Written & Illustrated by: Kathryn Jenkins
For ages: 3 years and up
Language: English
Topics Covered: Literacy, Inclusion, Neurodiversity, Disability, Friendship, Vocabulary, Family, Love, Global Community, Social-Emotional Learning & Development.
Summary: For our second skill to take into 2020 we’ve chosen Inclusion! Our planet is a wonderful, weird, diverse place. It becomes better when we include and advocate for everyone, especially marginalized populations. By understanding the intersections of oppression, we can be better allies and embrace the teachable moments throughout the day.
This is a creative take on an alphabet book, both teaching the letters and telling a story with it. The book encourages the reader to recognize and embrace differences. We really like how the book demonstrates that something or someone might be unfamiliar, but friendship is possible. There is an emphasis on social-emotional learning and kindness to others. In the back is a glossary with all of the words used, and they are great for vocabulary development. This book would be a great tool to inspire action, introduce a new classmate, or help with teaching how to be a good human.
This book was kindly sent to us by Kathryn, but all opinions are our own!
About the Author & Illustrator:
Kathryn Jenkins is the author and illustrator of this book, and also runs a website called Inclusion Project! The website has resources, a list of things that her family loves (that have withstood the test of 3 children!) and a shop where she designs her own inclusion-based shirts.
Here is a blurb from her website about why she does the work she does:
“In 2016, I started Inclusion Project because I wanted to talk about inclusion with others and how its not a place but rather — a mindset. I truly believe that, as a mom to three boys, one of has autism, — we can be more inclusive and kind and respectful and promoting of each other. We can believe in each others success, even though it does look different and because of my strong passion in that belief