By Kelsey Nickerson

Bookends are among our favorite DIY book crafts. Not only are they a must-have for any book-loving household—they’re also an awesome secret weapon for getting kids to read. Just bookend a selection of tempting titles on a table or anywhere kids will come across them, then let their curiosity do the rest. 

We also love bookends for breaking up a book collection into reading levels and subject areas, like fiction genres or nonfiction topics. And when your library overflows, you can extend your shelf space by using them to create rows of books atop a bookcase or counter. 

There are so many directions you can take this fun DIY painted brick book craft. Get as detailed as you like, or create an “antiqued” look with a sponge. Bring kids in on the fun and let them decorate their own bookends with handprints or designs from their imaginations. You may even want to create a whole series of bookends to display throughout your home.
To inspire you, here are some photos I found from the Human Behavior blog.

Painted Brick Bookend
Painted Brick Bookend

Materials:

  • Brick(s) (They don’t have to be perfect! Chips or marks on the bricks give your bookends character.)
  • Acrylic paint
  • Painters tape
  • Paint brushes/rollers

Optional: (But you can always free-hand your design if you’re feeling extra crafty!)

  • Letter stencils
  • Design stencils

Cost: Hopefully you have some painting materials on hand, but this DIY book craft should cost around $15 if you have to purchase some. Remember, you don’t need to use a brand-new brick. It’s usually easy to find people with leftover bricks to give away. I think old bricks add character to a craft like this!

Painted Brick Bookend

Step One:

The first thing I did was decide on my design. I spent some time poking around for inspiration. There are many variations to this craft, so it was fun to search for ideas. If you have a favorite book, that’s a great place to start! Knowing where you’ll use your bookend could also help you decide on designs or colors.

Pro Tip: If you want to create a pair of bookends, just remember which side of each brick will be facing out!

I decided to use my bookend for some new cookbooks I have, so I wanted to find a fun design of a colorful cookbook. Here was my inspiration: Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Painted Brick Bookend

Step Two:

To start, you will put painter’s tape along both short sides of the brick and one of the long sides—these will be the book’s “pages.”

Painted Brick Bookend

Step Three:

Next, paint the exposed part of the brick. This will be the front and back covers and the spine of your book. You will need to let this paint dry completely before moving on to the next step!

Painted Brick Bookend
Painted Brick Bookend

Step Four:

Now you’ll paint the pages of your book. This time, cover the edges that you just painted with painter’s tape, so only the brick you have yet to paint is exposed. Then paint the “pages” white (or gold for an antique gilt-edged look!). Again, wait for the paint to dry before moving on.

Painted Brick Bookend
Painted Brick Bookend

Steph Five:

Here’s the fun part! It’s now time to add the details that bring your book to life. In this step, you’ll decorate the spine and front cover of your brick. You can use painter’s tape, stencils, different-sized paint brushes, or even a sponge for the antique look. 

You can spend as much or little time as you would like here. You can see from mine that I used the same color scheme and a similar pattern as Julia Child’s cookbook! For the title, I used rubber stamps that I had on hand, but you can also use a stencil or just hand-write your text.

Painted Brick Bookend
Painted Brick Bookend

Be sure to let your bookend dry completely, and enjoy! Let us know in the comments how you use your DIY bookend. 

Painted Brick Bookend

Kelsey Nickerson creates abstract paintings with rich color, texture, and movement, and enjoys a good book craft. She oversees web production and photography for MayaSmart.com.

By nature, children are learners and discoverers. But there are some crucial skills—like letter shapes, names, and sounds—that parents should teach rather than wait for kids to sort out on their own. And the more fun and light-hearted the approach, the better.

Try this neighborhood scavenger hunt activity to engage kids and have family fun outdoors. Getting outside, moving around, and boosting letter engagement is a win-win-win. Benefits include:

  1. Affordability. You don’t need to purchase a thing for this activity. The items on your hunt list can all be found outside, and you can keep track of items with pen and paper.
  2. Simplicity. You can read hunt item names aloud for younger children or have more advanced readers scan the list themselves. Easy!
  3. Health. The neighborhood scavenger hunt is completed outdoors, so it gives you and your child exercise and fresh air.
  4. Presence. Strolling the neighborhood at a leisurely pace provides a welcome break from technology and a chance to notice surroundings.
  5. Togetherness. This time spent with your child will strengthen your bond and may lead to future nature walks and educational outings.

Plus, the activity is adaptable enough to try with a wide range of ages. The neighborhood scavenger hunt helps preschoolers and elementary school children increase their letter knowledge. But by incorporating camera phones and social media, your middle schoolers and even high schoolers can get engaged in the hunt as well. They could take pictures of their finds from A to Z and share and compare the results with their friends.

Materials: 

  • List of hunt items
  • Pen
  • Notebook or paper (optional)
  • Camera (optional)

Steps for Your Neighborhood Letter Scavenger Hunt

  1. Decide which letters to find. Depending on your child’s age, attention span, and personality, you may opt to use the entire 26 letters of the alphabet, or focus on a subset of letters, such as those in the child’s name. The key is to provide the right level of challenge for your child.
  2. Set search parameters. After you decide on the letters, figure out how you want your child to look for them. Some examples include:
    • Finding items that begin with each letter (A for acorn)
    • Finding the letters themselves (S in a stop sign)
    • Finding objects that make the shape of a letter (X pattern in a backyard fence)
  3. Set a time limit. I recommend about 30 minutes for the outdoor scavenger hunt, but you can use more or less time if needed.
  4. Start hunting. Explain to your child that you’re about to begin an alphabet-inspired adventure and get going!

Alphabet-Inspired Scavenger Hunt Items

Use the suggested items below as inspiration for your list. Be creative and see what alternative scavenger hunt items you and your child can find for each letter. Make adjustments on the fly as you explore your neighborhood on foot.

  • Acorn
  • Bike
  • Cat
  • Dog
  • Earrings
  • Fire hydrant
  • Grass
  • Hoop
  • Insect
  • Jump rope 
  • Kite
  • Leaf
  • Mailbox 
  • Neighbor 
  • Orange
  • Pet
  • Question
  • Rock
  • Sign 
  • Trash can
  • Umbrella
  • Vehicle
  • Water hose
  • X shape
  • Yard
  • Zipper

Four Ways to Customize Your Alphabet Scavenger Hunt

The‌ ‌beauty‌ of ‌neighborhood scavenger‌ ‌hunts‌ ‌is‌ ‌that‌ ‌there‌ ‌are‌ ‌a‌ ‌lot‌ ‌of‌ ‌ways‌ ‌to‌ ‌change‌ ‌this simple activity to keep it‌ engaging for you and your children over time. Here‌ ‌are‌ ‌just‌ ‌a‌ ‌few‌ tips:‌ ‌

  1. Take‌ ‌turns‌ ‌with‌ ‌your‌ ‌child‌ ‌to‌ ‌find‌ ‌letters.‌ ‌This‌ ‌is especially‌ helpful ‌if‌ ‌your‌ ‌child‌ ‌is‌ ‌having‌ ‌trouble‌ ‌with‌ ‌certain‌ ‌letters‌ ‌and‌ ‌sounds.‌ ‌
  2. Work‌ ‌with‌ ‌your‌ ‌child‌ ‌to‌ ‌plan‌ ‌a‌ ‌route‌ ‌for‌ ‌the‌ ‌scavenger‌ ‌hunt.‌ ‌If‌ ‌there’s‌ ‌a‌ ‌particular‌ ‌place‌ ‌they‌ ‌love‌ ‌to‌ ‌visit,‌ ‌you‌ ‌can‌ ‌add that stop as‌ ‌part‌ ‌of‌ ‌your‌ ‌plan.‌ ‌
  3. Create your own list by jotting down items as you find them.
  4. See‌ ‌how‌ ‌many‌ ‌times‌ ‌you‌ ‌can‌ ‌find‌ ‌a‌ ‌certain‌ ‌letter‌ ‌or‌ ‌letter‌ ‌sound‌ ‌while‌ ‌on‌ ‌the‌ ‌outdoor‌ scavenger‌ ‌hunt.‌ ‌For example, how‌ ‌many‌ ‌items‌ ‌start‌ ‌with‌ ‌the‌ ‌letter‌ ‌S‌ ‌on‌ ‌your‌ ‌hunt?

Three Scavenger Hunt Books for Children

Introduce or extend the activity with some scavenger hunt reading inspiration. Here are a few titles to consider.

The Lunchnapper by Rick DeDonato (Ages: 3-7)

Pipsie and her turtle friend, Alfred, are on the best school trip ever—a nature scavenger hunt! The search deepens when they discover their lunches have gone missing!

Go Find It! An Outdoor Active Scavenger Hunt by Anastasia Kierst (Ages: 5-8)

Outdoor exercise and exploration are essential for young children. Head to your nearest park, playground, or even your own backyard and don’t forget to pack your sense of adventure.

Sunny Day Scavenger Hunt by Meredith Rusu (Ages: 8-12 years)

The WellieWishers are going on a very special scavenger hunt—a colorific one! Each friend chooses a color and whoever finds the most things around the garden in their color wins. This storybook is based on the bestselling American Girl characters.

Try this easy literacy-focused scavenger hunt with your children and let us know how it works for you. How did your kids enjoy finding various alphabet-oriented objects around your neighborhood?

Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

Why not bring a touch of spring into your home, with some reading-themed floral decor? These DIY book-page hydrangeas offer a literary twist on classic paper flowers. Display them around the house or feature them as centerpieces at a festive meal. You can even mix them with real flowers to create a distinctive bouquet.

Tip: These delicate blooms can make unique decorations for a child’s birthday, spotlighting literacy and nature in one pretty package. (Complete the theme with our DIY bookmarks or honey-bear bookends as favors.)

This book craft may be challenging for some younger children, so it’s a good project for one-on-one time with an older kid or for a little me-time. With just three steps, it’s pretty simple for bigger hands once you get the hang of it!

