New Bedford Children Library

Books are available for pick-up at the Creative Resource Center (127 W Rodney French Blvd, Suite 291, New Bedford, MA 02744).

Below is a selection of books to support you in teaching your children and growing as a life-long learner. We also have an ever growing library of carefully curated children's books to support children's social and emotional growth with New Bedford's children in mind.

In addition to books, we also lend personally crafted learning kits.

For more information or to request a book, email marissa.fm@newbedfordchildren.org.

Echoes: Environment, Spaces, Relations

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of Innovations in Early Education: The International Reggio Emilia Exchange, NAREA published the inaugural volume of the Echoes Series: Environment, Spaces, Relations, highlighting voices from Reggio Emilia, Italy, and North America. A compilation of previously published Innovations’ articles is curated into this themed volume.

North American Reggio Emilia Alliance, 2017; illus., softbound, 88 pages

Mosaic Marks Words Material

This catalogue presents the exhibition “Mosaic of Marks, Words, Material,” a collection of works by children of the municipal infant-toddler centers and preschools of Reggio Emilia.

Edited by Vea Vecchi and Mirella Ruozzi
Reggio Children, Italy, 2015; illus., softbound, 152 pages

Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia: Exploring the Role and Potential of Ateliers in Early Childhood Education

This book explores the contribution of art and creativity to early education and examines the role of the atelier and the profile of the atelierista in the pioneering pre-schools of Reggio Emilia. It does so through the unique experience of Vea Vecchi, one of the first atelieristas to be appointed in Reggio Emilia in 1970. Part memoir, part conversation, and part reflection, the book provides a unique insider perspective on the pedagogical work of this extraordinary local education project, which continues to be a source of inspiration to early childhood practitioners and policymakers worldwide. This enlightening book is essential reading.

Authored by Vea Vecchi, Routledge, 2010; illus., softbound, 195 pages

Children, Art, Artists: The Expressive Languages of Children, The Artistic Language of Alberto Burri

This publication offers a guided view of the exhibit “The Expressive Languages of Children, the Artistic Language of Alberto Burri,” which includes works by children from the municipal infant-toddler center through elementary school. The exhibit explores some of the encounters between children and works of art, which offer children and teachers opportunities to approach and explore different materials, as suggested by certain aspects of Burri’s work. Along with the exhibit texts, the catalogue includes essays discussing the relationship between schools and the city, children and art, and pedagogy and the atelier.

Edited by Vea Vecchi and Claudia Giudici

Reggio Children, Italy, 2004; illus., softbound, 160 pages

Children, Spaces, Relations: Metaproject for an Environment for Young Children

This publication is from a research project by Reggio Children Domus Academy on designing spaces for young children.

This book includes three main sections: 1) a critical analysis of the cumulative experience of the municipal early childhood system of Reggio Emilia, 2) reflections on the tools of design, and 3) essays discussing the pedagogical and architecture/design issues that form the theoretical basis of the research.

Edited by Giulio Ceppi and Michele Zini

Reggio Children and Domus Academy Research Center, Italy, 1998; illus., softbound, 160 pages

The Fountains

“Let’s make an amusement park for the birds!” A starting idea with many subsequent proposals. A laboratory where hands work with thoughts and inventions so as to give real dimensions to the working amusement park for birds, constructed inside the park of La Villetta Preschool. A book with many voices: children, teachers, atelieristas, pedagogistas, and birds.

Edited by Loris Malaguzzi, Carlina Rinaldi, Teresa Casarini, Amelia Gambetti and Giovanni Piazza

Reggio Children, Italy, 1995; illus., softbound, 112 pages

Making Learning Visible: Children as Individual and Group Learners

To what extent is individual learning reinforced and enhanced or, on the contrary, stifled and inhibited, in a learning group? Does group learning actually exist? Can a group construct its own way of learning? To what extent can documentation foster new ways of learning? What is the relationship between documentation and assessment? These are some of the questions examined in this research project carried out from 1997 to 1999 by Harvard’s Project Zero and Reggio Children, involving teachers and pedagogistas from the municipal infant-toddler centers and preschools of Reggio Emilia.

Reggio Children, Italy, and Project Zero, 2001; illus., softbound, 368 pages

Charter of Services of the Municipal Infant-toddler Centers and Preschools

Through the combined efforts of Istituzione, Reggio Children, and NAREA, we bring you a resource from Reggio Emilia: the English translation of the Charter of Services of the municipal Infant-toddler centers and preschools. This book is given to every family as they begin in the infant-toddler centers or preschools to qualify the public services. Included are descriptions of how a school day is organized, the culture of the atelier, the way the kitchens work, and the priority access for the children with special rights, for example.

