From the Desk of Zoe Washington: Week1

Race in kids lit, book trailer, vocab words, discussion questions

Today we’ll be covering Chapters 1-9

Hello readers!

How wonderful is is to read another book together and how wonderful that it is this book— From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks.

Summary

We meet Zoe in the summer on the day of her 12th birthday. She has a close group of friends and one single passion, to bake and be a contestant on a kids baking show. All of this is sent spinning when Zoe receives a letter from birth father from prison. Her brain buzzes with a million questions. Wouldn’t yours? She decides to write back, even though its at the cost of lying to her family, especially her mother.

If you are interested in more summary, below is a cool book trailer for you to check out.

Zoe is deeply ambitious and has a very high goal to win the baking competition. While for some kids this might seem like a far away dream, Zoe is pretty realistic and self aware. She knows her talent, but she’s also tuned into subtle things like how other people see her, like when she gets “the look” when she’s out with her white step-father. She is also aware that if she were to win, she would be the first black winner. Why do you think that would matter to her?