Books to Teach Writer's Craft with In Grades K-5

Approaches to Writing
Andrews-Goebel, Nancy. 2002. The Pot that Juan Built. Illustrated by David Diaz. NY: Lee & Low Books.
Burleigh, Robert. 2006. Tiger of the Snows: Tenzing Norgay: The Boy Whose Dream Was Everest. Illustrated by Ed Young. New York: Atheneum Books.
Dorros, Arthur. 1997. Radio Man/Don Radio. NY: Harper Trophy.
Highway, Tomson. 2010. Fox on the Ice. Illustrated by Brian Deines. Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry and Whiteside (Bilingual: English and Cree).
Giovanni, Nikki. 2005. Rosa. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. New York: Holt.
Hill, Laban Carrick. 2010. Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. NY: Little, Brown & Company.
Mannis, Celeste Davidson. 2005. One Leaf Rides the Wind: Counting in a Japanese Garden. Illustrated by Susan Kathleen Hartung. New York: Puffin.
Miller, William. 2001. Rent Party Jazz. Illustrated by Charlotte Riley-Webb. NY: Lee & Low Books.
Nelson, S.D. 2006. Quiet Hero: The Ira Hayes Story. NY: Lee & Low Books.
Raschka, Chris. 1992. Charlie Parker Played Be Bop. NY: Scholastic.
Ringgold, Faith. 2003. If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks. New York: Aladdin.
Rubin, Susan Goldman. 2009. Jacob Lawrence in the City. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.
Young, Ed. 2005. Beyond the Great Mountains: A Visual Poem About China. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle.


The Sounds of Language
Battle-Lavert, Gwendolyn. 2003. Papa’s Mark. Illustrated by Colin Bootman. New York: Holiday House.
Buchanan, Ken. 1991. This House is Made of Mud/Esta casa está hecha de lodo. Illustrated by Libra Tracy. Translated by Patricia Hinton Davison. Flagstaff, AZ: Luna Rising.
Forman, Ruth. 2007. Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon. Illustrated by Cbabi Bayoc. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
Gunning, Monica. 1999. Not a Copper Penny in Me House: Poems from the Caribbean. Illus- trated by Frane Lessac. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press.
hooks, bell. 2004. Skin Again. Illustrated by Chris Raschka. New York: Hyperion.
Lord, Michelle. 2006. Little Sap and Monsieur Rodin. Illustrated by Felicia Hoshino. New York: Lee & Low.
Luján, Jorge. 2006. Tarde de invierno/Winter afternoon. Illustrated by Mandana Sadat. Tornoto: Groundwood Books.
Mora, Pat. 2007. Yum! ¡Mmmm! ¡Qué rico! Americas’Sproutings. Illustrated by Rafael López. NY: Lee & Low.
Nye, Naomi, Shihab. 1997. Sitti’s Secrets. Illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. NewYork: Alladin.
Santiago, Chiori. 2002. Home to Medicine Mountain. Illustrated by Judith Lowry. San Francisco, CA: Chil- dren’s Book Press.
Schertle, Alice. 2007. We. Illustrated by Kenneth Addison. NY: Lee & Low.
Smith, Cynthia Leitich. 2000. Jingle Dancer. Illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu. NY: Morrow.
Williams, Shirley Anne. 1997. Working Cotton. Illustrated by Carole Byard. Orlando, FL: Voyager.
Woodson, Jacqueline. 2001. The Other Side. Illustrated by E. B. Lewis. New York: Putnam.

Text Crafting
Ashley, Bryan. 1996. Sing to the Sun. NY: Harper Trophy.
Brown, Monica. 2004. My Name Is Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz/Me llamo Celia: La vida de Celia Cruz. Illustrated by Rafael López. Flagstaff, AZ: Luna Rising.
Bruchac, Joseph. 2006. Wabi: A Hero’s Tale. NY: Dial.
Buchmann, Stephen & Diana Cohn. 2007. The Bee Tree. Illustrated by Paul Mirocha. El Paso: Cinco Puntos.
Campbell, Nicola I. 2005. Shi-shi-etko. Illustrated by Kim La- Fave. Translated by David Unger. Toronto, ON: Groundwood.
Cohn, Diana. 2002. ¡Si, Se Puede!/Yes, We Can!: Janitor Strike in L.A. Illustrated by Francisco Delgado. El Paso: Cinco Puntos.
Gunning, Monica. 2004. A Shelter in Our Car. Illustrated by Elaine Pedlar. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
Hayes, Joe. 2006. The Gum Chewing Rattler. Illustrated by Antonio Castro L. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos.
Herrera, Juan Felipe. 2004. Featherless/ Desplumado. Illustrated by Ernesto Cuevas, Jr. San Francisco: Children’s Book Press.
Hopkinson, Deborah. 1999. A Band of Angels: A Story Inspired by the Jubilee Singers. Illustrated by Raúl Cólon. New York: Athe- neum.
Hubbard, Crystal. 2005. Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream. Illustrated by Randy DuBurke. New York: Lee & Low.
Keeler, Patricia A and Júlio T. Leitão. 2006. Drumbeat in Our Feet. Illustrated by Patricia A. Keeler. NY: Lee & Low.
Khan, Rukhsana. 1988. The Roses in My Carpets. Illustrated by Ronald Himler. Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry and Whiteside.
Krishnaswami, Uma. 2006. Closet Ghosts. Illustrated by Shi-raaz Bhabha. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
Ryan, Pam Muñoz. 2002. When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson. Illustrated by Brian Selznick. New York: Scholastic
Sun, Yung Shin. 2004. Cooper’s Lesson. Kim Cogan. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
Taylor, Gaylia. 2006. George Crum and the Saratoga Chip. Illustrated by Frank Morrison. New York: Lee & Low.
Williams, Mary. 2005. Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan. Illustrated by Gregory
Christie. NY: Lee & Low.

