Sonia Manzano's Blog

Sonia was part of the 2021 American Academy of Arts and Sciences endeavor. Throughout the year they examined the impact and importance of arts in American Society. Sonia was involved in projects that also featured John A. Lithgow, Sonia Manzano, Allentza Michel, Porché Hardy, Mario Rossero, and Nemisa Samanthapudi.

Have you ever thought about how important the arts are to our society? No matter your background some form of arts and culture is of value to you.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Commission on the Arts is pleased to announce the release of two important reports this fall. Arts for Life’s Sake, focused on arts education, and Art is Work, focused on the creative workforce, are two reports conveying the vital importance of arts and culture in American life.

For the arts education report, we held listening sessions with students and arts educators, researchers and adults of types of careers and collected stories in many ways, including a partnership with HitRecord.

For the creative workforce report, we held many meetings with experts and business leaders, advocates and policy professionals.

This not about simply going to museum or a concert. The arts make meaning to us, and we all engage or practice arts learning and arts making in some way that matters. These reports are intended to open conversation with people of all backgrounds and interests, because the arts cuts across all of us.We are asking you to check out these reports and share them!

We also invite you view the Mixtape online, a gallery collection of artistic presentations and performances featuring some household name artists and performers.

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SONIA MANZANO

Humanitarian Award Recipient

Sonia Manzano is a first-generation mainland Puerto Rican, raised in the South Bronx. In the early 1970’s a scholarship took her to Carnegie Mellon University where she participated in the creation of Broadway show hit Godspell. From there she went on to eventually affect the lives of millions of parents and children when she was offered the opportunity to create the role of “Maria” on Sesame Street. For which she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 43rd Annual Daytime Emmys Awards in 2016.

Manzano has also received 15 Emmys for staff writing Sesame Street, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Award, and the Hispanic Heritage Award for Education.

Also an award-winning children’s book author, she’s published No Dogs Allowed, A Box Full of Kittens and Miracle on 133rd Street with Simon and Schuster and The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano and Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx with Scholastic. A World Together, Manzano’s first book for National Geographic was released September 2020.

Scholastic recently announced a new four-book deal with Sonia Manzano. The first novel Coming Up Cuban will publish in spring 2022.

She created an animated series called Alma’s Way, developed by Fred Rogers Productions. It will air on PBS in Oct 2021.

She addresses audiences on education and writing all over the country (both virtually and in person) and continues to help promote the Bronx Children’s Museum

Original Article: https://iprhff.org/2021-honoree-sonia-manzano (link opens in new tab/window)

For more than 40 years, actress Sona Manzano played Maria on “Sesame Street.” Now she joins the 3rd Hour of TODAY to talk about “Alma’s Way,” a new children’s show inspired by her own childhood. She talks about how “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda composed the opening theme and explains how the show is about thinking.

View the interview on the Today Show website

Alma’s Way – Launch Day Coverage Report 10-4-21

The New York Times – Interview and photo shoot with Sonia, interviews with Ellen, Jorge, Summer, and Linda (122,817,297 UVM) and ran in print (1,464,645 impressions)

Also shared on Twitter by New York Times Arts(2.3M followers) and NYT Metro (146K followers)

The Washington Post – Q&A interview with Sonia, in which the reporter shares her personal perspective

Variety  

People.com – TV highlight (34,312,969 UVM)

Also ran in print (7,429,045 impressions)

Associated Press (AP) – Interview with Sonia, Ellen, and Summer (28,529,168 UVM)

Also shared on Twitter by Mark Kennedy(2.5K followers)

Pick up includes:

MSN (217,263,054 UVM)

Yahoo! News (67,549,069 UVM)

The Washington Post  (67,182,056 UVM)

SF Gate (18,478,079 UVM)

Chron.com (18,478,079 UVM)

Yahoo! Entertainment (11,507,951 UVM)

SF Chronicle (4,815,597 UVM)

Star Tribune (3,770,809 UVM)

Today Show – Interview with Sonia (​​14,920,907 UVM)
Pick up includes:
MSN (217,263,054 UVM)

EW – “What to Watch” highlight (13,549,060 UVM)
Pick-up includes:
Yahoo! Entertainment (11,507,951 UVM)