Co-published by Reggio Children and NAREA, 2017; illus., softbound, 80 pages

Bordercrossings: Encounters with Living Things / Digital Landscapes

In digital environments, as with all educational contexts in Reggio Emilia’s municipal infant-toddler centres and preschools, children act as authors and constructors of their own knowledge, and of their own individual and collective imaginaries, disproving the idea of anaesthetising technology at the centre of attention, and making visible a different amplificatory and generative idea.

This catalogue recounts an exhibition, Bordercrossings – Encounters with Living Things / Digital Landscapes, which has gathered and exhibits projects realised in Reggio Emilia’s municipal infant-toddler centres and preschools: nature close-up, seen and investigated by the senses, theories, and actions of today’s children, and by analogical and digital equipment connected.

Reggio Children, Italy, 2019; illus., softbound, 120 pages

Hundred Languages in Ministories.png

Within this publication, we can observe the timeless, extraordinary stories in the first exhibition of The Hundred Languages of Children. The stories offer messages of a positive culture of childhood and a chance to observe how an interactive education can offer children active participation in their own learning. We can also observe the attentiveness and competency of teachers as they construct meaningful experiences for the children. Children are the inquirers, supported by the teachers with time, space, and simple yet engaging materials.

Davis Publications, 2016; illus., softbound, 102 pages

The Third Teacher

Created by an international team of architects and designers concerned about our failing education system, The Third Teacher explores the critical link between the school environment and how children learn, and offers 79 practical design ideas, both great and small, to guide reader’s efforts to improve our schools. Written for anyone who has school-age children in their life, from educators and education decision-makers to parents and community activists, this book is intended to ignite a blaze of discussion and initiative about environment as an essential element of learning. Including a wealth of interviews, facts, statistics, and stories from experts in a wide range of fields, this book is a how-to guide to be used to connect with the many organizations, individuals, and ideas dedicated to innovating and improving teaching and learning. Contributors include children’s singer and advocate Raffi, author and creativity consultant Sir Ken Robinson, scientist and environmentalist David Suzuki, inventor James Dyson, and other experts who are working to create fresh solutions to problems and create a new blueprint for the future of education.

Inc. OWP/P Cannon Design, Abrams, 2010, softbound, 254 pages

Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education

Ken Robinson is one of the world’s most influential voices in education, and his 2006 TED Talk on the subject is the most viewed in the organization’s history. Now, the internationally recognized leader on creativity and human potential focuses on one of the most critical issues of our time: how to transform the nation’s troubled educational system. At a time when standardized testing businesses are raking in huge profits, when many schools are struggling, and students and educators everywhere are suffering under the strain, Robinson points the way forward. He argues for an end to our outmoded industrial educational system and proposes a highly personalized, organic approach that draws on today’s unprecedented technological and professional resources to engage all students, develop their love of learning, and enable them to face the real challenges of the twenty-first century. Filled with anecdotes, observations and recommendations from professionals on the front line of transformative education, case histories, and groundbreaking research—and written with Robinson’s trademark wit and engaging style—Creative Schools will inspire teachers, parents, and policy makers alike to rethink the real nature and purpose of education.

Teaching Children Compassionately: How Students and Teachers Can Succeed With Mutual Understanding

In this keynote address to a national conference of Montessori educators, Marshall Rosenberg describes his progressive, radical approach to teaching that centers on compassionate connection. Marshall describes the counterproductive role that power and punishment play in our schools, and challenges educators to motivate students instead "by a reverence for life." This practical application of Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication (NVC) process offers educators the tools to create exceptional learning environments. This is an exceptional resource for teachers, school counselors, school administrators, child care providers and more! Nonviolent Communication will help you: - Maximize the individual potential of all students - Improve trust and connection in your classroom community - Strengthen student interest, retention and connection to their work - Find cooperation without using demands - Improve classroom teamwork, efficiency and results

Visual Thinking Strategies: Using Art to Deepen Learning Across School Disciplines

"What’s going on in this picture?"

With this one question and a carefully chosen work of art, teachers can start their students down a path toward deeper learning and other skills now encouraged by the Common Core State Standards. The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) teaching method has been successfully implemented in schools, districts, and cultural institutions nationwide, including bilingual schools in California, West Orange Public Schools in New Jersey, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

It provides for open-ended yet highly structured discussions of visual art, and significantly increases students’ critical thinking, language, and literacy skills along the way.

