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Our Digital Discussion with Janae Marks 

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Our Digital Discussion with Janae Marks 

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Janae Marks Readership Author Visit January 20, 2022

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Our Digital Discussion with Aisha Saeed on April 21, 2022

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Our Digital Discussion with Aisha Saeed on April 21, 2022

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Digital Discussion (Author Talk) Aisha Saheed 04/21/2022

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Our Digital Discussion with Pernille Ripp March 17, 2022

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Our Digital Discussion with Pernille Ripp March 17, 2022

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Pernille Ripp - March 17, 2022 shares highlights of building a relationship with reading.

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Pernille Ripp: Digital Discussion (Author Talk)

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Our Digital Discussion with Padma Venkatraman on February 17, 2022

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Our Digital Discussion with Padma Venkatraman on February 17, 2022

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Padma Venkatraman Readership Author Visit - February 17, 2022

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Our Digital Discussion with David Bowles on November 16, 2021

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Our Digital Discussion with David Bowles on November 16, 2021

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LatinX author uses authenticity and heart as he weaves stories of indiginous ancestors into science-fiction and fantasy to connect adolescents.

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Our Digital Discussion with Cornelius Minor on Oct. 28, 2021

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Our Digital Discussion with Cornelius Minor on Oct. 28, 2021

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Equitable literacy spoken from the heart. View our author chat with Cornelius Minor, an agent of change as he speaks to your heart and soul.

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Cornelius Minor: Digital Discussions (Author Talk)

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Our Digital Discussion with Jasmine Warga on September 14, 2021

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Our Digital Discussion with Jasmine Warga on September 14, 2021

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Digital Discussion with Jasmine Warga: "I loved to find myself in books early on, but in middle school and high school my reading took a sharp turn - books felt really stale to me and difficult to relate to.  Until a teacher who really saw me, my love of reading and writing; she saw my dream. This teacher went out of her way to bring me books I could relate to."

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Diversify Your Bookshelf - ACSA Webinar - August 4, 2021

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Kicking off ACSA's 2021-22 webinar series with Diversifying Your Bookshelf

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NCTE, TCOE, Kirkus Reviews, NPR's Best Books, Book Riot, New York Public Library, Nerdy Book Club, ALSC, Bank Street, Social Justice Books, NY Times,

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The Classroom Essentials Series

A foundational guide to using mentor texts in secondary writing classrooms.

Using mentor texts from a range of high-interest sources and diverse authors can be a real game changer in secondary writing classrooms. Students learn to read like writers, deepening their understanding of quality writing and inspiring them in their own drafting and revision. In this foundational guide, you'll learn the what, why, and how of teaching with mentor texts in small ways as well as large-and discover the power of mentor texts to serve as "writing teachers" alongside you. Allison and Rebekah provide a multitude of annotated examples from professional writers, alongside student samples, to illustrate how mentor texts can teach specific writing skills. Online resources, planning tools, and videos for both teachers and students make A Teacher's Guide to Mentor Texts an instant companion to your lesson plan book.

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A foundational guide to using mentor texts in secondary writing classrooms. Using mentor texts from a range of high-interest sources and diverse authors can be a real game changer in secondary writing classrooms. Students learn to read like writers, deepening their understanding of quality writing and inspiring them in their own drafting and revision.

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Story and Identity: Moving Beyond the Self | David Bowles | TEDxMcAllen

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Latinx MiniFest 2021 Keynote (David Bowles)

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David Bowles Talks: Intervention as Latinx Novelist, Poet, Translator, Comics Creator!

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Support Debut Authors and Buy Books like From The Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks

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Amplify Showcase - From the Desk of Zoe Washington Janae Marks

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Cornelius's Website - Highlights of his work

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Our Work Enjoy full access to this curated body of work, including co-creations from Kass and Cornelius, their collaborations with educators and media outlets from around the globe, as well as their individually published works and curriculum resources!

