To build a delightful library for kids, start with these 99 books

December 14, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

By Alyssa Rosenberg Columnist December 8, 2022 at 3:53 p.m. EST|Published December 6, 2022

This holiday season, let’s press pause on one of the culture wars.

Recent tussles over the “appropriateness” of kids’ books obscure the genius and joy of so much children’s literature. As a reset, we asked dozens of parents across the political spectrum to share the children’s books they love best. They did, and reaffirmed an essential principle: One of our most important jobs as adults is to help foster in children a love of reading, and the lifetime of wonder and wisdom that follow from it.

All our participants knew this list might include books they wouldn’t choose for their own families. But together, they’ve created a library in which everyone can find something to awe and delight young people.

And this is just a start! Before Christmas, we’ll publish a list of essential books recommended by readers.

Birth to age 4

“The 20th-Century Children’s Book Treasury: Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud,” edited by Janet Schulman

For any parent on a tight budget, this is the book that will last for hours. — Bethany S. Mandel, editor of the Heroes of Liberty series

F

“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” by Judith Viorst; illustrated by Ray Cruz

Kids’ books don’t have to be sugarplums and sunshine. This story takes us through the experience of a typical, difficult day in the life of a kid. We can all relate to its details and humor. And although it’s a terrible day, we feel better in the end, connected by the knowledge that we’re not alone. — Lisa Loeb, singer, songwriter and actress

“All the World,” by Liz Garton Scanlon; illustrated by Marla Frazee

I’ve read this book 100 times or more to my kids, and every time, I find new meaning in it. — Leana S. Wen, Post Opinions columnist

The Ana & Andrew series, by Christine Platt; illustrated by Sharon Sordo

Platt’s wonderful series also does serious work: introducing important moments in Black history in a fun, accessible way. — Hannah Grieco, editor of “And If That Mockingbird Don’t Sing: Parenting Stories Gone Speculative”

“A Bargain for Frances,” by Russell Hoban; illustrated by Lillian Hoban

Frances the Badger is one of the funniest fictional children ever invented, never more so than when she’s running a counter-scam on her friend Thelma. — Alyssa Rosenberg

“The Bear That Wasn’t,” by Frank Tashlin

A hilarious, absurd, pro-labor, pro-environment fable — intricately drawn by a Looney Tunes cartoonist — that satirizes the self-importance of stuffed-shirt capitalists while lamenting the destruction they blindly leave behind. — Anya Kamenetz, author of “The Stolen Year: How COVID Changed Children’s Lives, and Where We Go Now”

“Bee-Bim Bop!” by Linda Sue Park; illustrated by Ho Baek Lee

A delightful, grounded story about a girl who helps her mother make the classic Korean dish. Her excitement about shopping for groceries, cooking with her mom and serving up the meal to the entire family is a rhythmic delight. — Michael Thompson, co-author of “Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys”

“The Big Alfie and Annie Rose Storybook,” by Shirley Hughes

At a moment of anxiety about boys and boyhood, Alfie’s kindness and courage are a delight, and a balm. — Alyssa Rosenberg

“The Book With No Pictures,” by B.J. Novak

Who knew that a book without pictures could be so much fun to read? — Nana Efua Mumford, manager of editorial talent and logistics, Post Opinions

“Cars and Trucks and Things That Go,” by Richard Scarry

There are always new things to point out and to learn. It’s perfect for letting the imagination go wild. — Leana S. Wen

“A Chair for My Mother,” by Vera B. Williams

When a single mother and her daughter lose their apartment and all their belongings in a fire, family and friends share what they have without hesitation. To replace their comfortable chair, however, the mother, a hard-working waitress, must slowly save the coins from her tips. — David Von Drehle, Post Opinions columnist

“The Day the Crayons Quit,” by Drew Daywalt; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

The illustrations make you want to color — and to anthropomorphize everything in your life. The story lends itself to making up different voices for each crayon’s tale-telling. — Lisa Loeb

“Du Iz Tak?” by Carson Ellis

Pure joy, with wildly imaginative yet accessible illustrations that reward both the detail-obsessed observer and the child with limited vision who might see the vivid pages in their broadest outlines. — Rachael Brown, a partner at TNTP, a national education nonprofit

“Frog and Toad Are Friends,” by Arnold Lobel

My mother is a retired elementary school librarian, and this is her go-to recommendation for beautiful stories crafted with limited and simple vocabulary. — Mary Katharine Ham, host of the podcast “Getting Hammered”

“Go, Dog. Go!” by P.D. Eastman

This book turns a limited set of words into a fantasia of brightly colored dogs running through mazes, suffering car accidents, drinking cold drinks in the shade, playing baseball and insulting each other’s hats. — Amanda Katz, assignment editor, Post Opinions

“Good Night, Gorilla,” by Peggy Rathmann

You can set your own pace, either breezing through if you just can’t handle one more minute of the bedtime routine, or reveling in the pictures and dreaming up longer, more complex stories about the zoo animals’ great escape. — Helena Andrews-Dyer, author of “The Mamas: What I Learned About Kids, Class, and Race From Moms Not Like Me”

“Goodnight Moon,” by Margaret Wise Brown; illustrated by Clement Hurd

It’s soothing, which helps a young child sleep. It helps them confront fears of the night in a pleasant, non-threatening way. — Henry Olsen, Post Opinions columnist

“Harold and the Purple Crayon,” by Crockett Johnson

This book feels like a low-key inspiration for Christopher Nolan’s “Inception”: It’s about a boy who drifts off to sleep and in his dreams uses his purple crayon to reshape reality, building huge cities and getting lost within them. — Sonny Bunch, Post Opinions contributing columnist

“Hattie Peck,” by Emma Levey

Motherhood doesn’t come easy to Hattie, so she adopts animals from all different species. Simple and quick to read, the book holds little ones’ attention while sharing an important message about parenthood. — Susie Allison, creator of Busy Toddler and author of “Playing Preschool”

“The Hello, Goodbye Window,” by Norton Juster; illustrated by Chris Raschka

No book captures the joy and excitement of time away from home, or the relationship between grandparents and their grandchildren, quite like this one. — Susie Allison

“The House in the Night,” by Susan Marie Swanson; illustrated by Beth Krommes

Krommes won a Caldecott Medal for her intricate, high-contrast scratchboard illustrations of a child readying for bed and picking up a book “all about the starry dark.” There’s a literal “key” to the titular house, but it’s an exquisite metaphor, too, for the song and the love that make “a home full of light.” — Jen Balderama, associate editor, Post Opinions

“I Want My Hat Back,” by Jon Klassen

This book is unique in my mind for having no wasted space. The text is short, but incredible nuance is conveyed by the pictures, leaving even adults wondering whether there is a hidden message. — Emily Oster, author of “Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong — and What You Really Need to Know,” “Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool” and “The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years”

“If You Come to Earth,” by Sophie Blackall

This beautifully illustrated, meditative read alludes, lightly, to some of the travails of life on Earth — such as losing one’s home in a war or escaping a flood — while reminding us what brings us together. — Anya Kamenetz

“In the Night Kitchen,” by Maurice Sendak

As a psychologist, I have always loved the dreamlike, fantastical quality of “In the Night Kitchen.” Kids love it, too, because it is a story of a boy triumphing over the ridiculous, threatening adults who try to cook him in their cake. — Michael Thompson

