Esmé Raji Codell's Blog / en-US Tue, 16 Feb 2021 00:14:12 -0800 60 Esmé Raji Codell's Blog / 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg /author_blog_posts/20969745-a-remote-hope Mon, 15 Feb 2021 21:10:00 -0800 A Remote Hope /author_blog_posts/20969745-a-remote-hope I think remote schooling has been a teaching success.

There, I said it.


Here’s why.


Thousands upon thousands of teachers rose to the occasion of the “unprecedented times� (even though they were, in fact, a little bit , if you look at prior pandemics and wars) by seeking training for themselves, training each other and creating valuable online communities of professionals to share strategies and resources. Teachers subsidized remote learning by buying and/or using their own equipment, document cameras, laptops; their own subscriptions to necessary apps to make remote learning happen; their own digital books; upgrades of their own home internet connection speeds to facilitate instruction. There was so much we didn’t know how to do. The running joke was, every teacher is a first year teacher this year. And as all first years teachers, we were exhausted. We cried. We hated it and smiled for the children in the face of it. I was exhausted, cried and hated it. Children, too, were exhausted, crying and hating it. That’s what happens when you don’t have what you need and it makes you feel like you’re inadequate.


Once I realized I didn’t have to be good at every bit of new technology being thrown at me all at once, I hated it less.


Once I realized things were going to go wrong and it’s okay, it happens, I hated it less.


Once I realized that some of the reasons things were going wrong were because I didn’t have what I needed and I didn’t even realize it, and I started getting those things for myself, I hated it less.


Once I realized that my relationships with children were not contingent on physical proximity but on the daily expression of interest and compassion, just like it always was, I hated it less.


Once I heard the children laughing again, cracking jokes in the chat, getting answers right, begging for read-aloud not to end, creating wonderful projects that they couldn't wait to show me, I hated it less.


And once I hated it less, I had the tools and became de-centered enough to help children to hate it less.


Once I realized that the people who kept decrying “learning loss� have no longitudinal data to support any long-term harm (how could there be, we are still in it, after all),I hated it less. What we are measuring as loss may not be what children really would have learned as a result of this experience anyway. The gains may never be measured; one thing I've learning from teaching during COVID-19 is that data is meaningless unless we ask the right questions, and unfortunately I no longer trust that we know how to do that in education, there are too many private interests at stake. Even when we do ask the right questions, we don't use the right answers. I mean, if data ever meant anything, wouldn’t the data suggesting or that or that, or that or that have come more into the forefront, especially now? This pandemic has been nothing but a daily opportunity to finally, actually use what we know about children and best practice. We have had so, so many chances to reinvent education with the child at the center of it, and instead, too often, it was an embodiment of our mania for doing things the way they have always been done. Failure is a condition of learning and growth. We try to exorcise a fear of failure from our children so they will try new things but systemically we model that fear.


And there’s the rub. Everything about teaching and learning that felt like it was “bad� or like a “loss”� or “failure� has been the result of trying to do things as they had always been done, as if there wasn’t a pandemic going on. Every time I tried to keep up the pace and schedule and even the content as if we were in person, I floundered, I suffered, and so did the kids.


There was no “powering through� this; in order to be successful, we would have to actually slow down. My students and I had to actually meet each other where we were. I needed to really evaluate what was going on in the homes of the children I taught in a new and deeper way. I really needed to revisit the virtue of patience as technology failed us again and again. I really needed to teach step by step, paying extra careful attention that nobody fell through the cracks. I really needed to invent new units, revisit the curriculum, reinvent my whole methodology for presenting to a roomful…now a screenful…of children.I needed to make things more hands on, create new and more dynamic projects to engage them, and with that, new ways to assess them.I had to do things differently, the children have done things differently. I’m a better teacher for it, the children have showed versatility. And I daresay, if we are being perfectly honest, even after the best-case scenario in which we get the spread of the virus under control, if we give any credence to things like, oh, climate change, maybe deep down we believe we might have to do this again sometime in the decades to come…and next time, at least, we might know a little better how to do it. Is that so bad? Does that constitute “a loss�? So many school mission statements include creating 21st century learners. If this isn’t 21st century learning, what is?


The pandemic is surely the cause of situational depression, stressful childcare crises, boredom and feelings of isolation to those familiesprivilegednot to have experienced the more enduring grief and trauma of job loss, home loss, illness or death. But just like I had to discover as a teacher that what I was suffering was not always my fault as much as a void in receiving what I need to do better, so is it time for Americans to translate their needs into policy. In the long run this may prove more effective than scapegoating and martyring the teachers whose job it is to deliver instruction, a role I have heard belittled too often these days, as if it is some little peripheral little thing and not what requires deep relationships to really work, the thing that empowers the skills that lead to opportunity, the thing with the ability to make so many of the shortcomings of childhood ephemeral. America uses teachers and staff as babysitters, as mental health counselors, as caterers, as custodians, and then resents them when they ask to teach remotely for the health of themselves or their own families or suggest, as Alderwoman King of the 4th Ward in Chicago so bluntly put it, we don't want to "."Teachers are not your enemy, nor are we your panacea. We may be a workforce comprised largely of women who are finally learning to say what we need…and some of what we need are boundaries. And, I might hazard to suggest, there's nothing wrong with your child being taught by someone who knows how to model saying no.


Meanwhile. Grown-ups: please. Stop saying what a failure remote learning is within earshot of your children. Stop saying it will be over soon if you don’t know for sure; instead, focus on creating a cheerful and quiet space where children can work effectively so it won’t matter as much.Please appreciate that kids are not only socialized by other children; traditionally throughout history and certainly in times of extenuating circumstances, children were socialized by their own families, children did not spend so many hours at school, it's only our modern condition that makes us so much less practiced and makes it so scary. You have a role to play that can make or break your child's experience and impact everyone else's as well.Stop badmouthing your child’s teacher when you are frustrated; it creates a culture of disrespect that we will not be able to survive in or out of the building.And please stop saying teachers need to get “back to work.� Not only is it fallacious and insulting and demoralizes the teacher, it undermines the work of your own child, the teacher’s true and symbiotic partner in this adventure.


Remote learning can be done well with the proper mitigations at least as well as in-person learning can be done well with the proper mitigations, neither of which teachers in urban districts generally trust they will receive outside of their own volition, as evidenced by clashes…and precedent. If you have righteous indignation about kids not returning to in-person learning during a pandemic, maybe redirect it working toward accessible Wifi and equipment for all families, a school library and trained librarian in every school, hiring enough people to clean and fix filthy and rodent-infested buildings, effecting gun control legislation, addressing food insecurity and lack of affordable health care and child care and putting a stop to the funding of schools based on property taxes and thus breaching Brown v. Board every day...all of which have longer term implications on equity, achievement and health than a year of remote teaching and learning ever could.


I am proud of my students and the way they have carried through this chapter of what will be history. I am proud of their hard work and what they have accomplished, even while their internet connection dropped and reconnected repeatedly. If I can’t see them in person, I try to embrace the now and look forward to seeing them on the screen at home and will support their academic growth as they are eating snacks and offering me cyber-bites, squeezing their pets for comfort, showing me their toys up close on the full screen, their younger siblings appearing in the frame now and then, their intermittent disappearances as they enjoy the novelty of going to the bathroom without the whole class in tow. I know these kids are adjusting and sometimes suffering, I know this situation is stressful and strange, I know they do not have all the resources they need for this to be optimal. But I also know there are some kids who were socially awkward or anxious, who were distracted by social drama, bullying or neighborhood terrors, kids who needed to have more physicality than sitting at a desk all day, kids who needed more time with and attention from their families and they are shining in this moment. I love teaching students to make scrambled eggs, do stop-action animation, use the public library’s collection of thousands of digital books, meet a surprise online guest author, things we might not have done if school were being held in person.It’s not the same, of course, and maybe/probably our egg-scrambling skills won't show up on the test, but I don’t feel like we’re losing. We’re just doing something differently, in our schools, in America, in the world, at a time when we need to be doing more things differently in all of these places.


That looks a lot like success to me.



posted by Esmé Raji Codell on February, 16 ]]> /author_blog_posts/20190647-covid-19-can-do-three-unorthodox-things-we-can-do-to-improve-equity-an Wed, 05 Aug 2020 22:48:00 -0700 <![CDATA[COVID-19 Can-Do: Three Unorthodox Things We Can Do to Improve Equity and Engagement in Remote Teaching Right Now]]> /author_blog_posts/20190647-covid-19-can-do-three-unorthodox-things-we-can-do-to-improve-equity-an I am a K-8 teacher-librarian with the Chicago Public Schools. I went to an online training early on in the COVID-19 outbreak to learn how to produce basic video content in which the instructor said, "just put up your green screen..." Green screen?! Oh, yes, let me go grab that, right behind the shock mount for my boom and my three-point lighting kit. Did I leave that behind the toaster oven?

Though I would say most teachers did the requisite excellent and overly-practiced job of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear this past spring, it's a struggle to have real equity when teachers have varying experience, comfort and training in not only creating content for online instruction but producing it, as well as varying levels of bandwith and access to equipment in their homes (not unlike the students). What, then, outside of mastering the magical mysteries of myriad screens, can we as teachers and instructional leaders do to ensure quality educational experiences for all students in the time of COVID-19?
1. Make your "specials" classes your core curriculum.

The great (if uncertified) teacher, "life is a banquet, and some poor suckers are starving to death." How are we setting our academic table? Kids cannot live by bread alone. We have the chance to examine the failures in engagement of the past season and correct them with the classes that are the spice of life.

To that end: we don't need fewer specials during this special time, we need more, more, more. Art. Music. Physical Education. Library. Drama. Technology. Turn it all over, give these teachers and subjects unprecedented leadership and time. Arrange your school's schedule around them, the way you used to schedule math and reading. Last spring, a lot of these classes fell to the wayside to prioritize "core classes" in terror that students should "lose time" to the . What if students should drop in academic achievement? Insert pearl-clutch here. The worst that could happen by reversing curricular priorities is that students will do as poorly as everyone expects on standardized tests for a year or two. The best: the discovery of passions. Lifelong learning.

And you should expect the best. The approaches of these "special" classes necessitate quick engagement and transitions and are often project-based, exactly what students need during crisis learning. This is where the children will move, explore off-screen, create. This is where there is room to be developmentally appropriate while we have kids looking at screens too much of the day. These "specials" teachers are used to seeing every kid in the school over a period of years, and can integrate the hell out of whatever you're teaching, just tell them...and trust them.

Examine your biases about these subjects and let them go. "Specials" can't be relegated to extras, incidentals, prep periods any longer. The stringency of subject areas defined a century ago. Invent some new special classes that would be exciting to try online: environmental education, media literacy, armchair travel geography, film history! Bring back home economics, foreign languages and shop class! If you don't have special classes at your school, enlist teachers to integrate these subjects into the core (some already do).

