Invest In Youth as Readers 2025 Final Update – We Did It!

Over the summer, a group of young readers met in Worlds of Words for a focus group to better understand their needs as readers. They expressed a desire for more social connection. This connection certainly happens between peers in the program, and it also is a function of a wider community who connects in digital spaces like their Instagram or podcast feeds.

Middle schooler smiles next to an adult holding a clipboard

A Middle School Reading Ambassador shares her sketch with author and illustrator, Jose Pimienta, at a cartooning workshop run by the artist. Pimienta flew to Tucson for the workshop and provided special edition books to participants who bravely shared their work.

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Promoting Global Literacy with Manga Inside and Outside the Classroom

By Aika Adamson, Worlds of Words, Tucson, AZ

Manga, a popular form of graphic novels and comics from Japan, has seen a boom in popularity following the pandemic in 2020. In a time where literacy rates are falling slightly for students across the United States, as reported in the Nation’s Report Card for 2022, and fewer people in all age-ranges are reading for pleasure (Iyengar, 2024), encouraging literacy among children and teenagers is more important than ever. Recent publishing trends have shown that children of all ages are reading more comics, graphic novels and manga annually. Graphic novels have seen a 90% jump in popularity in school libraries, with manga comprising 43% of high school graphic novel purchases, according to the School Library Journal’s 2023 survey.

With such a rise in popularity for manga, more and more middle and high school-aged readers can engage in international stories that have been translated for U.S.-based audiences. Manga tend to be published in long series, with chapters coming out weekly or monthly in Japanese magazines such as Weekly Shounen Jump, Ultra Jump, Hana to Yume or Be Love. Once a series reaches a certain number of chapters, provided the manga is popular enough, those chapters can be collected into volumes that are translated and distributed overseas. Continue reading →

2025 Trends in K-12 Global Literature

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

Each year, we report the annual trends in global literature for young people after updating the annual global recommended reading lists. These lists consist of books published and/or distributed in the U.S. between July 2024 and July 2025. What is interesting this year is that the major trend is the lack of dominant trends in themes, topics, genres and countries.

The updated K-12 global recommended reading lists are published on the Worlds of Words website, organized by grade level bands, K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-10 and 11-12, with separate fiction and nonfiction lists. The lists are organized around broad themes, including strength through relationships, forced journeys, taking action, locating self in the world, adventures and mysteries and mythological quests. Books that remain in print are kept on the lists each year, while new books from 2024 and 2025 are added. Continue reading →

Back to School: Essential Read Alouds for Human-to-Human Connection and Empathy

By Angelica Serrano, Tucson Unified School District, Tucson, AZ

The start of a new school year is a time of excitement, anticipation and a whirlwind of emotions—for both students and teachers. The classroom is organized, stocked with brand-new school supplies and decorated with care. A clean slate if you will.

But beyond the bulletin boards and labeled bins is the heart of it all: a brand-new community of learners. Each student walks through the door carrying their own story—shaped by culture, family, experiences, dreams and so much more.

As educators, one of the most important things we can do in these early days is to begin building authentic, meaningful relationships with all students. We know that before diving into routines, or curriculum, we must first create a space for connection. After all, we are first and foremost engaging with human beings. It’s in these early interactions—learning how to pronounce each name correctly, noticing who hangs back, who’s eager, who’s unsure—that we begin laying the groundwork for a year of learning, growing and connecting with each other. Continue reading →

A Book for Pondering and Perspective-Taking: Border Patrol by Joseph Bruchac

By Holly Johnson, Emeritus Professor, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

Almost every book allows for a perspective that may be different from the reader’s, and many books give readers something to ponder, but books that afford both pondering and perspective-taking are a bit more rare. Joseph Bruchac’s new book, Border Patrol (2025), is one such book. It brings to life both current issues and historical context, which had me contemplating just how much of U.S. history might need rethinking.