Materials:

  • Styrofoam balls or other small balls (I used ping-pong balls, because I had them on hand)
  • Scalloped circle paper punch (you can buy various sizes at any craft store; mine was $10 and is 1½” in diameter)
  • Pages from obsolete books (or magazines)
  • Glue gun and glue sticks
  • Unsharpened pencil

Cost: This craft should cost you under $15, depending on what materials you need to purchase.

DIY Book Craft Paper Hydrangeas

Step One:

Using your scalloped paper punch, punch out circles from the book pages. These will be the petals of your flowers. You will need quite a few! I must have made about 100 or so. Part-way through, I realized it was most efficient to fold the book pages in half before punching, so I could punch two circles at a time.

DIY Book Craft Paper Hydrangeas
DIY Book Craft Paper Hydrangeas

Step Two:

Using the unsharpened pencil, place the center of the paper circle on the end of the pencil, and form the sides of the circle up around it. The paper will look scrunched up, with one small circular flat area. I found it easiest to make a whole bunch of petals before going to the next step of gluing them on.

DIY Book Craft Paper Hydrangeas
DIY Book Craft Paper Hydrangeas

Step Three:

With the pencil inside one of the petals, take your hot-glue gun and place a small drop of glue on the flat area, then use the pencil to press the petal directly onto the ball. Repeat this process until you have covered the entire ball with your paper petals. You want to make sure to glue the petals as close together as possible, to give your hydrangea the full look you’re going for.

DIY Book Craft Paper Hydrangeas
DIY Book Craft Paper Hydrangeas

And voila! 

Since I used ping-pong balls, my flowers are all the same size. Next time I do this craft, I think it will be fun to use different-sized balls to create varying sizes. You could also try mixing up the petal sizes, by using different-sized hole punches.

DIY Book Craft Paper Hydrangeas

You can arrange your paper hydrangeas in a bowl or vase, place them along a bookshelf or mantelpiece, or even scatter them over a tablecloth for a charming effect. You might try pairing them with a bold color or bright flower petals, to offset the subtle tones of your paper flowers. 

Let us know in the comment section how you arrange your brainy blossoms.

DIY Book Craft Paper Hydrangeas

By Kelsey Nickerson

Looking for a way to beautify a room and highlight reading at the same time? This DIY book craft, inspired by A Fresh Squeezed Life, creates a lovely painted book stack. It can bookend your favorite titles on a shelf or hold its own as a table accent.  Either way, it makes a unique addition to a child’s room, living room, or office.

Affordable and fun, this is the perfect way to upcycle obsolete or outdated books (old textbooks, anyone?) and display an inspirational phrase in your home. Go ahead and get creative in choosing what to stamp on your upcycled book stack!

MATERIALS:

  • Obsolete books 
  • Alphabet stamps
  • Paint (I used white acrylic paint, but you could also use chalk paint)
  • Foam brush
  • Miscellaneous ribbon or twine and greenery for decoration (or anything else you can think of!)
  • Glue gun and glue sticks
  • Sandpaper (for correcting any mistakes)

Cost: You may have most of these materials on hand already! But this project should not cost more than $15-20 even if you have to purchase some materials.

DIY Painted Book Stack

Ideas for Quotes:

What phrase will you showcase on your upcycled book stack? Feel free to borrow the one I used, or pick your own. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Choose a quote about reading. Goodreads has a list of reading-related quotes.
  • Use a quote you love from a book. Or choose one from a child’s favorite book to encourage their reading.
  • Write your own or  invite your child to take the lead.

Share what you use in the comments!

Step One:

Set up your work surface by laying down scrap paper. Make sure you have enough room to lay out all the books you’re using. Then paint the spines of your books with a few thick coats of paint, letting each coat dry before you add the next one. Because many hardcovers have titles embossed or imprinted on the spines, you’ll need to put on enough paint to create a smooth surface. It took me about four coats to get even coverage.

DIY Painted Book Stack

Step Two:

Now you’re going to move on to the sides of the books. Again, apply nice, even layers of paint, letting them dry in between. You won’t need to apply the paint as thick in this step. I did 2 coats here, just enough to have solid coverage over the book cover.

DIY Painted Book Stack

Step Three:

Lastly, paint the inside edges of the book. Just a single coat is fine here!

DIY Painted Book Stack

Step Four:

Let the books dry completely. Don’t rush this step! I recommend waiting at least a few hours.

Step Five:

Now the fun part! Decide what quote or message you want to have on your book stack. You will want to double-check that the words fit on the spine. To do this, simply line up your stamps next to the book as you’re planning to stamp them.

DIY Painted Book Stack

Step Six:

Stamp the spine of your book just as you mapped it out in the previous step. Don’t make yourself crazy trying to stamp each letter perfectly. The imperfections add a little character to the project and will make your book stack extra cute in the end! If you do make a mistake or have excess ink that really bothers you, don’t worry: You can use sandpaper to remove the ink. I thought this step was going to be tricky, but it was actually my favorite part of the craft, so just have fun with it.

