When my children were in grade school, one day each year they would march with their classmates and teachers in a big in-school parade through the halls. They would don colorful capes and masks and carry bright red lanterns. They would end the parade with gatherings in their classroom to share an array of special […]
Did we all get the word on Tuesday?! Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow. Spring is on the way. Yahoooo! That forecast alone is inspiration enough for the day. But I link you here to the feel-good music video of all time and some of the many versions it has inspired. Pharrell Williams singing […]
Punxsutawney Phyllis is by Susanna Leonard Hill with illustrations by Jeffrey Ebbeler. Phyllis is an outdoor kind of girl and she knows her weather, including the signs of spring. But she’s a girl. Will she get her wish to be the next Punxsutawney forecaster? Read and find out! Pegged for ages 5-8. The Kids’ Book […]
It’s the last day of January. And in two days we will get word about when we can expect winter to end. If Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, it’s back to huddling under blankets. But if he doesn’t, we’ll be breaking out the bikinis and flip flops before we know it! Forecasting is an ancient […]
Today’s inspiration comes from the many many people and organizations across the country teaching about black history: The 107 historically black colleges The thousands of African-American history departments at colleges across the country The hundreds of thousands of elementary and secondary school teachers who educate their students about black history The filmmakers, playwrights, poets, historians, […]
New and Fabulous Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Ekua Holmes tells the story of a black woman sharecropper in the Mississippi Delta who dared to register to vote in a time when there were often grave consequences for insisting on this right. […]
When I was a small child, I was taught that the continent on which we live was discovered by Christopher Columbus. For a long time, I had the hardest time remembering if he was Italian or Spanish (in fact, of course, he was Italian but sailed for Spain). I remember I had a hazy image […]
Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals. –Martin Luther King Martin Luther King preached nonviolence in the 1960s. How are his ideas inspiring action in 2016? The Sea of Rage Our media fills our lives with constant news […]
New and Fabulous I Am Martin Luther King, Jr. is a new story from Brad Melzer, illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos. It tells King’s story from his own point of view – first person narrative. And it starts from when MLK was just a little boy having experiences that any little boy might have. The result […]
I was a child during the time Martin Luther King changed America. I was ten years old when he was killed. What I remember most about him in my child’s eye memory are the rhythms, the cadences of his speeches. Even though I did not understand all that he was talking about, I understood that […]