A K-12 Educator Event
Image
When
4 – 5 p.m., April 22, 2025
Please join us for a discussion with Aya Khalil, author of The Great Banned-Book Bake Sale, winner of the 2024 Middle East Outreach Council Book Award for picture books, as well as the Joy for Books Award. Ms. Khalil also wrote The Arabic Quilt, a 2021 Honor Book for Young Children for the Children's Africana Book Awards and winner of a 2021 Arab American Book Award, as well as other books about and for Arab American children.
Synopsis:
"Kanzi, the immigrant girl of Aya Khalil and Anait Semirdzhyan’s bestselling picture book The Arabic Quilt, has come to feel welcome in her American school―that is, until an entire shelf of books about immigrant kids and kids of color suddenly disappears from the school library. Upon learning that the books with kids who look like her have been banned by her school district, Kanzi descends into fear and helplessness. But her classmates support her, and together―with their teacher’s help―they hatch a plan to hold a bake sale and use the proceeds to buy diverse books to donate to libraries. The event is a big success; the entire school participates, and the local TV station covers it in the evening news. Prodded by her classmates to read the poem she has written, Kanzi starts softly but finds her voice. “You have banned important books, but you can’t ban my words,” she reads. “Books are for everyone.” The crowd chants, “No banned books! No banned books!” and the next week, the ban is reversed." (from https://www.ayakhalil.com/the-great-banned-books-bake-sale)
You will receive a Zoom link after you register.
This event is co-sponsored by the Middle East Outreach Council.
Contacts
Abby Limmer