Intermediate & Middle School Activity Meet Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome, husband and wife team and author and illustrator of the 2018 Jane Addams Children’s Books Award Honor Title, ‘Before She Was Harriet.’ Read a summary of ‘Before She Was Harriet.’ A journey backward in time through the life of the woman known most often […]

Duncan Tonatiuh: Looking at Injustice
Intermediate & Middle School Activity Meet Duncan Tonatiuh, author of the 2015 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winning Title for Younger Children, ‘Separate is Never Equal.’ Read a summary of ‘Separate is Never Equal.’ In 1944, Sylvia Mendez’s Mexican American family had recently moved. She and her siblings were not allowed to go to the […]

Susan L. Roth: Let’s (Not) Hold Hands (Just for Now)
Intermediate & Middle School Activity Meet Susan L. Roth author (along with co-author Cindy Trumbore) and illustrator of the 2012 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award Winning Title for Younger Children, ‘The Mangrove Tree: Planting Trees to Feed Families.’ Read a summary ‘The Mangrove Tree.’ The Mangrove Tree: Planting Trees to Feed Families is ecological innovation […]

Renee Watson: Have a Conversation About Making Joy
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 […]