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Khan, Hena.Amina's Voice. Salaam Reads, 2017. 197 pages (978-1-4814-9206-5)
Ages 9-13

Amina is unhappy that her best friend, Soojin, has started inviting Emily, a classmate neither of them has ever liked, to spend time with them. At home, Amina's family is getting ready for the visit of Thaya Jaan, her father's older brother, from Pakistan. To impress Thaya Jaan, and support their Imam, Amina's parents insist Amina and her older brother, Mustafa, complete in their mosque's upcoming Quran recitation competition. Mustafa, who wants his parents to let him play high school basketball, agrees willingly. But Amina suffers from serious stage fright-it's why she never tries out for a solo in her middle school choir, despite her talent and love of singing. A swiftly paced novel showing a Muslim family and community as part of the fabric of American life also includes a hateful attack when vandals break into the mosque. No one is hurt, but the damage is great and the fear and sadness palpable. So, too, is the caring. People both within and outside Amina's faith community offer solace, support, and help repairing the damage. This welcome story has finely developed primary and secondary characters, from Amina, Soojin, and Emily (whom Amina comes to appreciate) to Amina's family members, including her at-first intimidating uncle, who proves to have both conservative ideas and an open mind. The novel is set in the Milwaukee-area community of Greendale. ©2018 Cooperative Children's Book Center

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Khan, Hena.Amina's Voice. Salaam Reads, 2017. 197 pages (978-1-4814-9206-5) Ages 9-13 Amina is unhappy that her best friend, Soojin, has started inviting Emily, a classmate neither of them has ever liked, to spend time with them. At home, Amina's family is getting ready for the visit of Thaya Jaan, her father's older brother, from Pakistan.

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The project was created in 2010 with a simple goal in mind; one book to connect the world. From its humble beginnings, the GRA has grown to make a truly global connection with milllions of students having participated.

What is it?

The premise is simple; we pick a book to read aloud to our students during a set 6-week period and during that time we try to make as many global connections as possible. Each teacher decides how much time they would like to dedicate and how involved they would like to be. Some people choose to connect with just one class, while others go for as many as possible. The scope and depth of the project is up to you. While there are commonly used such as Skype, Twitter, Padlet, or Flipgrid, you choose the tools that will make the most sense for you. Teachers get a community of other educators to do a global project with, hopefully inspiring them to continue these connections through the year.

When is it?

Once a year, starting in early October and running through mid-November. Due to the time commitment, this is only a once a year project, however, two fantastic spin-off projects run at other times; the New Zealand Read Aloud and the French version of GRA, Ecouter Lire le Monde.

I have questions as a Participant

Please see " For Participants" to have all of your questions answered.

I have questions as an Author

Please see "For Authors" to have all of your questions answered.

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To see the blog with the latest news and ideas, go here. To join our Facebook Community, go here - this is how you sign up The project was created in 2010 with a simple goal in mind; one book to connect the world. From its humble beginnings, the GRA has grown to make a...

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Hi friends! Did any of you get to attend a Scholastic Reading Summit this summer? I did, and one of my biggest takeaways was the power of BOOK TALKS.

Pour Your Heart Out

In this slide you can see author Katherine Applegate's delight as she hears a sixth grader talk about a teacher pouring his or her heart out about a book.

Are you taking time to pour your heart out about books? (I'm pointing a finger at myself here because I know I need to do more of this!) Both John Schu and Donalyn Miller spoke about the power of teachers and students sharing book talks.

Here's a video of Donalyn Miller talking about book talks and how they can build relationships among readers. Many of my students do not hear about books at home. Many of my classroom teachers don't read children's books, so they have no books to talk about. If I'm not sharing book talks myself and encouraging students to share their book experiences, how will we develop a culture of reading?

What IS a book talk? It's a few sentences, designed to inspire interest in a book. It's not a summary of the whole plot of the book, and longer book talks are often less effective. Scholastic has a Book Talk Tips printable for students here.

Emoji Book Talks

I've spent every spare moment in the past two weeks creating a new product that I'll use this year with my students: Emoji Book Talks. I see emojis everywhere I go in the actual and the virtual world. I think they'll be a colorful, fun "hook" to get our schoolwide book conversations started.

I created forms to allow students to choose an emoji representing how the book made them feel and to write a few sentences about the book. I've included printable emoji signs that I'll laminate for students to use as a visual aid when they talk about their book. And of course there are color and printer-friendly versions of everything in this packet.

I've already bought several emoji pillows from Walmart, and I'll add these to our comfortable seating area in the library.

I'll use these emoji pencils as prizes for students who read their emoji book talks on the morning announcements.

I'll use this as one of the library center activities that students can work on after they've checked out their library books. They can either write their emoji book talk and give it to me, or they can add a title to our emoji bulletin board.

I think this will be really fun for our students. I'm thinking about creating a book talk club to help me choose book talks to feature on the morning announcements. They can also give their book talks as excellent models, since we'll have time to work on them together after school.

How Do You Encourage Book Talks?

I'd love to hear in a comment or in our Learning Librarians Facebook group how YOU encourage book talking at your school!

p.s.-my Emoji Book Talks are 20% off this weekend. I'd love to get feedback from you and hear what you think about the product!

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Hi friends! Did any of you get to attend a Scholastic Reading Summit this summer? I did, and one of my biggest takeaways was the power of BOOK TALKS. Pour Your Heart Out In this slide you can see author Katherine Applegate's delight as she hears a sixth grader talk about a teacher pouring his or her heart out about a book.