What Do You Do If You Work at the Zoo? Shares unique ways zoo staff contribute to the care of the animals, and why these actions are important. For example, you might tickle a tapir with a rake to emulate the sensation of rubbing against a tree (to remove parasites), create puzzles for meerkats to find their food (to encourage natural behavior) or brush a hippo’s teeth (to help avoid cavities, of course!).
Written by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Copyright date: 2020
Age range: The publisher says ages 3-6, but the book brought tears to my eyes. This book is truly for anyone.
A young Sioux girl recalls the story her grandmother told, featuring the dire warning that a black snake would come, contaminating the water source, thus causing harm to all the animals and land. The young girl decides to take a stand in order to protect the water sources and provide safety for all living things.
Written by Nikki Grimes, a NY Times bestselling author
Illustrated by Laura Freeman, a Corretta Scott King Honoree
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Copyright date: 2020
Age range: 4-8
With Kamala Harris becoming the first Black and South Asian woman to be nominated for the Vice Presidency, a children’s book biography was begging to be included on shelves wherever kids search for books. Her story is told from the time her parents met through the end of her own presidential run in the Democratic primary last year, but ends open-ended in a way that leaves the reader feeling that Harris wasn’t leaving the Washington spotlight for long. This story is told from a fictional mother’s point-of-view to her young daughter, Eve, who had come home from school citing a boy who had told her that girls could never be president. It’s then that the mother tells the story of Kamala, with Eve interrupting every few pages with questions or statements.
Age range: 2-5 years…but really, anyone on the struggle bus
Lexile reading level: suggested 4-7 on Kirkus Reviews years, no Lexile found
Anxiety? Worries? Butterflies? Nerves? Problems? No matter what these big feelings are called in your house, there’s no doubt that teaching your child how to handle them can be tough. We get it. We’ve been there. Talking from experience, we burned through a LOT of books about anxiety at different points with our children. With each read, we hoped one would be the perfect combination or text and visual support that our kids could latch onto. In short, we think this is the book that would have done it.
Age range: 4 to 8, but could be used for STEAM-related lessons for any age
How has living in a pandemic changed your family?
For mine, it has been that we’vebecome more observant. My daughter said, while on a walk the other day, that she thinks she’s a “noticer.” I asked more about this and she said, “You used to ask me to get the mail and I’d do it as fast as possible. Now, I feel like I walk more slowly and look around more.”
Title: Nesting Author: Henry Cole Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books: An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Copyright date: 2020 Age range: 4-8 (but really…anyone!)
Thanks to the talented artist/author Henry Cole, you’ll never hear the sound of a robin again in the spring without thinking of his latest book, Nesting. From the simple telling of the robin’s yearly cycle through accurate and concise word choice to the stunning illustrations, Nesting tells a complete story that leaves the reader with a sense of admiration for the devotion the male and female robins have for their offspring.
I won’t lie, when I became pregnant my favorite thing to daydream about was reading books with my kids snuggled on my lap. I had been a teacher and children’s book lover for years and selfishly wanted to create a home environment where reading was a beloved activity. Truthfully, that daydream didn’t include my husband as he doesn’t often read for entertainment.
Last summer, when my children were 9 and 11, my husband came home with a boxed edition of the first five Hardy Boys books, announcing his intent to read them to the kids, starting with number one, The Tower Treasure. He shared with us his memories of reading these books as a child and how they probably contributed to his future love of CSI, Law & Order, and MacGuyver (the 80’s version, of course).
My kids viewed the retro look of the book with suspicion. If this book were anything like the first four episodes of MacGuyver we had watched to my husband’s enthusiastic requests, we were all concerned this wouldn’t end well.
My kids viewed the retro look of the book with suspicion. If this book were anything like the first four episodes of MacGuyver we had watched to my husband’s enthusiastic requests, we were all concerned this wouldn’t end well.
Back in 1990, I was starting 7th grade in a new school in a new town after my family had relocated earlier that summer. I was an avid reader, but I never saw a book on the shelf that would help me understand this scenario:
Boy: “Where’s your towel?”
Me: “What?”
Boy: “Yeah, where’s your towel?” Cue lots of snickers.
Later, as I was getting off of the bus, another boy quietly said, “They think you’re Muslim.”
I am white and was raised Catholic. I do have olive skin tones and tan very easily. The town I had moved to is home to a large mosque, which means a handful of students at my school were Muslim. Being new to town and admittedly unexposed to other faith traditions, I didn’t even know what being Muslim meant. My parents had to explain that asking about my towel was in reference to the hijab worn by some Muslim women.
While I may have lacked the knowledge to understand the substance of this interaction (and that boy lacked the knowledge to realize skin tone is not an accurate way of determining someone’s religious faith), I knew without a doubt that this line of questioning was meant to cause pain. While I could shrug it off as a misunderstanding, you can imagine the pain comments like this cause Muslims; to have their faith traditions be likened to a bathroom accessory. This is a microaggression.
For many parents now working from home, or struggling with safe childcare options, or just dealing with the aftermath of kids who have already been stuck at home for months before summer even started, this time period likely presents many new challenges that most of us have never faced. Encouraging your child to keep reading can feel like one more daunting task on the never-ending to do list. We get it. We feel that way, too, sometimes. Honestly.
Some libraries are stepping up to the plate with fantastic virtual or socially distant summer reading programs. If you haven’t yet checked that out, please do so. My library has done incredible work moving their program online, and it has actually made my work-parenting balance easier this summer. Uninterrupted time to respond to emails while they happily read or do simple activities? Yes, please.
But if your library has not, or it is structured in a way that doesn’t work for your family, there are still simple rewards you can offer your child to keep them reading this summer (and into the fall and winter!)
Depending on where you live, you and your family are likely well over a month into quarantine. Even the most prepared parent or caregiver is probably running low on new, fun books to read. Libraries and schools across the country are closed, most bookstores are closed (although many are offering curbside pickup or delivery, so do try to support them if you are financially able), and even Amazon deliveries are delayed understandably in order to focus on essential shipping needs.
With many families facing very tight and sometimes dire financial circumstances right now, creative ways to get free books into the hands of children have never been more needed.
Author: April Pulley Sayre
