See what we're reading, what we're donating, & what we're doing throughout the community this month
A look back at February:
We packed February to the brim with events. With the multiple snow days here in Eastern NC, we had to have a few make up MOSS Kids Book Clubs from January at the beginning of the month. And then, more snow fell & we had to squeeze in our cancellations into the last week of February. But we did it! February, although short, was very busy. It was filled with love, generosity, & kindness. In contrast with what's going on in the world right now, this was exactly what our community needed -- connection. We filled our free libraries with books honoring Black history and celebrating Black joy. We want to say a special thank you to all of you who donated books off of our February wishlists. Each book was donated into our free libraries in our diverse, rural communities. We are so excited that diverse books are finding their way into homes, libraries, & classrooms showcasing a true need throughout our communities for books that are representative of the communities they serve. As we've checked back in on our libraries within the last week, we've noticed a desperate need for middle grade & young adult literature. If you're able to help us with donations, please email us at hello@mosskidsbooks.com or DM us on Instagram or Facebook. Thank you for all of your support.
World Read Aloud Day: We made our way across the Twin Counties into two different classrooms to celebrate World Read Aloud Day. We brought two of our favorite books to make kids laugh & to inspire our youth to dream big, to reach for more -- The Book That Almost Rhymed by Omar Abed & Hatem Aly and A Hero Looks Like You by Kwame Mbalia & Nikkolas Smith to GW Bullock! After reading to classroom, we crafted our own shields to protect their classroom & the world against evil because A HERO LOOKS LIKE THEM. Both books will be donated to the school library. We finished our day at Martin Millennium Academy with a first grade Spanish immersion classroom who had the opportunity to hear their story -- Squawk of Spanish -- read to them by the author herself, Gabriella Alderman. Students were able to talk with Gabriella in both English & Spanish. After their storytime & Q&A, students crafted their own Lorito (the parrot) puppet! Copies in both English & Spanish were donated to the classroom.
Our book clubs: This month we took our MOSS Kids Book Club to six locations!! We discussed how we make space for everyone & took a short flight using our imagination to Nigeria. Kids crafted their own shaving cream marbled hearts, were able to visit (& purchase wares) our own Night Market. Each child took home a book of their choosing, a little trinket, & were able to try their choice of mint tea or hot chocolate. Check out our blog post to grab some printables!
Lunch Bunch: We met up with our local elementary school kids to participate in their Lunch Bunch program. We finished the first in a new series -- The Kid's in Mrs. Z's Class: Emma McKenna, Full Out by Kate Messner. Emma is entering third-grade (the same grade as our readers) & is struggling to find her footing, as many do. The kids loved the story & are eager to see how Emma & Lucy's friendship plays out. The kids are using the activity kit that goes with the series to create their own protagonist student that will join Mrs. Z's class as we continue with the series. You can get the guide for the first two books in the series, here. Book 2 -- Rohan Murthy Has a Plan -- is next up this month! Follow along as we make new bookmarks & dive into our new story.
New MOSS Kids Book Club location at Braswell Memorial Library: We will now have our MOSS Kids Book Club storytime & craft at Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount! Each month, we will read a story (or two), craft together, & complete a community outreach activity getting to know & improve the community we live in. Each kid will leave with printable activity sheets to further learning at home! After our book club, MOSS Kids Book Project will be donating the book(s) read to the library to add to their circulation! You'll be able to borrow the book after it's processed. We'll also have our own display there featuring books that go with our book of the month! We're grateful for the opportunity to work with the children's librarians at BML & cannot wait to see where our partnership takes us!!
Picture Books on Tap: This month, we treated our adult picture book club with a visit to our Night Market. We read the same books as our MOSS Kids Book Club -- Space for Everyone & The Night Market. We grabbed our beverages & settled in for a storytime like we're back in elementary school. After reading together, we created shaving cream marbled art hearts. We ended up crafting a bunch because of the actual art we were creating with the different colors. Each attendee was gifted bags of coins to spend at our Night Market where they could purchase: How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X Kendi with the accompanied workbook; handmade bookmarks & pins from vintage children's books; and bookish stickers & postcards.