DIY Painted Book Stack

Step Seven:

The final step is assembling your book stack and adding the finishing touches. Pick materials to go along with your theme, like different ribbons, twine, and greenery or other decorations! Now, glue the books one on top of the other with your glue gun. Then tie ribbon or twine around the stack, securing with glue as needed, and glue on any other decorations you choose. 

DIY Painted Book Stack

And remember: this project is about expressing book love and bringing something fresh, beautiful, and meaningful into your home. Don’t stress about perfect painting, stamping, or styling. Whatever you end up with is uniquely yours and perfectly charming. Work with what you’ve got, get creative, and have fun!

What quote or phrase would you use on your book stack? Let us know in the comments!

Kelsey Nickerson creates abstract paintings with rich color, texture, and movement, and enjoys a good book craft. She oversees web production and photography for MayaSmart.com

DIY Painted Book Stack

Every book deserves a bookmark. And creating your own signature design is a fun and easy DIY book craft that doesn’t require tons of materials or cleanup! Just like children often eat more vegetables when they help prepare a meal, kids can feel more invested in books when they personalize them with special bookmarks all their own.

Try this quick craft project, inspired by Somewhat Simple, to engage your kids with the titles on their bookshelves. A custom bookmark with a shiny ribbon might be just the thing to encourage them to crack open that new book. Of course, a great story’s your best bet to keep the pages turning once they do.

MATERIALS:

  • Scrapbook paper or other patterned paper (or paint or color your own) 
  • Old book or magazine pages
  • Scissors
  • Glue stick
  • Fun ribbon
  • Standard round hole punch
  • Optional: Craft punches (I used a star and heart shape, but there are endless choices!)
DIY Book Craft: Bookmarks for Kids

A Word on Book Page Crafts

You need to cut up pages of print for this DIY craft. As a book lover, I understand that cutting up a book can feel wrong. But I celebrate the idea of upcycling truly outdated and obsolete books to give them a second life and fresh purpose. Outdated law, science, or medical texts and irreparably damaged books of all kinds are great candidates for upcycling—guilt free.

Now, let’s begin!

STEPS

1. Pick fun, bright paper for your designs! Let kids choose their own paper to get them engaged in the activity. You can also use cardstock craft paper for sturdier bookmarks. If you don’t have any scrapbook paper or patterned cardstock lying around, take this craft to the next level by coloring or painting a pattern on plain paper.

DIY Book Craft: Bookmarks for Kids

2. Cut your scrapbook paper and book or magazine pages to the size you want for your bookmark. I traced a small box, but you could use a ruler instead, or trace a bookmark you already have. Cut two pieces of your scrapbook paper and one piece of the book/magazine for each bookmark.

DIY Book Craft: Bookmarks for Kids
DIY Book Craft: Bookmarks for Kids

3. Use decorative punches if you have them, or a regular hole punch, to punch out a design on one of the pieces of your patterned scrapbook paper. Get creative! The best surprise is what your pattern looks like with your book page behind it.

4. Put glue all over the backside of your punched scrapbook paper, then place it on top of your book or magazine page. Press firmly to secure. Put a generous amount of glue on your other piece of scrapbook paper and press to the backside of your bookmark.

DIY Book Craft: Bookmarks for Kids

5. Add a small hole with your regular hole punch at the top of your bookmark. Loop some ribbon through, tie it off, and you’re done!

DIY Book Craft: Bookmarks for Kids

Now you and your children have beautiful bookmarks to hold your spot as you read. 

This DIY bookmark craft is as versatile as it is easy, and there are endless ways to use the bookmarks you create. Think inexpensive favors for a birthday party, shower, or wedding—or gift tags during the holidays. So many possibilities!

Will you try this DIY book craft with your kids? Let us know what you think!

Kelsey Nickerson creates abstract paintings with rich color, texture, and movement, and enjoys a good book craft. She oversees web production and photography for MayaSmart.com.

DIY Book Craft: Bookmarks for Kids

When people ask what my favorite book is, I always respond with Jacqueline Woodson’s 2012 picture book Each Kindness. But truth be told, everything she writes, from picture book to poetry to novel, is wonderful. Each new work prompts me to consider central questions of who we are, why we are, and how we can grow for the better. And, because I adore her writing and her advocacy for reading, I interview her every chance I get.

Here’s an excerpt from our October conversation about her novel Red at the Bone for BookPeople in Austin. We discussed how to write memorably, build authorial confidence, and address different audiences. Her words inspire me to write more, and more bravely.

Your writing has a certain velocity to it. In Red at the Bone, you jump right into the story and move from moment to moment. You go back and forth in time, incorporating characters who are in the moment but also in memories. What gives you the confidence to leave out the adjectives, strict chronology, and detailed descriptions?

I think poetry gives me a lot of confidence—reading poetry and seeing the chances that poets take with their writing. Having written 31 books gives me a lot of confidence, knowing that I can kind of take these chances in my writing. Also, wanting to create a new narrative and not tell the same old story the same old way again [gives me confidence], mainly because I get bored. If I’m writing and I’m feeling bored writing, I know that writing is boring.

