https://kateywrites.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/raisingreaders-monday-martin-luther-king-junior-edition has a great post on Martin Luther King day:

She writes "A new study by the Southern Education Foundation (widely publicized by an article in The Huffington Post) shows that over half of American public schoolchildren are living in poverty. According to FirstBook.org, “Most of these children have no age-appropriate books at home, and the classrooms and programs they attend are woefully under-resourced. Approximately two-thirds of these schools and programs cannot afford to buy books at retail prices.”

How do we fight the darkness of ignorance and illiteracy? What light do we have to shine for the 51% of American schoolchildren living in poverty, without adequate access to books?

I said to my children, ‘I’m going to work and do everything that I can do to see that you get a good education. I don’t ever want you to forget that there are millions of God’s children who will not and cannot get a good education, and I don’t want you feeling that you are better than they are. For you will never be what you ought to be until they are what they ought to be.’  – Martin Luther King, Jr. , 7th January, 1968

Check out her blog post (link above) to see her suggestions on how kids can make a difference. (Great ideas for libraries as well)

If you are looking for great read-alouds for Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month – check out my storytimes: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/search/label/Martin%20Luther%20King

Additional book suggestions and author interviews: http://www.smartbooksforsmartkids.com/happy-birthday-mlk-jr/