Students’ families had small businesses that were floundering and other students had parents who had lost jobs, so all were working small jobs wherever possible. Most of us know someone who has suffered from the economic downturn, which, in turn, creates anxiety in the rest of us.ĭuring the spring semester, my university students struggled to keep up with a full load of classes through Zoom meetings, all the while helping their families out.

Then they report on the latest bankruptcy and use terms that hearken back to the Great Depression. Newscasts report on long lines of people waiting to enter food banks or receive relief supplies. The world economic crisis due to COVID-19 has left many unemployed. Add some excitement to Fridays with world-renowned children’s authors and illustrator to promote new books and encourage children as readers, writers and illustrators.īy Susan Corapi, Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL through December 2020 with a different author or illustrator each week. Imagination Friday is co-sponsored by the Tucson Festival of Books and Worlds of Words, University of Arizona College of Education and occurs Fridays from 1 to 1:40 p.m. She now lives, eats and paints in Scottsdale, surrounded by her amazing children. Juana was born in Lima, Peru, where she grew up surrounded by amazing meals prepared by her mom and amazing paintings made by her dad and granddad. Juana Martinez-Neal is an illustrator of books for children, including the award-winning La Princesa and the Pea, Alma and How She Got Her Name and Fry Bread. Originally from Oklahoma, he is an enrolled citizen of the Seminole Nation.

Currently based in Manhattan, he splits time between the city and upstate New York, where he is a tenured professor of law at Syracuse University.

Kevin Noble Maillard is the author of Fry Bread and a regular writer and former contributing editor to The New York Times. Panelists: Kevin Noble Maillard and Juana Martinez-Neal Host: Kathy Short, Professor of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies and Director of WOW

Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard