Category: Caroline’s Blog

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Have we got a celebration for you!

Say Their Names National Award Celebration and Community Art Event
with Author Caroline Brewer and The Capitol Hill United Methodist Church
Saturday, October 12, 2024 * 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Capitol Hill United Methodist Church
421 Seward Square SE
Washington, DC 20003

FREE Event! Free Books! (Limited Supply)
Meet an award-winning author!
Get your book autographed!
Make –and take home –art!

Click HERE to RSVP

We will celebrate the Anna Dewdney National Read Together Honor Book Award
by reading together, performance-style, with Author Caroline Brewer

This means come prepared to sing, clap, dance, and celebrate
the uplifting story of the Say Their Names picture book, illustrated by Adrian Brandon.
The performance will be followed by a reception and community art event – the making of a butterfly memorial. Registration is required and deeply appreciated. Feel free to spread the word!

Click HERE to RSVP

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Don’t Believe the Hype – Since George Floyd’s Murder, Some Things Have Changed

Don’t believe the hype. In the four years since George Floyd was murdered, things have changed. Not nearly as much as we want, but people and communities all over the world are different now because of what we witnessed and challenged and vowed to fight even harder against. You can’t always measure change with statistics, laws, proposals, or studies. You can, however, always measure change through the stories of people.

In the four years since George Floyd was murdered, SAY THEIR NAMES was born (as were many other books that have explored themes of peace, justice, and protest in response).

Countless numbers of people, including children pre-school to college, have read SAY THEIR NAMES or have had it read to them, and have listened to my talks and performances.

They have learned about George Floyd’s life, and legacy.

They have said his name and the names of so many other Black men, women, and trans who have lost their lives to police brutality, and understood that we say their names.

We say their names to,
As Curtis Mayfield encourage,  “keep on pushin’
And move up a little higher…”
We say their names to paraphrase John Lennon in his lyrics, “Imagine, if you can,
A simple brotherhood of man.”

Through SAY THEIR NAMES (and other works), countless numbers of people have been encouraged to imagine and work toward a better world.

They have been invited to tap into the more than 30 gifts that Aliya brings to us in this story.

They have confessed to understanding that if they walk into a room or situation and there is no peace, they will bring and embody the peace. If there is no justice, they will bring and embody the justice. If there is no community, they will bring and embody the community. If there is no joy, they will bring and embody the joy. If there is no love…you get the picture… (WE bring and embody the love. We can predict the future by being the future…)

SAY THEIR NAMES is now a 2024 Anna Dewdney Read Together Award Honor Book. It is a 2024 selection of the Teaching for Change social justice literature curriculum. Countless lives are being touched. So, don’t believe the hype. Four years is a blip on the landscape of time, on the thrust of history. Some things have changed because many of us changed. And we have vowed to keep fighting for a world where Black lives matter.

(Pictured: Father of three young children sharing his excitement about SAY THEIR NAMES with local artist at The Well at Oxon Run in August 2022. Photo by Caroline Brewer)

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Back to school — and everyday life — with SAY THEIR NAMES. Join us!

Every day in America someone is killed by police. Many of those killed are unarmed. A disproportionate number, of course, are Black, Latino, and Native American. Children are among the many victims. In the fall of 2022, it was announced that three Philadelphia police officers would stand trial for a shooting that killed 8-year-old Fanta Bility as she was riding in a car they mistakenly thought carried a criminal suspect.

An NPR investigative report in 2021 by Cheryl Thompson suggests that lack of accountability, and fear-driven policies by police departments, are key reasons the number of killings remains steady.

Even with, and perhaps because of, this depressing trend, authors are producing works for children and people of all ages to help us imagine news ways forward.  And we’re doing it with faith, hope, love, peace, power, and positive Identities, or as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called it, “somebodiness.”

As a children’s book author, I’ve spent the past year sharing SAY THEIR NAMES with more than a thousand children, parents, teachers, librarians, and adults from many walks of life and diverse racial and ethnic heritages.

They’ve read with me, sang with me, cried with me, and been willing to enthusiastically spread the word about the importance of saying their names. I hope, as the magnificent Illustrator Adrian Brandon, Reycraft Books, and I celebrate the first book birthday of SAY THEIR NAMES, that you will support us. You can support us by buying books, posting about your experience with it, and inviting us to read, speak, and sing this country, this world, into a new day where we no longer, prematurely, have to say their names.