Text Structure

Cheng, Andrea. 2004. Honeysuckle House. Asheville, NC: Front Street.
Pinkney, Andrea Davis with Scat Cat Monroe. 2002. Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuoso. Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. New York: Hyperion.
Reynolds, Jan. 2006. Celebrate! Connections among Cultures. New York: Lee & Low.
Schotter, Roni. 1997. Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street. Illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker. New York: Orchard.
Tran, Truong. 2003. Going Home, Coming Home/Ve Nha, Tham Que Huong. Illustrated by Ann Phong
Van Camp, Richard. 2003. What’s the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses? Illustrated by George Littlechild. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press.
Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2006. Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson. New York: Hyperion.
Wight, Al. 2005. Do Mice Eat Rice? Illustrated by Roger Clarke. Boston, MA: Tuttle Publishing.

Ways with Genre

Alarcón, Francisco X. 2005. Poems to Dream Together/ Poemas para soñar juntos. Illustrated by Paula Bar- ragán. NY: Lee & Low Books.
Arcellana, Francisco. 1999 [1938]. The Mats. Illustrated by Hermès Alègrè. La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller.
Bley, Anette. 2007. And What Comes After a Thousand?   La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller.
Bruchac, Joseph (Abenaki). 2000. Pushing up the Sky: Seven Native American Plays for Children. Illustrated by Teresa Flavin. New York: Dial.
Crews, Donald. 1991. Bigmama’s. NY: Greenwillow Books.
Hinojosa, Tish. 2002. Cada Niño/ Every Child: A Bilingual Songbook for Kids. Illustrated by Lucia Angela Perez. El Paso: Cinco Puntos.
Hurston, Zora Neale. 2006. The Six Fools. Adapted by Joyce Carol Thomas. Illustrated by Ann Tanksley. New York: HarperCollins.
Krach, Maywan Shen. 1997. D Is for Doufu: An Alphabet Book of Chinese Culture. Illustrated by Hongbin Zhang. Arcadia, CA: Shen’s Books.
Liu, Jae Soo. 2002. Yellow Umbrella. Music by Don Il Sheen. La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller. (CD included).
Mora, Pat. 1997. Tomás and the Library Lady. Illustrated by Raul Colón. New York: Knopf.
Muse, Daphne. 2005. Entrance Place of Wonders: Poems of the Harlem Renaissance. Illustrated by CharloteeRiley-Webb. NY: Abrams Books.
Myers, Walter Dean. 1996. Brown Angels: An Album of Pictures and Verse. New York: HarperTrophy.
Pinkney, Andrea Davis. 2000. Let it Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters. Illustrated by StephenAlcorn. San Diego: Harcourt.
Shea, Pegi Deitz and Cynthia Weill. 2003. Ten Mice for Tet. Illustrations by Tô Ngoc Trang. Embroidery by PhamViet Dinh. San Francisco: Chronicle.
Steltzer, Ulli. 1999. Building an Igloo. NY: Henry Holt & Co.
Sweet, Melissa. 2005. Carmine: A Little More Red. Boston: Houghton.
Thong, Roseanne. 2005. Round Is a Mooncake: A Book of Shapes. Illustrated by Grace Lin. NY: Scholastic.
Tingle, Tim. 2006. Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship and Freedom. Illustrated by Jeanne Rorex Bridges. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos.
Velasquez, Eric. 2001. Grandma’s Records. NY: Walker.
Winter, Jeanette. 2006. Calavera Abecedario: A Day of the Dead Alphabet Book. Orlando, FL: Voyager.
Yoo, Paula. 2005. Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story. Illustrated by Dom Lee. NY: Lee & Low.


Conventions of Language
Bruno, Elsa Knight. 2009. Punctuation Celebration. Illustrated by Jenny Whitehead. NY: Henry Holt.
Lowry, Lois. 2009. Crow Call. Illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline. NY: Scholastic Press.
Park, Linda Sue, and Julia Durango. 2005. Yum! Yuck! A Foldout Book of People Sounds. Illustrated by Sue Ramá. Cambridge, MA: Charlesbridge.
Lyon, George Ella. 2011. Which Side are You On? Illustrated by Christopher Cardinale. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press.
Pulver, Robin. 2003. Punctuation Takes a Vacation. Illustrated by Lynne Rowe Reed. NY: Holiday House.
Raschka, Chris. 1993. Yo! Yes! New York: Orchard.
Truss. Lynne. 2007. The Girl's Like Spaghetti: Why, You Can't Manage without Apostrophes! Illustrated by Bonnie Timmons. NY: Putnam.
Zolotow, Charlotte. 2000. Do You Know What I’ll Do? Illustrated by Javaka Steptoe. NY: HarperCollins.