PopSugar – Feature story (11,968,858 UVM)

NJ.com – Feature story (8,070,950 UVM)

Also shared on Twitter(537.8K followers)
Pick up includes:
NewsLocker  (N/A)

The Seattle Times – “What to Watch” highlight (6,178,266 UVM)

TribLive – Feature story (3,417,360 UVM) 

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Feature story (2,920,547 UVM)

Also shared on Twitter by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (172.8K followers) and Joshua Axelrod (3.3K followers)

Pick up includes:

Miami Herald    (6,632,541 UVM) The Charlotte Observer   (2,195,221 UVM) The News & Observer   (2,182,077 UVM) The Kansas City Star   (1,985,741 UVM) The State   (1,055,042 UVM) The Fresno Bee   (941,264 UVM) Lexington Herald Leader   (901,524 UVM) Idaho Statesman   (728,109 UVM) Tacoma News Tribune   (702,962 UVM) The Wichita Eagle   (531,789 UVM) The Modesto Bee   (359,820 UVM) Tri-City Herald   (341,536 UVM) Belleville News-Democrat   (325,421 UVM) The Bellingham Herald   (283,446 UVM) The Macon Telegraph   (280,496 UVM) The Sacramento Bee   (163,482 UVM) Merced Sun-Star   (143,537 UVM) Janesville Gazette   (139,001 UVM) Hastings Tribute   (35,665 UVM) The Norman Transcript   (N/A) ArcaMax   (N/A) Myrtle Beach Sun News   (N/A) The Daily Sun   (N/A)

TV Insider – TV highlight (2,694,352 UVM)

Romper – Feature story (2,044,404 UVM)

Pittsburgh Today Live – Segment (1,867,250 UVM)

Also shared a link on Twitter(4.8K followers)

News12 The Bronx – Interview with Sonia (1,715,945 UVM)
Pick up includes:

News12 Long Island   (1,715,945 UVM) News12 Brooklyn   (1,715,945 UVM) News12 Hudson Valley  (1,715,945 UVM) News12 New Jersey   (1,715,945 UVM) News12 Connecticut   (1,715,945 UVM) News12 Westchester  (1,715,945 UVM) NewsLocker   (N/A)

NPR “Weekend Edition” – Interview with Sonia (595,132 UVM)
Also ran in:

Boise State Public Radio   (108,785 UVM) NCPR    (180,124 UVM) Iowa Public Radio    (69,369 UVM) WKSU   (65,232 UVM) WUNC   (56,847 UVM) KRWG   (54,654 UVM) WVTF   (45,925 UVM) KMUW   (39,745 UVM) KSMU   (19,978 UVM) KGOU   (17,612 UVM) KBIA   (12,450 UVM) KCCU   (8,438 UVM) TSPR   (7,653 UVM) Prairie Public NewsRoom   (7,107 UVM) Public Radio East   (6,329 UVM) WEAA   (5,100 UVM) WVAS   (4,835 UVM) KDLL   (2,093 UVM) KNPR   (1,188 UVM) WRFK   (145 UVM) KRCU  (N/A)

Albuquerque Journal – Interview with Sonia (574,607 UVM)
Pick up includes:
Yahoo! News (67,549,069 UVM)

Broadcasting + Cable – Feature story (409,046 UVM)

Central Recorder – Feature story (270,195 UVM)

Animation Magazine – Feature story with interview with Sonia and Ellen (218,696 UVM)

Also shared on Twitter(64.8K followers)

AWN – Feature story (231,849 UVM)

Also shared on Twitter(41.7K followers)

The Toy Insider – Feature Story (86,999 UVM)

Also shared on Twitter(38.5K followers)

Channel Guide – TV highlight (64,198 UVM)

BronxNet “Bronx Talk” – Interview with Sonia and Ellen (10,008 UVM)

The Children’s Hour – Public radio interview with Sonia (N/A)

World News Era – TV highlight (N/A)

(Additional coverage + details on the below here)

