Democracy is on all of our minds. And well it should be; this is a pivotal year for our country and our people.

Educator and author Donalyn Miller presents the case that because literacy is so important, it has been and is currently used as a weapon of discrimination and a strategy to maintain power.

Creators, our books for children are the perfect instruments to combat this.

I invite you to read Donalyn’s essay in SLJ and reflect on the ways your efforts and projects are positively impacting literacy development in children.

She offers a list of books as resources for educators. I’ve added a Michigan SCBWI member’s book, Equality’s Call authored by Deborah Diesen (yes, that Deborah Diesen author of the NYTimes bestselling Pout-Pout Fish series). Do you have books to add? Put them in the comments and I’ll expand the list.

Literacy = the ability to participate in democracy. That’s big, folks.

Books About Voting, Elections, and US Government

• Drawing the Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Voting in America by Tommy Jenkins, illustrated by Kati Lacker (Abrams ComicArts)
• Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Graphic Novel by Cynthia and Sanford Levinson, illustrated by Ally Shwed (First Second, September 2020)
• Finish the Fight!: The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote by Veronica Chambers and the Staff of the New York Times (Versify, August 2020)
• History Smashers!: Women’s Right to Vote by Kate Messner, illustrated by Dylan Meconis (Random House, July 2020)
• How Women Won the Right to Vote: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and Their Big Idea by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, illustrated by Ziyue Chen (HarperCollins)
• I Voted! Making a Choice Means Making a Difference by Mark Shulman, illustrated by Serge Bloch (Neal Porter Books)
• Lifting As We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne (Viking Books for Young Readers)
• One Person, No Vote: How Not All Voters Are Treated Equally (YA Edition) by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden (Bloomsbury YA)
• Sbe Was the First! The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm by Katheryn Russell-Brown, illustrated by Eric Velasquez (Lee & Low, August 2020)
• Stolen Justice: The Struggle for African-American Voting Rights by Lawrence Goldstone (Scholastic)
• The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert (Disney-Hyperion, July 2020)
• V Is for Voting by Kate Farrell, illustrated by Caitlin Kuhwald (Henry Holt & Co., July 2020)
• Vote for Our Future! (Schwartz & Wade) ​
• Added by Carrie:
  Equality’s Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America By Deborah Diesen, illustrated by Magdalena Mora (Beach Lane Books, February 18, 2020)

Yesterday, I posted this visual on my author Instagram feed.

[Feel free to check it out but come right back!]

It speaks to the need we all have to try to maintain a sense of control in difficult times.

I imagine most of us have had to adjust our courses because our pre-pandemic methods and strategies don’t seem to be working right now.

For instance, normally, I’m a half-full person and wake with an excitement for whatever project I’m invested in. Now, I wake with my typical excitement but the feeling is quickly tempered by the realization that yes, we are still in the midst of a huge, unknown, scary storm and we can’t see the back edge of it.

Instead of feeling half-full and positive, I feel impending dread. But DREAD IS NOT CONDUCIVE TO HAPPINESS! DREAD IS NOT CONDUCIVE TO PRODUCTIVITY! DREAD IS NOT CONDUCIVE TO BEING ABLE TO SUPPORT OTHERS!

So, I allow myself the feeling and then picture it as a fluffy white swan feather floating away on the breeze — a spring breeze that is ruffling new leaves outside my window. I see the feather-feeling and then I gently ask it to get the fork out of my house. Sorry if that’s offensive but being real is one of my adjustment strategies. Here are ten more. I hope something here helps you.

Carrie’s Ten Ways to Adjust Course and Still Keep Sailing

10. Two cups of caffeine a day is A-okay. Normally one does it for me but I find myself wanting another and I’m saying yes for now. The corollary to #10 is…

9. Two glasses of cold Chardonnay a day is A-okay. Normally one does it for me but I find myself wanting another and I’m saying yes for now.

8. Spend more outside time. Nature heals; it’s a scientific fact and I feel it. My afternoon outside time is now two or three hours — or more if it is a decent weather day.

7. Set smaller daily goals so I can literally cross more off my list. Those cross-offs are my brain’s whacked way of feeling productive so I’m giving it more opportunities to feel good about itself because why not? Pardon me while I cross off “have second cup of coffee.”

6. Stop what I’m doing and watch the neighbors as they go by. Really look at them. Try to imagine some extra contentment and happy feelings raining down on them like glittery confetti that doesn’t hurt the environment. Normally I’ll see two or three people in a work day. Now, many are walking, biking, running, strollering…it’s great for them and also great for voyeur-clean confetti-tossing me.

5, Take a break and pretend to be my dog. She’s happy most of the time and when I see her tail wag just because she looked at me, I remember that simple things like love for the person who feeds you really do matter.

4. Take deep breaths in and release them a few times while working. Shallow breaths increase feelings of anxiety. Fresh air fuels the brain.

3. Call people who have less ability to connect. Many older folks are scared in a different way, often live alone, and may not have as much technology available for connection. Just pick up the phone and call them. Make their day and feel good about it.

2. Recognize that I still need to create because that’s my jam. Think of this time like creating potential energy. We are skiing/walking/running/biking uphill, creating potential energy with the knowledge that we will release that energy on the downhill. When it is extra hard, use headphones and turn on music that is meaningful and is a signal to create. For me, it is nature sounds on YouTube.

1. Give grace. Toss it around freely to those who may not act like you want or say things you’d rather not hear. I seem to be giving a lot of grace to myself. Oops.

​Please add your own adjustments in the comments. I’d love to hear how you are managing. 

And remember when I said we are still in the midst of a huge, unknown, scary storm and we can’t see the back edge of it? I should have added the word “yet” to the end of the sentence. Although “yet” is a tiny word, it portends a big bright future.

​Take care of yourself.

This Nerdy Book Club blog post, The Power of Listening, by staff development expert Clare Landrigan stopped me in my reading tracks. More accurately, the third to last line is what did it — “Our conversations with them [students] are what spark the love of reading and help them develop a reading identity.”

Say what? A reading identity? Merriam-Webster says a personal identity is “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual.” So a reading identity could be defined as the distinguishing character or personality of a person’s choice in reading material.

This set off a flurry of inquiry in my brain. What is my reading identity? It must change over time, right? Today, I’d describe mine as 1) heavily nonfiction and 2) focused on children’s literature. This is very different from my early mom years which would be best described as 1) cereal boxes and 2) children’s literature. (Hmm. Maybe there’s a correlation there?) Right now, my 6 year old nephew’s reading identity is 1) How To books and 2) Magic Treehouse.

What is your reading identity? How has it changed? Would you like to make a shift in it?
If you are an educator, can you zero in on each of your students’ reading identities? Can you help them describe and develop their own?

If you are an author or illustrator, how does your identity (reading and personal) inform your work? Your voice? Your choice of next project? The way you share your books?

Lots of questions with no right answers. Just a bit of introspection on a beautiful winter day.