A passport to different worlds

Author Anika Aldamuy Denise began her presentation to first, second and fourth grade this morning with a birthday song celebrating the Joukowsky Family Library.
 

She was here to talk about the research process behind her picture book biography, Phenomenal AOC: The Roots and Rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

But first, she reflected on two themes central to the work of the Joukowsky Family Library: the magical powers of libraries, and the importance of young people seeing themselves in stories:

It was my Auntie Rose who was the person who told me that having a library card was like having a passport to different worlds. 

I didn’t really understand what that meant at the time, but I would come into the library with her - she used to volunteer at the library shelving books - and I discovered a world of stories from different places. 

I discovered Pura Belpré’s folk tales. I discovered the work of Maurice Sendak. I discovered Dr. Seuss. As I got older, I was big into Harriet the Spy. One of my favorite books was From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. That was another that I loved, loved, loved.

The stories that I loved the most, and took me to another place, were the ones that showed kids doing something empowering and magical, where kids were at the center. I always wanted to be that kid at the center of the story. 

And sometimes I didn’t feel like I saw kids that looked like me in my stories. I didn’t see myself in the pages as much. So when I grew up and became and author, that was one of the things I wanted to do most.

More on the library’s birthday celebration, happening Wednesday at 6pm, at www.gordonschool.org/hudsons

2022 Book Fair was busy

The story above was just one of dozens of special events happening around Gordon's 2022 Book Fair. 

Here are a few more:

Thursday author Karina Yan Glaser with second and third grade

Wednesday celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Joukowsky Family Library
Wednesday authors and publishers Cheryl and Wade Hudson with second grade
Wednesday author and illustrator Danielle Greendeer with third grade
Wednesday author and illustrator Christopher Denise with first grade

Tuesday author and illustrator Deborah Freedman with Preschool, Young Kindergarten, Kindergarten and first grade

Last week author Supriya Kelkar with second and third grade

Note! Guests met with many different grades in a number of workshops. The visits documented above were simply the ones Mr. Griffin happened to catch.