Reading to Make a Difference: Using Literature to Help Students Speak Freely, Think Deeply, and Take Action

by Lester L. Laminack, Katie Kelly

"This book is a gift to teachers who want to know how best to incorporate diverse literature into their classrooms. It translates rhetoric about diverse books into practical actions. Teachers will find it a valuable resource, full of examples of actual classroom practices and questions for reflecting, as well as suggestions of good books to share with students. It takes the study of diverse texts well beyond the "food, festivals and folklore" focus of the early days of attention to multicultural literature to a consideration of literature as a catalyst for social action. The thematic emphases for the chapters are broad enough to apply to texts that represent diverse cultures, but specific enough to work in diverse classrooms, from elementary school to the college level." - Rudine Sims Bishop , Professor Emerita of Education at The Ohio State University "In far too many schools, our effort to be more inclusive begins and ends with book selection. In Reading to Make a Difference , Lester and Katie teach us that this is not enough. This book is an urgent reminder that even the most powerfully diverse bookshelf cannot mask the damage done to children by practices and curriculum that fails to see them. Reading to Make a Difference shows us how to combine powerful books with purposeful, equitable practice." - Cornelius Minor Books as bridges enable readers to speak freely, think deeply, and take action. In Reading to Make a Difference , Lester and Katie build on the work of Rudine Sims Bishop, extending the notion of books as windows, mirrors, and doors. They offer a pathway that can lead students to take action for social justice causes. They show you how to move beyond exposing your students to diverse children's literature by offering an instructional framework that is applicable to any topic and can be adapted to your own classroom or community. Lester and Katie will show you how Each chapter highlights different classrooms in action and concludes with a wealth of suggested resources, both picture books and chapter books, along with helpful guidelines on how to choose text sets that reflect the needs, interests, and backgrounds of your students. The right book at the right time can open doors of possibility for a better world. Armed with an understanding of who your students are, where they come from, and what matters to them, you can cultivate children as thoughtful, caring citizens, and empower them to become lifelong agents of change.

Genres: Education, Teaching

192 pages, Paperback

Published March 21, 2019

About the author

Lester L. Laminack is Professor Emeritus from department of Birth-Kindergarten, Elementary and Middle Grades Education, at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina where he received two awards for excellence in teaching [the Botner Superior Teaching Award and the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award]. Lester is now a full-time writer and consultant working with schools throughout the United States. He is an active member of the National Council of Teachers of English and served three years as co-editor of the NCTE journal Primary Voices and as editor of the Children’s Book Review Department of the NCTE journal Language Arts (2003-2006). He also served as a teaching editor for the magazine Teaching K-8 and wrote the Parent Connection column (2000-2002). He is a former member of the Whole Language Umbrella Governing Board, a former member of the Governing Board and Secretary of the North Carolina Association for the Education of Young Children, and a former member of the Board of Directors for the Center for the Expansion of Language and Thinking. He served as the Basic Reading Consultant to Literacy Volunteers of America from 1987 through 2001. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Our Children’s Place [www.ourchildrensplace.com].

His academic publications include several books including Learning with Zachary (Scholastic), Spelling in Use (NCTE), Volunteers Working with Young Readers (NCTE), and his contributions to The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (NCTE), Learning Under the Influence of Language and Literature (Heinemann) Reading Aloud Across the Curriculum (Heinemann, Cracking Open the Author’s Craft (Scholastic) and Unwrapping the Read Aloud (Scholastic). In addition he has several articles published in journals such as The Reading Teacher, Early Years, Science and Children, Language Arts, Teaching pre-K/​8, Primary Voices, and Young Children. Lester is also the author of six children’s books: The Sunsets of Miss Olivia Wiggins, Trevor’s Wiggly-Wobbly Tooth, Saturdays and Tea Cakes, Jake’s 100th Day of School, Snow Day! and most recently, Three Hens and a Peacock all from Peachtree Publishers.

Lester was born July 11, 1956 in Flint, Michigan. His mom and dad had left their families in Alabama and moved to Michigan where his dad, Jimmy, worked for GM. But Michigan is long way from Alabama when you have a two year old and a brand new baby. So, just two weeks after Lester was born his parents packed everything and moved back to their hometown, Heflin, Alabama. They wanted Lester and his brother Scott to grow up near grandparents, aunts and uncles and lots of cousins.

When Lester was 6 the family moved again. This time to Zachary, LA where Lester attended part of 1st and all of 2nd grade. Then they moved back to Heflin where he completed 3rd grade and 4th grade. In April of 1966, while he was in the 4th grade, Lester's sister, Amanada, was born. She was so little when they brought her home that he had to hold her on a pillow. Every day when he came home from school he held her and told her stories. Some people think that's why he is a writer. Lester and Amanda have always been very close even though he is 10 years older.

