Month: March 2021

GLOBAL READ ALOUD CHOICE 2021: YOUNG ADULT CHOICE #GRA21

8 Comments

Are you ready for the final reveal? So far I have shared the following choices:

In a world that is upside down, still, I have found myself reaching for fantasy books more and more. As a way to learn about our past and consider our future, the realm of fantasy allows us to escape, dig in, and dream of what can be. While the worlds may be unfamiliar, their messages are not and we can find comfort, hope, joy, even in the darkest parts of their stories. Our Global Read Aloud choices offer up hope in the most human way; tales of overcoming, tales of finding your own strength, tales or relying on community to come together in order to defeat a common enemy. It is what the world has shown us in the past year as well, it is what has kept many afloat, many alive. And so we shall gather around these books and continue to build community. We shall share these read alouds as way to connect across city lines, country borders, and oceans. We shall hopefully find similarities within the heroic journeys of the stories we read that let us see how we, too, can be heroes in our way.

WHAT IS INFORMATION YOU MAY WANT RIGHT NOW?

  • Kick off will be October 4th and the project will run for six weeks as usual, ending on November 12th. You can absolutely fall behind or start later, just don’t read ahead.
  • The official hashtag for the year is #GRA21, all other hashtags have been announced with their book selection.
  • The hashtag for this book will be #GRAElatsoe
  • Because the book is longer you can still choose to do a full read aloud or do it as a book study where you read some parts aloud and others are read in other ways. If the book is too long for you to fit into 6 weeks, you can always stretch it into further weeks or choose The Barren Grounds – the middle school choice – which would also be a great read for the young adult category.
  • For a comprehensive FAQ post, go here
  • To join the main Facebook group, please go here. To join the young adult Facebook group, please go here. This is where news will be posted for the most part. Following me on Twitter may also give you information.

SO WHAT IS THIS YEAR’S YOUNG ADULT BOOK….

Amazon.com: Elatsoe (9781646140053): Little Badger, Darcie, Cai, Rovina: Books
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger!

Elatsoe—Ellie for short—lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant groups. She can raise the spirits of dead animals—most importantly, her ghost dog Kirby. When her beloved cousin dies, all signs point to a car crash, but his ghost tells her otherwise: He was murdered.

Who killed him and how did he die? With the help of her family, her best friend Jay, and the memory great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Elatsoe, must track down the killer and unravel the mystery of this creepy town and its dark past. But will the nefarious townsfolk and a mysterious Doctor stop her before she gets started?

A breathtaking debut novel featuring an asexual, Apache teen protagonist, Elatsoe combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, fantasy elements, and is one of the most-talked about debuts of the year.

I first encountered Elatsoe after all of the accolades had been heaped on it and after reading it I get why the book world was abuzz with excitement for this book. It has quickly become one of my most recommended titles in my classroom and to other teachers. It combines some of my favorite components; a strong main character who is grounded within tradition and family, the supernatural that needs to be defeated, the strong ties to history and the invitation to conversation about how our past defines our present. I promise this read will not disappoint.

THE READING CALENDAR WILL BE AS FOLLOWS:

Week 1: Oct. 4th – 8th : Chapters 1 – 6

Week 2: Oct. 11th – 15th: Chapters 7 – 12

Week 3: Oct. 18 – 22nd: Chapters 13 – 18

Week 4: Oct. 25th – 29th: Chapters 19 – 24

Week 5: Nov. 1st – 5th: Chapters 25 -30

Week 6: Nov. 8th – 12th: Chapters 31 – end

Don’t worry about falling behind, just don’t read ahead and if you need to start later, please do.

Please consider following Darcie’s work on social media and supporting your local independent bookstores with your book purchases. If you want to support the Global Read Aloud, please consider purchasing your books through the links placed here, the GRA gets a small affiliate percentage whenever books are purchased through Bookshop.org – a website that sends orders through local bookstores.  If your school requires you to go through Amazon, please consider using this link to purchase the book in order to support the Global Read Aloud.