“It’s Mine!” by Leo Lionni

This tale of three arguing frogs is a great book to read to siblings and might spark a few conversations to help with their family battles. — Susie Allison

“Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion,” by Mo Willems

I love the mix of photography and illustration. And the theme of letting go — for adults and kids — resonates, transcending age and circumstance. — Sofia Chang, chief executive, Girl Scouts of the USA

“Little Blue and Little Yellow,” by Leo Lionni

The abstract shapes and solid backgrounds of this book’s illustrations made it an early favorite for our son, who has cortical visual impairment, a neurological condition in which the brain struggles to process complex visual information. — Rachael Brown

“Mae Among the Stars,” by Roda Ahmed; illustrated by Stasia Burrington

This book’s lesson about believing in yourself, even when adults and children laugh at your aspirations, is a great one. — Stacia L. Brown, author and podcaster

“Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel,” by Virginia Lee Burton

Having kids and finding books to read to them has been a delight for the subversive part of my brain that loves rejiggering the messages in perverse ways. “Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel” is less about finding ways to remain useful in an evolving world and more a work of Cronenbergian body horror that ends with a sentient steam shovel chained to a building, bound like Prometheus to eternal employment/torment. — Sonny Bunch

“Milo Imagines the World,” by Matt de la Peña; illustrated by Christian Robinson

On his subway ride to visit his mother, Milo looks at the people on the train and draws what he thinks their lives are like. But he ends up redrawing his pictures, this time relying on imagination instead of easy-to-reach-for stereotypes. — Amber Noelle Sparks, author of “And I Do Not Forgive You: Stories and Other Revenges”

“Miss Rumphius,” by Barbara Cooney

We can see the many people whose lives are shaped by the Lupine Lady, all because she committed to “do something to make the world more beautiful.” It’s a gift to be refreshed by the beauty of the illustrations and to get to keep reminding myself and my daughter of this charge. — Leah Libresco Sargeant, author of “Arriving at Amen: Seven Catholic Prayers That Even I Can Offer” and “Building the Benedict Option: A Guide to Gathering Two or Three Together in His Name”

“My Friends,” by Taro Gomi

A young girl encounters many unlikely sources of knowledge in the natural and human world around her. “I learned to nap from my friend the crocodile” is my son’s favorite line. — Rachael Brown

“Nutshell Library,” by Maurice Sendak

Kids feel small, and they like small things. This tiny, classic set in its own little slipcase includes a delightful alphabet book; a counting book with a plot of sorts; a savory book of months; and, best of all, a teeny moral tale involving a child so apathetic he gets eaten by a polite but hungry lion. — Amanda Katz

“Oh, Were They Ever Happy!” by Peter Spier

Every Spier book is a prize, especially this mischievous chronicle of a trio of helpful siblings and their adventures after a babysitter fails to show. — Alyssa Rosenberg

“Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm,” by Alice Provensen and Martin Provensen

Lively, unforgettable sketches of animals including Old Eleven, a wise sheep; and Evil Murdoch, a gander. — Alyssa Rosenberg

“Outside Over There,” by Maurice Sendak

Sendak at his best: unsentimental, prankish, funny and full of the absolute strangeness of childhood. — Amber Noelle Sparks

“The Runaway Bunny,” by Margaret Wise Brown; illustrated by Clement Hurd

My 2-year-old has an independent spirit and is the runaway bunny; I’m the mommy bunny who will follow her to the end of the earth. — Leana S. Wen

“A Sick Day for Amos McGee,” by Philip C. Stead; illustrated by Erin Stead

In an era of influencers and self-branding, this book is a delightful reminder about the importance of quiet service to others, and the genuine friendships and returned kindness it can generate. — Sonny Bunch and his wife, Elizabeth Brotherton-Bunch

“The Snowy Day,” by Ezra Jack Keats

This was the first kids’ book I can remember reading with a Black main character. But it is very much about how the world around us, no matter where you live, can be magical with even the tiniest shift of perspective. And it’s never too early to teach White kids that Black kids are kids, too. — Marc Bernardin, podcaster and writer of comics and graphic novels, including “Adora and the Distance”

“Too Sticky!: Sensory Issues with Autism,” by Jen Malia

Such a loving, accessible story about understanding sensory needs in children. I wish “Too Sticky” had been around when my autistic child was younger. I cried the first time I read it! — Hannah Grieco

“Triangle,” by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but the last line is the best cliffhanger ever! — Nana Efua Mumford

“What Pete Ate from A-Z,” by Maira Kalman

This list of an innocent-looking dog’s incredible ingestion (beginning with “He ate cousin Rocky’s accordion. All of it.”) has verbal treats on every page — Kate Cohen, Post Opinions contributing columnist

“The Whispering Rabbit,” by Margaret Wise Brown; illustrated by Annie Won

Forget “Goodnight Moon” and “The Runaway Bunny”; this is the Margaret Wise Brown book I’ve happily read hundreds of times. A sleepy rabbit opens his mouth to yawn and accidentally swallows … a bee! To expel it, he must emit the quietest possible sound — quieter than snow melting, a fly sneezing, a flower growing. Written in sleep-inducing cadences. — Jen Balderama

Ages 5 to 7R

“Amos & Boris,” by William Steig

A mouse is rescued by a whale, and, years later, the whale is rescued by the mouse. That’s it — and somehow it’s an entire novel in 32 pages. — Kate Cohen

“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” by Barbara Robinson

One of very few books that literally makes me laugh and cry, which is great fun for my kids, who enjoy making fun of me for it. — Mary Katharine Ham

“Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds,” by David A. Adler

The voluminous Cam Jansen series develops a habit of reading. It introduces story form and tropes from a history of literature. — Mary Katharine Ham

“Carla’s Sandwich,” by Debbie Herman; illustrated by Sheila Bailey

A story that’s told lightly but captures the serious themes of bullying and appreciation of difference. — Sofia Chang

“Chicken Sunday,” by Patricia Polacco

A young girl and her neighborhood friends do something special for the friends’ grandmother. In the process, they get into an accidental conflict with a neighbor who thinks they’ve vandalized his store — and readers learn about Ukrainian culture, and African American culture and food. — Lisa Loeb

“The Children’s Book of Virtues,” edited by William J. Bennett; illustrated by Michael Hague

We would gather all the kids on our bed at night and read one of the stories or poems — each focused on a particular virtue, such as courage, perseverance or responsibility — and then talk about what it meant and how they could apply it to their lives. — Marc A. Thiessen, Post Opinions columnist

The Chronicles of Prydain series, by Lloyd Alexander

The serial escapades of young Taran, the assistant pig-keeper, and his companions — strong-willed Princess Eilonwy, mercurial Fflewddur Fflam and loyal Gurgi, among others — eventually coalesce into a mythic coming-of-age tale. — Steven D. Greydanus, founder of Decent Films

“The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen,” Taschen edition

After a few years of the usual happy endings, every child needs to be introduced to the destabilizing force of Hans Christian Andersen. This volume is gorgeously illustrated, including images by a variety of Golden Age illustrators, so it’s a visual feast as well as a language one. — Amber Noelle Sparks

“Half Magic” and other novels, by Edward Eager

In “Half Magic,” siblings find a magic coin that half-grants wishes, which forces the family to be creative about how and what they wish for. Eager has a series of linked stories of magic adventures, each strikingly original. — Leah Libresco Sargeant

