School

Armando and the Blue Tarp School

Armando and his father are trash-pickers in Tijuana, Mexico, but when Senor David brings his “school”–a blue tarp set down near the garbage dump–to their neighborhood, Armando’s father decides that he must attend classes and learn. Based on a true story.

Pink Fire Trucks / Los camiones de bomberos de color rosado

Spirited Gladys Elizabeth is at it again! It is career day at school and Gladys Elizabeth boldly announces that she is going to be a firegirl. After a classmate tells her that girls cannot fight fires.

Separate Is Never Equal

“Years before the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez, an eight-year-old girl of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage, played an instrumental role in Mendez v. Westminster, the landmark desegregation case of 1946 in California”–

Lupita’s First Dance / El Primer Baile De Lupita

Lupita is excited about dancing la raspa, a Mexican folk dance, with her first-grade class at a celebration of Children’s Day. But she’s devastated when she learns right before the show that her partner Ernesto sprained his right ankle.

Lupita’s First Dance / El Primer Baile De Lupita has been discussed in My Take/Your Take for September 2020.

I Am Rene, The Boy/ Soy Rene, El Nino

When René learns that in the United States his name is also a girl’s name, he does some research and relates the name’s meaning and letters to his homeland of El Salvador and the things that make him special.

Community Soup

In a garden outside a Kenyan schoolhouse, children are working together to harvest the vegetables they have grown and make them into a soup for everyone to share. But Kioni is having trouble: her herd of mischievous goats followed her to school today and they are trying to eat all the vegetables. The ensuing chaos caused by the goats is cleverly resolved by the children, making their vegetable soup very tasty while saving Kioni’s four-legged intruders at the same time.

Anne of Avonlea

Five years after Anne Shirley came to the town of Avonlea, she feels (a little) more grown up, but she’s still the same skinny, red-headed orphan Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert took in. After putting her dream of attending Redmond College on hold so she can help Marilla with the farm, Anne doubts she has many adventures ahead of her. But even in plain old Avonlea, her life proves to be anything but ordinary. Ann takes over the local school and is determined to be a beloved teacher, but that’s hard when she has students like the forever bad-tempered Anthony who is just as determined to be a problem.