Celebrate Authors and Books
English, Reading, Social Studies
In her acceptance speech when receiving the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the American Library Association (ALA) in 1975, Beverly Cleary shared questions she had had and their motivation: “Why weren’t there more stories about children playing? Why couldn’t I find more books that would make me laugh? These were the books I wanted to read, and the books I was eventually to write.”
Cleary’s April 12 birthday is National DEAR Day, when schools across the nation Drop Everything And Read.
What other days have been named to remember authors? Here are a few to share with your students:
• January 2 National Science Fiction Day (Isaac Asimov’s birthday)
• January 18 Winnie the Pooh Day (A.A. Milne’s birthday)
• February 18 Toni Morrison Day (in Ohio)
• March 2 Read Across America Day (Dr. Seuss’s birthday)
• May 25 Towel Day (Douglas Adams)
• November 1 Authors Day
For a far more extensive list, visit Literary Holidays to Celebrate All Year Long.
Are there any authors that you and your students would want to celebrate? If yes, brainstorm ways to celebrate. If not, which author do your students want to add to the designated days? Is there someone born in your state? Or who set works in your state? How would they like to celebrate the writer? Try to tie to characters, events and themes in the author’s works.
To meet contemporary children’s literature authors visit KidsPost Readers’ Corner.
Should Six By Seuss Be Suspended?
Character Education, Debate, English, Ethics, Language Arts, Reading
On what would have been Theodor Seuss Geisel’s 117th birthday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced it would stop publication of six works that include “hurtful portrayals of cultural stereotypes.”
“Some Dr. Seuss books with racist imagery will go out of print,” a Business section article, received 830 reader comments before the automatic 14-day comment closure. A wide range of views is expressed on this private company’s decision.
Read and discuss “`The Great Dr. Seuss Hysteria of 2021 shows how silly and unimaginative adults can be.” As a group determine the three main ideas presented by the author. Do students agree, disagree, or partially agree with these ideas? IN THE RESOURCE GUIDE
In addition to Alyssa Rosenberg’s opinion, the following comments that relate to the Seuss decision may initiate discussion or become the basis of debate topics:
• Post book critic Ron Charles writes in “The time is right to cancel Dr. Seuss’s racist books”: There’s been a heightened awareness of the way racism is subtly inscribed in our culture, including in our children’s books. Publishers have been trying to undo the damage with titles such as Ibram X. Kendi’s “Antiracist Baby,” Bobbi Kates’s “We’re Different, We’re the Same” and Chana Ginelle Ewing’s “An ABC of Equality.”
But these concerns are not new or — despite mockery from the right — part of some trendy cancel-culture hysteria. …
Also read for comments on the six Seuss books that will no longer be published.
• In “What the librarian who rejected Melania Trump’s Dr. Seuss books as ‘racist’ got wrong,” the commentator writes: [a librarian’s] additional role as an educator is to provide students with the full context of any of those works, showing them how to understand the good, the bad and the ugly in it.
• It was a company’s decision. It is their product. It is not book banning.
Debate Why Books Are Banned
Debate, English, Reading
Banned Books Week was launched in the 1980’s, a time of increased challenges, organized protests, and the Island Trees School District v. Pico (1982) Supreme Court case, which ruled that school officials can’t ban books in libraries simply because of their content, according to the ALA. Review the works in “ALA Releases 2020 Most Challenged Books List.” Have students read any of the books? What do they think of the reasons these works have been challenged?
Teachers may also read The Post’s Book World Critic Ron Charles’ “For Banned Books Week, I read the country’s 10 most challenged books. The gay penguins did not corrupt me.”
The theme of this year’s Banned Books Week (September 26-October 2, 2021) is “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.” The book community seeks ways to spotlight attempts to censor books and to support the freedom to express ideas, to create a dialogue.