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New book with students debuts: Through My Anacostia Eyes: Environmental Problems and Possibilities!

This book is about sight.
About what the Anacostia High School students saw
with their own eyes,
and filtered through their lived experiences.

This book is about voice.
About what came from the students’ mouths
–rhythmically, poetically, chronologically, with vulnerability —
about what they observed, reflected on,
and processed alone and in community with one another.

And in the seeing and speaking,
they have given us a book to cherish
— a book of poems, essays, reports, and images
that reveals what they felt, emotionally,
what they touched physically,
what they tasted, and what they heard.
And we owe them our deepest appreciation,
because what they have given us is profound!

The book is about journeys,
each of us separately, and all of us together
liberating ourselves, flying, like the birds, free,
dismantling the shackles of fear,
overcoming our insecurities,
touching truth and becoming one with it.

This book is about partnerships.
Many thanks to Conservation Nation
for sponsoring my Nature-Wise program with
the students, to Xavier Brown for
inviting me in to host the literacy
and the environment training,
to Patrick Gusman, UDC, the
Department of the Interior and
NPS for leading the establishment
of this summer internship program
and enthusiastically supporting our efforts
to engage the students as thinkers, readers, writers,
and critical observers of their relationship to nature
and in how to become even better advocates
for sustainability.

Deep appreciation to Gabriela Paola Franco Peña!
She is our designer extraordinaire and without her,
for two pressure-filled weeks, there would be no book.
72 pages, 56 photos, 44 essays, poems, and reports –
all adding up to one story of love, loss, history, mystery,
healing, hope, reclamation, and anticipation
in Anacostia, Washington, D.C.,
accomplished in a whirlwind six weeks!

Stay tuned for more news about the book
and how to get your copy. Email me
(caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com) about
how to bring Nature-Wise professional
development training to your educators
and/or student literacy and the environment workshops to your school.
For a limited number of schools this school year,
a book like this, on a smaller scale, can be produced
in a day or a week, with me as an Author-in-Residence.
Let’s talk about it!
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The Power of Positivity – USA TODAY Magazine Article Debuts – Reading Resources Here and There!

THRILLED to share that my new article with USA TODAY Magazines, “Power of Positivity,” on the best ways to teach children to read, is out! It’s on grocery store and CVS newstands, and available for purchase on their website, www.studiogci.com. Comes with a partial reading list for ages attending preK-12, and key confidence-boosting phrases. Find the entire list below. Many THANKS to the editorial team for the opportunity and for such a fabulous presentation, and to all the teachers, students, and parents who agreed to be interviewed!

11 Phrases to Strengthen Relationships, Help Children Gain Confidence/ Release Tension

  1. How can I help you?
  2. How do you feel?
  3. I need your help.
  4. Thank you for your help.
  5. I want you to succeed.
  6. I believe in you.
  7. I care about you.
  8. You can do it. I’ll help you.
  9. We would love for you to join us. Will you?
  10. Feel free to stop reading/writing until you’re ready again.

Enjoyable Bonding Books for Children at All Age/Grade Levels

Infants/Toddlers

  • Please, Baby, Please by Tanya and Spike Lee
  • Girl of Mine by Jabari Asim
  • We Sang You Home by Richard Van Camp
  • Welcome to the Party by Gabrielle Union
  • Peek-a-Boo Morning by Rachel Isadora
  • Elmo Book: Eyes & Nose, Fingers & Toes
  • I Love You, Daddy by Laura Watkins
  • I Love You, Mommy: Full of Love and Hugs by Melanie Joyce

Preschoolers

  • Hey Black Child by Useni Eugene Perkins
  • You Hold Me Up by Monique Gray Smith
  • Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard
  • What is Light? Markette Sheppard
  • Callaloo: A Jazz Folktale by Majuan Canady
  • Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr.