I hope you like these choices, and if not, that’s okay too, then come back next year.

Global Read Aloud Choice 2021: Middle School Choice #GRA21

12 Comments

Are you ready for the next reveal? So far I have shared the following choices:

In a world that is upside down, still, I have found myself reaching for fantasy books more and more. As a way to learn about our past and consider our future, the realm of fantasy allows us to escape, dig in, and dream of what can be. While the worlds may be unfamiliar, their messages are not and we can find comfort, hope, joy, even in the darkest parts of their stories. Our Global Read Aloud choices offer up hope in the most human way; tales of overcoming, tales of finding your own strength, tales or relying on community to come together in order to defeat a common enemy. It is what the world has shown us in the past year as well, it is what has kept many afloat, many alive. And so we shall gather around these books and continue to build community. We shall share these read alouds as way to connect across city lines, country borders, and oceans. We shall hopefully find similarities within the heroic journeys of the stories we read that let us see how we, too, can be heroes in our way.

WHAT IS INFORMATION YOU MAY WANT RIGHT NOW?

  • Kick off will be October 4th and the project will run for six weeks as usual, ending on November 12th. You can absolutely fall behind or start later, just don’t read ahead.
  • The official hashtag for the year is #GRA21, other hashtags will be announced once all the books are.
  • The hashtag for this book will be #GRABarren
  • For a comprehensive FAQ post, go here
  • To join the main Facebook group, please go here. To join the middle school Facebook group, please go here. This is where news will be posted for the most part.

SO WHAT IS THIS YEAR’S MIDDLE SCHOOL BOOK….

The Barren Grounds: The Misewa Saga, Book 1: Robertson, David A.: 9780735266100: Amazon.com: Books
The Barren Grounds by David Alex Robertson

Narnia meets traditional Indigenous stories of the sky and constellations in an epic middle grade fantasy series from award-winning author David Robertson.

Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home — until they find a secret place, walled off in an unfinished attic bedroom. A portal opens to another reality, Askí, bringing them onto frozen, barren grounds, where they meet Ochek (Fisher). The only hunter supporting his starving community, Misewa, Ochek welcomes the human children, teaching them traditional ways to survive. But as the need for food becomes desperate, they embark on a dangerous mission. Accompanied by Arik, a sassy Squirrel they catch stealing from the trapline, they try to save Misewa before the icy grip of winter freezes everything — including them.

David Alexander Robertson (Author of When We Were Alone)

In 2020, I had the honor of listening to David speak at the incredible conference Reading for the Love of It in Toronto. In his personal presentation he shared these words, “With accurate representation in story we can offer kids the truth about their lives that we were never offered growing up…” and those words have traveled with me since. What we read matters so much to our students and to the lives that they give value in the world. What we experience together through our read alouds become the shared language we speak, the tapestry that weaves us together. I am, therefore, thrilled to be bringing his newest series, The Misewa Saga, into the Global Read Aloud. Through his writing he allows us all into a world centered in love, tradition, hope and survival. Following the voices of Morgan and Eli as they crawl through a portal to a snow-covered land, we see what hope does, what resilience and strength passed down through generations of persecution can do as they face the battles of a new world. It is a story centered in strength and one that I hope will inspire us all.

THE READING CALENDAR WILL BE AS FOLLOWS:

Week 1: Oct. 4th – 8th : Chapters 1 – 5

Week 2: Oct. 11th – 15th: Chapters 6 – 10

Week 3: Oct. 18 – 22nd: Chapters 11 – 14

Week 4: Oct. 25th – 29th: Chapters 15 – 18

Week 5: Nov. 1st – 5th: Chapters 19 -22

Week 6: Nov. 8th – 12th: Chapters 23 – end

Don’t worry about falling behind, just don’t read ahead and if you need to start later, please do.

