Celebrate LATINITAS during Women’s History Month!

Celebrate LATINITAS during Women’s History Month!

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Discover how 40 influential Latinas became the women we celebrate today in Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers by Juliet Menéndez, a gorgeous collection of biographies accompanied by stunning hand-painted illustrations! Don’t miss Latinitas (Spanish Edition): Una celebración de 40 soñadoras audaces available on March 1st!

Download free educator resources and teacher’s guides (available in both English and Spanish!) to use alongside the book. Plus, enter to receive a free Latinitas art print to display in your classroom or library.

Find more resources to celebrate LATINITAS here →

Teacher’s Guide: Rise Up!: How You Can Join the Fight Against White Supremacy by Dr. Crystal M. Fleming

Teacher’s Guide: Rise Up!: How You Can Join the Fight Against White Supremacy by Dr. Crystal M. Fleming

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Rise Up!: How You Can Join the Fight Against White Supremacy
Ages 12 to 18
On Sale Now!

This urgent book explores the roots of racism and its legacy in modern day, all while empowering young people with actionable ways they can help foster a better world and become antiracists.

School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

Why are white supremacists still openly marching in the United States? Why are undocumented children of color separated from their families and housed in cages? Where did racism come from? Why hasn’t it already disappeared? And what can young people do about it?

Rise Up! breaks down the origins of racial injustice and its continued impact today, connecting dots between the past and present. By including contemporary examples ripped from headlines and actionable ways young people can help create a more inclusive world, sociologist Crystal Marie Fleming shares the knowledge and values that unite all antiracists: compassion, solidarity, respect, and courage in the face of adversity. Perfect for fans of Stamped: RemixThis Book is Antiracist, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy, and The Black Friend.

Learn more about RISE UP! here →

Snacktime with Debbi Michiko Florence & Jamie Michalak, co-authors of Niki Nakayama: A Chef’s Tale in 13 Bites

Snacktime with Debbi Michiko Florence & Jamie Michalak, co-authors of Niki Nakayama: A Chef’s Tale in 13 Bites

Join authors Debbi Michiko Florence and Jamie Michalak for a cooking lesson and make wonton pizzas, a recipe from their new picture book, Niki Nakayama: A Chef’s Tale in 13 Bites!

 
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Niki Nakayama: A Chef’s Tale in 13 Bites by Debbi Michiko Florence and Jamie Michalak; illustrated by Yuko Jones
On Sale Now!
Ages 4-8

Niki Nakayama: A Chef’s Tale in 13 Bites is a picture book biography that tells the story of the powerhouse female Japanese-American chef and her rise to fame

As a child and adult, Niki faced many naysayers in her pursuit of haute cuisine. Using the structure of a traditional kaiseki meal, the authors Debbi Michiko Florence and Jamie Michalak playfully detail Niki’s hunger for success in thirteen “bites” — from wonton wrappers she used to make pizza as a kid to yuzu-tomatillo sauce in her own upscale Los Angeles Michelin-starred restaurant, n/naka.

To anyone who tells her a woman can’t be a master chef, Niki lets her food do the talking. And oh, does it talk. Niki was featured on the first season of Netflix’s culinary documentary series Chef’s Table. And Chrissy Teigen proclaimed that Niki’s restaurant was one of her absolute favorites. She’s currently a featured teacher on MasterClass.

A smart, strong woman with starpower, Niki is only just getting started — like the young readers who will devour this book, featuring illustrations by Yuko Jones!

Praise for Niki Nakayama: A Chef’s Tale in 13 Bites:

★ “In 13 ‘Bites,’ the duo follows Nakayama through food-centered memories, including bonding moments with her grandmother, embarking on a post-high school Tokyo food tour, and trying and then studying kaiseki at a cousin’s ryokan…Mixed media and digital art by Jones make each vignette atmospheric, with varying angles and insets, toothsome details, and watercolor washes.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ “Art, storytelling, and food work together on so many levels in this beautiful tale about master chef Niki Nakayama’s life… Young readers will be inspired.”Booklist, starred review

“The meticulously detailed illustrations highlight the food, experiences, and Japanese culture. Included at the end are a timeline of Nakayama’s life, deeper explanations of the concepts of kuyashii and kaiseki, and a recipe for wonton pizza. A flavorful, inspirational biography of a woman who showed the world what she could cook up.” —Kirkus Reviews

Watch our Anti-Racist Education Webinar & find Reading List Recommendations

Watch our Anti-Racist Education Webinar & find Reading List Recommendations

 

Watch our anti-racist education webinar, featuring authors Dr. Crystal M. Fleming (Rise Up: How You Can Join the Fight Against White Supremacy), Bethany C. Morrow (So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix), and Aminah Mae Safi (Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix). In this conversation moderated by Julia Torres, a teacher-librarian in Denver Public Schools, the authors discussed how educators and librarians can build a more inclusive collection for their schools and libraries.

