And our September pick is...
Sister Friend by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow & Shahrzad Maydani
September Pick -- Sister Friend
Ameena feels invisible. It's been that way since she started at her new school. But now there is another new girl in class. Ameena sees her brownness and her hijab, even though the other kids do not. Ameena wants to be her friend, but she can't seem to find the right words or do the right things. Until one day, they find them together: "Assalamu Alaikum, Sister. Welcome."
Meet Our Creators:
Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, M.S.Ed, is a Philadelphia-based educator and children's book author. A curriculum writer and former English teacher, she has educated children and teens in traditional and alternative learning settings for 15 years. As an inaugural AMAL fellow with the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative (MuslimARC), she developed foundational curricular frameworks for youth and adult anti-racist programming. Her picture books and short stories, which feature young Black and Muslim protagonists, have been recognized as the best in children's literature by TIME magazine, Read Across America, and NPR. These works include Mommy's Khimar, Once Upon an Eid (anthology contributor), Grounded (coauthor), Your Name Is a Song, Abdul's Story, and Hold Them Close. We are also HUGE fans of Salat in Secret & honestly believe all of Jamilah's books are extremely important & should be on all bookshelves. Learn more about Jamilah & check out resources for all her books on her website: https://jamilahthewriter.com/
Shahrzad Maydani is an illustrator of Iranian-English descent, raised in Niger and Kenya. Her debut children's book, Poetree, received the Crystal Kite Award and was a Spring 2019 Kids' Indie Next selection. Her following book Bird Boy, written by Matthew Burgess, was a Junior Library Guild selection and Francis Discovers Possible was named one of THE BEST CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR by Banks Street College of Education, 2023 Edition. Our Shahrzad favorites are: Always Sisters: A Story of Loss and Love, which lyrically & ephemerally discusses pregnancy loss, & Sourgrass, about a child's best friend moving away filled with the soft, vibrant illustrations we've come to love by Shahrzad. Sourgrass has recently been accepted into the Society of Illustrators Original Art Show for 2024 -- which is HUGE! She lives with her family in California. Learn more about Shahrzad on her website: https://www.shahrzadmaydani.com/
Below you will find our monthly craft; printable activity sheets; and our community outreach activity where we will be discussing the importance of friendships, acceptance, & understanding. We'll also be introducing ourselves to our peers & learning more about the people we see everyday. For more books to read this month, don't forget to check out book list on friendships:
This is also the perfect opportunity to read books about heading back to school, anti-bullying, & books celebrating our diversity as a people -- you can find that booklist here.
We really hope you enjoy this month of book club as we continue to keep our nationwide book club free & accessible for all. Each book is intentionally handpicked with each activity and outreach curated to engage and enrich our youth's experiences. Through these diverse and inclusive reads, working and playing together, and giving back to their own community, we hope to instill empathy, understanding, & kindness in our kids. Be sure to sign up for our book club to receive a virtual storytime reading of Sister Friend read by our co-founder, Kara Cecchi, directly to your inbox. Email us at hello@mosskidsbooks.com for this month's story.
Let's Craft: friendship bracelets for a new friend
Let's pretend we're Swifties at a concert & make friendship bracelets. We're working on fine motor coordination & control as we thread the bead onto the string/pipe cleaner. We're utilizing bilateral coordination using both hands as we hold the string/pipe cleaner in one hand and thread with the other. If you want to add another layer of developmental work, you can create pattern strips with the beads you have & have each child create the pattern before threading onto their string/pipe cleaner. We love this idea from our friend Mikaela from Project Based Primary, LLC.
A note on the importance of patterns: Recognizing, creating, and extending patterns is a critical early cognitive skill that forms part of the foundation for more complex concepts. Understanding patterns help children predict and anticipate what’s coming next, a skill that is fundamental to learning how to organize and make sense of the world around them. When your child creates patterns, they’re not just sorting objects or colors, they’re beginning to observe and understand relationships, rules, and regularities in their environment. Creating a pattern of alternating colors can lay the foundations for numerical understanding and algebraic thinking. I could go on for days & bore you on the importance and patterns but I won't, just trust me & work on patterns with your kids.
