace diversity as well as how they build empathy and empower children.  Some of them were chosen simply because they are about spreading love in the world. We recognize that this list is by no means complete.  We encourage you to use the comments section on this blog post to continue the list.  Help us fill our libraries with rich and meaningful books.

Reading books about sensitive topics requires us to tune into our own perspectives and biases.  If we feel uncomfortable to approach these books and conversations, we must seek our own truths. Courage to have an authentic moment before, during, and after reading “door opening” books can have transformative effects for individual children and the classroom community as a whole.

Book List:

Be A Friend

Author and Illustrator: Salina Yoon

Treat others how you think they would want to be treated

Big Bob, Little Bob

Author: James Howe

Illustrator: Laura Ellen Anderson

Finding connections despite differences and standing up for one another.

Emmanuel’s Dream

Author: Laurie Ann Thompson

Illustrator:  Sean Qualls

A true story of adversity and perseverance

Hello My Name is Octicorn

Author: Kevin Diller

Illustrator:  Justin Lowe

Octicorn is a little bit different, but he just wants to be included.

Home at Last

Author: Vera B. Williams

Illustrator: Chris Raschka

A child finds safety in this story of adoption.

Lailah’s Lunchbox: A Ramadan Story

Author: Reem Faruqi

Illustrator: Lea Lyon

A story of Ramadan, courage, and acceptance

Last Stop on Market Street

Author: Matt de la Pena

Illustrator: Christian Robinson

Giving back to community, Being Thankful for what you have

Maybe Something Beautiful

Authors: F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell

Illustrator: Rafael Lopez

Even small children can have a big impact on a community

One Word From Sophia

Author: Jim Averbeck

Illustrator: Yasmeen Ismail

Creativity, perseverance, and adaptability make Sophia a strong character.

A Piece of Home

Author: Jeri Watts

Illustrator: Hyewon Yum

An immigration story about holding on to tradition in a new home

Sidewalk Flowers

Author: JonArno Lawson

Illustrator: Sydney Smith

Small gestures of kindness are transformative

Strictly No Elephants

Author: Lisa Mantchev

Illustrator: Taeeun Yoo

Kindness and inclusion are at the heart of this story.

The Sandwich Swap

Authors: Queen Rania of Jordan Al Abdullah and Kelly DiPucchio

Illustrator: Tricia Tusa

A tale of friendship and learning tolerance and understanding

Two White Rabbits

Author:Jairo Buitrago

Illustrator: Rafael Yockteng

An immigration journey through the eyes of a child

Worm Loves Worm

Author: J.J. Austrian

Illustrator: Mike Curato

Love is love.

Here are some helpful links to aid you in building diverse libraries: 

http://www.imyourneighborbooks.org/  

http://booksthathealkids.blogspot.com/  (look at the links on the right side)

http://weneeddiversebooks.org/

http://weneeddiversebooks.org/where-to-find-diverse-books/ (multiple links to different resources and award lists)
http://www.ncte.org/awards/charlotte-huck NCTE's Charlotte Huck Book Award

Courtney made this digital presentation about the importance of building libraries with diverse texts.

Courtney Ewing worked with us on this blog post. She is a 2nd grade teacher at Casis Elementary. She has taught for 10 years and is currently getting her masters at Texas Women’s University in Library and Information Sciences.

Cricket Song

Anne Hunter’s watercolor and ink illustrations of Cricket Song softly portray two different continents and the ocean connecting them. Through story and pictures, Hunter reminds readers of the interconnected magic between people, animals, and Earth. Commonly, young children, by nature, are egocentric, and Cricket Song gently portrays the world as bigger than our home, yard, and gently encourages us to imagine beyond what we can even see.

The story begins with a child being lulled to sleep by the song of crickets, whose song blends with the “kreck kreck kreck” frogs and the calls of the poorwill. This interconnectedness continues by way of smell and sound through one continent, over and ocean, and into the sleeping room of a child far away on another continent. Hunter gifts the reader with an additional panel of illustration on the bottom of each page aimed to reveal the bigger picture giving a “zoom in” “zoom out” effect. Each page turn begs for conversation and noticings much like a “seek and find” favorite.

Cricket Song is sure to appeal to animal lovers. Curious children will want to learn more about the animals Hunter carefully places on each page. The story is a reminder to young writers to use their senses as they write to help their reader create strong mental images vivid settings. Hunter’s illustrations add a layer of story creating synergy between text and picture. This is the kind of book children can use when they are looking to add pictures that can enhance their writing. The use of onomatopoeia for the songs of many animals is made clear to the reader with italicised text.  Themes of cultural diversity and interconnectedness offer a multitude of opportunities for talk.

Mentor Text Ideas: Illustrations, onomatopoeia, Using Senses for Visualization

Nerdy Birdy

Nerdy Birdy, written by Aaron Reynolds and illustrated by Matt Davies, was the first book we read in our classroom this year.  The theme of inclusion is an essential element for building a classroom community.  In the story, the main character, Nerdy Birdy, doesn’t fit in with the “cool” birdies.  While they are busy hunting, eating worms, and posing, Nerdy Birdy is busy reading and playing “World of Wormcraft”.  Nerdy Birdy is lonely and the cool birdies make him feel like an outsider.  That is, until he meets the other nerdy birdies,  They invite him to join because “there’s always room for another nerdy birdy”.  Then, Vulture moves in.  Nerdy Birdy invites him to hang out with the other nerdy birdies, but they quickly start questioning whether Vulture belongs with them.  Nerdy Birdy faces a dilemma: stay with his new-found friends or befriend Vulture?  Remembering how it feels to be alone, Nerdy Birdy chooses a friendship with Vulture.  Even though they do not have everything in common, they find common ground in their friendship.  And they always have room for another birdy.

This book fits perfectly into any Social Emotional Learning curriculum.  It celebrates individuality and promotes an inclusive community.  Nerdy Birdy also models how to be an “upstander” by standing up for what is right, even if it means being alone.  We plan to loop back to this story at the end of the year with a reread and our very own "Nerdy Birdy" class picture, where each child comes to school dressed to show their true colors and interests. It is sure to be a great send off and a sweet memento aimed to remind them to embrace everyone and be true to themselves.

Nerdy Birdy also has multiple opportunities to re-visit as a mentor text for the writers in your classroom.  The use of dialogue in the book is a good transition from speech bubbles into traditional use of quotation marks.  We like to use graphic novels and comics to help the students see what belongs inside of the quotation marks.  In Nerdy Birdy, the dialogue is written inside quotation marks, but is right next to the character similar to a speech bubble.  There is also an opportunity to look at how to use non-fiction text features in fiction storytelling.  The book has multiple diagrams, lists, and labels used to convey information about the characters.  It’s a great example of how authors and illustrators play with the elements of fiction and non-fiction and an excellent invitation to growing writers to blend elements in their own writing and illustrating.  

Mentor Text Ideas: dialogue, text features, SEL