"Back to Cool (School)" Picture Books & Ideas to Create a Positive Classroom Climate - by Kathy Halsey

  

Back to school? How about back to cool? Let’s make the re-entry to school fun and memorable with new books and interactive activities. These ideas promote thoughtful ways to create a positive, inclusive, and engaging environment for all. I hope you find some intersectionality between your books and their usefulness in back to school units, or you get ideas for new projects that fit the back to school theme!

 Books for Everybody to Pair & Share

As a former teacher and librarian, I remember scrolling over student lists, making diacritical marks in order to pronounce everyone's name correctly and noting who had nicknames or wanted to be called something different. Students of all ages  know the feeling  of people stumbling over their names.

Book:  The Power of Your Name

Author, Jyoti Gopal knows this feeling herself, and has a wonderful lyrical picture book hot off the presses August 26, that helps start a great conversation about names and how aspirational they can be. (Illustrator Olivia Sua's cut paper illustrations create vibrant worlds.)

 Classroom Activities/Ideas

Share Jyoti’s words from her interview with John Schu  Have you ever wondered where your name came from? Maybe you asked your grown-ups or maybe you took your name for granted and didn’t even think about it. In The Power of Your Name, we learn that names have stories, that each name is a feast of sounds, a gift, filled with promise, that it holds your family's heritage, hopes and dreams. Through the ABCs, this book celebrates the beauty of names and the fact that every name—including yours—is special. Whether your name is long, short, easy to pronounce, or often misheard like mine frequently is, this book will make you think about the story your name tells.

• Students can create a poster with markers or in Canva sharing what their name means along with the correct pronunciation. Students can then swap their posters with someone else . 

• Together each pair introduces the other to the rest of the class. Finally, add the posters to the classroom bulletin board where all can see them and practice pronunciation.

Book: A Season for Fishin’: A Fish Fry Tradition

Author Pamela Courtney has cooked up a book that centers family, learning a new skill, and contributing to the family tradition - cane fishing - as she catches her first bream. The prize? Her feeling of pride being part of her community and her own red fish fry apron. I’ve shared her debut book on the GROG before, but in this context the back matter with pronunciations from varied parishes in Louisiana fits the topic of identity and the importance of pronunciation. As Pam’s tante Lula says, “Folks been crisscrossin’, speakin’, and livin’ like the otherin’ for forever”. The spice of the vernacular of Louisiana is fascinating and fun to say aloud. (Illustrator Toni D. Chambers serves up delicious views of Ol Cane River country.)

Classroom Activities/Ideas

 After reading this engaging, lyrical book about the culture of Natchitoches, Louisiana, give students the option to choose one of the following options:

• Share a family tradition orally, in writing or as a “how-to” demonstration (if it’s a recipe or game).    

• Create a short slide show that shares unique family background and traditions,  or share a travelogue of family members who live in or outside the US including pronunciation for terms specific to the region. 

PreK -Second Grade

Books pairs are fun to share and these two winners have great activities built into them. For K-2 students, matching and grouping are core skills for classification, a key scientific process. These action-packed picture books highlight skills in observation and comparing and contrasting characteristics, core skills for both math and science. Both books include themes of classroom climate, SEL, and diversity. 

Book: We Match

Author: Chris Barton knows intuitively that kids notice when things match. Think about school spirit days when kids delight in matching outfits. Take that idea to the dog park where Button, a gray terrier, announces the commentary as dogs play ball and chase squirrels. Button observes that some like wet food, others prefer kibble; some wear sweaters; others destroy them. Button discovers more subtle ways the dogs match that also encourages readers to find for connections with their classmates. (Illustrator Sharon Glick creates the most "fetching" dogs.)

Book: Batter Up for the First Day of School

Author Bethany Hegudus, a bonafide baseball fan, creates a tried-and-true back to school picture book that hooks readers with baseball lingo, punny fun, and shares the schedule of a typical school day for young students The Twins, Hank and Erin, begin the day with some nerves, but excitement builds, and at the end of the day, the twins announce that, “Today was a home run!”(Illustrator Nomar Perez creates ballpark joy with his images.)

Classroom Activities/Ideas

Lucky for us, Bethany and Chris have hit a home run with their ready-made activities  students will enjoy.

Look at these adorable “We Match” playing cards from illustrator Nomar Perez! Students can create their own cards and compare their connections with other students.

Here’s an example of Chris and Sharon’s match session.

Bethany has a baseball card activity as a way the new classroom team can announce and share this year’s roster. Celebrate your MVPs here. 

