Rachel Walker Cogbill reads "Jackie's Bat"

Jackie's Bat by Marybeth Lorbiecki, illustrated by Brian Pinkney

Rachel Walker Cogbill, a retired teacher, was attracted to Reading to End Racism as an organization because it combines a topic she finds immensely important and continuing her time with children in the classroom. 

She read the book Jackie’s Bat in Berlin, Cabot, and Union Elementary schools to third and fourth graders. The book  is the story of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball, as seen through the eyes of his bat boy.  The students discover how the characters’ prejudice is changed to acceptance and admiration in the story as the characters get to know Jackie Robinson.

Activity: Rachel, who brought her Louisville Slugger bat with her, began her activity by acting out some examples of racism in Vermont, and she asks the children what they have studied about racism, and then has them try to imagine what it would be like to have some of their examples (like not being able to use the same drinking fountains) happen in their school. They learn how hard it is to break the color barrier, and the link is made to President Obama’s being the first African-American president. Many of these points are brought out by the students themselves as they write down a few thoughts and then share them in a group discussion. Students take home their paper to share with their families. Rachel takes home her Louisville Slugger bat.

R.D. Eno reads: "My Name is Sangoel"

Written by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed, illustrated by Catherine Stock

Sangoel is a refugee. Leaving behind his homeland of Sudan, where his father died in the war, he has little to call his own other than his name, a Dinka name handed down proudly from his father and grandfather before him.

When Sangoel and his mother and sister arrive in the United States, everything seems very strange and unlike home. In this busy, noisy place, with its escalators and television sets and traffic and snow, Sangoel quietly endures the fact that no one is able to pronounce his name. Lonely and homesick, he finally comes up with an ingenious solution to this problem, and in the process he at last begins to feel at home.

This poignant story of identity and belonging helps young readers understand the plight of the millions of children in the world who are refugees.

R.D. read the book to students in the second and third grade at Union School, then took out his banjo (an instrument whose origins are in Africa) and taught the kids a Sudanese children's song. When they had learned the song, he played a recording of Sudanese children singing the same song, and the Vermont children spontaneously sang along!