“Hiking Day,” by Anne Rockwell; illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell

We picked up “Hiking Day” at a nature center gift shop in the middle of the pandemic when “outside” was still a loaded word. I love it because it not only centers a Black family simply living but also celebrates curiosity and the radical notion that the world is everyone’s to explore. — Helena Andrews-Dyer

“Little House in the Big Woods” and its sequels, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I somehow avoided these books as a kid, probably from associating them with the often treacly Michael Landon show, until I started reading them aloud to our daughter as bedtime stories. Big mistake on my part! Wilder’s vivid, lightly fictionalized retelling of her frontier childhood is far richer, more complex and more morally ambiguous about the settling of the American West than I ever could have imagined. — Zack Stentz, creator of “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous” and co-author of “Colin Fischer”

“The Monster at the End of This Book,” by Jon Stone; illustrated by Michael Smollin

How young is too young to introduce a kid to the concept of “meta”? Of “breaking the fourth wall”? Of “narrative realities”? — Marc BernardinPress Enter to skip to end of carousel

“My Mind is a Mountain / Mi mente es una montaña,” by Cindy Montenegro; illustrated by Nqobile Adigun

This beautiful book, which we publish, allows parents and their little ones to begin having conversations about mental health very early on, helping to destigmatize it and encourage resilience in children. — Patty Rodriguez and Ariana Stein, founders of Lil’ Libros

“Roxaboxen,” by Alice McLerran; illustrated by Barbara Cooney

A sparkling example of a true imaginative tale and the magical quality of make-believe within the heart and soul of a child. A grand adventure for young and old (but have a tissue handy). — Rachel Reeves, co-host of the RightBooks4Kids Instagram account

“Sábado / Saturday,” by Jorge Garza

This almost textless picture book is inspired by Mesoamerican pictorial manuscripts and celebrates the first accomplishments of many immigrant families — in this case, the graduation of a school-age child. — Patty Rodriguez and Ariana Stein

“The Skin You Live In,” by Michael Tyler; illustrated by David Lee Csicsko

Tyler’s rhyming prose and Csicsko’s bright, joyful illustrations deliver a vital message: The skin you live in, whether “butterscotch gold skin,” “marshmallow treat skin” or “warm cocoa dream skin,” is beautiful — as is “the ‘you’ who’s within.” — Jen Balderama

“Small Sister,” by Jessica Meserve

This gets at so many of the big emotions involved in sibling relationships: admiration, competition, jealousy, rage, courage, but mostly love. — Helena Andrews-Dyer

“Stories for Children,” by Isaac Bashevis Singer

These moving stories shine a light into the lives of Jews in Europe and the United States at the turn of the 20th century. Singer is one of the best children’s writers in history. A great bedtime read-aloud for older kids. — Bethany S. Mandel

“A Story About Afiya,” by James Berry; illustrated by Anna Cunha

Written by Jamaican poet James Berry, this is a sweet ode to childhood full of gorgeous illustrations that bring Afiya’s bright personality and dazzling dress to life on every page. — Amber O’Neal Johnston, author of “A Place to Belong: Celebrating Diversity and Kinship in the Home and Beyond”

“Weasels,” by Elys Dolan

A James Bond movie if it were only about the villains and if the villains were coffee-addicted weasels trying to achieve total world domination — a phrase I had to apologize to my brother for teaching his kid. — Amanda Katz

“The Wreck of the Zephyr,” by Chris Van Allsburg

Van Allsburg’s books are great stories, but more important, they are haunting stories. They have a beautiful weight to them, even darkness and danger, in the tradition of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. — Mary Katharine Ham

Ages 8 to 12

“Blended,” by Sharon M. Draper

“Blended” explores themes of biracial identity, divorce and remarriage, and police brutality. A good book to read and discuss along with your child, especially if your family is dealing with any of the book’s social themes. — Stacia L. Brown

“Bridge to Terabithia,” by Katherine Paterson

It appears as though it’s going to be an innocent book about two kids creating an adventure world, but it has a sad twist. I still loved it when I was younger, because it was relatable to me at that age. — Flora Saucier, child of Post Opinions contributing columnist Fernanda Santos

“Charlotte’s Web,” by E.B. White; illustrated by Garth Williams

The first book that ever made me cry was “Charlotte’s Web”; I think I was about 8 years old. It is a book of such wisdom, and sorrow, and joy, so much of it encapsulated in Wilbur’s summary of the barn in which he lives: “It was the best place to be, thought Wilbur, this warm delicious cellar, with the garrulous geese, the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure, and the glory of everything.” — Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of the Falcon Quinn series

The Chronicles of Narnia series, by C.S. Lewis

While the seven-book series weaves understated theological symbolism throughout, its powerful strength is its great appeal even to readers who don’t have a strong religious bent. — Rachel Reeves

“Echo,” by Pam Muñoz Ryan

I loved this book for its complicated plot, for its connections across time and for the conversations it sparked. It’s a perfect read-aloud.— Emily Oster

“El Deafo,” by Cece Bell

When Bell loses her hearing after an early childhood illness, she develops a fearless alter ego named El Deafo — to sweet, poignant and comedic effect. — Stacia L. Brown

“Farah Rocks Fifth Grade,” by Susan Muaddi Darraj; illustrated by Ruaida Mannaa

The first book in an incredible middle-grade series about a young detective, and it introduces a young Arab American girl as the protagonist! — Hannah Grieco

“From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,” by E.L. Konigsburg

This is such a lovely book in its respect for children’s intelligence and discernment, and for its portrait of friendship between kids and adults. — Alyssa Rosenberg

“Front Desk,” by Kelly Yang

This story about a Chinese immigrant family gave my daughter perspective on what my childhood was like while also touching on themes of racism, socioeconomic exclusion and inclusion. — Sofia Chang

“The Great Brain,” by John D. Fitzgerald; illustrated by Mercer Mayer

A classic about the merciless but harmless manipulations of a younger brother by his older, in a mixed Catholic-Mormon family on the Utah frontier. Full of gentle moral lessons and diversity of the religious sort; it also imparts a lot of American history without forcing it. — Charles Lane, Post Opinions columnist and editorial board member

“Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans,” by Kadir Nelson

Narrated in the voice of a fictionalized African American elder, this book offers an engaging overview of the trials and triumphs of African Americans. It’s filled with Nelson’s jaw-dropping, full-page portraits, and the narrative writing draws each reader into a personal story. — Amber O’Neal Johnston

“The Hobbit,” by J.R.R. Tolkien

Warmer, funnier and lighter on its feet than the author’s more celebrated Lord of the Rings trilogy, “The Hobbit” is still a perfect introduction to the world of high fantasy. — Zack Stentz

“The Lives of Christopher Chant,” by Diana Wynne Jones

A much funnier, more imaginative, more nuanced and less formulaic J.K. Rowling novel. — Amanda Katz

“My Side of the Mountain,” by Jean Craighead George

On the pier between childhood and stormy adolescence, this novel meets readers ready to imagine independence, self-reliance and life without parents. Part adventure story, part naturalist handbook, George’s story awakens a love for the outdoors even as she prepares preteens for what comes next. — David Von Drehle

“Out of My Mind,” by Sharon M. Draper

This book and its sequel, “Out of My Heart,” are compelling stories that teach bravery and compassion while giving a bold view into what life is like for some people with disabilities. — Amber O’Neal Johnston

