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2022 Trends in Global Literature: Multilingualism and Language Learning

By Kathy Short, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

A grandmoter in a sari and a girl in pigtails happily embraceThe increasing global mobility and multilingualism of our world are playing out in interesting ways in recent books for children. Some of these books focus on children learning to speak English or on English-speakers struggling to pronounce a child’s name. Still others naturally integrate multiple languages in a translingual book where characters weave additional languages into their dialogue, drawing from the multiple languages they speak and understand. Another trend is an increase in bilingual books with the entire text in two languages. Continue reading

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2022 Trends in Global Literature: Picturebooks about Relationships with Grandparents

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

An open yellow suitcase next to the legs of a young girlThe lack of books depicting contemporary global cultures has been an issue for many years with historical fiction, traditional literature and fantasy dominating the global books published in the U.S. This over-representation of history and traditions often results in stereotypes and misconceptions of these cultures as set back in time or no longer existing in the contemporary world. The recent emergence of picturebooks with contemporary depictions is thus a positive trend in providing books that invite children to make connections between their own culture and global cultures in today’s world. Continue reading

Authors' Corner

Authors’ Corner: Wilson Ong

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

wilson ong wears glasses and a flannel shirtMary J. Wong recently donated the entire set of original oil illustrations for Paper Son: Lee’s Journey to America by Wilson Ong to the Worlds of Words Center along with his thumbnail sketches and color studies. In working on the exhibition, we wanted to include Wilson’s perspective and process in creating the illustrations and so interviewed him, gaining many useful insights into his process and the connection of the book to his family story. Continue reading

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Trends in Global Literature for Children and Adolescents

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

Young boy shows his mutli-colored fingernails.WOW Currents for this month highlights the trends in global books published and/or distributed in the U.S. between Summer 2021 and 2022. Each year, we examine the new books published in that period of time and check out review sources and awards to identify books we believe will be of most interest to K-12 educators for use in their contexts. This process allows us to update the K-12 global reading lists, fiction and nonfiction, to post on the Worlds of Words Center website. This immersion into the new books also helps identify publication trends and patterns over the past year. This post overviews these trends and the posts during the month of August examine one trend in more depth with examples of books. Continue reading

Young Children Playing Their Way into Understanding the World

Join us to consider ways of creating global understandings with young children. This free workshop, sponsored by TREC and WOW, will be in-person in the Worlds of Words Center. Register on the TREC website.

Explore the ways in which young children can interact with global books through play to feel connected with global cultures and to develop open-minded perspectives about new ideas. Participants will have the opportunity to interact with new global books and examine what kinds of global books are appropriate for young children. We will also explore invitations for play that can be integrated into centers in the classroom.

Participants will receive book lists and a handout of play invitations as well as new global picturebooks to take back to their early childhood classrooms.

The workshop will be led by Kathy Short, Loren Reyes and Deonna Tourtellot.

For questions, please contact Tucson Regional Educator Collaborative.
Contact Name: Jen Kinser-Traut
Phone No: (520) 621-7511
Email Address: trecarizona@email.arizona.edu

Register now!

Story as World Making: Connecting Children to Global Cultures – Day 2

Register today for an in-person workshop presented by Kathy G. Short and Dorea Kleker, University of Arizona, with participating authors, Rajani LaRocca and Carol Kim. For more information or to register, visit https://cercll.regfox.com/institutestoriesglobal. Registration closes May 31, 2022.

Join us for a two-day workshop to engage in experiences and books that invite children to immerse themselves in global cultures. In this interactive workshop, you will explore new global books for your work with children and participate in engagements with these books. You will also interact with several children’s authors who will join us to talk about their global books. Participants will receive copies of their picturebooks along with booklists and other materials.

Our work is framed around encouraging children to balance an understanding of their cultural locations and loyalties with a reflective openness to new ways of thinking and being in the world. This open mindedness can be created by inviting children into story worlds where they can experience the ways people live, feel, and think in global cultures. As children develop empathy and knowledge, they come to know their home cultures and the world beyond home. One challenge is to dig below the surface of a culture (e.g. food and festivals) to connect with deeper cultural values, including the significance of language. Through engagements with books, we can challenge children to engage with story as a means of bridging divides and creating intercultural understanding.

