Learning through literacy: Amazing Books

This week we have celebrated learning through our parent conferences and through our school book fair. This morning, our cafeteria was filled with books, children, and parents, as all eagerly searched for a new (or tried and true) favorite text.  In my teacher donation box, I have a few new books I'm excited to read, including the latest from author Sarvinder Naberhaus & artist Kadir Nelson, Blue Sky White Stars. I love Nelson's work (he won the Coretta Scott King author award and the Coretta Scott King illustrator honor award for Heart and Soul), both as an artist and an author. But I'm also excited about this book because it gets me thinking about how we can share our stories together as a community.  Last week, a colleague sent me links to blog posts about the need for diverse books and the lack of multicultural children's books, and these posts reminded me of my work with early childhood students who longed to see themselves in the books we read together.  It also reminded me of my own reading journey, and how educative and humanizing it has been to read both books in which I could see myself, as well as books in which I can learn the stories of others who have had different experiences from mine.  I'm excited for our VVE Cardinals to find more books from which they can learn to think and even understand themselves, their world, and others.  The book fair helps us do that, as will the children's section of the upcoming Texas Book Festival.  I look forward to the new conversations and exciting understandings our Cardinals will share from the books they will be reading!