Check out Bethany's MVP and his vital stats as an example to model! 

Readers, what books, book matches and activities do you recommend for a great back-to-cool? Let us know in the comments!

Diversity Via the Lens of Immigrants and Poverty- Part 2 by Kathy Halsey

On Monday, I discussed Cynthia Lord's great middle grade book, A HANDFUL OF STARS and today I share thoughts on THE MATCHBOX DIARY, a picture book, by Paul Fleischman. But first, some food for thought from our new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Gene Luan Yang. Gene's platform for his two year term is "Reading Without Walls." 

"Reading breaks down the walls that divide us. By reading, we get to know people outside of our own communities. We gain knowledge others don't expect us to have. We discover new and surprising passions. Reading is critical to our growth, both as individuals and as a society." 

Gene Luan Yang

• 
  
• The immigrant experience is known to most of us via our grandparents or family history, yet it is a flashpoint in politics today. Newbery Medalist Paul Fleischman's poignant tale uses objects and the love of a great-grandfather and granddaughter to cement the truth of immigration in our minds and hearts. Sepia tone illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline give a historic, photographic quality to the story that takes the reader back in time to a little boy who can neither read nor write, but he can collect and save his personal history from Italy and in America.

Children love collections and boxes, and Fleischman knowingly designs an engaging history lesson from great-grandfather's matchbox collection. The reader learns from the granddaughter's questions and perspective of a life much different than her own just two generations later. 

Great grandfather's life is simply told, but it holds great details of the trials and triumphs of poverty, hard work, and loving family ties still strong today. The first box holds an olive pit that the young boy sucked on when there was little food. Another reveals a fancy hairpin left by a rich woman on the voyage from Naples to America. Still anthers recalls great grandfather's fear of men in New York he nicknamed "buttonhook men." The fear? At Ellis Island, men would use buttonhook handles to roll up children's eyes to inspect for disease. 

The entire family works at canning fish, sorting peaches, peeling shrimp, and more as they traveled to create a life in America. These new arrivals were shunned. As great grandfather tells it while sharing a box with a lone tooth,  "The same people who bought our cans of sardines wouldn't look at us. Back then some people didn't want Italians here. Sometimes boys threw rocks. That's how my tooth got here."   

Successes followed: learning to read around age 10, work as a typesetter, and Finally opening a bookshop. Through it all, collections grew. 

In the final full spread, the granddaughter and great grandfather converse: 
"I wish I could write a diary." 
"Do you go to school yet?"
"To kindergarten."
"Lucky girl. You'll be writing before you know it. 'Till then, I'll bet you're a good collector, like me."
Our final illustration shows the pre-schooler back on a plane, a matchbox in her lap beginning her collection. It is priceless, so go get this book and enjoy the journey of this book yourself and read it to a special someone. Read without walls.
(A few links:  for teachers , and a video.)

Diversity Via the Lens of Immigrants & Poverty-Part 1 by Kathy Halsey

"Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King and recognize that there are ties between us, all men and women living on the Earth. Ties of hope and love, sister and brotherhood, that we are bound together in our desire to see the world become a place in which our children can grow free and strong." 

James Taylor, Shed a Little Light

Last week Youth Media Awards honored writers, illustrators, and themes that shed a greater light on diversity. Matt de la Pena's Newbery winner, LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET, isn't just about those who must use public transportation or children whose parents are not present, but it addresses those issues. When I shared this winner with some suburban fifth grader writers, many told me they had never ridden a public bus. They wondered, too, why CJ spoke in a different vernacular then they did. They deemed the book full of "heart," "emotion," and noted how CJ and Nana served others at the soup kitchen. So much said and not said, but implied in LAST STOP that will generate great conversation and understanding.

This great interview w/ David Levithan at BookCon 2015 sheds more light on Matt's thinking as he wrote this gentle story.

In celebration of Dr. King's birthday, I'd like to spotlight another book that open windows and doors for intermediate/middle grade  audiences. Stay tuned for Part 2, Friday, January 22, for a review of a picture book on immigrants.

Cynthia Lord's heartfelt A HANDFUL OF STARS, focuses on the friendship of Lily, raised by French Canadian grandparents, and Salma, daughter of migrant workers. Lord has deftly set up a friendship between these two that highlights their differences and similarities while covering typical tween coming-of-age issues.

Lily makes it clear on page one that, "the only reason I ever spoke to Salma Santiago was because my dog ate her lunch." Neither group, the townies or the migrant families talk to each other. Lily continues, "I don't usually talk to those kids, and they don't usually talk to me. They don't stay here long enough for us to be friends." 

