In a little while I am going to do one of the things l love the most: buy books! None for myself this time, but it doesn’t really matter. I have a chunk of cash to buy the kids at Williamson Elementary books for our collection, and I am on it with enthusiasm.
This year the kids won’t be able to pick their own books, so we are going to put a fun book, a fiction book and a science book together for each kid in each grade. We are also ordering the same book for all the Middle School kids in case their teachers might want to use the book in class; we are trying to be a little innovative with our new circumstances.
There are other considerations. I want kids to see characters in the book who look like them and especially heroes who look like them. I want to step out of stereotypes that are too easy. Black athletes and helpful women are great, but there is so much more that we all are than one thing, and I want that reflected in the book choices.
I will also be looking for Black, Latin, and women authors. Perspective is everything, and we all need to read a variety of perspectives. One of the women in the parish teaches 8th grade English, and she supplies me with a steady stream of YA novels. I read my first graphic novel this summer, and it was great. I might have dismissed them as too…whatever, too simple, too childish, too beneath me. But I loved it, and it helped me to clarify some of my prejudices.
I realize there is a lot of power and influence to picking a book for someone. I want everyone to love to read, and I know that isn’t the case. My son Martin came to reading as an adult when he was able to pick what books he read and no one told him that he had to appreciate something. I like mysteries and historical fiction, but I just finished reading Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, and it was a powerful piece of nonfiction.
We can only do our best to be diverse and compelling, and hope that something in the child clicks with what they have been given. Reading for me is such a comfort, an escape, an exploration of new worlds. I want the children at Williamson to feel loved and challenged. Thanks to everyone who is buying books this year for these kids!!