Exuberance aside: this is not a minor detail in terms of creating educational equity. You think families in rich suburban schools and private schools consider art or music or a library an "extra?" Parents with resources are engaging their children in wonderful online pay-to-play opportunities like (to their credit, Outschool offered scholarships and reduced rates during the initial outbreak). People who want to give their children an advantage know the edge that "specials" deliver. While everyone's heads are turned by the distractions of disaster, up the equity ante for the underserved by being seriously extra in your curriculum.

2. Turn to children's books.

I have said and written that access to children's trade literature (the kind of books found in libraries and bookstores) coupled with the best practice ofis our best hope for equalizing education in America. Why? Because a great book in the hands of a literate poor child is the same great book in the hands of a literate rich child. Access to books has been in determining a student's chances for academic success.I wrote a whole book about becoming a supporting character in a child's reading life story, and to ensure that if schools fail, your children don't have to. You can access it for free, and scroll through over a decade of children's book recommendations.

I have also written in a :
Books in thoughtful combination are an education in themselves...I can only imagine how a child who experiences these titles will be changed, and change is the definition of learning. Through what new lenses will the child view the world after experiencing this art? What biographies will inspire them, what mentors will fly through space and time to scaffold their dreams and efforts? How will they view and understand the natural world? What new friends will they find inside books that will inform them to know how to connect and empathize with people outside of books? What will make them laugh, cry, think?
Not to mention, a child who discovers the magic of reading will never be as lonely or bored as the child who has not. That meant a lot on an average day. During quarantine, it means even more.

Let's take a moment to talk books. Are they all created equal? The crisis has led many teachers and students, understandably and necessarily, to turn to digital resources including ebooks. However, studies have shown that . That means children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds relegated to free school e-book collections alone may be getting a separate but equal reading opportunity.

One thing we can do as a country to promote access to print books for all would be to insist that catalogs, in order to be eligible for bulk rate through the U.S. Post Office, contain a certain percentage of pages dedicated to reading material at the end of them, at least through the course of this pandemic. Graphic novels, serials, classics...can you imagine how children would hop up and down at the arrival of the Pottery Barn catalog if a few pages of a or were attached? This will ensure that all children with an address have access to reading material. The U.S. Post Office has a long and magnificent history of disseminating necessary information through the mail. This crisis could usher in a new age of appreciation of the agency as it delivers educational equity to children when it is so sorely needed.

For children who do not have an address (unfortunately a demographic predicted to grow in the coming months and years), we must publicly fund. Right now, most of these libraries are cute and expensive and privately set up, but they need to berecognizable and ubiquitous, the way we have post office mailboxes.

Lastly, look at this plan from the Chicago Public Schools for Instructional Priorities for the 2020-21 school year. Do you know else what they are describing?



They are describing a school library with a program run by a trained school librarian to a T, actually. Yet now, during the COVID-19 outbreak, there are only about 100 librarians in the Chicago Public School system for over 600 schools, i.e. about 100 librarians for over 350,000 students, even though . That means a system with over 75% economically disadvantaged students, a system with over 80% Black and Hispanic children, have a 1 in 6 chance of having a school librarian. I am calling out , but this is hardly the anomaly in urban areas across the country.

During COVID-19 and in the years of recovery to come, this blatant disparity will only serve to widen the gap of achievement and all of the economic opportunity that it ultimately affords. So I'd hazard to say, if you are advantaged by your race and/or your income and/or your zip code and your child goes to a school with a school librarian, you have work to do outside of putting a sign on your front lawn. Equity in education is part of showing, not telling, that Black Lives Matter, and school libraries are equity in education in action. Advocate loudly for the advantage that school libraries deliver and that some children receive while others do not. If children's books are our best hope for equalizing education, we need the libraries to deliver them.

3. Train parents.

Here's the most common question I heard from shocked, overwhelmed parents when the schools closed in March: "does this count?"

Oh, the panic. How much of this do we have to do? Where do they turn it in? Why is it taking so long to do? If the work is finished early, what are they supposed to do? What if I don't have a job, or childcare, or someone is sick? Is the teacher looking at my messy apartment? What if our computer goes down? What if other children need the computer? What if I need the computer? What if the computer breaks or I can't get a connection? What if I have to be at work and my child runs into a problem on the computer? What if I can't get my child to sit in front of the computer? What if I don't have a computer? How will that affect the grade? Will my child be held back? If it doesn't count for the grade, why should my child do it? The grade, the grade, the grade, icing the towering, dreadful cake is the grade, in the face of, well, death and illness and job loss, here we are, still worried about the grade.

And after responsibly giving attention to the gradein the face of all this, a sense of entitlement may start to creep in, and parents may find themselves frustratingly thwarted by teachers; turns out, working for a long time is not necessarily meeting a standard, busy is not necessarily the same as learning, and every time your child raises a hand or turns something in, it may not result in an "A" (though your child may still be a good and successful person in the long run nonetheless). What counts, then? What counts?

Many parents are terrified, it seems, of failure in a time when it seems all systems are failing; when many of us, as adults, are working without economic or health care safety nets in a time of crisis. Some parents, faced with this high level of necessary involvement, are heavily projecting their own childhood anxieties around school and performance. Completely understandable.

I think we could go far in alleviating a lot of counterproductive stress and direct conflict with teachers if we took more time to clarify expectations. Just as experienced teachers know the first week is when you can really set the tone for the classroom, in the context of COVID, rather than diving into assignments and protocols with the children, the first week might be better spent helping parents to set the tone to support learning in the home, slowly walking through how to log in, how to find assignments, how to communicate with the teachers, how to create a positive physical space in the home conducive to learning, how to juggle the needs of many children in one household with limited computer access. Answering these kind of logistical questions, and making answers available in the home language, will contribute to equity.

There's so much that schools can do to alleviate deeply personal parental insecurities surrounding failure that can result in clashes with children and teachers through a combination of better-communicated understandings, affirmations and real partnership.Letter grades during COVID have already proven intrinsically inequitable because everyone's situation is so different.We can start by underscoring the big, basic, new-to-many idea that participation can "count" and matter even when it is not graded.

Parents are not professional educators, but they are always in a teaching role and always positioned to foster a relationship with the child that can either incite or stifle learning. In the context of claustrophobic COVID, this role is pronounced and overwhelming and parents need extra reassurances and clarification.It is fair to suggest assessments and accommodations may look different during COVID, and parents need to know this.

Just like with the students, if we don't handle climate on the front end, we will all suffer for the rest of the year. So let's take the time to inservice parents like new teachers and give them a leg up by sharing pedagogical insights for survival.

Parents need to learn, as new teachers do, that there are good days and bad days, and that an education is the sum of many parts. One bad day is not the end of the world. Forgive yourself and others and keep going.

As new teachers do, parents need to turn focus from whether they are succeeding to whether the child is succeeding, and accept that some portion of challenge or even failure is often necessary for growth.


As new teachers do, parents need to learn to break tasks down into small steps and be generous and genuine in celebrating steps toward mastery, both to encourage the child and themselves.

They need to see, as new teachers see, that the most effective behavior management comes from engaging children in interests and relevancy, not negative consequences.

As new and effective teachers do, parents need to examine their own enthusiasms and skill sets to determine what they really have to share as human beings and then realize that lifelong learning comes from the relationship implicit in that sharing, not from any worksheet or app divorced from the context of that relationship.

Parents then need to be encouraged to value, without disparagement, what they have to share, whether it's the theory of relativity or long division, or how to enjoy a book, or cooking soup, or finding middle "C" on a piano, or growing flowers, or making change for a dollar, or making a bed, or telling a joke, or braiding hair, or speaking another language, or locating the Big Dipper, or simply how to be brave even when things aren't really going your way.

Most of all, parents need to learn, as teachers invariably do, that if the child doesn't have have mental and physical health, if the child doesn't feel safe, if the child is tired or hungry, it's hard or impossible to deliver any content at all. And if what a parent can do on a given day is take care of these needs, set the expectation that they participate in whatever the teacher has arranged for them as best they can, if they share a book, or even just love them, that's pretty darn okay. That's what counts right now. Maybe it always has been what counted.

This may be the end of the age of fallacies that upheld a status quo. The big assignment now is that we invent ourselves. The children are so bravely growing and doing this work every day, with or without us. Refreshed curriculum that invites art, movement, handiwork, the chance to read and some sanity in their inner circle will go far to support this work, preserve the humanity of the children we serve and keep our influence positive, even in the face of our own trials.

I leave you with a short film that made a big impact on me in imagining a new school year. Thank you, Liv McNeil.

I look forward to knowing what you imagine, in the comments section and elsewhere.



Stay well and happy reading, friends.

posted by Esmé Raji Codell on August, 06 ]]> /author_blog_posts/19576275-helpful-hints-for-a-sane-reading-quarantine-from-a-school-librarian Sun, 15 Mar 2020 13:53:00 -0700 <![CDATA[HELPFUL HINTS FOR A SANE READING QUARANTINE FROM A SCHOOL LIBRARIAN]]> /author_blog_posts/19576275-helpful-hints-for-a-sane-reading-quarantine-from-a-school-librarian Wait Till the Moon is Fullby Margaret Wise Brown
Some helpful hints for parents as you begin your COVID-19 homeschooling adventure:

PLEASE TURN ON THE CLOSED CAPTIONING FEATURE ON YOUR COMPUTER/TELEVISION!!!
It is anticipated that most families will be having a little more screen time than usual during the quarantine. By turning on this feature when your child watches a show, you are ensuring important exposure to print even when your child is not reading a book. Please! This is a small thing to do that...it's a great way to painlessly increase a child's sight word vocabulary and reading fluency!

YOU DON'T HAVE TO REPLICATE THE SCHOOL EXPERIENCE TO HAVE AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE.
Filling the days with piles of worksheets and assignments will likely bore your child and create conflict. Keep in mind, many children can get a lot more done in less time working at home, where there are fewer bathroom breaks and transitions between classes and peer distractions. Children learn from relationships. Teach your child to make scrambled eggs or walk them through a family recipe. Play board games. Work on tying shoes. Read aloud. Interview an elder. Write letters to friends. Plant a windowsill garden. Learn a craft on YouTube together. Watch a classic movie together (suggestions to come). Build indoor forts, or models, or cardboard box dollhouses. Whatever you can do is enough, whatever you have can be enough. Don't stress. This can be a positive and memorable time just by being as present as possible. Find your own flow and put the mental and physical health of your family first.