Yet friends they become because they help each other become stronger and better. Examples abound:

• Lily conquers her fear of being noticed as she helps Salma compete in the annual blueberry queen contest. 
• Lily empathizes with Salma since her French-Canadian mother broke barriers as queen three years running; she rails against pageant officials who unwittingly act in a condescending manner to Salma.
• Salma uses her artistic talent to paint mason bee houses with Lily at her grandparents' general store to raise money for Lucky, the blind dog who evokes memories of Lily's dead mother.
• Salma's mother draws Lily into a tender mother-daughter moment, too. "I looked up to see Mrs. Santiago holding her other arm open to me. My feet ran without me even telling them to."

Readers learn of the French-Candian culture and the migrant culture, both mostly overlooked in children's literature. Both families are of meager means, yet they share blueberry enchiladas and a growing awareness of each others talents and gifts. Salma paints yellow stars on her purpleberries to adorn the bee houses. (Lord explains that berries can be purple, red, black or even striped, but consumers only want the blue ones.)  

Salma says, Stars are one of my favorite things. I love how when you look up at the night, it doesn't matter if you're in Florida or Maine or Michigan or anywhere, it's the same stars. So when I miss someone, I look at the stars and imagine that person seeing same ones as me. No matter where I go, I can think of them, and they can think of me. They're my star friends."  Salma's sadness in never having permanent home is eloquently stated throughout the book in terms that children can understand. (Missing friends, missing pets.)

A HANDFUL OF STARS may have been a dark horse in the Newbery contest, but I give it many stars in the sky for illuminating diverse groups we don't usually see in our canon.

Continue the conversation. Share in the comments some of your Newbery dark horses and diverse favorites. 

Celebrate Diversity in December ~By Suzy Leopold

Our nation is rich with diversity, and is reflected in the observances celebrated by various cultures and populations during the month of December. Christmas is not the only religious holiday that is celebrated this month. There are numerous children's picture books that depict stories with information about the customs and cultures of the many holidays celebrated during this month.

The following books are excellent reads to acquire new information and a better understanding of three special celebrations:

José Feliciano’s Feliz Navidad 

Two Stories Celebrating Christmas

Pictures by David Diaz

Feliz Navidad

The spirit of Christmas crosses cultural boundaries as families celebrate around the world. With the Christmas spirit families and friends come together to join in a parranda, in Puerto Rico. 

During the holiday season, people go caroling from house to house singing songs called aguinaldos while playing guitarras, tamborilles and maracas to serenade and spread good cheer. The traveling party continues to dance and sing throughout the neighborhood, all night long. An outdoor cookout with homemade food is the final stop that unites families and friends together on Christmas morning.

About José Feliciano 
José was born in Puerto Rico in 1945. His family moved to New York when José was five year old. The lyrics for the song, Feliz Navidad were written by José Feliciano and released in 1968. 

About David Diaz 
David was born in 1960. He grew up in Florida and California. David’s Mom is from Puerto Rico. The illustrations for Feliz Navidad are bold and colorful.

Feliz Navidad es una canción bilingüe en español y Inglés, escrita por José Feliciano, y es la acompanante perfecta de este libro que le ensena a los niños, de una manera divertida, lo que es una parranda Puerto Rico y una fiesta navidena tradicional. Una parranda llena de canciónes navidenas tradicionales, intrumentos musicales y mucha comida. Los niños aprenderan acerca de esta tipica celebración.

Puerto Rico's Christmas Eve, or Nochebuena, begins around ten o'clock in the evening. The party ends in the wee hours of the morning and everyone returns home to celebrate Navidad or Christmas.

Latkes, Latkes Good to Eat A Chanukah Story

Story and Illustrations by Naomi Howland

Latkes, Latkes
Good to Eat

Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, commemorates the fight for religious freedom. Those of the Jewish faith light candles in a menorah for eight nights as they celebrate and remember Nes Gadol Hayah Po, “A Great miracle happened here.”

The story begins . . . Once, on the outskirts of a tiny village, a girl named Sadie lived with her four brothers, Herschel, Hillel, Hayim, and the baby, Max. The family is poor and Sadie and her four little brothers are always hungry. On the first night of Chanukah, Sadie performs a generous act, and in turn receives a frying pan that cooks up hot, golden latkes on command. Sadie warns her brothers to never use the magic pan, but when she goes out one afternoon, the mischievous boys can't resist. The boys remember the words to start the pan cooking, but they do not recall the words to make it stop! 

This is a humorous tale of generosity and greed. A recipe for Sadie's yummy latkes is included.

