by D.D.Rathnayake With powerful words from Kirsten Cappy, Executive Director of I’m Your Neighbor Books, set the tone for an unforgettable celebration of culture, community,and storytelling on November 9, 2024 in Portland. “We ALL belong in America.” -Kirsten Cappy, Executive Director of I’m Your Neighbor Books The spotlight of the evening was on the… Read more »
ABOUT THE ACTIVITIES Event Guide: Welcoming in the South Asian Community Why not turn your event into a celebration of South Asian community members? Canvassing children’s librarians and South Asian librarians and colleagues, Curious City has created a short list of possible ways to fold in community members as partners and participants. Why not include… Read more »
Thank You Joe Thanks to a generous donation from The Law Offices of Joe Bornstein, 80 Maine school and public libraries won copies of the acclaimed picture book Together We Grow. The donation and the books were given in memory of Joe Bornstein whose commitment to literacy and equality is continued by his family. The… Read more »
Welcoming Library: Tabletop Book Display The Welcoming Library was envisioned from day one as a migrating collection. The entire picture book collection and pop-up display unit was designed to fit into two crates to allow it to be packed up and delivered to schools, libraries, and community spaces every four weeks. How do you fit… Read more »
“We put up large interior posters with the covers of the books and if a person read one in the library they put a sticker next to the title. We arranged the bean bag chairs near the display so that more people would plunk down there. We also had a set of 18 posters in… Read more »
BY Kirsten Cappy Illustration by Rafael López from The Day You Begin What do kids absorb when they hear lies or generalities about immigrants? What does hearing “Venezuelan” paired with “violent gangs” again and again do to children’s perceptions of themselves or their Venezuelan classmates or neighbors? It is hard to find the words to… Read more »
“My colleagues and many patrons, particularly the adults, absolutely LOVED the idea of this collection. Many patrons stopped to look through the books while they were visiting the library. The books were beautiful and informative, and we wrote down a few titles to hopefully add to our own collection.” —Berwick Public Library Like Berwick Public… Read more »
“I made sure to share it with patrons who visited – particularly parents – and talked it up during storytime. I also read a few of the books during one of our storytimes and took the time to talk about how it would feel to have to move. Storytime tends to be a younger audience,… Read more »
We love that this public library used the most patriotic day in America to talk about New Americans! “I intentionally requested the library near the 4th of July so I could tie it into people’s Independence day activities and created a Facebook post to advertise the library that reflected that.” —Berwick Public Library
“I intentionally requested the library near the 4th of July so I could tie it into people’s Independence day activities and created a Facebook post to advertise the library that reflected that.”—Welcoming Library Public Library Ambassador