Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/955848
14 ADVOCATE | SPRING 2018 Around AEA A Celebration of Diverse Books and Readers Read Across America H undreds of third and fourth graders in a rainbow of Read Across America T-shirts packed into the NEA auditorium in Washington, D.C., on March 2, 3018 to kick off March's month-long reading celebration. "This is such a special day," NEA President Lily Eskelsen García told the students, who came from diverse schools across D.C.'s Maryland suburbs. "We are going to celebrate Read Across America for the whole month because there are so many good books to read! Books about different cultures, races, languages, and traditions." This year's theme is "Celebrating a Nation of Diverse Readers" and the event showcased best-selling diverse authors Kwame Alexander (Booked, Crossover), Jesse J. Holland (Who is the Black Panther?), and Gene Luen Yang (Secret Coders, American Born Chinese, Shadow Hero) as well as 20 authors of diverse books featured in the Read Across America Resource Calendar. The books are not only written by diverse authors about diverse characters, but they are written in diverse formats – graphic novels, comics, poetry, and prose – which allows students to enter the world of reading through the doorway that appeals most to them. AEA President Joe Thomas reading "Moose Tracks" to kindergartners at Heatherbrae Elementary School. Above: Balsz EA Vice President and Arizona Teacher of the Year Josh Meibos reading "It's Your Cloud" to his first graders at David Crockett Elementary School. Above right: Fiesta Bowl celebrated Read Across America Day with Arizona Teacher of the Year Josh Meibos at David Crockett Elementary School.