For Teachers

Indie Spotlight: [words] Bookstore, Maplewood NJ

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Mixed-Up Files posts monthly interviews with the owners of children’s-only bookstores and there are still many more of those to feature, but I’ve recently discovered [words] bookstore in Maplewood, N.J. (wordsbookstore.com), a general independent bookstore with a strong emphasis on children’s books, and most importantly with a unique and hopeful mission. This is a bookstore with a heart, and I’m eager to spread the news. Today I’m talking with [words]Co-owner Jonah Zimiles.

[word] Co-owners Jonah and Ellen Zimiles

[word] Co-owners Jonah and Ellen Zimiles

MUF: I gather you first got into the bookstore business because the only bookstore in Maplewood was closing? How brave!
Jonah: Thank you. We have lived in Maplewood for twenty-three years and raised our two children here. When the economy deteriorated in the Fall of 2008, we wanted to find a way to help our community. My wife and son were walking in town when she saw a sign saying that the bookstore was closing in a month. Ellen thought that we should buy the bookstore, even though we did not have retail or book industry experience.

MUF: Your store has also taken on the unique mission “to help Maplewood become a model community of inclusion” by acknowledging and serving a special community, families with members on the autism spectrum. How did that come about?
Jonah: In addition to assisting our community buffeted by the recession, we were interested in providing a model vocational training program for young people with autism. Our hope is that through our bookstore, we will inspire other for-profit businesses to hire employees with autism. Our son, who is now 17, has autism. We have always found Maplewood to be a warm and welcoming community, and we wanted to play our part in furthering that culture.screenshot_639

MUF: Tell us about your “Second Sundays.”
Jonah: Our Second Sundays programs were created to provide parents of special needs children the opportunity to sample for free many activities that are often available for typical children but unfortunately not for the special needs population. At the same time, it allows us to acknowledge and publicize service providers who are offering these services or to give new ones considering this market a chance to try out working with our kids at our store. Activities include: yoga, karate, arts & crafts, drama, sewing and cooking, to name a few.screenshot_629

MUF: Not only do you welcome autism syndrome kids in your store and provide programs they can take part in, you also employ them as part-time workers and provide vocational training. Tell us how that works.
Jonah: Most of our kids come to us through job sampling programs in their school. They come in small groups with job coaches once or twice per week and progress through a series of jobs depending upon their skill levels and interests. We also have paid employees on our staff with autism.

MUF: Say a ten-year-old comes into your store looking for “a good book.” Do you have some favorite titles, fiction or nonfiction, that you are especially recommending to middle-graders right now?
Jonah: Our middle graders love Rick Riordan, Jeff Kinney and Dan Gutman. One of our favorite books is R. J. Palacio’s Wonder.screenshot_631

MUF: I’ve just re-read Marcello in the Real World for a workshop. It seems there have been a slew of original and engaging novels for children in the last few years whose main characters are somewhere along the autism spectrum——Mockingbird, London Eye Mystery, The Blue Bottle Mystery, Colin Fisher — and that these stories have the positive side-effect of creating insight and understanding in the general reader. Are these books popular at your store? Have any of their authors come for a visit?
Picture 30Jonah: We have seven or eight autism authors visit our store for readings during April for Autism Awareness Month but these authors so far have been non-fiction authors. We have tried unsuccessfully to get Jodi Picoult to our store. Some of our favorites have included practitioners like Ricki Robinson, author of Autism Solutions, researchers like Martha Herbert, author of The Autism Revolution, and parents, like Priscilla Gilman, author of The Anti-Romantic Child: A Story of Unexpected Joy.

MUF: [Words] became an instant community center in another sense after Hurricane Sandy hit, didn’t it?

[words], a haven during Sandy

[words], a haven during Sandy

Jonah: Yes! Most of the power in our town (including in the homes of our owners and most of our employees) and the surrounding towns were knocked out for a week, but power was maintained on the block where [words] is located, so we became a community center to which people came to charge their cell phones and computers, learn the latest news, and to get some needed respite from the travails of the storm and the power outage.

MUF: If a family from out of town came to visit your store, would there be a family-friendly place nearby where they could get a bite to eat after browsing?
Jonah: Yes, dozens! Arturo’s across the street is extremely popular and delicious, and the Laurel offers a terrific relaxed atmosphere with great food.

MUF: And if they could spend some time in Maplewood, are there some family activities or sights in the area that they shouldn’t miss?
Jonah: In addition to our quaint village with many fine shops, we have a beautiful park in our town that is well worth a visit, as well as a gigantic nature preserve, the South Mountain reservation. Of course, the best reason to come to Maplewood is to meet the Maplewoodians!screenshot_636

MUF: Any exciting programs coming up in March?
Jonah: Many! Two are of particular note. On Saturday, March 2, we celebrate Read Across America, with a kids’ Pitchapalooza featuring four local children’s authors. On March 20, Harlan Coben kicks off his publicity tour for his exciting new thriller, Six Years.

