Current Global Conflicts and Palestine, Part 1

By Seemi Aziz, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

News reports of global conflicts raise many questions and confusion for children who do not understand the history or broader context of these conflicts. Children’s books can provide children with perspectives on the current conflict between Israel and Palestine. This blog focuses on books that reflect Palestinian perspectives.

The Palestinian conflict is 70+ years old and this region has been reflected in picturebooks and novels since at least the 1990s when Naomi Shihab Nye wrote Sitti’s Secrets (1994), a picturebook in which Mona, a young girl, visits her grandmother in Palestine and comes to love and appreciate her and the land which is so obscure. On Mona’s return to the US, she writes to the US president pleading for peace in the region, “I vote for peace. My grandmother votes with me.” Many of the books about Palestine are, “of migration, loss, separation, and belonging from a personal point of view. Some take an individual point of view, where the narrator of the book may be the person who has experienced these emotions.” (Evans, 2015, pp. 243). In Daniella Carmi’s Samir and Yonatan (2000), a Palestinian boy is hospitalized for surgery in an Israeli hospital and develops a friendship with a young Jewish boy, an unlikely friendship given Samir’s anger after his brother was killed by the Israeli military, but one that leads both boys to new understandings of the conflict. Both narratives point towards the issues that are still faced by the people of that region. One ends up questioning why things have not improved and have only gotten worse over the decades. Continue reading →

Invest In Youth As Readers: Certificate of Completion

Contact Rebecca Ballenger, Associate Director of Worlds of Words

We did it! Thank you for your support attending and promoting our event with author Karen S. Chow, listening to the WOW Reads podcast, and donating to ensure the program continues for another year. We appreciate you!

large group photo of reading ambassadors with certificates

Photo by Bob Bingham Photography

You don’t have to wait for our next crowdfund campaign to support the work of the Worlds of Words Center. Learn more about how we can promote global children’s literature together on our giving page.

WOW Currents is a space to talk about forward-thinking trends in global children’s and adolescent literature and how we use that literature with students. “Currents” is a play on words for trends and timeliness and the way we talk about social media. We encourage you to participate by leaving comments and sharing this post with your peers. To view our complete offerings of WOW Currents, please visit its archival stream.

Indigenous Stories of Being

By Angeline Hoffman, White Mountain Apache Tribe

Story is about the unique ways of teaching and learning as reflected through special connections to nature, family, community and ecology. It is understanding and acknowledging the connections and deep knowledge through teaching and learning about how life is.

Indigenous stories involve members of a community or small groups of relatives gathering together to hear stories told, mostly by an elder, to convey information about the specific Indigenous culture of the community. The stories, especially through the Indigenous language, support the maintenance of Native identity. Embedded in these stories is the important knowledge that we, as Native Americans from special tribal cultures, must acquire to survive and to conduct oneself appropriately. Both the narratives and the languages that convey them are place-based in the sense that they are tied to the land – especially the knowledge of where we came from, where we live, how we survive and our way of life. Continue reading →

WOW Dozen: Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight

By Michele Ebersole and Avis Masuda, University of Hawaii at Hilo

A proverb, or a noteworthy saying, is often used to teach important lessons and can help children connect to human experiences in simple, yet profound ways. This WOW Dozen is centered around the Japanese proverb, “Fall down seven times, get up eight”, another way to convey the message “never give up”. This theme of hard work, perseverance or persistence is reflected through different means – whether overcoming small challenges, dealing with human relationships, standing up for oneself to make a significant change in laws to fight for the rights of others, inventing something new that builds confidence or creating an innovation that makes a big impact in the world. This blog post introduces biographies of meaningful people who have overcome big challenges as well as fictional stories that are fun and whimsical. Reading aloud these books may inspire children to see themselves as capable and resilient beings in the world. Continue reading →

WOW Recommends: The Eyes and the Impossible

The Eyes and The Impossible by Dave Eggers is the story of Johannes, an independent stray dog that lives in the park eating the delicious food left by picnickers on the ground or in trash receptacles across his daily route of surveillance. He is, after all, the “eyes” of the park, informing the other nonhuman inhabitants who share the park with him of the changes he notes or of issues of which they should be informed. In many ways, Johannes is the caretaker of those with whom he shares his life.

For the most part, Johannes lives a wonderful life with all manner of possibilities. He runs fast, oh so fast, and sees, yes, sees so much, sees everything, of which he is the first to let the reader know. He reports his findings to the three buffalo who are the oldest and wisest of the inhabitants of the park. Johannes also accepts those around him. He appreciates them and councils with them, and only occasionally disparages the ducks, who seem to be not quite connected to, or concerned with, the rest of the world around them. Continue reading →

Invest In Youth as Readers: MASH and Matching

Contact Rebecca Ballenger, Assistant Director of Worlds of Words

In this last stretch towards our goal, we extend our deepest gratitude to each of you, our co-authors in continuing this program. Thanks to the generosity of 14 donors, we have raised a total of $4827 to support the Reading Ambassadors as they continue to discover, discuss, and delight in the power of literature. We continue the good news today with the announcement of a donor who will match each gift dollar-for-dollar up to $1500! Your gift would be doubled, bringing us closer to (and maybe past) our goal!

Visit crowdfund.arizona.edu/wow to make a gift. Continue reading →

Invest In Youth as Readers: WOW Reads Podcast

Contact Rebecca Ballenger, Worlds of Words Associate Director

This month, we launch our third season of WOW Reads, a podcast that centers the voices of middle school and teen readers around literature for young people. The podcast features Reading Ambassadors discussing their experience reading and responding to books, planning and moderating an author event and the lessons they learned along the way.

Donors to our crowdfund campaign with gifts above $1000 can be acknowledged “on air” in an upcoming episode of WOW Reads. Visit crowdfund.arizona.edu/wow for more information. Continue reading →

Invest In Youth As Readers: Catch the Reading Ambassadors In Action

Contact Rebecca Ballenger, Worlds of Words Associate Director

Reading Ambassadors participate in literature discussions with books that offer multiple perspectives and equip them to be critical thinkers, empathetic citizens and reading promoters. Those experiences include hosting events with the book authors. Please join these remarkable readers in action at two events this October and consider making a gift at crowdfund.arizona.edu/WOW. Continue reading →

Invest In Youth as Readers: 2024 Crowdfund Campaign

Contact Rebecca Ballenger, Worlds of Words Associate Director

This year, Worlds of Words offers an opportunity to make a meaningful impact on middle and high school readers through a crowdfund campaign benefiting the Worlds of Words Center Reading Ambassador program. Since its inception in 2018, the Reading Ambassador program has been instrumental in creating a community for young people around reading, equipping them with real-world skills and experiences that extend beyond the pages of a book.

For more information, visit our U of A Foundation crowdfund campaign website.
Continue reading →

WOW Dozen: Understanding the Power and Beauty of a Unique Name

By Janine M. Schall, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Several months ago I posted a WOW Dozen called Multiple Perspectives on Names and Naming. While I was collecting picturebooks on names in preparation for writing that post, I realized that while the books connected to the topic in a wide variety of ways, a large percentage of them focused on children learning to love their unique or unusual names. Because there were so many excellent books with this focus, I decided to do a separate WOW Dozen post. Continue reading →