Philip Yenawine, former education director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art and cocreator of the VTS curriculum, writes engagingly about his years of experience with elementary school students in the classroom. He reveals how VTS was developed and demonstrates how teachers are using art—as well as poems, primary documents, and other visual artifacts—to increase a variety of skills, including writing, listening, and speaking, across a range of subjects.

The book shows how VTS can be easily and effectively integrated into elementary classroom lessons in just ten hours of a school year to create learner-centered environments where students at all levels are involved in rich, absorbing discussions.
Philip Yenawine, Harvard Education Press, 2014, softbound, 198 pages

Reaching and Teaching children exposed t

As an early childhood professional, you play a key role in the early identification of maltreatment and unhealthy patterns of development. You are also the gateway to healing. In Reaching and Teaching Children Exposed to Trauma, you will find the tools and strategies to connect with harmed children and start them on the path to healing.
Award Winner!
Recipient of 2016 Academics' Choice Smart Book Award
Barbara Sorrels, EdD, Gryphon House, Inc., 2015, softbound, 254 pages

Trauma-Informed Practices for Early Childhood Educators

Trauma-Informed Practices for Early Childhood Educators guides child care providers and early educators working with infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary aged children to understand trauma as well as its impact on young children’s brains, behavior, learning, and development. The book introduces a range of trauma-informed teaching and family engagement strategies that readers can use in their early childhood programs to create strength-based environments that support children’s health, healing, and resiliency. Supervisors and coaches will learn a range of powerful trauma-informed practices that they can use to support workforce development and enhance their quality improvement initiatives.

Julie Nicholson, Linda Perez, Julie Kurtz, Routledge, 2019, softbound, 247 pages

Inspiring Professional Growth: Empowering Strategies to Lead, Motivate, and Engage Early Childhood Teachers

"A growth culture starts with you You've probably seen it: frustration builds, teacher turnover rises, staff meetings become insufferable, indifference breeds throughout the school. The solution? Exploring new ways to engage and motivate teachers. When your staff feels supported and empowered to grow and develop their skills, your program and the children will thrive. Implementing key concepts--collaboration, individualized professional-development plans, and team goals--can completely revolutionize your program. In this follow-up to her book Inspiring Early Childhood Leadership, author Susan MacDonald, MEd, addresses the need for offering nurturing, encouraging, and empowering professional development. Featuring easy-to-use tips, research-based strategies, leadership vignettes, and interactive and reflective exercises, Inspiring Professional Growth provides leaders a framework to create a system that supports teachers throughout their careers. Learn how to: - Acquire new leadership skills - Gain confidence in your leadership role - Establish a growth culture - Work with and nurture even challenging staff members - Cultivate collaboration and collective goal setting - Facilitate meaningful professional development Inspiring Professional Growth will guide you to experience firsthand the many benefits, from better child outcomes to increased teacher retention, of creating a nurturing and empowering workplace"--

Susan MacDonald, Gryphon House, 2019, softbound, 134 pages

Inspiring Early Childhood Leadership: Eight Strategies to Ignite Passion and Transform Program Quality

Winner of the 2017 AAP Revere Award for Pre-K Classroom Professional Resources
A positive, strengths-based leadership system is the key to transforming the quality of early childhood programs. Inspiring Early Childhood Leadership lays out strategies designed to support program leaders in finding new ways to reduce the levels of stress on themselves and their staff, and move into a unified, engaging system for leading with passion, intention, and purpose.

Grounded in current research, the book incorporates decades-old best practices, making the strategies appropriate for leaders of all backgrounds. The book addresses common dilemmas:

How do I motivate and inspire teachers? How can I be the most effective in observing and giving nonjudgmental feedback? How can I be more confident in my role as a leader? How can I manage my time more effectively?

Author Susan MacDonald s goal is to take leaders past their challenges with a vision of new possibilities so they can ensure a high-quality learning environments, fueled by positive, engaging energy.

Susan MacDonald, Gryphon House, Inc., 2016, softbound, 140 pages

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character

Why do some children succeed while others fail? The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs. But in How Children Succeed, Paul Tough argues that the qualities that matter more have to do with character: skills like perseverance, curiosity, optimism, and self-control.