Connecting Illustrations & Text

From Crazy Horse's Vision. Illustrated by S.D. Nelson (Lee & Low)

Brooks, Gwendolyn. 2007. Bronzeville Boys and Girls. Illustrated by Faith Ringgold. New York: Amistad.
Bruchac, Joseph. 2000. Crazy Horse’s Vision. Illustrated by  S. D. Nelson. New York: Lee & Low.
Chen, Chin-Yuan. 2003. On My Way To Buy Eggs. La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller.
Crews, Doanld. 1998. Night at the Fair. NY: Greenwillow.
Dunbar, Paul Laurence. 1999. Jump Back Honey: The Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Illustrated by Ashley Bryan, Carole Byard, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Brian &Jerry Pinkney & Faith Ringgold. NY: Hyperion.
Frame, Jeron Ashford. 2003. Yesterday I Had the Blues. Illustrated by R. Gregory Chrisite. Berkeley, CA: Tricycle.
Gerstein, Mordicai. 2009. A Book. NY: Roaring Press Books.
Herrera, Juan Felipe. 2003. Super Cilantro Girl/La superniña del cilantro. Illustrated by Honorio Robleda Tapia. San Francisco, CA: Children's Book Press

Lofthouse, Liz. 2007. Ziba Came on a Boat. Illustrated by Robert Ingpen. La Jolla, CA: Kane/Miller.
Robles, Anthony D. 2003. Lakas and the Manilatown Fish/Si Lakas at ang Isdang Manilatown. Illustrated by Carl Angel. Eloisa D. de Jesus and Magdalena de Guzman, trans. San Francisco: Children’s Book Press.
Say, Allen. 1993. Grandfather’s Journey. San Diego,CA: Houghton Mifflin.
Velasquez, Eric. 2010. Grandma's Gift. NY: Walker Books for Young Readers.
Williams, Vera B. 1984. A Chair for My Mother. NY: Harper-Trophy.

The Linen Series: Sea Impressions

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Photograpahic images made at Long Beach Island New Jersey. Images overlayed with linen.

Pass the Poetry: Superman

note, passed to superman

            -    Lucille Clifton

Superman by Andy Warhol

sweet jesus, superman,
if i had seen you dressed in your blue suit
i would have known you.
maybe that choirboy clark
can stand around
listening to stories
but not you, not with
metropolis to save
and every crook in town
filthy with kryptonite.
lord, man of steel,
i understand the cape,
the leggings, the whole
ball of wax. you can trust me,
there is no planet stranger
than the one i’m from.

Dear Superman Poem: 

"Dear Superman," by Ron Koertge from Geography of the Forehead (University of Arkansas Press).

I know you think that things
will always be the same: I'll rinse
out your tights, kiss you good-bye
at the window, and every few weeks
get kidnapped by some stellar goons.

But I'm not getting any younger,
and you're not getting any older.
Pretty soon I'll be too frail
to take aloft, and with all those
nick-of-time rescues, you're bound
to pick up somebody more tender
and just as ga-ga as I used to be.
I'd hate her for being 17 and you
for being… what, 700?

I can see your sweet face as you read
this, and I know you'd like to siphon
off some strength for me, even if it
meant you could only leap small buildings
at a single bound. But you can't,
and, anyway, would I want to
just stand there while everything
else rushed past?

Take care of yourself and of the world
which is your own true love. One day
soon, as you patrol the curved earth,
that'll be me down there tucked in
for good, being what you'll never be
but still

    Your friend,
    Lois Lane






if i should
 
to Clark Kent

   - Lucille Clifton, from The Book of Light (1993)

enter the darkest room
in my house and speak
with my own voice, at last,
about its awful furniture,
pulling apart the covering
over the dusty bodies: the randy
father, the husband holding ice
in his hand like a blessing,
the mother bleeding into herself
and the small imploding girl,
i say if i should walk into
that web, who will come flying
after me, leaping tall buildings?
you?

What I Am Reading

Happiness is the Longing for Repetition. Image by M.A. Reilly

I always have a few books going.  Here's what I am reading currently:



1. bell hook's Art on my mind: Visual politics
2. W.J. T. Mitchell's Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology
3. Douglas Rushkoff's Program or be Programmed
4. Peter Taubman's Teaching by Numbers: Deconstructing the discourse of Standards and Accountability in Education


5. Adrienne Rich's essay, Poetry and Commitment


6.  (Just read this)
The Future of Thinking
Learning Institutions in a Digital Age
Cathy N. Davidson and David Theo Goldberg

7. 
Quest to Learn
Developing the School for Digital Kids
Katie Salen, Robert Torres, Loretta Wolozin, Rebecca Rufo-Tepper and Arana Shapiro



8.

Digital Media and Technology in Afterschool Programs, Libraries, and Museums Becky Herr-Stephenson, Diana Rhoten, Dan Perkel and Christo Sims An investigation of how three kinds of youth organizations have integrated digital practices into their programs.

Literacies are Cultural Practices

In a recent exchange of tweets and a more extended "conversation" via Karl Fisch's blog post, "No One Right Way" (@karlfisch) the question of whether it is prudent to locate the teaching of 21st century literacy skills in a separate course or embedded across classrooms was raised by Will Richardson. I weighed in not to discuss the question of location, but rather to suggest that the question inadvertently situates literacy as a cognitive skill stripped of social, economic, and technological contexts and why this is a bad idea.

When "literacy" is understood as being a transferable commodity not influenced by any social context and considered an independent variable, an autonomous model of literacy (Street, 1984) is being embraced.  An autonomous model of literacy is based on the belief that any student learns skill x and who the learner is, is not, the context of where the learning is occurring and when is rendered meaningless.  The skill is understood as being independent from actual human reality. Stripped of gendered, social, racial, historical, technological, and economic overtones--literacy learning exists as a cognitive task to be mastered.