One thing about time is no one ever comes into someone’s life at the beginning of it. It’s the beginning of a relationship, but it’s not the beginning of that life. When I was thinking about the whole intersectionality of the characters, I had to look at the beginnings and the endings and the middles of their lives and write accordingly. And so I wasn’t going to write Chapter One, this happened, Chapter Two, Chapter Three. I had to go back and forth in time to tell this story.

At the start of the book, when Melody is being presented to society, she has chosen a questionable version of Prince’s “Darling Nikki” as the music to accompany her grand entrance. The original song is so raw and percussive. There’s a lot of screaming and grunting and all this stuff going on. But on this occasion, it’s a wordless cello, harmonica, and bassoon rendition. You can just imagine that remix of the ritual. So tell us a bit about that music choice and that character’s debut.

So, we’re in 21st century Brooklyn, and here is this stuff from the early 1900’s that they’re asking her to pay homage to. And she’s a teenager. Having a teenager of my own, I know they are constantly pushing against those boundaries. So I asked myself, how would this character push against this boundary? And, of course, “Darling Nikki.” I knew a girl named Nikki, I guess you could say she was a sex fiend, I met her at a hotel lobby, masturbating with a magazine, are the opening lyrics of this song.

She has this huge fight with her mother about that song. It is about her having agency, her saying, yes, I am part of this narrative, but I am also my own person and I’m going to do stuff differently, and Prince just worked.

The book opens with Melody turning 16. Other scenes reflect on her parents’ teen years, yet Red at the Bone was written for adult readers. How do you decide, as a writer, this one is for adult readers, this one is for young readers?

One of the things with young adult literature is the character tends to stay the same age, and it’s from their point of view. [In Red at the Bone,] some of the points of view are adults and some of them young adults. I don’t curse in my young adult books and my children’s books and I curse a lot in this book. There’s not any sex in my young adult or children’s books and there’s that in this. That’s not to say that there aren’t young adult or children’s books that have sex and cursing in them, it’s just my personal choice not to do that.

One other thing that feels very adult to me is the way I move through time. I do think a younger reader would have a hard time following that because it comes from a place of experience that I think happens when we’re a little bit older. We know that life is tangential, right? We go off on tangents and then we will return to a place. But [when writing] for young people, I tend toward a more straight narrative.

Do you approach writing a picture book, a middle grade, a young adult, an adult project differently?

Yeah. Whenever I do a picture book, it’s like I’m writing a poem. I’m very intentional about the line breaks. Look at something like The Other Side:

That summer the fence that stretched through our town seem bigger. Line break. We lived in the yellow house on one side of it. Line break. White people lived on the other. Line break. Momma said don’t climb over that fence when you play. Line break. She said it wasn’t safe.

So each line offers a picture into the world that moves the reader along the page. And then by the time you get to “She said it was a mistake,” the reader wants to turn the page to find out what was a mistake, right? You want to constantly have the reader turning the page. Really young kids don’t have a long attention span and if you don’t deliver with that first line, you’ve lost them. You know, they’re done, they’re like, “This is a wrap—where is the next book that’s going to entertain me?” And I have a deep respect for that.

When I’m writing for middle graders, it’s much more immediate. When you look at something like Harbor Me, I’m writing in the face and in the conversation and in the world. With young adults, it’s a bigger canvas and they can assume more, they’re kind of meeting me from their experience a little more, so I can imply more.

And then, of course, when you get to adults, the reader is bringing a lot more of their own experience to the narrative. So the tone is different, too.

And are you able to work in all the different spaces simultaneously?

Yeah, I just finished a picture book and I’m working on a middle grade book. When I was writing Red as a Bone, I was also working on Harbor Me and The Day You Begin, so I’m all over the place.

As the Library of Congress’s 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, you had a slogan: Reading = Hope x Change. Do you have the same sense of mission for your books?

I do believe that when we read it gives us hope. I learned that directly through young people. You can write a book that doesn’t necessarily have a happy ending, but as long as there’s hope somewhere in the book, you’ve done your work.

I feel like I’ve also brought that to my adult novels. That hope has to be there. If we didn’t have it, we wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning. And I do think that when we read a book that we really love and deeply engage in, it changes us. We’re a different person when we close that book than when we opened it. We’ve gotten into a different world. We learned something we didn’t know about people we didn’t know. Our empathy has grown.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Recommended Viewing

Jessica “Culture Queen” Hebron is on a mission to make Kwanzaa fun, enticing, and effortless for families to celebrate. “We have several different black people holidays, but this is the big one,” she explains. “I think it’s really cool that black people have something just for them that lasts seven days, helps you to align yourself culturally, and gives you like a cultural sense of self.”

She believes that the keys to bolstering participation in the holiday she loves are to start slow and focus on the fundamentals. Kwanzaa’s Swahili language, formal table setting, and candle lighting ritual can intimidate newcomers, so she recommends that people of all ages learn about the holiday through picture books. The illustrations, examples, and simple wording make the holiday accessible and engaging. “Once you’re interested in it, then you’ll go and read all the heavy material,” she says.