MOVE THE SCREENS WHERE YOU CAN SEE CHILDREN USING THEM AND PRACTICE CYBERSAFETY.
The internet has rich offerings during this time but also potential pitfalls. Have a conversation about screen time and phone use at the outset. Especially with older kids, come up with a plan you can agree upon and a cut-off time for phone usage to avoid conflict as the days wear on. While we don't want to isolate children during the quarantine, we also don't want them to develop poor habits. Increased unsupervised online activity can also be a recipe for exposure to inappropriate thematic content or contact with inappropriate strangers or online bullies. Check histories, activate filters and put screens where activity can be monitored.

TALK TO YOUR CHILD ABOUT THE NEWS. In middle school library classes, we have been talking about citing sources and the credibility of what we read, where information comes from and considering the viability of who is speaking or writing. Who do we believe? What makes information fact and what makes something an opinion? Use the news that the children encounter online and on television to continue that conversation and to mitigate fears during this stressful time.

ENCOURAGE JOURNALING. Children cankeep a personal diary of life during this time or make a daily family newspaper. Remember, this is an unprecedented time. Remind kids they are living the history we read about. Their stories matter and will matter.

GIVE YOUR CHILD THE RECESS WE CAN'T.Your child loves, craves and needs physical activity. Because of mandates of the way time is spent during a school day, we can't give them the long recess they developmentally deserve. You can. Long, long walks and bike rides are encouraged while keeping social distancing. It will help focus and mood. Recognizing that many parents work; do it as you're able.

IT'S OKAY TO BE A LITTLE BORED.While it is helpful to have art supplies and books and resources within your child's reach, it is not your job as a parent to fill and schedule every moment. A little down-time fosters creativity, imagination and autonomy...and reading! Speaking of...

MAKE READING DURING THE QUARANTINE ABOUT CHOICE, NOT LEVELS.
Comic books are real reading. Sports magazines are real reading. Cookbooks are real reading. Books on tape are real listening (and reading, if you get a copy of read along). Picture books are real reading and promote visual literacy. Read-aloud across the grade levels is one of the most academically beneficial things you can do for your child during this and any time. Even when your child knows how to read, reading aloud with your child following along in the book (you can run your fingers under the word as you read) does wonders and also fosters positive connections with books and with you. Additional and specific book recommendation blasts from the recent past I have recommended to my own students may be found,and, and on my personal children's book review website you're reading right, but again, access to specific titles is going to differ from house to house during the quarantines and there are no wrong choices. Your assignment: read what you have and read for fun.

SET REASONABLE GOALS IN READING AND ALL THINGS. Try a Book Bingo (sample card, but). Or create a reading batting average (picture book = single, nonfiction = double, chapter book = triple, classic finished as a family = home run; use the sport of your choice and the categories of your choice). Or, how many award-winners (or any genre) can you read? Small, attainable steps toward a goal or open-ended achievements build confidence.

ADDITIONAL HOMESCHOOLING ONLINE RESOURCESbelow! Try not to be overwhelmed; remember, you don't have to do them all or any of them at all, they are tools to be used if needed. An "assignment" might be for children themselves to explore five a day and write "reviews."

Free Reading Websites for Kids



(good for primary, some free, some premium)
(multilingual)
(online reading games)


General






(Whoa! Brought to us by)
(Arts courses. Ms. Esme takes a class here! Good for older kids)





AND ON A PERSONAL NOTE:When I wrote, it was with the heartfelt, almost religious belief that children's trade literature and read-aloud was our best hope for equalizing education. I wanted to give every family the tools to be a supporting character in a child's reading life story, no matter what their socioeconomic background might be. It was marketed as a parenting book, but it really, it came from my lesson plan book. I have been a fifth grade teacher, a homeschooling mom and now a K-8 school librarian with the Chicago Public Schools for over a dozen years. I still know quality children's literature has the potential to give every child a solid elementary education, in or out of the school building.
Teachers, librarians and parents are all partners in education. The closing of schools is a call to cooperation. I hope this guide and PlanetEsme, which has been recommending books since 1999 and offers hundreds of free book reviews right here via this blog, will be useful, inspiring and empowering to you and your family during this challenging time.
Wishing you health and the enjoyment of books and one another from my home to yours.XOXO Esme


posted by Esmé Raji Codell on March, 16 ]]> /author_blog_posts/18905538-you-don-t-have-to-be-jewish Tue, 01 Oct 2019 17:56:00 -0700 You Don't Have to Be Jewish /author_blog_posts/18905538-you-don-t-have-to-be-jewish
Well, the Tree of Life synagogue shooting that happened in Pittsburgh less than a year ago didn't happen because people were obese. And the attack on the San Diego synagogue this spring wasn't because people were old. I appreciate that not every religious group can be represented at book recommendation events, but the timing of such exclusions is questionable. If any other racial or ethnic group marginalized in our history were excluded from the lists at the same time that mass marches were actively happening to call for their eradication byWhite Supremacist and other hateful groups, well, what would you call that? Poor timing? Outrageous? Or something else?

Tzivia MacLeod has written a very brave article,which references another separate scenario of exclusion.

Respectfully, to professionals: please. Find the room, find the time. Whether Jewish or not, inclusion of this literature in collection development conversations is more than religious representation. It's respectful acknowledgement of the backgrounds of some of the most seminal contributors to the genre: Maurice Sendak, the Reys, The Hobans, The Zemachs, Judith Viorst, Judy Blume, Shel Silverstein, R.L. Stine, Judith Kerr, Julius Lester, Mordicai Gerstein to name a very few. It is an acknowledgement of the fact that Jewish American contribution is American history, extending broadly and meaningfully into the secular American world. But more than that, as is the battle cry of diversity in children's literature: all children deserve to see themselves represented on the shelves. Further, all children deserve access to quality literature that reflects people different from themselves. Holes in collection diversity are holes in preparing students for encounters with the human diversity that with any luck and effort will demarcate the 21st century as much as any technology, so if you have no Jewish kids at your school, you need Jewish children's books even more. If you are a teacher or librarian and you do not have books representing Jewish people in your collection, there is a lack in the diversity of your collection.

So, what's the fix?

The first thing to do is probably get acquainted with , which is kind of like a Jewish given by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL). A committee of professionals determine "outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience," not unlike the Coretta Scott King Award and Pura Belpré award for their respective representations. The authors and illustrators do not have to be Jewish to receive the Sydney Taylor award. The AJL has a handy , which is an education in itself.

A less extensive but very thoughtful list is the
I am the lucky librarian in a racially, ethnically, religiously and culturally diverse school in Chicago and am acutely aware of the balancing act between presenting diversity and separation of church (and synagogue and mosque) and state. But the bottom line is, a good story belongs to everybody. These are just a few titles I personally use successfully in my programming over the years with the children I serve. I hope you will share yours in the comments section.



by Sydney Taylor. The name Sydney Taylor comes up a lot in conversations about Jewish children's literature because she was "the first children's author to write books about Jewish people that were read by mainstream America" (Cummins, 2014). She started the series in 1951, a chummy plum of realistic fiction that finally depicted Jewishness as a matter-of-fact in the course of the daily adventures.To me, it's kind of like of Jewish literature. Throughout, there's feeling that family is the world, but the rest of the world is still there, too. For better or worse.

Taylor also was pioneering in the way she wrote about urban life, a family crowded into a small apartment, relatable to many of my students. The exciting, funny, emotional, episodic chapters are devour-able, thank goodness she wrote more than one. Fans of old-fashioned book candy a la Beverly Cleary and Betsy-Tacy series will rejoice. The series holds up like a good TCM movie: classic.



by Janusz Korczak is the story of a boy king who rules over a country of children while the grown-ups make a mess of their own. By page two of a read-aloud, my fifth graders were hooked. Whether being in the trenches of war with his foul-mouthed roughneck bestie Felek, building life-sized dolls to fool his jealous advisors, trying to ingratiate himself through dispersal of chocolate or traveling the world to find an unlikely guest for his meeting of a children's parliament, this book is a masterwork of cliffhangers. It also contains some of the most nuanced, profound and entertaining characters in children's literature. Popular as Peter Pan in parts of Europe, it is largely unknown here in the states, which is a great loss to be ameliorated.

Korczak's real life story is legendary, and ultimately tragic. He was a Polish pediatrician during WWII who ran orphanages in Warsaw (and really did try an innovative children's parliament as described in the book in that setting). Korczak had many opportunities to escape the Nazis but elected to stay with his charges, and died with them at Treblinka. Every time I read this book, I can feel Korczak loving those children and trying to prepare them for the difficulties of this imperfect world. He wrote and read aloud these words as a gift to the children he loved, children he was trying to distract from suffering with the joy and excitement of these great adventures.And now, almost a hundred years later, the words can come from your lips to the children you care about, and they still work their magic. A miraculous legacy of read-aloud.



by Issac Bashevis Singer, illustrated by Maurice Sendak. Written by the master storyteller, my students have thrilled and laughed raucously to this read-aloud, favorites being "Fool's Paradise," the story of a family who tricks a bridegroom into believing he has died and gone to Heaven in order to help him appreciate his life on Earth; "The First Shlemiel" which is a slapstick series of events gone wrong with culminating hilarity and forgiveness; and then the cover story, Zlateh the Goat, in which a goat saves a boy's life in a winter's storm. There is also "The Snow in Chelm," an introductory story to the town in literature that is famous for its wise fools, though exploration of this may be better served in Singer's wider collection, . To introduce children to Singer's work is to introduce children to truly graceful narrative and a gentle view of humanity.



Less gentle but just as important: by Doris Orgel and by Jennifer Roy. If the only books that represent Jewish people in your collection take place during the Holocaust, that would be as much of a mistake as only representing African Americans in the context of slavery. That said, it is an important chapter in history shared by all humankind, and there are some remarkable children's books set against this backdrop. Two of the finest are, inexcusably, out of print, one of them being by Doris Orgel, a brilliant translator and author whose own family escaped Vienna during the war. She does such a resonating job of depicting the painful cleaving of a friendship between Jewish Inge and Leiselotte, daughter of a Jewish S.S. officer. It is easy for children today to imagine the strain between the two friends, and the ultimate loss.

