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A PERFECT book to teach a History and Music!!!

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Whether you're in school or at work, "TGIF" is a familiar refrain. Carole Boston Weatherford's evocative and moving new book, Freedom in Congo Square, is about people who work for the weekend, too-but in a context that's far less lighthearted, set during a shameful and important period of American history.

Through finely crafted phrases and vivid, painterly illustrations, the book tells how slaves living in 1800s New Orleans worked toward a precious half day of temporary freedom, on Sundays at Congo Square: "It was a market and a gathering ground / where African music could resound. / Beneath the sun and open air, / the crowd abuzz with news to share."

In a call from her North Carolina home, Weatherford tells BookPage that, although the people in her book were looking forward to a time of fun and fellowship, "I wanted to share a realistic depiction of slavery, that showed clearly that slavery was an injustice. Yes, Congo Square was a great place, but it was all they had. Didn't they deserve so much more, for toiling like that all week, than a half day off?"

Freedom in Congo Square 's rhyming, rhythmic poetry builds as the pages turn, with couplets about the unending, wide-ranging work the slaves performed each day ("Tuesdays, there were cows to feed, / fields to plow, and rows to seed.") and the cruelty of their masters ("The dreaded lash, too much to bear. / Four more days to Congo Square.").

Illustrator R. Gregory Christie's paintings help readers feel the slaves' suffering, exhaustion and determined hopefulness. At first, the pages' backgrounds are brown and green, echoing the fields where the enslaved work. Then, more colors seep in: pink, blue, yellow, purple. When Sunday arrives, the words leap from their previous placement at the top or bottom of the page and swirl throughout, joining an array of blots and brushstrokes, a sea of masks, musical instruments and exuberant dancing figures.

When she began writing Freedom in Congo Square, Weatherford says, "I challenged myself to mix picture-book tropes: the counting book and the day-of-the-week book. This gave the poem its structure and form, which the subject matter needed-particularly for kids, so they could digest it. I used that to propel the story. . . . It may be a pretty scene, but it shows you it's not fair, tells you it's not fair, then shows you how slaves had this release for half a day on Sunday."

During that half day, people met up with friends and family, traded goods and played music. In fact, Congo Square is considered the birthplace of jazz. "I love jazz," Weatherford says. "That's another reason I was drawn to the subject matter."

An appreciation for art in all forms was instilled in the author as a child. "My mother took me to the symphony, museums. . . . She really had an appreciation for art and for history." Weatherford's mother even asked her father, a high-school printing teacher, to print Weatherford's early poems. Those typeset quotes, Weatherford's "little motivational or moralistic poems," meant that, "at a very early age-and before desktop computers-I saw my work in print." But she didn't yet yearn to be a writer. "It never dawned on me that the people who were writing the books I was reading were making money, or even alive," she says. "I never saw any of them, and authors weren't celebrities then like they are now."

But after graduating from American University, Weatherford had a poem published in a city magazine. "When I saw that poem in print, I thought, that's what I want to do! I came out of the closet as a poet, I always say."

The next phase of her writerly career began after she married, became a mother of two and pursued her MFA. "I was taking my own kids to the library, and there were so many more multicultural books for them than there had been for me as a child. I was still writing adult poetry, plus things on the side to entertain my kids. I thought, maybe I can try to write for children, and before I got out of my MFA program, I'd sold two manuscripts."

Her first children's book, Juneteenth Jamboree, was published in 1995, and she's written 46 more books since then. She's also earned numerous awards, including a Caldecott Honor, Coretta Scott King Award Honor and the NAACP Image Award. And she's a tenured professor at Fayetteville State University.

"I work on multiple projects, have multiple jobs and work on multiple manuscripts," Weatherford says. "It is who I am, not what I do." She adds, "When I teach, I learn things as well. When I'm being stimulated intellectually, there's no telling where it's going to go."

Certainly, in Freedom in Congo Square, poetry, art and history combine to create a jumping-off point for readers to learn and think about our country's past and present. An introduction by a Congo Square expert, plus a glossary and author's note at book's end, provide food for further thought.

"I do that in all my books," Weatherford says. "I try to have that author's note that says this is based on real-life events. I want kids to know, because they can't fathom that these kinds of injustices existed in the USA. We have to continually tell them this happened in the past. It wasn't a video game, a TV series, a movie with a prequel or sequel. It happened."