Above all, the holiday affirms cultural pride and solidarity. “If you’re trying to find yourself and you’re trying to figure out what it means to be black and American or African American, these are very uplifting, positive, universal principles that you can try to follow and align your life with to give yourself self-empowerment,” she explains. “When I was a kid, I just liked anything that made me feel black and proud. And every year, the thing that keeps me celebrating Kwanzaa is to help to teach other people who might have misconceptions about it.”

Here are five picture books Culture Queen recommends. Each shows families living the seven principles of Kwanzaa: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), and Imani (Faith).

Together for Kwanzaa

By Juwanda G. Ford
Illustrated by Shelly Hehenberger

Amid the familiar hustle and bustle of the winter holidays, a little girl waits for her big brother to make his way home through a big snowstorm. “They’re excited about all of the traditions that they can celebrate together and it just won’t be Kwanzaa without big brother,” Culture Queen says. “It’s a nice story to suck you into a narrative about Kwanzaa that doesn’t necessarily immediately beat you over the head with teaching the principles.”

Purchase

It's Kwanzaa Time!: A Lift-The-Flap Story

By Synthia Saint James

Culture Queen appreciates the clear discussion of Kwanzaa principles and simple illustrations in this book, which was written and illustrated by the designer of the first Kwanzaa postage stamp. “I like [the author’s] style and I honestly think that the Kwanzaa books for the little kids work best for the adults as well,” she says. “[Keeping things simple] helps us to learn and remember.”

Purchase

My First Kwanzaa

By Karen Katz

Karen Katz’s simple take on Kwanzaa materials and principles makes her book a great introductory text. “It breaks the principles down and it gives examples through the little girl [character] of how to practice the principle for her age group,” Culture Queen explains. “So, like for self-determination, it’ll say, I ask Mommy to braid my hair in an African way. It makes me feel proud. Now, that sounds very simple, but what she’s saying is that I’m expressing myself culturally by getting cornrows.”

Purchase

Kevin's Kwanzaa

By Lisa Bullard
Illustrated by Constanza Basaluzzo

Kevin’s Kwanzaa is a longer pick, but still short enough to hold attention in group settings. This Culture Queen favorite offers short encyclopedia-like info boxes throughout the text to offer context and explanation. “It’s rich, so you could probably read it a couple of times to the kids and each time focus on different parts,” she suggests.

Purchase

My Family Celebrates Kwanzaa

By Lisa Bullard
Illustrated by Constanza Basaluzzo

Like Kevin’s Kwanzaa, this longer story creates opportunities to intersperse reading with audience activities, such as selecting items for the Kwanzaa table. She asks participants questions like, what fruit should we put on the corner of the table? Then prompts them to get up and take a look. “Movement and arts integration is how people learn,” she explains. “It’s about teaching in a way that people can understand.”

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In December 2014, I attended a Kwanzaa workshop at Central Montessori School in Richmond, Virginia, that continues to resonate, across years and miles. The speaker was Kwanzaa educator Jessica “Culture Queen” Hebron, and her celebration—culturally rooted, historically aware, hands-on, and high-energy—introduced Kwanzaa to my toddler daughter in grand fashion. She transformed the gathering space with an ornate Kwanzaa table and song, dance, crafts, and stories that kept families engaged from beginning to end.

Culture Queen’s hallmark is crafting experiences that leave kids humming with positivity and enthusiasm for themselves and African American culture. Her method builds self-esteem through repetition and affirmation; her multisensory engagement immerses kids in a world of color, sound, movement, and excitement. She stimulates young minds through the body, then uses stories and activities to make important cultural and historical lessons stick.

Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with her about her own formative Kwanzaa experiences and how we parents can introduce or elevate the holiday in our own homes this holiday season. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation.

What’s your first Kwanzaa memory?

Well, the very first one was with a family friend named Njambi. She was our aunt’s best friend, and she was very Afrocentric. She invited us to a celebration in someone’s home and I didn’t understand what was going on at the time; I just knew that there was a lot of stuff about Africa and there was music and drumming and dancing and great food. And I remember liking it because I loved everything she did, because she was like a cultural fairy godmother.

My first official Kwanzaa celebration was with Jack and Jill and it was in the early nineties. I was probably in second grade—I have the picture from it. My mom dressed my sister and me in matching African outfits and I remember the whole room being decorated with red, black and green balloons and streamers. And, you know, I remember the parents of my friends working together to create the ceremony and to educate us. It was great. Since then I’ve been to many more and facilitated many more, but I have the picture from my first, so it’s kind of cool to see that I still do it now.

What’s kept you celebrating it all these years?

Most holidays that we have are so old. You might know the origins from looking them up, but you really can’t pinpoint a founder. So the founder of Kwanzaa is still alive. I’ve met him several times and he’s aware of my work. Kwanzaa is only 53 years old.

It’s not our only African American holiday, but it’s our only African American holiday that lasts seven days. This is the big one. I think it’s really cool that black people have something just for them that lasts seven days, helps you to align yourself culturally, and gives you a cultural sense of self.

