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January 20, 2020January 18, 2020 lockehardy

A Boy Like You

November 15, 2019November 13, 2019 lockehardy

The Grizzly Mother

November 3, 2019October 15, 2019 lockehardy

The Week of Music!

October 14, 2019October 14, 2019 lockehardy

Massachusetts Indigenous History- Indigenous People’s Day 2019

October 11, 2019October 10, 2019 lockehardy

The Tiny Activist was able to be a guest on “Reading With Your Kids” Podcast!

September 23, 2019September 22, 2019 lockehardy

Curriculum Review: “Choose Your Own Likes” Talking About Stereotypes

August 13, 2019July 29, 2019 lockehardy

Of Fire and Stars

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Welcome to The Tiny Activist!

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To find the best books!

To spread knowledge and understanding

To make education transformative, not transactional

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Lee Locke-Hardy

Corrie Locke-Hardy

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Today we have the honor of helping with a big announcement! We are so excited to share that our friends at Bharat Babies are growing up! 5 years ago, Bharat Babies started with a vision to share the stories of their home and heritage of India. Their vision is expanding to tell the stories of the entire South Asian experience. Stories that go beyond the borders of India. Stories that go beyond childhood. To reflect their broader mission and vision, their name is changing as well to Mango and Marigold Press, an award-winning independent publishing house that shares the sweet and savory stories of the South Asian experience. So folks, get ready to see a whole new look over at Mango and Marigold Press along with stories of the South Asian experience told not only in children’s literature but also middle grade and young adult. Let us know below what kind of stories you want to see and tag @mangoandmarigoldpress. Who knows, it might become a story! . . #weneeddiversebooks #bharatbabies #new #bigthingscoming #diversereads #readersareleaders #diversebooks #diversekidlit #southasianstories

A Boy Like You opens by talking about how unique every person is, and how the world needs someone exactly like each and everyone one. Our main character (a young boy of color) demonstrates the many attributes a person can have, and how everyone is different. Everyone is smart, but in different ways. Some are more gifted athletically, and some artistically. But everyone should be kind, polite, and help others. Teaching empathy and compassion is crucial to dismantling toxic masculinity, and continuing the fight to dismantle the racist patriarchy that upholds systemic oppression in our nation. Only by continuing the radical fight that our predecessors began can we hope to have an anti-racist and inclusive future. This book is geared towards boys, to help dismantle the stereotypes that force boys and men to feel pressure to embody a single type of masculinity, which can become toxic. Murphy tells the reader to leave every place and every person, better than you found them. The message about the importance of being true to yourself but also a kind and sensitive human being. Although the words in the book could easily be shifted to include “people” instead of “boys” all the time, the text is sending a profound message to boys that they don’t have to be macho and emotionless in order to be seen as a man. We chose this book to also represent our book club theme of Inspire this month as well! This book was sent to us by @sleepingbearpress as part of the #findmestories_bestof2019 list, but all opinions are our own. . . #findmestories_inspire #socialemotionallearning #weneeddiversebooks #diversebooks #toxicmasculinity #kindness #friendship #childrensbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #education #secularhomeschool #diversity #childrenslit #inclusion #diversekidlit #diversebooksforkids #readersareleaders #librariansofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers

This is a really cute, short rhyming book that celebrates not only different skin colors but different families as well! Throughout the book the reader learns all about the wonderful things that skin does for a person, and how it can look differently for everyone. We really love the diverse representation present in these illustrations. Right off the bat, the cover image shows a young girl of color in a wheelchair with a soccer ball playing with other kids running and scootering outside! There are other fabulous examples of diverse families with gay parents, different families with religious head coverings, a child with a large birthmark on their cheek, and a long-haired child with very strong eyebrows. Lauren Tobia has illustrated an incredibly fantastic representation of what life really looks like in many different environments. The text is simple and the rhymes would be really fun to say out loud with a group! This is a book that truly celebrates kindness, community, and loving the unique skin you were born in. . . #weneeddiversebooks #picturebook #picturebooksaremyjam #childrensbooks #readersareleaders #diversebooks #diversebooksforkids #friendship #outdoors #uniqueness #diversity #childrensliterature #education #inclusion #learning #teachersfollowteachers #secularhomeschool #diversekidlit #librariansofinstagram #earlychildhoodeducation #socialemotionallearning #happiness #literacy #learning #readingisfundamental

