unypl:

“Lucy in the Sky,” by Anonymous

Borrow I Read

connotativewords:

January 6, 2013

and I constantly wonder how this magic is made

realkidsgoodbooks:

P is for Pinata: A Mexican Alphabet by Tony Johnston, illustrated by John Parra (Sleeping Bear, 2008). 

The glory of John Parra’s artwork is what this book is all about for me. Stop by Parra’s website for more examples of his work. Each entry is a folk-artsy treasure unto itself. 

Tony Johnston has done a great job choosing a wide range of entries to diversify our understanding of Mexico, including aspects of culture, geography, agriculture, and history. She writes both a longer description of each entry, plus a short rhyme— most likely to make the book more appealing to a wider age range of kids. The rhymes don’t always work, but here’s an quirky example of a more successful one. 

D is for Diego Rivera

Diego painted everything, from radishes to chilies.
He painted Aztec history — and lots of calla lillies.

Johnston uses the term Aztec in much of the book, although I have seen Mexica being used more often these days. Also, there are fewer entries that focus on Mayan history and only one that mentions the Olmec.

But my main question about the book comes from the entry for the 1968 Olympic Games. It stands out as completely bowdlerizing an infamous chapter of Mexican history. 

Unfortunately, before the Games, a student demonstration and its bloody result marred the event. But even so there was a strong feeling of camaraderie. In Mexico the world gathered—united for sport; united for peace.

Here’s NPR’s version of what happened. Most historians call it the Tlatelolco massacre. 

This excerpt leaves me turning around the perennial question about how to portray true history to kids— history that includes the oppression, repression and violence of our world — without painting a world that is beyond a kid’s understanding.

Would it have been better have a different entry for O altogether? For me, yes. Leaving the impression that the 1968 Olympics was an event promoting peace except for a small, bloody student disruption is actually distorting the truth. And I’m not sure that there is a way to responsibly portray the massacre to kids. So better to leave this piece of history for older high schoolers or college students to unpack and understand. 

(Image source: www.johnparraart.com)

(via stopwhitewashing)

connotativewords:

December 21, 2012

it could be the end of the world, and I would still be content with this

teachingliteracy:

amandaonwriting:

Literary Birthday - 16 November

Happy Birthday, Chinua Achebe, born 16 November 1930

Chinua Achebe: 12 Quotes On Stories

1. If you don’t like someone’s story, write your own.
2. To me, being an intellectual doesn’t mean knowing about intellectual issues; it means taking pleasure in them.
3. Nobody can teach me who I am. You can describe parts of me, but who I am - and what I need - is something I have to find out myself.
4. My weapon is literature.
5. People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.
6. Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control.
7. It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have - otherwise their surviving would have no meaning.
8. The emperor would prefer the poet to keep away from politics, the emperor’s domain, so that he can manage things the way he likes.
9. We cannot trample upon the humanity of others without devaluing our own.
10. If you only hear one side of the story, you have no understanding at all.
11. The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience. 
12. Stories serve the purpose of consolidating whatever gains people or their leaders have made or imagine they have made in their existing journey thorough the world. 

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He is best known for his first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart, which has sold more than 8 million copies around the world, and been translated into 50 languages. Achebe is the most translated African writer of all time.
Nelson Mandela referred to Achebe as a writer ‘in whose company the prison walls fell down’.
Achebe is the recipient of over 30 honorary degrees. He has been awarded the Man Booker International Prize, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, an Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Nigerian National Order of Merit.

by Amanda Patterson

From Writers Write

(via stopwhitewashing)

unypl:

“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie 

Borrow I Read

SHERMAN ALEXIE

unypl:

“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” by J.K. Rowling

Borrow I Read

unypl:

“Starcrossed,” by Josephine Angelini 

Borrow I Read

It was a quiet train making its way in the late afternoon. I was busy photographing a woman reading Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders. I took the shot, and then there was the usual interaction and introduction. Throughout this process though, I kept hearing a precise play-by-play of what I was doing and why. The soft but excited voice was coming from the back of the car. The young woman on the right of this photograph was explaining my actions to her siblings. I made my way over to them and learned that she had been following the library on facebook for almost a year. I sat with them for a bit and we chatted about the library, about photography, and about books. I’m so glad that the girl in the middle had been reading, because it’s my pleasure to bring these three people to the library. 

harmreduction:

For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Still Not Enough: Coming of Age, Coming Out, and Coming Home

The new book, For Colored Boys, addresses longstanding issues of sexual abuse, suicide, HIV/AIDS, racism, and homophobia in the African American and Latino communities, and more specifically among young gay men of color. The book tells stories of real people coming of age, coming out, dealing with religion and spirituality, seeking love and relationships, finding their own identity in or out of the LGBT community, and creating their own sense of political empowerment. For Colored Boys is designed to educate and inspire those seeking to overcome their own obstacles in their own lives.

- 4coloredboys.com is a comprehensive website that accompanies the book. It features a blog, extensive history and background, a library of additional reads from contributors…and adorable photos of the authors as kids!

(via lipstick-feminists)

kemetically-ankhtified:

grooveymutation:

themad-hattar:

lilygetsfit:

YOU OTHER READERS CAN’T DENY

WHEN A BOOK WALKS IN WITH A GOOD PLOT BASE

AND A BIG SPINE IN YOUR FACE YOU GET SPRUNG

WANNA PULL OUT YOUR PENS

‘CAUSE YOU NOTICED THAT BOOK WAS DENSE

READING, HALF-RIMS I’M WEARING

I’M HOOKED AND I AIN’T CARING

OH BABY I WANT AN E-READER

AND A MEANINGFUL METER

MY TEACHERS TRIED TO TRAIN ME

THAT BOOK YOU GOT MAKES ME SO BRAINY

OH MY GOD.

this person went in lol

(Source: thedailywhat, via kemetically-afrolatino)

unypl:

“A Wrinkle in Time,” by Madeleine L’Engle 

Read A Wrinkle in Time