Preparing to meet the authors

Gordon's Book Fair begins tomorrow, with an unprecedented number of authors visiting over the course of the week. In preparation, Gordon students have been diving into their work for months.

 

Nursery students saw Diego Rivera building structures for Frida Kahlo's pets in Monica Brown's book Frida Kahlo and her Animalitos and were inspired to create some of their own in the Early Childhood IDEA Lab.

 

Brown, the thirteenth annual Karla Harry Visiting Author, is the creator of dozens of picture books and chapter books, many of which depict the lives of cultural leaders and activists.

 

Beyond Nursery, it's rich fodder for the second grade and their year-long study of picture books, and Brown's tales of activists lives have also found an audience in older grades.

 

A picture book by Deborah Freedman made its way into sixth grader's hands, as well. 

 

Even in sixth grade, the quickest and most authentic way to experience a picture book is to read it aloud, so that's exactly what this class did on a recent Friday.

 

Freedman's newest book, Carl and the Meaning of Life, connects directly with the class's ongoing conversation about finding a sense of purpose, and with their study of sustainable - and unsustainable - systems.

 

Jerry Craft's New Kid was on the Middle School summer reading list, and on the Gordon faculty's list as well. 

 

In late November, fifth grade revisited the text in the Joukowsky Family Library, reading along with an audio dramatization. 

 

Over Thanksgiving, a second grade family stopped for a photo by a doorway they recognized from New Kid, in the Bronx neighborhood that is the setting for much of the book.

 

Closer to home, these students were reminded of Jazzmin Imani's When Art is Loved during a visit to the RISD Museum, and sent this photo along to their Gordon librarian.

 

The Book Fair is open to the public, with free admission

Gordon's Book Fair is Wednesday and Thursday, December 4th and 5th, from 7:45am to 6pm, and Friday, December 6th, 7:45 to 5pm.

Authors will be meeting with students, faculty and parents during Book Fair, and signing books at the Book Fair after school.

Signings will be:

Wednesday, December 4th 3:30-5pm
Monica Brown, the thirteenth annual Karla Harry Visiting Author
Rebecca Louise Carter, Gordon parent and author of Prayers for the People
Deborah Freedman, Gordon grandparent and author of Carl and the Meaning of Life

Thursday, December 5th
Monica Brown, the thirteenth annual Karla Harry Visiting Author
Jerry Craft, author of the Kirkus Award-winning graphic novel New Kid
Albert Nasib Badre, Gordon grandparent and author of the memoir Looking West
Jazzmin Imani, author of When Art is Loved