She adds, "It was important to me with this particular project that, in portraying the world of slavery, it was not romantic in any way. [The book] is for children, but it's not candy-coated . . . and really, even sugar was a luxury for slaves. It's a topic that's near and dear to my heart, and I hope that I did it justice."
This article was originally published in the February 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

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Whether you're in school or at work, "TGIF" is a familiar refrain. Carole Boston Weatherford's evocative and moving new book, Freedom in Congo Square, is about people who work for the weekend, too-but in a context that's far less lighthearted, set during a shameful and important period of American history.

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Carole Boston Weatherford, 2010 North Carolina Award for Literature recipient, discusses her background and books.
Bio/One Sheet
Baltimore-born and -raised, Carole composed her first poem in first grade and dictated the verse to her mother on the ride home from school. Her father, a high school printing teacher, printed some of her early poems on index cards.

Since her literary debut with Juneteenth Jamboree in 1995, Carole's books have received many literary honors. Her award-winning titles include:

Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America (NAACP Image Award)

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement (Caldecott Honor, Sibert Honor, Coretta Scott King John Steptoe New Talent Award and Flora Steiglitz Straus Award from Bank Street College of Education)

Sugar Hill: Harlem's Historic Neighborhood (Arnold Adoff Early Poetry Honor)

Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (NAACP Image Award, Coretta Scott King Award and Caldecott Honor Medal)

Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane (Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor and the SCBWI Golden Kite Honor)

Becoming Billie (Coretta Scott King Author Honor)

Dear Mr. Rosenwald (SCBWI Golden Kite Honor, NAACP Image Award finalist)

Birmingham, 1963 (Jefferson Cup from Virginia Library Association, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and Jane Addams Children's Literature Honor)

The Sound that Jazz Makes (Carter G. Woodson Award from National Council for the Social Studies, NAACP Image Award finalist)

Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins (North Carolina Juvenile Literature Award)

Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People (North Carolina Juvenile Literature Award)

For career achievements, Carole received the Ragan-Rubin Award from North Carolina English Teachers Association and the North Carolina Literature Award, among the state's highest civilian honors. She holds an M.A. in publications design from University of Baltimore and an M.F.A. in creative writing from University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She is a Professor of English at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.
More about her books. SOME OF CAROLE'S AWARDS & FAVORITE BOOKS

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Carole Boston Weatherford, 2010 North Carolina Award for Literature recipient, discusses her background and books. Bio/One Sheet Baltimore-born and -raised, Carole composed her first poem in first grade and dictated the verse to her mother on the ride home from school. Her father, a high school printing teacher, printed some of her early poems on...

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https://www.hbook.com/2016/09/blogs/calling-caldecott/freedom-in-congo-square/

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Biography

Carole Boston Weatherford grew up in an all-black neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. An only child until the age of 10, she has fond memories of riding bikes, drawing and writing, and singing and tap dancing to her dad's collection of jazz records. In the first grade, Carole recited her first poem. Throughout elementary and middle school, her artistic and literary talents were recognized and encouraged by her teachers. Carole continued writing through high school and into college, but it was only when one of her poems was published in a city magazine that she seriously considered becoming an author.

For 20 years, Carole Boston Weatherford worked for the National Bar Association in Washington, DC and North Carolina. After becoming a mother, she enrolled in a master's level creative writing program at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Although she entered the program writing poetry for adults, she graduated wanting to write historical fiction and poetry for children. Weatherford's first children's book, Juneteenth Jamboree, was published in 1995. Since then she has authored more than two dozen children's books.

Weatherford says that persistence is one of the keys to her success. "I had manuscripts that had been rejected 20 times before finding a home with a publisher," she recalls. "But I keep going and I believe in what I write about." Weatherford creates the kind of books that weren't available to her as a child: ones that feature African-American protagonists. In the late 1990s Weatherford began teaching college courses in composition, creative writing, and children's and adolescent literature.

Today Carole Boston Weatherford is an associate professor at Fayetteville State University. She and her husband live in High Point, North Carolina.