"In 1945 the war ended. the Germans surrendered and the ghetto was liberated. Out of over a quarter of a million people, about 800 walked out of the ghetto. Of those who survived, only twelve were children. I was one of those twelve." was written by the niece of one of these twelve, composing the unthinkable story into an accessible verse memoir that does the honest and tricky work of presenting what really happened to the Jewish people during World War II while still being readable and appropriate with guidance for middle-grade readers. A masterful introduction, and in tandem with The Devil in Vienna, they do highly effectual work in teaching students about the human experience in this most inhumane context.




by Eric Kimmel, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. Hershel has agreed to spend eight nights in the synagogue and rid the town of Ostropol from the goblins plaguing their Hanukkah celebrations. Part ghost story, part holiday story, and decorated with both hilarious and beautiful illustrations by the inimitable Caldecott-winning Trina Schart Hyman, this is the favorite, favorite,favorite annualclassic read-aloud for my second grade; I show the children menorahs, dreidels and chocolate gelt to allow children who are not Jewish to understand the objects referenced, and then we all play dreidel, dance the hora and draw pictures of our own goblins. This is what I mean when I say story belongs to everybody. More mystical Jewish fun may also be found in reprint of the classicby Marilyn Hirsh, one of my own childhood favorites.



by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Andre Carillho, is the story of the great New York Dodgers pitcher so dedicated to his faith that he would not come to the mound during the 1965 World Series on the highest Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, even in the face of great discrimination. Biographies are a great place to start with sharing Jewish history and identity, and they can be read aloud across the grade levels. Besides, there are so many good ones: , by Debbie Levy, illustrated by Elizabeth Baddeley; 9 by Michelle Markel, illustrated by Melissa Sweet; by Erica Silverman, illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein; by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Mary Grandpré; by Leslie Kimmelman, illustrated by David C. Gardener, to name a very few, many more cited on the lists referenced above and out there in the world, including one of my very favorites:


by Linda Glaser, illustrated by Claire A. Nivola, the wonderful story of Emma Lazarus and how she came to compose the words on the base of the Statue of Liberty, "The New Colossus," which famously begins, "Give me your titred, your poor, your huddled masses/yearning to breathe free..." Every young citizen deserves to know this story and that a Jewish woman is behind this national invitation. It is a great story to begin a school year with, but also perfect for integration into units about immigration which also often happen around Thanksgiving, an occasion to read another Jewish classic, by Barbara Cohen, though I usually elect instead to share the , a little pricey but worth it and along the lines of Eleanor Estes' masterpiece as far as fodder for discussion of bigotry and empathy. Here is the trailer:



Finally,by Aubrey Davis, illustrated by Dusan Petricic, which I share with children just because it is a book I happen to love. In an effort to show gratitude to his God, Benny hides bagels in the Holy Ark of the temple. The bagels disappear, and Benny's grandfather is outraged at the sacrilege. But where are the bagels actually going? This tear-jerker is about the connection between people's idea of God and the more earthly ideas of gratitude and service, the idea of tikkun olam, acts of kindness performed that honor and are in keeping with one's faith; like the Golden Rule, a concept embraced by caring people of all religions and all non-religions, and certainly by children.



By sharing these kind of stories, children will learn important words like "synagogue," "rabbi," "mazel tov," "mitzvah," even latke and dreidel, vocabulary that will not make children Jewish but will in fact allow them to navigate in a friendly, knowledgeable and compassionate manner amongst people of a particular group who may be different from themselves. I would think that would be a general objective for the education of all children.

To suggest "well, we also didn't include people who are heavy" when talking about limiting our conversations about diversity is unfortunately an utterly nonsensical answer; think of it being offered to any other racial or ethnic group.It is logically flawed. An old person used to be young, and a heavy or thin person might change their weight, but regardless of religious practice, Jewish heritage is part of an unchangeable identity. As sure as African American, Native American, Latinx or Asian people have unhappy stories of American aggression and "otherness," so do Jewish people. And in conversations about diversity in children's literature and allowing children to see themselves reflected in the literature they read, to exclude Jewish children's literature, , is irresponsible at best and a form of ethnic erasure at worst. It is especially ugly juxtaposedwith the publishing world's flood of salable, sometimes platitude-filled pablum about empathy. Kindness is as kindness does, and the word is a living thing. Read and develop collections with this in mind. My wish for the Jewish New Year.

posted by Esmé Raji Codell on October, 02 ]]> /author_blog_posts/17851727-thirty-one-derful-children-s-picture-books-to-start-the-new-year-best Sun, 20 Jan 2019 22:26:00 -0800 <![CDATA[Thirty One-derful Children's Picture Books to Start the New Year: Best of 2018]]> /author_blog_posts/17851727-thirty-one-derful-children-s-picture-books-to-start-the-new-year-best This speaks to the magic of collection building. One good book is transformative.But there is something about the relationship of books on a shelf, next to each other. The arrangement is like neurons firing, from one to another; every connection matters. I think of the yearly round-up as its own special collection; if a child were to read all these books in the course of a year, how would they be changed in what they know, in how they act, in what they value? How would they form relationships to books, authors, illustrators, each other? Because that's all real learning boils down to: content, change and relationship, and these selections will foster growth in all those areas. Books are chosen with read-aloud, classroom use, kid-appeal and excellence in writing and illustration top of mind. Here we go, thirty-one in honor of every day of the first month of the New Year!
First, my picks for the highest award in American children's book illustration, .
My fingers-are-crossed hope for this year is that all the Caldecott Awards go to books that represent Latinos, because this year, it just so happens all of these books absolutely deserve to win and also just so happen to feature Latino characters.


In by Jessica Love (Candlewick), young Julián observes gorgeous costumed mermaids en route to the , and naturally this unleashes his fantasy of joining them. He imitates them with an elaborate and imaginative homemade costume. Will this meet with his grandmother's disapproval? While this is a powerful story of unconditional love that every child deserves to read (and experience), I confess it is my favorite because it is just so beautiful. SO BEAUTIFUL. The cover is charming, yes, but when you crack it open...WHAT! Those lines. The flow. The colors. It's DREAMY. It's LUCIOUS! And the endpapers. I've been giving a lot more attention to endpapers during story times since illustrators seem to be giving them more attention of late as well. Sometimes they are wrapping paper for the gift of the book and other times they are a bonus gift, as is the case here: a row of grandmothers at a swim class with Julian under the surface, and finishing with the same grandmothers as mermaids with our victorious hero in tow. Intergenerational, urban and urbane, developmentally appropriate and reflective, loving, LGBQT friendly and celebratory of All Things Imagination, this book makes a major splash.



Inby Juana Martinez-Neal (Candlewick),Alma Sofia Esperanza José Pura Candela wonders why she has such an unwieldy moniker and learns that her name was inspired by a conglomeration of relatives worth remembering, each of whom is introduced here. There is a piece of each of these ancestors that lives on in Alma, combining to make her one of a kind. The uncluttered and refined line illustrations bring to mind children's book masters of the past (think Martha Alexander). Mostly I am so excited by the potential for classroom conversations this will inspire about names and relatives and how who we are can have so much to do with where we come from. This book invites family, ancestry and pride.



by Yuyi Morales (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House) is based on the real immigrant experience of Mexican author Yuyi Morales and her young son. It does an sensitive job of depicting the foibles of someone making a way in a new country and offers one of the most impactful visual celebrations of the power of reading and libraries for anyone trying to find their place in a culture. The illustrations among the bookshelves pay tribute to the titles that transformed the Morales' lives and earn this book a place in the collection of every and any children's book enthusiast. The Caldecott is not a prize that is supposed to recognize career contribution, but if it were, I can't imagine an author more deserving of inclusion in the canon of that award. Her palette, surrealistic style and consistently hopeful and often humorous contributions are consistently distinctive and distinguished, and this is no exception. Her topic is timely and necessary for classrooms and her treatment is truly healing, inspiring, victorious.



Andheads up, fresh out of the gate for 2019, we have the gloriousby Anika Aldamuy Denise, illustrated by Paola Escobar (Harper), a picture book biography about the woman who inspired thegiven to "a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth" (which, incidentally, Yuyi Morales has garnered several times). Any discussion of children's book awards with children this season would be enriched by a sharing of this vibrant picture book biography.

Moving on to other notable titles:



by Laurie Keller (Henry Holt). Potato is so excited to get new pants, he's dancing the Robot (or Po-Bot, as the case may be)..but troublemaking Eggplant has purchased the last pair! Eggplant is being blamed for problems, but does Potato play a part? Under the skin, this is a good pick for modeling genuine apologies and conflict resolution. The varied layout is busy and exciting, and I can't imagine anyone not wanting to design their own pair of potato pants and doing a little dance after reading. I love children's books that children actually love and that matches their energy. This wins. For more zany fun in the spud department, check out the seasonal by Alan Silberberg (Viking).



A couple of alphabet books made the list this year. Though without a particular narrative line, I literally gasped when turning pages of byJulia Donaldson, illustrated by Sharon King-Chai (Dial), with die cut pages and colorful, supersaturated illustrations. While the alphabet offerings may not be novel (a is still for ant), the processional storytelling is, with questions prefacing each next page that invites active guessing from the audience and the eye taking a journey from corner to corner to take it all in. The pages are delicate and may be better suited to private collections, laps and teacher-led story times, but absolutely still worth the purchase for the sheer pretty of it. Fans of and will approve.

by Raj Haldar (also known as the rapper Lushlife) and Chris Carpenter, illustrated by Maria Beddia (Sourcebooks) plays on the preposterousness of our language (O is for Ouija, N is not for Knot, T is for Tsunami, G is for Gnocchi), and has a funny full-page picture for every letter but content that can be shared with older children just as well. Though any child will benefit from the vocabulary, this book underscores the challenges any English language learner might encounter, and might be used to underscore their achievement just as readily. Very clever and well executed.



Anyone who follows my recommendations knows that I think children's picture book biography is the most powerful genre within children's literature because it can be read across the grade levels and introduces children to figures that fall outside the trajectory of war that textbooks seem to follow. Artists, scientists, inventors, sports figures, peacemakers...if we read children just one picture book biography a week, in a year, how many new mentors would they be introduced to through literature? This year, we have three biographies that are especially visually fetching and all feature females:by Patricia Valdez, illustrated by Felicita Sala (Knopf), by Aura Lewis (Sterling), by Lynn Fulton, illustrated by Felicita Sala (Knopf), and also recommended is

by Rob Sanders, illustrated by Steven Salerno (Random House), which gives a very excellent explanation of the ubiquitous rainbow flag as well as a well-written, straightforward and poignant introduction to LGBQT history and one of it's heroes for young audiences. Pretty essential and pretty darn wonderful.