Lower Elementary

  • Human Kindness: True Stories of Compassion and Generosity that Changed the World
    by John Francis
  • One More Dino on the Floor by Kelly Starling Lyons
  • Malala Yousafzai: Warrior with Words  by Karen Leggett Abouraya
  • Soul Food Sunday by Winsome Bingham
  • Still This Love Goes On (Book and Song) by Buffy Sainte-Marie
  • Room for Everyone by Naaz Khan
  • Definitely Dominguita by Terry Catasus Jennings
  • I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes
  • A Story About Afiya by James Berry
  • Say Their Names by Caroline Brewer

Middle Grade/Upper Elementary

  • Forever This Summer by Leslie C. Youngblood
  • Love Like Sky by Leslie C. Youngblood
  • Darius Daniels: Game On! by Caroline Brewer
  • Holes by Louis Sachar
  • Blood Brothers by Rob Sanders
  • Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
  • The Whale Child by Keith Egawa
  • When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten
  • Turtle Boy by M. Evan Wolkenstein
  • When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
  • One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Middle School

  • Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
  • Voices of the People by Joseph Bruchac
  • Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
  • Carlos Gomez Freestyles by Chuck Gonzales
  • Suncatcher (A Graphic Novel) by Jose Pimienta
  • I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir by Malaka Gharib
  • The Way Back by Gavriel Savit
  • All the Greys on Greene Street by Laura Tucker

Young Adult/High School

  • Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
  • I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez
  • The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante
  • When You Wish Upon a Lantern by Gloria Cho
  • Imaginary Borders by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez
  • Walking in Two Worlds by Wab Kinew
  • Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
    by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman 
  • Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Resources on Effective Literacy Instruction/School and Home

Parent Power: How to Raise a Reading Superstar by Caroline Brewer

https://www.trelease-on-reading.com/

https://hillpedagogies.com/

https://chrisemdin.com/

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NATURE-WISE – Connecting the Climate, Environment, Young People And You

YOU’RE INVITED: Leaders at schools, youth, religious and other non-profit or for-profit organizations are invited to book trainings for NATURE-WISE for 2024-2025!  You can host a professional development training or a Youth Engagement Program. Read below for Professional Development and here for Youth Engagement and email: caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com for more information.

What is Nature-wise? Nature-wise is a professional development training for educators and youth leaders designed to help children and teens understand and practice, on creative levels, that human beings are included in the definition of the environment. Protecting it is protecting us. We can’t protect what we don’t know or understand. The good news is that from our earliest days, we practice literacy and that opens a world of wondrous possibilities and opportunities to explore all the literacies — reading, writing, speaking, seeing, hearing, visual arts, music, dance, games, and so many more – as we dig deeper into the natural world, our place in it, and our power to be climate activists and better protect all living things.

Teachers will enjoy to work with me, a children’s book author, to introduce students to children’s books on the environment; Help students tap into the power of poetry to articulate feelings and observations about the environment; Bring local, national, and global environmental champions into students’ lives through picture books and online resources; Lead students on fascinating nature exploration journeys outdoors; Help students evaluate wildlife (colors, shapes, patterns, textures, and behaviors) in their school and home neighborhoods and create a neighborhood nature encyclopedia — and have fun!

Teachers will have opportunities to address fears about being outside and about various forms of wildlife; Create and play vocabulary games based on books and other literature; Help students write class and individual letters to authors, climate and environmental champions; Help students create interview questions for environmental champions and authors; Help students create artwork inspired by stories and the work of environmental champions. And so much more!

Email: caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com for more information about how to bring Nature-Wise to your school or organization.

WHAT TEACHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT NATURE-WISE!
Dear Caroline
Just a note to thank you for your workshop last week. I had the most wonderful time and got so many great ideas. I’m a new-ish teacher (switched from journalism mid-career) and am always looking for ways to better my craft. Thanks to your ideas, I’m now using rhythmic poems every day and putting lyrics up on the board for my learners to read. They love it! I’m also halfway through your HTHS manual and am putting more of those ideas into practice. Thank you so much for doing what you do and for inspiring so many of us. It is helping countless numbers of children! All the best.

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Nature-Wise: Environmental Programs for School, After-School, and Home

Nature-Wise: Explore the environment, our place in it,
and our power to protect all living things
Youth Engagement Programs for School, After-School, and Home
with Children’s Book Author, Literacy and the Environment Consultant Caroline Brewer
www.carolinebrewerbooks.com * caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com

Nature-Wise helps children and teens understand and practice, on creative levels, that human beings are included in the definition of the environment. Protecting it is protecting us. We can’t protect what we don’t know or understand. The good news is that from our earliest days, we practice literacy and that opens a world of wondrous possibilities and opportunities to explore all the literacies — reading, writing, speaking, seeing, hearing, visual arts, music, dance, games, and so many more – as we dig deeper into the natural world, our place in it, and our power to be climate activists and better protect all living things.