In contrast to an autonomous model, a group of theorist, the New London Group*, published an influential paper, A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures in the Harvard Educational Review (1996) that asked us to understand that "literacy" learning is multi-dimensional and socially situated.  Skills do no exist outside of a given context and how we learn and even come to name something as a "literacy skill" is culturally determined and bound.  Literacies are not isolated events.

For me, this understanding shifts the conversation about where something we are calling "21st Century Literacy Skills" might be taught—to the more important understanding that naming something a skill (that is true and singular for all) limits the actual complexity and surely undermines learning.  Instead of understanding that we all have different ways with words (Heath, 1983), we situate some children as "disabled," "at risk" when their ways with words do not match the dominant culture's ways.  Worse, once all this labeling is done and these children are "relocated" into  an "intervention" program or classification, responsibility is seemingly met. 

Reading and writing, be it with paper or electronically, are cultural practices influenced by our primary and secondary Discourses (Gee, 1990).  James Gee explained Discourse as:

a socially accepted association among ways of using language, other symbolic expressions, and 'artifacts', of thinking, feeling, believing, valuing, and acting that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful group of 'social network', or to signal (that one is playing) a socially meaning 'role (Gee 1990, p. 131).

Apprenticing learners into multi-literate behaviors and dispositions valued in this century requires communities of practice where more knowledgeable others (teachers, community members, students, peers, experts in the field) help learners to understand essential attributes through practice, analysis, apprenticeship, and reflection.  Neither transmission or training will do this. The question then may not be where will these experiences will occur, but how.


*Theorist included: Courtney Cazden, Harvard University, Graduate School of Education, USA; Bill Cope, National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia, Centre for Workplace Communication and Culture, University of Technology, Sydney, and James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia; Norman Fairclough, Centre for Language in Social Life, Lancaster University, UK; Jim Gee, Hiatt Center for Urban Education, Clark University, USA; Mary Kalantzis, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia; Gunther Kress, Institute of Education, University of London, UK; Allan Luke, Graduate School of Education, University of Queensland, Australia; Carmen Luke, Graduate School of Education, University of Queensland, Australia; Sarah Michaels, Hiatt Center for Urban Education, Clark University, USA; Martin Nakata, School of Education, James Cook University of North Queensland, Australia.

Forget the Stop Watch and Tune into Literature: Recommended Global Multicultural Texts for Developing Fluency (and a Love for Reading)

There are lots of commercial kits available that a teacher could purchase with the eye of helping students improve their reading fluency.  Yet, nothing will do that quite as well as authentically as children's literature, especially global, multicultural texts.  In this post, I highlight some texts to be uses with intermediate and early middle school grade students. I especially want to acknowledge two friends who infleunced this post: Jane M. Gangi, a professor and the coauthor of our book, Deepening Literacy Learning: Art & Literature Engagements, who inspired me (and so many others) to deepen my knowldge of children's literature and Sam Caponera who wrote of being issued a stopwatch as part of a school reform travesty.

In Deepening Literacy Learning  (available as an e-book now through Google Books) there are several chapters that demonstrate how to use the following techniques: Reader's Theatre, Narrative Pantomime, Storytelling, and Choral Reading with students in grades 2 through 8.  These chapters include:

"Living in a Dream of Music": Fluency through Choral Reading and Narrative Pantomime (Chapter 3 by Jane M. Gangi),
"Having More to Say: Developing Writing Fluency through Collage (Chapter 4 by Mary Ann Reilly),
Recasting Text Through Reader's Theater and Story Dramatization (Chapter 5 by Jane M. Gangi),
Deepening Comprehension through Storytelling (Chapter 6 by Jane M. Gangi), and
Studying Writer's Craft in Three Middle School Classrooms (Chapter 7 by Mary Ann Reilly).

 

Books to be Adapted for Reader’s Theater
Bruchac, Joseph (Abenaki). 1999. Between Earth & Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places. Illustrated by Thomas Locker. San Diego: Voyager.
Frame, Jeron Ashford. 2003. Yesterday I Had the Blues. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. Berkeley, CA: Tricycle.
Jiménez, Francisco. 1998. La mariposa. Illustrated by Simón Silva. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Johnson, Angela. 2007. Wind Flyers. Illustrated by Loren Long. New York: Simon & Schuster.

2-Page Spread from Ziba Came on a Boat.

Lofthouse, Liz. 2007.  Ziba Came on a Boat. Illustrated by Robert Ingpen. La Jolla, CA: Kane Miller.
Myers, Tim. 2004. Basho and the Fox. Illustrated by Oki S. Han. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish.
Rappaport, Doreen. 2005. The School Is Not White! A True Story of the Civil Rights Movement. Illustrated by Curtis James. NY: Jump at the Sun.
Rumford, James. 2004. Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Wiesner, David. 2001. The Three Pigs. NY: Clarion.

