For nearly 20 years, Milwaukee-basedSharp Literacy has created books that help students learn through visual art. The 13th book in theWe Love to Learnseries is out now, and this one is a little different.
Explore MKE: Your Neighborhood, Our Citywas created with help from third graders from around the city. Milwaukee native and author Adam Carr guided the students in workshops. The result is a book that shows what the city looks like to kids from all kinds of backgrounds.
The book tells the story of two fictional Milwaukee students, Jayden and Anya, who are based on the students in the workshop. The two characters experience the city in vastly different ways, and represent dueling forces in the city’s narrative. One is an optimistic advocate for Milwaukee, while the other a harsh critic of the city.
“I think the important thing is that I don’t really ask myself that either of those win… both the critique and then also the advocacy and the cheerleading side, those are kind of in symbiosis to each other. They kind of feed off of each other, and sort of need each other,” says Carr.
The book was published in both English and Spanish. President and CEO of SHARP Literacy, Lynda Kohler, says this was important in engaging everyone in the community.
“Part of our program, too, is we really want that parental involvement,” says Kohler. “This gives the students an opportunity to bring the book home and have their parents engage with them and help them and read to them. So one way of doing that is to have it in Spanish.”
