There is never anything easy about picking the books and authors for the Global Read Aloud. How can there be when there are so many incredible books to choose from? So many different experiences waiting to be discovered?

I lose sleep. I try different configurations. I talk about it incessantly with my husband. I reach out to trusted friends to hear opinions. And yet, ultimately, it comes down to a gut feeling of what feels right for the moment we are in, for the way conversations are shaped around the globe. Having moved back to Denmark, the global part stands even more in focus. Are the books even available to me here in Denmark? Will they speak to the world I am inhibiting in the way that they will speak to kids in other places?

A lot goes into being a Global Read Aloud choice. I don’t make these selections lightly. There are so many worthy books and stories waiting to be shared on a larger scale, I can’t choose them all, but I wish I could.

Since last year’s selections, in many ways it feels the world got even bleaker. Book bans rage in the US that impact the global publishing industry, hatred grows, and a sense of hope and wonder is harder to reach as we burn out and watch our children struggle in a world that is actively rejecting many of them.

And yet, the stories of hope continue. Of reckoning with our past and using the stories to dream bigger. To know what we came from and know where we want to go.

And so the books I chose are about hope, once again. about seeing how our own thoughts can be as visceral of an enemy as the outside world. About coming together in unlikely ways. Of not shying away from what we were but still finding space to be something more.

So if you like the choices for this year, join me as we kick off the Global Read Aloud on October 2nd, 2023. If you don’t like the choices, don’t join, it’s as easy as that, but I for one am already counting down the days until it kicks off.

There is no sign-up to join, just either pay attention here for more information or join the Facebook communities – I would recommend joining the main one and the one specific to the book (or creator) you choose:

Main GRA Facebook group

Picture Book Study Group

Early Reader Book Group

Upper Elementary/ Middle-Grade Book Group

Middle School Book Group

YA Book Group

Kick-off this year is October 2nd and we run until November 10th.

You don’t have to follow the schedule, but please don’t read ahead and spoil the book(s) for others.

So drumroll, please…here are this year’s selections.

Picture Book Creator Choice:

This year’s chosen creator is Jacqueline Woodson

I have never gone a school year without reading a picture book aloud from Jacqueline Woodson. With every new book she writes, new conversations open up, new connections are made, and kids feel so seen. So we travel into her vast array of stories to select only 6.

WEEK 1 BOOK:

WEEK 2 BOOK:

WEEK 3 BOOK:

WEEK 4 BOOK:

WEEK 5 BOOK:

WEEK 6 BOOK: Free choice out of Jacqueline’s many amazing collaborations.

Just remember that the picture book creator study is open to all ages. It is a great way to participate if you don’t see your students often or have limited read aloud time.

EARLY READER CHOICE

Future Hero: Race to Fire Mountain by Remi Blackwood

Jarell has never quite known where he belongs. He’s ignored at home and teased at school for wanting to draw instead of playing sports with the other boys. The only place he’s ever felt truly at ease is his local barbershop where the owner hangs Jarell’s art up on the walls.

When Jarell discovers a hidden portal in the barbershop, he’s transported to a magical world that’s unlike anything he’s seen before. But it’s not just the powerful gods and dangerous creatures that makes this world different―it’s that everyone believes Jarell is the hero they’ve been waiting for.

Week 1: Chapter 1 – 2

Week 2: Chapter 3 – 4

Week 3: Chapter 5 – 6

Week 4: Chapter 7 – 8

Week 5: Chapter 9 – 10

Week 6: Chapter 11 – end

Hashtag: #GRAFuture

MIDDLE GRADE/UPPER ELEMENTARY CHOICE

A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga

Meet Resilience, a Mars rover determined to live up to his name.

Res was built to explore Mars. He was not built to have human emotions. But as he learns new things from the NASA scientists who assemble him, he begins to develop humanlike feelings. Maybe there’s a problem with his programming….

Human emotions or not, launch day comes, and Res blasts off to Mars, accompanied by a friendly drone helicopter named Fly. But Res quickly discovers that Mars is a dangerous place filled with dust storms and giant cliffs. As he navigates Mars’s difficult landscape, Res is tested in ways that go beyond space exploration.