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Carole Boston Weatherford grew up in an all-black neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. An only child until the age of 10, she has fond memories of riding bikes, drawing and writing, and singing and tap dancing to her dad's collection of jazz records. In the first grade, Carole recited her first poem.

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http://picturebooksummit.com/picture-book-summit-teams-talks-2017-caldecotts/

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Lessons and insights from the classroom.

You can reach students who seem to be unreachable

First semester you got your feet wet. You have everything set up and running smoothly. The students are all learning. Except for "that kid."

We've all had one. We've fought to get him to do work-any work. We've struggled to get her to stay on task and in her seat. We've ordered him not to throw pencils, paper, or erasers at others. We've battled to help her find success, even when she doesn't seem to want it. Oh yeah, every teacher knows "that kid."

So, what can you do? First, don't take it personally. Start each day fresh, no grudges. I know this is the most difficult aspect of this situation. You care about your students and have put enormous effort into their learning; it is extremely challenging to realize their behavior is not always about you. These students are rebelling against life, not you. Take a deep breath and relax.

Next, determine what causes these behaviors. This is not a job for you alone. Talk to counselors and administrators. They may already know something about this child that you don't. Often, this information is not something they will email to you, but a quick conversation can give you all kinds of insight. You also can talk to parents about the behavior, but I would urge you to find out as much as possible prior to this conversation. Most parents want to help their child, but sometimes they are the issue, so be cautious with your approach. All of this information makes it easier to understand "that kid" and to create a better relationship with them.

And that's the key-you need to create a relationship with "that kid." Talk to him or her, one on one, face to face, but not when either or both of you are frustrated or upset. A simple "I feel like you are struggling to sit through class, what can I do to help?" can start a meaningful conversation. And don't leave it at just one conversation. Later, ask follow-up questions ("Is this helping?"). "That kid" struggles with relationships; the more you can do to build one, the more you are helping them long term.

Hilary Richardson, a member of the Jefferson County Education Association, has taught U.S. history and government at Bear Creek High School in Jefferson County, Colo., since 2004.

Yes, suffering and injustice can share pages with hope and strength of spirit in a book for children

Down in swampy, sultry Louisiana in the 19th century, slaves toiled in the fields from sunup to sundown every day of the week. The only exception was Sunday, when they had half a day in the afternoon to gather in New Orleans' Congo Square-an open space that is now part of the city's Louis Armstrong Park in the Tremé neighborhood. There, the slaves set up an open air market and remember their African heritage through dance, song, and other cultural traditions.

Freedom in Congo Square, a picture book written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, remembers this time. It is a poetic, vibrant reminder of how humans can come together to find joy, hope, and dignity, even under the cruelest circumstances.
Mondays, there were hogs to slop,
mules to train, and logs to chop.
Slavery was no ways fair.
Six more days to Congo Square.
Each day of the week is counted down with rhythm and lyricism and illustrations evocative of African folk art, all while conveying the cruelty of the slave system.
Wednesdays, there were beds to make,
Silver to shine, and bread to bake.
The dreaded lash, too much to bear,
Four more days to Congo Square.
In Freedom in Congo Square, the tyranny of slavery isn't sugar-coated for young readers. Its presence helps them to understand how jubilant Sundays would be for slaves, when at last they could cast off their shackles, even for just half a day.
They rejoiced as if they had no cares;
half day, half free in Congo Square.
This piece of earth was a world apart.
Congo Square was freedom's heart.
Freedom in Congo Square can bring history alive for students, portray a shameful and horrific period in our nation's history, and spur discussions about race in America.

How to Bring African American History into the Classroom

Engage Readers With Music

From congas, gourds, and bells to banzas, flutes, fiddles, and shells, Sundays at Congo Square were alive with music. Select music from the time period to play for students in a free writing exercise. Ask them to write about how the music makes them feel, especially after knowing the history of the music and where it was played. Select music from other books students have read and ask them to do the same exercise.

For Older Readers

Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph, by Roxanne Orgill and illustrated by Francis Vallejo, shares in verse how Art Kane gathered together a group of beloved jazz musicians in Harlem in 1958. Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound, by Andrea Davis Pinkney tells the story of the founding of Motown and its impact on the music world.

Ready Resources

ArtsEdge offers African American History Through the Arts, a collection for students of all ages to explore Black history through a variety of artistic disciplines, including music, poetry, and dance. Lesson plans as well as primary multimedia sources are available.

