Esme Raji Codell
Esme Raji Codell is the recipient of a prestigious James Patterson Pageturner Award for spreading the excitement of books in an effective and original way. She has been a keynote speaker for the International Reading Association and the American Library Association, a “virtual” keynote for the National Education Association’s “Stay Afloat!” online conference for first-year teachers, and a featured speaker at the National Museum for Women in the Arts. She has appeared on CBS’s The Early Show, CNN, C-SPAN, and NPR, among other media outlets across the country. The author of How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, as well as five award-winning books for children, Esmé runs the popular children’s literature website and the unique literary salon, PlanetEsme.com
“And when you go to God's house, it ain't got to be no fashion show. You just come as you are.”
“Why do these dumb fucks keep guns around the house? They make the world as ruinous as they imagine it is.”
“Sometimes a little song is sweet to hear, even if the orchestra is more accomplished”
“So much of teaching is sharing. Learning results in sharing, sharing results in change, change is learning. The only other job with so much sharing is parenting. That's probably why the two are so often confused.”
“The difference between a beginning teacher and an experienced one is that the beginning teacher asks, "How am I doing?" and the experienced teacher asks, How are the children doing?”
“...'Loving children is what teachers do for extra credit. It's not the main assignment.' 'Seems to me that the extra credit is more important than the main assignment,' observed Cordelia.”
“Something's going on in Cordell's room, but I'm not sure I want to know what it is.”
“It's not our job to be liked(teachers)", I reminded her. "Its our job to help them be smart(students)". Secretly, I thought, who gives a rat's ass if they like us? Sometimes I can hardly stand them!”
“I tend not to share things unnecessarily with those I despise.”