Mary Ann Cappiello

Rare is the book that has the potential to prompt so much thinking in so few pages for such a wide audience. Originally published in Sweden in 2020, Johanna Schaible’s Once Upon a Time There Was and Will Be So Much More is a picture book for humans of all ages, from young children with an emerging concept of time to adults pondering their own life experiences in the past, present, and future.

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For Native and non-Native readers alike, Ancestor Approved centers the diverse lives of contemporary Native tweens and teens, and invites all of us to delight in the community, connection, and celebration of the powwow.

The post Honoring Indigenous People’s Day with Teaching Ideas for Ancestor Approved appeared first on The Classroom Bookshelf.

In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers offers tweens and teens the opportunity to use our historic grief to see anew - right now, when we need it most - our collective responsibility towards one another.

The post Teaching About September 11th and its Aftermath: In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers appeared first on The Classroom Bookshelf.

Rich for thinking about the scientific process, the nature of inquiry, the people behind our public policy, and the nature of biographical writing with living subjects, Dr. Fauci: How a Boy from Brooklyn Became America’s Doctor offers teachers, librarians, families, and the children in their care much to explore.

The post Living Questions: Teaching Ideas for Dr. Fauci: How a Boy from Brooklyn Became America’s Doctor appeared first on The Classroom Bookshelf.

deal for explorations of Native American history, U.S. history, contemporary current events, We are Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know offers teachers, librarians, parents, and young people the opportunity to fill in knowledge gaps and then act on that information in the quest towards justice.

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Ideal for explorations of agency, language, environment, and sports participation, The Floating Field reminds us that children and communities are their own best agents of change.

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Weatherford and Cooper’s fusion of art and history bring to light a shameful episode a century ago that allows teachers, librarians, young people, and their families to reconsider our present and reaffirm our commitments to anti-racism.

The post Learning from the Unspeakable: Teaching Ideas Centered on the Tulsa Race Massacre appeared first on The Classroom Bookshelf.

What can educators do? We can offer young people an opportunity to better understand and make sense of this moment through information. Nonfiction books for young people offer us gripping accounts of the past and present in language that engages young people’s hearts and minds. Nonfiction books for young people provide a “container” of information vetted and researched, with evidence documented in bibliographies and chapter notes, acknowledgements and author’s notes. Nonfiction books for young people personalize and problematize history. Nonfiction books for young people can be juxtaposed in the classroom so that students can hear a range of perspectives and make sense across texts. Nonfiction books for young people can model inquiry and informational literacy, while also providing essential information about our past, our present, and the government structures within which we operate.

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We don't know what next year holds. We don't know where books will take us. But as we do each year, we’ve curated “best of” lists from a range of publications and organizations that review children’s and middle grade books. We hope you find these lists useful. You may be in search of winter holiday hibernation reads. You may be trying to find just the right book for a child or tween in your life, or new books for your classroom collections or school library.

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