Kathy G. Short is a professor and endowed chair of global children’s literature in the UArizona College of Education with a focus on dialogue and inquiry and is Director of Worlds of Words: Center of Global Literacies and Literatures. She has worked extensively with teachers all over the world on literature-based approaches and has authored many books and articles, including Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers and Teaching Globally: Reading the World through Literature. She served as President of the National Council of Teachers of English and the US Board of Books for Young People.

Dorea Kleker is an early childhood teacher, educator and lecturer at the University of Arizona. Working with students and teachers across a wide variety of educational contexts in both the U.S. and Latin America, her work focuses on global and multicultural children’s literature, literacy and play to develop intercultural understanding, and the use of literature to actively engage children as inquirers across all content areas.

Carol Kim believes books and words have a magical ability to change the world for the better, and she writes for children with the hope of spreading some of that magic. She is the author of the picture book biography, King Sejong Invents the Alphabet, as well as 20 fiction and nonfiction books for the educational market. Carol relishes unearthing real-life stories and little-known facts to share with young readers. She lives in Austin, Texas with her family.

Rajani LaRocca was born in India, raised in Kentucky and lives in the Boston area, where she practices medicine and writes books for young people, including Red, White, and Whole (2021), Seven Golden Rings (2020), Bracelets for Bina’s Brothers (2021),Where Three Oceans Meet (2021), I’ll Go and Come Back (2022), and more. She’s always been an omnivorous reader, and now is an omnivorous writer of fiction and nonfiction, novels and picture books, prose and poetry. She finds inspiration in her family, her childhood, the natural world, math, science,and just about everywhere she looks.

Questions? Contact: dkleker@arizona.edu or shortk@arizona.edu
Register here.

A small number of scholarships are available for fulltime teachers and fulltime graduate students. These cover registration, and/or hotel for people participating in both days of the institute. Lodging scholarships are for the nights of June 1 and 2 for individuals traveling more than 130 miles to get to the University of Arizona; they are for June 2 only, for people coming from between 60 and130 miles away. To apply for a scholarship, submit a completed scholarship application form by the deadline of May 20. We will verify eligibility, and our committee will select recipients before we make award notifications on May 25.

This institute is organized and sponsored by the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL) and Worlds of Words.

Story as World Making: Connecting Children to Global Cultures – Day 1

Register today for an in-person workshop presented by Kathy G. Short and Dorea Kleker, University of Arizona, with participating authors, Rajani LaRocca and Carol Kim. For more information or to register, visit https://cercll.regfox.com/institutestoriesglobal. Registration closes May 31, 2022.

Join us for a two-day workshop to engage in experiences and books that invite children to immerse themselves in global cultures. In this interactive workshop, you will explore new global books for your work with children and participate in engagements with these books. You will also interact with several children’s authors who will join us to talk about their global books. Participants will receive copies of their picturebooks along with booklists and other materials.

Our work is framed around encouraging children to balance an understanding of their cultural locations and loyalties with a reflective openness to new ways of thinking and being in the world. This open mindedness can be created by inviting children into story worlds where they can experience the ways people live, feel, and think in global cultures. As children develop empathy and knowledge, they come to know their home cultures and the world beyond home. One challenge is to dig below the surface of a culture (e.g. food and festivals) to connect with deeper cultural values, including the significance of language. Through engagements with books, we can challenge children to engage with story as a means of bridging divides and creating intercultural understanding.

Kathy G. Short is a professor and endowed chair of global children’s literature in the UArizona College of Education with a focus on dialogue and inquiry and is Director of Worlds of Words: Center of Global Literacies and Literatures. She has worked extensively with teachers all over the world on literature-based approaches and has authored many books and articles, including Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers and Teaching Globally: Reading the World through Literature. She served as President of the National Council of Teachers of English and the US Board of Books for Young People.

