Black, White and Gray Pop in New Worlds of Words Center Exhibit

Contact Rebecca Ballenger, Associate Director, Worlds of Words Center

When the average person thinks about picturebooks, black and white illustrations seldom come to mind. But they do exist. “Black White Grey,” a traveling exhibit from the International Youth Library (IYL) in Munich, Germany is on view for the first time in the U.S. in the Worlds of Words Center in the University of Arizona College of Education. The exhibit shows how illustrators use the expressive power of lines, shapes, contours and contrasts to create captivating pictures with a unique aesthetic and atmospheric mood.

A young boy holds a hanging sign from the Black White Grey Exhibit that depicts a tiger with a sloth in its mouth.

Oliver (age 6) inspects a hanging medallion that depicts a detail from an illustration in Tierenduin by Dutch author and illustrator, Geert Vervaeke, as part of the ‘Black White Grey’ exhibit on loan from the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany and on display in the Worlds of Words Center.

“Using only black, white and gray in illustrations can be surprisingly evocative, stripping away the distraction of color to reveal a depth and nuance that resonates on a profoundly emotional level. These monochromatic palettes invite readers to engage with the essence of the story in a raw and powerful way, proving that sometimes the simplest choices can yield the most profound impact,” says Kathy Short, director of Worlds of Words and Regents Professor. Continue reading →

2024 Trends in Global Literature: Food as the Language of Love

By Kathy G. Short, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

One of the most interesting (and mouthwatering) trends in the 2024 recommended global books lists are books focused on the role of food within families, particularly related to memory and culture. Food connects children across generations to their families, serving as a source of comfort and a means of passing on cultural traditions. Food is also a source of hope in times of despair and can invite cross-cultural connections and relationships.

The many roles of food within children’s lives are evident in four new picturebooks on mangoes set in different global cultures. Mango Memories by Sita Singh and Nabi Ali (2024) is set in India where a young girl is finally old enough to help harvest mangoes from her favorite tree. Each family member shares a favorite mango memory as they work, while the girl worries that she will not have a memory to add to the family lore. This book pairs well with How to Eat a Mango by Paola Santos and Juliana Perdomo (2024), in which a young Venezuelan girl dreads having to pick up the sticky mangoes that fall from a tree. Her Abuelita shows her how to appreciate the fruit by using her senses to listen, feel, smell, and see mangoes, and then finally to taste the joy of eating a mango. In Julie and the Mango Tree by Sade Smith and Sayada Ramdial (2023), a young Jamaican girl is on a quest to convince her favorite mango tree to share its delicious fruit. When the wind drops too many mangoes, Julie joyfully shares the fruit with her community. The Mango Tree/La mata de mango by Edel Rodriquez (2024) is a wordless book in which two boys spend their days playing in a mango tree until one day a storm sweeps one of the boys and the tree into unknown waters. The illustrator engages readers in a fantastical take on his childhood experiences as a Cuban immigrant. Continue reading →

WOW Recommends: The Enigma Girls

The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II by Candace Fleming is an outstanding contribution to the history of World War II. Fleming tells the true story of the Girls who worked secretly at Bletchley Park, a World War II cryptology center in Britain. “There the team gathered intelligence of the most crucial nature. They strove to outwit the Nazis and break into German codes and ciphers.”

The hundreds of Girls, some of them as young as sixteen, and young women who worked there struggled to decode the messages sent by the Nazi forces. In doing so they made a major impact on the outcome of the war. Some estimates concluded that the work at Bletchley Park shortened the war by two years.

When they went to work at Bletchely Park, each of the workers were told, “You will never mention the name of this place, not to your family, not to your friends, not to anyone you may meet… You will never disclose to anyone the nature of the work you will be doing. Nor will you mention anything about the location of the place.” Each worker had to sign a document. They were told, “This is the Official Secrets Act. It clearly states that if you disclose the slightest information about this place or you work… you will committing TREASON.”

For that reason no one told about their war work or the place where they worked until many years later. Continue reading →

WOW Dozen: Visual Storytelling with a “Pop” of Yellow

By Janelle Mathis, Professor Emeritus, University of North Texas

The color yellow has always offered opportunities to celebrate, and fittingly so given its association with positive emotions and energy such as happiness, hope, warmth, enlightenment, confidence and enthusiasm. As it is a personal favorite color, I am especially drawn to illustrations that use yellow as a pop of color against a black/white/gray background, also known as monochromatic with a color accent. Thus, when A Dog Wearing Shoes or The Yellow Butterfly became part of my personal and classroom connection, I began gathering titles that had similar approaches to telling their story through art and focusing on the impact of this pop of color in each title, as well as those with perhaps a second accent color when appropriate to the story. My exploration gathered numerous titles and extended as well to those books where yellow (or gold) is a key color although not necessarily on a neutral background, such as A Place Where Sunflowers Grow (Amy Lee-Tai and Felicia Hoshino, il., 2006), Typewriter (Yevgenia Nayberg, 2020), or The Golden Glow (Benjamin Flouw, 2018). It also led to exploring the origins of color in books such as Before Colors, Where Pigments and Dyes Come From (Annette Bay Pimentel and Madison Safer, il., 2023). Continue reading →

Is Reading Aloud Common Ground for WOW and LETRS?

by Mary L. Fahrenbruck, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico

Author’s Note: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog post are my own and do not represent the Worlds of Words Center. The content is based on my professional experiences in WOW and in the LETRS professional development training sessions.