A library media scavenger hunt that uses the latest craze

The objective: To capitalize on the engagement of the Pokémon GO app game, students will use digital devices and QR codes to explore the library media center and discover important sections, features, and resources, and also reveal hidden and very rare Pokémon.

The methods: First, I took pictures of 10 different locations around our library media center, then using a Photoshop template I super imposed 10 Pokémon (some very rare!) as if they were crouching, hiding, or sleeping in those locations. Then I created 10 QR codes, which the kids could scan using my devices or their own device, using Google URL shortener linking to those photos on Flickr.

The resources: All of my printable worksheets and QR codes in two different sizes are available to take and use at thedaringlibrarian.wikispaces.com/PokemonGo. (You also could consider a non-digital version without QR codes by printing out the Pokémon from my Flickr gallery and posting them around the library in key locations. Visit flickr.com/info_grrl.

Graphic novels can be rich resources for reading

You know a book or genre has made it big when it lands on "banned book" lists. In 2015, the top 10 most challenged books in the U.S. included two graphic novels. In 2014, it included three, including Raina Telgemeier's Drama, which has spent more than three years on another bellwether list-the New York Times bestseller list.

What leads to a book being challenged? Nobody challenges books they've never heard of...so popularity, for one thing. But also, according to an American Library Association analysis, books by authors of color-and those including issues or themes that concern communities of color-are more likely to be challenged and banned. With that in mind, it's no surprise to find graphic novels on the blacklist. They're popular, and they engage with issues that matter to our increasingly diverse students, such as immigration or sexuality.

These same attributes also make them interesting to English teachers. Even as graphic novels have moved onto banned-book lists, they also have moved from the fringes of English or reading classrooms, where they once were reserved for struggling or reluctant readers, to the forefront of instructional materials.

"I believe they've become much more mainstream," says Beth Sanderson, an English teacher at Swanson Middle School in Arlington, Va. "People are starting to recognize that these are not the comics that you had as a kid. These are very complex texts."

In Sanderson's classroom, which is full with nearly 1,500 books, including at least 100 or more graphic novels, students are asked to consider the dual elements of a graphic novel-text and illustrations. "How do the illustrations provide meaning to the story?," she asks. Why would the author have a series of small-panel illustrations on one page, and a full-page illustration on another? What happens in the white space between panels? "The kids really get into it," she says.

Other questions educators might consider for students to answer: How does the author use color? Does it relate to mood and tone? What's a better way to convey mood: With text or with pictures? Sometimes a switch from color to black and white indicates a flashback in the narrative-an abstract concept made concrete through illustration. (For more ideas on teaching with graphic novels, visit getgraphic.com.)

Meanwhile, including diverse authors and characters also is a concern for Sanderson and her colleagues. "There is a lot of missing text today. Some kids aren't seeing themselves in books-and other kids aren't getting to experience what [their peers] experience. We often talk to our students about reading books where the characters are nothing like them!"

Over the years, Sanderson has discovered a few favorite graphic books. They include:

1. Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. The title character is a young, confident shapeshifter, who is the sidekick to a supervillain. "It's like a fairy tale, with a good guy and a bad guy, and you think you know who is good and who is bad, but then you start to wonder," says Sanderson, who organized a Nimona book club last year. Stereotypes and identities were themes, and the girls especially loved it, she says.

2. El Deafo by Cece Bell. Loosely autobiographical, the main character has permanent hearing loss. In several scenes, other characters' speech balloons are empty or filled with gibberish-the perfect way to show readers what it's like to be deaf. Last year, Sanderson's students Skyped with Bell to talk about why she chose to tell her story in this format.

3. Hazardous Tales by Nathan Hale. To date, Hale has produced a half-dozen graphic books that explore events in U.S. history, such as the Underground Railroad, through facts, maps, and detailed illustrations. Sanderson's students particularly love the gruesome story of the Donner party-the 19th century pioneers who became snowbound in Nevada and resorted to cannibalism to survive.

4. March, co-authored by Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), congressional aide and award-winning comics writer Andrew Aydin, and best-selling graphic novelist Nate Powell. This three-part autobiographical series shares Lewis' lifelong struggle for civil rights. Book one includes his rural childhood in Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King Jr., and their battle to end racial segregation. "Spectacular," says Sanderson.