There was a time in this country when we made things. A LOT of things. by Carole Lexa Schaefer, illustrated by Becca Stadtlander (Candlewick) is a celebration of that history. Acrobatics of poetry and historical fiction employ vocabulary like crimper. Plane. Churn. Sampler. Bandolier. I was won over from the first description of the invention of the Terrestrial Globe, borne from a passion I have not so convincingly experienced in print since the reading of Jacqueline Briggs Martin's . Back matter provides detailed explanations of which parts of each vignette are fiction and which are nonfiction, and photos of the real artifacts, while well-matched folksy illustrations grace the rest. Highly original and making amends for years lost by removing shop and home economics from school curriculums, this is an erudite, complex, genre-bending book better suited to older children, and even then, maybe not every child. But the child for whom it is suited will revisit this book, be inspired by this book, will time travel with this book. Though Lois Ehlert's remains one of my favorite children's books about making things, this year provides many other complimentary titles: by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, illustrated by Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson (Clarion), by Ruth Spiro, illustrated by Holly Hatam, and by George Anacona (Candlewick), which suffers from lack of recipes (though easily searchable online) but has delicious, active photographs of real children preparing food.
by Sophie Blackall (Little Brown). I confess, when I saw this book, I thought, regionallllll. How is this going to speak to the landlocked midwestern kids I teach? WRONG! Reminder/note to self: often the best kind of books are not the books that speak to one's own experience, but invites us into a new one. What happens when someone is sick and they live in a lighthouse? How do they get supplies? How does someone come to visit? Can it withstand tidal waves? All questions are answered in the context of the story of a lonely lighthouse keeper who finds his bride, his family and an unexpected future from the tower. The x-ray illustration of the lighthouse's interior will inspire children to imagine houses and architectural futures with a vim not seen since Daniel Pinkwater's T, In fact, beyond inspiring indefatigable interest in lighthouses and imaginings of living in one, this is one of the most romantic and graceful children's books I have ever come across.

Of course, nowmust headline a storytime that includes the classic Tim All Alone (or any of the ) by Edward Ardizzone, and the new gemby Terry and Eric Fan (Simon and Schuster) (about a boy who takes a magical boat journey to honor his grandfather, absolutely ethereal and stunning, like a dream that was captured in the bindings of a book),by Nicola Davies (always exceptional for science writing), illustrated by Emily Sutton (Candlewick), and by Marina Aromshtam, illustrated by Victoria Semykina (Templar) (which is a January 2019 release, but I don't care, this story about a paper boat who is trying to become a real boat is gorgeous and you need to know about it now). Oh, what the heck. Bag whatever you were planning, teachers, and embark on a unit about the sea, sea travel, lighthouses. There's so much treasure in the sea.

Also on the subject of reimagining life's possibilities, we have by Michelle Cuevas, illustrated by Catia Chien (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). "Turtle spent a lot of time in his shell. It was very dark inside--as dark as the inside of a closed flower, as dark as the underside of a bell." After dreaming about a better home, Turtle embarks on renovations to his shell, as colorful and outlandish as his dream...and his vision grows and grows, until it invites others to join him. I always get a little grumpy when recommending anything illustrated by , because ever since , I just don't understand why she doesn't win everything. Why? WHY?!? Whatever. She's too good for this world. That's why she creates otherworldly books like this one.

by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Rebecca Green (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is not a picture book per se and probably better suited for ages 10 and up, but since I want to buy a classroom set of thirty, it seems like a title I ought to share. Less of a book about animals and more about a life with animals, we follow the author, a naturalist and adventurer, through her encounters with the natural world. Black and white full-page plates charmingly accent the writing. It is a difficult to write a memoir for children (), but when it is done well, it can offer a blueprint for future possibilities for the reader. I am sure many animal lovers---and strong-willed girls---will find inspiration and empowerment in the author's unconventional choices. Future naturalists will also delight is other recent offerings: by nonfiction super-team Steve Jenkins and Robin Page (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), the generous and elegant selected by Fiona Waters, illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon (Nosy Crow), by Jonathan London (famous for his series), illustrated by Daniel Miyares (Candlewick), the very interesting by Tris Volant and Cynthia Alonso (Flying Eye), and by Alison Oliver, in which a little girl finds respite from her over-scheduled life by adapting to some wolfy ways, illustrated with vintage flavor and a very fresh follow-up to last year's Caldecott winner by Matthew Cordell.


by Cori Doerrfeld (Dial). I bristle at didacticism in children's books, and gosh golly isn't it enough of it out there telling kids to Be Kind and Be Welcoming and all too often with the storyline of a limp noodle and probably the long-term efficacy of the "Just Say No" campaign. With renewed vigor now that it is coming to light the number of bad eggs in our box, the industry is burgeoning with titles that decry bullying and emphasize empathy with a capital E, though we have been trying since 1944 and Eleanor Estes' (and if that didn't cut the mustard, I don't know what would). So why did I re-read this book about seven times? The human condition requires loss and disappointment, certainly for children, too; I think the only thing worse than the event of loss is the well-meaning ding-dong who says or does exactly the wrong thing. So many people rightly fear being this ding-dong and so don't do anything at all, which is even worse. Enter: the rabbit.
When a flock of crows destroy a block tower, the child is devastated. Different animals come to offer solace. The chicken wants to talk-talk-talk about it. The bear wants to get mad. The ostrich sticks its head in the sand and pretends it never happened. The hyena wants to laugh it off. And the snake insidiously hisses a suggestion of revenge. It is not until the rabbit comes and holds space does the child's healing begin, and dreams of a new, better edifice begin to formulate. The strength of this book is that it does not contend only with the person who is experiencing pain but the person who is offering support. The expressive illustrations make artful use of negative space and perfectly compliment the story (and yay, there is a story!), showing children from an early age that not only do we not owe it to anyone to feel the way someone else would like us to feel, it is not always our charge to fix but only to be present. This might go far to ensure that they do not grow up to be obnoxious in the face of somebody else's adversity in years to come. Hush up and be somebody's rabbit. A very valuable lesson indeed.
Also in this very same vein is the more comical by Suzanne and Max Lang (Random House), which follows a similar story arc of animals not just letting monkey get his mad on. More emotions are wrangled via the masterful Molly Bang, author of the popular who has a new book in that series, addressing lack of confidence and feelings of competition with others. Poor Sophie. She needs Rabbit to listen.
All right, all right. Like picture books with cats in them, I probably like these kinds of feely-books more than I'm willing to admit. If you do, too, visit this excellent blog, .
Speaking of books with cats.


Inby Calista Brill, illustrated by Kenard Pak (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), a cat captures a snake and is granted three wishes in exchange for its release, only the cat doesn't really believe in wishes. What would he wish for if he did? To his surprise, the wishes seem to come true, culminating in a human with a wish of her own. This book is a bit of a "sleeper," but a keeper for it's lovely story structure and sweet illustrations, great for teaching beginning, middle and end and story sequencing. And if you'd like more feline steps to follow, check outby Joyce Hesselberth (Greenwillow), a nifty general overview to all kinds of maps, labels and blueprints.
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A new offering from the multiple-award-winning team who brought us, we have by Matt de la Pena, illustrated by Christian Robinson (Putnam), a provocative story of a little girl from a migrant family who has to think of just the right wish to make on some valuable dandelion fluff. When her flower is destroyed, her cantankerous big brother steps up to show her there is more than one wish that come true for her future. Complex and subtle themes run deep in this family story, and I defy you not to become enamored with Robinson's friendly, geometric illustration style that hearkens to the great . My school was fortunate to have an from this team, springboarding 2nd and 3rd graders into exploration of simple landscapes using geometric shapes, crafts involving wishes that ended up being extremely personal and poignant, creation of Mexicanpapel picado and discussions of what it is like to come from somewhere else (a subject on which my Chicago Public School students have plenty of prior knowledge).Other new picks that will elicit discussion and appreciation of global and multicultural experiences include the sumptuously illustrated by Junot Diaz, illustrated by Leo Espinosa (Dial), by Grace Lin (Little, Brown), by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Rebecca Cobb (Candlewick), by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko (Carolrhoda) and the beautifully written) by Portuguese author Henriqueta Cristina, illustrated by Yara Kono and translated by Lyn Miller-Lachmann (Enchanted Lion, published in partnership with Amnesty International).



I always try to add one or two really strong seasonal read-alouds to my collection every year, and this year I chose by Lucy Ruth Cummins (Athenaeum). Stumpkin notices he is different, missing a stem, and watches forlornly as the other pumpkins are chosen over him from the grocery shelf, reappearing as jolly jack-o-lanterns in the building across the street. Finally, it is Halloween. What will be his fate? Oh my goodness, the simple illustration style for this surprisingly nail-biting cliffhanger is too perfect, the kind of book you just hold to your chest two-armed and sigh, "that's what a children's book should be." It doesn't matter if it's January. Trick-or-treat yourself.

by Tammi Sauer, illustrated by Alison Friend (Harper). Beaver is trying to widen his social circle, but keeps making well-meaning faux pas. Finally, he abandons his efforts in lieu of creating a perfect partner of his own snowy invention, only to find a like-minded raccoon whose friendship may outlast the season. Lots of modeling of kind words and a theme of perseverance coupled with adorable cartoon illustrations make for storytime perfection. You can never have too many really good snowman books in the cooler, and this one will defrost any midwinter read-aloud slump.

by bestselling and award-winning author Brian Selznick and David Serlin (Scholastic).A beguiling little monkey rouses himself repeatedly from nap time to locate missing items for a series of increasingly surprising clients. Artful historical references and visual jokes are tucked in throughout for the recognition and entertainment of all ages, but this fills a special need for emergent readers; an entirely accessible early reader with some heft to it, short "chapters" overflowing with confidence-building visual cues and repetitions and belly-laugh humor, and through it all one of the most striking homages to Maurice Sendak I've seen in a long time, black and white line illustrations and comic book interjections hearkening to ! and . Gone, but not forgotten.

by Jon Agee (Dial). Tension builds as a headstrong little knight insists on staying on his side of the edifice out of concern of what is on the other side even when the danger on his own side is clearly and hilariously growing. It's funny, or maybe unfunny, because it's true. Sigh.John Agee is known for a tongue-in-cheek and subversive twang in his books,but even without the undertones of any grown-up debate, what I like best about it is how it draws attention to the middle seam (or "gutter") of the book, and how John Agee had to really think about the layout of this physical book to create it, it's part of the story. Books that afford the chance to look at parts of a book are a boon.
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Let's peek at some classroom must-haves...

by Troy Cummings (Random House) Arfy is a stray looking for a home, and sends each house in the neighborhood a letter alerting them of such. Poor Arfy is thwarted at every turn, ultimately retreating to a cardboard box in a rainstorm...until the mail carrier makes a proposal of her own. I'm not crying, you're crying! Naturally, this book has extensions for letter writing and persuasive writing, but not to be overlooked is the superior storyboarding going on here, building tension wonderfully until its satisfying twist. The illustrations are big, bright, well-paced, comic and uncluttered, perfect for sharing. Starting from the front end-papers like postage stamps with themes a dog would love (a hydrant, collar, squirrel to chase) to the last end-papers (A double-page spread of the neighborhood and hints for helping homeless animals), this book will win the hearts of children and teachers alike, and deserves to win even more. Go fetch. And FYI, for an extension, additional animal-themed correspondence from this publishing year may be found in by Irene Latham, illustrated by Thea Baker (Millbrook).

