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Civic Engagement: Activism
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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2012 11:38:57 -0500
One dimension of Civic Engagment is activism, and one of the things I started noticing this year was the number of books coming out for older children and teens in which activism was a central theme. It plays out in novels with both contemporary and historical settings. Here are some of the books I've especially appreciated for their portrayal of young activists:
"The Difference Between You and Me" by Madeleine George "Same Sun Here" by SIlas House and Neelsa Vaswani "Fire in the Streets" by Kekla Magoon (a follow-up to The Rock and the River) "The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano" by Sonia Manzano
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson's "No Crystal Stair" is a great reminder that activism takes many forms. Lewis Michaux's National Memorial African Bookstore was so much more than a bookstore, and its very existence for more than forty years was an example of ongoing activism. Michaux was an adult, not a teen, but he touched the lives of adults and teens by offering them a place to gather and discuss ideas, and shelf after shelf of books that affirmed the literary and cultural richness and political will of Africans and African Americans.
Even picture books offer examples of activism in varying forms. Stella, the young girl at the heart of Bob Graham's "A Bus Called Heaven," fits my idea of an activist. And if activism starts with thinking beyond self to other, then the young girl at the heart of Jacqueline Woodson's "Each Kindness" is on the verge of breaking out by story's end--she has learned compassion by realizing how it feels to NOT take action.
Those are just examples of fictional stories. What about examples of non-fiction, or other picture books and novels from this year or earlier? Who else has activist tites to share?
Megan
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Fri 05 Oct 2012 11:38:57 AM CDT
Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2012 11:38:57 -0500
One dimension of Civic Engagment is activism, and one of the things I started noticing this year was the number of books coming out for older children and teens in which activism was a central theme. It plays out in novels with both contemporary and historical settings. Here are some of the books I've especially appreciated for their portrayal of young activists:
"The Difference Between You and Me" by Madeleine George "Same Sun Here" by SIlas House and Neelsa Vaswani "Fire in the Streets" by Kekla Magoon (a follow-up to The Rock and the River) "The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano" by Sonia Manzano
Vaunda Micheaux Nelson's "No Crystal Stair" is a great reminder that activism takes many forms. Lewis Michaux's National Memorial African Bookstore was so much more than a bookstore, and its very existence for more than forty years was an example of ongoing activism. Michaux was an adult, not a teen, but he touched the lives of adults and teens by offering them a place to gather and discuss ideas, and shelf after shelf of books that affirmed the literary and cultural richness and political will of Africans and African Americans.
Even picture books offer examples of activism in varying forms. Stella, the young girl at the heart of Bob Graham's "A Bus Called Heaven," fits my idea of an activist. And if activism starts with thinking beyond self to other, then the young girl at the heart of Jacqueline Woodson's "Each Kindness" is on the verge of breaking out by story's end--she has learned compassion by realizing how it feels to NOT take action.
Those are just examples of fictional stories. What about examples of non-fiction, or other picture books and novels from this year or earlier? Who else has activist tites to share?
Megan
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Fri 05 Oct 2012 11:38:57 AM CDT
