“This is a book that trusts white children to feel painful feelings about racism.” GSB is inviting author Anastasia Higginbotham to share the story behind “Not my idea”. Please visit Anastasia’s website to watch the “trailer” for the book https://anastasiahigginbotham.com/not-my-idea/

Anastasia Higginbotham (@AHigginBooks) shares NOT MY IDEA: A BOOK ABOUT WHITENESS. Anastasia’s Ordinary Terrible Things book series has taken on the topics of divorce, death, and sex using straightforward language and respecting the reader with each page. Her most recent entry in the series is called NOT MY IDEA: A BOOK ABOUT WHITENESS and it has been one of my most-talked about books ever since a colleague shared it with me at the beginning of this school year. Anastasia talks at length about the work that went into creating this book, laying the art from found materials, handwriting the text, and crafting the story around her own experience of processing racial injustice and White supremacy. It’s an absolutely exceptional book and one that provides the necessary space and language for confronting Whiteness and working against the historic and ongoing oppression of Black men, women, and children.

What does #BlackHistorymonth look like at GSB? 2nd graders loving Harriet Tubman’s story. Teacher Jane Marie: “Several students commented, as we read about the Underground Railroad, that if they had lived during that time, they would have helped with the Underground Railroad. After we finished the book, we then began brainstorming ways that we can be an activist today.”