The fifth graders at P.S. 316 Elijah G. Stroud Elementary in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, have a lot on their mind–and lucky for us, they’re letting us in on some of their most powerful thoughts and ideas in the new anthology Let’s Make Kindness a Priority: Writing and Art for a Better World. In these pages, they argue passionately about topics including affordable healthcare (pro!), poverty and homelessness (anti!), environmental protection (pro!), learning a second language in school (pro!), social media usage (it’s complicated), and homework (let’s just say, you may be surprised).

Over the course of 6 workshops with 826NYC Teaching Artist Maryann Aita, these young writers and activists researched the issues they care about most and carefully crafted letters to people in power, explaining their concerns, countering the counter-arguments, and suggesting solutions. These fifth graders are out to make the world a better, kinder place, and they will ignite you, the reader, to do the same.

This collection of passionate letters is extra special for another reason. In a cross-Brooklyn team-up of powerful proportions, the 826NYC students at P.S. 316 collaborated with the Brooklyn Museum and students at P.S. 1. Their mission: cross-borough creative correspondence, using writing and art to explore the connections that bring us all together as New Yorkers. Along with essays, this volume contains letters each P.S. 316 class wrote to P.S. 1, and the poetry and artwork PS1 created in response. As you’ll see, these young people’s voices and creativity are even more powerful together.

 

Buy this book online or in person at the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co!