Articles and news stories are constantly pushing me to consider something new, broaden my perspective, or change the way I look at an issue. My husband likes to joke that my brain explodes with something new on a daily basis. These articles – and the brain explosions that result from them – are so beneficial for me that I wanted to create a place where I could share them, in case you might want to read them, too. Learn more about Things that Made My Brain Explode – and see past posts – here. 

Here’s a recent batch of Things that Made my Brain Explode:

• Not one 2020 candidate has a website that is accessible to the blind. This awesome piece from Vox goes way past just the title issue. One of my best reads of the week.

• Poverty and Reading: The Sad and Troubling Loss of School Libraries and Real Librarians.
• “I [used to pray] that God would change my son someday,” Miller says. “God didn’t change him; he changed me.” ‘I Didn’t Think It Was Possible’: North Carolina City Rings In Its First LGBTQ Pride.
• “Does the author/illustrator present the character with a disability label as multidimensional? Whose story is this and who gets to tell it? As a reader, how have you been positioned to think about feel about the character with a disability label in this book? What opportunities does the character with a disability label have in the book to engage in authentic relationships?” I learned so much from this article: How to Critically Select Children’s Books with Representations of Disability Experiences.
• Teacher Explains Why She’s Leaving the Profession and It Isn’t the Pay. Oh man. This resonated so hard. Bring tissues.

• All the Young Adult Book-to-Movie Adaptations in the Works Right Now. Run, do not walk, to your local library to get these before the waitlists hit the triple digits.

• Top honor for librarians revokes Melvil Dewey name.

• Embrace the boredom: How kids can benefit from unstructured time in the summer. Teach your kids how to be bored.

• “I thought I was “progressive.” I was taught to say “I don’t see color” and to love everyone and treat them how you want to be treated. […] Talking about race can feel so personal and White folks compare this to feeling attacked. But it’s not an attack, its discomfort and through it, we grew. A huge ah-ha moment for me was that confronting racism in my school is not about just me as an individual, it is about me and the systems and culture in which I am automatically a part of.” What Happened When One NYC School Decided to Really Talk About Race.
• Meg Medina’s 2019 Newbery Medal acceptance speech is just beautiful.

• The Time I Called Out a Children’s Book Author For Letting Girls Down. “To my shock, he actually responded.“

• Why Kids Need Proud Nonbinary Characters in Books. Includes a great list of books to add to your collection. (Worm loves Worm, The Rabbit Listened, and Love, Z are especially popular in our collection.)
• Feel Helpless Amidst the Horrific Immigration News? You’re Not. Here’s What To Do.
• “Maybe, he said, librarians are really architects, and libraries are warehouses for building human libraries. He asked the audience to imagine these ‘walking, talking libraries’—a generation of young people with an internal reference desk to tap when they needed answers; young people who were walking safe spaces for others.” Woah. Jason Reynolds Challenges Librarians To Reimagine Their Role.
• I wrote a piece for Nerdy Book Club this week about our amazing year working with Bennett’s Village, and how a book inspired incredible things in our community. You can check it out here, if you’d like to see it.