Lily, a middle grade Mohawk girl, has a lot to say in respect to border issues both current and historical. The book shares Lily’s thinking through a series of verses that can be read individually—with openings for much discussion—or in a series of verses that give readers numerous ways to contemplate another perspective while also pondering their own actions if they found themselves in similar situations or confronted with someone like Lily. Continue reading →

Expand Our Use of Global Books for the Elementary Classroom

By Jeanne Gilliam Fain, Lipscomb University, Nashville, TN

One line of inquiry I grapple with daily is how to think about inserting global books into elementary classrooms with scripted curriculum. When I started this work, I immediately assumed the books from the scripted curriculum were low quality books. I then took the opportunity to really study the books and discovered that these books are award-winning global titles many of us know and love deeply such as Grandfather’s Journey (Say, 1994), Coming to America: The Story of Immigration (Maestro, 1996), Tea with Milk (Say, 2009), Keeping Quilt (Polacco, 1988) and Family Picture (Carmen Lomas Garza, 2005). I have the personal bias of embracing current books with enthusiasm and often letting go of books that age well. One of the real problems that we (I work with many wonderful teachers in Nashville) encounter is that many of the books in the curriculum are around 30 years old. Today, although there is still work to do with inclusivity in children’s literature publishing, there are so many new voices and perspectives that were missing thirty years ago. Continue reading →

Come to the Tucson Festival of Books on March 15-16, 2025

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

A festival is a great place to meet authors who have popular appeal, authors who are critically acclaimed, and new emerging authors in sessions that offer laughter and thoughtful discussions of critical issues. The Tucson Festival of Books has over 300 authors across multiple genres and 130,000 attendees. 65 of those authors are picturebook author/illustrators, middle grade authors, graphic novel creators, and young adult authors, who present over 100 sessions. Many of the sessions are in rooms that seat 40-50 people to allow for more intimate interactions with authors, instead of only large auditoriums where authors are at a distance. This WOW Currents highlights the sessions and some of the authors who are coming this March. Go to the festival website for a full list of authors and sessions for the entire festival. A list of the children/teen authors and illustrators can be found here. Continue reading →

The Power of Graphic Novels to Foster Connections

By Julia López-Robertson, University of South Carolina, Melissa Summer Wells, University of Mary Washington & Jennifer D. Morrison, Sam Houston State University

In our last blog we introduced you to graphic novels and provided a model for applying critical reading and critical literacy to When Stars Are Scattered (Jamieson & Mohamed, 2020). This blog focuses on the Pura Belpré Award winner, Mexikid (Martín, 2023). Mexikid is a memoir about a Mexican American boy named Pedro and his family’s journey to bring their abuelito from Mexico to live with them in the United States. Pedro is the seventh of nine children; the older five were born in Mexico, while Pedro and his three younger siblings were born in the U.S. and, according to the older siblings, are “not Mexican enough.” The family embarks on a 2,000-mile road trip to Mexico, encountering many adventures along the way. While the older siblings drive a pick-up truck, Pedro and his younger siblings travel with their parents in a used Winnebago. Throughout the journey, Pedro hears stories about his family—particularly his abuelo—and learns about his Mexican heritage and family history. In what follows we will discuss our purposes for engaging students with graphic novels and speak specifically about Mexikid. Continue reading →

The Power of Graphic Novels to Foster Critical Literacy and Critical Reading

By Julia López-Robertson, University of South Carolina, Melissa Summer Wells, University of Mary Washington & Jennifer D. Morrison, Sam Houston State University

Graphic novels, often stigmatized as a genre, hold immense potential for transformative multimodal literacy instruction. Paris and Alim (2017) argue that equity and access are best achieved by centering the dynamic practices and identities of students and communities of color within a critical, inclusive vision of education. In our teaching and research, this means prioritizing multimodal texts to help preservice teachers explore diverse ways of knowing, doing, and being in the classroom.

Traditional reading and writing capture only a fraction of students’ literacy capabilities. Carefully selected multicultural, multilingual and multidisciplinary graphic novels offer powerful tools for critical reading and literacy. These texts provide unique access points that connect teaching and learning to the lived experiences of children and their communities. Continue reading →

Current Global Conflicts: Palestinian Perspectives and Experiences, Part 2

by Seemi Aziz, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

As I looked into Palestinian experiences in children’s literature, I discovered many significant examples. These examples speak to broader issues of displacement, refugees and oppression. These topics/issues are prevalent in the global sociopolitical atmosphere presently, more so now with the two ongoing wars: Ukraine/Russia and Palestine/Israel. If we research and go into depth on both these conflicts and wars, we come away with multiple ways of understanding the conflicts and realize that there is no one easy explanation that pigeonholes the conflicts.

The examples of children’s literature that I explore in this post shed light on Palestinian perspectives on the current conflict through a recent memoir and several nonfiction books. By combining these powerful examples of fiction and nonfiction, readers come away with new understandings. Continue reading →

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