Dorea Kleker is an early childhood teacher, educator and lecturer at the University of Arizona. Working with students and teachers across a wide variety of educational contexts in both the U.S. and Latin America, her work focuses on global and multicultural children’s literature, literacy and play to develop intercultural understanding, and the use of literature to actively engage children as inquirers across all content areas.

Carol Kim believes books and words have a magical ability to change the world for the better, and she writes for children with the hope of spreading some of that magic. She is the author of the picture book biography, King Sejong Invents the Alphabet, as well as 20 fiction and nonfiction books for the educational market. Carol relishes unearthing real-life stories and little-known facts to share with young readers. She lives in Austin, Texas with her family.

Rajani LaRocca was born in India, raised in Kentucky and lives in the Boston area, where she practices medicine and writes books for young people, including Red, White, and Whole (2021)Seven Golden Rings (2020), Bracelets for Bina’s Brothers (2021),Where Three Oceans Meet (2021), I’ll Go and Come Back (2022), and more. She’s always been an omnivorous reader, and now is an omnivorous writer of fiction and nonfiction, novels and picture books, prose and poetry. She finds inspiration in her family, her childhood, the natural world, math, science,and just about everywhere she looks.

Questions? Contact: dkleker@arizona.edu or shortk@arizona.edu
Register here.

A small number of scholarships are available for fulltime teachers and fulltime graduate students. These cover registration, and/or hotel for people participating in both days of the institute. Lodging scholarships are for the nights of June 1 and 2 for individuals traveling more than 130 miles to get to the University of Arizona; they are for June 2 only, for people coming from between 60 and130 miles away. To apply for a scholarship, submit a completed scholarship application form by the deadline of May 20. We will verify eligibility, and our committee will select recipients before we make award notifications on May 25.

This institute is organized and sponsored by the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL) and Worlds of Words.

Engaging Children in Exploring Language through Dual Language Picturebooks

Professional Learning Opportunity:
Engaging Children in Exploring Language through Dual Language Picturebooks

 
To apply for this workshop, send your name, grade level, school name and contact info (email, phone and address) to dkleker@arizona.edu by February 25, 2022.

Join us for five sessions on Thursdays from 4:30-6:30 p.m. to explore invitations with dual-language picturebooks that engage children in learning about language and language diversity. Participants will earn 20 hours of professional development credit plus receive a text set of 10-12 picturebooks along with supplies and maps to keep for your classroom. We will meet in person for the first session at Worlds of Words, University of Arizona, and then meet virtually to explore strategies for engaging children with these books and to share our work with each other. Registration for this workshop is limited to 15 elementary teachers.

In a world of increasing linguistic diversity, children need an awareness and appreciation of the multiple languages in their lives and communities. Our goal is to encourage children to view multilingualism as a community resource, not a problem, and to develop strategies for engaging with familiar and unfamiliar languages. Although dual language picturebooks are often used to learn a language, our goal is instead to engage with these books to encourage learning about language and language diversity. In our first in-person session, we will explore the types of dual language picturebooks and how to evaluate these books and each teacher will receive a text set of picturebooks. In each of the following virtual sessions, we will engage in interactions around these picturebooks, such as creating language body maps or neighborhood language maps, along with exploring strategies children can use as readers of these books. Teachers will be encouraged to use the picturebooks and experiences in their classrooms over the following two weeks and we will share with each other at our next meeting. Each meeting will also involve exploring strategies around new books.

March 24, 4:30-6:30 pm – Worlds of Words for introduction and to receive the picturebook text set
April 7, April 21, May 5 & May 19 – 4:30-6:30 pm – Virtual zoom sessions

This professional opportunity is open to classroom teachers in grades K-5 with priority given to teachers applying as partners from the same school. Registration is limited to 15 teachers.

To apply for this workshop, send your name, grade level, school name, and contact info (email, phone, and address) to dkleker@arizona.edu by February 25.