How about some people letters? by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Chris Raschka (Disney Hyperion). A little girl is thrown when her routine is interrupted by a teacher's sick day, expressed in a series of hilariously curt notes to inanimate and conceptual items in the school ("Dear Line, /Yes, I do know I'm supposed to be line leader this week, /Especially since I was chair stacker last week. /I'm sorry You-Know-Who doesn't know how we do things in Room 102.") Eventually, the sub convincingly wins our narrator over with some well-chosen poetry, and it turns out she doesn't mind if her regular teacher needs another day to recover. More than a strong mentor text, emotionally sensitive, honest and clever in conceit, this is a wonderful book to leave for a substitute in your absence or share for a read-aloud in your presence.
Another classroom-themed favorite of the year is by Ryan T. Higgins (Disney Hyperion), in which Penelope T. Rex is new to and nervous about the school experience, exemplified by her ingestion of her classmates (don't worry, Mrs. Noodleman has her spit them out). Penelope is lonely, but her father explains, "Sometimes it's hard to make friends...especially if you eat them." This should be enough food for thought for Penelope to adjust...this book could, but doesn't, stop there. Not until the class pet, a goldfish, puts Penelope in line does she realize that we shouldn't dish out what we can't take. Revenge is a dish best served a la dinosaur. Oversized illustrations are great for group sharing and are full of hilarious facial expressions and clever detail. Fans of will appreciate this story's edge, and so will students with a sense of humor.

Some other strong back to school offerings this year areby Aura Parker (Simon and Schuster), in which a stick bug at a busy bug schools finds her camouflage hinders her friend-making, by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated byRafael López (Nancy Paulsen Books),by Kate Berube (Harry Abrams), in which first day jitters send a student up a tree, by Bridget Heos, illustrated by Sara Not (Clarion), a twee back-to -school how-to suitable for the set and by Kay Winters, illustrated by Patrice Barton (Dial).

by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Susan Roth (Lee & Low). This book of poems showcases celebrations welcoming the new year from somewhere around the world, one for every month. This is a multicultural book with some real meat on the bones. You will not be able to read it without learning something new, and extensive back-matter wants for nothing; in sharing with children, I advise introducing using the descriptions of the celebrations in the back before sharing the poems, because there is so much new vocabulary and such a rich opportunity to explore each place. I am a long-time fan of 's cut paper collages, but this recent offering has detail, vibrancy and energy that suggest a real labor of love and career chef d'oeurve, and has a definite "wow" factor. The book pages turn like a calendar and is laid out as such, and can be read at once but might be better served in the classroom as delight in small bites to look forward to every month. Every teacher should have this book.

Finally, inspired by the movie Around the World in 80 Days, we have the beautifully illustrated and oversized by Aleksandra Artymowska (Big Picture Press). Sometimes, like in Walter Wick's books, we just lust for a title that children can privately pore over the pictures for hours in the world of a beautiful game. Here you go.
That makes thirty-one new book recommendations. Or thirty three. Or is it thirty seven? I'm an elementary school librarian, not a math teacher, so if numbers don't involve Dewey Decimal or measurements to bake cupcakes, I'm never quite sure. What I am sure of is that there is a book in this list that will connect with and enthrall a young reader in your life, and I thank you for sharing it.
I can't count very well, but I can read.
As I write this post and think of all the reviews and recommendations and resources out there, it occurs to me that there's still nothing quite like examining a book in hand! To that end, if you are in the Chicago area, please friend me on to keep apprised of upcoming Cookie Bookie gathering and I will be hosting through the year to afford you the opportunity to do just that, or build your collection and host your own!
This post is dedicated with love to the late and very great friend, mentor , reader and inspiration , the "Story Lady" who was the voice for Fun for Kids, the longest running children's radio show in America out of Ketchikan, Alaska. You made a world of difference.
Links are provided for information. Please support your .


posted by Esmé Raji Codell on March, 14 ]]> /author_blog_posts/18328661-2018-readiologist-cohort-call-for-applications Sun, 15 Apr 2018 14:45:00 -0700 <![CDATA[2018 Readiologist� Cohort: Call for Applications]]> /author_blog_posts/18328661-2018-readiologist-cohort-call-for-applications by Don Freeman
Working with children requires a strong background in the books that speak to young readers in order to meaningfully individualize instruction, promote educational equity and create a lifelong love of reading.

Educator, parent or grandparent, student teacher, paraprofessional, librarian, bookseller, clergy or enthusiast, you stand to make a difference in the lives of children through your knowledge of the best books for children, advocacy and best practice. We are looking for the fall 2018 cohort of Readiologist� trainees to participate in a unique certificate program to become a supporting character in a child's reading life story. We aim to create experts in children's literature with a depth of knowledge and a commitment to service far and above what one might receive in a typical teacher training.

Participants will not only obtain a deep content knowledge and appreciation of children's picture books through , they will be trained for confident and inspired literacy leadership in their own communities. We are looking for children's book lovers on a mission

This is an 8-week online workshop with professional development credits available. To receive the certificate, there is a outreach project component which participants will have one year to complete, scaffolded by a like-minded corps.

Learn about:
Creating libraries and "third spaces" around books
Seasonal celebrations through children's literature
Children's poetry and biography
Multicultural children's literature
Reading pictures
Read-aloud techniques
Best new books
Bibliotherapy
And so much more!

Space is very limited. For rates, more information and to apply, please click .

posted by Esmé Raji Codell on May, 12 ]]> /author_blog_posts/16236397-planetesme-picks-best-picture-books-of-2017 Thu, 04 Jan 2018 22:50:00 -0800 <![CDATA[PLANETESME PICKS: Best Picture Books of 2017]]> /author_blog_posts/16236397-planetesme-picks-best-picture-books-of-2017

by Bethan Woollvin (Peachtree Books)
No little girls getting rescued in this version of Red Riding Hood sans woodcutter. Full of violence, calamity and surprise, my reaction upon reading was "finally, someone know what kids really like." Don't be fooled by the simplicity of the illustrations, their broad strokes and limited palette; every line is bold, intentional, effective, ingenious. I imagine would make the great Molly Bang of fame very proud, as really, this artist did everything right. If I ran the Caldecott, this would be my pick.


by Annie Silverstro, illustrated by Teagan White (Sterling)
Lucy is not like the other field mice, running for cover underground when the snow starts to fall. She is so eager to share the delights of the season with her party-pooper roomies, what could possibly lure them out? Stylized matte illustrations laid against warm tan paper offer an unusual visual warmth and features the sweetest pessimist mice penned since Leo Lionni's . It should be purchased if only for these lines:
"Your fur is freezing," said Mona when Lucy came inside.
"Your nose is dripping," said Millie.
"Your teeth are cheddar-ing!" said Marcello.
Your teeth are cheddar-ing? Says one mouse to another?Seriously. Story time mike drop.


by Andrea Tsurumi (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Another Caldecott contender! When an armadillo spills juice on furniture and incites reckless fleeing from the scene, fracas ensues, culminating at the library...where else! This slapstick story manages some visual acrobatics that when you're done laughing, gasping and pointing at all the worst-case cause-and-effect scenarios that can possibly be imagined, the cognizant reader would have to marvel at the kind of planning it would take to visually execute these spreads. It's mind boggling. While it might require some ingenuity to share this effectively in a large group setting because of the detail, it's worth it because of the big idea behind this book: that even when something is an accident, you need to say sorry (a similar idea receiving very different but complimentary treatment in Trudy Ludwig's ). Descendants of Rube Goldberg and kids with a penchant for graphic novels (i.e. pretty much all kids) will find this offering suits them to a T. Don't we all love a picture book we can look at a hundred times and always find something new?


by Judith Schachner (Dial)Teacher alert! Teacher alert! Woot! Woot! Woot! Many people know Schachner from her wildly popular series, and I'm glad sister is making bank, but in my opinion those are far from her best books. I would invite readers to explore her inventive and visually glorious Y,and this latest offering about a daydreaming girl who figures out how to share what's inside her head via a beautiful hat (which of course now we all have to get brown paper bags and make our own). Fans of Patricia Polacco's will fall for this empathetic and inspiring story with a classroom setting...but mostly I like it because every page is like opening a secret drawer full of colorful jewels and treasures. Just what it should be like to look inside someone else's thinking cap.

by Dashka Slater, illustrated by The Fan Brothers (Beach Lane)Marco the fox has so many questions, but when he poses them to his skulk, their reply is: "what does that have to do with chicken stew?" Clearly, when faced with an existential crisis, a little life experience is in order and a voyage on the high seas to a distant land with a crew of other adventurous (albeit inexperienced) animals fits the bill. I wavered somewhat about including this on the list; while a solid friendship story with a well-earned conclusion, the voice, while graceful, is a hair esoteric for my taste in terms of sharing with children. But the production quality of this book as an object is so over the top (feel the paper quality of the cover in your fingers! I'm not kidding! It's a thing!) and the illustrations...well, the scene with the ship crashing on the waves in a storm...these dramatic double-page spreads, you can almost hear the waves lapping, antlers crashing, boom of cannons! I couldn't help thinking of what Nicola Bayley's pictures did to a generation of children's picture book lovers in , how could a new generation be deprived of another launch on to the sea of lifelong reading?

by Katie Harnett (Thames & Hudson)Completely charming story about a gentle, book-loving dragon who scares the heck out of townspeople in his search to find a literary soulmate. When he does, the magic really begins as they invent a storefront on the dragon's back in hopes of sharing their favorite titles...and a lesson in the limits of xenophobia. Folksy illustrations and varied layout from page to page keep an already strong read-aloud visually engaging as well. Besides being a beautiful book with a clear middle-beginning and end and problem to solve, I love it as a launchpad for envisioning inventive spaces for making our dreams come true, and talking about the role of bookstores and libraries in our communities.

by Lesléa Newman (Lee & Low)Casey likes his sister Jessie's shimmery skirt, glittery nail polish and sparkly bracelet, but his sister is chagrined when these propensities elicit responses from parents like "I don't have a problem with that." Can't they see how embarrassing and socially precarious this could be? It's not until Casey is under his sister's wing while he receives the brunt of intolerance that she has to make a serious choice about how to respond. I confess I approached this book with caution, I am not a big fan of prescribing literature for children (don't let my prescription pad fool you). The real value of this sensitive but straightforward book is that it is not actually for the sparkle boys in the world but the people around the sparkle boys. This story is age-appropriate, not about decisions of sexual identity per se but whether we can choose to be accepting of people as they are authentically, and question the legitimacy and arbitrariness of our own social parameters. Holy smokes. Excellent realistic fiction in picture book form like this should be cherished for classroom use. Sure to inspire very necessary classroom discussions of how we need to treat one another and what world we want to live in. Then, on to math worksheets.