HipLatina   HOLA! Online Mitú Remezcla TV Latina CG Latin Magazine POPSUGAR Latina La Red Hispana El Tiempo Latino La Noticia El Diario NY La Opinión WSUA 1260AM Radio Caracol (Miami, Ft. Laurderdale, WPB, FL) – LIVE Al Punto con Jorge Ramos (Univision National) Al Punto con Jorge Ramos (Univision Web) WOTS 1220 AM – ‘Generación News’ (Orlando, Kissimmee, FL) –  Re-air of Caracol interview Contrapoder con Jorge Ramos La Opinion El Comunicador de Dallas Hombre Magazine Latino Loop Real America with Jorge Ramos EFE News Agency ABC Color Diario Libre Impacto Latino Yahoo! Noticias SinEmbargo.mx El Periodico USA Hola News Pasa en tu Ciudad Hispanic Post Cabecera LA Times en Español El Imparcial NoticiasYa Real America with Jorge Ramos People en Español AP en Espanol Diario las Americas

Set in the Bronx, the new PBS Kids’ show from Sonia Manzano, who played Maria on “Sesame Street,” promotes diversity and critical thinking.

Article by: Laurel Graeber

Sonia Manzano’s new animated series for PBS Kids, “Alma’s Way,” is modeled partly on her own childhood, following the adventures of a young Hispanic girl from the Bronx.Credit…Caroline Tompkins for The New York Times

Although Sonia Manzano has won 15 Emmys for television writing and numerous accolades for her decades playing Maria on “Sesame Street,” she couldn’t have been more emphatic — or colorful — when asked if she had ever wanted to develop her own preschool show during all those years.

“I’d rather stick a pin in my eye than try to create a series after ‘Sesame Street,’” she said, describing her prevailing attitude while working on that show. “I mean, how do you top that act? ‘Sesame Street’ did everything.”

Well, maybe not everything. In a recent video interview, Manzano, now 71, described how PBS Kids persuaded her to become not only the creator of a preschool show but also one of its executive producers, writers and voice actors. Her animated series, “Alma’s Way,” whose title character is a 6-year-old New Yorker of Puerto Rican heritage, doesn’t try to outdo “Sesame Street” so much as complement it.

Premiering on Monday, the new series amplifies that earlier show’s attention to diversity and gives children ages 4 to 6 an unexpected guide to critical thinking. If the theme of “Alma’s Way” could be summed up in three words, they would be “Use your head.”

“We didn’t have a show about thinking,” said Linda Simensky, head of content for PBS Kids, who, in 2013, urged Manzano to develop a series about a Latino family after discovering the many children’s books she had written. Simensky left the theme up to Manzano, who thought back to her own childhood resourcefulness and to a resonant remark from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway show “Hamilton”: “I’m not stupid.”

“That line, and it’s such a simple line, was so fraught with meaning,” Manzano recalled. She added that it reminded her of “kids who think that they are stupid because they don’t have the answers. And somehow I felt that that was part of what ‘Alma’s Way’ was about.”

Young Alma Rivera finds her own answers, using what Ellen Doherty, the chief creative officer of Fred Rogers Productions, which produces the series, called the small heroine’s “think-through moments.” Confronting a problem in each 11-minute story — there are two in every half-hour episode — Alma steps back and considers the alternatives, the perspectives of those involved and what she can do.

Sometimes the situations are funny, as in the premiere, when she tries, by herself, to improve her distracted mother’s mofongo (a Puerto Rican dish containing fried plantains). After experiencing a “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” kind of mess, she asks herself, “What should I have done instead?”

At other times, the premise is more complicated, as when Alma must figure out a solution, step by step, when all her friends want to play in one cardboard refrigerator box.

“I remember thinking how great it would be to do a show where we took problem-solving strategies and applied them to things other than math,” said Doherty, a veteran of “Cyberchase,” a math-filled series on PBS Kids. “That is part of what clicked for me with the show.”

Alma receives additional guidance from the supportive Rivera family, which includes her papi, a veterinarian; her mami, a music teacher; and her little brother, Junior. But Manzano also wanted the series to resonate with young viewers in more difficult circumstances.

“In my heart, I’m speaking to the underserved child,” she said, adding that “Sesame Street” aimed for the same audience. But whereas that series is set in an unspecified, “Harlem-ish brownstone area,” she said, “‘Alma’s Way’ is absolutely placed in the Bronx.”