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, by Rick Riordan; illustrated by John Rocco

A good way to introduce early teens to their own situations while teaching them about Greek mythology. Plus, any story that says the gods live in New York and the entrance to hell is in Los Angeles gets huge props from me! — Henry Olsen

“The Phantom Tollbooth,” by Norton Juster; illustrated by Jules Feiffer

This classic is a magic trick: a fantasy adventure that fuses an overtly allegorical, “Pilgrim’s Progress”-esque ode to the importance of learning and education with anarchic Lewis Carroll-like whimsy and nonsense. — Steven D. Greydanus

“The Pushcart War,” by Jean Merrill; illustrated by Ronni Solbert

Simply the best book about politics ever written for children, and vastly more fun than that description makes it sound. — Alyssa Rosenberg

“Ramona and Her Father,” by Beverly Cleary; illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers

No other author has rendered ordinary childhood in such windowpane prose or with such unpatronizing dignity and deft humor. — David Von Drehle

A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket; illustrated by Brett Helquist

The books in this series are unlike anything we’ve read before: Though each is about an “unfortunate” event, the writer still finds a way to be funny. — Fernanda Santos and Flora Saucier

“Sisters,” by Raina Telgemeier

For many kids, I think graphic novels are a key to opening up a love of reading. There are many great ones, but in my house this book is distinguished by being the most coated in food crumbs, as it’s the top choice for reading while eating dessert. — Emily Oster

“So You Want to Be a Wizard” and its sequels, by Diane Duane

While movies about magic are dominated by third-act CGI-fests, Duane’s wizards are attentive to small things, and their adventures turn on small risks of generosity and trust. — Leah Libresco Sargeant

“Treasure Island,” by Robert Louis Stevenson

Pirates! Pretty much every buccaneer trope (maps to buried treasure, peg legs and eye patches, parrots who yell “Pieces of eight!”) comes straight from this tale of a boy swept into a high-seas adventure. “Treasure Island” is particularly fun to read aloud, since you can do all the pirate voices as you move through the chapters. Just don’t act out the sword fights unless you want your kids to stay awake long past bedtime. — Zack Stentz

“Watership Down,” by Richard Adams

Adams is the Homer of the hedgerow, the Malory of the warren — or, a bit more precisely, the Tolkien of rabbitry, complete with rabbit myths and folk tales, poetry, spirituality, even a sketch of a rabbit language. This is an epic saga, brimming with philosophical depth, about a special group of rabbits pursuing a better life, facing seemingly insurmountable difficulties with creativity, loyalty and hope. — Steven D. Greydanus

“Where the Sidewalk Ends,” by Shel Silverstein

If Dr. Seuss’s work feels like cartoons on mushrooms, then Silverstein’s illustrations vibe like they favor single malt. — Marc Bernardin

13 and older

“Alanna: The First Adventure,” by Tamora Pierce

The 22 books and novellas set in Pierce’s fictional kingdom of Tortall range from “The Wire,” with magic, to “Game of Thrones”-style social chronicle minus the grotesque violence. And without being explicit, the books are a wonderful starting place for conversations about healthy romantic and sexual relationships. — Alyssa Rosenberg

“Ender’s Game,” by Orson Scott Card

A story of courage, doubt, and sibling love and rivalry. If your child ever thinks “that’s unfair!,” reflecting on Ender’s plight might put things in perspective. — Timothy P. Carney, a senior political columnist at the Washington Examiner and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and his wife, Katie Carney

“The Fellowship of the Ring” and its sequels, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Not a children’s book, but it teaches about honor, courage and duty at an age when it’s essential to inculcate those concepts in teens. — Henry Olsen

“Fifteen,” by Beverly Cleary

This story about starting to date is perfection, worth it alone for the chapter in which protagonist Jane Purdy deals with the heartache of not being asked to a dance. — Alyssa Rosenberg

The Kane Chronicles trilogy, by Rick Riordan; illustrated by Matt Griffin

This series, couched in a strong coming-of-age framing, doesn’t shy away from questions of identity, loss and sacrifice. — Rebecca Cokley, disability rights program officer at the Ford Foundation

The Legendborn Cycle series, by Tracy Deonn

An update to the Arthurian saga, centered on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the tensions between two communities with histories in magic. This series is unapologetic in its approach to race, gender and class. — Rebecca Cokley

“Northanger Abbey,” by Jane Austen

For teenagers who like dark classic novels. It’s one of Austen’s lesser-known works, but it has a great mixture of romance and mystery. — Fernanda Santos and Flora Saucier

“The Pilgrim’s Progress,” by John Bunyan

This book’s roots are firmly and deeply planted in truth found in scripture. It is infused with hope. — Rachel Reeves

“Right Ho, Jeeves,” by P.G. Wodehouse

Some of our happiest family reading moments came with Jeeves and the Woosters, starting with this volume. Words explode. Names pop. Harebrained schemes somehow stick the landing. All these fire the pre-adolescent brain. But the biggest draw, especially for young minds coming to the realization that their parents might be idiots? The welcome surprise that power dynamics are not what they appear. Bertie owns the cards, but Jeeves calls the plays, sir. — David Shipley, The Post’s opinion editor

“The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4” and its sequels, by Sue Townsend

Funny, gross, touching — and an opportunity for teenagers to see their own self-absorption from the outside. — Alyssa Rosenberg

Thank you for telling us which children’s books we missed. We are reviewing nearly 250 responses and will publish the list soon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/06/kids-books-recommendations-list-culture-war/

Schools got $122 billion to reopen last year. Most has not been used.

November 15, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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By Lauren Lumpkin and Sahana Jayaraman Updated October 24, 2022 at 6:27 p.m. EDT|Published October 24, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EDT Washington Post

In March 2021, the Biden administration released the federal government’s largest pool of pandemic relief for public schools. The American Rescue Plan infused campuses with $122 billion to reopen buildings, address mental health needs and help students who had fallen behind academically.

The need was so urgent that two-thirds of the money — $81 billion — was released less than two weeks after the plan was signed into law and before the Education Department could approve each state’s spending plan.

But despite having access to the dollars, school systems throughout the country reported spending less than 15 percent of the federal funding, known as ESSER III, the most recent installment of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, during the 2021-2022 school year, according to a Washington Post analysis of data collected by Edunomics, an education finance group at Georgetown University.

The spending rates varied considerably between states, and even among school districts within a state. But the trend of a slow rollout was especially apparent in some of the school districts that have incurred the steepest learning losses in English and math, according to the data. About half of the 211 districts The Post examined, where Edunomics estimates students are the furthest behind, spent 5 percent or less of their ESSER III money last school year, the data shows.

Meanwhile, national test scores in elementary school math and reading have plunged to levels that haven’t been seen in decades, and education advocates worry that children continue to fall behind. “The excuse in education has always been, ‘We don’t have enough money,’” said Keri Rodrigues, president of education advocacy group the National Parents Union. “Now we have a historic amount of spending, like never before, and you’re not even spending the money.”

The money was not spent for a variety of reasons — including delayed access to funds, a nationwide educator shortage that has made it hard to fill new positions, and a desire to make the money last, according to interviews with school officials and education experts in six states. ESSER III expires in September 2024, well after two earlier rounds of relief funding dry up, and school leaders say they want to stretch it as long as possible.

