We Share A Story 2007:

An International Art/Literacy Connection

We Share A Story is an innovative program offering classrooms around the world an opportunity to simultaneously share a book and then to follow up the reading with an art project designed
for international sharing.

On Tuesday, November 13, 2007, students in Bellingham, Puyallup, and Tacoma, as well as students in Australia, Cambodia, Chile, Denmark, England, Ethiopia, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Liberia, Mali, Nepal, Norway, Republic of Korea, Russia, Rwanda, Venezuela and Zambia will share Head, Body, Legs: A Story from Liberia. Children worldwide will enjoy this tale about cultural diversity
and co-operation.

After hearing the story, children in each country will have the opportunity to participate in an international art project. Illustrator Julie Paschkis provided line drawings of the body parts in Head, Body, Legs which participating children will decorate and cut out. These pieces will be mailed back to the United States where library volunteers at the Pierce County Library System and the Bellingham Public Library will sort the pieces for redistribution. Each child will receive back pieces decorated by students not only from different schools, but from different countries. Combined, these pieces will represent a culturally diverse figure for each child to keep.

Won-Ldy Paye, Meg Lippert and Julie Paschkis at a book signing. Photo taken Joe Max Emminger

Head, Body, Legs was told to Won-Ldy by his grandmother in Liberia. Won-Ldy and Meg have been working together for over 15 years and have published four other books of Liberian stories.

Created in 2002, We Share A Story is a literacy project originating in Bellingham, Washington through cooperative efforts of the Bellingham Children's Library and the Bellingham Public School District. Now
co-sponsored by the Pierce County Library System, We Share A Story is celebrated annually during National Children's Book Week and International Education Week and honors the
role stories play in all lives.

Fun stuff!

We Share A Story booklist

We Share A Story recipes from around the world!