As millions of people back on Earth follow his progress, will Res have the determination, courage, and resilience to succeed… and survive? 

Reading Schedule

Week 1: Pages 1-49

Week 2: Pages 50 -99

Week 3: Pages 100 – 150

Week 4: Pages 151 – 200

Week 5: Pages 201 – 246

Week 6: Pages 247 – end

Hashtag: #GRARover

MIDDLE SCHOOL CHOICE

A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner

While this book is not out until May 2nd, 2023 – it is one of the best books of the year in my opinion.

Will is the only round kid in a school full of string beans. So he hides…in baggy jeans and oversized hoodies, in the back row during class, and anywhere but the cafeteria during lunch. But shame isn’t the only feeling that dominates Will’s life. He’s also got a crush on a girl named Jules who knows he doesn’t have a chance with—string beans only date string beans—but he can’t help wondering what if?

Will’s best shot at attracting Jules’s attention is by slaying the Will Monster inside him by changing his eating habits and getting more exercise. But the results are either frustratingly slow or infuriatingly unsuccessful, and Will’s shame begins to morph into self-loathing.

As he resorts to increasingly drastic measures to transform his appearance, Will meets skateboarder Markus, who helps him see his body and all it contains as an ever-evolving work in progress.

Reading Schedule

Week 1: Pages 1 – 48 (end after “I didn’t need to eat after all”)

Week 2: Pages 55 – 105

Week 3: Pages 106 – 173

Week 4: Pages 174 – 225

Week 5: Pages 226 – 285

Week 6: Pages 286 – end

Hashtag: #GRAWork

YOUNG ADULT CHOICE

Thirty Talks Weird Love by Alessandra Narváez Varela

Out of nowhere, a lady comes up to Anamaria and says she’s her, from the future. But Anamaria’s thirteen, she knows better than to talk to a stranger. Girls need to be careful, especially in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico―it’s the 90’s and fear is overtaking her beloved city as cases of kidnapped girls and women become alarmingly common. This thirty-year-old “future” lady doesn’t seem to be dangerous but she won’t stop bothering her, switching between cheesy Hallmark advice about being kind to yourself, and some mysterious talk about saving a girl.

Anamaria definitely doesn’t need any saving, she’s doing just fine. She works hard at her strict, grade-obsessed middle school―so hard that she hardly gets any sleep; so hard that the stress makes her snap not just at mean girls but even her own (few) friends; so hard that when she does sleep she dreams about dying―but she just wants to do the best she can so she can grow up to be successful. Maybe Thirty’s right, maybe she’s not supposed to be so exhausted with her life, but how can she ask for help when her city is mourning the much bigger tragedy of its stolen girls?

Reading Schedule

Week 1: Pages start – 35

Week 2: Pages 36 – 67

Week 3: Pages 68 – 100

Week 4: Pages 101 – 133

Week 5: Pages 134 – 164

Week 6:Pages 165 – end

Hashtag: #GRAThirty

TWITTER HASHTAGS FOR THE YEAR:

Picture book author study – #GRAJackie

Future Hero – #GRAFuture

A Rover’s Story – #GRARover

A Work in Progress – #GRAProgress

Thirty Talks Weird Love – #GRAThirty

GLOBAL READ ALOUD SUPPORT:

T-shirts and other merchandise supporting the project can be found here

To join my Patreon and support the running of the Global Read Aloud plus get access to consultation, coaching, mini-PD and all my resources, go here

TO ORDER YOUR BOOKS:

Please consider ordering the books from Bookshop.org– an independent bookstore that partners with local independent bookstores to sell books. You can see the winner list here and support The Global Read Aloud at the same time.

If you need to order through Amazon, please order it through this affiliate link, the cents earned from it go to purchasing and shipping books to those who cannot get them.

FOR RESOURCES AND TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS

To find answers to the most frequently asked questions, go here – you will find ideas for how to do the project, as well as how you can share your reading.

To find shared resources and share your own, go here – you will find author resources and also created resources from others.

There you have it; another amazing year of connecting awaits. Read the books, share the books, and get ready for another opportunity to make the world smaller.

