From February 1st – 28th, participate in the African American Read In.  The goal is to “document readers making the celebration of African American literacy a traditional part of Black History Month activities.” The celebration encourages places like schools, churches, libraries, professional organizations and citizens to get involved in making literacy “a significant part of Black History Month by hosting and coordinating community Read-Ins.”

To help you plan your own event, check out these resources from Read Write Think.org that include links to classroom activities, a Library of Congress exhibit, and a host report card for you to record what happened at your own event.

Also visit NCTE’s site, which has this toolkit to help you prepare for your read in event. The toolkit has links to multiple booklists to help you with reading material selection.

To help our members – and any library people! – celebrate, CMLE will host our own African-American Read In! Tuesday, Feb. 20, at our headquarters location we will be available to talk books all day! From 11:00 to 1:00 we invite people to drop by with their lunch (Val’s is across the street, if you need something!), and have a discussion about African-American books you read, the ones you want to read, and look at the books we have in our office. Definitely feel free to bring in books/titles/authors you want us all to admire!

Join us, and Official Office Dog Lady Grey, in celebrating African-American literature!!