With the Nature-wise Student Engagement Program, students will be treated to at least one of the following opportunities  based on a series of presentations:

  • Explore human and wildlife literacies, the environment as a love story and a reason to say their names
  • Engage with books that share paths for how to tap into our gifts, super-powers, and “somebodiness” as Dr. King explained, to explore our place in the natural world
  • Engage with books that help students get hooked on reading and writing and the exploration of a variety of literacies
  • Introduction to children’s literature on the environment and artistic responses to stories
  • Explore and respond to stories of “belonging” in nature
  • Explore the power of poetry to articulate feelings and observations about the environment
  • Meet local, national, and global environmental champions through books and online resources
  • Explore and evaluate wildlife (colors, shapes, patterns, textures, and behaviors of plants, animals, waterways, and humans) in our school and home neighborhoods; Create a neighborhood nature encyclopedia
  • Address fears about being outside and about various forms of wildlife
  • Create and play vocabulary games based on books and other literature
  • Write class and individual letters to authors and environmental champions
  • Create interview questions for environmental champions and authors
  • Create artwork inspired by stories and the work of environmental champions

*Professional Development Trainings for educators are also available. Email caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com or Click here: https://carolinebrewerbooks.com/carolines-blog/nature-wise-reading-writing-probing-and-playing-in-the-outdoor-classroom/

NOTE: All photos in the graphic, except the Ghanaian child pointing to the garden egg in the garden, are images from the FREE e-book, Belonging: African Americans in Nature Photography Project, created by Nature Forward in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program.

 

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Taking Nature Black Came Back Strong, as We Said Their Names!

It’s been three years since we were able to gather in person for a Nature Forward Taking Nature Black Conference, so this year was bound to be special, extra-special! And it was. With two virtual days, and two in person days, I gathered with hundreds of environmentalists from around the region to share in uplifting our stories of Belonging – the conference’s theme.

I was grateful to provide a welcome on Friday and moderate the panel, Belonging: What Healing and Wholeness Might Look Like. I also was honored to give a keynote Thursday evening titled: The Environment: A Love Story and a Reason to Say Their Names. My speech was peppered with spoken word, traditional poems, and snippets of songs. An opening excerpt laid the foundation for the connection between what’s traditionally thought of as the environment and what scientists, Indigenous people and healers have come to understand is the real environment — all of us, humans, plants, animals, insects, waterways, air, and land. We’re all elements of nature and the environment, and, as such, and how we treat each other morally manifests materially, so we’d be wise to treat nature, which includes us, imperially, serially.

And this is where Say Their Names comes in. Say Their Names, on its face, is about 7-year-old Aliya’s quest to create a love-inspired movement in response to the George Floyd murder and protests. And with that, we’re surely blessed, the child met the test. Yet with a closer look, I must confess. Aliya reveals the 5 things we need to change the game not only to save lives from police and racial violence. She gives us the blueprint to save lives in the so-called natural world and helps us understand, like the scientists, how they/we are inextricably tied.

Aliya’s Blueprint includes these 5 Elements:

  1. Recognize that we’re in a love story – Give Mother Nature the glory.
  2. Gather our gifts – such as courage, hope, truth, and let it be swift. Gather our gifts of friends, family, community. Peace, grace, and unity.
  3. Tap into the one super-power that can change the game at any hour – LOVE.
  4. Become peerless when it comes to being fearless.
  5. Fight – All day, all night, harder and smarter until we get it right

I’ve created an entire professional development training and strategic campaigns training that delve deeply into how we can use the blueprint in Say Their Names to accelerate victories in campaigns for social, environmental, and climate justice. Email: caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com for details. 

Photo: That’s me at the Conference with U.S. Forest Service Sponsor Beattra Wilson, in the middle, and Singer, Storyteller, and Cultural Historian Karen Wilson Ama-‘Echefu, who spoke (and sang a bit) on the Belonging panel and provided outstanding support during my book signing.