The series is so intent on capturing Manzano’s native borough that the producers entered into an agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to use an animated version of the No. 6 subway train in the opening sequence and its recording of “Stand clear of the closing doors, please” during some episodes. (When PBS Kids tweeted a promotional image in August, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, excitedly responded on Twitter, “Wait — that’s our community’s subway line!”)

The show also includes quintessential Bronx sounds, like salsa, bomba and reggaeton. Bill Sherman composed the salsa-flavored theme song, while its lyrics and rap segment were written by none other than Miranda himself, whom Manzano enlisted.

“New York is a character,” Doherty, who is also an executive producer of “Alma’s Way,” added, “which is something that’s said of a lot of shows, but not often said of kids’ shows.”

Alma — the name means “soul” in Spanish — is closely modeled on Manzano, as was the unflappable Maria, whom she played on “Sesame Street” for 44 years, beginning in 1971. (She was a writer on that show for at least 15 seasons.) Like them, Manzano has Puerto Rican roots, but she grew up in a far less cheerful home than Alma’s. In her 2015 memoir, “Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx,” she writes of living in poverty with an abusive, alcoholic father who frequently beat her mother.

“Because I had this tumultuous childhood, I found refuge in my brain,” Manzano said. And, just “as Maria was Sonia, on purpose, so is Alma a little Sonia, on purpose.”

That little Sonia is voiced by another Bronx Latina: Summer Rose Castillo, a 9-year-old from Throgs Neck who said she identified with Alma. Castillo added, though, that the series is “not just about Puerto Ricans, it’s not just about Latinas; it’s about so many different types of families.”

For Manzano, that meant not only giving Alma playmates who are African American, South Asian and white but also creating friends and family members who are Hispanic in different ways. Alma’s papi, for instance, is Afro-Caribbean, while her Uncle Nestor is Cuban, and a neighbor, Beto, is Mexican American. These distinctions are reflected in the tastes, vocabulary and appearance of the characters, whom the animators at Pipeline Studios, a company near Toronto, portray with varying skin tones.

“Latinos aren’t a monolith,” said Jorge Aguirre, the series’s head writer. “That’s one of the things we get to explore, down to the language, food, music. It’s a great sandbox to be playing in.”

That sandbox is American, too. While Alma refers to her grandfather as Abuelo, she calls Manzano’s character Granny Isa. Manzano deliberately mixed the terminology because, she said, “the culture of this family is both Spanish and English.” In one episode, Isa’s flight from Europe is canceled, and she can’t visit the Riveras. Alma figures out that she can still dance with her ebullient granny through a video connection — a solution that should resonate with pandemic-weary children.

Manzano also invented a character with a disability: Alma’s musically gifted cousin, Eddie Mambo, who has cerebral palsy. The producers relied on medical experts to guide Pipeline in portraying how he moves and adapts. Manzano based him on both her real cousin Eddie, a musician without disabilities, and a boy she knew in her youth who had lost the full use of his legs to polio.

His “boldness in asking girls to dance when his legs were in braces always stayed with me,” she said, emphasizing that the series was as specific in character traits as in visual details.

All this realism serves to help diverse young viewers see themselves, an experience Manzano remembered never having as a small child. It is still rare: According to research conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles, for its annual Hollywood Diversity Report, Latino actors had just 5.6 percent of the major roles in live-action scripted television in the 2017-18 season and 5.8 percent in 2018-19. (Data from the 2020 census indicates that 18.5 percent of Americans identify as Hispanic or Latino.) And while Hispanic characters do exist in animated preschool shows — Nickelodeon’s “Dora the Explorer” and “Santiago of the Seas” come to mind — those series involve fantastical adventures, not dynamics on a Bronx playground.

Even though only a Latino child might immediately know what it means to give up a baseball game for a bomba rehearsal, all children can identify with having to choose between upholding a promise and doing something they prefer.

“The situations that Alma faces are so universal to kids, and they’re real,” Aguirre said, “that I’m hoping that a kid from Cincinnati or a kid from St. Louis will watch the show as well and be like, ‘That’s me.’”

Manzano said she also wanted the series to inspire post-viewing reflection. She cited an episode in which Alma takes a prank too far and hurts Eddie’s feelings.

