News

The College of Education’s Worlds of Words, in collaboration with Resplandor International, is expanding in Mexico, launching a visiting scholar program in honor of the late Richard Ruiz — and growing its library. Roughly 10 miles outside of Guanajuato, Mexico, sits the home base for Resplandor International, a nonprofit humanitarian organization founded with a desire by those at the University of Arizona to enrich cross-border cultural competency and promote economic development through education.

This week a new resource shares strategies and tools to engage students and educators with books from around the world. Kathy Short, director of Worlds of Words and Jennifer Manise, Executive Director of Longview Foundation, share how global stories are effective classroom tools.

What is TFOB and WOW? Tucson Festival of Books and Worlds of Words. Both are located at the University of Arizona. The Tucson Festival of Books is a weekend of author spotlights and presentations, kids’ activities, book vendors and displays, top notch entertainment, Science City and much more! In addition to all the festival activities, I had the opportunity to tour the newly remodeled Worlds of Words in the College of Education at the U of A.

Dear Reader, I just had the most incredible weekend. I went to the Tucson Festival of Books (a k a @TFOB). When you’re an author, you must go to this. Kathy Short is a super-duper VIP in the world of children’s lit. So you can imagine my surprise to find myself seated at her table. And you can imagine my further surprise when the MC mentioned my name as an example of the authors Kathy brought to this year’s festival. Really? Me?

The Worlds of Words International Collection of Children’s and Adolescent Literature helps build bridges across global cultures through programming focused on literacy and literature.

During the celebration at the UA College of Education, Finland’s ambassador to the United States, Ritva Koukka-Ronde, will award a Finnish language and culture book kit to Worlds of Words, a collection of international children’s and adolescent literature.

Housed by the University of Arizona College of Education, Worlds of Words exposes children to different cultures through its collection of international literature. Each month, WOW hosts an event as part of its Book Fiesta program where it invites Arizona authors and illustrators to bring a new book and a writing activity to share with local children.

The Worlds of Words website provides many useful resources for building bridges between cultures. These resources include multiple strategies for locating and evaluating culturally authentic international children’s and adolescent literature as well as ways of engaging students with these books in classrooms and libraries. Critical annotations are available and can be sorted by geographic region, age or region.

Originally presented at the 2009 NCTE Conference. The purpose of this study is to illustrate the roles of inquiry and critical literacy by examing students' understanding of human rights and engagements with children's literature.

Nearly 30,000 children’s books reside in the basement of the UA Education building. They come from more than a hundred countries, in nearly two dozen languages. The books have made readers out of future teachers, and we can expect them to pass on that love of reading to their students.

The WOW Open House on December 8 was a community triumph! People came from all over — families, community members, librarians, teachers — people interested in books and people interested specifically in the two traveling exhibitions of children’s and adolescent books from around the world. Visitors from the UA Poetry Center, the UA Bookstores, and other university groups also dropped in.

Jake Lalios, 9, is one of the few and fortunate - bookwise that is. The elementary school student can make use of a 30,000-volume collection of international children's books. His school, Van Horne Elementary, is part of a University of Arizona pilot program that allows the 250 students to view children's books from other countries.