If you’re trying to find yourself and you’re trying to figure out what it means to be black and American or African American, [Kwanzaa celebrates] very uplifting, positive, universal principles that you can try to follow and align your life with to give yourself self-empowerment. When I was a kid, I didn’t know that I would take such a liking to it, but I just liked anything that made me feel black and proud.

Every year, the thing that keeps me celebrating Kwanzaa is to help to teach other people who might have misconceptions about it. I try to make the celebration seem so fun and enticing that it’s effortless for them to celebrate and they see how easy it is to incorporate it into their holiday traditions.

How do you think your own celebration of Kwanzaa has evolved over time as you’ve gained experience with the ceremony and have performed it yourself and participated in different versions of it over time?

It’s always a creative challenge to see how do I keep it fresh for the year and every year. Even though I try to have some things that I do every single year, I always try to challenge myself to do one thing differently.

[The first] year I had my sister, who’s an architect and interior designer, design me a really giant kinara, the Kwanzaa candle holder…When I’m doing big events, I want people to be able to see it because I’m teaching from it. The prop didn’t hold up too well after so many programs, so for the second year, she designed it out of wood, and that was amazing. The third year I asked her could we make the candles flameless LED candles so I could let the kids have the experience of lighting the candles without us having to do fire. In this 10th year, I actually had my logo engraved on all of the Kwanzaa kinaras. I also had a collapsible Kwanzaa set designed so that when I’m traveling on a plane or going from place to place I can lift it.

For me, it’s about how do I use ingenuity to make Kwanzaa engaging. There is a competition with Christmas, I have to admit. Christmas is glittery. It’s sparkling. It’s a big holiday and full of decorations. So what I try to do is not compare Kwanzaa to Christmas, but to give it the same magic as Christmas. I really try to make the activities, the music, and the decorations super eye- catching and exciting so that it appeals to children. Every year I have a challenge: How do I recreate this Kwanzaaland so that people feel like they’re stepping into a world?

How do you keep learning and deepening your own understanding of Kwanzaa?

I always go back to the Kwanzaa founder Dr. Maulana Karenga’s book on Kwanzaa and the official Kwanzaa website. It’s interesting, I’ve found that some adults that started celebrating Kwanzaa when it first came out do it differently. They have their own way.

I think the main thing for me is trying to keep the integrity of Kwanzaa like people would keep the integrity of other holidays. That’s one thing that honestly irks me. When I see a holiday celebration that celebrates everything but Kwanzaa or the care that was taken to have the Christmas tree and the care that was taken to have the menorah and then there’s not the same care for the Kwanzaa display. That really bothers me because there’s just no excuse with the internet and Amazon Prime.

Do you think Kwanzaa is growing in popularity or declining in popularity?

I think Kwanzaa is growing. I think that it’s promising. I don’t think it’s going anywhere. And I think actually the political climate that we have with Donald Trump and all that’s happening [supports that]. I can’t remember who said this, but it was an African American writer who said something along the lines of, When we have racial injustice and political unrest in our culture, that’s the time when the best black art comes around and that’s the time when the best resistances to make change happen. So actually this political season that we’re in is even more reason why we should draw near to our cultural sense of self. I’m thinking that Kwanzaa will inspire parents more if they understand how easy it is to incorporate into their existing family traditions.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

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Do you celebrate Kwanzaa? If so, how did you first learn about it and what keeps you celebrating it? If you don’t, why not?

Stay-at-home orders resulting from the new coronavirus have got many of us holed up inside 24/7 with kids and partners. All that togetherness can mean lots of quality time, if we make it that way.  Luckily, books can be heroes every family needs to experience wonder, connection, and enjoyment during long days spent indoors.

Engaging texts keep independent readers happily occupied and create valuable time for parents to work, relax, or tackle household chores. Reading to yourself, reading aloud to kids, and encouraging kids to listen to recordings are great options for family reading time.  For kids of all ages, reading together can bookend daily schedules to create relaxing rituals and a calming cadence to our days.

Here are three ways to boost book access and read more as a family during the pandemic:

1) Get digital library access. Visit your public library’s website to explore offerings for streaming or downloadable ebooks. Austin Public Library, for example, gives users access to OverDrive Kids, OverDrive Teens, TumbleBook Library, and MakeMake, a Spanish-language ebook source. Readers just need their library card number and password to log in via the web or a mobile device app. As with traditional library borrowing, there may be limited availability of individual titles and limits on how many books you can check out at once.

No library card? No problem. There are other ebook sources, such as Epic!, that you can sign up for directly. Epic! has an extensive collection of 40,000 ebooks, learning videos and quizzes for kids 12 and under. Free for elementary school teachers and librarians, the site costs $7.99 per month for parents, who can be assured that no ads or in-app purchases disrupt the reading immersion. Scribd offers a large ebook and audiobook library for adults and teens.

With so many ebooks at your fingertips, you can put kids’ I-don’t-have-anything-to-read complaints to bed immediately—and read more than you ever have before, yourself.