“People think different things are funny — that’s a nice little sophisticated notion to put in a preschooler’s head,” Manzano said. And if children consider it later, “they’ll come up with things I never thought of. And wouldn’t that be grand?”

Original article: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/03/arts/television/almas-way-pbs-sonia-manzano.html

Stars of Alma’s Way, Sesame Street veteran Sonia Manzano and actress Sharon Montero, join Good Day DC to talk about Alma’s Way, the new must-see animated series for Latinx kids and beyond.

By: Michael Machosky

I grew up watching Mister Rogers’ calm, reassuring, caring presence on public television. My son grew up watching “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” which sprang from Fred Rogers’ characters, themes and gentle touch.

Now, the other giant of public television that we both watched, “Sesame Street,” will finally cross over into the Fred Rogers universe (the Rogers-verse?), at least behind the scenes.

Headed to screens this fall is “Alma’s Way,” a show for children ages 4-6 starring a curious 6-year-old Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx. It was created by Carnegie Mellon University alum Sonia Manzano, known by millions of fans as Maria on “Sesame Street,” a role she played from 1971-2015. The new show is being produced by Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Productions.

Fred Rogers with his model neighborhood. Photo courtesy of Fred Rogers Productions.

Ellen Doherty, Fred Rogers Productions’ chief creative officer, says Manzano had a definite vision for “Alma” when they first discussed the show five years ago.

“She said, ‘I want kids to know they have a mind and can use it,’” says Doherty.

“So it’s really about helping kids develop that inner voice — how you puzzle things out, when you face a quandary, you’re stuck in a dilemma … The question from Sonia was, ‘How do we help kids manage what’s happening in their heads?’” adds Doherty.

Sonia Manzano in the Bronx. Photo courtesy of Fred Rogers Productions.

We’ve all got that little voice in our heads that we (sometimes) listen to. It just happens to be quite literal for preschoolers, who often let it go out loud.

“In each episode of ‘Alma’s Way,’ there’s a moment we call a ‘think through,’ where Alma thinks through a problem that has been going on,” says Doherty. “It can be why is her little brother mad at her? Or, sometimes it’s something she wants to do — she and her friend are playing, but they can’t agree on the game. How can we figure out how to do something together?”

The segment animates what’s going on in your head when you are trying to problem-solve. The show is produced in Pittsburgh, but the animation is created in the Toronto area.

“There isn’t the scale of animation production in Pittsburgh that it takes to do a series like this,” says Doherty.

“Alma’s Way” image courtesy of Fred Rogers Productions.

The collaboration comes as Fred Rogers Productions, which Rogers began as Family Communications, is moving to a larger space at SouthSide Works. The 28-time Emmy award-winning company is taking about 13,000 square feet of office space at the mixed-use complex. The company has 33 employees and has doubled its production staff in the last year.

“Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” is simply huge with the ages 2-8 demographic, on TV and streaming. For over a year now, the show has averaged 60 million streams per month. New episodes of “Daniel Tiger” and the preschool-focused puppet series “Donkey Hodie” (which debuted in May and is based on another character from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”) are airing this month.

The team at Fred Rogers Productions is comfortable with reaching out to new partners. The organization works with freelance writers and childhood development advisers. And “Donkey Hodie” (a play on the literary classic “Don Quixote”) is a live-action puppet series also produced by Spiffy Pictures in Chicago, starring a character that’s also from the Mister Rogers universe.

“Donkey Hodie.” Photo courtesy of Fred Rogers Productions and Spiffy Pictures.

“As somebody who moved to Pittsburgh five and a half years ago, I think there’s something interesting about being outside the New York and L.A. bubble,” says Doherty, who moved here from New York. “Our child development advisers here in Pittsburgh really have a point of view, that’s not just as a media consultant. Hedda Sharapan, for example, works on ‘Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood’ and started with Fred as a grad student in the ‘60s. They bring such passion and understanding of young children to the work.”

Sometimes, you can spot the threads connecting a show like “Daniel Tiger” or “Donkey Hodie” back to the original “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” or Pittsburgh itself.

Stephanie D’Abruzzo, a puppeteer alum from “Sesame Street” who performs Harriet Elizabeth Cow in “Donkey Hodie,” is from Pittsburgh. She based her voice for the character on a Pittsburgh accent, “which was very well received,” says Doherty.