Find more resources mentioned during the event below:

More Resources for Continuing Anti-Racist Education: 
ILA Children’s Right to Read
NCTE Intellectual Freedom Center
NCTE Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English (CARBTE)
American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom
Disrupt Texts
Diversity in Children’s Books Infographic (2018) by Sarah Park Dahlen

More Anti-Racist Book Lists to Build Your Collection 
Social Justice Books
We are KidLit Collective

Nonfiction to Pair with So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow:
Time Full of Trial: The Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony, 1862-1867 by Patricia C. Click 

Nonfiction to Pair with Travelers Along the Way by Aminah Mae Safi:
The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf

Nonfiction to Pair with Rise Up by Crystal M. Fleming:
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen 

antiracist-readinglist

Check out our list nonfiction and fiction books to add to your anti-racist collections and classroom curriculums. Create more inclusive, representative and equitable collections by incorporating these newly published works and backlist favorites into your school and library collections!

Storytime: Dean Robbins reads Thank You, Dr. Salk!

Storytime: Dean Robbins reads Thank You, Dr. Salk

Join Dean Robbins for a read-aloud of Thank You, Dr. Salk!, an educational and timely nonfiction picture book with illustrations from Mike Dutton.

 
Storytime: Dean Robbins reads Thank You, Dr. Salk!

Thank You, Dr. Salk! The Scientist Who Beat Polio by Dean Robbins, illustrated by Mike Dutton

Jonas Salk wasn’t seen as a brave hero—not at first. As a child he was quiet and unassuming, but Jonas dreamed of tikkun olam, the Jewish phrase for “healing the world.” He saw the polio virus strike his city, and he knew that with determination and hard work, he could be the one to stop its spread. So he grew up to study medicine, ultimately creating the polio vaccine that saved untold numbers of lives—and healed the world!

With Dean Robbins’s inspiring text and Mike Dutton’s dynamic illustrations, Thank You, Dr. Salk! is a true and timely story of trials, triumph, and what it takes to achieve your dreams. An author’s note provides additional insight into Dr. Salk’s life and influences, and the history of vaccines.

Praise for Thank You, Dr. Salk!

“A hardworking title, this is a great choice for allaying vaccination fears, communicating the importance of science and medicine, showing that heroes come in many forms, and explaining that education, creativity, resilience, and dedication can lead to achievements and concrete results. An engaging blend of history, biography, science, and epidemiology that is sure to inspire and inform.” —Booklist

“Robbins’ biography is particularly timely within the context of the coronavirus epidemic, and his direct, streamlined account connects well with early primary listeners, who may take some comfort in knowing that science has managed to get other epidemics under control.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Teacher’s Guide: Strongman

Teacher’s Guide: Strongman

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From the bestselling author of the Don’t Know Much About® books comes a dramatic account of the origins of democracy, the history of authoritarianism, and the reigns of five of history’s deadliest dictators.

What makes a country fall to a dictator? How do authoritarian leaders strongmen capable of killing millions acquire their power? How are they able to defeat the ideal of democracy? And what can we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

By profiling five of the most notoriously ruthless dictators in history Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Saddam Hussein Kenneth C. Davis seeks to answer these questions, examining the forces in these strongmen’s personal lives and historical periods that shaped the leaders they’d become.

Kenneth C. Davis wrote Strongman: The Rise of Five Dictators and the Fall of the Democracy to provide insight into the lives of five leaders who callously transformed the world and serves as an invaluable resource in an era when democracy itself seems in peril.

Praise for Strongman: The Rise of Five Dictators and the Fall of Democracy:

Washington Post Best Book of the Year!
A YALSA 2021 Nonfiction Award Nominee!
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year

★ “A fascinating, highly readable portrayal of infamous men that provides urgent lessons for democracy now.”
Publishers Weeklystarred review

Strongman is a book that is both deeply researched and deeply felt, both an alarming warning and a galvanizing call to action, both daunting and necessary to read and discuss.”
Cynthia Levinson, author of Fault Lines in the Constitution

Teacher’s Guide: CHANCE: Escape from the Holocaust

Teacher’s Guide: CHANCE: Escape from the Holocaust

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Chance: Escape from the Holocaust: Memories of a Refugee Childhood by Uri Shulevitz

From a beloved voice in children’s literature comes this landmark memoir of hope amid harrowing times and an engaging and unusual Holocaust story.

With backlist sales of over 2.3 million copies, Uri Shulevitz, one of Farrar, Straus and Grioux’s most acclaimed picture-book creators, details the eight-year odyssey of how he and his Jewish family escaped the terrors of the Nazis by fleeing Warsaw for the Soviet Union in Chance.

It was during those years, with threats at every turn, that the young Uri experienced his awakening as an artist, an experience that played a key role during this difficult time. By turns dreamlike and nightmarish, this heavily illustrated account of determination, courage, family loyalty, and the luck of coincidence is a true publishing event.

Download the teacher’s guide here →