Tag: Teaching Books

Educator’s Guide: Choosing Brave by Angela Joy; illustrated by Janelle Washington

choosing-brave

Choosing Brave
By Angela Joy; illustrated by Janelle Washington
Ages 8-12
On Sale Now!

A Caldecott-honor winning picture book biography of the mother of Emmett Till, and how she channeled grief over her son’s death into a call to action for the civil rights movement.

Mamie Till-Mobley is the mother of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy who was brutally murdered while visiting the South in 1955. His death became a rallying point for the civil rights movement, but few know that it was his mother who was the catalyst for bringing his name to the forefront of history.

In Choosing Brave, Angela Joy and Janelle Washington offer a testament to the power of love, the bond of motherhood, and one woman’s unwavering advocacy for justice. It is a poised, moving work about a woman who refocused her unimaginable grief into action for the greater good. Mamie fearlessly refused to allow America to turn away from what happened to her only child. She turned pain into change that ensured her son’s life mattered.

Timely, powerful, and beautifully told, this thorough and moving story has been masterfully crafted to be both comprehensive and suitable for younger readers.

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Educator’s Guide: Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth by Michelle Duster; illustrated by Laura Freeman

ida-b-wells-voice-of-truth

Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth
By Michelle Duster; illustrated by Laura Freeman
Ages 4-8
On Sale Now!

Ida B. Wells, Voice of Truth is an inspiring picture book biography of the groundbreaking journalist and civil rights activist as told by her great-granddaughter Michelle Duster and illustrated by Coretta Scott King Award Honoree artist Laura Freeman.

Ida B. Wells was an educator, journalist, feminist, businesswoman, newspaper owner, public speaker, suffragist, civil rights activist, and women’s club leader.

She was a founder of the NAACP, the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, the Alpha Suffrage Club, and the Negro Fellowship League.

She wrote, spoke, and traveled, challenging the racist and sexist norms of her time.

Faced with criticism and threats to her life, she never gave up.

This is her extraordinary true story, as told by her great-granddaughter Michelle Duster and beautifully brought to life by Coretta Scott King Award Honoree artist Laura Freeman.

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Discussion Guide: Gone Wolf by Amber McBride

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Gone Wolf
By Amber McBride
Ages 10-14
On Sale 10/03/23!

In middle-grade debut, Gone Wolf, award-winning author Amber McBride lays bare the fears of being young and Black in America.

In the future, a Black girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined — to be used as a biological match for the president’s son, should he fall ill. She is called a Blue — the color of sadness. She lives in a small-small room with her dog, who is going wolf more often – he’s pacing and imagining he’s free. Inmate Eleven wants to go wolf too—she wants to know why she feels so Blue and what is beyond her small-small room.

In the present, Imogen lives outside of Washington DC. The pandemic has distanced her from everyone but her mother and her therapist. Imogen has intense phobias and nightmares of confinement. Her two older brothers used to help her, but now she’s on her own, until a college student helps her see the difference between being Blue and sad, and Black and empowered.

In this symphony of a novel, award-winning author Amber McBride lays bare the fears of being young and Black in America, and empowers readers to remember their voices and stories are important, especially when they feel the need to go wolf.

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Educator’s Guide: Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater

True Story of a Racist Social

Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed
By Dashka Slater
Ages 12-18
On Sale Now!

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The 57 Bus comes Accountable, a propulsive and thought-provoking true story about the revelation of a racist social media account that changes everything for a group of high school students and begs the question: What does it mean to be held accountable for harm that takes place behind a screen?

When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew. Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults—educators and parents—whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse.

In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean? In Accountable, award-winning and New York Times–bestselling author Dashka Slater has written a must-read book for our era that explores the real-world consequences of online choices.

Download the educator’s guide for Accountable here!
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Meet the Creator: Jen Wang

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Creator Jen Wang spoke with TeachingBooks.Net about the creation process and backstory of her Asian Pacific American Literature Children’s Literature Award winner, Stargazing. Click here to listen to Jen’s interview!