ILA 2019 Choices Reading Lists Highlight "Own Voices" Texts

INTERNATIONAL LITERACY ASSOCIATION’S(ILA) 2019 CHOICES READING LISTS HIGHLIGHT “OWN VOICES” TEXTS

Each year, Choices empowers 25,000 children and young adults across the United States to enjoy newly published children’s and young adults’ trade books and vote for the ones they like best and that had an impact on them as readers. Teachers, in turn, identify high-quality books that enrich the curriculum and, most important, excite and interest students.

This year’s lists exemplify the project’s continued commitment to diversity and representation in children’s literature. Books such as Finding Langston, Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice and Sewing the Rainbow: The Story of Gilbert Baker and the Rainbow Flag offerpowerful launch points for discussion around the social justice issues of racial bias, police violence and the LGBTQ rights movement.

CIVIL-RIGHTS ICON RUBY BRIDGES TO GIVE RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

In 1960, when she was 6, (Ruby)Bridges became one of the first black children to integrate the all-white New Orleans school system. She had to be accompanied by federal marshals throughout her entire first year at William Frantz Elementary School. The scene as she entered the school on her first day, as the marshals led her past a hostile mob, was depicted in Norman Rockwell’s painting “The Problem We All Live With.”

TAYE DIGGS, SHANE W. EVANS MEET WITH KIDS FOR LITERACY KC EVENT

The pair read their book, Chocolate Me. It discusses blackness, rejection among childhood friends, and finding beauty in your own skin.

“The importance of things like friendships, and relationship to me is vital,” Evans said. “Recognizing that this happened to a friend, and recognizing that it could happen to others, was the moment of recognizing the importance of it.”

LITTLE HAITI BOOK FESTIVAL HOSTS A NUMBER OF ENTERTAINING EVENTS

Organizers believe it is important for South Florida to learn positive attributes about Haitian culture, especially its impact and legacy to literature.”We learn a lot in the media about the difficulties the Haitian community faces, and of course all those problems are true, but there is also an aspect of Haiti that is very often overlooked,” said Fievre.

There will be literary workshops and a number of activities for children, including a storytelling session with famous Haitian author Edwidge Danticat.

WRITER OF THE WEEK: LUCILLE CLIFTON

Maryland is a geographically small state, but its history and legacy are as rich as any other’s. No one writer exemplifies the rich history of this politically, socially, and racially conflicted area more than poet and activist Lucille Clifton.

YOUNG VOICES ON READING, WRITING, AND LEARNING

One of the best ways to encourage a love of reading is through connecting with other blossoming readers. In Book Club for Kids, children have a way to experience that joy in a kid-designed book club. Recent selections include Monster by Walter Dean Myers and Alligator Bayou by Donna Jo Napoli.

BOOK REVIEW: ‘GONDRA’S TREASURE’ BY LINDA SUE PARK, ILLUS. BY JENNIFER BLACK REINHARDT

It’s an age-old tale to those of us who lived it, but there are still too few children’s books out there featuring mixed-race families. There’s a uniqueness to the experience of being multi-racial that transcends any of the individual heritages involved (case in point: The character I related to growing up was Star Trek’s Spock!).

This proves all the more true in the delightful Gondra’s Treasure, a storybook aimed at ages 4-7 that explores the experience of Gondra, a young dragon with a mother who is from the West and a father who hails from the East.

Jane Addams Peace Association