Local Kids to Meet Author of Liberation Summer at PETA Event
For Immediate Release:
June 3, 2022
Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382
One hundred fifth graders at Washington Rose Elementary School are in for a special treat on Tuesday, courtesy of TeachKind, PETA’s humane education division: Author Stewart Mitchell will read from his book Liberation Summer, sign students’ free copies, and help dish up delicious vegan chicken sandwiches from The Happy Pig vegan food truck.
When: Tuesday, June 7, 9:30–10:30 a.m.
Where: Washington Rose Elementary School, 2 Rose Ave., Roosevelt
Based on Mitchell’s own experiences, Liberation Summer tells the story of a Black teen who gets a job at a fast-food chicken restaurant, learns about the cruel treatment of chickens in the meat industry, and decides to go vegan and advocate for animal liberation. This is the fifth “Meet the Author” event with Mitchell that TeachKind has organized—and each time, students are excited to hear him discuss what it’s like to be an author, how people can improve access to healthy food in low-income communities, how kids of all ages can help animals, and much more.
“Liberation Summer is a gripping read that kids can’t put down, and Stewart Mitchell is a wonderful role model who shows kids that it’s good to be kind and to show compassion to animals,” says PETA Senior Director of Youth Programs Marta Holmberg. “TeachKind is delighted to work with him to get young people excited about reading and helping animals at the same time.”
TeachKind offers free resources, presentations, and more to help teachers add compassion to their curricula, including free lessons about Liberation Summer and other animal-friendly books. The pandemic has exacerbated a reading decline in students, with more children now considered “at-risk readers”—those who have only a 20% chance of reading at grade level by the end of the school year—but a groundbreaking study found that students who read TeachKind’s animal rescue stories performed significantly better in reading comprehension on Common Core–aligned tests.
TeachKind—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit TeachKind.org or follow the group on Facebook or Instagram.