Please consider following David’s work on social media and supporting your local independent bookstores with your book purchases. If you want to support the Global Read Aloud, please consider purchasing your books through the links placed here, the GRA gets a small affiliate percentage whenever books are purchased through Bookshop.org – a website that sends orders through local bookstores.  If your school requires you to go through Amazon, please consider using this link to purchase the book in order to support the Global Read Aloud.

I hope you like these choices, and if not, that’s okay too, then come back next year.

GLOBAL READ ALOUD CHOICE 2021: MIDDLE GRADE BOOK CHOICE #GRA21

2 Comments

Are you ready for the next reveal? So far I have shared the following choices:

In a world that is upside down, still, I have found myself reaching for fantasy books more and more. As a way to learn about our past and consider our future, the realm of fantasy allows us to escape, dig in, and dream of what can be. While the worlds may be unfamiliar, their messages are not and we can find comfort, hope, joy, even in the darkest parts of their stories. Our Global Read Aloud choices offer up hope in the most human way; tales of overcoming, tales of finding your own strength, tales or relying on community to come together in order to defeat a common enemy. It is what the world has shown us in the past year as well, it is what has kept many afloat, many alive. And so we shall gather around these books and continue to build community. We shall share these read alouds as way to connect across city lines, country borders, and oceans. We shall hopefully find similarities within the heroic journeys of the stories we read that let us see how we, too, can be heroes in our way.

WHAT IS INFORMATION YOU MAY WANT RIGHT NOW?

  • Kick off will be October 4th and the project will run for six weeks as usual, ending on November 12th. You can absolutely fall behind or start later, just don’t read ahead.
  • The official hashtag for the year is #GRA21, other hashtags will be announced once all the books are.
  • The hashtag for this book will be #GRAJumbies
  • For a comprehensive FAQ post, go here
  • To join the main Facebook group, please go here. To join the middle grade Facebook group, please go here. This is where news will be posted for the most part.

SO WHAT IS THIS YEAR’S MIDDLE GRADE BOOK….

Jumbies (The Jumbies): Baptiste, Tracey: 9781616205928: Amazon.com: Books
The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste!

Corinne La Mer claims she isn’t afraid of anything. Not scorpions, not the boys who tease her, and certainly not jumbies. They’re just tricksters made up by parents to frighten their children. Then one night Corinne chases an agouti all the way into the forbidden forest, and shining yellow eyes follow her to the edge of the trees. They couldn’t belong to a jumbie. Or could they?When Corinne spots a beautiful stranger at the market the very next day, she knows something extraordinary is about to happen. When this same beauty, called Severine, turns up at Corinne’s house, danger is in the air. Severine plans to claim the entire island for the jumbies. Corinne must call on her courage and her friends and learn to use ancient magic she didn’t know she possessed to stop Severine and to save her island home.

Amazon.com: Tracey Baptiste: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle

I have loved The Jumbies series for a long time and think that Tracey Baptiste is a national treasure, and for a long time I have wanted to use The Jumbies as one of our choices, well, this year feels like the right year. While this book may be a little bit scary for younger kids, it begs to be read aloud, discussed, lived in and also invites in beautiful conversations about finding your own strength, about folk and fairytales, about family and about love. It will draw in our readers with its action and mystery. It will leave us wanting to learn more.

The reading calendar will be as follows:

Week 1: Oct. 4th – 8th : Chapters 1 – 7

Week 2: Oct. 11th – 15th: Chapters 8 – 14

Week 3: Oct. 18 – 22nd: Chapters 15-21

Week 4: Oct. 25th – 29th: Chapters 22 – 26

Week 5: Nov. 1st – 5th: Chapters 27 – 39

Week 6: Nov. 8th – 12th: Chapters 40 – end

Don’t worry about falling behind, just don’t read ahead and if you need to start later, please do.

Please consider following Tracey’s work on social media and supporting your local independent bookstores with your book purchases. If you want to support the Global Read Aloud, please consider purchasing your books through the links placed here, the GRA gets a small affiliate percentage whenever books are purchased through Bookshop.org – a website that sends orders through local bookstores.  If your school requires you to go through Amazon, please consider using this link to purchase the book in order to support the Global Read Aloud.

