Tag: parents

Posted on

The Harriet Tubman Nobody Knew! Pre-order Now!

The Harriet Tubman Nobody Knew
Available to Pre-Order Today!

When Harriet Tubman was born enslaved in Dorchester County, Maryland, in 1822, nobody knew this tiny Black girl-child would grow up to be a leader. Nobody knew she would learn to find her way by following the stars. Nobody knew she’d move through the woods as silently as an owl or work as a spy during the Civil War. Nobody knew the power she would draw from prayer. Nobody knew she would escape enslavement, rescue hundreds, and find the joys of freedom.
Nobody knew she would become a force of nature, and that her journey would one day be chronicled in a 48-page picture book written and illustrated by Caroline Brewer.
With compelling poetry perfect for reading aloud and luminous collage illustrations, Brewer brings readers of all ages into Harriet Tubman’s nature-fueled life and deep spirituality.

Early reviewers are LOVING the story and the art, and are saying they’ve never seen or read a children’s book about Tubman like this. We believe it’s the first of its kind. Pre-Order Today at Bookshop or bookstores anywhere and find out soon what all the buzz is about!

Posted on

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

Posted on

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.

Posted on

SAY THEIR NAMES – FREE Guide for Parents, Teachers, Youth Leaders

AUTHOR CREATES SAY THEIR NAMES
IMAGINATION GUIDE

 

NEW picture book offers many gifts,
including a Positive Identity

Author Caroline Brewer is leading highly inter-active and musical conversations with students, educators, parents and community groups about her new book  Say Their Names, with Reycraft Books.  In Say Their Names, a fictional 7-year-old Aliya responds to the aftermath of George Floyd’s death with poetry, history, and an invitation to a love-inspired future. Brewer says the book comes with more than 30 “gifts” for children, such as hope, courage, and empowerment, which all work together to form a positive identity. (See page 5 for the list and student-youth engagement opportunities).

“As we have seen, especially since September 11, 2001, traumatic incidents, such as school shootings, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, racist and religious attacks, wars, pandemics, and the like, keep happening, seemingly with greater frequency, here and all over the world,” said Brewer, “In the face of the world’s ugliness, we’ll be counting on today’s youth to one day stand tall and lead our families, communities, and countries. So it’s critical that we – and they -- are equipped with the confidence, language, empathy, mental and emotional stamina to handle the hard stuff. If I could give a child any gift, it would be the gift of a positive identity, and that’s what Say Their Names is all about,” says Brewer.

**
Goals of the picture book, Say Their Names: To be a channel for children’s agency, positive identity, strength, intellectual stimulation, healthy, self-actualized communication, to expand supportive communities, to be a source of hope, and a tool for imagining ways forward.

Click here to get your FREE Imagination Guide!

 

Posted on

Five Things You Should Know About Barack Obama: A Hip Hop Tale

In honor of President’s Day and the need to learn about presidents 365 days a year

***

Five Things About Barack Obama:

A Hip Hop Tale of King’s Dream Come True

In a nutshell: The artwork is a conversation starter; it has 60 sets of rhyming words (sure to send any child’s vocabulary and comprehension soaring); you can teach  more than a dozen English language learning skills; it’s full of surprises, including fun facts about animals; and opportunities to learn about social activism and politics in ways that are very cool. (To purchase, click here.) Continue reading “Five Things You Should Know About Barack Obama: A Hip Hop Tale”

Posted on

4 Places to Pick Up Free Books for A Child’s Home Library! Including Here!

In the last blog, we talked about how books and snowflakes have a thing in common. The more of each you have in your life, the more your circumstances change. Get a few books here and there, not much will change. Get a few snowflakes here and there, not much will change. But get a blizzard’s worth of snowflakes, or a blizzard’s worth of books..change gon’ come!

Why do we need a blizzard’s worth of books? Research shows that more books in the home mean children read more, read better, and perform better academically. The pandemic has made it harder for children to get to public libraries and school libraries, so now is a great time to build home libraries. Do it for your children or someone else’s!

So, how do we get a blizzard’s worth of books into a child’s life? We can start the way the snowstorm starts – with a few books at a time. We are calling it the Look at My Books Campaign. Set a goal of getting at least 20 more books into your house, a student or child in your community’s house, or join our local campaign in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area.

Here’s how we can begin.

FREE BOOKS – The easiest way to build a child’s library is to stock it with free books.
So where can we find free books? Here are 4 Places to Pick Up FREE Books!