My response to the question posed in the title above is that reading aloud has the potential to become common ground between Worlds of Words (WOW) and Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) (Lexia, 2024). Despite their different focuses – Worlds of Words on global literacies and literatures for all readers and LETRS on professional development training for prek-3 educators and administrators – this common ground exists. This blog post is my attempt to reconcile my theoretical groundings in constructivism, socio-psycholinguistics and Reader Response theory with the LETRS training permeating school districts in New Mexico (NM) where I reside. Continue reading →

What Do WOW and LETRS Have in Common?

by Mary L. Fahrenbruck, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico

Author’s Note: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog post are my own and do not represent the Worlds of Words Center. The content is based on my professional experiences in Worlds of Words and in the LETRS professional development training sessions.

At first glance, WOW (Worlds of Words) and LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) (Lexia, 2024) seem worlds apart. After all, Worlds of Words is an organization focused on global literacies and literatures for all readers while LETRS is a professional development training for pre-k-3 educators and administrators. However, a closer inspection reveals a few surprising theoretical similarities that are worth discussing in WOW Currents. This comparison becomes particularly relevant as educators navigate the evolving shifts in reading instruction. Continue reading →

WOW Dozen: Inspiring Journeys: Overcoming Adversity on the Road to Olympic Victory

By Mary L. Fahrenbruck, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM

In July 2024, the world’s attention will turn to Paris, France, as athletes from across the globe come together to compete in the summer Olympic Games. Millions of spectators will watch as these Olympic athletes showcase their physical talents in running, jumping, throwing, rowing, cycling, tumbling, diving and swimming events among others, all competing for a chance to write their names in sporting history.

Olympic athletes, past and present, are often celebrated for their physical achievements, but their journeys to the medal podium are also filled with inspiring stories of overcoming adversity. This month, the WOW Dozen features stories about past Olympic athletes who overcame significant obstacles including racism, sexism, poverty and illness to reach the peak of their sports. Notable stories include Sammy Lee, who practiced his diving skills in a backyard sandpit due to segregated pools, eventually winning gold and bronze medals, and Billy Mills who overcame personal obstacles and surpassed expectations with his remarkable victory in the 10,000-meter race at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

This WOW Dozen features stories about courageous individuals who had the determination and confidence necessary to succeed against all odds. Sharing these Olympians’ stories celebrates their lives and teaches valuable lessons, inspiring the next generation. Continue reading →

WOW Recommends: Disagreement

Disagreement by Nani Brunini is a thought-provoking visual portrayal of the evolution, consequences and resolution of a disagreement. Originally published in Portugal as Discórdia, Brunini uses a limited color palette to visually convey the way a disagreement began with a thought exchange between two individuals, but eventually sucks in and escalates to involve a whole group of people shouting at each other, and becoming consumed with the disagreement.

Brunini starts and ends the story on the end pages, using double-page spreads throughout the book. The story begins with a young woman offering a thought bubble about something, represented by a small blue nest of squiggly lines. On the following spread her male companion offers a response, represented with orange blurry lines and smudges. On the next spread the blue nest and orange smudge become bigger as the characters put hands on hips and stand firm. Two characters watch from the side at first, but on the following spread they join in with their own thoughts which have become even bigger as the characters ball their fists and point fingers. On the next spread the disagreement with now six individuals spills across half of the image, the orange and blue weaving in and out and on top of each other. Each following spread adds characters contributing to the disagreement until the disagreement becomes personified as an enormous cat-like monster that chases and consumes the individuals. Continue reading →

Authors’ Corner: Joe Cepeda

By Judi Moreillon, Tucson, AZ

Joe Cepeda participated in the 15th Annual Tucson Festival of Books in March, 2024. He was a panelist for the “Every Word Counts: Authoring a Picturebook” session. It was in that panel presentation that Joe shared his deeply personal connection to his latest author/illustrated book Rafa Counts on Papá. Continue reading →

Louise and Laura: Challenging our Assumptions of Indigenous and Pioneer Life

By Mandy Medvin, Elizabeth Ford, and Charlene Klassen Endrizzi, Westminster College, PA., retired faculty

“Who’s telling the story? What changes when someone else tells the story?” Videos like this one, “The Trouble with History,” from the Native New York exhibit, a branch of Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian, challenge students, teachers and parents to consider, “What if the story we are reading isn’t the only one?” And what if the text contains labels that marginalize specific groups?

This month we seek to move beyond a single, white Euro-centric lens on the Westward Movement, a common feature in many middle grade social studies’ textbooks. Louise Erdrich’s The Birchbark House series and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House novels, both aimed at middle grade readers, are set in the mid-late 1800s and offer a comparative lens on this time period in U.S. history, often called the “pioneer era.” Louise (1954-present) wrote her books based on her family research as a member of the Turtle Mountain band of Ojibwe, Anishinaabe people who lived in the Great Lakes region. Laura (1867 – 1957), born nearby in Wisconsin, provides an early white-centric perspective on the same historical time period and location. Juxtaposing these series offers a way to initiate conversations with students regarding two distinct ways of life and perspectives. Continue reading →

Worlds of Words

International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature

Author: wowstudent