by Mary E. Cronin | Mar 31, 2023 | Cape Cod, Community connections, SCBWI, We Need Diverse Books
At the school where I work, the vast majority of children qualify for free and reduced lunch. A quarter of our K-3 students are English Language Learners, many from Brazil. Most of the children had never met an author, or had a book signed… until author Ana Crespo...
by Mary E. Cronin | Jan 20, 2023 | Poetry, We Need Diverse Books
There’s one book I can’t stop thinking about– STAR CHILD: A BIOGRAPHICAL CONSTELLATION OF OCTAVIA ESTELLE BUTLER by Ibi Zoboi. The brilliant combination of poetry and nonfiction is what drew me to Zoboi’s amazing middle-grade biography of author Octavia...
by Mary E. Cronin | Oct 15, 2022 | Cape Cod, Community connections, SCBWI, Teaching, We Need Diverse Books
When author Ana Crespo made an author visit via Zoom to the school where I work as a Literacy Coach on Cape Cod, the joy in classrooms was palpable. Most children in our K-3 school had never met an author before, and they were excited to meet Ana. Crespo, a native of...
by Mary E. Cronin | Nov 5, 2021 | Poetry, We Need Diverse Books
I’ve learned so much about what it takes to put together a poetry anthology by taking classes from Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell. “Poetry PLUS” is one aspect of the art and craft of assembling an anthology that fascinates me as a poet and an educator. On the...
by Mary E. Cronin | Oct 8, 2020 | Cape Cod, Community connections, LGBTQ+, We Need Diverse Books
It was a delight to be part of a (remote) round-table discussion this week on WCAI-FM (the Cape and Islands NPR station) about children’s literature and diversity. On “The Point” program hosted by Mindy Todd, I was joined by an educator from the Mashpee...
by Mary E. Cronin | Sep 3, 2020 | Cape Cod, We Need Diverse Books
I don’t think it’s an accident that I received a strange note in the mail recently. It was postmarked on the day after my article appeared in the Cape Cod Times. The headline in the print edition was “Black Lives Matter: does your child’s bookshelf reflect the...