This book opens with Miep hearing the footsteps of Nazi soldiers, coming to arrest the 8 Jewish people that she’s been helping to hide in attic storage rooms for the past two years. Miep manages to avoid arrest by realizing that she and the soldier are both from Vienna, and is left alone. Miep is able to summon the courage to go upstairs to the secret annex where the Franks and others have been hiding, and she saves Anne’s diary. She is able to hid the diary until the war is over and Mr. Frank returns, he is the only one that makes it out alive. Eventually, the diary is published. This book is somber, tender, and based on Miep’s autobiography. It gives another facet of the WWII experience, this time from a non-Jewish activist committed to the anti-Nazi cause. While the story of Anne Frank is well-known throughout the world, Miep’s story is lesser known. In the back of the book is an author’s note, more information about Miep, and a timeline of her life. She is a beautiful, courageous person. Although she didn’t do any of the actions she’s famous for for glory, she did it to be a good person, not seeing herself as a hero but rather a person just doing her duty. This is a beautiful book to add into any Holocaust education/curriculum, or world history learning. This book was sent to us by Sleeping Bear Press ( @sleepingbearpress )as an entry in the Best Books of 2019 list, but all opinions are our own, as was the decision to review the book separately from the list project. .✍🏽. #findmestories_bestof2019 #childrensbooks #readersareleaders #picturebook #picturebooksaremyjam #history #historicalfigure #AnneFrank #childrensbooks #weneeddiversebooks #neveragain #diversebooks #diversechildrensbooks #secularhomeschool #Judaism #jewishhistory #education #holocaust #holocausthistory #education #inclusion #librariansofinstagram

This book is amazing for several reasons. First, it introduces young children not only to poetry but also to an accomplished poet that they might not be familiar with if they don’t live in Jamaica! Second, it helps normalize the linguistic cultural funds of knowledge that students bring into the classroom with them. Many times, children of color that might speak a patois, pidgin dialect, or AAVE outside of the classroom are shamed for bringing it into school. This invalidates their experiences and furthers the elitism associated with formal/standard English. We should be embracing the lived experiences of students, and having this book that celebrates such a prolific woman is a great addition to bookshelves! Louise is a young girl living in Kingston, Jamaica. She loves words and writing poetry, but the words get stuck when she tries to speak. Louise gains inspiration for her poetry by listening to the sights and sounds of those around her, but she is shamed for it at school. Louise ends up going to another school, but has trouble reciting the poems she memorized out loud. Instead, she musters up courage to speak the lyrical flow of Jamaican Patois that she hears on the streets and in her house, rather than the formal English that she feels might be expected of her in school. To her surprise, her classmates and teachers love Louise’s poem! . . #weneeddiversebooks #diversespines #poccentricnarratives #historicalfigure #louisebennettcoverley #poet #womenpoets #writer #Jamaica #childrensbooks #picturebooks #education #inclusion #diversity #diversebooks #poetrybooks #diversebooksforkids #secularhomeschool #librariansofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #diversekidlit

Since it’s Corrie’s birthday, she wanted to post a book that she’s currently loving and can’t stop talking about. This book is SO cute, we’re a bit obsessed with it. It tackles several issues all at once, and each is incredibly well-done and easy for young readers to understand. This is a book that belongs in every classroom as soon as possible, and we are so grateful to the author and incredibly talented illustrator for bringing this story to life. Everyone thought that Aidan was a girl when he was born, and when he was young it was frustrating to be so misunderstood. Eventually, he figured out a way to express himself and his parents helped make the adjustments he wanted so he could feel more comfortable in what he wore and what his bedroom looked like. Now that Aidan’s mother is pregnant again, Aidan wants to make sure he’s the best big brother possible and this includes making sure that the new baby isn’t misunderstood like he was. The book goes through a lot of the preparations a family makes when getting ready for a new addition, with special care taken not to gender the new baby or put any stereotypes in place in terms of a name or room color. A particularly adorable illustration shows Aidan researching names in a baby name book, but he has changed the title from “boys and girls” to “babies and babies”, specifically wanting a neutral name. The care that Aidan takes shows an immense amount of empathy for his new sibling, wanting them to feel wholly loved and cared for without any of the pressures that gender stereotyping places on a new life. In the back of the story is an author’s note about Kyle Lukoff’s own journey to being his authentic self, and it adds another level of tenderness to the story itself. When Aidan Became A Brother is also our pick for this month’s Read With River book theme of #findmestories_inspire because we love the way that Aidan uses his own experiences as a learning opportunity to make sure that his sibling does not experience the same distress surrounding gendered expectations that he did. This book was sent to us by the @leeandlow for review, but all opinions are our own! . . #weneeddiversebooks #lgbtq #lgbtqyouth

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