In Love & Literature: We had our biggest turnout this month for our pop-up event -- In Love & Literature. Attendees brought a book off their shelves they wished to swap & wrapped them up as a blind date with a book. We had pizza & mocktails, literary pictionary, bookish tattoos, an affirmation station, & so much fun. Read with us Rocky Mount, our adult bookish community, gave back to MOSS Kids this month by donating Valentines for Palestine. Community members donated books by Palestinian authors about Palestine to MOSS Kids so we can gift the children in our rural communities knowledge, understanding, & acceptance surrounding the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Thank you to those who donated. The event went by in a blur & we're looking forward to our next pop-up event in March -- Books & Bites.
Drag Story Hour: We ended our month hosting our monthly MOSS Kids Book Club meet up with Drag Story Hour at Boxyard RTP with queen reader, Stormie Daie! It was very cold, but we boasted our biggest turn out to date. Together we read Fearless Mary: Mary Fields, American Stagecoach Driver, an excerpt from Little Legends Exceptional Men in Black History about Charles Henry Turner, & our February book club picks, Space for Everyone & The Night Market. Following storytime, kids made shaving cream hearts & took a trip to our Night Market.
What we're reading:
Our March MOSS Kids Book Club pick is When Isaac Hears the Rain by Julie Thompson & Leah Giles. When Isaac Hears the Rain celebrates the unexpected joy of a rainy day with a young boy who delights in the rejuvenating power of rain. We can’t wait to share more about both of this book and the activities we’ve come up with to go along with it, later this week. As we move towards spring, check out this supplemental book list to pair with our March MOSS Kids Book Club pick. We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the changing of seasons than with a bunch of rainy day reads.
Every March, & really all year long, we celebrate Women's History Month. If you haven’t yet, this is the perfect opportunity to begin diversifying your bookshelves to add books about BIPOC women. It is important to share books featuring women of color, who are disproportionately unrecognized compared with their white counterparts. With our federal government choosing to cut DEI programming & choosing not to support marginalized communities, it is more important than ever to bring these books into your homes, onto the shelves of classrooms, & into public libraries.
March 1st starts the month long celebration of Ramadan. Ramadan is considered one of the holiest months of the year for Muslims. In Ramadan, Muslims commemorate the revelation of the Qur’an, and fast from food and drink during the sunlit hours as a means of drawing closer to God and cultivating self-control, gratitude, and compassion for those less fortunate. Discover family traditions, observe the spiritual importance of fasting, & understand the Islamic calendar which follows the lunar cycle. By introducing new cultures, religions, perspectives, & backgrounds to our kids through books, we are actively working to raise kind, accepting, curious, understanding kids.
Holi, the Hindu Festival of Colors, is a two-day celebration that rejoices the eternal and divine love of the deities Radha and Krishna. The Festival of Colors & the Festival of Love signify the end of winter, the arrival of spring and the victory of good over evil. Celebrate & educate with these stories uncovering the mythological folktales & unveiling the reasons behind the splattering of bright, vibrant colors. One of our favorites, Festival of Colors, features siblings who are busy gathering flowers to make into colorful powders to toss during the festival. When at least the big day comes, they gather with their community for a vibrant celebration of fresh starts, friendship, forgiveness, &, of course, fun!
Every year, the Earth yields billions of tons of natural resources and at some point, in the not too distant future, it will run out. That’s why we must think again about what we throw away – seeing not waste, but opportunity. The last decade has been the hottest on record, and we are now facing a climate emergency of unparalleled proportions. If we don’t make significant and rapid changes, we will see continued rising global temperatures, the melting of icecaps, continents on fire and rapid deforestation.
This directly affects humanity with increased poverty, immigration from displaced communities, job losses, waste mountains and natural habitats disappearing. We have the power to make lasting changes to combat this. These books can help teach kids the importance & encourage your family to get out & volunteer on March 18, Global Recycling Day, & continue to do better throughout the year so we can keep this planet sustainable for our kids.