When Scott was in the 7th grade and Lester was in the 5th grade and Amanda was just one year old the family moved again. This time it was to Key West, FL. They lived there under a year before moving back to Alabama.

Lester finished high school back in Heflin and then earned a BS and MS in Elementary Education from Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, AL. Then he earned an Ed.D. in Elementary Education and Reading from Auburn University, Auburn AL.

And now Lester lives downtown in Asheville, North Carolina. He starts every day with a cup of coffee, loves to listen to music and NPR. He plays saxophone and a Native American flute made from river cane. He reads a lot of children's books, Southern Fiction, poetry, and b

Reviews

[Christie Angleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book rocked my socks off! Sad I won't be able to use it with my early childhood teacher candidates, but I'm glad it's out there for the elementary crowd!

Update: Used it with my graduate students and it was wonderful!

[Paul Hankins · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Years ago, we talked about the growing need for multicultural books for children. Today, we talk about the need for diversity in children’s literature. We’re quite adept at altering our semantics, less adept at altering the substance of our actions.”

Above is a Facebook post for multi-award winning, classroom teacher advocate, Nikki Grimes. It serves well as part of the introduction to the new book by Lester Laminack and Katie Kelly.

In their introduction to Reading to Make a Difference, Laminack and Kelly invite the reader to consider books as a sort of “bridge.” Extending the metaphor, the authors present opportunities to “span divides” and to “move back and forth from one side to the other at will” (xiii). This invitation provided by the open book, from the authors’ perspective is an opportunity to “see and to realize alternate views, new ideas, and options not yet considered” (xiii).

As reflective practitioners, Laminack and Kelly waste little time in bringing the reader to a moment of reflection before the introduction has been completed.The authors ask the reader and fellow practitioner to consider texts as windows, access to books already available that introduce new ways of being, opportunities for readers to move in and out of their own immediate settings, whether available books present family structures and cultural traditions that vary from own personal experiences, and, whether or not characters introduced right now will present with different challenges and obstacles than the reader might realize for themselves? The authors ask their fellow practitioners to look around and about to reflect upon access and introduction to these kinds of subjects and considerations. And more than this, the authors ask readers to consider whether or not their students will meet and encounter with characters who present unique (and novel) ways of addressing problems they have not yet considered. Building from the author's’ presentation of bridges, the authors are suggesting we look at the infrastructure of how readers make the move between where they are now and where reading can take take them.

Laminack and Kelly use a large portion of the introduction to nod toward Rudine Sims Bishop’s concept of books as “mirrors, windows, and doors.” This is a most appropriate recognition as the authors present from within the different classrooms with which they have worked to present illustrations of what these three means by which books present themselves can look like for young readers. Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop writes (from the jacket): “The thematic emphases for the chapters are broad enough to apply to texts that represent diverse cultures, but specific enough to work in diverse classrooms.” With a nod from the Professor Emerita of Education at The Ohio University, herself, Laminack and Kelly’s work is poised to make a difference in how practitioners view text selection with a bend toward appreciation and awareness for what makes us unique as individuals and what unites us as human beings.

Early on, I got the sense that Laminack and Kelly have really done their homework with this new book. And by homework, I mean that they have really taken the time as white practitioners and authors to present and forward the work of, and by, diverse academics and voices. The citations are here and they are notable. As the authors move into their framework for the book, there is a long path of cited materials to cross-reference for the reader. If the books Laminack and Kelly suggest can be a bridge, so can the work presented by the authors from the very beginning.

The five point framework for selection of text is presented in the introduction: Selection, Connection, Reflection, Action, and Next Steps. Each piece of framework is followed by at least five or six questions for reflection. And speaking of reflection, the authors do not let the reader move past the introduction without another moment of reflection before diving deeper into the framework. The moment of reflection toward the end of the end of the introduction is one of the elements that I think would make Reading to Make a Difference an excellent choice for buildings looking to consider the the importance and impact of a thoughtfully-selected and curated collection of reading within their learning communities.

As the authors move into their personal introductions, I see something that is not being invited within the larger conversations regarding voices and how they are presented. In introductions both biographical and personal both of the authors quietly present their narrative for how they come to this work. Laminack calls for a consideration of shared humanity and pushes on the idea of diversity being something so easily divisible. Katie Kelly is very clear in the presentation of her privilege and I believe that this is how Laminack and Kelly find a solid place in the conversation with their work and with their ideas. The final reflection (and we are not out of the introduction to the book at this point) is for readers to consider their own complex identity. This is a powerful reflection in a culture wherein our identities are freely offered to us by those who look and begin to take inventory which too often serves as an opportunity to limit access and voice within the conversation. The invitation to reflect upon one’s own identity, one’s complex and unique identity is the same bridge suggested of books which can now contain the practitioner’s narrative as point of entry into the framework.

