United by the Alphabet: Children's Book Series
From The Marion C Moore students in JCPS:
We wrote a children’s book focused on changing the narrative, systems, and stigmas around cultural well- being because we know things like racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and adultism are learned behaviors. Helping facilitate shared experiences that liberate children from hatred and cultural propaganda allow us to break generational curses and hydra-headed bigotry.
Our book, United by the Alphabet, introduces a little girl by the name of Grace. Grace has a superpower. She goes around her community and accepts those who don’t look like her. Grace knows that diversity is beautiful and that it should be appreciated. We want to let kids know that being different isn’t always a bad thing. By adding different cultures, sexualities, countries, religions, and non-profit organizations, we aimed to expose children to different groups and organizations that could potentially help and benefit them; we connected groups that are often excluded in society with organizations that celebrate and empower diversity. Ultimately, we created an interactive book that works as a vehicle to foster intergenerational conversations about the importance of compassion and rising above any exclusionary system and/or hate in the world. Our differences can unite us when we’re on, as Grace would say, “a quest for welcoming each other.”
We wrote our book in two different languages: English and Spanish.
We are raising funds to reprint our book in hardcover and fund the next books we are creating now.
We are committed to making United by the Alphabet a book series that helps facilitate conversations between children and their families, peers, and teachers that explore real problems in the world.
In August we hope to publish and release our 2nd book: United by the Alphabet: Grace takes on Corona.
And shortly after that, we hope to publish: United by the Alphabet: Nyla's First Ramadan.
The mission of this book series is to create “the alphabet of compassion” that will empower kids to create communities that welcome everyone’s whole, authentic selves in the places where they live and work.
Here are some links to get more familiar with our work:
This book series was born out of the 2020 Aspen Challenge in Louisville. Our team won 1st place in this prestigious competition. You can see us present our solution here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL7fuyfNu8jfOe-088fVrdjXkUYUZywmuN&v=wxza3_4jEm0&feature=emb_logo
And here is an audio reading of our first book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh6V_Jl5OnA
If you have any questions or would like to purchase a copy of the book, please reach out to us and our teachers on here!
