Tag: teachers

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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!

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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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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.

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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!

 

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With Hearts Breaking, Let Us Come Together

Today we grieve, we hug, we console.  Tomorrow, we rise.The Buffalo shootings, the Irvine, CA church shootings, and the shootings in Uvalde have left me speechless, in tears, and angry. America is awash in guns and the means to annihilate every human being on her soil, many times over. Americans possess more than 350 million guns, as Gun Control Advocate Andy Pelosi shared earlier to day. And the amount of ammunition is probably immeasurable. The angels are weeping for us.Today is also the anniversary of the George Floyd murder. Police killings of innocent/unarmed people have not declined since his death.And yet, I know without question that we can imagine, work, and rise up out of this brutal reality. It is not natural for human beings to act with such depravity. We must fight harder, think higher thoughts, and strengthen our bonds. The world and the world’s children need us now more than ever. We know what ignorance and hate can produce. We must answer the question, “What can greater love of humanity produce?” I am here to link arms with every single person willing to ascend, to do things we have not done, have not thought to do, and perhaps, have not had the courage to do, in the face of these horrors. That gun violence is now the #1 cause of death for young people is sickening, and must motivate us to step up, speak up, and, if necessary, act up – more than we ever have! The angels, and John Lennon, will cheer us. #Imagine

Thank you!Caroline BrewerBeing Human, Children’s Book Author, Literacy Consultant and Activist, SCBWI Member, MAEOE and VAASL Presenter
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Say Their Names, New Children’s Book, Expands Movement for Love

Say Their Names, New Children’s Book, Expands Movement for Love, Justice, Peace

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I hope I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything You gave me.'” -Chadwick Boseman

And to that I would add, not a single bit of courage, conviction, peace, or love. I used ALL that You gave me. Say Their Names, my new children’s book about a 7-year-old Black girl’s response to police killings, is one example of how. It’s written through the eyes, courage, and convictions of a child — in the voice of a child.  I hope you’ll join the Reycraft Books team, Illustrator Adrian Brandon and me on this journey. You can pre-order the book on Reycraft’s site here. And please like, share, comment, tell teachers, parents, librarians, your family, friends, and neighbors. The whole world is needed. Thank you so much!

-Caroline

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Seeing Them Fall In Love with Themselves

This is Part II of my answer to the question, Why did you write Darius Daniels: Game On!? It’s a great question and one that I often get from readers, whether students, teachers, librarians, parents, or adults, in general.

In Part I, I said my mother’s love helped me find the strength to persevere over 14 years to finish Darius Daniels, because the book began as a tribute to her remarkable life.

And then, remembering what I regularly witnessed in children also helped me to persevere.

I’ve said before that I’ve never met a child who wasn’t hungry to learn to read or read better. Many either didn’t have a lot of experience with reading or they didn’t have good experiences. So, as the children and I worked together, I quickly saw their fears and angst dissolve. What held them back disappeared into the ashes of time as confidence with the force of a wildfire fueled them on. They had fallen in love. They had fallen in love with themselves as readers.

I watched them declare themselves capable, good, and motivated. And that pushed me to persevere, to keep going, to pick up the manuscript again after it had sat on that proverbial shelf for 10 years.

I persevered because I loved seeing children who were diagnosed with disabilities – mental, emotional, and physical disabilities, children four, five, six grade levels behind with no diagnosed disabilities –  become inspired to open up books and explore new worlds.  I loved seeing them discover that reading for pleasure was a form of play, and they were utterly qualified to participate.

I persevered because I wanted to write a book for these children that I call hungry readers. I wanted to write a book about these children. I wanted to write a book for and about all of us as human beings who need to go somewhere special and come back loving ourselves a whole lot more.

Have you ever seen a hungry reader transform right in front of your eyes? I’d love to hear the story.

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Teachers Keep Hope Alive – Happy World Teachers Day!

Teachers feed the hearts and minds of those beautiful, hungry children the world keeps trusting to us. Teachers help children develop socially, emotionally, and intellectually in ways that they, and we, find extraordinary. 
Teachers keep hope alive.
Teachers help students overcome doubts and find faith.
Teachers helps students rise from the ashes, over and over again.

Is there a struggle in teaching? Of course. Are there tears in teaching? Absolutely, and of a wide variety. Can we expect enlightenment? Every day, for sure. But mostly, as we move through each day, we reach deeper understanding of who we are and who students are, and that alone brings about a new kind of joy – a permanent joy — for student and teacher. We truly are all in this together.

Happy World Teachers Day to all Teachers!

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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!

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What do books and blizzards have in common?

Did you know that reading is related to snowflakes? I often ask children to think about how nice it is to see a snowflake. Softly it falls from the sky to the ground and as you watch it dance, a twinkle appears in your eye and a little smile creases your face. But then, if the snow begins to fall faster and develops into a blizzard, your smile might turn into an expression of concern – especially if you’re at school and didn’t remember to bring your hat, mittens, or boots.

A few snowflakes here and there are not dangerous. But a blizzard – that’s another story!

The same holds true with books. Having one book fall into our lives every now and then doesn’t change anything. But if we get a blizzard of books into our lives, then it’s going to make a huge difference. That’s what we want children to have and read – a blizzard’s worth of books.

Studies show that the more books children read and are exposed to the better readers they become.

The good news is that a blizzard of books doesn’t mean thousands of books at a time or even hundreds.

Did you know that a mere 20 books in a child’s home can make a huge difference? Twenty (20) books represents the snowfall that will one day turn into a blizzard – a happy blizzard of books.

Share in the comments your ideas for how to get 20 more books into your child’s or a student’s life, and I’ll share in the next blog my ideas.

Stay tuned for how to learn how easily it can be done — and why it’s a worthwhile goal!

 

 

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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