Celeste Trimble

WOW Dozen: Nonfiction Adaptations for Young Readers

By Celeste Trimble, Saint Martin’s University

Adult nonfiction titles adapted for young readers are excellent for engaging secondary and even undergraduate students in vital contemporary issues and conversations. This WOW Dozen highlights newer titles that make essential books written for adults accessible to younger readers. Many adaptations include contextual information that is not included in the original version because of assumed prior knowledge. Also, by using more familiar vocabulary or defining unfamiliar language, and other strategies for increasing accessibility, young readers are invited into the essential understandings and concepts from popular adult nonfiction, encouraging intergenerational community dialogue. Continue reading →

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Photography as a Tool for Social Change: Biographical Picturebooks

By Celeste Trimble, St. Martin’s University, Lacey, WA

Photography is part of the everyday world. Children (and adults, of course) are constant consumers of this medium in personal, social, political, economic and artistic realms. Indeed, practically every aspect of our lives is saturated by the photographic image. Not only are we consumers of photography, most of us are also producers of digital photographs. What began as an art form limited to scientists with specialized chemicals and equipment is now as quotidian as breakfast.

Blonde girl against blue background picks a red flowerLike many artistic practices, photography is often used as a form of activism. The photographic image can help bring hidden or shadowed issues and realities into the public eye, illuminating the world as a way to create change. An excellent way to unlock photographic history and activism for children in accessible and engaging ways is through biographical picturebooks of notable photographers. These stories provide context for how photography became so ubiquitous and essential around the globe, as well as how it has and can be used as a tool for social change, perhaps inspiring young readers to do the same. Although there are a number of excellent examples, for this post I will look closely at picturebook biographies of three artists who used the photographic medium for expression and activism: Anna Atkins of England, Jacob Riis of Denmark and the United States, and Gordon Parks of the United States. Continue reading →

WOW Dozen: Global Picturebooks for the Secondary Classroom

By Celeste L.H. Trimble, St Martin’s University, Lacey, WA

There is a common misperception that picturebooks are only for early elementary students. Secondary students and even students in upper elementary often miss out on the particular artistry and poetry that come through the picturebook form. In this month’s WOW Dozen, I bring together examples of global picturebooks that can be explored and enjoyed in secondary English Language Arts as well as the content areas. Books in this list can be used as models for writing, artworks for practicing analysis, avenues for identity development as well as exploration of the experiences of others, inspiration for creativity, tools to deepen content knowledge, and so much more. Of course, picturebooks are vital additions to the classroom library in any secondary classroom, just for the pleasure of reading. Continue reading →

WOW Recommends: Book of the Month

WOW Recommends: Hunting by Stars

Night sky with title superimposed and pine trees silhouetted against an orange horizonHunting by Stars, a YA novel by Métis writer Cherie Dimaline, was released as a sequel to The Marrow Thieves, which was honored with many awards. The protagonist, French, of the new novel never expected to see his brother, Mitch, again. After witnessing his brother’s abduction by the Recruiters at the beginning of The Marrow Thieves, French thinks surely they had taken Mitch to die at the new kind of residential school, where Indigenous peoples are harvested for their bone marrow. That’s where the dreams live, and in this dystopian future, the only people who are still able to dream are Indigenous peoples of North America. All others suffer a sickness because of their lack of dreaming. Mitch survives because he becomes one of them after capture, a Recruiter, working on the side of those abducting and harvesting Indigenous peoples. When French and Mitch reunite, it is not a happy reunion, as French has himself been abducted and taken to the school, where he realizes his beloved brother is alive but also, in a sense, his enemy. French has to grapple with the pain of choosing who to fight for, who to protect and support – family by blood or by bond – and how to escape from the school and reunite with his chosen family. Continue reading →

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MTYT: Shi-Shi Etko

By Celeste Trimble and Kristen Suagee-Beauduy

Four mornings before a young girl named Shi-Shi Etko is to leave her family and go away to residential school, she is reminded of all the things she must not forget. Songs, dances, family, laughter, joy, and especially the land. Shi-Shi Etko tries to memorize all the stones and plants and waters and the feeling of being near them. She is given a small pouch in which to contain these memories, like a sprig of a fir tree or a dried berry. She prays that she remembers each and every part of her life at home until she returns in the spring.

