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Showing posts with the label Ezra Jack Keats

A Task for All of Us: Championing Young Readers with Diverse Books

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Through the years I  have had great discussions about books with middle grade and high school students.  I've read novels such as Catcher in the Rye and Their Eyes Were Watching God with my students.  I've read memoirs such as Black, White and Jewis h and Down These Mean Streets with my students.  I've read essays by Zora Neale Hurston and James Baldwin with my students.  I've also read short stories from 145th Street Stories by Walter Dean Myers and "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid with them.  This was literature that was within our curriculum.  When it came to books that students were to self select, or read at home for more practice and endurance I received many comments that spoke to student frustration and apprehension. Students told me, "You [the school] don't have enough books for kids like us..." or "I don't read a lot because I can't find books that really interest me, about subjects I like..." or ...