Activity Guides for My Picture Books

Here are all the activity guides for my books:

The Traveling Taco: The Amazing and Surprising Journey of Many of Your Favorite Foods
We Sing From the Heart: How The Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
Sumo Joe
Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes

The Traveling Taco: The Amazing and Surprising Journey of Many of Your Favorite Foods

The Traveling Taco makes Reading Rockets’ Summer Reading Guide 2025!

Origami French Fries: Activity for THE TRAVELING TACO

We Sing From the Heart: How The Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court

ALSC Notable Children’s Book
Orbis Pictus Recommended Book for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
California Eureka Non-Fiction Award Honor Book
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
Junior Library Guild Gold Selection

Here is the music video of The Slant’s song, From the Heart. They wrote this song about their battle to trademark their band’s name. Why not start a book presentation off with this short video?

We created a podcast with Dorktales Storytime about Simon Tam.

Rock Band to the Supreme Court! Simon Tam, Hidden Hero of History | Dorktales Storytime Podcast EP99

Free Activity Guide for Dorktales Storytime about Simon Tam. Go here.
Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/simon-tam-hidden-hero-of-history/id1527642350?i=1000673407584
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4MVtVmjHC8CwQcE6SXP821?si=4M055Z3EQSCMdhPbTFe7zw
You can find all the other platforms via the icons on our website: https://jonincharacter.com/simon-tam/

A video version is here:

Simon Tam has many excellent TED Talks:

From ReasonTV: An Asian-American band takes the fight over its name all the way to the Supreme Court:

Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World

Food for the Future by Mia Wenjen and Robert Sae-Heng cover reveal

⭐ Starred review from School Library Journal!
Junior Library Guild Gold selection
Massachusetts Book Award Long List
dPICTUS 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023
Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
Green Earth Book Award Long List
Nautilus Silver Winner, Nonfiction Children’s Picture Book
Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids

Food for the Future Teacher’s Activity Guide.

Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World Music Video

Sumo Joe

Bank Street College’s The Best Children’s Books of the Year

Sumo Joe Teacher’s Guide is on the Lee and Low website.

Sumo Joe craft round-up on PragmaticMom.com.

Sumo Joe easy sumo origami on PragmaticMom.com.

Sumo Joe Virtual or In-Person Class Visits.

Sumo Picture Books on PragmaticMom.com.

Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes

Changing the Game: Asian Pacific American Female Athletes Resource Page

My books:

Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me

The Traveling Taco: The Amazing and Surprising Journey of Many of Your Favorite Foods

Reading Rockets’ Summer Reading Guide 2025

Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me

Fortune Cookies for Everyone! (Smithsonian): The Surprising Story of the Tasty Treat We Love to Eat

Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me

We Sing from the Heart: How the Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court

ALSC Notable Children’s Book
2025 Carter G. Woodson Book Award Middle Level Honoree
Orbis Pictus Recommended Book for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children
California Eureka Non-Fiction Award Honor Book
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People Winner (from National Council for the Social Studies and Children’s Book Council)
Bank Street Best Children’s Books of the Year 2025
Junior Library Guild Gold Selection