February 2021 archive

Read Across America Week: Inclusivity vs. Traditionalism

So, who else has noticed the angry comment wars in librarian groups? Just me? With Read Across America Day/Week ramping up, the familiar argument of how much focus to put on Seuss is resurfacing and even I’m questioning where I stand.

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, Read Across America has traditionally been tied to celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday, and furthering that, the activities and celebrations have revolved around Seuss. In recent years, many readers have begun to zoom in on Seuss’s questionable (i.e. racist) characterizations and illustrations found in some of his books, as well as his own personal history. This has lead to many, even the National Education Association (NEA), to cutting ties with Seuss and focusing on inclusivity and diversity in reading instead.

Whew… are you still with me? Taking a step back, these claims are just facts, as we see several racist caricatures in Seuss’s books. Now whether that’s a product of the times or a deeper insight about Seuss’s own morality doesn’t really matter, because either is wrong.

But now we’re seeing many teachers/librarians/etc. gripping to And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street for dear life before even reflecting on alternatives or solutions. I have struggled to separate myself from Seuss, especially in a school culture that (thankfully) celebrates a joy of reading. We’re even getting ready to start our annual week of Seuss-themed dress up days. So how do we get out of this?

Like I’ve said, the NEA has given us a solution by keeping the same spirit but by combatting the harmful aspects of Seuss literature, and they offer plenty of themes, activities, and other ideas for year-round reading. Marketing their celebrating as a “Nation of Diverse Readers”, they focus diverse authors and stories. Even if you reject the racist caricatures in Seuss books as being a product of the times, you still have to admit they don’t have the diversity needed for modern reading.

The real solution is admitting that there are other authors that have similar styles with representation, powerful messages, and the same educational benefits. Some of those authors include:

Julia Donaldson

The Smeds and the Smoos

You may know her from The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson is an author I’ve gotten into recently, especially thanks to the wonderful book The Smeds and the Smoos. Her work in this book has the same effortless flow with nonsense words, but with a message of love across differences. My students adored this book for it’s message, illustrations, and rhymes.

Charles Waters

Can I Touch Your Hair?

Charles Waters (joined by others) uses his poetry to send beautiful messages. In this book specifically, he examines very realistic and early examples of dealing with race as a child. Even the title, Can I Touch Your Hair, tackles one of the most common microaggressions Black people face, a familiar boundary crossed when others see you as different. The prose is easy to read and the illustrations are gorgeous.

Vanessa Brantley-Newton

Just Like Me

I can’t say enough good things Just Like Me! Just the cover art makes me feel all warm inside, but the rhymes in this book are *chef’s kiss*. This is a book of self love with bite-sized poems throughout that I think any reader would enjoy. Brantley-Newton has many other amazing works, both as an author and an illustrator.

The list definitely doesn’t end there, but we have to start somewhere. As a librarian with a catalog scores deep of Seuss, I don’t see it being a clean break from me. Starting small is how I trick my school as well (half kidding) into inclusive, diverse, and anti-racism literature. What are your thoughts?

Book Fairs in a Pandemic: UPDATE

We are officially over halfway through our Virtual Book Fair, and despite the different strategies I explained previously, we are still selling a LOT less than we would in person- even below our shrunken down goal. Although we are over halfway through the fair, we haven’t even met half our goal. I’m feeling a lot of things about it, but mostly I’m feeling okay.

I went into this knowing there wouldn’t be as big of a reward, but my goal was to get some books into some hands and I’ve managed to do that. Other than my time, it hasn’t cost anything to do, and I’ve even been able to give away some books miraculously. I’ve also got to share some pretty cool books with my kids that hopefully they’ll be able to check out soon.

So, halfway through, would I recommend hosting a virtual book fair? It depends, but I’m leaning towards yes. Even though I’m let down that we’e not doing as well as I’d hoped, sharing books with kids has brought back some of that librarian joy I’ve been missing this year and it’s added a few bucks to the Scholastic Dollars budget. If you have some spare time to work on some of the strategies highlighted in the last post and involved families, you would see the most reward.

Well, now onto last minute Read Across America Week activities as book fair has consumed me. What are you doing for Read Across America Week?

Book Fairs in a Pandemic: Why?

I have to admit something. I love Book Fair season. It’s exhausting, the hours are long, my eating and sleeping schedule is ruined, and handling lots of money gives me anxiety. But I LOVE Book Fair season, still. That’s changed this year.

After a year of no real Book Fair (and a year of covid), I’ve decided it’s time to put my all into a Virtual Book Fair and the magic almost feels gone, and my new tired is from overacting my excitement to students so the magic isn’t gone from them. I’m also concerned about making enough money as Book Fair is the biggest fundraiser for our library. So what am I doing to try to make this Book Fair just as successful as our past ones?

Raffles

Well, first I’m running some book giveaways. I’m usually able to use my profits to make sure every student is able to buy a book, but that’s not going to happen this year. Instead, I stretched my money to purchase some new paperbacks from Scholastic that I can raffle off. I’m utilizing both “Caught Reading” tickets that teachers can distribute to students, then students can use those as raffle entries. I’ve created mine based on the ones provided by Scholastic, but I can use less paper with these. Tickets example below.

I’m also allowed eLearners to participate by creating Wanted posters for Book Fair books, which doubles as bulletin board promo. I can’t wait to see what my students come up with! Check out the template below.

Teacher Book Talks

As said before, I had to stretch my budget to acquire some paperbacks. Some of those paperbacks were also for teachers at my school. A little quid pro quo; teachers get a new book to add to their classrooms, and in exchange they create book talk videos to share with students. These book talks can serve as quick commercials for students, and are an especially great way to get the word out to eLearning students.

So far, my school’s teachers have done great!

Online Marketing

No matter how many flyers, bracelet reminders, and announcements you make at school, there’s always going to be the kids that lose/forget it all, and then the families who have no idea what’s going on. With our switch to remote this past year and our district utilizing online resources more than ever, marketing online seems like a no-brainer. We’ve been doing this in a few ways.

First, our school has a PTO Facebook page that we’ve been sharing updates. This is a great way to reach the more casual parent; they are likely to see updates while scrolling on Facebook.

Next, I’ve been posting updates to Schoology, as well as embedding information into my Bitmoji library so families can see it every time they access my class.

Last, I’ve been making an effort to convert many of the paper materials into digital materials. Using living documents, such as Google docs, is a great way to do this, especially since it allows for viewer information and you can make changes when necessary. It’s also easy to make these materials interactive with links.

Thoughts?

So, has anyone else made the leap into a Virtual Book Fair? If so, what did you learn? I’ll be back soon to update (hopefully with good news). We’re less than a week to countdown so wish us luck!