Children's Literature

As a children’s literature specialist, I write about books for a number of publications, including BookPage and Kirkus Reviews. You can read my articles on the Calling Caldecott blog for 2021 (Born on the Water),  2020 (We Are Water Protectors), 2019 (The Bell Rang) and 2018 (Seeing Into Tomorrow). 

My article, “‘Whose Side Are You On?’ Moral Consequences of Young Readers’ Responses to To Kill a Mockingbird,” was published in the peer-reviewed, open access journal Research on Diversity in Youth Literature in January, 2020. In it, I use data from a youth literature circle alongside Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark, cognitive criticism and reader response theory, to question the use of To Kill a Mockingbird in schools.  

​

Educators and librarians seeking to diversify your collections, or wondering why you should, can find concrete suggestions in the guide I created for HarperCollins, "Shake Up Your Shelves."

For book recommendations, look under the Homeschool tab for book lists I have used with children in recent book groups. 

For picture book recommendations, check out the list we compiled for EmbraceRace, an organization that helps caregivers raise children who are “thoughtful, informed, and brave about race.” 

​

You can find my educator's guides for young people's books on the publishers' websites. Some YA and MG titles: Blackout, Concrete Rose, The Shape of Thunder and Other Words for Home, Punching the Air, On the Come Up; picture books: Sometimes People March, The People Remember, Ablaze with Color. Be You! and Our Table and I Am Ruby Bridges.