The UC Davis School of Education’s annual Words Take Wing event
is a celebration of children’s literature as art. The focus is on
the diversity of stories and characters found in works by authors
from different cultures who explore and create settings that
reflect a wide range of perspectives and world views.
It’s so easy to help a teacher and her class attend Words Take
Wing.
For just $650, you can support a class of thirty attend the
Words Take Wing: Honoring Diversity in Children’s
Literature Presentation by Ying Chang Compestine at UC Davis
on February 23, 2012. Many teachers are finding it difficult to
pay for field trips. Generous supporters in the past have
sponsored elementary classrooms filled with children who have
never met an author and many who have never visited a college
campus.
If you are interested in helping to support a teacher’s ability
to bring students to UC Davis for this once-in-a-lifetime
experience, please contact Donna Justice at dljustice@ucdavis.edu or
make your donation online. Any level of support makes a
difference!
Beginning in 2005, the School of Education’s children’s lecture
series has presented seven highly regarded authors. Each author
represents a different worldview–from Chinese-American history
and myth, to African-American porch stories, to novels about
Chicano identity and emigration, to retellings of well-known
fairy tales from around the world.
Ying Chang Compestine’s book Revolution is Not a Dinner Party is
up for a California Young Reader Medal, but to win the book needs
votes. Download
this pdf file about the award, fill out the nomination form
on page 5, and send it in by March 24.
Award-winning author, dynamic public speaker and world traveler,
Ying Chang Compestine is the author of numerous books, including
picture books, young adult novels, and cookbooks for adults that
promote healthy eating. Drawing from her childhood experience and
described as “Anne Frank in the Cultural Revolution,”
Revolution is not a Dinner Party has received more
than 30 awards, including the California Book Award, ALA Best
Books and Notable Books and the San Francisco Chronicle Best
Children’s Fiction Book. In A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts
(YA), Ying uses tantalizing recipes as a common thread to cook up
a unique offering of eight compelling ghost stories. All the
Chinese ghosts in these stories have as strong a desire for
revenge as for delicious food.
Ying was born and raised in Wuhan, China. She came to the U.S.
for graduate school. After both her parents passed away, she
began writing to cope with her grief and to reconnect with China.
Ying earned a master’s degree in sociology from the University of
Colorado. Prior to writing, she taught sociology at colleges and
universities in both the U.S. and China. Check out her website.
