And our April pick is...
Mahogany: A Little Red Riding Hood Tale by JaNay Brown-Wood & John Joven
April Pick -- Mahogany
Join us as we head off for a walk through the woods with our spunky friend, Mahogany, to bring G-ma some homemade honey cornbread. Headphones on? Check. Music blasting? Check. Fresh kicks? Check. Homemade honey cornbread? Check. A hungry wolf? Wait, what?! Our April MOSS Kids Book Club pick features a clever, Black contemporary retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, where our friend Mahogany embraces the beauty--and magic--within herself to thwart the Big Bad Wolf.
Meet Our Creators:
JaNay Brown-Wood, PhD, is an award-winning children’s author, poet, educator, scholar, and a former professor of Early Childhood Education and Child Development. Her first children’s book Imani’s Moon won the NAESP Children’s Book of the Year Award and was featured on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show and Storytime with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and her second book Grandma’s Tiny House: A Counting Story! received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and won the CELI Read Aloud Book Award. She has published many books & has a few forthcoming! Overall, JaNay has been a performer, preschool teacher, camp counselor, poet, silly-song singer, youth specialist, designer of curriculum, Harry Potter lover, college professor, reader, jellybean eater, and someone who truly cares about our future generations. Currently, she teaches and conducts research at California State University, Sacramento and lives in Sacramento with her fantastic husband Catrayel, who is also her high school sweetheart (they were the first Black couple to be crowned Sunnyside’s Homecoming King and Queen back in high school), and their lovely daughter Vivian. You can learn more about her on her website: www.janaybrownwood.com
John is an illustrator and painter from Colombia. He lives there with his wife Ana and two children, Avril and Ian. He is fortunate enough to work in his home studio, where he can share his passion for drawing and painting with his children while working on projects. He started drawing at an early age and when he was six years old, his parents enrolled him in his first painting, sculpture, and character design class. When not illustrating, he enjoys spending time with his family, playing soccer with friends, watching movies, reading, writing, and traveling. He has had the opportunity to bring to life Characters, Scenes, and diverse worlds in several articles in magazines and newspapers; funny ideas on children's books, and animation projects around the globe. Check out his portfolio here: https://johnjoven.com/
Below you will find our monthly craft; printable activity sheets; and our community outreach activity where we will be making a blanket together to donate to a local senior center. For more books to read this month, don't forget to check out our favorite diverse retellings book list:
We really hope you enjoy this month of book club as we try to keep our nationwide book club free & accessible for all. Each book is intentionally handpicked with each activity and outreach curated to engage and enrich our youth's experiences. Through these diverse and inclusive reads, working and playing together, and giving back to their own community, we hope to instill empathy, understanding, & kindness in our kids. If you didn't receive a copy of the book, don't fret. Email us at hello@mosskidsbooks.com for a virtual storytime reading of Mahogany, read by our co-founder, Kara Cecchi.
 Let's Craft: paper weaving
Mahogany is a spunky girl who loves to sew! She made a beautiful red patchwork cape to rock with her fresh kicks to run errands. On the way to deliver homemade honey cornbread to G-Ma's house, she encounters a hungry wolf. But our girl Mahogany is clever! She stands by a willow tree, where her long, black curly hair blends with the branches. She hides in the forest, where her ebony skin merges with the shadows. And Mahogany knows the lavender scent of her skin will mix with the smells of flowering plants, tricking any wolf nose. Ultimately, Mahogany’s Blackness, her wits, and her sewing skills all save her & G-Ma. We love a girl who uses ingenuity to save herself & others. We want our kids to see the paper patchwork they make as a reminder that we all can be the hero of our own stories!
Materials:
Construction Paper
Scissors
Glue sticks (for toddler & younger modification)
Watercolor paints/watercolor paper (for those with more time or across two days)
Modifications:
With this craft, you can modify based on developmental level OR based on what skills you are working towards. We are working on our fine motor skills & bilateral coordination for scissor skills. Weaving also works on hand-eye coordination, focus & concentration, & experience with patterns which is great for early mathematical understanding. Kids gain a practical of words and ideas of over, under, in, out, up, and down. With our youngest members, we are working on grasp, visual motor development, & spatial relations placing the squares on pre-prepared spaces.
Easy:Â Pre-assemble craft. Cut the base prior for child & precut strips to use for weaving. Child still may need visual & hand-over-hand assistance.
Moderate:Â Allow child to begin craft independently, may need multiple verbal prompts to complete weaving -- under/over.
Hard:Â Allow child to create independently -- cut base, strips, & weave. May be able to make waves in the base. May create base from abstract watercolor painting.
Instructions:
1. Gather materials. Choose the paper you’d like to use as the base for your project. This is where kids can create their own base paper by using watercolor paints.
2. Have kids (or you if you are pre-prepping as a modification) fold their paper in half -- length-wise or width-wise works just be sure your paper strips that you’ll cut later match in length.
3. Cut in wavy strips on the folded edge, leaving 1-2 inches of paper uncut. You can get a bit creative with this. Try doing one cut wavy and the next straight. Do this all the way across your paper.
