#heknewbetter

🚨This book is A. PAGE. TURNER. 

Author Tiffany D. Jackson masterfully crafts the story of Enchanted, a 17-year-old aspiring singer looking to follow her dreams. An unexpected encounter with a famous star slowly turns into a gripping tale of predatory behavior, abuse, classism, and racism.

I devoured this book in one day, finishing in the wee hours of the morning. Do yourself a favor and preorder Grown - it’s powerful and smart and so, so important. #heknewbetter

👩🏽‍🦱 Author: Tiffany D. Jackson

🔪 Genre: YA/Thriller

📚 Publisher: HarperCollins

🗓 Publishing Date: September 15, 2020

I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Yours in Literacy,

Sheila 😊

Help Wanted, Must Love Books by Janet Summer Johnson

I love everything about this book! 🙌🏽

The illustrations, the storyline, the integration of well-known book characters…it has all of the elements to make your book-loving heart smile.

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Help Wanted, Must Love Books tells the tale of a girl named Shailey who LOVES reading books with her dad. They snuggle together every night and read until Shailey’s eyes can take no more. Bedtime is perfect. Until one day, dad gets a new job and his priorities shift. 

What’s a booklover to do?

Start interviewing potential readers, that’s what!

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Help Wanted, Must Love Books is a perfect read for 2nd and 3rd graders studying problem/solution, descriptive writing, and cause/effect!

✍🏻 Author: Janet Summer Johnson @janetsumnerjohnson

👩🏻‍🎨 Illustrator: Courtney Dawson

📚 Publisher: Capstone @capstone_pub

📆 Publication Date: March 2, 2020

I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Yours in Literacy,

Sheila 😊

The Proudest Blue

We are living in a time when people may be quick to judge and find fear in anything that may seem “different.” 

But we, as educators, can’t help students resolve those feelings without having the courage to hold honest conversations with them about those thoughts.

Research shows that picture books have the power to help readers make meaning of the world around them, deepen understanding, and foster empathy.

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Luckily, Ibtihaj Muhammad and S.K. Ali just published The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family, which can serve as a vehicle to get those conversations going.  The book explicitly tackles other people’s discomfort with hijab and ends with a message of pride and hope. It’s a great read aloud for students of all ages.

Authors: Ibtihaj Muhammad; S.K. Ali

Illustrator: Hatem Aly

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Yours in Literacy,

Sheila 😊

10 Questions to Consider When Conducting a Book Audit

Here's a handy printable of 10 questions to consider when conducting a diversity book audit for your school/classroom library or curricula.

Questions are broken down into three categories:

1. Characters

2. Content

3. Authors

Yours in Literacy,

Sheila ☺

Choosing Diverse Books

Ready to take a deeper dive? Let’s go!⁠⁠

Now that you’ve gathered demographic data on your students and completed a diverse books audit, you are now ready to select books to add to your library. This process is likely to take several months. ⁠⁠

When I worked on increasing the diversity of curricular books 20+ years ago, I was fortunate enough to work with a great team of teachers who were willing to form a committee and review books with me. ⁠⁠We came up with distinct criteria (more info below) and agreed to meet after school once a month.

Dividing up the reading in this way made it more manageable and enabled us to review a higher volume of books than if we were doing it alone. (This was pre-social media, so it’s a lot easier now to find diverse titles.)⁠⁠

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Remember that simply adding books that include people of color is not enough; we have to choose books purposefully.

Questions such as these from Teaching Tolerance are critical to keep in mind:

⁠⁠🗣 What VOICES does this text include in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, class, age, ability, religion, place, immigration status or LGBTQ+ identity? ⁠⁠

🤳🏿Does this text MIRROR the identities and experiences of my students? ⁠⁠

📝How well does the author KNOW the group s/he is representing?⁠⁠

❌Does the content PERPETUATE or RELY on stereotypes, generalizations or misrepresentations? ⁠⁠⁠

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There are a number of online resources that help you evaluate diverse texts. You may want to start with this comprehensive checklist by Teaching Tolerance.

If you want to share the names of specific diverse books that you added to your library or curricula, leave a comment below! ⁠⁠⁠

Yours in Literacy,

Sheila 😊

Diversity Book Audit

Last week, we highlighted the need to increase diverse books in our school/class libraries or curricula, and examined the demographics of the population that you serve. 📊

So what’s next?

A book audit.

😯 I know that sounds intimidating…but basically, a book audit is when you take an inventory of your books in light of specific characteristics, such as the ethnicity of the protagonist.

You could use this helpful tally sheet from @sfpsmom (bit.ly/DiverseLibraryInventory) or create your own in Google Sheets or Excel. Including the titles of the books is optional. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just do the tally marks. The point is to identify whose voices are being represented through the books.

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After you’ve gone through your school/class library and/or curricula, total up each column.

Now, sit with your data.

👉🏽 What patterns emerged? 

🗣 Whose voices are the loudest? Quietest?

🤔 How does this data compare with the demographics noted last week?

⭕️ What gaps need to be filled?

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These are hard questions. Feelings may arise that may not feel too good. Remember that diversifying your library/curricula is important work. We know better. Now we have to do better.

Next week, we will explore some notable nuances to consider when examining diverse books. Hope to see you then! ❤️💛💙💚🧡

Yours in Literacy,

Sheila 😊

How Deep Is Our Commitment?

{Infographic showing the results of a diverse books survey}

As this data shows, there is a clear need for increasing the number of diverse books in schools in order to accurately reflect the population served. 

But where to start?

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1) GOOGLE. 

👨🏻‍💻Go online and search the demographics of your school. If you can’t find that information, look for the district’s demographics. If you’re at a public or charter school, student demographic data is public information. You should be able to find it fairly easily.

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2) NOTE. 

✍🏿Write down the data. 

example.: Here’s the racial/ethnicity information for NYC as of 9/2019:

• 40.5% Latinx

• 26.0% Black

• 16.1% Asian

• 15.0% White

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3) REFLECT. 

💭 What does this data tell me?

💭 Is this data in line with my perceptions?

💭 What, if anything, surprises me about this data?

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4) SCAN. 

👀 Take a moment to mentally scan your school/classroom library and/or the books that you teach. Don’t do anything more than scan. The point is to just begin thinking about the discrepancies that may exist between #2 and #4. 

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🔜 Next week, we will venture into the second half of the auditing process and discuss tallying up the books in your school/classroom.

❤️💛💙💚🧡

Yours in Literacy,

Sheila 😊