But while the money sits — much of which is slated to go toward tutoring and other measures to catch students up academically — millions of children continue to struggle in core subjects, the consequences of which might not be known for years.

School district leaders, however, insist they are making progress — particularly this school year as they plan to dip deeper into the remaining money. The vast majority of funds have already been committed to “critical needs,” such as addressing student mental health and reversing learning loss, and will be spent over the next two years, according to the White House and outside analyses of thousands of school districts’ spending plans. Many expenses, such as staff salaries, can only be drawn down gradually, officials added.

And inmany cases districts are still spending earlier waves of federal funding, a total of $67.5 billion released during the Trump administration that helped schools pivot to virtual learning and retrofit buildings to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.The White House said the passage of the American Rescue Plan expedited spending of those earlier rounds, and overall monthly pandemic education spending increased eightfold between February 2021 and August 2022.

Districts also explain the slow rate of spending by pointing to staffing shortages and supply chain disruptions that have made it difficult to fulfill their plans, as well as bureaucratic hurdles and reporting lags.

The state education agency in Maryland, for example, reports that Baltimore has not spent any of its relief dollars. Kimberly Hoffman, executive director of data monitoring and compliance for the school district of more than 77,000 children,said 14 percent of the grant has now been spent.

“We didn’t even have approval from the state to start spending it until October 2021,” Hoffman said. “A lot of our planning on using that third pot of ESSER funds is really what’s going to happen this year in the ’22-23 school year and next year, in 2023-24.”

Using factors including test scores, family poverty data and the number of weeks students spent in remote learning, Edunomics estimates that children in Baltimore have lost an average of 18 weeks of learning in math and 15 weeks in reading. Remedying that could total $177.8 million in tutoring costs — 40 percent of the city’s ESSER III allotment — researchers estimate.

Hoffman said roughly half of Baltimore’s $443 million award is slated to address learning loss, much of which will take the form of tutoring as the district expands programs that started before the pandemic. In the months after ESSER III was announced, officials created a spending plan that included $39 million to pay teachers to tutor over the summer and $57 million to hire outside help for summer learning programs. That spending started this year and will continue over the summers of 2023 and 2024.

Millions more will be poured into one-on-one instruction, online tutoring and after-school learning programs — including $9 million to bring in outside organizations to tutor students in 100 schools over two years, according to the district.

Baltimore’s budget for the federal funding also includes more opportunities for students who failed courses to regain credits, as well as money to hire bus drivers, purchase WiFi hotspots for families and address long-neglected infrastructure needs — from bathroom renovations to air-conditioning installations.

Schools have been given wide latitude in determining how to use the money, though at least 20 percent must be spent to address learning loss. Schools have reported purchasing new curriculums, furniture and school supplies. At least 31 of the 100 largest school districts in the country are paying teachers bonuses, according to FutureEd, another Georgetown education research group.

Some districts have shied away from purchases that can’t be sustained once the money runs dry, such as new positions or salary increases, although dozens have reported doing so anyway. In North Carolina, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County school district said it would use $5.8 million to hire about 400 “guest teachers,” whose positions are set to expire at the same time as the funding.

But most districts are eager to reverse the academic damage cause by the pandemic. The influx of federal dollars presents an opportunity to give unprecedented support to “kids who weren’t getting the educational opportunities they needed before the pandemic,” including children from low-income families, English language learners and students with special education needs, said Segun Eubanks, a professor and director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Education Innovation and Improvement.

In the nation’s capital, Edunomics estimates that students in the public school system are 20 weeks behind in math and 12 weeks behind in reading, which could cost more than $116 million to reverse. The district has reported spending less than 3 percent of its nearly $195 million allotment, according to the District’s state superintendent of education. The city’s charter schools, which are publicly funded and privately operated by nonprofit organizations called local education agencies, were awarded about $152.8 million.

Chris Bergfalk, a veteran D.C. public school teacher, said last school year — when most children came back to the building — was the hardest of his 20-year career. He returned to his fifth-grade classroom a mile from the Capitol to children who were traumatized.

In school, children eat two to three meals a day. They can talk to social workers and get after-school care. But when buildings closed, those services disappeared in many cases, Bergfalk said. Now teachers are seeing the effects.

“I have students who are at the beginning reading level, which means they can’t read, and I have students who are in the 99th percentile,” he said. One of the higher-scoring students, he added, said their parent hired a tutor while schools were closed.

In many cases, a child’s academic standing can be traced to whether consistent internet access was available at home, said Eric Teutsch, a high school Spanish teacher in Youngstown, Ohio. Schools recorded attendance issues throughout the pandemic as children struggled to get online, and when they came back to the classroom “they were behind academically and socially,” Teutsch said. Edunomics estimates it will cost $12.6 million to catch kids up who are, on average, 20 weeks behind in math and 16 weeks behind in reading.

Pinpointing the exact amount of learning loss incurred through the pandemic is tricky, and districts have different ways of measuring progress. But it is widely understood that schools are contending with a crisis.

Tennessee’s state department of education is awarding extra state funding to districts and charter schools that spend half of their ESSER III award on academics and participate in a multiyear tutoring program. In D.C., officials are pouring $40 million intofrequent, small-group tutoring, with plans to provide services to more than 8,000 children over the next two academic years. This type of tutoring, often called “high-impact,” is among the best methods to accelerate learning, research indicates.

Consistency and continuity are also needed for an effective tutoring regime. But spending federal dollars has been challenging in the absence of qualified people who can make the commitment, said Jonathan Travers, a partner at Education Resource Strategies. The Massachusetts-based nonprofit helps school districts determine how best to use their resources.

At first it was hard to find teachers who could take on the extra workload, Travers said. Schools started outsourcing to local organizations, community partners and nearby universities to fill the gap. But with nearly every school district in the country embarking on the same strategy, even those positions are hard to fill.

The case has been the same with other staff positions — from teachers to bus drivers to mental health professionals. Districts set out last year to hire counselors to help children cope with the emotional fallout of spending months at home, around sick relatives or in neighborhoods beset by surging violent crime. Morgan County Schools, a rural district of about 2,100 students in West Virginia, is contending not only with the pandemic but an opioid epidemic. Officials planned to hire a school psychologist, a behavior support specialist and a social worker.

So far, the social worker position has been filled, said Kristen Tuttle, the district’s superintendent. The behavior support role was changed to a special education coach to make the position easier to fill, but the district has not been able to find a qualified candidate to take on the psychologist job, she added.The school system has reported using about 10 percent of its $4.7 million ESSER III allotment.

But even with plans in place, some districts acknowledge they are behind on spending, said Travers, who is working with about 30 urban and suburban school systems. “In some cases, probably, the plan review and approval took longer than they assumed,” he said. “I think the majority of cases, though, were about challenges getting management capacity to get spending initiatives kicked off.”

Education experts also warn the data available about ESSER III use do not fully capture what is happening in schools. The figure that gets reported — whether it’s zero, 5 or 31 percent of funding spent — reflects only how much money a district has requested from the state. School districts are not sitting on those dollars, they say, but rather tapping into local funds and getting reimbursed later.

“That’s one of the reasons there’s a difference between the budget and the plan to utilize funds versus actually pulling the money down, receiving it in your bank account and using it to pay someone,” said Dean Zajic, assistant director of special education and title services for the Kansas State Department of Education.

In Yakima, Wash., officials say slow spending is intentional. The district has requested 20 percent of its $56.1 million ESSER III allotment, state data show.