Narrative Pantomime

Ata, Te. 2006. Baby Rattlesnake. Adapted by Lynn Moroney. Illustrated by Mira Reisberg. San Francisco: Children's Book Press.
Bruchac, Joseph (Abenaki). 1994. The Great Ball Game: The Muskogee Story. Illustrated by Susan L. Roth. NY: Dial.
Forest, Heather. 1998. Stone Soup. Illustrated by Susan Gaber. Little Rock: August House.
Garland, Sherry. 2001. Children of the Dragon: Selected Tales from Vietnam. Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. San Diego: Harcourt.
Hayes, Joe. 2006. The Gum-Chewing Rattler. Illustrated by Antonio Castro L. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press. Herrera, Juan Felipe. 2003. Super Cilantro Girl/ La superniña del cilantro. Illustrated by Honorio Robleda Tapia. San Francisco: Children's Book Press. Kreipe de Montaño, Marty. (Prairie Band Potawatomi). 1998. Coyote In Love With a Star: Tales of the People. Illustrated by Tom Coffin (Prairie Band Potawatomi/Creek). NY: Abbeville.
Johnson, D.B. 2004. Henry Works. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Lyons, Mary E. 2005. Roy Makes a Car. Illustrated by Terry Widener. NY: Atheneum.

From Dona Flor: A Tall Tale about a Giant Woman with a Great Big Hear

Mora, Pat. 2005. Dona Flor: A Tall Tale About a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart. Illustrated by Raul Colon. NY: Knopf Books.
Mora, Pat. 2000. The Night the Moon Fell: A Maya Myth. Illustrated by Domi. Toronto: Ground- wood Books.
Nolen, Jerdine. 2003. Thunder Rose. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson. San Diego: Harcourt.
Schotter, Roni. 1999. Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street. Illustrated by Krysten Brooker. New York: Scholastic.
Sierra, Judy. 2002. Can You Guess My Name?: Traditional Tales Around the World. Illustrated by Stefano Vitale. NY: Clarion.
Williams, Maria (Tlingit). 2001. How Raven Stole the Sun. Illustrated by Felix Vigil (Jicarilla Apache and Jemez Pueblo). NY: Abbeville Press.

Full Length Texts For Choral Reading

Buchanan, Ken & Debby. 1994. It Rained on the Desert Today. Illustrated by Libby Tracy. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland.
Gerstein, Mordicai. 2002. What Charlie Heard. New York: Farrar, Straus Giroux.
Hesse, Karen. 1999. Come On, Rain! Illustrated by Jon Muth. NY: Scholastic
Lyons, George Ella. 1996. Who Came Down that Road? Illustrated by Peter Catalanotto. New York: Orchard Books.
Raschka, Chris. 2007. Yo! Yes? NY: Scholastic.
Raschka, Chris. 2004. Charlie Parker Played Be Bop. NY: Orchard.
Shange, Ntozake. 2004. Ellington Was Not a Street. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Poetry Books for Choral Reading
Adedjouma, Davida, (Ed.). 1996. The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children. Illustrated by Gregory Christie. New York: Lee & Low.
Alarcón, Francisco X. 2005. Laughing Tomatoes: And Other Spring Poems/Jitomates risuenos: y otros poemas de primavera. Illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez. San Francisco: Children's Book Press.
Argueta, Jorge. 2006. Talking with Mother Earth/ Hablando con Madre Tierra: Poems/poemas. Illustrated by Lucia Angela Perez. Toronto: Groundwood.
Argueta, Jorge. 2001. A Movie in My Pillow/Una película en mi almohada. Illustrated by Elizabeth Gómez. San Francisco: Children’s Book Press.
Brenner, Barbara. 1994. The Earth is Painted Green: A Garden of Poems About Our Planet. Illus- trated by S.D. Schindler. New York: Scholas- tic.
Brooks, Gwendolyn. 2007. Bronzeville Boys and Girls. Illustrated by Faith Ringgold. NY: Amistad.
Bruchac, Joseph (Abenaki). 1998. The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet. Illustrated by Thomas Locker. NY: Putnam Juvenile.
Cole, William. 1981. Poem Stew. Illustrated by Karen Ann Weinhaus. NY: HarperTrophy.
Florian, Doug. 2007. Comet, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings. San Diego, CA: Harcourt.
Forman, Ruth. 2007. Young Cornrows Callin Out the Moon. Illustrated by Cbabi Bayoc. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press
Greenfield, Eloise. 2006. When The Horses Ride By: Children in the Time of War. Illustrated by Jan Gilchrist. NY: Lee & Low.
Gimes, Nikki. 2001. Danitra Brown Leaves Town. Illustrated by Floyd Cooper. NY:
Amistad.
Gunning, Monica. 1999. Not a Copper Penny in Me House: Poems from the Caribbean. Illustrated by Frane Lessac. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press.
High, Linda Oatman. 2001. A Humble Life: Plain Poems. Illustrated by Bill Farnsworth. NY:
Candlewick. Ho, Minfong.1996. Maples in the Mist: Children’s Poems from the Tang Dynasty. Illustrated by Jean & Mou-sien Tseng. NY: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard.
Jones, Lessie Little. 2000. Children of Long Ago. Illustrations by Jan Spivey Gilchrist. NY: Lee & Low.

Mak, Kim. 2001. My Chinatown: One Year in Poems. NY: Harper’s.
Mora, Pat. 2004. Love to Mama:A Tribute to Mothers. Illustrated by Paula S. Barragan. NY: Lee & Low.
Mora, Pat. 2001. Listen to the Desert/Oye al desierto. Illustrated by Francisco X. Mora. New York: Clarion.
Nye, Naomi Shihab. 2000. Come with Me: Poems for a Journey. Illustrated by Dan Yaccarino. New York: Greenwillow.
Sidman, Joyce. 2006. Butterfly Eyes and Other Se-crets of the Meadow. Illustrated by Beth Krommes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Sidman, Joyce. 2005. Song of the Waterboatman and Other Pond Poems. Illustrated by Beckie Prange. San Diego, CA: Houghton Mifflin.
Siebert, Diane. 2006. Tour America: Through Poems and Art. Illustrated by Stephen T. Johnson. Gosau, Switzerland: Seastar.