Kathy G. Short is a professor and endowed chair of global children’s literature at the University of Arizona and Director of Worlds of Words: Center of Global Literacies and Literatures. She works with teachers around the world on inquiry and interculturalism and has authored many books and articles, including Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers and Teaching Globally: Reading the World through Literature.

Dorea Kleker is an early childhood teacher, educator and lecturer at the University of Arizona. Working with students and teachers across a wide variety of educational contexts in the U.S. and Latin America, her work focuses on global and multicultural children’s literature, literacy and play to develop intercultural understanding, and the use of literature to actively engage children as inquirers across all content areas.

Imagination Friday with Philip and Erin Stead

Meet Erin and Phil Stead as they introduce a new picturebook about a beloved zookeeper in Amos McGee Misses the Bus. We first met Amos McGee in A Sick Day for Amos McGee, a Caldecott Medal book, and in the new book, Amos faces all kinds of problems when he plans an outing for his zoo animals.

Erin and Phil will share their new book and process of writing and illustrating, invite children to create their own stories, and answer questions.

You must register for the webinar to attend. You will receive a link to join this exciting interaction with Erin and Phil. Teachers who want to show the webinar live to their classes can live-stream the webinar. The webinar will be recorded. Those who register will receive a link to watch the recording if unable to join us live. You can also return to this event entry to watch the recording.


Register now!


(If you have trouble with the chat, click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the chat box and try to sign on using the pop-up screen.)

Host: Kathy Short, Professor of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies and Director of WOW
Panelists: Philip and Erin Stead
Co-Sponsor: Tucson Festival of Books


Philip C. Stead and Erin E. Stead are the creators of picturebook classics such as A Sick Day for Amos McGee, Bear Has a Story to Tell, Music For Mister Moon, and Lenny and Lucy. They live in Michigan with their daughter and puppy.

Copies of the books featured on Imagination Fridays can be ordered from UArizona BookStores.

Imagination Fridays is co-sponsored by the Tucson Festival of Books and Worlds of Words/University of Arizona and will occur one Friday a month at 1:00-1:45 pm from September to December with a new author and/or illustrator to introduce a brand new book. Add excitement to Fridays with world-renowned children’s authors and illustrator to promote new books and encourage children as readers, writers, and illustrators.

Tucson Festival of Books logo with sponsors listed

Imagination Friday with Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall

Meet Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall as they introduce their highly anticipated new graphic novel, The Beatryce Prophecy, a fantasy about fate, love, and the power of words. Set in a time of war, Beatryce lives in a world where reading and writing are against the law, leading her on a dangerous quest to unseat the king and change that world.

Kate and Sophie share their new book and process of writing and illustrating, invite children to create their own stories, and answer questions.

You must register for the webinar to attend. You will receive a link to join this exciting interaction with Kate and Sophie. Teachers who want to show the webinar live to their classes can live-stream the webinar. The webinar will be recorded. Those who register will receive a link to watch the recording if unable to join us live. You can also return to this event entry to watch the recording.


Register Now!


(If you have trouble with the chat, click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the chat box and try to sign on using the pop-up screen.)

Host: Kathy Short, Professor of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies and Director of WOW
Panelists: Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall
Co-Sponsor: Tucson Festival of Books


Kate DiCamillo is one of America’s most revered storytellers. She is a former Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and a two-time Newbery Medalist for The Tale of Desperaux and Flora & Ulysses. Born in Philadelphia, she grew up in Florida and now lives in Minneapolis.

Copies of the books featured on Imagination Fridays can be ordered from UArizona BookStores.

Sophie Blackall is the acclaimed illustrator of more than forty-five books for young readers and a two-time Caldecott Medalist for Finding Winnie and Hello Lighthouse. Born and raised in Australia, she now lives in Brooklyn.

Imagination Fridays is co-sponsored by the Tucson Festival of Books and Worlds of Words/University of Arizona and will occur one Friday a month at 1:00-1:45 pm from September to December with a new author and/or illustrator to introduce a brand new book. Add excitement to Fridays with world-renowned children’s authors and illustrator to promote new books and encourage children as readers, writers, and illustrators.

Tucson Festival of Books logo with sponsors listed