Mitali Perkins's Blog, page 44

5 Great Picture Books About Water

Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease. Can you believe it? This horror must end, and thankfully many good people around the globe are engaged in the battle.



When it comes to those of us who care about books and kids, you've heard me say it before: books can play a part in shaping a child's heart to care and learn about this issue.



In honor of World Water Day, here are five tried-and-true picture books illuminating the life-giving power of water (please add more suggest...

Growing Up Biracial in America

"I have nightmares that half my body is getting beaten up."



Thanks to the wonderful Lee and Low blog (put it on your must-surf list), I'm posting this video as a follow-up to my thoughts about the Princeton lecture on race.

Come visit me on the Fire Escape!

Children's Books and a Changing Definition of Race

Last week I was privileged to hear Princeton President Shirley Tilghman deliver the Center for African American Studies' James Baldwin lecture called Race In The Post-Genome Era (that's my birds'-eye view from the balcony). Several of Dr. Tilghman's ideas jumped out at me:



At the level of the genome we're 99.9% identical to one another.



Differences between individuals are significantly greater than differences between groups.



The classic view of race, based on physical characteristics...

You Bring Out The Blank In Me

Sandra Cisneros' poem, You Bring Out The Mexican In Me (listen to the poet read it here), is inspiring other Americans to respond. Here's the poet Bao Phi performing his acclaimed version, "You Bring Out the Vietnamese In Me":







What about you? What does Cisneros' poem bring out in you?



Phi blogs for the Minnesota Star-Tribune, and his recent essay exploring the catch-22 of being a non-white Tolkien-loving geek, Nerds of Color, is worth a read. Here's an excerpt:

... I always chose to...

5 Outstanding Literacy Warriors

One of my favorite aspects of Twitter is the chance to follow people and organizations who champion causes dear to my heart. For example, here are five great nonprofits fighting hard to get kids reading:



Reading is Fundamental

Founded in 1966, RIF is the oldest and largest children's and family nonprofit literacy organization in the United States. RIF's highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8. Through community volunteers in every state and U.S. territory, RIF p...

Road Trip: Princeton and Brooklyn

One of the benefits of being a full-time children's book author is visiting schools, and receiving a host of surprises and serendipities when you're on the road. This week I spent three days in New Jersey and New York.





Crossroads Middle School was ready. Not only had they set up a great author visit page, but the kids wrote essays about life between cultures, created three videos, and one of the librarians even painted a portrait of my book cover!

Faculty and students were wearing these...

The Danger of a Single Story

As we cross borders to read with children, let's heed this warning issued by novelist Chimamanda Adichie about the dangers of listening to only one story about another culture. I especially appreciated her thoughts on power and storytelling.

Come visit me on the Fire Escape!

A Dozen YA Novels With Asian Guy Protagonists

Last week, I issued a call for YA novels published in 2007-2010 with Asian or Asian American guys as main characters. I got great suggestions, but didn't include any middle-grade titles, those published before 2007, or novels in which the Asian guy was a sidekick, romantic interest, or one of several protagonists.



It was tough coming up with a dozen books within those parameters. I haven't read all of them--in fact, I've only read three. The descriptions are publisher annotations.



Three of ...

YA Novels With Girl Heroes that Guys Read ... And Like

Which young adult novels featuring girl protagonists do guys like to read? I asked the question on Twitter, and we came up with this list, which is up for discussion:



Science Fiction / Fantasy

GRACELING and FIRE by Kristin Cashore
MORTAL INSTRUMENTS series by Cassandra Clare
HUNGER GAMES and CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins
INCARCERON by Catherine Fisher
CRY OF THE ICEMARK series by Stuart Hill
DUST OF 100 DOGS by A.S. King
GONE series by Lisa McMann
TWILIGHT series by Stephenie Meyer

Rally for Massachusetts Libraries March 9th

Massachusetts readers, writers, students, and parents, here's an important call for support from our friends at the Massachusetts Library Association and the Massachusetts Shool Library Association:

Massachusetts library supporters will gather at the State House at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 to rally against the impact of drastic funding reductions to the Commonwealth's libraries.



The Governor's proposed FY11 budget for the state library budget is a 37.2% cut from FY2009...