4. Cut strips of construction paper in 1 inch strips. These don’t have to be exact. A few imperfections add to the charm of this project. We threw in some strips of wrapping paper & magazine clippings for variety. You could even use newspaper or scrapbook paper. Get creative. Just make sure you cut the same orientation you did with your base -- length-wise or width-wise.
5. Weave the paper strips through your cut paper. Under, over, under, over. Grab the next strip & weave the opposite way. Over, under, over, under. Continue to weave switching the way you weave with each strip.
A tip: Make sure you completely fill the base. The strips will move around if they are not completely full throughout, touching.
6. These look great framed & would make great artwork for their bedrooms, on a family room gallery wall, or front & center on the refrigerator.
A tip: if your book club involves friends who are unable to weave -- that's okay! We have a way to make a patchwork look with an activity that still works on developmental skills. Instead, leave your base paper alone. Cut 2-3in squares of a separate sheet. Allow child to color or paint. Abstract scribbles are our personal favorites! Place circles of glue on the page where each child should place a square. Leave a 2-3in gap between each square so it mimics the look of the weaving craft. Have child place their square on the glue. Direct them with verbal/visual cues or hand-over-hand assistance if necessary. Repeat to fill base sheet.
Remember: After you are done reading the book (if you received a copy from us!) & making your crafts, please have your kids sign the library card located in the front of the book (first names only!). Let's bring back a little bit of fun from our childhood. Also, please donate your book to your local public library, to your school library, or to a little free library in your area so more kids can enjoy a new diverse & inclusive read.
printable activity sheets:
Charlesbridge Publishing has created an activity kit to use with the book including pre-reading concept reviews, post-reading discussion, language arts connections using a diagram & a plot arc, & a word search/activity maze to complete! A printable kit chock full of education & fun. Click the link below to print. Thanks, Charlesbridge!!
Community Outreach: make a blanket for a senior
This month we are spreading warmth, joy, & our ingenuity as we make a blanket together as a group to gift to a senior in need. Just like our friend Mahogany, we are getting creative for some grannies (or grandpas, or just any old senior citizen) by making them a wearable. Mahogany weaves her G-Ma a beautiful floral overcoat, after weaving a net to capture that big, bad wolf. We're going to make a blanket together using an easy, no-sew method. Now you can purchase fleece (2 yards per side) from your local craft store, you can buy two $3 Walmart fleece blankets to combine, or you can thrift two blankets & combine them. For our local groups, we will attempt to thrift first! Instructions to make are here. We aren't getting fancy with this blanket. We aren't using a rotary cutter, a cutting ruler or a cutting mat. We're using scissors & a ruler, but mostly we are just guesstimating. I don't want the kids to get bored. I want them to enjoy this experience. I'll be bringing our Yoto player with us to each event & playing our First Fairy Tales card to listen to while we work!
This does not have to be hard. This can be as simple as making something for a senior in your area, although we encourage making something for a senior you may not know. Senior centers & assisted living homes are perfect places to donate. We want children to put in the effort for a stranger. To brighten up someone else's day. Maybe you can take a trip together to your local senior center or invite an elderly neighbor, friend, grandma to your book club meet-up!
Please do not skip this activity. We truly believe this outreach activity is a vital part of childhood & an opportunity to raise kind kids. Teaching our youth the importance of community. A community that can help create more empathetic, accepting kids who understand that power of coming together. To learn the importance of ingenuity. Of thinking outside the box. Of making something from something else entirely. Of using their hands to create & give.
YAY! Another MOSS Kids Book Club pick, craft, printable sheet, and community outreach activity. We would love to see when you receive your books and all the paper weaves/blankets your kids create. You do not need to share kid's faces. Please be sure to tag us on Instagram @mosskidsbooks & use #mosskidsbookclub. Sharing about MOSS Kids Book Club is a way for your community to learn more about what MOSS Kids has to offer & for them to know where they can find the book you're donating. By doing so, we can reach & help more kids across the country. We'd also love to hear any feedback you may have, please email us at hello@mosskidsbooks.com. We appreciate you all so much for taking the initiative to bring kids together to read diverse books & hopefully learn vital life skills to help make our world a better place.
did you miss out on a chance at the book this month & want to sign up for next month?
All you need to do is fill out the google doc below & you'll be entered to win next month's book. TENÂ lucky winners will receive a copy for their book club to read together that month & then donate to their local school library, public library, or a little free library in their area!
Don't Forget: We Have Local moss kids book club locations in eastern north Carolina!!
Sunday, 4/7:Â MOSS Kids Book Club at the Freedom Org Tarboro Community Garden at 2pm
Saturday, 4/13:Â MOSS Kids Book Club at Books and Beans in Rocky Mount at 10am
Monday, 4/22:Â MOSS Kids Book Club at Wilson County Public Library in Wilson at 430pm
Sunday, 4/28:Â MOSS Kids Book Club at Larema Coffee House in Rocky Mount at 2pm
Other April events:
Tuesday, 4/9: Tasty Tuesday with Ripe for Revival at Stocks Elementary
Tuesday, 4/16: Beyond the Book with Ripe for Revival at the Rocky Mount Mills at 4pm
Wednesday, 4/17:Â Picture Books on Tap: an adult picture book club at Larema Beverage at Rocky Mount Mills at 7pm
Saturday, 4/29:Â Drag Story Hour at Boxyard RTP at 10am