  1. Literacy programs – Ask teachers at your school, the PTA, your local librarian, local government officials and social service organizations about literacy programs in your community that offer free books. Usually, these programs give free books throughout the year. Also, libraries often partner with literacy programs to give away free books at their locations. Earlier this year, I worked with three literacy/education programs in Florida that gave away my books to hundreds of children in honor of Martin Luther King Day.
  2. Head Start, Day care programs, Schools, and After-school programs – Programs that provide education and recreational activities for children often are connected to literacy programs, which donate free books.  Or, they might have their own book giveaway program. Ask around.
  3. Author Giveaways – Authors LOVE to sell books and they also LOVE to give away books! Authors LOVE to give away books to children who are hungry to read. I have given away thousands upon thousands of books in my life. It’s one of my greatest joys to see children treat a new book as if it were a hot fudge sundae — something they can’t wait to dig into! In honor of this blog, the first five people to email caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com will receive a free copy of one of three books: Darius Daniels: Game On! (a middle grade novel), Barack Obama: A Hip Hop Tale of King’s Dream Come True, or Kara Finds Sunshine on a Rainy Day. Also, check the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages of your other favorite authors to find about about their giveaways.
  4. Friends, family, religious institutions – In the process of moving froBarack Obama: A Hip Hop Tale of King's Dream Come True by Caroline Brewer and Glenn Brewerm my first house, I was amazed to that I still had more than 200 books, which I had purchased for my daughters when they were in preschool and early elementary. I gave those books to a family member who had a young daughter and encouraged her to give some away to friends and family who had young children, too. I continue to this day to go through my stock of books to find books to give away. I also belong to a church where people bring new and gently used books from their homes to our bookstore so that we can also give away books.  So ask around. Ask your friends, ask family, ask people who attend religious institutions, are involved with sororities, fraternities, other social organizations and non-profits, and those who work at government organizations, if they have books they’d like to donate to help a child build a home library.

So, there you have it. Let’s get going on our Look atMy Books Campaign, to help children make homes for lots more books and begin to talk about their collections, and eventually share with someone else! And please, take us along on your journey. Drop us a line or a photo and let us know how you’re doing, who’s been helpful, and any new resources you find. If your children already have plenty of books then let’s work together to find other children who could benefit from some of the books you already have or books you’re ready to go out and find. And let’s all have fun!

Posted on

First Classes in the U.S. Give Enthusiastic Video Reviews to Darius Daniels: Game On!

Darius Daniels: Game On! is a certified hit with students in the classes taught by Virginia English Language Arts Teacher Christay Johnson. Her 45 students in two classes are first whole classes in the U.S. to read the book and share video responses. Click here to see what the students have to say about the poetry, imagery, challenges, and adventure provided by 11-year-old Darius and his experience getting sucked into a game world and told that he can’t get out until he hurts somebody.

Click here to order copies for your children or students or email: caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com

Posted on

The Infinite Magic of Stories

The Infinite Magic of Stories

How to Engage Children without a Computer (Series)

During last Sunday’s Parent Teacher Power Hour, we took a deep dive into the Infinite Magic of Stories, 
and discovered a whole new world! Please click the link to learn more about how you can help stimulate intellectual, social, and emotional development in children by understanding what it takes to create stories and the vast world of stories that you can share.
Sunday, April 26, at 7:05 p.m. Eastern time, join us as we keep going with stories and investigate folk tales, fables, and fairy tales from around the world. We’re going to ask participants who would like to share to share the name of a favorite fairy tale, folktale, or fable, such as the Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Cinderella, Anansi stories, Jack and the Beanstalk, and, of course, many more – and what you learned from the tales and what you hope students will learn.

Links to hundreds of fairy tales, folktales and fables are on the 8 Ways to Engage Children Without a Computer handout.  Email caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com for your invitation to the Parent Teacher Power Hour.
Posted on

Hear Stories, Tell Stories, Learn how to Create Stories – This Sunday at 7 pm!

Some words. Maybe it’s just one, such as: Love. Hope. Fire. Fear. Music. Tears. That’s all you need to tell a story. Some words you speak. Some words your write. Some words that come to your mind and end up as a picture. You know the saying: a picture is worth a thousand words, and a thousand words is plenty enough for a story.

This Sunday, as a follow up to last week’s discussion of The Higher Way, and my new release of 8 Ways to Engage Children Without a Computer, we’re going to talk about stories.  It’s Way #1 on the download. We’re going to tell you some stories, ask you to tell us some stories (in one minute or less!), and we’re going to talk about how you can support children to create and publish their stories and how you can do the same.

We’re going to have a good time with good old-fashioned StoryTime. You know, once upon a time, or Back in the day, or Honey, let me tell you kinds of stories. And music! We Love stories with instrumental music. So, come along, bring family, friends – all ages are welcome!

We’re going to have a story good time!

Sunday, April 19 – 7 -8 p.m. via Freeconferencecall.com Video or Phone.

Email caroline@carolinebrewer.com to receive the link!

Posted on

8 Ways to Engage Children Without A Computer

8 Ways to Engage Children Without a Computer
and support their intellectual growth and development

I love being offline much more than being online and I know how important it is for children to spend time growing and developing without devices. That’s why 8 Ways to Engage Children – mentally, physically, and intellectually  — without computers. This list could have included 80 Ways, or even 800. But I think this list of 8 is pretty substantial, so take a look, try some out some of these ways and let us know what you think.

And, of course, have fun!

Email caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com with your stories and thoughts. And join us tomorrow at 7 p.m. to learn more about how to have fun with the 8 Ways.