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Q&A with author Padma Venkatraman | The Bridge Home

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The Importance of Education | Author Padma Venkatraman

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Pernille Ripp's Writing Process (Wisconsin Writes)

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Passionate Readers   The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child with Pernille Ripp

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Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed BOOK TALK | Livestream

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Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed: 2020 National Book Festival

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Author of We Got This, Cornelius Minor Talks About What It Means to be Pro-Kids

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"Give me a good story, please, one which introduces me to a new friend. Bonus points if it makes me want to be more myself. Extra bonus points if it makes me think about experiences outside of myself."

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If I were the questing type, the type who might travel to the peak of a very high mountain and demand things of the sky, I might demand a certain kind of book.

I wouldn't expect that book to be a verse novel of remarkable sensitivity. Nor would I expect that book to be a deceptively easy-to-read middle grade novel, where reading just one more - maybe two more - okay, three, four, five - I guess I'm just reading now - sections is all too tempting.

No, if I were the questing type and I had my chance to demand things from the sky, I might say: Give me a story about the ways in which people are kind to one another; the ways in which a community leans into kindness even while some people within it are sharp and cruel and fearful. Give me a story that tells us it's okay to be more than one thing, that two different places don't exist in competition; that you can love them both and it isn't a betrayal of one. Give me a story that will revel in a nuanced understanding of what is home; a story that gives us permission to search for it even when the proverbial They tell us we should already know our place and that's it, you only get the one.

Give me a story about imperfect, loving families. About seeing others clearly as you learn to see yourself clearly. A story with humor. A story with trouble. Give me a story with a love of life and a love of joy. Give me a story that speaks - that tells us to speak, to speak up! To speak loudly! To not worry about being told skety,be quiet, hush! Give me a story that tells us to be who we are and who we want to be - to love the spotlight even if we are told it isn't for us.

Give me a good story, please, one which introduces me to a new friend. Bonus points if it makes me want to be more myself. Extra bonus points if it makes me think about experiences outside of myself.

... along comes Jasmine Warga with 'Other Words for Home,' and she gives us Jude's story, and it is everything I wanted.

And along comes Jasmine Warga with Other Words for Home, and she gives us Jude's story, and it is everything I wanted.

Jude is a twelve-year-old girl from Syria who leaves behind her father and brother and friends in order to come with her mother to the United States - Cincinnati, middle America, the heartland - and live with her uncle's family. She is lonely. Her best friend isn't returning her letters. Skype sessions with her father are few and far between. Nobody's heard from her brother, who's gone to help in Aleppo, and she's not even sure he's okay. Her mother is pregnant. Her cousin wants nothing to do with her; Jude stands out, and in middle school, that's never a good thing. Back in Syria she spoke English well; by Cincinnati standards, not so much.

Just when she thinks she's getting a handle on living in America, something happens that draws hatred up like blood welling from a deep scratch. When Jude decides she's going to try out for the school play, Beauty and the Beast, her new friend Layla tells her she shouldn't do it: The stage isn't for girls like them.

Jude has other ideas.

There are so many reasons to read this novel. It's a book about kindness, for one; it sings, for another, as any good verse novel should. Verse novels are coming into vogue, and Jude's voice is heightened by Warga's decision to write her story this way.

It feels true. It feels like middle school and wanting things the way you do in middle school. It feels like being in the middle of so many things and not quite knowing how to navigate that uncertainty. But our protaganist is level-headed and charismatic, clear-eyed - and did I mention charismatic? At one point, Warga writes:

There is an Arabic proverb that says:
She makes you feel like a loaf of freshly baked bread.
It is said about

the nicest

kindest

people.

The type of people

who help you

rise.

And that's Jude. I wanted nothing more than to be her friend and listen to whatever she had to say about life. She deserves to shine in the spotlight, and so does Other Words for Home.
Jessica P. Wick is a writer, freelance editor, and California native currently living in Rhode Island.

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These 'Words For Home' Are Poetic And Powerful

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Jasmine Warga's middle grade novel in verse follows a Syrian immigrant girl struggling to fit in with her relatives in unfamiliar Cincinnati. It's remarkably sensitive, and deceptively easy to read.

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Middle Reader Lesson Plan GUIDED ANTI-BIAS/ANTI-RACIST READING | GRADES 5+ DOWNLOAD PDF INTRODUCTION This lesson is divided into 4 sections that are designed to follow along with the book From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks. Each section focuses on reading comprehension, critical thinki…