Hi everyone, Patti & Penny here (that’s Aspenne’s nickname). We originally started #AspennnesLibrary (and her instagram account @Aspennes.Library) to highlight the representative books we have in Aspenne's home library. We've since developed into a Publishing Agency and in 2021 published our first title, "Down South for the Summer."
Back to the Beginning:
Aspenne’s Library has been a dream of mine since before I found out I was pregnant. To be honest, it didn’t matter, what child I welcomed into the world, their library would always be the same — a collection of literature that mainly features black and brown children.
Two things to note about why #AspennesLibrary is so important to us:
1. Black and brown children don’t often get to see themselves reflected in books. The characters in the most popular books are likely animals or white. It’s important that children see themselves in the characters and in the stories (mirror books) in order to relate and to expand their minds to the possibilities of who they can be. Now don’t get me wrong, it's important to see other cultures and be privy to a world different from your own as well (window books), however in a world that is full of windows, I’m choosing to give my girl some mirrors because it’s quite possible that if we don’t expose her at home, she might not be exposed to these books anywhere.
2. When Aspenne was just an infant (and even still sometimes these days), we spend the majority of time “ooing and ahhing” and loving on her, as we should. But what I’ve noticed is, our vocabulary when talking to her is usually “sweet girls,” “I love you’s,” “ahh you’re so cute,” and short phrases of the like. We want her to be a learner and to have a large vocabulary, so we’re reading books early because let’s face it, we aren’t really saying much to her. Reading books allows us to introduce other key words and phrases to her...and guess what, she’s paying attention. We don’t know what she’s grasping, but we do know that she enjoys the words and the pictures. So we’re taking the #1000booksbeforekindergarten challenge.
Learn more about the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten challenge at this link. Join us in the challenge!
#AspennesLibrary has just over 2000 books right now...so we’re off to a pretty good start.
It is being instilled in Aspenne that who she will be is beyond our wildest dreams.
Welcome to Aspenne’s Library! In our posts, we’ll feature books that showcase black and brown characters and our girl's love for literature.
In photo: Will (dad), Patricia (mom & author) & Aspenne (15 months)