Author and N.H. Humanities Council Connections Program Director, Terry Farish, children’s book author/illustrator and educator, Anne Sibley O’Brien, and children’s book engagement consultant, Kirsten Cappy of Curious City gave a symposium at the International Reading Association Annual Convention on New Neighbors: Using Children’s Books to Build Bridges Between New Arrivals and Long-term Communities highlighting the I’m Your Neighbor project.
Many thanks to all the educators that attended and shared ideas! Below is a list of resources mentioned. Please feel free to be in touch with questions or connections.
SPEAKERS ONLINE
Anne Sibley O’Brien
• Author/Illustrator Website
• Coloring Between the Lines: Reflections on Race, Culture and Children’s Books
• Email
Terry Farish
• Author Website/Blog
• The Good Braider Website/Blog (Sudanese American Novel)
• Elephant Rag (Multicultural Children’s Literature Blog
• Email
Kirsten Cappy
• Curious City (Children’s Book Marketing for Authors, Illustrators, & Publishers)
• Curious City DPW (Free Reader Engagement Projects for Librarians, Educators, Booksellers, and Others)
• Email
BOOKS FEATURED
Featured by Anne Sibley O’Brien
• A Path of Stars
• Moon Watchers: Shirin’s Ramadan Miracle
• What Will You Be, Sara Mee?
• “Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”: A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity• Are We Born Racist?: New Insights from Neuroscience and Positive Psychology
Featured by Terry Farish
• The Good Braider
• Muktar and the Camels
• Tomás and the Library Lady
• Grandfather’s Journey
• Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa
• Tell Me a Cuento: Book Of Poems
• The Day of the Pelican
• My People
• My Feet Are Laughing
• I, Doko
• Georgia Music
• The White Bone
Featured by Kirsten Cappy
• Of Beetles and Angels: A Boy’s Remarkable Journey from a Refugee Camp to Harvard
• Something About America
• Does My Head Look Big in This?
• A Path of Stars
• Moon Watchers: Shirin’s Ramadan Miracle
• The Good Braider
Mentioned by Participants
• Home of the Brave
• The Circuit
• Iqbal
• Nine Rubies: Broken Silence of a Daughter of Revolutionary Iran
QUOTES
Quoted by Anne Sibley O’Brien:
“Diversity…is not casual liberal tolerance of anything not yourself. It is not polite accommodation. Instead, diversity is, in action, the sometimes painful awareness that other people, other races, other voices, other habits of mind have as much integrity of being, as much claim on the world as you do… And I urge you, amid all the differences present to the eye and mind, to reach out to create the bond that…will protect us all. We are all meant to be here together.” –William Chase, “The Language of Action”
Quoted by Terry Farish:
“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.” –Karl Menninger from The Vital Balance
“The greatest gift we can give one another is the gift of our attention.” –Thich Nhat Hanh
RESOURCES FEATURED
Featured by Terry Farish:
• Tell Me a Cuento was a reading and writing project in the predominantly Dominican community of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
• Connections an adult literacy program with English Language Learners using children’s literature, run by the New Hampshire Humanities Council.
• The Beauty and Tragedy of Darfur – Students at Falmouth High in Maine listened to stories of a survivor from Darfur, El Fadel Arbab, and the students created paintings and sculptures in response to his stories.
• CAL Center for Applied Linguistics – Improving Communication through a better understanding of language and culture
• The Receiving Communities Toolkit – A Guide for Engaging Mainstream America in Immigration Integration. The Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning.
• Story of a Pumpkin – Follow the New Hampshire Humanities Council Bhutanese Nepali Folktale Project.
• Notable Books for a Global Society selected by the Children’s Literature and Reading SIG, International Reading Association.
• Picturing Writing – Beth Olshansky works with children, including immigrant children, to draw and write their stories.
• SPICE, (Stanford Program on International and Cross-cultural Education) – Curriculum Units for teachers.
• Language Lizard – dual language books in over 40 languages.
• Dual Language Showcase -“Affirming identity in multilingual classrooms.”
Anything else you were hoping to find? Contact Kirsten Cappy for more materials.
