Summer Family Reading Series
Saturdays, June 5, 12, 19 and 26, Noon to 1:30 pm
Education Center, FREE
Explore African American literature and culture at these family read-alouds; each featuring a reading of a special children's book and a related art activity. Appropriate for ages 4 and older. Preregistration is required. For information, call 412.258.2700.
June 5, 2010
The Little Piano Girl
By Ann Ingalls & Maryann Macdonald
This is the story of Mary Lou Williams' childhood in Pittsburgh, where she played the piano for anyone who would listen. Mary Lou, like Mozart, began playing the piano when she was four; at eight she became a professional musician. She wrote and arranged music for Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and was one of the most powerful women in jazz. The Center's own manager of education, Karen Hanchett will be lead. There will also be a pianist from the Afro-American Music Institute there playing one of Mary Lou Williams' songs.
June 12, 2010
Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys
By Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard
The youngest and the only girl in a family with five boys, Virgie works hard to convince everyone she is old enough, strong enough, and smart enough to attend the school set up by the Quakers for recently freed blacks in Jonesborough, TN. By the end of summer, she has convinced her family that she can make the seven-mile walk to board at school each week and willingly handle the job of "learning to be free." The story is a superb tribute to the author's great aunt, the inspiration for this book. Author Elizabeth Howard will lead the reading of her novel and provide more background on her family's story which inspired this book.
June 19, 2010
Who's in Rabbit's House?
By Verna Aradema
A Masai folk tale, presented in the form of a play, in which the frog gets the job of getting a monster out of the rabbit's house after the leopard, elephant, and rhino bungle the job. The Center's own bookstore staff members, Cynthia Hill, Latoya Steadman, and a student from Carlow University majoring in Special Education will lead.
June 26, 2010
The Secret Olivia Told Me
By N. Joy
Can you keep a secret? Olivia has a secret - a BIG secret. It's a secret that she tells only to her very best friend. And her friend promises she won't say a word. But the secret is really BIG and really juicy. What will happen when a trusted friend slips and the secret gets out? Also from the Center's education department, Charlene Weaver and her grandson will lead.