One School, One Book Titles for January and February

The One School, One Book project is a school-wide, culturally responsive initiative that brings a shared monthly read-aloud picture book into every classroom at The Children’s School.

This year we are excited to work with Lee & Low publishing, the largest multicultural children’s book publisher in the country. Beyond publishing beautiful, inclusive, culturally diverse titles, Lee & Low also provides additional resources to help support the use of books in the classroom, as well as at home.

We invite you to explore Lee & Low’s resources by clicking on the links provided below the featured monthly titles.

 Happy reading and warmest regards,

 The One School, One Book Committee

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January Book Selections:

ICT Site PreK-K Grades & 6:1:1 Site Elementary –

Golden Dragon Parade

By Anastasia Suen

Illustrated by Priscilla Burris

Chinese New Year is here.

Come along to the Golden Dragon Parade.

A beautifully simple, colorful look into the unique experience of this Chinese New Year tradition.

 View the Teacher’s Guide.

 Check out the book list and cross-curricular activities for teaching and celebrating Chinese New Year here:

ICT Site 1st – 5th Grades & 6:1:1 Site Middle – 

Amazing Faces

By Lee Bennett Hopkins

Illustrated by Chris Soentpiet

Whatever we feel—whether happy or sad, excited or wishful, proud or lonely—our faces mirror our emotions. In this contemporary yet timeless collection, sixteen evocative poems are brought to life in diverse and detailed faces that reveal the universal feelings we all share. Girls and boys, women and men invite us to experience their world, understand their lives, and find the connections that bring us together.

 Poet Lee Bennett Hopkins gathers these insightful works from an impressive array of authors, including Joseph Bruchac, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Nikki Grimes, Pat Mora, Carole Boston Weatherford, Janet S. Wong, Jane Yolen, and more. Glowing illustrations created by Chris Soentpiet infuse the verses with atmosphere and exquisite settings. Readers of all ages will want to feast their eyes on these captivating poems and pictures again and again.

 Checkout the teachers’ guide.

February Book Selections:

ICT Site PreK-1st Grades & 6:1:1 Site Elementary –

 Grandma’s Purple Flowers

By Adjoa J. Burrowes

Grandma’s house has always been the narrator’s favorite place. On her way to visit Grandma, she plucks daisies and sunflowers, and best of all, purple flowers—Grandma’s favorites. Whenever Grandma sees the purple flowers, her smile grows wide—like the Mississippi River.

The young girl’s Grandma passes away, and all winter long, the girl is sad, missing her grandmother terribly. When spring finally arrives, and flowers begin to shoot up from the ground, the girl discovers her own special way to accept her grandmother’s death and keep Grandma with her always.

In this moving story, author/illustrator Adjoa J. Burrowes deals sensitively with the difficult experience of death and tells a story that celebrates the triumph of hope and spirit during a difficult time.

Checkout the teacher’s guide.

ICT Site 2nd – 5th Grades & 6:1:1 Site Middle – 

It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw

By Don Tate Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

Growing up as an enslaved boy on an Alabama cotton farm, Bill Traylor worked all day in the hot fields. When slavery ended, Bill’s family stayed on the farm as sharecroppers. There Bill grew to manhood, raised his own family, and cared for the land and his animals.

By 1935 Bill was eighty-one and all alone on his farm. So he packed his bag and moved to Montgomery, the capital of Alabama. Lonely and poor, he wandered the busy downtown streets. But deep within himself Bill had a reservoir of memories of working and living on the land, and soon those memories blossomed into pictures. Bill began to draw people, places, and animals from his earlier life, as well as scenes of the city around him.

Today Bill Traylor is considered to be one of the most important self-taught American folk artists. Winner of Lee & Low’s New Voices Award Honor, It Jes’ Happened is a lively tribute to this man who has enriched the world with more than twelve hundred warm, energetic, and often humorous pictures.

Checkout the teacher’s guide.