2) Listen up with audiobooks. Yes, audiobooks count as reading, so queue some up to enjoy together—and to wind down at the end of the day. Researchers, teachers, and librarians have all lauded audiobooks’ ability to engage even the most reluctant reader. A good story well narrated can boost oral language skills, vocabulary exposure, background knowledge, and reading comprehension. And audiobooks can be a great introduction to new-to-you cultures, ideas, and language traditions to boot. The format also allows families to experience multicultural content without stumbling over unfamiliar dialects or words.

Just as with ebooks, readers can check out audiobooks through public libraries that subscribe to OverDrive, Hoopla, and similar services. Libby, OverDrive’s much-loved app, delivers thousands of library-loaned ebooks and audiobooks directly to users’ phones or tablets. Librivox, another free audiobook option, offers public domain books read by volunteers. Little Women, anyone?

Vooks, an ad-free digital library, brings children’s picture books to life with music, professional narration, and eye-catching animation. It highlights each word in bold as it’s read by the narrator, making it a great option for young readers navigating text on their own and for parents who are unable to read aloud to children due to language or other barriers. Vooks offers a one-month free trial and then is $4.99/month.

Audible, Amazon’s audiobook division, is offering a limited selection of children’s content for free during coronavirus school closings. Kids can now stream stories, from fairytales and folktales to mystery and history, in six languages via desktop, laptop, phone, or tablet. Audible’s paid plans start at $14.95/month. Other paid audiobook subscription services include Audiobooks.com, Scribd, Kobo, and Downpour. Libro.fm stands apart by allowing you to buy great audiobooks from your local, independent bookseller. iTunes, Google Play, and Nook let you buy individual titles without a subscription.

3) Tune into virtual storytimes with authors. Kwame Alexander read from his book, The Crossover, on Instagram Live every day for a week. Author and illustrator Mo Willems does daily lunchtime doodles on YouTube thanks to a new Kennedy Center @ Home series. Oliver Jeffers captivated an audience of 267,000 followers by reading aloud on Instagram.

Author and celebrity-led storytimes are at an all-time high as people reach out across the social distance to bring kids and families joy. But how do you find them? There’s no comprehensive clearinghouse of online author appearances so your best bet is to follow your favorite authors and children’s book publishers on social media and keep an eye out for appearances in your feeds. Searching related hashtags like #operationstorytime and #stayathomestorytime is hit or miss.

It’s worth the effort to tune in when you can. A story read by its author often sparks greater reading interest and enthusiasm in kids long after the tale ends.

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I was late to embrace ebooks for kids. Convinced of the superiority of print books for young children, I joined multiple kids’ book-subscription programs and regularly stocked up on physical books at school book fairs, our local independent bookstore and public libraries to make it easy for my daughter to read more and more. 

But the inflow of books dwindled during my daughter’s second-grade year, with the coronavirus pandemic and the stay-at-home orders that followed. Our local library system closed, our favorite bookstore shifted to curbside pickup and then halted in-person sales altogether, and we worried that book delivery by mail might be disrupted, too.

In need of fresh reading material for my daughter, I turned to Epic!, a kid-focused digital library that offers 40,000 ebooks, audiobooks, learning videos, and quizzes. It did not disappoint. Easy to use and ad-free, it creates a great immersive environment for children 12 and under to seek out fiction and nonfiction that interests them. It’s accessible through a web browser or mobile app, and costs just $7.99 per month after a 30-day free trial. You can create profiles for up to four children for at-home use.

Epic! quickly became my daughter’s go-to reading platform. Its interface was so appealing that she started searching for and reading books on Epic! even when her teacher had assigned the books from another digital library. Here’s why kids love Epic!:

  • Freedom of choice. Kids read more in their leisure time when they have access to a good selection of books and free rein to decide what to read next. Epic! delivers both, allowing kids to navigate the huge digital library on their own. They can scroll through titles by genre, theme, series, awards, or popularity—or plug their own criteria into the search bar for reads about a particular topic.

  • Seamless experience. Epic! titles load quickly and there are no wait times in Epic!. When kids see a title, it’s available right away, unlike ebooks from libraries, which may have limits on how many users can access the material simultaneously. With no pop-up ads, banners, in-app purchases, or other intrusions, kids get to immerse themselves in books without distraction.

There’s a lot to love for parents too:

  • Safe online environment. Epic! provides the book selection kids crave with the guardrails parents know they need. Made for kids exclusively, all of the content has been vetted for educational benefit and age appropriateness. Plus, there are no upsells, nor harmful personal data collection. Epic! is compliant with the Children’s Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

  • Accurate reading-time tracking. Through the parent dashboard, moms and dads can take a peek at kids’ reading habits without being intrusive. The child’s profile shows which books the child has read, including how much time they spent, and on which date. This is a brilliant replacement for the much-maligned homework reading log, which studies have found to be demotivating to children, not to mention inaccurate and cumbersome.

  • Affordability. For the price of one children’s paperback book, you can give your child access to 40,000 ebooks, audiobooks, and educational videos for a month.  This expense easily fits within most family budgets and the return on investment in terms of educational impact and productive time will be well worth it.

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