MUF: Thank you so much , Jonah, for sharing the goals and programs of your store with us.

Readers, if you’re as inspired as I am to read about what Jonah and Ellen are doing at [words], I’m sure they’d love to hear your comments–and have you visit!screenshot_624

Sue Cowing is the author of the middle-grade puppet-and-boy novel, You Will Call Me Drog, published in 2011 by Carolrhoda Books and in 2012 by Usborne UK

 

 

 

For Teachers/Librarians Page Update

It’s time once again for our semi-annual update on what’s new on MUF’s For Teachers/Librarians page!

We’ve added some great new resources and links to our regular categories. More on those in a moment, but first we want to tell you about two whole new sections just for you:  MUF Posts for Teachers and Librarians!  We’ve captured posts tagged for teachers and/or librarians in one convenient place.  The posts are organized by date, so “drop on by” any time to see what we’ve written with you in mind.

Here’s an overview of the other great new resources and links we’ve added: (you’ll find them marked with New! on the For Teachers/Librarians page):

BLOGS for middle-grade reading and writing
The Pirate Tree: Authors who explore books in the context of social justice themes, from violence to gender to race to poverty.

BOOK LISTS and REVIEWS
IRA Children’s Literature Special Interest Group Book Reviews:  Weekly reviews of books for grades K-12 organized by topic.

Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2012: Children’s Fiction

Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2012: Children’s Nonfiction

GENERAL RESOURCES for teaching and literature
Teaching Tolerance: From the Southern Poverty Law Center, in-depth and free resources and book lists on a wide range of social justice issues for educators. You’ll find an extensive list of classroom resources, as well as “What We’re Reading,” culturally aware book lists for educators in Teaching Tolerance Magazine.  Subscriptions to the magazine (print or digital editions) are free for educators.

As always, please help us build this page by suggesting other resources in the comments section.

Teaching with Themed Literature Units: Older Middle Grade

Recently, I wrote about the value of Themed Literature Units, structured units of study designed to develop crucial literacy skills as students read, write about, discuss, and sometimes respond artistically to high-quality children’s literature.  My previous post, “Finding My Way: Teaching with Themed Literature Units,” introduces a strategy for organizing meaningful literacy instruction around memorable middle grade literature.  The post also offers a glimpse into three classrooms where teachers and middle grade students are reading great books on themes such as “Adapting to new situations,” “Taking risks to help others,” and “Courage is inside all of us.”

Today, I’d like to expand our list with an additional themed literature unit for older middle grade readers in an unusual context — a middle school Spanish class.

Overcoming Obstacles in the Search for Identity ~ 8th grade
Ceinwen Bushey is teaching 8th grade Spanish in a Seattle middle school.  She developed her unit, “Overcoming Obstacles in the Search for Identity” to help her students understand their own quests for identity and to recognize similar struggles in other adolescents in Latin America.  She introduced her students to the unit this way:  “For most teenagers like yourselves, middle school is a time of fast growth – physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially. It’s also a time for developing your sense of identity, self-esteem, and relationships with your peers. This is true for kids all around the world, but some have it tougher than others. Imagine having to deal with all the things everyday teens have to deal with, then adding to them some really big obstacles. Think about what it would be like to have to move to a new country, learn to speak a new language, make new friends, eat food you’ve never seen before, not have MTV to watch, not have iPhones or iPads or Facebook, and have people thinking you look weird because you’re different from them. Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to read, write, and discuss the lives of kids your age that are trying to figure things out, just like you, but who are from Latin America and have to overcome really big obstacles like the ones I just mentioned. They are teenagers who have to move to the United States from other countries, and try to figure out who they are; they’re searching for their identity. The end goal of our work together is to promote cross-cultural understanding and develop awareness that the journey toward understanding oneself is universal; that is, it connects us all to one another.”

Big Ideas
The unit guides students to understand two big ideas:
The path to self-discovery is a universal human experience and connects us all; and
Tough experiences are often the ones that teach us the most about ourselves.

Book List
            

As older middle grade readers grow, they yearn to figure out who they are and how they can make a difference in this world.  Ceinwen Bushey’s unit guides her middle schoolers to take a cross-cultural look at ways that young people, like them, find ways to overcome the obstacles in their lives as they search for identity.

Katherine Schlick Noe teaches beginning and experienced teachers at Seattle University. Her debut novel, Something to Hold (Clarion, 2011) won the 2012 Washington State Book Award for the middle grade/young adult and has been named a 2012 Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People.  Visit her at http://katherineschlicknoe.com.