Tadjo, Veronique, (ed.). 2004. Talking Drums: A Selection of Poems from Africa south of the Sahara. NY: Bloomsbury.
Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2001. Sidewalk Chalk: Poems of the City. Illustrated by Dimitrea Tokumbo. Honesdale, PA: Boyds MIlls Press.
Wong, Janet, S. 2000. Night Garden: Poems from the World of Dreams. Illustrated by Julie Paschkis. NY: Margaret E. McElkderry Books.
Yolen, J. (ed.). 1997. Once Upon Ice and Other Frozen Poems. Photographs by Jason Stemple. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press.

Storytelling
Cummings, Pat. 2002. Ananse and the Lizard: A West African Tale. NY: Henry Holt.
DeSpain, Pleasant. 2001. Sweet Land of Story. Little Rock: August House.
Fang, Linda. 1995. The Ch'i-lin Purse: A Collection of Ancient Chinese Stories. Illustrated by Jeanne M. Lee. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Forest, Heather. 1996. Wisdom Tales from Around the World. Little Rock: August House.
Hamilton, Martha. 2000. Noodlehead Stories. Little Rock: August House.
Hamilton, Virginia. 2000. The People Could Fly: American Black Folk-tales. Illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon and James Earl Jones. NY: Knopf.
Hamilton, Virginia. 1997. A Ring of Tricksters : Animal Tales from America, the West Indies, And Africa. Illustrated by Barry Moser. NY: Blue Sky Press.
Keding, Dan. 2004. Stories of Hope and Spirit: Folk-tales from Eastern Europe. Little Rock: August House.
Lester, Julius. 1987. The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit. NY: Dial.
Loya. Olga. 1997. Momentos Magicos/Magic Moments. Little Rock: August House.
MacDonald Amy. 2002. Please, Malese! A Trickster Tale from Haiti. Illustrated by Emily Lisker. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
MacDonald. Margaret. 2005. Peace Tales. Little Rock: August House.
Wolkstein, Diane. 1997. The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales. New York: Schocken. Yeats, William Butler. 1957. Irish Folk Stories and Fairy Tales. NY: Grosset and Dunlap.
Yolen, Jane. 2003. Mightier than the Sword: World Folktales for Strong Boys. Illustrated by Raul
Colon. San Diego: Silver Whistle.
Yolen, Jane. 2000. Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls. Illustrated by Susan Guevara. San Diego: Silver Whistle.
Zwerger, Lisbeth. 2006. Aesop’s Fables. Boston: North South Books.

Read Aloud Books for National African American Read In for 2012

During the month of February, the 22nd National African American Read In is happening. As reported by NCTE:

Schools, churches, libraries, bookstores, community and professional organizations, and interested citizens are urged to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month by hosting and coordinating Read-Ins in their communities. Hosting a Read-In can be as simple as bringing together family and friends to share a book, or as elaborate as arranging public readings and media presentations that feature professional African American writers.

To be counted as participants, simply:

1. Select books authored by African Americans; 
2. Hold your event during the month of February; and 
3. Report your results by submitting the 2012 African American Read-In Host Report Card.

You must submit a separate Host Report Card for each Read-In held.
In 1990, the first African American Read-In was sponsored by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English. In 1991, the National Council of Teachers of English joined in the sponsorship. The Read- In has been endorsed by the International Reading Association. Over a million readers of all ethnic groups, from 48 states, the District of Columbia, the West Indies, and African countries have participated. The goal is to make the celebration of African American literacy a traditional part of Black History Month activities.

Some Recommended Texts for Read Aloud

Elementary Grades

Adedjouma, Davida, (Ed.). 1996. The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children. Illustrated by Gregory Christie. New York: Lee & Low.
Angelou, Maya. 1993. Life Doesn't Frighten Me. Paintings by Jean-Michele Basquiat. NY: Stewart, Tabori and Chang.
Brooks, Gwendolyn. 2007. Bronzeville Boys and Girls. Illustrated by Faith Ringgold. NY: Amistad.
Clifton, Lucille. 1988. Everett Anderson's Goodbye. Illustrated by Ann Grifalconi.NY: Holt.
Cooper, Melrose. 1998. Gettin' Through Thursday. Illustrated by Nneka Bennett. NY: Lee & Low Books.
Danticat, Edwidge. 2010. Eight Days: A Story of Haiti. Illustrated by Alix  Delinois. NY: Orchard Books.
Diouf, Sylvianne. 2004. Bintou's Braids. Illustrated by Shane Evans. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle books.
Elliot, Zeta. 2008. Bird. Illustrated by Shadra Strickland.NY: Lee & Low Books.
 Frame, Jeron Ashford. 2003. Yesterday I Had the Blues. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. Berkeley, CA: Tricycle.
Giovanni, Nikki. 2005. Rosa. Illustrated by Brian Collier. NY: Henry Holt.

