This post continues February’s My Take/Your Take conversation on books that have won the Schneider Family Award for their portrayal of the disability experience. The conversation started with The Deaf Musicians, A Splash of Red and The Pirate of Kindergarten, and continues this week with Piano Starts Here.
Supporting Refugees and Immigrants through Narratives with Strong Characters
By Susan Corapi
Christina Igoa, in her book The Inner World of the Immigrant Child (1995), documents her years of teaching in a California classroom designed to support children in their acquisition of English. In order to help that process, she acquired an extensive classroom library and immersed her students in English language texts. She particularly focused on collecting stories that had strong characters who overcame obstacles.
MTYT: The Pirate of Kindergarten
This post continues February’s My Take/Your Take conversation on books that have won the Schneider Family Award for their portrayal of the disability experience. The conversation started with The Deaf Musicians and A Splash of Red, and continues this week with The Pirate of Kindergarten.
Supporting Refugees and Immigrants through Bilingual Books
By Susan Corapi
Learning a new language can be fun depending on how it is taught and the circumstances that are prompting a person to take on the task. Immersion style language learning, when an immigrant is thrust into a new cultural context, is a different matter. It is stressful. It is incredibly tiring. It can also discombobulate a person’s sense of identity, which for many of us is partially anchored in language and the ability to communicate. When that ability to express feelings, ask for what we want, or simply pass the time of day is stripped away, we begin to wonder who we are.
MTYT: A Splash of Red
This post continues February’s My Take/Your Take conversation on books that have won the Schneider Family Award for their portrayal of the disability experience. The conversation started with The Deaf Musicians and continues this week with A Splash of Red.
Supporting Refugees and Immigrants through Silent Books
By Susan Corapi
On the heels of Lauren Freedman’s posts about the importance of stories about the refugee experience, this month’s blog posts will focus on practical uses of books to support refugees in ways that can help them feel welcome, negotiate the language learning and adaptation process, and gain a sense of a new home.
A selection of artwork from Bluebird by Bob Staake, listed below.
MTYT: The Deaf Musicians
The four of us (Desiree, Maria, Megan and Susan) are picking up where we left off in August 2016’s My Take / Your Take — looking at books that won the Schneider Family Award for the portrayal of the disability experience. We looked at five global picture books in our previous discussion, and now we are shifting our attention to four other award winners, this time set in the U.S. The first is The Deaf Musicians.
WOW Recommends: Samurai Rising
Book of the Month, February 2017
Samurai Rising: The Epic Life of Minamoto Yoshitsune by Pamela S. Turner with illustrations by Gareth Hinds
This brutal account of the turbulent life of Minamoto Yoshitsune comes with a warning: “Very few people in this story die of natural causes.” Yoshitsune is perhaps the most famous warrior in Japanese history and also known for committing seppuku (ritual suicide involving disembowelment). Turner helps readers understand the bloody and betrayal-filled events through relatable speculation, often involving sports and sensory references. The brush and ink illustrations by Hinds include battle maps, helpful details, and family seals on every page. This biography reads like fiction with a thick set of end notes for motivated readers to dive into and so naturally earned a spot as a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. Samurai Rising gives readers a chance to meet the real Yoshitsune, who is often referenced in video games, manga, and movies. -Recommended by Rebecca Ballenger
Continue reading
Joan Sandin’s Long Road to Publication
By Maya Patterson
Worlds of Words’s exhibit, Inspiration to Celebration: Publishing Journeys is now open to the public. The exhibit features the publishing journey of Coyote School News by Joan Sandin, an award-winning author, illustrator and translator. Sandin’s original artwork for Coyote School News hangs in the WOW Studio, and the Mary J. Wong Collection showcases her journey of publishing the book. Newspaper covers from two publications that feature the voices of young reporters, the Little Cowpuncher and Bear Essential News, also hang in the exhibit in the WOW Hall Gallery.
MTYT: Symptoms of Being Human
By Mary L. Fahrenbruck, Leanna Lucero and Tabitha P. Collins
Riley is a gender fluid teenager who struggles with their identity on daily basis — sometimes Riley feels like a boy, other times a girl, and sometimes neither. The added weight of a sometimes complicated secret gender identity on a normal teenager is often overwhelming to Riley, so at the suggestion of their therapist, Riley creates an online blog using an alias as a method of venting their frustrations as well as to create a forum to openly discuss their struggles as a gender fluid person. Despite these difficulties, Riley is beginning to settle in at a new school with new friends (Bec and Solo) who seem to accept them for who they are. When an anonymous commenter on Riley’s blog discovers their true identity, Riley must decide whether to erase the blog and walk away from this newfound safe space or to come out and face their parents and the rest of the world.
