It's a happy day here in LathamLand because...
BE A BRIDGE is here!
Is there any better, more versatile metaphor than a bridge?
A bridge connects. It's how you get from here to there. It's stable, steady, secure. It holds you up. It carries you safely over canyons or raging rivers. It's a way to "meet in the middle," to create unity between two sides.
Charles Waters and I were thinking about all those things when we wrote BE A BRIDGE, our 4th book together! It release today from Carolrhoda/Lerner with illustrations by Nabila Adani. Lucky us, to get to work yet again with the brilliant, compassionate Carol Hinz!
There we were, having important conversations with readers of all ages in response to our book CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR? POEMS OF RACE, MISTAKES, AND FRIENDSHIP. We were being honest and vulnerable, sharing our real-life experiences.
And that's a great starting place!
But we wanted to give more. And we wanted to reach an even younger audience. So we started brainstorming really concrete ways we can communicate and actively express love, acceptance, and inclusivity. Here are some of the prompts we used:
Remember a time when someone was a bridge for you. Remember a time when you were a bridge. Remember a time when you wanted to be a bridge but didn't know how. Looking back, what could you have done differently?
It took a LONG TIME—and one inspiring church sermon delivered by first-time preacher Alonso Moreno—for us to reflect and discover the text that appears in the book... but it was worth the struggle and worth the wait. We're grateful to Kirkus Reviews, who called it
"an exuberant ode to the virtues of kindness and inclusion."
Now you, too, can read and share with young readers some ways to BE A BRIDGE!
