Blackstone Elementary School Library Celebrates Read Across America Week!
/By JP Blasi, SSYP Development and Communications Fellow
Across the country, March 1-5, 2021 was Read Across America Week (RAAW). RAAW is an annual time that schools and libraries use to celebrate reading and books. RAAW has been a part of the calendar of St. Stephen’s Youth Programs (SSYP) for more than a decade, as SSYP leads the school library at the Blackstone Elementary School, which is directly across the street from our South End site.
This past September, even in the midst of the pandemic, SSYP welcomed a new Library Coordinator to the school, Maura O’Toole. O’Toole brings 14 years of experience working in other Boston Public School libraries, Plus, she is a product of the Boston Public Schools herself, a first for this position.
During RAAW 2021 at the Blackstone, regular classroom activities were accompanied by some incredible events. Teachers, students, parents, and partners celebrated the ways the Blackstone Library has pivoted during Covid, providing virtual programs and recorded video read-alouds.
Many of the events of RAAW were made possible thanks to the SSYP-Blackstone partnership with WonderMore, a non-profit that “connects Boston-area students to authors and illustrators who reflect our diverse and vibrant communities.” WonderMore assisted in arranging two virtual author visits during the week. Authors Raul the Third and Lulu Delacre are both award-winning Latinx writers. Commenting after the events, O’Toole emphasized how important this representation was for students, especially for students in the CABA class at the Blackstone who are immersed in learning English. “Most children’s--whether or not they are rich or poor--first exposure to art is through books,” O’Toole said, “and it is especially important for them to see a Spanish-speaking American author [who looks like them] visit their school.”
Students at the SSYP Resource Center watches Raul the Third’s virtual visit to the Blackstone, which included a tour of the author’s studios.
In addition to setting up author visits at the Blackstone, WonderMore donated 85 copies of Raul the Third’s new book ¡Vamos! Let's Go to the Market (World of ¡Vamos!) to the second grade classrooms, ensuring that each second grader could take home a book of their own. Plus, when Lulu Delacre met with the CABA classroom she donated books, each of the 21 students in that classroom were thrilled to have their own copy.
RAAW wrapped up with one more great opportunity. In conjunction with the MLK Season of Action--two months of learning, service, and action planned and carried out by parents and staff and partners from SSYP and the Blackstone--the Blackstone Library organized supporters who donated more than $2500 in funds and directly-purchased books to add to fourteen classroom libraries in grades 3-5. Special shout-out to St. Elizabeth’s, Sudbury and Porter Square Books, which were big parts of this effort. All of the books focused on social justice movements and civil rights heroes. A total of 326 new books were added to the classroom collections, about 23 new books per mini-library!
Some of the 326 new books on civil rights and justice donated to Blackstone School classrooms
Despite the virus and remote schooling, Read Across America Week for 2021 was one of the most successful ever! Big gratitude to all who made it possible.
JP Blasi is the Development and Communications Fellow at SSYP through the College for Social Innovation for the Spring 2021 semester. He is a junior studying English: Text/Business Writing/Digital Studies at the University of New Hampshire. JP has a passion for youth education and has worked as a summer counselor in his hometown. He is now helping out in the Resource Center at St Stephen’s Youth Programs. He loves the outdoors and is an avid Boston sports fan.