by Julie Morstad (Simply Read)The cover is a bit minimalistic (read: drab) but picture book lovers know to trust, trust, trust Julie Morstad with your reading life and this gem is no exception. This book is a celebration of daily decisions: what to wear? What to eat? Where do we go? What flowers to pick? What book to read? So many choices, and Morstad creates quite an appetizing visual menu that will have young readers clamoring to decide. This book is a celebration that brought to mind some of the work of early picture book geniuses Gene Zion and Gyo Fujikawa in their invitational approach and the immediacy of experience that is so empowering for young readers. Specifically, I remember readingby Gene Zion when I was around six years old approximately, ohhh, six thousand times, just for the chance to revisit the choices of what costume to wear to the party. I don't know what even would have happened to me if I had been given this book as a child, with beautifully illustrated choices on every other page. I think my head would have exploded. Worth the risk.

by Maggie Rudy (Henry Holt)First of all, do we ever get sick of magnificent visual reinterpretations of classic fairy and folk tales? Answer: uh, NO. (see Jerry Pinkney's should you require further convincing.) But in the interest of full disclosure, I have to confess, I have the biggest raging art crush on Maggie Rudy, it's hard to put into words. I can't even. Her doll work on her blog, , has inspired me to work on a novel for the past two years just in the most remote-as-Siberia hope she might consider illustrating it. Honestly. I think she is magic. In this latest of her picture book offerings, I think she really has hit her stride and plays to her strengths. Each mouse in turn tries to share the virtues of their urban and rural environments, as the retelling goes. What sets this version apart, besides the inimitable photographed scenes of her mice characters casting a spell of suspended belief in all other realities, is that she has captured the romance of a deep friendship. This is real; children can relate to the peril of situational loss of someone to whom they are connected, whether changing classrooms or having to move.Readers can feel the palpable longing in the mice's separation, and the relief in their reunion and clever compromise. This happy ending suggests that where there's a will, there's a way, and if you're lucky, there might even be a strawberry patch. It's hard to find a good love story in children's literature that is not too mushy and even relatable. Score.

by Elizabeth Verdick, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal (Simon & Schuster)I received this book and was awash with wishes. "PLEASE let it be as good as I hope! PLEASE let it be as good as I hope!" As a teacher in a tundra (Chicago), I have been waiting for, hoping-double-crossed-fingers for a good solid book about a snow-mover as Ethel Kessler's was just not cutting the mustard for my crew any more. And here we go, a hybrid of and and a spirit all its own as earnest Small Walt shows the bigger snowplows that he can clear a path with the best of 'em. Well written in a rhythmical way just right for a post-blizzard storytime.

by Dev Petty, illustrated by Lauren Eldridge (Little, Brown and Company)An artist leaves a couple of glomps of clay on a workspace, and when the artist steps away they come to life and reinvent themselves repeatedly with more and more hilarious results. This book reads like a photographic comic book with tremendous kid-appeal, and taps into the way friends can encourage one another to become their best selves...and to laugh harder. Of course, this read-aloud must be followed by clay on every desk for imaginative play, puppets shows and photo narratives. A creative and creativity-inspiring tour-de-force, and just. So. Much. Fun.

by Jancee Dunn, illustrated by Scott Nash (Candlewick)This ain't your mama's, no, there's a new anthropomorphic stuffed animal bad boy in town. This is more like on stuffed animal steroids...you can even see the homage if you look carefully on the cover, and another one hidden inside. I was concerned that the story might be too derivative of classics, but the very clever and original high-stakes device of having the reader coming home to police (!!!) and receiving the harrowing play-by-play report definitely upped the ante from page one, and the visual jokes are fresh, zany and will have story time audiences roaring. Starting from the teddy bear's acquisition of a cell phone to call other toys to invite them to a bed-jumping, dress-up playing, bath-taking, one-hundred balloon pancake party that unfolds with every turned page, how will this mischievous teddy possibly avoid being taken down to the station? Sure to be a favorite.

by Susan Middleton Elya, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal (G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers)A rhyming retelling of the Princess and the Pea with Spanish language interjected throughout with strong context clues for all readers, and the textiles depicted in the book are "inspired by the weaving and embroidery of indigenous people of Peru" (from the illustrator's note). Fairy tale retellings that embrace diversity are always a boon in the classroom, but this little princesa is particularly fetching, and the theme of family is piled high.

by Joanne Schwartz, illustrated by Sydney Smith (Groundwood)One of the great purposes of literature is to carry us away to a different time and place, and to allow us the chance to use our empathetic imaginations to live the lives of others. In this miracle of art, we are allowed to visit in the average day of a boy in a coal village in the 1950's. We can see the sea from his window, the lupines in the wind, and every few pages, on a wordless double-paged spread, we can see his father, a figure nearly crushed under the weight of black scribblings overhead, and a fate that may await the carefree boy when his time comes. No bells, no whistles, no jokes, just a family and a life and a chance to know it. Gosh, what a gorgeous book with more gravity than the average pick.

by Patricia Maclachlan, illustrated by Marc Boutavant (Chronicle)Five read-aloud ready vignettes about a new family dog in a perfect petit package of gumdrop-colored illustrations. As I was reading, I thought, "how is the writing this tight?" Then I looked at the author, oh yes, mystery solved, this is the woman who penned the beloved, short and sweet Newbery-winner.If you have an emergent reader who likes animal stories, this is the kind of book that makes a child realize s/he can read, and s/he love it. This is going to be somebody's favorite childhood book, so you might as well have it in your collection in case that child is yours.

by Stéphanie Lapoint, illustrated by Rogé, translated by Shelley Tanaka (Groundwood)One of the big trends I noticed this year were books that appear to be children's books but they are really unbelievably beautiful illustrated books that children can happen to read. One of my favorite books this year, and maybe ever, is one of those: by Victoria Turnbull, clearly an allegory for a very adult situation. Then there's by Vanina Starkoff, by Cary Fagan, illustrated by Banafsheh Erfanian, by Marc Martin (apparently grown-ups like rivers and birds in their picture books), even books getting Caldecott buzz like by Julia Denos and illustrated by E.B. Goodale, by Corrina Luyken and by Oliver Jeffers, for all their immense beauty, have a quietude and sometimes meandering feel to the storytelling that make me wonder who the intended audience really is.I'm not sure they have pacing or messages that are intended for children primarily. That doesn't mean children can't enjoy them and experience them in a way that resonates and can be revisited; along those lines, Trina Paulus' was such a book from my own childhood, another example is Sara Varon's heartbreaking masterpiece, and many of us know Antoine de Saint-Exupery's to be one book when we are young and another when we are older. I hesitated to include Grandfather and the Moonto this list just because I wasn't sure it was a children's book but instead an illustrated book children can read. But then I remembered all of this, and I would be remiss in not including it because sometimes we just have to give children things that are beautiful and strange and if not for us now, for us someday. This story, originally published in French in Canada a few years back and now in English translation, tells the story from a granddaughter's point of view of her grandfather and his decline after the loss of his wife. The narrative then takes a somewhat sudden turn when the narrator wins a contest in which she is permitted, as a civilian, to travel to the moon, and discovers the adventure is not all its cracked up to be. At the story's core is a truth about what it means to be there for someone else. The illustrations are muted and unassuming but expressive and consequential. The prose's unique and personal detail afford the reader a sense of intimacy, like a friend telling one what one knows about the world as best as one can, that is, really, why anyone should write at all. Not for the hordes, but for the one. Bravely, the writer and illustrator in this book are here for us, one by one, in this unusual surprise.

by Margery Williams, illustrated by Sarah Massini (Nosy Crow)Lastly, goodness knows this classic story of a toy rabbit made real is not a new book, originally published in 1922, but its reissue this year with the original text in this lovely oversized format perfect for read-aloud and larger group sharing is worth a mention. Additionally, if we're talking oldies but goodies, I also want to remind folks to add my favorite book of last year to their shelves if it's not there already: by Carson Ellis (Candlewick) is the exciting adventure of some whimsical garden creatures and the strange thing growing there, told in what initially seems like gobbledegook but within pages the reader realizes it is a new language. Just as the fluency begins to blossom, so does the surprise in the garden. The surprise that blossomed this year was realizing what a favorite it has become with ELL and ESL students in my school library, some checking it out repeatedly. This big, beautiful book levels a playing field of accessibility to reading and experiencing illustrated literature, and is worth sharing with every child you know.

Honorable Mentions and popular books of 2017 to explore, in no particular order: by Annie Silvestro, illustrated by Tatjana Mai-Wyss (Doubleday) by Dan Santat (Roaring Brook) by Rebecca Green (Tundra) by Kristine A. Lombardi (Harper) by Christopher Corr (Frances Lincoln) by Hollie Hobbie (Random House) by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Richard Jones (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by Matthew Cordell (Feiwel and Friends) by Giovanna Zoboli and Mariachiara di Giorgio (Chronicle) by Jan Brett (G.P. Putnam's Sons)by Ben Clanton (Candlewick) by Cynthia Leonor Garza (POW Books) by Jory John, illustrated by Pete Oswald (HarperCollins)by Aaron Reynolds (Simon & Schuster) by Gaia Cornwall (Candlewick)by Dashka Slater, illustrated by Sydney Hanson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) by Neal Layton (Candlewick) by C.J. Leigh, illustrated by Chris Gall (Orchard) by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Christian Robinson (Roaring Brook) by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Adam Rex (Balzer & Bray)
What are your favorite picture books of this year? Have you had any experiences sharing books that appeared on this list? Please share in the comments!
Links provided for information. Please support your.

posted by Esmé Raji Codell on March, 19 ]]> /author_blog_posts/13922216-happy-appleseed-freebies-in-honor-of-johnny-s-birthday Sun, 11 Sep 2016 12:45:00 -0700 <![CDATA[Happy Appleseed! Freebies in Honor of Johnny's Birthday!]]> /author_blog_posts/13922216-happy-appleseed-freebies-in-honor-of-johnny-s-birthday

I put the lessons garnered from research about Johnny Appleseed's life into the book in the form of five footsteps that allowed him to walk into history:

1. Use what you have.2. Share what you have.3. Respect nature.4. Try to make peace where there is war.5. You can reach your destination by taking small steps.

Lends itself very nicely to a bulletin board if I do say so myself (and in conjunction with artwork from Aliki's )! Plus, you can use as a springboard for reading any and have the children come up with their own "footsteps," or tenets of the person's life that make them notable and worth remembering. The main idea of Johnny Appleseed's life and the book I wrote about him is that you can change the landscape of our country by planting a small seed every day---doing one small positive thing with consistency. What seed will you plant?