More booklists in March: We’re in the process of making & updating our lists on our favorite books to read before bed, books to celebrate & educate on Eid, stories to welcome Spring, & our favorite green-covered reads. Keep an eye out for these lists, which will be featured throughout the month.
What we're donating:
This month we’re filling up our free libraries with brand new titles to celebrate and educate on Women's History Month, specifically women of color, Ramadan, Eid, & spring rain showers. We are extremely grateful for all donations from the community. Even the smallest contributions help us get new books into rural communities where affordable access to diverse books is scarce. Heading into February, we could use your help to restock our libraries with middle grade and young adult literature. These are our most-sought after books, but also, our least-donated. We hope you'll help us celebrate all our youth, including those society thinks doesn't read (guess what? they do!). Check out our wishlists & consider donating today. Help us create a better society by raising kind, accepting kids.
What we're doing throughout the community:
Picture Books on Tap, our adult picture book club: Come out to Larema Beverage Company at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12th, to connect with your inner child and your local community through stories, crafts, and great food and drinks! Check out our monthly calendar for a complete list of events.
Book Clubs: We’re continuing to bring MOSS Kids Book Club to our local locations -- four elementary schools across two counties, the Wilson County Public Library, and our NEW location, Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount. Plus, we're back with Drag Story Hour at Boxyard RTP. We're planning to add another outdoor location as the weather warms. This month, we're reading all about finding the magic in an unexpected rain!
Lunch Bunch: We finished the first in a new book series in February. Now we're on to book two. This is a chapter book series celebrating different kids in Mrs. Z's class, all from different perspectives & backgrounds. And every book in the series is by a different author! A set will be donated to the school for other Lunch Bunch groups to have access.
Read Across America Day: Read Across America Day was Saturday, March 2nd. This year we are celebrating with two schools where we will be making an appearance in classrooms across the Twin Counties on Wednesday, March 5th. We're bringing our favorite books to make kids laugh & to inspire our youth to dream big, to reach for more! After reading to each classroom, kids will be crafting their own comic strips & we will be donating the book to the school library. Stay tuned.
Creek Week: We're teaming up with the city of Rocky Mount's stormwater engineer, Gabby, to celebrate NC's Creek Week. This week focuses on spreading education and involvement around protecting our natural waterways (streams, rivers, lakes, etc.). We'll be popping into two elementary schools across the Twin Counties, taking over Picture Books on Tap, & having a special storytime event at Braswell Memorial Library. We'll be crafting jellyfish or turtles from recycled materials & interacting with an enviroscape! We hope to see you there!
Read with us Rocky Mount's Silent Book Club: With all the incredible work we are doing for children's literacy, we have decided to create an adult bookish community in the twin counties. Read with us Rocky Mount is an in-person group of readers cultivating community, actively working to make time in our schedules to gather and read. We currently host a silent book club at Larema Coffee House in downtown Rocky Mount two Sundays a month. We come together to read silently. This month's Silent Book Club dates are: Sunday, March 9th & Sunday, March 23rd at 12PM-2PM. We have a monthly adult book club that meets on Thursday, March 27th at 6pm at Larema Coffee House to discuss this month's book club pick -- Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis. Be sure to join our Read with Rocky Mount Facebook group & follow along with @cecchireads on Instagram for more information about upcoming events & adult book recs.
What's coming next:
Events: Don't forget our second annual MARCH MADNESS book tourney -- who will be our 2025 Nat. Champ? We'll be starting our voting process about mid-way through the month of march!
And on March 8th, MOSS Kids Book Project will be 2!!
April brings us the opening of the Princeville Community Garden with an art show featuring Princeville student artists, Earth Day fun with Freedom Org, & hopefully the launch of two new free libraries in Sharpesburg!! Booklists in April: We'll be sharing books celebrating upcoming holidays, including -- Easter & Earth Day. We'll also be updating our book lists for Arab American Heritage Month, national poetry month, autism acceptance month, & our favorite books celebrating libraries, math, & more. Don't forget to follow along with us on our socials to see what we're doing every week.
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