Greenfield, Eloise. 2009. Paul Robeson. Illustrated by George Ford. New York: Lee and Low.
Greenfield. Eloise. 2006. When The Horses Ride By: Children in the Time of War. Illustrated by Jan Gilchrist. NY: Lee & Low.
Grimes, Nikki, 2008. Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. NY: Simon & Schuster.
Grimes, Nikki. 2003. Talkin’ About Bessie. Illustrated by E.B. Lewis. NY: Orchard.
Grimes, Nikki. 2001. Danitra Brown Leaves Town. Illustrated by Floyd Cooper. NY: Amistad.
Grimes, Nikki. 2001. A pocketful of poems. Illustrated by Javaka Steptoe. New York: Clarion.
Gunning, Monica. 1999. Not a Copper Penny in Me House: Poems from the Caribbean. Illustrated by Frane Lessac. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press.
Hamilton, Virginia. 2000. The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales. Illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon and James Earl Jones. NY: Scholastic.

Hamilton, Virginia. 1997. A Ring of Tricksters : Animal Tales from America, the West Indies, And Africa. Illustrated by Barry Moser. NY: Blue Sky Press.
Hubbard, Crystal. 2008. The Last Black King of the Kentucky Derby: The Story of Jimmy Winkfield. Illustrated by Ribert McGuire. New York: Lee and Low Books.
Issa, Kai Jackson. 2008. Howard Thurman's Great Hope. Illustrated by Arthur L Dawson. New York: Lee and Low Books.
Johnson, Angela. 2007. Wind Flyers. Illustrated by Loren Long. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Johnson, Lynn. 1996. A Wave in Her Pocket: Six Stories from Trinidad. Illustrated by Brian Pinkney.
NY: Sandpiper.
Lyons, Mary E. 2005. Roy Makes a Car. Illustrated by Terry Widener. NY: Atheneum.
Medina. Tony. 2002. Love to Langston. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. NY: Lee & Low Books.

Obama, Barack. 2010. Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters. Illustrated by Loreen Long. NY: Knopf.
Queen Latifah. 2006. Queen on the Scene. Illustrated by Frank Morrison. NY: Harper Collins.
Rappaport, Doreen. 2005. The School Is Not White! A True Story of the Civil Rights Movement. Illustrated by Curtis James. NY: Jump at the Sun.
Ringgold, Faith. 1998. My Dream of Martin Luther King. NY Dragonfly Books.
Shange, Ntozake. 2004. Ellington Was Not a Street. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Steptoe, Javaka. 2001. In Daddy's Arms I Am Tall: African Americans Celebrating Fathers. NY: Lee & Low Books.
Thomas, Joyce Carol. 2008. The Blacker the Berry. Illustrated by Floyd Cooper. NY: Amistad.
Thomas, Joyce Carol. 1995. Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea. Illustrated by Floyd Cooper. NY: Harper Collins.

Troupe, Quincy, 2005. Little Stevie Wonder. Illustrated by Lisa Cohen. NY: Houghton Mifflin.
Van Dyke, Henry. 1896/2007. The Other Wise Man. Illustrated by Robert Barrett. NY: Ideals Children's books.
Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2007. Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins. Illustrated by Jerome Lagarrigue. NY: Puffin.
Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2006. Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom.  Illustrated by Kadir Nelson. NY: Hyperion.
Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2001. Sidewalk Chalk: Poems of the City. Illustrated by Dimitrea Tokumbo. Honesdale, PA: Boyds MIlls Press.
Woodson, Jacqueline. 2010.  Peace, Locomotion. (reprint ed.) NY: Speak.
Woodson, Jacqueline. 2007.  Locomotion. (reprint ed.) NY: Speak.
Yarbrough, Camille. 1997. Cornrows. Illustrated by Carol Byard. NY: Putnam.

Middle School

Clinton, Catherine. (Ed.). 1998. I, Too, Sing America: Three Centuries of African American Poetry. Illustrated by Stephen Alcorn. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. 1995. The Watson's Go to Birmingham. 1963. NY: Delacort.
Danticat, Edwidge. 2002. Behind the Mountains. NY: Scholastic.
Elliot, Zeta. 2010. A Wish After Midnight. NY: Amazon Encore.
Giovanni, Nikki (Ed). 1996. Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem Renaissance through Poetry. NY: Henry Holt.
Hughes, Langston. 2007. The Dream Keepers and Other Poems. Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. NY: Knopf Books.
Jacobs, Harriet. 1861/2001. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. NY: Dover.

Lawrence, Jacob. 1995. The Great Migration: An American Story. NY: HarperCollins.
Lester, Julius. 2007. Days of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue. NY: Hyperion.
McKissack, Patricia C. 2001. The Dark Thirty: Southern Tales of the Supernatural. Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. NY: Yearling.
Nelson, Marilyn. 2002. Carver: A Life in Poems. Asheville, NC: Front Street.
Nelson, Marilyn. 2004. Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem. Asheville, NC: Front Street.
Nelson, Marilyn. 2005. A Wreath for Emmett Till. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Neri.G. 2007. Chess Rumble. NY: Lee & Low Books.
Parks, Gordon. 1987. The Learning Tree. NY: Fawcett.
Sanders, Dori. 1991. Clover. NY: Ballantine.
Shange, Ntozake. 1994. I Live in Music. Paintings by Romare Bearden. NY: Welcome Books.
Smith, Charles R. 2007. Hoop Queens. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.
Smith, Charles. R. 2007. Twelve Rounds to Glory: The Story of Muhammad Ali. Illustrated by Bryan Collier. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
Smith, Hope Anita. 2009. Mother Poems. NY: Henry Holt.
Smith, Hope Anita. 2003. The Way a Door Closes. Illustrated by Shane W. Evans. NY: Henry Holt.
Taylor, Mildred. 1976. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. NY: Dial.
Walker, Alice. 2007. Why War is Never a Good Idea. Illustrated by Stefano Vitale. New York: HarperCollins.