The best news is that the clever illustrator created free downloadable seed packets, a "Johnny Jump-Up" printable toy and a coloring page that you can share with your class! Click to print your own! Thank you so much, Lynne Rae Perkins! In the spirit of Johnny Appleseed...please spread the seed to read!


Links provided for information. Please support your .

posted by Esmé Raji Codell on March, 15 ]]> /author_blog_posts/13798362-teacher-collection-best-picture-book-read-alouds-for-back-to-school Wed, 17 Aug 2016 15:46:00 -0700 <![CDATA[Teacher Collection! Best Picture Book Read-Alouds for Back to School]]> /author_blog_posts/13798362-teacher-collection-best-picture-book-read-alouds-for-back-to-school

by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Sara Varon (Chronicle). Of course, this fall is going to have lots of occasions to work an election theme into the classroom, and this is a number-one must-have. A bombastic, big-mouthed Day-Glo cephalopod has more bluster than charisma, but that doesn't stop him from seeking high office in the sea. What does it take to be President? Diplomacy Accountability? Responsibility? Naaaahhhh. Squid has a tie. That should do it! The fact that he has a Titanic-sized house, fame, the gift of gab and the bones to boss are just bonuses. But when a sardine is caught compromisingly in a clam, can President Squid step up and save him? Maybe he'll learn what quality is most presidential of all...or will power corrupt? The illustrator created one of my favorite books of all time, the thoughtful allegory of friendship that is. Here, Varon'swild palette and expressive style combined with Reynold's high-spirited humor make this any easy share and a perfect springboard for creating lists and conversations about qualities of leadership. By the way, I have it on good authority from the author that Trump wasn't running when he wrote this book. But if the tentacles fit.


by Alex T. Smith (Scholastic). Oh my goodness, I love when this happens: a big, beautiful, funny, well-paced read-aloud with chance to do voices and an unlabored, authentic multicultural representation, plus an opportunity to talk about parodies and differentiated versions of fairy tales. Sold!!! In this play on Red Riding Hood, winsome Little Red has to deliver acne medicine, but a lion is impersonating her auntie. The makeover Little Red delivers on the lion's mane will elicit screams of laughter and delight, and the vantage point from inside of the lion's toothy maw rates ooh's and ahh's. A happy ending and a little nudge toward asking for things politely paired with lively, colorful illustrations in a dynamic layout make this a perfect picture book.


by Deborah Hodge (Groundwood). I confess that every fall I have a penchant for purchases of all things bears and hibernation to add to my book cave. This year, a close runner up was by Sean Taylor, handsomely illustrated by the mighty mighty Emily Hughes (Candlewick), but the winner was this loose and juicily-watercolored story in which Bear plans a party to win over his cautious woodland neighbors before his big sleep. I was so admiring of the bear-faced honey ginger cookies that Bear was serving, and what do you know, an easy recipe is in the back! Why every classroom doesn't have a stove and oven, I haven't a clue. But every classroom can have an invitation to this reading fete, and the inclusive message of "don't judge a book (or bear!) by its cover" that seasons these pages like warm cinnamon.


by Adam Rex, illustrated by Christian Robinson (Roaring Brook).
A new school has been built. What should be expected on School's first day? The janitor is there to encourage via some earnest banter with the building, and the edifice is educated on how even the most reticent can come around to loving School....eventually. I love how School manages to learn a thing or two in the course of the day! Robinson's folksy, friendly style is sunny and straightforward and realistically depicts a wide swath of cultures in the classroom. Reminiscent of Sally's romance with her own school in Charle' Shultz's Peanuts cartoons, this book has a comforting combination of anticipation, problem-solving and reflection, and also touches on the value of all staff in a school building. I often start the school year with a conversation about how lucky we are to be together at school, and how it is around the world. This book and its sampling of students who don't always have the most positive outlook lends itself nicely to a conversation about gratitude for the educational experience.It is also a perfect pick for introducing point-of-view, or eking out the point-of-view of your students on their own exciting first day.


by Ged Adamson (Schwartz & Wade). "Nancy and Douglas were chasing squirrels. At least, Douglas thought he was chasing squirrels." Poor, nearsighted Douglas is missing important signs, making silly mistakes and even finds himself in danger, all because he can't see well. Children will laugh and correct Douglas' errors at his hilarious trip to the eye doctor, where Douglas finally chooses a life-changing pair of specs. From the blurry lettering on the cover to the charming double-paged photographic spread at the end ("REAL KIDS WHO WEAR GLASSES!"), this hilarious book is the perfect prescription for empathy, fostering a deeper understanding from kids who don't wear glasses and a renewed sense of confidence in those who do.


by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Ron Husband (Disney Hyperion).
"'Hurry,' urged Tassie. "Reverend John doesn't hold with being late.'
At Third and Almond, we slipped into the church,
And headed down the basement steps, into the darkness,
to the Tallow Candle School.
'Why can't we have windows?' I whined, already missing the sun.
'Hush, you know why,' Tassie said.
And I did.
I felt a hand on my shoulder.
'Welcome to out school, James,' said Reverend John.
'We make our own light here.'"
Even the small, surreptitious school in the basement of the church is forced to close when Missouri institutes a new law forbidding African Americans to learn to read or write. But where there is a will, there's a way, and Reverend John ingeniously refurbishes an old steamboat in order to teach the children on the Mississippi River, where the law of the land did not apply. Inspired by the true story of Reverend John Berry Meachum (1789-1854), the teacher and student are heroes. We need these kind of heroes. Cross-hatch illustrations against a limited palette of brown and black evoke the etching style of the period, but with broad spreads, expressive figures and paired with a high-stakes narrative, this choice lends itself beautifully to sharing in a modern classroom.


by Christianne Jones, illustrated by Richard Watson (Capstone Little Boost). When an (ahem) ebullient little owl loses her voice, it leaves room for a little more listening. It turns out her friend told really funny jokes, she was able to finish her classwork and earn a gold star, and she got more out of the movies and books. When Lacey's voice returns, she has a choice to make. Simple, bright illustrations do the trick in accentuating the gentle message, and the busy endpapers of Lacey in full yammering mode are a jocular overture to the inexorable character readers will meet inside. I'm sure none of you teachers out there have a nonstop talker in your room, but on the off-chance that you do, this book may inspire them to strike more of a balance between talking and listening, like Lacey Walker.


by Megan Wagner Lloyd, illustrated by Abigail Halpin (Knopf).
What is wild? And where can you find it?
Succinct, elegant musings and twisting ferns and flowers follow a boy and girl on a nature hike. They use each of their senses in turn to discover what is wild, even in the face of concrete. Graceful and colorful watercolor and pencil illustrations maintain interest through a varied layout. While the prose may prove a bit opaque for some students, the reason this is a worthwhile pick is that it is so invitational. The question of "what is wild?" is so especially relevant in the face of works like Richard Louv's and the outdoor education, and movements that have taken hold in Europe and increasingly in the United States. Whatever your school's mission and wherever you are, it is easy to take an observational stroll around the block following a reading of this book and allow for children to discover "wild" for themselves. In fact, the whole idea and many meanings and connotations of "wild" (both in nature and people) makes for a very interesting exploration in general, made even more interesting paired with books likeby Emily Hughes, by JonArno Lawson, by Paul Fleischman, by Jennifer Uman, by Peter Brown, and also by Peter Brown, the wonderful new serial read-aloud chapter book. A theme that will leave students wild about reading.


What are your favorite picks for the new school year? Please share in the comments below. Links are provided for information; please remember to support your .



posted by Esmé Raji Codell on January, 26 ]]> /author_blog_posts/13739691-big-summertime-laughs Fri, 01 Jul 2016 12:16:00 -0700 Big Summertime Laughs /author_blog_posts/13739691-big-summertime-laughs
series by Andy Griffiths, illustrated by Terry Denton (Feiwel and Friends). Follow the adventures of besties Andy and Terry (coincidentally, the name of the author and illustrator) as they make additions and improvements on their treehouse (man-eating shark tank, rollercoasters, baby dinosaur petting zoo, antigravity chamber, lemonade fountain, ice cream parlor with robot scooper, high bounce trampoline, to name a few), hang out with their animal-loving neighbor Jill and her flying cats while having adventures (like unveiling a sea monster disguised as a mermaid or battling vengeful vegetables)and desperately trying to make deadline for their cantankerous publisher, Mr. Big Nose. I am beside myself with the genius of this series. Honestly. The 13-Story Treehouse and its sequels are the best thing to happen to kidlit since, and, sorry, Dav Pilkey, surpasses it by a country mile...in other words, these books are a major event in children's literature and a must-have in every library. The imagination of this graphic novel hybrid is truly incomparable, and the hilarious storytelling/artwork combination is seamless, as though the Andy and Terry in the book have come to life and really are working together to tell these stories, an incident of real live book magic. Like potato chips, I could not stop with one...could they actually keep this pace and maintain this almost psychedelic level imagination? Yes and yes. Any summer reading goal is easily met through the entire series, including the, , . After all, who wouldn't want to spend their summer in a treehouse?


by James Proimos (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Three words: LAUGH. OUT. LOUD. One more: VERYHARD. Johnny Mutton was a baby sheep that was left on a doorstep and raised as a naive, well-meaning little boy. All of his comic adventures from three volumes are compiled here. Johnny gives away all of the cupcakes meant for a cook-off, throws an unpopular party, dresses like a nose for Halloween, is a good sport at a spelling bee and many more adventures in the three books worth of comic adventures compiled into this one strange and brilliant treasury. Loose line drawing and an odd but addictive vintage quality, it also offers an optimistic spirit, affirmation of individuality ("Johnny Mutton! He's so him!") and an insight into the human condition that makes it brilliant for all ages. If Spongebob and had a baby, it would be Johnny Mutton. Like his mother says, "I love you, Jonny Mutton! There is no one quite like you."

And I was a little late to the party on this one, but still so pleased to discover by Refe and Susan Tuma (Little Brown).


Posed plastic dinosaurs wreak havoc all around the house, culminating in a mud-covered mess in the living room that would even have shaking his head. Though the photos have so much havoc to discover, the volume is slim. If this story time sized intro to these anthropomorphic antics leave you wanting more, I hear tell there's an even for fans that will engage older children as well. Naughty is always nice when it comes to reading, and anyway, who ever heard of a well-behaved dinosaur? Velociraptors don't care. Follow up on the fun by letting toys take some selfies, with your help.

What children's books make you and yours laugh the hardest?

Links for information. Please support your

posted by Esmé Raji Codell on March, 18 ]]>