Jenny Rodriguez, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, said the district has focused on spending the first two rounds of relief before tapping into ESSER III. Students in Yakima schools lost an average of 22 weeks of math and 21 weeks of reading, Edunomics estimates, which would cost $47.8 million to reverse.

“Rather than a huge fire hose of funding in a single year, or even two years,” Rodriguez said, “we’ve been intentional to think about how do we stretch this funding to have supports for students as long as possible?”

In Youngstown, however, the public school district is more than three-quarters of the way through its $50 million ESSER III grant.

Justin Jennings, the system’s superintendent, said it’s because officials started requesting money early. “When other people were buying hotspots and laptops, we already had them on the way,” he said.

The district of more than 4,000 students also requested funding for big-ticket expenses, from air conditioning units to roofing repairs. Officials bought 48 new school buses, Jennings said, adding that some of the older vehicles “should have been out of service years ago.”

But one thing that has stumped Jennings, and school leaders throughout the country, is how to sustain some of these purchases. For example, many districts in 2020 became one-to-one device districts overnight, meaning that, for the first time, every student had a laptop. But those devices last, at most, five years, Jennings said — at which point officials will have to figure out how to replace hundreds of devices.

In Baltimore, Zabrina Harris, a middle school special educator, said she is proud of how her district has addressed education deficits. Although her students are behind, they are still making progress, she said.

But she also understands the reality. Children in the city — for myriad reasons, from poverty to exposure to violence — have long trailed their peers across the state. In districts like that, it may take more than one-time federal relief to reverse years of underinvestment.

“They may never meet certain standards,” Harris said. “But will they be readers and writers and thinkers? Yes, they will. I have faith in that.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/10/24/covid-spending-schools-students-achievement/

Plummeting U.S. test scores aren’t a red state vs. blue state thing

November 15, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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By Eugene Robinson Washington Post October 25th 2022

It turns out that all the bitter back-and-forth between red and blue states about how quickly to reopen schools during the covid-19 pandemic was nothing but political theater, as far as test scores are concerned. Student performance suffered across the board, and it could take years to make up the ground we’ve lost.Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates

Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released Monday, show that the pandemic ushered in a falling tide that lowered all boats. Scores for fourth-graders and eighth-graders in reading declined markedly — and, in math, showed the biggest drop since testing began in 1990 — regardless of what ambitious politicians said or did.

Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas, for example, made a big show of reopening their states’ schools in the fall of 2020, with DeSantis going so far as to threaten to withhold funding from school districts that did not comply. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, on the other hand, moved more slowly, conditioning the return to in-person instruction on the level of covid-19 infection in a given county.

But the NAEP report, based on testing this spring, showed that student performance suffered equally despite the different approaches. Math scores for fourth-graders dropped by four points in California, five points in Florida and five points in Texas. For eighth-graders, scores dropped by six points in California, seven points in Florida and seven points in Texas.

Scores in reading in those three states also moved in lockstep, falling by a point or two. Political posturing might have mattered to governors who’d like to be president someday, but it made no difference to the millions of children in the nation’s schools. From the students’ point of view, there was no “right way” to blunt the impact of the pandemic. All strategies, we now know, were equally futile.

The NAEP results — often called “the nation’s report card” — present a huge challenge to officials at every level, from Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on down to every school district superintendent and every elementary and middle school principal. Following modest gains over the past three decades, student performance in reading is back to exactly where it was in 1992. And performance in math, after a hopeful stretch of significant improvement, is back to about what it was 20 years ago.

The pandemic caused math scores to fall more sharply than reading scores. The theory — and it certainly would have been borne out in my household, if I still had school-age children — is that parents were more equipped to help their kids keep on pace in reading than in math.

There are some puzzling findings in the NAEP data. Fourth-graders who were already the lowest performers lost more ground — falling even further behind — during the pandemic, especially in math. That raises the question of whether many of those students have grasped the fundamental principles they will need to survive their math classes in the higher grades.

The story is different, however, for eighth-graders. The top performers and the lowest performers lost ground in equal measure — two or three points in reading, roughly eight points in math. This presents an obvious challenge for high schools across the country: Will this cohort be ready for high school algebra and geometry? Or will some remedial instruction be necessary?

For that matter, how will the nation help our children catch up after what amounted to two lost years in their education? The NAEP report does not provide answers, but it offers a few clues.

Roughly 70 percent of students said they had at least some experience with remote learning during the pandemic. Higher-performing students — those who lost less ground — were significantly more likely than low performers to have full-time access to a computer or tablet; to have high-speed internet access; to have a quiet place to do their homework; to have a teacher available remotely to help them almost every day; and to have an adult help them in person with their schoolwork at least once or twice a week.

Wealthy, highly educated parents are going to do everything in their power to educate their children. Less affluent parents in financially strapped school districts will need federal and state aid to keep up. The last thing this country needs is more inequality.

Another takeaway is clear: These are the education issues we ought to be grappling with, rather than using schools as battlefields for the culture wars.

Enough, already, with the performative outrage about imaginary critical race theory, a handful of transgender students who want to play sports and what pronouns teachers can and cannot use. Our students need to learn reading and math — and they’re losing ground.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/24/test-scores-plummet-red-and-blue-states/

Six women poised to change the face of the Montgomery County Council

November 15, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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By Katie Shepherd November 13, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EST

Montgomery County voters elected a historic slate of candidates to the County Council on Tuesday, adding Latina, Asian and Black representatives to a body that will be majority-female for the first time.

The six incoming members — all women — have their own priorities and beliefs that range from moderate to ultraliberal. On the whole, the changes are expected to shift the body further left in a deep-blue county that already prides itself as a haven for progressive ideas and policymaking.

“I’m really excited that we finally have a council that reflects the rich and beautiful diversity of our county,” said Laurie-Anne Sayles, who was elected to an at-large seat Tuesday.

In interviews, the newcomers cited plans to boost affordable housing and pedestrian safety and road quality, bolster the county’s mental and behavioral health resources, restore jobs lost in the pandemic and improve wages. Several campaigned on promises to improve equity for disenfranchised residents here, in one of the wealthiest counties in a state frequently ranked among the wealthiest in America by median household income.

Similar pledges lifted candidates across the state and nation to “firsts” this cycle: voters elected Maryland’s first Black governor, first Black attorney general and first immigrant and woman of color to serve as lieutenant governor. Nationally, voters elected the first female governors in Massachusetts and New York, and the first openly lesbian governors in Oregon and Massachusetts. Arkansas also elected its first female governor, Republican Sarah Sanders, though her politics are a stark contrast to the Democrats who made history in other states.

In Montgomery,where people of color make up nearly 6 in 10 of the county’s 1.05 million residents, incoming council members said they recognized the significance of representing people who aren’t accustomed to seeing themselves in the county’s elected leadership.

In Montgomery’s long neglected east county, a new map stirs hope for stronger representation

The new members include an accountant, a mayor, a Venezuelan immigrant and dreamer, an adoptee who serves as an assistant state attorney general, a first-generation Chinese American born and raised in the county and a first-generation Jamaican American who works in public health.

In addition to Sayles, also elected Tuesday were Marilyn Balcombe (D-District 2), Kate Stewart (D-District 4), Kristin Mink (D-District 5), Natali Fani-González (D-District 6) and Dawn Luedtke (D-District 7). They will join five incumbents who secured reelection.

