create & celebrate a nation of diverse readers
Let's read and grow together with 12 months of recommended books, authors, and teaching resources that promote diversity and inclusion.
March 2023
Bring Communities Together
Books of the month:
Books of the month:
Elementary
Dream Street
Dream Street
Everyone has a story and a dream on Dream Street, where a caring community of neighbors invite, nurture, celebrate, share, and listen to each other’s dreams.
Middle Grade
Karthik Delivers
Karthik Delivers
In the summer of 2009 as fourteen-year-old Karthik makes deliveries for his father's ailing Indian grocery, he secretly takes the lead in a play about the young Leonard Bernstein.
Young Adult
We Weren't Looking to Be Found
We Weren't Looking to Be Found
Dani, rich, Black, and struggling with addiction, and Camila, a Colombian-American dancer who self-harms and recently attempted suicide, find themselves looking for answers and hope at a treatment facility in rural Georgia.
Ready, Set...Read!
Celebrate the joy of reading this month with these featured articles and resources.
Classroom Resources to Celebrate the Freedom to Read
Find posters, bookmarks, stickers, and more to show your support for banned books and freedom from censorship in the classroom.
Diverse Books with Trailblazing Women
In these selected titles you’ll find authors, artists and architects, rulers and rebels, athletes and astronauts, musicians, mothers of invention and many, many more famous and influential women.
Learn & Grow with Nonfiction
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Here’s What We’re Reading...
Click on a month below for our recommended books, plus suggestions for discussions and activities.
August 2022
Create a Better World
September 2022
Find the Right Words
October 2022
Foster Belonging
November 2022
Promote Healing & Growth
December 2022
Activate Inner Strengths
January 2023
Explore Societal Forces
February 2023
Celebrate Black History
March 2023
Bring Communities Together
April 2023
Make Music!
May 2023
Nurture Family Bonds
June 2023
Support LGBTQ+ Communities
July 2023
Cultivate Caring Connections
Keep Learning Wherever You Are
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About Read Across America
What is NEA's Read Across America? Find answers to your frequently asked questions about the National Education Association's year-round celebration of diverse books and meet the people behind it.
Book Delivery! Read Across America Comes to Maryland!
Meet the winner of NEA’s Read Across America 2022 Sweepstakes—and find out what she and her colleagues won.
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Congratulations to Megan Sterling, grand prize winner of the recent NEA’s Read Across America Sweepstakes! In late December, NEA President Becky Pringle stopped by Sterling’s school to congratulate her. They were joined by Maryland State Education Association President Cheryl Bost (far left) and Montgomery County Education Association President Jennifer Martin (far right).
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Sterling, a third-grade teacher at Maryland’s Gaithersburg Elementary School, won more than 500 Read Across-recommended books for her school, including a set of books for every classroom teacher, differentiated for primary and intermediate grade teachers. “I can’t wait to share them [with students]!” said Sterling.
NEA
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During the delivery of the Read Across-recommended books, a Gaithersburg third-grader showed a book cover to Sterling and said it looked like her grandfather! It’s important for students of color to see their identities in the books they read, and also for White students to see a multicultural world. Diverse books, like the ones in NEA’s Read Across America calendar, serve as both mirrors and windows.
NEA
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During her visit to Gaithersburg, Pringle read aloud from one of her favorite Read Across-recommended picture books, Dream Street by Tricia Elam Walker and Ekua Holmes. “How many of you would like to be scientists?” asked Pringle, who taught middle-school science for 31 years. “How about teachers? Yes! Yes!”
NEA
Join Our Community of Readers
Are you a teacher, librarian, educator, author, or devoted book worm? Join the Read Across America Facebook group to share resources, ideas, and experiences as we celebrate a nation of diverse readers.
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