So the educator part of me, I’m always asking for the publisher to create teaching tools, discussion guides for young people and for teachers and parents to be able to make these books very practical things that you’re using in the classroom or in your home, and not just something to read as entertainment or to read and maybe learn something and then just kind of push it away. I am writing for there to be discussion and debate and art making in response to what young people read. So I was so thrilled when our publisher came to us already with Ideas for a teacher’s guide. There is a very detailed teacher’s guide from all the way from elementary to high school of activities that young people can do and questions to ask and ways to get young people thinking about this history. And I have seen firsthand, so powerful art making around folks and their identities and their families.
And so they’re asking that question of their grandparents, where do we come from? Who are we? What’s our story? They’re writing poems about where they come from making art and then talking about what this history feels like and means to them. Nicole and I visited a school in Harlem and there was this beautiful precious moment where a young girl who was Asian said, I think that would be very hard to go through what they went through. And you could just see the wheels kind of turning in her mind of like, wow, people went through that and survived that and that that’s not fair, but I’m so glad that they kept going and right. She’s just having all these thoughts and kind of thinking out loud and processing out loud and exercising the muscle of empathy. And like I mentioned, our young people understand fairness. They understand kindness.
And so when we talk about social justice, sometimes it can feel maybe so heavy or so big, but that’s social justice, kindness, fairness, cooperating, listening, sharing all of that is a part of teaching young people how to be good citizens of this world. And so I think there are moments in the book and in so much literature that’s out where you can pull that out and ask young people not only to talk about what happened, but what is happening and then where are they in the story? How are they going to continue the story of change and democracy in our world? What do they want to do? How do they want to add on to what’s already been done to make this world a better place?