Materials:
Beads; if you are working with younger children, we suggest using larger wooden beads like these -- (1) to lower the risk of being swallowed, (2) to modify for smaller hands
Elastic string, yarn, or pipe cleaners; if you are working with younger children, we suggest using pipe cleaners because they are larger, sturdier, & easier to hold on to while threading
Scissors & tape
Optional: pattern strips check out this post from our friend Mikaela, @projectbasedprimary
Modifications:
Easy: Use pipe cleaner & larger beads
Moderate: Tape down elastic string when threading
Hard: Allow child to make bracelets without modifications
Instructions:
1. Gather materials. Pair child with a peer. Each child will be making a bracelet for their partner & new friend.
2. Set up using modifications based on each child's developmental level.
3. Let child make their own bracelets! Easiest, most fun craft yet.
Remember: Since we are no longer sending out free copies of the book, we encourage you to request your local library purchase the title for your community to share. It's easy to request. Head to your local library's website. On the site, there will be a "Suggest A Title" tab (see below). Just add this book Sister Friend by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow & Shahrzad Maydani & submit. You can even share this blog with them. After reading or listening, we encourage you to please review the book on goodreads, on Amazon, & on your social media platforms. Reviews will help get the word out about this incredible book!
printable activity sheets:
Our author, Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow has a beautiful activity kit to pair with Sister Friends on her website. This is perfect for classrooms, library storytimes, & homeschool co-ops! Included are activity sheets to complete together as a group & paired with partners to better get to know their peers. Download the kit below:
Community Outreach: Meet & learn about someone new (peers, neighbors, a new kid at the playground)
We are encouraging our kids to meet & learn more about someone new. Whether that's a peer in their classroom, a neighbor, or a new kid at the playground. We'll be using author, Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow's activity guide to interview someone new & learn more about them. This is a perfect activity for back to school classrooms, school libraries, and storytime activities at public libraries, & homeschool co-op groups.
Immediately after reading Sister Friend, we suggest completing the "Find Someone Who..." activity (printable sheet above^). This is a great icebreaker -- I know we all hated those as kids & adults at conferences & team building meet-ups, but hear me out -- this icebreaker is perfect for introverts who may hide away during other icebreakers & perfect for extroverts who enjoy meeting & talking about things that they like. It's a great way to meet multiple people. We'll be doing this with our adults at our Picture Books on Tap event! After meeting new friends, each child will be paired with another child to make a bracelet for each other & to complete the "Get To Know Your New Friend" activity. Each child will fill out the information about themselves & then swap papers with their partner. After completing all the activities, students will receive an "I'll Be Your Friend" sticker that we printed using Avery Template # 94502 to encourage kids to make new friends! If you are running out of time, participants can finish their bookmark that they made with their partner -- just have each kid write their name -- at home, where kids just need to cut & glue together.
supplemental books:
We're also reading Bros, Gustavo the Shy Ghost, One Little Word, & The Kindest Red to celebrate & educate on friendships, kindness, acceptance & understanding!! There is a few great educator guides/activity kits for some of our supplemental books, check them out below:
Please do not skip the community outreach activities. We truly believe this outreach activity is a vital part of childhood & an opportunity to raise kind kids. Teaching our youth the importance of community. A community that can help create more empathetic, accepting kids who understand that power of coming together. To learn the importance of understanding the diversity of our world & of our own communities. To learn kindness, empathy, acceptance, & understanding of our peers, neighbors, & the kids at the playground.
YAY! Another MOSS Kids Book Club pick, craft, printable sheets, and community outreach activity. We would love to see all the friendship bracelets your kids create. You do not need to share kid's faces. Please be sure to tag us on Instagram @mosskidsbooks & use #mosskidsbookclub. Sharing about MOSS Kids Book Club is a way for your community to learn more about what MOSS Kids has to offer & for them to know about brand new diverse & inclusive books. By doing so, we can reach & help more kids across the country. We'd also love to hear any feedback you may have, please email us at hello@mosskidsbooks.com. We appreciate you all so much for taking the initiative to bring kids together to read diverse books & hopefully learn vital life skills to help make our world a better place.
sign up for our book club
Want our blog with a video storytime sent directly to you email each month? The perfect way to connect with your kids, get friends together, a classroom activity, or even a library storytime.
Don't Forget: We Have Local moss kids book club locations in eastern north Carolina!!
Wednesday, 9/11 at 7pm: Picture Books on Tap at Larema Beverage Company in Rocky Mount
Monday, 9/23 at 430pm: MOSS Kids Book Club at Wilson County Public Library in Wilson
Saturday, 9/28 at 10am: MOSS Kids Book Club with Drag Story Hour at Boxyard RTP with reader queen, Mx Princexx Peritwinkle
Sunday, 9/29 at 2pm: MOSS Kids Book Club at Larema Coffee House in Rocky Mount
We'll also pop-in at:
Saturday, 9/21: Hispanic Heritage Festival in Tarboro
Saturday, 9/21 at 6pm: Larema's 5th Birthday Block Party in Rocky Mount
Saturday, 9/28: Walking around Bookmarks Book Festival in Winston-Salem
And new this month -- SCHOOL POP-INS! So far we have plans to visit 4 local elementary schools across two counties bringing our MOSS Kids Book Club right to them & then donating the book to their school library for all to enjoy. We're hoping to expand & add more each month!
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