The incoming council will be tasked with taking up implementation of the controversial Thrive 2050 planguiding growth and development that passed last month, appointing a new planning board after the entire body resigned amid scandal earlier this year, and continuing efforts on police reforms and steering Montgomery’s coronavirus recovery.

The council is expanding from nine to 11 members this year under a plan voters backed to alter the body’s makeup in 2020. District lines were redrawn to create seats that better represent residents in the eastern reaches of the county. Throughout the campaign cycle, voters and candidates have questioned whether the equity-minded countygovernment has done enough for the county’s east side, where immigrant communities and predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods have for decades gone without investment that helped other parts of the county prosper.

Mink will represent one of the new districts carved out to better represent east county residents, which consolidates Four Corners through Burtonsville. Mink ran on a liberal platform supporting rent stabilization and eviction protections, free bus rapid transit and substantial economic investment in White Oak and Burtonsville Crossing, among other progressive issues.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/13/montgomery-county-council-women/

Wes Moore projected to win Md. governor’s race in history-making run

November 10, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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Wes Moore on being elected Maryland's first Black governor: 'It is remarkably humbling' - ABC News

By Erin Cox and Ovetta Wiggins Updated November 8, 2022 at 8:52 p.m. EST|Published November 8, 2022 at 8:00 p.m. EST Washington Post

Author and former nonprofit chief Wes Moore, a Democrat, defeated far-right Republican Dan Cox to become the first Black person elected governor in Maryland history, the Associated Press projected Tuesday.Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.

Moore, 44, delivered a major victory to Democrats in a tough national election cycle for the party, reclaiming the governor’s mansion after eight years of Republican rule on a vow to “leave no one behind” — a message that resonated in a diversifying state where people of color have recently become the majority.

“It is not lost on me that I’ve made a little history myself here tonight. But I also know that I wasn’t the first one to try,” Moore told supporters. “I am humbled to be a part of this legacy. … That’s not why we got into this race. The history that matters most to us is the history that we — and the people of this state — are going to make together over the next four years.”

Moore, the son of a Jamaican immigrant who raised him on her own, now becomes just the third Black person elected governor in American history — after Deval Patrick in Massachusetts and L. Douglas Wilder in Virginia.

A political newcomer, Moore swayed Maryland voters with charisma and optimism and is seen as a rising star among a new generation of leaders in the Democratic Party.P

Cheers erupted at Moore’s victory party in Baltimore as the race was called, with “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang playing over the loudspeakers. In an Annapolis hotel ballroom, Cox’s daughter Patience Faith Cox took the stage to tell the supporters peering up at a television showing the Associated Press had called the race “don’t believe anything you see on there.”

With Democrats maintaining a 2-1 advantage in voter registration, and an electorate that leans toward moderation, a Democratic victory appeared inevitable after Cox clinched the GOP nomination. Polls showed Moore with nearly a 30 percentage point advantage less than six weeks before Election Day.

Cox tacked right, unable to build the cross-party coalition that lifted Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, the popular and term-limited incumbent. Hogan disavowed Cox as unqualified.

Cox harnessed conservative grievances on coronavirus mandates, emphasized parental rights in schools and maintained ties to former president Donald Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Maryland.

Moore hewed closely to a message of inclusion and progress, saying during the campaign, “We leave no one behind. And that is not just a mantra, It is a value statement. And it is not just a value statement. Come January, that will be the new mission of this state.”

Moore’s running mate, Aruna Miller, a former state delegate, will bethe state’s first immigrant and first woman of color to serve as lieutenant governor. The barrier-breaking slate also included U.S. Rep. Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.), who would become the first Black attorney general, and Del. Brooke E. Lierman (D-Baltimore City) as the first woman to serve as comptroller.

“With Moore, it’s the intangible. He felt trustworthy,” said former middle school teacher Alfonso Sasieta, 30, as he cast his vote in Hyattsville on Tuesday. He said he is excited to see what’s in store for Moore. “I think that as a Black man with certain lived experiences, those are going to give him insight on what policy looks like.”

Blocks from Thurgood Marshall’s childhood home in West Baltimore, Sarah Holley, 75, emerged from the voting booth Tuesday having cast her vote for Moore, a blue pin stamped with “WES” on her hat.

“It’s a true sign of progress of what we as a people can do,” said Holley, a retired publicist who is Black.

At another Baltimore polling place, one Black woman clutched Moore’s hands and prayed with him before he hopped back onto a blue and yellow campaign bus.

While campaigning, Moore publicly redirected talk of firsts, offering a version of his reply at an event with Hillary Clinton last month: “The weight of making history does sit on us, and it’s humbling. But that’s not the assignment.”

Moore built a statewide coalition around issues like reducing crime, boosting economic opportunity and ending child poverty — goals for which he crafted ambitious policies with no price tag. When pressed for details, he would point to the state’s multibillion-dollar surplus as a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to change state government.

Moore also broached topics often monopolized by Republicans, advocating to reduce the estate tax and embracing patriotism.

“You cannot love your country if you hate half the people in it. Real patriotism means bringing people together,” Moore said during his victory speech.

“Wes represents Maryland’s future in a bold way. He is savvy in business; he is a veteran who has taken real risks on behalf of our country in combat, and he’s also a shade darker than anybody who’s ever come before,” said former NAACP president Ben Jealous, who made an unsuccessful bid for governor in 2018.

A former investment banker, Johns Hopkins University football player and graduate, Rhodes scholar, Army paratrooper and officer in Afghanistan, and White House fellow who once led the Robinhood Foundation, the country’s largest poverty-fighting nonprofit, Moore attracted a star-studded list of backers. He had fundraisers headlined by Oprah Winfrey and Spike Lee, a campaign ad filmed with former president Barack Obama and multiple rallies alongside President Biden.

His nearly two-year campaign centered on his personal story of facing adversity, detailed in his best-selling book “The Other Wes Moore,” a narrative that begins when his father died in front of him at age 3 of a misdiagnosed illness. His tough teenage years were tempered by the military school where his mother sent him to escape the Bronx. He now lives in Baltimore with his wife, Dawn, a veteran ofMaryland’s political scene, and their two children: Mia, 11, and James, 9.

He addressed them during his victory speech, saying, “I want you to know what I want every other child in the state to know: that you are never in a room that you don’t belong in.”

Moore’s political ambitions took decades to come to fruition.

“Every time I go back to New York,” Moore told the Palm Beach Post in 1998, “I see my old neighborhood deteriorating, and I ask myself, ‘What can I do about it?’ Politics is where the power is to do something about it.”

He broke through a crowded primary field that included well-known political heavyweights to compete with Cox, a freshman state delegate and father of 10 from Frederick who rocketed past Hogan’s handpicked, moderate-Republican successor.Press Enter to skip to end of carousel

Maryland Governor Race

Cox, who said he believes the 2020 election was “stolen,” was buoyed by an endorsement from Trump and derided by Hogan as a “wack job” unworthy of endorsement. (Cox unsuccessfully sued and tried to impeach Hogan over pandemic restrictions.)

“Wes is highly qualified … but Cox is a real blessing for Wes,” said Alvin Thornton, retired political science department chairman at Howard University.

Despite a Trump fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago last month, Cox’s campaign never raised more than a tenth of Moore’s nearly $16 million in resources. In a state where GOP leaders win by appealing to independents and moderates, Cox stuck to his conservative values. He focused his message on “freedom” from vaccine mandates, school curriculums that discuss gender identity and the income taxes that make up the backbone of state revenue.

