Intermediate & Middle School Activity Meet Renee Watson Author of ‘Piecing Me Together,’ A Jane Addams Children’s Book Award 2018 Honor Title for Older Children. Read a summary of the book Jade misses going to school with neighborhood friends but the private school she attends on scholarship offers an international volunteer opportunity. This year she […]
Linda Sue Park: Empathize and Make Your World a Better Place
Intermediate & Middle School Activity Meet Linda Sue Part, author two Jane Addams Children’s Book Award titles for older children, ‘My Name is Keko’ a 2003 honor title and ‘A Long Walk to Water’ the 2011 winning title. Read a summary of the book A Long Walk to Water: This compelling story is told from two […]
Andrea Daviw Pinkney and Brian Pinkney: No Matter How Old You Are, You Can Make a Change in the World
Intermediate & Middle School Activity Meet Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney, husband-and-wife team and author and illustrator of ‘Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood up by Sitting Down,’ 2011 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award honor title for younger children. Read a summary of the book Sit-in energetically combines sweeping, fluid artwork and poetic prose, full […]
Rafael Lopez: Dare to Engage
Intermediate & Middle School Activity Meet Rafael Lopez, contributor to ‘We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices’ and illustrator of the 2019 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award winning title for younger children, ‘The Day You Begin,’ authored by Jacqueline Woodson. View his joyful art. Read a summary of the book “There will be times […]
Vanessa Brantley-Newton: Celebrate Our Differences & Similarities
Intermediate & Middle School Activity Meet Vanessa Brantley-Newton contributor to ‘We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices’ and Jane Addams Award recipient as Illustrator of ‘We Shall Overcome.’ Read a summary of the book We Shall Overcome. “When people sing out, they can change the world” Widely known as a Civil Rights anthem, the […]
Be a Seedfolk for Earth Day
Intermediate & Middle School Activity ‘Seedfolks’ was the 1998 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award honor title for older children by Paul Fleischman. Read a summary of the book A young Vietnamese girl plants six lima bean seedlings in an overgrown, garbage-strewn, inner-city lot in Cleveland. An elderly longtime resident of the neighborhood watches the child […]
Javaka Steptoe: Inspiration for Your Words & Art
Intermediate & Middle School Activity Javaka Steptoe, contributer to We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices and Jane Addams award recipient, as a child was a model for his late father the award winning author/illustrator John Steptoe. Today, Javaka is an award wining artist, designer, author, and illustrator himself! Learn More Look closely at his work via […]
Rise, Resist, Raise Your Voice Today!
Intermediate & Middle School Activity We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices (2019 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor Title for Older Chidren) is an empowering anthology that encourages resilience when “the world feels upside down.” Budding social activists looking for inspiration and ways to rise up, resist the status quo, and raise their voices […]
Thanhha Lai: Language Changes Who You Are
Intermediate & Middle School Activity Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai 2012 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Honor Title for Older Children, is a sem- autobiographical story. For all the ten years of her life, Ha has only known Saigon – the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of […]
Lois Lowry: Grapples with 1918 pandemic shutdown
Intermediate & Middle School Activity Lois Lowry has written more than 40 books for young people, some quite serious like Jane Addams Children’s Book Award 1990 Honor Title for Older Readers, Number the Stars, and the dystopian classic novel, The Giver. Others, like the Anastaia series and The Willoughbys, are beloved and lighthearted. Lois knows her young readers and respects their love […]