Chapters include: “Discovering Our Own Identities,” “Making Unlikely Friends,” “Coping with Loss,” “Crossing Borders,” “Advocating for Change,” “Sharing When You Have Little to Give,” “Honoring Others,” and “Lending a Helping Hand.” Laminack and Kelly’s work here with elementary readers would make an excellent “ladder” (Teri Lesesne) with professional texts such as Harvey Daniel and Sara K. Ahmed’s Upstanders and Ahmed’s Being the Change. Reading to Make a DIfference finds itself, this reading year, in the company of texts like Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp’s Game Changer and Cornelius Minor’s We Got This. It’s a great year for reading within this subject and of the eight working chapters of the book, teachers can find that piece of their own practice and curation that needs a little more consideration or suggested resources.

Chapter One: Discovering Our Own Identities seest the embedded framework suggested by Laminack and Kelly. But the books and the readers take center stage in the chapter. The reading is engaging with word bubbles that suggest the energy and engagement of interacting with younger readers with the guidance of a teacher. The opportunities for sustained reflection are here, but so is the one thing I think teachers are really seeking when we suggest diverse and inclusive titles: Titles. Laminack and Kelly offer a rich text set of picture books and chapter sets. And teacher resources to continue the growth in working through the framework. What I really like about this chapter as a representation of the work to follow is that Laminack and Kelly offer alternative grade level approaches to the framework. Chapter one offers the experiences of a second grade teacher, but the authors add extensions to Kindergarten and Grades 3-6 (which begins to approach that middle grade group).

A chapter from the book that resonated with the work I do in Room 407 was Chapter 3: “Coping with Loss.” As we have shared Tuesdays with Morrie for over fifteen years, I have collected and curated picture book titles that range from Leo Buscaglia to Todd Parr on the issue of loss and grief. How a group of students move from the reading to action in the creation of a “Feel Better Box” is empathy and action in synthesis and is not to be missed in this book (I want to tell you all about it here, but you really need to read into this moment to get all of the feels). Laminack and Kelly provide an invitation to consider loss and trauma in its many manifestations. As a classroom teacher who shares picture books with older readers, I felt affirmed by the text suggestions made by the authors and found new titles to add to our collection.

Reading to Make a Difference pushes on the reasons we read in the classroom. If we are to be the practitioners we want to be in introducing, encouraging, and supporting young people to become the citizens we would like for them to be, our communities would like for them to be, and our country needs them to be, we as a profession need to give due attention to the resources that are lacking in text selection, access to text, and reading and talking into, through, and about texts we share with our readers.

Reading to Make a Difference comes with my highest recommendation for practitioners grades K-6, but secondary teachers will want to know this book and its approaches as well. Remember the scaffolding that holds up the Chuck E. Cheese is the same kind that holds up Pizzeria Uno. What I mean by this is that scaffolding and framework that introduces, encourages, and supports both practitioner and pupil alike should be able to hold both through the duration of their time together and for their formal education up to (and beyond) graduation. Laminack and Kelly offer a strong foundation in their framework that could be adopted and modified by the secondary teacher in their own selection and curation of texts for the classroom.

[Kris Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great investment for a School Librarian or Instructional Coach or anyone who identifies and pulls texts for classroom use. I will be referring to the book lists often. Kind of like Being the Change (Heinemann, 2018) but for PreK-3.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book really made me upset, because it demonstrated the absence of moral and intellectual soundness on the part of teachers who adopt the leftist approach to contemporary elementary education. This book is a course in the hypocrisy and double standards of education, and in fact demonstrates persuasively (if unintentionally) that the political concerns of contemporary education are a major reason for the failure in the education of America's youth. There is little to this book that demonstrates speaking freely, thinking deeply, or taking meaningful action to the deep problems of our contemporary world. However, the freedom to parrot contemporary political correctness, the illusion of deep-thinking by adopting the characteristic obsessions of the contemporary left, and encourages the sort of slactivism that makes people think of themselves as generous and enlightened for believing in the misguided worldview of the contemporary left. It is unclear, though, the extent to which this book is intentional in these failings. Are the authors are that they are being massive hypocrites and are pawning off counterfeit freedom in lieu of the freedom to question and critique and correct contemporary follies? Or are they so blinded by their ideology that they actually believe themselves to be enlightened guides to wisdom? I suspect it is the latter.

