Bunchland

Beth Blenz-Clucas blogs about music for kids that grownups will love too

When the “First Lady of Children’s Music” sings, people don’t just listen, they participate. With her simple call-and-response approach, Ella Jenkins can bring a crowd of children and adults to their feet, singing and dancing together. Many of the recordings over her 50-year career feature African American spirituals, including “Wade in the Water” from her 1960 album African American Folk Rhythms. The song, straight out of Exodus, once provided a coded message to slaves traveling via the Underground Railroad. Today, anyone singing it along with Ella can feel the song’s power.

Now well into her 80s, Ella continues to inspire and delight children and educators. One of the original artists on the Folkways label, Ella will soon release a new recording, A Life of Song.  Read more...

The New York Public Library and the District of Columbia Public Library’s Bunchbrary

We’ve bumped this week’s Bunchbrary up a day to include some great reads for Martin Luther King Day. Martin Luther King Day is a great opportunity to talk to your kids about racism, segregation and standing up for your rights.

Books for ages 4-8:

A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr. by David A. Adler, illustrated by Robert Casilla
A brief, illustrated, biography of the Baptist minister and civil rights leader whose philosophy and practice of nonviolent civil disobedience helped American blacks win many battles for equal rights.

Martin Luther King by Rosemary L. Bray, paintings by Malcah Zeldis
Folk-art paintings enhance the text of this portrait of the courageous civil rights leader.  Read more...

Having fun with history.

Today’s Postcard from Bunchland was take by edenpictures in New York City where they caught two little girls making their own mark on history.

Do you have a Postcard from Bunchland? Send your photos of family fun to meghan@bunchfamily.ca or find us on Flickr.

We talked to New York Public Library children’s librarian Betsy Bird

What should parents do to teach their kids more about MLK and Civil Rights?

Reading books is the number one best way. Ask your local libraries for the best books as there are always new ones coming out. Use the day off as an opportunity to talk to your kids and make sure they know their own history. But the bottom line is, just do it. Some parents are uncomfortable talking about what people had to put up with before Civil Rights. And there are a lot of violent images associated with the Civil Rights Movement— police setting dogs and fire hoses on peaceful protesters, Dr. King’s assassination, but these are important points of our history.

How do you introduce the topic of Civil Rights to kids?  Read more...