books

5Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, Journalism

Children Of Color Often Omitted From Sci-fi Books From The Future For Young Readers

While visiting an elementary school library in 2016 to count the fantasy books for a graduate class on fantasy literature, I noticed there were hardly any science fiction books for readers under 12. This discovery prompted me to spend the next five years researching the shortage of science fiction books for children in this age group. I reached two big conclusions. First, I found that adults often think that kids can’t understand science fiction – but they can. Second, I found that authors and illustrators are not depicting characters from diverse backgrounds in children’s stories about the future. As a researcher who specializes in children’s literature, these findings make me wonder if the reason there is so little diversity in children’s science fiction is because authors don’t believe...

Kanye Aka Ye – Compares Reading Books To Eating Brussels Sprouts

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, VIDEO REELS

Kanye Aka Ye – Compares Reading Books To Eating Brussels Sprouts

Kanye may not like books, but hip-hop fosters a love of literature. When Ye – the artist formerly known as Kanye West – stated during a recent podcast that he doesn’t read books, some people questioned whether he was sending the wrong message to children. Those questions took on more importance in light of the fact that Ye recently launched Donda Academy, a private educational venture named after his late mother, Donda West, who was herself an English professor. As a rap artist, author and academic, I would never argue that reading lots of books is the only path to gaining knowledge or showing intelligence. After all, I created the first-ever peer-reviewed hip-hop album published by a university press. For my doctoral dissertation in 2017, I made a rap album and resisted any calls to su...

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SELF

Grow Up: Time To Give Up Your YA Books

Tired of my Tumblr dashboard being drowned under pictures of immaculate shelves stocked with YA novels and neatly piled Harry Potter books between a Macbook slim and a Starbucks cup, I thought I would come out of my Nerdcave and see what the hype was all about. I started with the preconceived idea that Young Adult literature was just another trend, followed by naive teenagers with a particular taste for soppy rubbish. I ended with the confirmed idea that YA literature was just another trend followed by lazy adults who take pleasure in remaining birdbrained. To begin with the beginning, what on earth is a Yong Adult? Even to that pretty simple question, there is not one settled answer. According to book publishers, is considered a young adult anyone between 12 and 18. Funny, I consider 12...

The Anarchy – One Of President Barack Obama’s Favorite Books Of The Year

9Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

BOOKS

The Anarchy – One Of President Barack Obama’s Favorite Books Of The Year

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY The Wall Street Journal and NPR "Superb … A vivid and richly detailed story … worth reading by everyone." -The New York Times Book Review. From the bestselling author of Return of a King, the story of how the East India Company took over large swaths of Asia, and the devastating results of the corporation running a country. In August 1765, the East India Company defeated the young Mughal emperor and set up, in his place, a government run by English traders who collected taxes through means of a private army. The creation of this new government marked the moment that the East India Company ceased to be a conventional company and became something much more unusual: an international corporation transformed into an aggressive colonial power. Over the cours...

To Create A Buzz About Mosquitoes And Ecology I Have City Kids Make Comic Books

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

To Create A Buzz About Mosquitoes And Ecology I Have City Kids Make Comic Books

Katherine Richardson Bruna, Iowa State University If humans and mosquitoes had a battle at the end of the world, who would win? That’s the question I pose to 30 young kids each summer during a two-week camp called “Mosquitoes & Me” in Des Moines, Iowa. The ‘Mosquito and Me’ summer camp in Des Moines, Iowa. I am an educational anthropologist who studies the cultural dynamics of science education. Along with my colleagues Lyric Bartholomay and Sara Erickson, who help run the camp, we have the young camp participants explore the “end-of-world battle” question as they learn about mosquito biology, ecology and disease transmission. Based on what the kids learn from their hands-on activities, they design a mosquito comic book character that is either a hero or a villain. Since this approac...

4Jan

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION

Children’s Books Rooting Out Racism

Ten years ago, I sat down with my then 8-year-old daughter to read a book before bedtime. The book was sort of a modern-day “boy who cried wolf” story, only it was about a little girl named Lucy who had a bad habit of telling lies. In the story, Lucy borrowed her friend Paul’s bike and crashed it. Lucy lied to Paul, telling him “a bandit” jumped in her path and caused the crash. I saw the image and stopped reading. I was stunned. The image on the page was the racist stereotype of the “Mexican bandit” wearing a serape, sombrero and sandals. By training, I am a critical race theorist in education who understands that racism is ingrained into the fabric of our society in general, and in educational institutions in particular. One area of my research is about how people of color experience r...

Ann Petry: First African American Woman to Sell Over One Million Books

11Oct

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Ann Petry: First African American Woman to Sell Over One Million Books

Ann Petry, the first African American female author to sell over one million copies of her book. Petry was born in 1911 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, where her father and grandfather ran a drugstore. Petry loved to read and from the age of fourteen she knew she wanted to be a writer. She wrote poetry and short plays in high school, but after graduation she chose the safe route and enrolled in the pharmacy program at the University of Connecticut where she earned her PhG degree. Ann worked in the family business until she married in 1938 and moved to New York. The direction of Ann's life changed when she took her first job in the advertising department of an African American newspaper, The Amsterdam News. She later became a reporter and editor for the People's Voice, a weekly newspaper, w...