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Getting to Know the Author Jacqueline Woodson

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Getting to Know the Author Jacqueline Woodson

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Jacqueline Woodson, an African American award winning author, developed her love of writing at a young age while she was in elementary school.  Jacqueline was born in Columbus, Ohio.  During her early years she lived in Greenville, South Carolina.  At the age of seven she moved Brooklyn, New York, where she continues to live today.  She has a passion for writing books for children and adolescents about communities that she was familiar with while she was growing up.  This included the diverse populations that she encountered while she was growing up in Brooklyn, which included people from all over the world. Woodson states, "I wanted to write about communities of color.  I wanted to write about girls.  I wanted to write about friendship and all of these things that I felt were missing in a lot of the books I read as a child."

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Getting to Know the Illustrator Rafael Lopez

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Getting to Know the Illustrator Rafael Lopez

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Rafael Lopez is an award winning illustrator of children's books.  Born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico, he developed his love for painting and drawing.  Lopez is known for his use of bold colors and texture in his illustrations, which are done with acrylic paints.  He strives to incorporate the cultures of the characters in his books and his illustrations resemble folk art.  Rafael has also illustrated seven stamps for the United States Postal Service.  He spends time living in both San Diego, California and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

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Franklin's New Friend

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2019 Jane Addams Children's Book Award
2019 E.B. White Read-Aloud Award

Finalist

2019-2020 Red Clover Award Nominee

2019 Ladybug Picture Book Award

Nominee

ALSC Notable Children's Books-2019
CCBC Choices 2019 Choice:  Understanding Oneself and Others
ILA Teachers' Choices-2019
CSMCL Best Books-2018
Publishers Weekly Best Books-2018
CPL Best Books, Picture Books-2018
School Library Journal Best Books-2018
BCCB Blue Ribbons-2018

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Official Book Trailer for The Day You Begin

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Official Book Trailer for The Day You Begin

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Sharing this new book trailer for our book, The Day You Begin released today and written by National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Jacqueline Woodson. It is inspired by a poem in her New York Times bestselling memoir Brown Girl Dreaming. "There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you". There are lots of reasons to feel different. Maybe it's how you look or talk, or where you're from. Maybe it's what you eat or something just as random. Whatever it is, it's not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody knows you, but somehow you do it.

This book celebrates the bravery it takes to go forth even when you feel like an outsider. Sometimes, when we reach out and share our story, others will be happy to meet us halfway.

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Sharing this new book trailer for our book, The Day You Begin released today and written by National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, Jacqueline Woodson. It is inspired by a poem in her New York Times bestselling memoir Brown Girl Dreaming. "There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you".

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Friendship

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Kid President's Guide to Making a New Friend

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Making Friends

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Sesame Street: Kids Talk: Making Friends

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I would highly recommend this picture book for teachers and parents to read.  It has a theme of friendship that students of all ethnic backgrounds can relate to.  Jacqueline Woodson includes many different ethic groups into this story, including the two main characters, which in turn makes this book culturally diverse.  Children can relate to the different real-life situations that the characters encounter, such as feeling nervous in front of others, feeling left out, feeling different than others, and having the courage to speak in front of classmates.  This book illustrates the importance of making connections with others and understanding that friendship is not built on how we look, but how we embrace our differences.  Our schools are filled with diverse learners and this book fits the bill for creating characters that are ethnically diverse while at the same time being interesting and brave.

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Meet the Characters
Rigoberto-main character who is from Venezuela that is afraid to speak about his summer vacation in front of the class because he speaks a different language than them
Angelina- main character who is an African American student that is afraid to talk about staying home with her sister during summer vacation because all of her classmates went on trips to special places
Chayla, Jonathan, Nadja, and other students who are not named are part of the class.
Setting
This story takes place on the first  day of school.
Story Summary
When Angelina walks into school, she quickly finds out that today the class will be sharing what they did over the summer vacation.  As she is looking around the room, she notices that no one there is like her.  She sees children with light colored skin, straight hair, and clothes that are not like hers, and she begins to feel anxious.  Rigoberto is the next character. He feels nervous about speaking in front of the class because he speaks a different language.  An Asian girl feels lonely while eating a lunch that is very different from her friend's lunch.  A little boy is left out of playing games at the playground because he would rather read books.  Other children in the class share their adventures from their summer vacations.  Angelina remembers her summer that was spent at home taking care of her sister, but begins to remember how exciting it was to read books that transported her and her sister to far away places.  Finally, she decides to share her story with the class and forms a friendship with her classmate, Rigoberto.  In the end, Angelina learns that friends do not have to be just like you.  That's the part that makes a friend so special:  you can be alike and different at the same time.

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This book would be an excellent choice for grades K-6  because the characters in the story are young and students can easily relate to them.  It contains many different themes, including individuality, emotions and feelings, social issues, and friendship.  I would incorporate the theme of friendship into my activities for this book, and use it during the first week of school in my kindergarten classroom as we are building our classroom community.
1.  Before reading, the class will discuss what makes a good friend as part of a shared writing activity.
2.  While listening to the story the students can think how Angelina and Rigoberto become friends.
3.  After reading the story, the students will draw a picture of their family and something they did this summer on their classroom quilt piece.
4.  After the quilt pieces are finished, students can share about themselves.  Students will be able to see how their friends are like them and how they are different.
5.  After everyone has shared, I would put the quilt pieces together and hang our classroom quilt in the room.
6.  I have also included several videos that can be shared during the week with the theme of friendship.
Through these activities, students are participating in the following kindergarten standards:
a.The students are making connections between the text and the illustrations to better understand the story.
b.The students are actively engaged in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.