I hope you like these choices, and if not, that’s okay too, then come back next year.

GLOBAL READ ALOUD CHOICE 2021: EARLY READER’S BOOK CHOICE #GRA21

6 Comments

Are you ready for the next reveal? So far I have shared the following choices:

In a world that is upside down, still, I have found myself reaching for fantasy books more and more. As a way to learn about our past and consider our future, the realm of fantasy allows us to escape, dig in, and dream of what can be. While the worlds may be unfamiliar, their messages are not and we can find comfort, hope, joy, even in the darkest parts of their stories. Our Global Read Aloud choices offer up hope in the most human way; tales of overcoming, tales of finding your own strength, tales or relying on community to come together in order to defeat a common enemy. It is what the world has shown us in the past year as well, it is what has kept many afloat, many alive. And so we shall gather around these books and continue to build community. We shall share these read alouds as way to connect across city lines, country borders, and oceans. We shall hopefully find similarities within the heroic journeys of the stories we read that let us see how we, too, can be heroes in our way.

WHAT IS INFORMATION YOU MAY WANT RIGHT NOW?

  • Kick off will be October 4th and the project will run for six weeks as usual, ending on November 12th. You can absolutely fall behind or start later, just don’t read ahead.
  • The official hashtag for the year is #GRA21, other hashtags will be announced once all the books are.
  • The hashtag for this book will be #GRADragons
  • For a comprehensive FAQ post, go here
  • To join the main Facebook group, please go here. To join the early reader’s Facebook group, please go here. This is where news will be posted for the most part.

SO WHAT IS THIS YEAR’S EARLY READER BOOK….

Dragons in a Bag: Elliott, Zetta, Geneva B: 9781524770457: Amazon.com: Books
Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliott

When Jaxon is sent to spend the day with a mean old lady his mother calls Ma, he finds out she’s not his grandmother–but she is a witch! She needs his help delivering baby dragons to a magical world where they’ll be safe. There are two rules when it comes to the dragons: don’t let them out of the bag, and don’t feed them anything sweet. Before he knows it, Jax and his friends Vikram and Kavita have broken both rules! Will Jax get the baby dragons delivered safe and sound? Or will they be lost in Brooklyn forever?

Why Zetta Elliott had to decolonize her mind to write the children's book Dragons in a Bag | CBC Radio

I have loved the work of Zetta Elliott for many years, her span is incredible and so is her immense power to draw us into her stories. She writes beautiful characters whose lives unfold in front of us while also leaving us wanting more. Jaxon is a hero navigating the world with courage, love, and resilience. He is a relatable young man whose quest to right wrongs is one that many kids can relate to and even better, it is the first book in a series so you can continue Jaxon’s adventures even after the GRA reads.

The reading calendar will be as follows:

Week 1: Oct. 4th – 8th : Chapters 1 – 3

Week 2: Oct. 11th – 15th: Chapters 4 – 6

Week 3: Oct. 18 – 22nd: Chapters 7 – 8

Week 4: Oct. 25th – 29th: Chapters 9 – 10

Week 5: Nov. 1st – 5th: Chapters 11 -12

Week 6: Nov. 8th – 12th: Chapters 13 – end

Don’t worry about falling behind, just don’t read ahead and if you need to start later, please do.

Please consider following Zetta’s work on social media and supporting your local independent bookstores with your book purchases. If you want to support the Global Read Aloud, please consider purchasing your books through the links placed here, the GRA gets a small affiliate percentage whenever books are purchased through Bookshop.org – a website that sends orders through local bookstores. If your school requires you to go through Amazon, please consider using this link to purchase the book in order to support the Global Read Aloud.

I hope you like these choices, and if not, that’s okay too, then come back next year.

Global Read Aloud Choice 2021: Picture Book Study #GRA21

10 Comments

This year, I am decididng to take things a little more slowly in order to really relish who the choices are. So little by little, the chosen books and authors will be revealed, I hope you don’t mind.