Weatherford, Carole Boston. 2005. Birmingham, 1963. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong.
Williams, Mary. 2005. Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of  Sudan. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. NY: Lee & Low Books.
Williams-Garcia, Rita. 2010. One Crazy Summer. NY: Amistad.
Woodson, Jacqueline. 2010.  Miracle Boys. (reprint ed.) NY: Speak.
Woodson, Jacqueline. 2010.  After Tupac and D Foster. (reprint ed.) NY: Speak.


High School

Adoff, Arnold (Ed). 1997. I Am the Darker Brother: An Anthology of Modern Poems by African Americans. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Angelou, Maya. 2009. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. NY: Ballantine.
Baldwin, James. 1953/1985. Go Tell it on the Mountain. NY:Dell.
Baraka, Amiri. 1999. The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader. NY: Basic Books.
Brooks, Gwendolyn. 2006. Selected Poems. NY: Harper.
Chestnut, Charles W. 1880/2010. The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories. NY: Book Jungle.
Clifton, Lucille. 2000. Blessing the Boats: New and selected Poems 1988-2000. NY: BOA.
Clifton, Lucille. 1974. An Ordinary Woman: Poems. NY: Random House.
Countee, Cullen (Ed.). 1998. Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Black Poets of the Twenties. NY: Citadel.

Danticat, Edwidge. 2010. Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Dove, Rita. 1999. On the Bus with Rosa Parks. NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Dove, Rita. 1995. Mother Love. NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Douglass, Frederick. 1845/2011. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. NY: Tribeca Books.
DuBois, W. E. B. 1903/2005. The Souls of Black Folks. NY: Simon & Schuster.
Dunbar, Paul Laurence. 2005. The Sports of the Gods and Other Essential Writings. NY: Modern Library.
Ellison, Ralph. 1995. Invisible Man, 2nd Ed.. NY: Vintage.
Fisher, Antwone Q. 2010. A Boy Should Know How to Tie a Tie: and Other Lessons for Succeeding for Life. NY: Touchstone.

Fuller, Charles. H. 1982. A Soldier's Play. NY: Hill and Wang.
Giovanni, Nikki. 2007. The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998. NY: Harper.
Grimes, Nikki. 2007. Dark Sons. NY: Jump at the Sun.
hooks, bell. 1997. Bone Black: Memories of a Girlhood. NY: Holt.
Hurston, Zora Neale. 2006. Their Eyes were Watching God. NY: Harper.
Johnson, Angela. 2000. The Other Side: Shorter Poems. NY: Orchard Books.
Jordan, June. 1995. June Jordan’s Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint. NY: Routledge.
King, Martin Luther, Jr. 1990. A Testament of Hope: The Essential writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. NY: Harper.
Komunyakaa, Yusef. 2009. Warhorses: Poems. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Kushner, Tony. 1993. Angels in America: Part One: Millennium Approaches. NY: Theater Communications Group.
Lorde, Audre. 2000. The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde. NY: W.W. Norton.
Morrison, Toni. 2009.  A Mercy. NY: Vintage.
Morrison, Toni. 2008.  What Moves at the Margins: Selected Nonfiction. Jackson, MI: University Press of Mississippi.
Myers, Walter Dean. 2007. Street Love. NY: Amistad.
Myers,Walter Dean. 2004. Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices. NY: Holiday House.
Naylor, Glora. 1993. Bailey's Cafe. NY: Vintage.
Naylor, Glora. 1983. The Woman of Brewster Place. NY: Penguin.
Obama, Barack. 2007. Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. NY: Crown.
Okutoro, Lydia (Ed.). 2002. Quiet Storm: Voices of Young Black Poets. NY: Jump at the Sun.
Petry, Ann. 1953/2008. The Narrows. NY: Dafina Books.
Reed, Ishmael. 2007. New and Collected Poems: 1964-2007. NY: DeCapo Press.
Robeson, Paul. 1998. Here I Stand. Boston: Beacon Press.
Shange, Ntozake. 2010. Some Sing, Some Cry. NY: St. Martin's Press.
Smiley, Tavis. 2002. Keeping the Faith: Stories of Love, Courage, Healing, and Hope from Black America. NY:  Doubleday.
Sundiata, Sekou. 2000. Long Short Story. Righteous Babe.
Sundiata, Sekou. 1997. Blue Oneness of Dreams. Polygram Records.
Toomer, Jean. 1987. Cane. NY: Norton.
Troupe, Quincy. 2002. Tricircularities: New and Selected Poems. St. Paul, MN: Coffee House Press.
Tutu, Desmond. 1994. The Rainbow People of God: The Making of a Peaceful Revolution. NY: Doubleday.
Van Dyke, Henry. 2010. The Mansion. Readaclassic.com
Walcott, Derek. 2010. White Egrets. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
West, Cornel. 2008. Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom. Carlsbad, CA: HayHouse.
Wilson, August. 1988. Joe Turner's Come and Gone. NY: Plume.
Wright, Richard. 1938/2008. Uncle Tom's Children. NY: Harper.
X, Malcolm. 1992. By Any Means Necessary. NY: Pathfinder.
Young, Al. 2007. Something About the Blues. Naperville, IL:  Sourcebooks MediaFusion.