This book is a short one of about 150 pages or so. The book begins with a list of online videos, acknowledgements, and an introduction that seeks to bridge an understanding of ourselves and others that reads like Marxist struggle sessions where the authors apologize for their upbringing and background. After this comes the eight chapters of the main contents of the book, beginning with a chapter on the contemporary leftist obsession with identity politics (1), After that comes a chapter on making unlikely friends (2), which again emphasizes the contemporary obsession with identity as well as the importance to people of being allies to bolster their own ego. This is followed by a chapter on coping with loss (3) that could be argued as a way that leftist teachers traumatize youth so as to better manipulate them through getting them to focus on outrage. This is followed by a chapter that emphasizes the inability of the contemporary left to properly respect boundaries and borders (4), as well as chapters that demonstrate the shrill focus on advocating and protesting for undesirable cultural change (5). The last three chapters of the book focus on things that make contemporary leftists feel like good people, sharing when one has little to give (6), honoring others (7), unless they happen to be Christian white men, I suppose, and then lending a helping hand (8), after which the book ends with various resources that the authors recommend.

It is hard to tell whether this book is directly cynical or merely self-deceived in its approach. For example, the authors show teachers taking control of classes while not claiming that they are taking control. The book as a whole repeatedly demonstrates extreme verbal irony, where the authors urge respect for the identities of others while having already demonstrated (in the introduction) an extreme and lamentable degree of self-hatred for having been raised in decent families of white people, as if that was a bad thing. The author's unwillingness to show to Christians the same degree of respect that is shown to Muslims, to men the same degree of honor shown to women, to whites the same degree of concern for honor and respect that is given to various minorities, and various obsessive concerns with supposed sexual minorities without giving the same degree of respect to heteronormativity suggests that the contemporary left is highly concerned with presenting an inverse world that turns what is in fact normal and acceptable into what is rejected as outside, and vice versa, not realizing that this perpetuates the sort of injustice that the authors and others of their ilk consider themselves above, but alas are not.

[Beth Honeycutt · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an important book! The introduction is an excellent review of what we as educators know about finding books that are inclusive for all students. I also like the framework of each chapter:"selection", "connection", "reflection", and "action". Another wonderful addition is the lists and lists of both picture books and MG novels to accompany each chapter. Finally, there are real-life examples and strategies to use in classrooms K-6. An extra bonus is that Chapter 3, "Coping with Loss", has a Dublin City Schools focus with Andrea Phillips, Kelley Layel, and Mr. Sprouse from Wyandot Elementary.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing, important, and impactful. While reading this books I was constantly reflecting on the books in my own classroom library and how/IF I was ACTUALLY meeting the diverse needs of the students in my room. Thanks to the amazing book lists provided on the diversity topics I was able to take action and write grants to help me fill the holes in my library.
One of my favorite parts of this books was that I had to reflect on what diversity means. It is not just skin color, but more. Diversity come from culture, family experiences, and our identity. Diversity come from the hard times we go through.
This book provides scenarios that help teachers, administrators, and reading professionals understand how critical conversations about diversity can take place SAFELY in our classrooms with students of ALL ages.
Thank you for writing this amazing book and sharing the importance of your work.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This teacher text is for every teacher who works with children, no matter their subject area. It provides real-life examples, context, calls to action, and resources for using children's literature to engage in big, hard topics. I ate this book up and want to give a copy to every teacher I know.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I will come back to many times. Great addition to anyone teaching!

[Lori Emilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Geared toward teachers of Kindergarten through 6th grade, this book will compel you to lead your students to take action against injustice, or to make the world a more beautiful place. Practical, with lesson ideas and suggested resources.

[Melanie Clawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I was raised by parents who believed that books and stories mattered and that philosophy has always stuck with me. This book reinforced that philosophy.

I liked that there were a lot of practical actions that teachers could take. I am looking forward to implementing some of these actions in my classroom.

I also like that this book did not discount students' depth and breadth of knowledge. It recognized that students are very capable and gave them credit for being action takers.

I would highly recommend this book to educators looking to make a difference.

[Zinnia Bayardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calling all librarians, teachers, reading specialists, book clubbers, parents, and READERS! I highly suggest you read this book over the summer. Read it, digest it, then INCORPORATE it with your students and young readers! It's geared towards elementary and middle school classroom/students but it could easily be incorporated into the secondary classroom as well as book clubs.

[Samm Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Assigned book for MLIS course about cultural diversity programming>
Very useful and formatted for easy consumption. Examples are clearly laid out so that activities could be mimicked in your library or classroom.