Each year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee publishes its School Spelling Bee Study List, a list of 450 words to help students prepare for a school-level spelling bee. These 450 words come from a list of books carefully selected by the Bee’s editorial team for their engaging and age-appropriate content, as well as their… Read more »
“During the minute or so that I am on hold, waiting for Fred Rogers to pick up the phone, I grow increasingly tense. The next voice I hear will belong to a man whose sweater is in the Smithsonian, along with the Spirit of St. Louis and pterodactyl skeletons and Archie Bunker’s chair. He is… Read more »
Jeremy Felix, a seventh-grade student at Glen Meadow Middle School in Vernon Township, NJ won the Scholastic Scope national essay contest for his essay on Claudette Colvin. Kristen Lewis, executive editor of Scope magazine wrote to Jeremy, “We loved how you captured the dauntlessness and courage of Claudette Colvin…Wonderful work!” Thank you to Language Arts… Read more »
The Washington Post shared, “The Best Books for Raising Activist Kids.” Proud to have It’s Our World, Too! Young People Who Are Making a Difference: How They Do It — How You Can, Too! by Phillip Hoose (FSG) among such amazing children’s literature titles. “As protests and marches continue to sweep the country, parents can… Read more »
The city of Montgomery, Alabama has declared March 2nd, Claudette Colvin Day. That date marks the day in 1955, when the impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus. “She was an early foot soldier in our civil… Read more »
Loving the Horn Book article,“’Leave the books on the bed’: Shaping a child’s social conscience” by Jen Mason Stott, the librarian at King Open School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Explore the book list. “…grounding difficult conversations in shared books shows respect for a child; a grownup trusts him or her to think critically about complex moral… Read more »
A high school in Oak Park, IL created a pop-up museum for African American History Month that included Claudette Colvin. “I teach African history, so we talk about how our history classes are white-washed and what that means and how that supports the racial hierarchy,” said Spoor-Harvey said while standing near a poster of Claudette… Read more »
We love this interview with our friend, Claudette Colvin.
The following article appeared in the Portland Press Herald… History lesson vindicates students protesting national anthem As Justice Fortas wrote in 1969, children don’t shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door. By Phillip M. Hoose I write in response to the Sept. 15 Associated Press article “High schoolers joining chorus of anthem protesters”… Read more »
Need suggestions for beach reading or books to bring to summer camp? Horn Book just released their summer reading list. The list includes Phillip Hoose’s The Boys Who Challenged Hitler. “Hoose brilliantly shows how the astonishing bravery of ordinary Danish teens started something extraordinary.” —Horn Book