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Nature-wise – Reading, Writing, Probing And Playing In The Outdoor Classroom

INTRODUCING Nature-Wise! Well, sort of.

Nature-Wise kicked off virtually during the spring of 2022 with my friends at the Maryland Association of Environmental and Outdoor Education. We held our first in-person training in early February in Ocean City. I’m now expanding the training nationally with Conservation Nation on March 29 virtually. This first session with CN is for DC Public Schools teachers only and all are FREE to teachers. Click here to register.

But wait! I’m inviting schools and youth organizations across the country to book trainings for the spring, summer and fall 2023 – right now.  Simply Email: caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com for more information.

What is Nature-wise? Nature-wise is a professional development training for educators and youth leaders designed to help children and teens understand and practice, on creative levels, that human beings are included in the definition of the environment. We, too, are nature and from our earliest days, we practice literacy. And that opens a world of wondrous possibilities and opportunities to explore all the literacies — reading, writing, speaking, seeing, hearing, visual arts, music, dance, games, and so many more – as we explore the natural world, our place in it, and our power to be climate activists and better protect all living things.

Teachers will enjoy opportunities to introduce students to children’s literature on the environment; Help students tap into the power of poetry to articulate feelings and observations about the environment; Bring local, national, and global environmental champions into students’ lives through picture books and online resources; Lead students on fascinating nature exploration journeys outdoors; Help students evaluate wildlife (colors, shapes, patterns, textures, and behaviors) in their school and home neighborhoods and create a neighborhood nature encyclopedia — and have fun!

Teachers will have opportunities to address fears about being outside and about various forms of wildlife; Create and play vocabulary games based on books and other literature; Help students write class and individual letters to authors and environmental champions; Help students create interview questions for environmental champions and authors; Help students create artwork inspired by stories and the work of environmental champions.

Email: caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com for more information about how to bring Nature-Wise to your school or organization.

WHAT TEACHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT NATURE-WISE!
Dear Caroline
Just a note to thank you for your workshop last week. I had the most wonderful time and got so many great ideas. I’m a new-ish teacher (switched from journalism mid-career) and am always looking for ways to better my craft. Thanks to your ideas, I’m now using rhythmic poems every day and putting lyrics up on the board for my learners to read. They love it! I’m also halfway through your HTHS manual and am putting more of those ideas into practice. Thank you so much for doing what you do and for inspiring so many of us. It is helping countless numbers of children! All the best.

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NEWS: George Floyd Protests Inspired Picture Book from Child’s Perspective

News Alert – June 6, 2022

Picture Book from a Child’s Perspective inspired by George Floyd protests
“Say Their Names” is about imagining and working toward love-inspired change

Contact Caroline Brewer, caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com, or Eileen Robinson, Editor, Reycraft Books, at erobinson@reycraftbooks.com for more information

Washington, D.C. – Reycraft Books and D.C. Author Caroline Brewer have announced the cover reveal and promotional launch of Say Their Names, a new 32-page picture book written from a child’s perspective. “I wrote Say Their Names because of my 20-year-educational journey with children,” said Brewer, a literacy activist, former elementary school teacher, and author of 13 books. “ I know children are suffering and being traumatized by police violence and racial violence – as studies have shown – along with all others in their communities. I wrote it because children have been leading and engaging in protests movements all over the world, especially in recent history, and I wanted to center them and their voices as part of our healing work and conversations.”

“I wrote Say Their Names from a child’s perspective because children give us the gifts of their imaginations. I wrote the book because imagining is one of the most important technologies that humans possess, and challenges such as police and racial violence require powerful imagining to defeat,” Brewer added.

Brewer, who wrote a children’s book in 2005 in honor of a friend’s son who was killed by police, noted that Say Their Names emphasizes this one powerful act,  “because saying their names is a ritual observed by communities the world over and is an important cultural ritual for African Americans; because remembering helps keep loved ones alive and assists in the healing process; and because this book, more than anything, is about imagining and working toward a future free of police and racial violence.”

Say Their Names is published by Reycraft Books and due out August 22, 2022. Media can contact the author or publisher for a digital ARC and more details.  Say Their Names can be PRE-ORDERED here.

Follow Caroline Brewer on social media here:
facebook.com/carolinebrewerbooks *** instagram.com/carolinebrewerbooks ***  twitter.com/brewercaroline