Farmingdale Library Teens: BOOKS TO BOOST YOUNG READERS' CULTURAL LITERACY

Farmingdale NY

21 January, 2022

5:29 PM

Description

Press release from Farmingdale Library Teens: January 21, 2022 Cultural literacy is important, and books can play a big role in helping young readers develop it. While exposure to and interaction with people from a wide array of cultural backgrounds is certainly also crucial for young people's development, sometimes sitting down with a good book can provide an engaging point of entry. The books I'm sharing with you today are all aimed at young readers. That means they're all accessible to readers ages 8–12, although of course the reading level varies by the book (as it does by the reader). One thing I love about all of these books is the way they take social situations that may be hard for younger kids to understand and make them accessible. Whether they're exploring the dynamics of growing up trans, thinking through what it means to be a kid during the COVID pandemic, or grappling with political conversations about refugees, all of these books are fantastic conversation starters. If you, like me, are interested in using books to help talk to your young reader about the world, it might be a fun experiment to read some of these books to or with them. (But that's just an idea, so take it with a grain of salt!) I've divided the list into two parts: books that focus on current issues and books that center marginalized perspectives. The books in the first section all revolve around timely topics that feature prominently on the national or international stage in this moment of time. Alternately, the books in the second section are a little less defined by the specific moment and more about spending time with various world views that are underrepresented (or not represented at all) in the mainstream. The books in this section all revolve around timely topics that feature prominently on the national or international stage in this moment of time. This press release was produced by Farmingdale Library Teens. The views expressed here are the author's own.