5. Shackleton: An Antarctic Expedition by Nick Bertozzi. Another favorite of Sanderson's students, Bertozzi's graphic book heats up their imaginations, even as he describes how the explorer's vessel was trapped in polar ice. "They're fascinated by it," says Sanderson.

-Mary Ellen Flannery

The sixth graders at Swanson Middle School in Arlington, Va., are chanting "Gene Yang! Gene Yang!" Or maybe it's "Genius! Genius!" It's been 24 hours since the former teacher, a 43-year-old author of young-adult graphic novels like American Born Chinese, was named a winner of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant."

Yang is here to introduce his latest work, the six-part graphic series Secret Coders. It's a little bit like Harry Potter, he suggests-his characters also attend a mysterious school where they learn exceptional lessons-

except Yang promises that his readers will learn to "code," or write in a programming language, along with those characters. (Show me the Harry Potter fan who can actually soar above the clouds on a broomstick!)

"You get to be a secret coder!" he promises.

His talk is equal parts inspiration-"The line between comic book fan and comic book creator is very thin, you could cross it tonight," he tells students-and education, specifically in binary code.

After his event at Swanson Middle School, Yang sat down with NEA Today to talk about diversity in young-adult books, and to recommend a few authors for teachers to discover.

Q: There is an illustrated chart, done by illustrator David Huyck and shared by author Ellen Oh, which shows the distribution of characters of color in children's books-like how many are White kids, how many are Black, Latino, or Asian kids, etc. It turns out there are more characters that are talking cars or buses or animals than kids of color. What can NEA members do about that?

A: I haven't seen that, but it sounds about right. As a teacher, the easiest thing to do is buy books with characters of color. Seek them out, and share them with students. Good stories with good characters are out there.

Q: Who are you reading, or who are you wishing more students were reading?

A: Meg Medina. "I'm in the middle of her latest-and it's awesome!" says Yang. That would be Burn Baby Burn, a young-adult novel that follows a young woman growing up in New York while murderer Son of Sam prowls.

Matt de la Peña. "I'm a fan of everything Matt De La Peña does," says Yang. Also a young-adult author, de la Peña's most recent offering is a children's book: Last Stop on Market Street.

Jason Shiga. "He's brilliant," says Yang, who particularly loves Shiga's Meanwhile, a choose-your-own-adventure comic book that explores "the role of probability in life," says Yang.

Tim Federle. "I wish he was better known-he has such a compassionate voice," says Yang. Check out Better Nate Than Ever, the story of a teen who crashes an audition for "E.T.: The Musical."

Educators share right (and wrong) ways to capture students' attention

Engage Students During Classroom Transitions

To get students' attention as they enter your classroom or transition from an engaging activity, use cues. Teach them that when you call out a series of three math facts, they should collectively shout out the answers and then stop what they're doing to get ready for the next activity. Vary this across subject areas by naming three U.S. states and having students shout out their capitals, or three elements on the periodic table and having students call out their chemical symbols. Students love showing off and you have their attention for whatever comes next.

Avoid Power Struggles with Students

Disruptive and confrontational students are sometimes an unavoidable challenge. Here's how to defuse tense situations and get learning back on track:
DO

Engage students by providing a "hook" for each lesson at the beginning to keep them thinking and interested.

Try to understand students' backgrounds and lives at home.

React in a way that allows a student to save face.

DON'T

React to every little distraction unless it is distracting to other students.

Let the student get a rise out of you.

Attempt to get the last word.

Simulating Sherlock

One of my favorite detective shows is the Sherlock Holmes series, " Sherlock," by the BBC-not just because of the actors but because of the way Sherlock visualizes crime scenarios. I create problems, and we use Sherlock Holmes' " mind palace" image of facts, figures, and clues to create our own solutions. The students have great fun playing John Watson to my brilliant Sherlock Holmes, throwing out their theories or pointing out new clues. Find more information about the mind palace at bit.ly/1BIBXdw.

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First semester you got your feet wet. You have everything set up and running smoothly. The students are all learning. Except for "that kid." We've all had one. We've fought to get him to do work-any work. We've struggled to get her to stay on task and in her seat.