Love,

Pernille

With the fourth week of the Global Read Aloud 2021 underway, I am so excited to reveal that I will be in conversation with my author extraordinaire, Zetta Elliott, author of this year’s GRA choice for younger readers, Dragons in a Bag. This pre-recorded event will be available to view after October 27th and will be a chance to get your questions answered directly by this incredible author and human being.

So I need your help, what would you like me to ask Zetta? Have your students or classrooms submit their questions to potentially be asked and tune in when the recording is released.

You can submit as many questions as you would like! Just fill in this form between now and November 1st.

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS HERE

Happy reading!

Pernille

It’s not every day, the Global Read Aloud gets to host a cover reveal, but today is one of those special day and boy, was it easy to say yes to this! In 2018, the middle grade choice for the year was Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed, a book that quickly took our GRA community with storm. Kids around the world learned about Pakistan, about the plight of indentured servants, about one girl’s courage to change not just her own life but the lives of others. We were enthralled, enriched, and invested and so many of us begged for more of Amal’s story. Well, Aisha Saeed heard us and in between all of her other writing, she wrote the story of Omar called “Omar Rising” to be released February 1st, 2022!

What is Omar Rising about?

In this compelling companion to New York Times bestseller Amal Unbound, Amal’s friend Omar must contend with being treated like a second-class citizen when he gets a scholarship to an elite boarding school.

Omar knows his scholarship to Ghalib Academy Boarding School is a game changer, providing him—the son of a servant—with an opportunity to improve his station in life. He can’t wait to experience all the school has to offer, especially science club and hopefully the soccer team; but when he arrives, his hopes are dashed. First-year scholarship students aren’t allowed to join clubs or teams—and not only that, they have to earn their keep doing menial chores. At first Omar is dejected—but then he gets angry when he learns something even worse—the school deliberately “weeds out” kids like him by requiring them to get significantly higher grades than kids who can pay tuition, making it nearly impossible for scholarship students to graduate. It’s a good thing that in his favorite class, he’s learned the importance of being stubbornly optimistic. So with the help of his tightknit new group of friends—and with the threat of expulsion looming over him—he sets out to do what seems impossible: change a rigged system.

Aisha Saeed on OMAR RISING:

Omar Rising is a story about just how high the stakes of education can be— especially for those whom it may be the only ladder out of their difficult circumstances. As the son of a servant, Omar is doing everything he can to succeed at his new boarding school so he can give his mother and himself a brighter future, but as he navigates his classes, he discovers exactly how unjust his new school is and the power of collective activism to affect change. While Omar’s story is set in Pakistan, as a former educator in the U.S., I’ve witnessed firsthand both the challenges— and the resiliency— of my students as they worked to overcome their own inequitable circumstances.

Are you ready for the cover reveal?

How can you pre-order it?

Please consider supporting your local independent book store to pre-order this book. You can also order it through Bookshop.org, a website dedicated to funnel book orders through local independent book stores and paying them a larger percentage than other known large scale book sites. However you choose to order it, I know one thing to be true; Aisha’s words changed so many perspectives in Amal Unbound, I know Omar Rising will change many too.

Happy reading!

Introducing this year’s shared resource document for ALL BOOKS – use this to share any resources you have found or created for the book(s) you are doing. If you want to change permissions on it, you need to make your own copy.

Go to the book tab you are doing and look at the resources already shared, feel free to also add anything you have you want to share whether it is ideas, slowchat information, postcard sign ups etc. Hopefully this will be an easier way for people to share rather than ideas getting lost on Facebook.

New this year is a place to search for connections as well, please add in your information if you would like others to connect with you and don’t feel like posting on Facebook. Each book has its own Google doc for this which is where you can post connections wanted, the document can be found within the shared resource document under each unique tab.

You can also keep posting connections wanted on Facebook but in case you don’t use it or find that confusing, I hope these resources will make your life easier.

I cannot wait for another year of Global Read Aloud! Which book will you be reading?

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

• Picture Book Author Study – Duncan Tonatiuh
• Early Reader’s Choice – Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliott
• Middle Grade Choice – The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste

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….

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.

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.

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

• Picture Book Author Study – Duncan Tonatiuh
• Early Readers Chapter Books – Dragons in A Bag by Zetta Elliot

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….

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.

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.