Moore “was given the good fortune of having Dan Cox as his opponent,” said Carl Snowden, a long time civil rights activist in Anne Arundel County. “Especially because there were a lot of people, including African Americans,who were comfortable with Hogan.”

Outside Wheaton High School, Charles Williams, 42, a plumber, was one of the Black voters who thought Hogan was “pretty cool.”

But when it came time to vote for a successor to the Republican, Williams said Cox didn’t hold much appeal, so he backed Moore, saying he was “for the people.”

“With me it doesn’t really matter, Republican, Democrat, it’s who gets the job done,” Williams said.

Cox repeatedly declined to say whether he would accept the results of the election, citing concern with a court-approved change to when mail-in ballots can be opened.

At 11 p.m. Tuesday, Cox addressed supporters and did not concede but said, “We’re at a point where it’s not looking good, but I can tell you this: Only 50 percent of the votes are counted.”

Maryland’s record for lopsided gubernatorial victories was set in 1986, when then-Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer was elected governor with 82 percent of the vote.

Moore’s political ties in Maryland began with an internship with former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke, the city’s first Black mayor. Schmoke recommended Moore as a Rhodes scholar, and when Moore finished with Oxford, Schmoke suggested a job in the private sector to enhance his credibility when he ran for office.

“It was clear to me … he would get more support from the business community if he understood the private sector,” Schmoke said in a recent interview.

When Moore’s first political campaign finally started, Schmoke asked law professor and venerated Maryland political organizer Larry Gibson to consider helping. Gibson had helped launch the political careers of Schmoke and Wayne K. Curry, the first Black person elected to lead Prince George’s County. Earlier this year, Gibson became a senior adviser and a fixture during the primary, attending events and posting campaign signs in far-flung regions of the state.

This spring, Gibson said he spent his 80th birthday climbing steps to door-knock for Moore.

Moore also sought advice from a titan among America’s Black political leaders: Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor, who encouraged him to articulate a vision to all voters, not just Democrats.

“I know what an incredible talent Wes is. I know his sense of generational responsibility, that we are here to leave things better for those who come behind us, but not everybody is going to know that unless he explains it,” Patrick said of his advice to Moore.

Moore said most of their talks have had little to do with the possibility he would make history, but with how to get elected and effectively govern.

“He’s not telling me not to appreciate the fact that we’re doing something that hasn’t been done before,” Moore said in a mid-October interview. But “that thing will fade very quickly from the conversation. The thing that will stick is: What kind of governor was he?”

Moore’s victory follows Maryland’s complicated racial past.

Maryland never left the Union, but it was a slave state with Confederate sympathizers, and the generations that followed the Civil War erected prominent tributes to figures such as the author of the infamous Dred Scott ruling, which declared Black people inherently unfit for citizenship. One of those statutes stayed at the state Capitol until five years ago.

On Tuesday, Richard W. Thomas Jr., 80, proudly displayed an “I voted” sticker on his bright-orange sweatshirt as he shuffled out of the Silver Spring civic building.

Thomas, who is Black, said he remembered a time when “we couldn’t vote,” and he came ready to wait as long as necessary to cast his ballot for Moore. He was first in line.

The one race he followed this year was the gubernatorial contest.

“Wes Moore is my man,” he said.

While campaigning this fall in Prince George’s County, a D.C. suburb home to Black affluence, Moore directly addressed the state’s legacy.

“This is a state of Harriet Tubman, this is the state of Frederick Douglass, and this is the state of Thurgood Marshall,” he said.

“This is the state that the building that we will be sworn in, the state’s Capitol, it was built by the hands of the slave. The dock, the Annapolis dock, that is just walking distance from the state Capitol, is one of the largest slave docks in this country’s history. I understand the history of this state,” he said. “We will accomplish something that for those who came before us, they never thought was possible. They hoped. They dreamed. They fought. But we have a unique opportunity to do something.”

This story has been updated with comments from Wes Moore.

Lauren Lumpkin, Lateshia Beachum, Ian Duncan, Shwetha Surendran, Joe Heim and Steve Thompson contributed to this report.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/08/maryland-governor-results-wes-moore-dan-cox/

Montgomery County police to receive racial and social justice training

November 7, 2022 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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By Katie Shepherd November 4, 2022 at 7:26 p.m. EDT Washington Post

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich on Friday signed a bill that expands county police training to include 30 hours of coursework at Montgomery College aimed at reducing racial bias.

Cadets will study the history of law enforcement and the disproportionate impact policing and incarceration practices have had on communities of color as part of a curriculum designed by experts in sociology and criminal justice. The coursework also includes racial equity, social justice, health and wellness, community policing, active listening and conflict resolution and civic engagement.

“I think this is a signal to our community that we take seriously the moment we’re in and the need to reimagine what our public safety system looks like,” said Montgomery Council member Will Jawando (D – At Large), who introduced the unanimously supported legislation last month.

Jawando has been raising concerns about racial disparities in police encounters in Montgomery County since before racial justice protests broke out in 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd. He first proposed the 30-hour training program in 2021. Last month, the county published a report requested by the council member that showed Black men are the most overrepresented demographic in traffic stops and citations, accounting for 19 to 20 percent of stops between 2018 and 2022 despite making up 9 percent of the adult population.

Black drivers, including men and women, are also far more likely to be searched and arrested during traffic stops — making up 43 percent of searches and 38 percent of arrests but only 18 percent of the adult population. Latino drivers, too, are more likely to be arrested and searched: they make up 31 percent of searches and 35 percent of arrests despite accounting for 19 percent of the population.

The data suggests that even in equity-minded corners of the country like Montgomery County, people of color often do not receive equal justice under the law.

“There are issues that bedeviled departments across the country for a very long time,” Elrich, who is seeking reelection, said shortly before signing the bill. “We’re moving beyond that and Montgomery County is doing everything we can to make sure we prepare our officers.”

Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus G. Jones said the county is aiming to have the current class of recruits participate in the new program immediately after they finish their academy training in March. Training runs 26 weeks, and the new program at Montgomery College will add about one additional week of coursework for cadets.Veteran officers will also receive similar training through continuing education.

“We have a very good police department and I’m very proud of the men and women of Montgomery County Police,” Jones said at a news conference Friday. “We can always look at ourselves in the mirror and always do better than we did the day before.”

The police department is grappling with the revisions related to racial justice while trying to boost staffing as veteran officers retire at a faster rate than recruits join the force, and as the county experienced a spike in gun violence in the first half of the year.

The county police department is developing the new training program alongside experts from Montgomery College. Professors and other university staff are helping to design the program.

“Montgomery College is the college of the community, and we will not let the community down,” said professor Ginger Robinson, who serves as department chair for the college’s sociology, anthropology and criminal justice department.

Jawando said he hopes the collaboration will encourage people studying criminal justice-related topics at the college to join the police force. The police force is made up of about 74 percent White officers, 12 percent Black officers, 9 percent Hispanic officers, 4 percent Asian officers and less than 1 percent Native American officers. According to a recent analysis by the Office of Legislative Oversight, the county’s adultpopulation is about 43 percent White, 19 percent Latino, 18 percent Black, 16 percent Asian, less than 1 percent Native American and 4 percent other races.