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MTYT: When I Was Eight

By Celeste Trimble and Kristen Suagee-Beauduy

When I Was Eight by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton (Inuvialuit) tells the true story of Margaret Pokiak-Fenton’s experiences at an Indian Residential School in Aklavik, in what is now known as Canada. Olemaun’s parents do not want her to attend the school away from her home of Banks Island, but Olemaun longs to learn to read like her older sister. When she convinces her parents and begins attending the school, the nuns try to humiliate and shame her in many ways. Margaret-Olemaun was determined to learn to read and prove to the nuns that she was a strong and capable student, and she did.

This picturebook was written with middle to upper elementary students in mind. Margaret-Ouleman’s story was also told in the book for younger readers, Not My Girl, and the books for middle level readers, Fatty Legs and A Stranger at Home.

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MTYT: When We Were Alone

By Celeste Trimble and Kristen Suagee-Beauduy

My Take Your Take Header lists theme of Picturebooks about Indigenous Residential Schools in Canada and the authors.

For the month of August Kristen Suagee-Beauduy and Celeste Trimble take a closer look at the youngest picturebooks about Indigenous residential schooling in Canada. When We Were Alone, written by David A. Robertson (Swampy Cree) and illustrated by Julie Flett (Cree-Metis), tells the story of a contemporary conversation between a First Nations grandmother and her granddaughter. The grandchild asks questions such as: “Why do you wear bright colors?” “Why do you wear your hair long?” “Why do you speak in Cree?”

Banner lists bibligoraphic information about the book that is also listed at the end of the post. Continue reading →

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All Listening Together: Biographical Picturebooks About Global Musicians

Celeste Trimble, St. Martin’s University, Lacey, WA

Last Sunday, I attended my first virtual dance party put on by D-Nice on Instagram Live, dubbed Club Quarantine. I’ve seen conflicting reports that there were 50,000 to 150,000 virtual attendees from all over the globe all listening to music and dancing alone together. It was a true stress relief, as music can often be. It also reminded me that music is often a social act. Most of us grow up with some music, and many of us grow up surrounded by music. Music is one way that our identities get formed–through identifying with others who share the same musical interests or culture. Our families raise us with their own musical interests, but we explore on our own, forming our own musical identities. In this post, I will explore picturebook biographies about global musicians that relate to my own musical upbringing and identities. Continue reading →

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Literary Arts Biographies for Young Readers and Writers

Celeste Trimble, St. Martin’s University, Lacey, WA

Cover of Sounds and Silences, depicting two trees, one drawn realistically and one drawn abstractly.When I was fourteen, I loved poetry. I always loved it, having grown up on a steady diet of recited nursery rhymes and children’s poetry like A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. But something happened in junior high school: The anthology, Sounds and Silences: Poetry for Now, edited by Richard Peck. I loved that it included song lyrics by Woody Guthrie, Leonard Cohen and The Beatles–verses I recognized. What I really loved about this book was that it was my introduction to writers who shaped and continue to shape how I think about the world, my life and the lives around me. “The Rebel” by Mari E. Evans was practically an anthem for the duration of my adolescence. Langston Hughes, e e cummings, Dylan Thomas, this book was my introduction to modern poetry. But, most importantly, it was my introduction to Gwendolyn Brooks. Continue reading →

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Dancing On The Shelves: Biographical Picturebooks About Dancers

Celeste Trimble, St. Martin’s University, Lacey, WA

Cover of Swan depicting a young girl with black hair in a pink dress dancing with one arm above her head and the other extended to the side, where wings appear, on a black background.There are countless forms of dance around the world. Ceremonial dance, liturgical dance, social dance, performance dance, and all the countless variations within. For this look at biographical picturebooks of dancers, I look specifically at dancers who have practiced ballet, and some who have moved through ballet to other forms. Continue reading →