LGBTQ Queer History in Middle Grade Books Earlier this month, a presentation was made to a school board in Manitoba requesting the need to set up a committee to evaluate books in school libraries, particularly focusing on books about transgender
Canadian How to Change Everything How to Change Everything: The Young Human's Guide to Protecting the Planet and Each Other, by Naomi Klein with Rebecca Stefoff, is essential reading for young people who want to better understand the
Canadian The Witness Blanket: Truth, Art and Reconciliation To prepare for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, this year I chose to explore The Witness Blanket: Truth, Art and Reconciliation, by Carey Newman and Kirstie Hudson. This non-fiction text talks
Canadian Black Water, On the Trapline, and Kīwew One amazing thing about the writer David A. Robertson is his ability to write compelling literature for any age group. Some of his most recent work demonstrates his versatility as he focuses on
Education The Skin We're In/Policing Black Lives Counter-stories are important. Counter-storytelling is defined by Solórzano and Yosso as "a method of telling the stories of those people whose experiences are not often told (i.e. those on the margins
Education A Mind Spread Out on the Ground When I write about books under the Education tag on my blog, I aim to recommend books I think teachers should read. Often I think these books give useful insights when it comes
Middle Grade Books Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You is a remix of Ibram X. Kendi's book Stamped from the Beginning. Jason Reynolds, an acclaimed author for young people, remixes the content to create a vital text
Indigenous Indigenous Writes Indigneous Writes by Chelsea Vowel is a guide to First Nations, Métis and Inuit issues in Canada. The book provides a dialogue about the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and settlers in Canada. Chelsea
Education How to Be an Antiracist How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi, is an essential book for people who want to better understand how racism is embedded in our society and how we can work more
Environment Don't Panic: Big Solutions to the Climate Crisis Today's blog post is about the climate crisis and I'd like to preface everything by saying Don't Panic. It is easy to get overwhelmed, but solutions do exist that can help us address
Indigenous This Place: 150 Years Retold This Place: 150 Years Retold is an ambitious project that aims to retell Canadian history by centering Indigenous perspectives and experiences. With over a dozen Indigenous authors and artists, the graphic novel anthology
Education White Fragility and the Canadian Classroom Four months ago, I finished reading White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo. Appreciating this excellent book, I opened a tab to create a
Human Rights Prisoner B-3087 Prisoner B-3087, by Alan Gratz, is based on the true story of Yanek Gruener, a Holocaust survivor. Starting in the Jewish ghetto in Kraków, Poland, the novel recounts his experiences in ten concentration
Environment World Without Fish The past few weeks, I have been reviewing books that help promote environmental awareness for middle school students. World Without Fish, by Mark Kurlansky, is another excellent addition to a classroom library. The
Environment Environmental Action in Middle School In my last blog entry, I discussed various texts that can be used to teach middle school students about climate change. However, often climate change education can be overwhelming for students and adults
Environment Climate Change in Middle Years Want to find some resources for teaching climate change in middle years? Check out this blog post!
LGBTQ The 57 Bus: A Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives Summer is an excellent time to catch up on reading, so stay tuned for book reviews of texts that belong in the classroom and beyond. Today's review is on The 57 Bus, by
Indigenous Seven Fallen Feathers and Systemic Racism in Schools This week I finished reading Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City, by Tanya Talaga. The book is about the deaths of seven Indigenous high school students in
Human Rights Malala's Magic Pencil When teaching grade seven, I often use picture books for a variety of reasons. They are good texts for reading aloud and modeling skills, like drawing inferences or making connections. Sometimes they are