A couple of months ago, a donorschoose request for a charitable contribution caught my eye. A first grade teacher in Queens was seeking to raise money for a “Passion Library”, a section of the classroom library that would house books on diverse topics, cultivating wonder and adventure for her diverse students. I made a modest donation, and pretty much forgot about it. Until I received this note, which absolutely fills my heart…
Dear Jill Block,
Thank you so much for making these books possible in my classroom. When they arrived I had them in a big stack in the front of the room. My students had no idea what the books were about but they were still so excited about new books in general. However when I started showing them each book and paging through the pictures their faces lit up! I saw so many “happy hands” and “me too” signals. I purposely selected books that reminded me of the students currently in my class. I told the students that these books were their books and they were meant for sharing and talking about.
There were are few books that really touched the lives of my students. I held up the book “Under the Ramadan Moon” and two of my student almost fell off their carpet spots with their crazy “me too” signals. I asked my student why she was so excited about this book and she told the class that her family celebrates Ramadan too. She and another boy decided to read the book together and were so shocked that the family in the book ate the same things they did. Another little girl could not believe that I had the book “Stella Brings the Family.” This story is about a little girl with two dads and how she deals with Mother’s day at school. This particular student also has two dads and informed me that she has never seen a book like that before. She wanted to share this book with all the students in the classroom. The next reaction really touched me because I have been looking for so long for a story about Nepal. Unfortunately I could not find a storybook but I did find a child friendly nonfiction text. Two of my students are from Nepal and couldn’t stop giggling about this book. They started teaching me more about each page and even a few Nepali words.
There is always so much happiness in the classroom when these books come out. My students love to read them together and explore different stories. The purpose is for my students to see representations of their cultures, identities, religions, and so on in books. I hope this summer to flesh out a reading and writing unit that uses these books to teach empathy about differences and build content knowledge of the world. Once again from the bottom of my heart, thank you!
With gratitude,
Ms. Winters
