Children & Youth Literature

See this student critical thinking activity and handout that provides key criteria for excellence (a discussion guide that can be used and adapted from K-12 grade).

A curriculum for elementary students to read and tell stories together.

In the 22-23 year, we developed a curriculum for elementary teachers to engage students across two settings with three books: Gizo Gizo by Emily Williamson, Nana Akua Goes to School by Tricia Elam Parker, and Mama’s Amazing Cover Cloth by Ruby Aya Goka. Elementary teachers can use these lessons on the three books with their own classrooms.  Check out our site for the curriculum and to see the children’s connections, collaborations and their meaning-making while reading and telling stories together.

This is an interactive map for educators to support second grade students’ engagement with African literature in an accurate and innovative manner. The map markers invite students to access read-alouds from various countries as well as people’s commentary on the books from their perspectives as nationals of various countries.

Africa Access is a 501 c (3) organization that was founded in 1989 to help schools, public libraries, and parents improve the quality of their K-12 literary collections on Africa. Africa Access is the go-to resource for looking up African children’s literature by country, grade-level, theme and accessing book reviews.

We encourage Boston-area teachers to access the African Studies Center K-16 Education Outreach Teaching Africa Library, which is housed on Boston University’s campus. The Teaching Africa Library is an extensive collection of materials useful for teaching about Africa for all grade levels. Our collection contains adult and children’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as movies, curriculum guides, clothing, and travel kits.

The Children’s Africana Book Awards (CABA) annually showcases authors and illustrators of the best children’s and young adult books on Africa published or republished in the U.S. Africa Access and the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association (ASA) created CABA in 1991 to encourage the publication and use of accurate, balanced children’s materials about Africa.

A list of recommended children’s picture books to teach children about Africa. The list was curated by the K-16 Outreach Education program and is designated for grades PreK-5th grade.

A list of poems about rain from various locations compiled by Barbara Brown, Ph. D.