How Children Succeed introduces us to a new generation of researchers and educators, who, for the first time, are using the tools of science to peel back the mysteries of character. Through their stories—and the stories of the children they are trying to help—Tough reveals how this new knowledge can transform young people’s lives. He uncovers the surprising ways in which parents do—and do not—prepare their children for adulthood. And he provides us with new insights into how to improve the lives of children growing up in poverty. This provocative and profoundly hopeful book will not only inspire and engage readers, it will also change our understanding of childhood itself.

Paul Tough, Mariner Books, 2012, softbound, 231 pages

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Race

In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

Robin Diangelo, Beacon Press, 2018, softbound, 169 pages

So You Want to Talk About Race

In this New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America

Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy -- from police brutality to the mass incarceration of Black Americans -- has put a media spotlight on racism in our society. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair -- and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?

In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.

Ijeoma Oluo, Seal Press, 2019, softbound, 255 pages

One Child, Two Languages: A Guide for Early Childhood Educators of Children Learning English as a Second Language

Today's early childhood educators are serving more children learning English as a second language than ever—in Head Start alone, nearly 30% of the children speak a language other than English at home.* To support second language learners and put them on the path to academic success, every teacher needs this popular, practical, and highly readable guidebook.

Reflecting 10 years of dramatic change in early education—especially in critical areas like assessment and cultural diversity—the second edition of this bestseller gives teachers up-to-date research, usable information, and essential tools to meet the needs of second language learners in today's learning environments. Leading researcher Patton Tabors equips teachers with the foundation of knowledge they need to

apply cutting-edge research to their everyday teaching practices
address NAEYC's recommendations for responding to linguistic and cultural diversity
use appropriate assessment techniques for children's first and second language, including an easy-to-use observation checklist (on the CD-ROM) to monitor children's English language learning over time
discover ways to improve literacy instruction for all children, including literacy practices checklists (on the CD-ROM) that pinpoint areas needing curriculum support
understand and attend to the particular needs of internationally adopted children
conduct thought-provoking professional discussions with the book-club-ready study guide and materials (on the CD-ROM)
Teachers will also get updates on all the key topics covered in the first edition, including working with parents, understanding the process of second-language acquisition, and using the curriculum and classroom organization to facilitate English language and literacy learning. Ideal for professional development, this book is the best tool a teacher can have to support the language and literacy development and school success of second language learners while honoring their home languages and cultures.

Patton O. Tabors, Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co, 2008, softbound, 255 pages + CD

Children at the Center: Transforming Early Childhood Education in the Boston Public Schools

Children at the Center provides a closely observed account of a decade-long effort to reshape the scope, direction, and quality of the Boston Public Schools’ early childhood programs. Drawing on multiple perspectives and voices from the field, the authors highlight the reflective, collaborative, inquiry-driven approach undertaken by the program and share lessons learned.

Boston Public Schools are recognized for embedding high-quality, public preK programs in their system and achieving exceptional results. In this book, the authors outline the core principles that underlie the district’s early childhood programs and explore the role of curriculum, professional development, coaching, and data use in supporting these new initiatives. They show how the Boston Public Schools Department of Early Childhood was able to work with and against the constraints of the current accountability system to create a holistic, child-centered, play-based program that has had a significant impact in narrowing income-based learning gaps.

Written in collaboration with the Department of Early Childhood Education, this account of creating successful preK programs in a diverse urban district will provide a valuable resource for practitioners engaged in similar work across the country.

Betty Bardige, Megina Baker, and Ben Mardell, Harvard Education Press, 2018, softbound, 243 pages

The Power of Observation

The Power of Observation explores the vital connection between observing and effective teaching. Much more than just a set of skills, observation is a mindset of openness and wonder that helps teachers and caregivers get to know more about each child in their care. The authors share their own experiences and those of many others to illustrate how observation helps teachers and caregivers become more effective in the child care center, preschool, family child care home, or elementary school classroom.

Amy Laura Dombro and Margo L. Dichtelmiller, Teaching Strategies, Inc., 2008, softbound, 194 pages

Heart-Centered Teaching Inspired by Nature

Heart Centered Teaching Inspired by Nature offers readers ways to use connections with nature to find strength and inspiration for their personal journeys so they can bring their best selves to their work with children. As author Nancy Rosenow describes, it is a guide to supporting children from “…a place of love for each other and a place of awe and appreciation for the wonders of the world around us.” This 92 page book is filled with heartwarming photos and engaging ideas for making teaching more joyful and effective.

Nancy Rosenow, Dimensions Educational Research Foundation, 2012, softbound, 92 pages