January 2022 ("the winter of our discontent"?) requires all our courage to continue! We write about that in the blog this month, but we also draw your attention to those in history who did much more than "continue." They forged new paths. Let's inspire children on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January 17) with stories of this exemplar of moral and civic courage. (The Holidays Tab offers many literary recommendations.) Let's also celebrate two intrepid explorers who embodied physical courage -- Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first to summit Mount Everest in 1953. (See below.) Ever onward, teacher friends!
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Courage is moving beyond fear.
It is having the strength to venture and persevere.
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This month we're showcasing March On! The Day My Brother Changed the World by Christine King Farris. Illustrated by London Ladd. Narrated by Lynn Whitfield.
Written by Dr. King's sister, this moving and hopeful picture book focuses on just one day: August 28, 1963 and MLK's "I have a dream speech" at the National Mall. On that day more than two hundred thousand Americans gathered peacefully at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial to witness for freedom and equal rights for all. The audio version could be very fruitfully played at an all-school assembly. (PS: Despite the fact that the cover image looks angry, the book is not.) | |
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
We each have mountains to climb in January, and these two pulled it off! Exemplars of physical courage and the "spirit of adventure," New Zealand's Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay summitted Mount Everest in 1953, forever silencing the "it can never be done" nay-sayers. Children's literature celebrates the two heroes.
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