Pittsburgh is regularly featured on “Daniel Tiger,” too. There have been more than 100 live-action pieces shot all around Pittsburgh that “really show off just the very best of the city,” notes Doherty.

“Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.” Photo courtesy of Fred Rogers Productions.

One of them features two kids who send each other a care package that is delivered by the son of David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on “Mister Rogers,” famous for his “Speedy Delivery!” catchphrase. Well, Newell’s son Alex is actually a postal carrier.

Fred Rogers Productions is still based in Pittsburgh not just because its founder loved it here, but because of the legacy he left.

“We have a lot of really talented people who make their lives here, making television for children,” says Doherty. “And there’s a bunch of people at this company who have chosen this kind of work because they believe in making meaningful valuable, fun and engaging, sometimes silly, sometimes goofy, sometimes heartfelt TV and games and websites for kids — and there’s a story in each one of those people, in what we do and how we do it.”

Original article: https://nextpittsburgh.com/features/fred-rogers-productions-teams-up-with-sesame-street-alum-for-new-show-almas-way

Great news! A World Together has been named a Notable Book by the Children’s Book Council/National Council for the Social Studies. Congratulations!

View the full list of nominees in this PDF.

Original article: https://kidscreen.com/2020/12/03/pbs-kids-highlights-latino-culture-in-new-series

PBS KIDS has ordered a new animated preschool series called Alma’s Way from Fred Rogers Productions to highlight Latino culture.

Created by Sesame Street actor and author Sonia Manzano, the educational adventure show about a young Puerto Rican girl’s adventures in the Bronx is inspired by her childhood. Ellen Doherty and Manzano are exec producing, with Jorge Aguirre (Goldie & Bear) on board as head writer. Pipeline Studios (Elinor Wonders Why) is animating the series. Forty half-hour episodes are in production, and Alma’s Way will premiere on PBS stations and the PBS KIDS linear channel and digital platforms in fall 2021.

In every episode, young Alma models self-awareness, responsible decision-making and empathy to show kids how to think through choices and their impact on the people around them. Alma will also experience different aspects of Latino culture, including making traditional meals and celebrating events like Noche Buena.

PBS KIDS plans to also roll out digital content inspired by the IP, including learning resources and games, on the PBS KIDS website and free PBS KIDS games app.

Many in the industry have been calling for a greater and more nuanced representation of Latinos because they have historically been an underrepresented group in kids media. The majority of human characters in kids TV shows are white (65% in the US, and 74% in Canada), according to research from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers out of UCLA and Ryerson University in Toronto.

Alma’s Way isn’t the only Fred Rogers Productions series heading to PBS KIDS in the new year. The pubcaster previously picked up puppet series Donkey Hodie (40 x 30 minutes) to debut in winter 2021, inspired by characters featured in Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. 

 

View the entire article at https://www.insider.com/best-toys-for-3-year-olds

26 of the best toys for 3-year-olds, according to experts

At 3 years old, children enter a new world of imaginative and pretend play, and the selection of toys to inspire their play is virtually endless. If you’re shopping for a 3-year-old this holiday season, we’ve narrowed down your options after talking to two toy experts and a developmental psychologist: Jim Silver, CEO of TTPM, Maddie Michalik, senior editor of The Toy Insider, and Bronwyn Charlton, PhD, developmental psychologist and cofounder of Seedlingsgroup.

All of our experts emphasized the importance of considering a 3-year-old’s interests when buying them a gift, whether that’s their favorite activity or TV show. Silver also said that 2020 is not the year to wait to buy the most popular toys. If you have your eye on a “hot” toy, buy it now, as it could very well sell out.

With experts’ advice in mind and our own research and testing, we’ve compiled a list of 26 of the best toys for 3-year-olds. From active toys to art projects and everything in between, we found something that’s bound to delight a child on your shopping list.

“A World Together,” from $16.19, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

This new book was written by Sonia Manzano of “Sesame Street” to spread the message that although all of our lives look different, we’re really all the same. This message is beautifully illustrated through real photographs of people around the world. The pictures are sure to spark conversation about different cultures with curious kids.

Recommended ages: preschool to grade 2