Author: Grace Tyler

Activity Kit: Big Tune: Rise of the Dancehall Prince

Activity Kit: Big Tune: Rise of the Dancehall Prince

Activity-Kit-Downloadable-Resources 2

Take a deep dive with your classroom into Big Tune: Rise of the Dancehall Prince by Alliah L. Agostini; illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice. This picture book is about a community coming together to have a good time. In this activity kit, you can host your own Dancehall Party, and bring different cultures together. A Dancehall Party is when “Family, friends, music, food, and drink are a universal recipe for a good time! And in immigrant communities like the early 1990s Brooklyn, New York, Jamaican community depicted here, parties or bashments are an opportunity to reconnect with local family, friends, and the rhythm and flavors of a home thousands of miles away.”

Click below to download the activity kit to share in your school or library.

Find Out More about Big Tune: Rise of the dancehall prince Activity Kit >

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month where we acknowledge domestic violence survivors and recognize stories that offer opportunities to discuss complex topics. Browse the books below for titles you can confidently recommend to young readers on this sensitive subject. For more resources on this topic, please visit the Domestic Violence Awareness Hotline or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline 800-799-7233.

Domestic-Violence-Awareness-Month
Continue reading →

Educator’s Guide: My Selma: a Southern Childhood at the Height of the Civil Rights Movement by Willie Mae Brown

Educator’s Guide: My Selma: a Southern Childhood at the Height of the Civil Rights Movement by Willie Mae Brown

my-selma 1

My Selma: True Stories of a Southern Childhood at the Height of the Civil Rights Movement
By Willie Mae Brown
Ages 10-14
On Sale Now!

Combining family stories of the everyday and the extraordinary as seen through the eyes of her twelve-year-old self, Willie Mae Brown gives readers an unforgettable portrayal of her coming of age in a town at the crossroads of history.

As the civil rights movement and the fight for voter rights unfold in Selma, Alabama, many things happen inside and outside the Brown family’s home that do not have anything to do with the landmark 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Yet the famous outrages which unfold on that span form an inescapable backdrop in this collection of stories. In one, Willie Mae takes it upon herself to offer summer babysitting services to a glamorous single white mother—a secret she keeps from her parents that unravels with shocking results. In another, Willie Mae reluctantly joins her mother at a church rally, and is forever changed after hearing Martin Luther King Jr. deliver a defiant speech in spite of a court injunction.

Infused with the vernacular of her Southern upbringing, My Selma captures the voice and vision of a fascinating young person—perspicacious, impetuous, resourceful, and even mystical in her ways of seeing the world around her—who gifts us with a loving portrayal of her hometown while also delivering a no-holds-barred indictment of the time and place.

Download the educator’s guide for My Selma here!
DOWNLOAD MY SELMA eDUCATORS GUIDE HERE→