In a world that is upside down, still, I have found myself reaching for fantasy books more and more. As a way to learn about our past and consider our future, the realm of fantasy allows us to escape, dig in, and dream of what can be. While the worlds may be unfamiliar, their messages are not and we can find comfort, hope, joy, even in the darkest parts of their stories. Our Global Read Aloud choices offer up hope in the most human way; tales of overcoming, tales of finding your own strength, tales or relying on community to come together in order to defeat a common enemy. It is what the world has shown us in the past year as well, it is what has kept many afloat, many alive. And so we shall gather around these books and continue to build community. We shall share these read alouds as way to connect across city lines, country borders, and oceans. We shall hopefully find similarities within the heroic journeys of the stories we read that let us see how we, too, can be heroes in our way.

WHAT IS INFORMATION YOU MAY WANT RIGHT NOW?

  • Kick off will be October 4th and the project will run for six weeks as usual, ending on November 12th. You can absolutely fall behind or start later, just don’t read ahead.
  • The official hashtag for the year is #GRA21, other hashtags will be announced once the books are.
  • The hashtag for Duncan Tonatiuh will be #GRADuncan
  • For a comprehensive FAQ post, go here
  • To join the main Facebook group, please go here. To join the picture book author Facebook group, please go here. This is where news will be posted for the most part.

So who is this year’s picture book study….

Duncan Tonatiuh: Children's Author and Illustrator - UWM Libraries

This year’s chosen creator is Duncan Tonatiuh!

Duncan was born in Mexico City and grew up in San Miguel de Allende. He graduated from Parsons The New School for Design and from Eugene Lang College in New York City in 2008. His work is inspired by Ancient Mexican art, particularly that of the Mixtec codex. His aim is to create images that honor the past, but that address contemporary issues that affect people of Mexican origin on both sides of the border. His book Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant’s Tale is the winner of the 2014 Tomás Rivera Mexican American children’s book award. It is also the first book to receive two honorable mentions, one for the illustrations and one for the text, from the Pura Belpré Award for a work that best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in children’s books. The book was featured in USA Today, The Chicago Sun, The Houston Chronicle among other major publications because it deals with the controversial topic of immigration. His book Diego Rivera: His World and Ours won the 2012 Pura Belpré illustration award. It also won the 2012 Tomás Rivera. His first book Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin received an honorable mention from the Pura Belpré Award in 2011. It was named an Americas Award Commended Title and a Notable Book for a Global Society list.

Week 1:

Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin: Tonatiuh, Duncan: 9780810938724: Amazon.com: Books
1st Week: Dear Primo

Week 2:

The Princess and the Warrior: A Tale of Two Volcanoes (Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. Commended): Tonatiuh, Duncan: 9781419721304: Amazon.com: Books
2nd week; The Princess and the Warrior

Week 3:

Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns: A Mesoamerican Creation Myth: Tonatiuh, Duncan: 9781419746772: Amazon.com: Books
3rd week: Feathered Serpent and the Five Suns

Week 4:

Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation (Jane Addams Award Book (Awards)) by [Duncan Tonatiuh]
4th week: Separate is Never Equal

Week 5:

5th Week: Diego Rivera: His World and Ours

Week 6:

Your Choice

I am so excited to dive into the fantastic world of Duncan Tonatiuh, there is just so much to uncover. Because Duncan has so many incredible books to choose from, you can also feel free to substitute other of his books in for the ones chosen above, some of his picture books are geared a little older so feel free to make the selections work for you. Please consider following Duncan’s work on social media and supporting your local independent bookstores with your book purchases. If you want to support the Global Read Aloud, please consider purchasing your books through the links placed here, the GRA gets a small affiliate percentage whenever books are purchased through Bookshop.org – a website that sends orders through local bookstores. If your school requires you to use Amazon to order the books, please consider using this link to place your order and support the GRA.

I hope you like these choices, and if not, that’s okay too, then come back next year.