Global Read Aloud
Jacqueline Woodson 2023
Information for Right Now
Kick-off this year is October 2nd and we run until November 10th.
You can absolutely fall behind or start later, just don’t read ahead.
- The official hashtag for the year is #GRA23 #GRAJackie
- Global Read Aloud 2023 Picture Book webpage
- For a comprehensive FAQ post, go here
- To join the main Facebook group, please go here. To join the picture book author Facebook group, please go here. This is where news will be posted for the most part.
This year’s chosen creator is Jacqueline Woodson
This year’s chosen creator is Jacqueline Woodson
With every new book she writes, new conversations open up, new connections are made, and kids feel so seen.
Resources:
- Author Website
- Library of Congress
- Kennedy Center
- Meet the Author Video
Check These Books Out
- Check with your School and Public Libraries
- NC Kids Digital Library
- SORA
- Check out public library resources such as Llibby and Hoopla
- OpenLibrary
Global Read Aloud Picture Book Focus Books
Links to support all books for GRA Jackie
- Global Read Aloud Shared Resources
- Erin Kramer's Lessons
- Emily Golightly's Padlet
The Day You Begin
Author: Jacqueline Woodson
Illustrator: Rafael López
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books, Aug. 2018
Featured in its own episode in the Netflix original show Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices!
Description:
There will be times when you walk into a room and no one there is quite like you.
There are many reasons to feel different. Maybe it's how you look or talk, or where you're from; maybe it's what you eat, or something just as random. It's not easy to take those first steps into a place where nobody really knows you yet, but somehow you do it.
Jacqueline Woodson's lyrical text and Rafael López's dazzling art reminds us that we all feel like outsiders sometimes-and how brave it is that we go forth anyway. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway.
Resources:
- Read Aloud by Author
- Novel Effect: Lesson Plan
- WITS: Lesson Plan
- Learning to Give: Lesson Plan
Show Way!
Illustrator: by Hudson Talbott
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books, Sept. 2005
Award: Newberry Honor
Description:
Soonie's great-grandma was just seven years old when she was sold to a big plantation without her ma and pa, and with only some fabric and needles to call her own. She pieced together bright patches with names like North Star and Crossroads, patches with secret meanings made into quilts called Show Ways -- maps for slaves to follow to freedom. When she grew up and had a little girl, she passed on this knowledge. And generations later, Soonie -- who was born free -- taught her own daughter how to sew beautiful quilts to be sold at market and how to read.
From slavery to freedom, through segregation, freedom marches and the fight for literacy, the tradition they called Show Way has been passed down by the women in Jacqueline Woodson's family as a way to remember the past and celebrate the possibilities of the future. Beautifully rendered in Hudson Talbott's luminous art, this moving, lyrical account pays tribute to women whose strength and knowledge illuminate their daughters' lives.
Resources:
- Read Aloud
- Weston Woods: Lesson Plan
- Lesson Plan
- C-SPAN: Lesson Plan
- Crayola: Lesson Plan
Each Kindness
Illustrator: E. B. Lewis
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books, Oct. 2012
Award: Coretta Scott King Honor, Jane Addams Peace Award
Description:
Each kindness makes the world a little better
This unforgettable book is written and illustrated by the award-winning team that created The Other Side and the Caldecott Honor winner Coming On Home Soon. With its powerful anti-bullying message and striking art, it will resonate with readers long after they've put it down.
Chloe and her friends won't play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually Maya stops coming to school. When Chloe's teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she'd shown a little kindness toward Maya.
Resources:
This is the Rope: A Story From the Great Migration
Illustrator: James Ransome
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books, Aug. 2017
Description:
During the time of the Great Migration, millions of African American families relocated from the South, seeking better opportunities. The story of one family’s journey north during the Great Migration starts with a little girl in South Carolina who finds a rope under a tree one summer. She has no idea the rope will become part of her family’s history. But for three generations, that rope is passed down, used for everything from jump rope games to tying suitcases onto a car for the big move north to New York City, and even for a family reunion where that first little girl is now a grandmother.
Resources:
- Read Aloud
- Weston Woods: Lesson Plan
- Newark Public Library: Lesson Plan
- UVA: Lesson Plan
The World Belonged to Us
Illustrator: Leo Espinosa
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books, May 2022
Description:
It's getting hot outside, hot enough to turn on the hydrants and run through the water--and that means it's finally summer in the city! Released from school and reveling in their freedom, the kids on one Brooklyn block take advantage of everything summertime has to offer: Freedom from morning till night to go out to meet their friends and make the streets their playground--jumping double Dutch, playing tag and hide-and-seek, building forts, chasing ice cream trucks, and best of all, believing anything is possible. That is, till their moms call them home for dinner. But not to worry--they know there is always tomorrow to do it all over again--because the block belongs to them and they rule their world.
Resources:
- Read Aloud
- Penguin Books: Educators Guide
Global Read Aloud
#GRA23 #GRAJackie
Curator: Margaret Cuthbertson, NBCT, MLIS
Cabarrus County Schools, NC
Email: readingmrc@gmail.com
Website: https://theglobalreadaloud.com/2023/03/20/global-read-aloud-choices-2023-gra23/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/GRAPictureBook
Twitter: @globalreadaloud
Threads: @pernillesripp