FOR EDUCATORS

In my role as a novelist, I recently presented an assembly program to students at Gorham High School in Maine. Many had not read my novels, but they came to hear a writer who often writes as a witness to the world and its people. The title of my talk was “Writing as a Witness,” and I wanted to bring them the world.

I visited the Amiko Youth Program in Manchester, where twelve multilingual learners gathered to read Auntie Luce’s Talking Paintings in English and Kreyòl. The children drew their own portraits, explored Haiti through the eyes of a young girl, and discovered what it means to see a home country “deep in your bones.”

Here’s a Behind the Book essay about my picture book “Luis Paints the World.” The book is timely again. It’s a story about a big brother’s deployment to war through the eyes of his little brother who finds a way to mark the days.

Librarians and writers are natural partners. A visiting author can do more than talk about books: with the right preparation, props, visuals, movement and invitations to participate, an author visit can help English learners feel welcomed and give every child a chance to bring their own language and experience to the story.

Joseph’s wish finally comes true: he gets to ride a bike. At a school in Westbrook, Maine, students turned the story into art, drawing their hands and connecting them to create the spokes of a bicycle wheel. The project became part of the Welcoming Library.

Students at Broken Ground School learned Nepali, Bollywood and hip-hop dances, then wrote about what it felt like to move. “Happy,” “excited,” “silly,” “joyful” and “floating” became words for the experience. Dance opened a door to poetry, friendship and imagination.

“Welcome to our house of extravagant colors / in our classroom on Lake Street.” Thirty-five international students welcomed poet Juan Felipe Herrera with songs, stories and poetry. In this classroom, many languages and many voices came together.

At Broken Ground School, “Joseph’s Big Ride” got a magnificent launch with families from around the world. It was read in three languages: English, Nepali, and Kinyarwanda. With ice cream sundaes, a painted Joseph and Whoosh, and a gym full of families, a story written in English became something much bigger.

I taught a Creative Writing class with young college students in their first year. They didn’t flinch from hard material — gender, class, violence, love, family. But why stories? That’s what I wanted to talk about with them. Here’s a bit of our journey through some of the books we read, and our reflections on how hard it is for us to talk to each other, across generations, across class, across cultures.