We Are Water Protectors

    “We come from water.” We Are Water Protectors, author Carole Lindstrom, illustrator Michaela Goade, won the Caldecott Medal, which was the first time in 83 years that a Native American illustrator won the award. We Are Water Protectors was inspired by the many indigenous-led movements across North America, “it issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguarding the Earth’s water from harm and corruption”. 

    The colors used in the book alternated from cool colors, blues and greens that brought a more tranquil feeling, then to warm colors such as red, oranges, and yellows to give off a sense of urgency and danger. When a black snakes threatens to destroy the Earth and poison the water, the colors used were read, orange, and yellow. The words in this book were written complementary with the images, interdependent. The images advance the story of the snake threatening the water supply to connecting the legend to the present-day threat of oil pipelines being built on Native lands. The snake was drawn to look like pipelines killing the Earth.  The illustrations in We Are Water Protectors are very powerful, connecting the people, legend, animals, and the fight to protect our water. The last illustration, taking over two complete pages, show many people, allies, from different tribes, fighting and standing up to protect our sacred water supply. 

Early Literacy Experiences: Blog Post #1

    Thinking back about books from my childhood, memories, and reading experiences was rather difficult at first. Times like these, I’m very thankful to be living back at home with my parents and my childhood library. I took the time to reminisce with my mom about the books she would read to me and the books I attempted to read to my younger sister. My mom would buy us books that she would receive in the mail, she says she has no idea how she was able to buy them. She would save up money and buy bundles that were “buy 7 books for 7.99 and get one free” or “12 for 12.99 and get one free”. My father disapproved and eventually told her to stop when he found out. My mom would attempt to read Dora the Explorer bilingual and Disney books to us. She says these books also helped her learn English.

I attribute my love for reading to my mother because she has always encouraged my sisters and I to read. She is also such a great story teller! I remember how she would read The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar but in Spanish, “¡se encontró convertida en una bellísima mariposa!”. We would do “extension activities” and would look for caterpillar and butterflies in our backyard. 

I also remember trying to teach my little sister the English alphabet and numbers to 100 with pop-up, counting, and ABC books. She shared with me, that she also wanted to become a teacher so she could “read like me”. 

One experience that I would like to incorporate in my classroom is giving my students a book like my “I Like Me!” Book I received in the first grade. This book was given to me as a gift from Rotary Club of Conroe while I attended Anderson Elementary in Conroe, TX. “I Like Me!” Is a not-for-profit, pro-active, personalized program for kindergartners that helps build a healthy self-concept, develops early learning reading skills. The goal of “I like Me!” Is to empower kindergarteners to keep off drugs, out of gangs and in school by showing them that learning can be fun and they can important, successful young citizens with their development of a healthy self-concept through literacy.