About Naomi Howland

“When I was little I told my teacher that I wanted to be an "Artist Mommy" and that is exactly what I am today,” states Naomi.

Chanukah or Hanukkah is celebrated on December 16th -24th.

Seven Spools of Thread

By Angela Shelf Medaris

Illustrated by Daniel Minter

Seven Spools of Thread

Seven brothers spend their lives fighting and bickering. When their father passes, he instructs them, through his will, to turn seven spools of thread into gold. If they do not, they will become beggars. Read to find out if  the brothers discover the seven principles of Kwanzaa in time to save them and their village from ruin.

Dr. Maulana Karenga founded Kwanzaa, in 1966. The seven day celebration is about expressing black pride and to share seven important themes for conducting one's life in a positive way. The seven values are: Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity and Faith.

About Angela Shelf Medearis

"I started writing children's books because I wanted children, particularly African-American children, to see a positive reflection of the African and African-American experience, our families, community and our history, in the books that they read," said Angela Shelf Medearis. Medearis founded and directs Book Boosters, a multicultural program for all grade levels that concentrates on the reading of creative writing and drama.

About Daniel Minter

Daniel creates beautiful illustrations using linoleum block prints that are hand painted or reproduced in black & white.

Kwanzaa is celebrated on December 26th to January 1st.

O Christmas Tree

Take time to grow and learn about traditions that may be new to you. Teachers can create many multicultural lessons that share a better understanding for cultural awareness in the classroom by reading picture books that depict diversity.

Merry Christmas

Our Fir Tree

Whatever holiday[s] you choose to celebrate with family and friends, I wish you love, peace and joy. And I must not forget   . . . Enjoy the many holiday dishes and yummy treats at your celebration. May I serve you?

Sugar Cookies

Gingersnaps

Happy Birthday, Mr. President ~By Suzy Leopold

Today, August 4th, is the birthday of Barack Obama, our forty-fourth president of the United States of America. 

Happy Birthday to you, Mr. President. 

Happy Birthday Mr. Obama!

Do you know that Mr. Obama is an author of a children’s picture book? Of Thee I Sing was written for his daughters and published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2010. The nonfiction book is written as a sweet, 

Walnut, carrot, dried cranberry cake with cream cheese frosting.

tender letter to Malia and Sasha from their father.  Such a beautiful message that reminds the girls to follow their dreams and forge their own paths. 

Included in the book is a tribute to thirteen Americans from the past and the present along with their achievements, ideals and contributions that shaped our nation. 

Of Thee I Sing

The story begins . . . 

Have I told you lately how wonderful you are?

How the sound of your feet

running from afar

brings dancing rhythms to my day?

How you laugh

and sunshine spills into the room?

Malia and Sasha Obama

Turning the pages of the book, Mr. Obama asks his girls several questions followed by information about a hero or a famous American who has made contributions to our country.    

Mr. and Mrs. Obama have instilled the importance of many core values, in Malia and Sasha, including honesty, humility, self-discipline and respect. In the book, Of Thee I Sing, the girls are reminded of their positive characteristics and the belief of important family and individual values, that encourages them to grow into strong, young women. Mr. Obama then compares those traits to many individuals whom are known for their greatness.

Have I told you that you are smart?

Albert Einstein
That you braid great ideas with imagination?
A man named Albert Einstein
turned pictures in his mind into giant advances in science, changing the world with energy and light.

Have I told you that you are inspiring?

César Chávez

A man named César Chávez showed farmworkers their own power when they felt they had none.

The people were poor but worked 
hard and loved the land. 
César picketed, prayed, and talked. 
The people listened to their hearts 
and marched for their rights.

“Sí se puede!”  “Yes, you can!”

The illustrations by Loren Long are expressive and reminiscent.  My favorite illustration depicts the innocence and promise of childhood and the hope for each one as they become our future leaders. The two page spread includes kids of all beliefs, races and religions, from the West coast to the East coast and all the states in between. This particular illustration, touches my heart, as I see a multicultural group of boys and girls, standing tall and proud, reminding me that America is a melting pot.

Have I told you that America is made up of people of every kind?

To learn more about the Americans featured in the book, a brief biography is written, including pertinent facts and data about each individual.  

Back Matter

The presidential family’s dog, Bo, is even illustrated by the award-winning artist of this book!

Books written about strong individuals, whom are people of character and depict positive role models, are important books to share with our youth. 

As a writer, consider the value of writing books with strong characters, for children to read, learn and grow.

This book is a true treasure.

Celebrate diversity!

May I serve you?