MOSS Kids

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Bringing literacy to every kid in every community. Creating a safe, supported space for all.

MOSS Kids is a 510(c)(3) non-profit organization working to bring diverse & inclusive literature to all children in all communities.

10/15/2026

Get those boo baskets ready with a book your House Ghost would gift this spooky season! 👻✨

Every October our family leans heavy into the spirit of spooky season with an advent calendar. Every day we read a book or do a hands-on activity, whatever we’re doing, we’re doing it together. But our favorite advent prompt is a book from our House Ghost. House Ghosts see what our kids are reading each year & where their interests lie, so they leave a little gift hidden away for the kids to find.

Our House Ghost created this incredible list filled with books for kids of all ages, so don’t think your teens are too old for some bookish ghoulish fun.

Which boooo(ks) will you be reading this month? Tell us in the comments below. ⬇️

10/14/2026

Help us fill our libraries by donating a book (or a few) off our October wishlists 📚✨

I’ll never get over the fact that Edgecombe County ranks 99th/100 counties in North Carolina in literacy and is still making budget cuts to school librarian positions with limited resources/funding dedicated to school libraries. So we want to fill the gap & fill our free libraries across the county. It’s time for a fall revamp. Thanks to Steph Littlebird we have brand new stickers for our libraries!! This weekend, we’ll start picking up our libraries, bringing them home for a quick spruce, and then back out they’ll go filled with brand new books. While we continue to work diligently on funding behind the scenes, we need your help to stock our libraries with brand new, diverse & inclusive books.

Links to wishlists in b1o & stories.

10/13/2026

October’s MOSS Kids Book Club — on Substack✨

📖 In Case of las Moscas by Jackie Morera with art by mariana ruiz johnson (Random House Children’s Books):
A tiny misunderstanding snowballs into a wild adventure that pokes gentle fun at what’s lost in translation between Spanish and English.✨

✂️ DIY Flies:
We’re encouraging kids to celebrate their identity by expressing it with their decorative flies. We’ll be using cardstock, markers, scissors, glue, hole punch, & a brass fastener. Modifications for varying developmental levels listed in blog.

🖍️ Printable activity kit:
Download an extensive educator’s kit created by author Jackie Morera, which includes a figurative vs literal language. The activity sheets included in the kit work to develop reading comprehension, literary devices, bilingual vocabulary, science, math, & more.

🫶🏽 Communal Flyswatter Painting:
We’re inviting kids to get together & work towards collective action like Diego & his friends! You’ll need a foam board, paint, & a flyswatter. Maybe some wipes too.

📚 Supplemental books:
We’ve created a booklist to celebrate and educate Latinx Heritage by seeing themselves & their peers experiencing different perspectives fostering empathy and diversity. In the blog, we’ve shared some extra guides & activities that celebrate beautiful Latine culture & communities. We’ve also created a book list on language and translation—how difficult it is to learn a new language, miscommunications in translation, & how emotions are a universal language. Explore the backlist of both our author & illustrator.

🔗 All instructions & printables are in the blog post linked within our stories & on our substack.

Happy Reading 🛡️🪰🫶🏼💖✨

10/12/2026

Every day is Indigenous History Day. Indigenous history is American history. Teach their continued existence. Celebrate & educate.

10/09/2026

Today we picked our pumpkins from the patch—tall and lean or short and fat. Vivid orange, ghostly white, or speckled green might be just right. 🎃✨

What kind of pumpkin is your favorite? ⬇️ I picked a light orange & pinkish one. Kyle picked a big, warty one. Milo picked a green one that started folding in on itself. Otto picked a greenish, yellowish one. And Sybil picked a white one that looks a ghostie floating. Happy autumn!!

10/08/2026

Recently finished Absent by Rex Ogle with art by LJ-Baptiste (Milo’s currently reading) & we couldn’t help but use our Ms Funkhouser skills to choose book recommendations for the boys of the story. 📚✨

🛹 Manny: we chose novels-in-verse for our resident writer of rhymes, specifically, stories that could help Manny grow into himself & his gift— finding solace in rhymes, writing his own memoir in melodies like Tony & understanding his anger, turning the injustices of his life into poetic prose like Lil
• How the Boogeyman Became a Poet by Tony Keith Jr.
• Anger is Only a Shadow by Elizabeth Acevedo

🖌️ Calvin: we chose books on superheroes & art for our prize-winning artist who sees the world in sketches & drawings— using his superpowers to understand his family dynamics & shelter those who need it like Stuntboy & learning the importance of open communication & when to ask for help like artist Deena
• Stuntboy, in the Meantime by jasonreynolds83 with art by Raul Gonzalez
• Drawing Deena by Hena Khan

🩺 Liam: we chose books on anxiety & medical complexities for our science-loving, grey’s anatomy-obsessed friend who struggles with dark shadows looming, his anxiety & his school bully— to learn like Josie, our friend who struggles with OCD, finding support in a parent & friends to stand up to the bully occupying their brain & Dasia, whose story will scratch his medical drama itch, but will leave him with hope in the most unexpected places
• Hijacked by Goats by Ann Braden
• Dasia (Forever) by Nic

We encourage you to pick up Absent, a mixed-format middle grade story about three boys who meet in detention exploring the complex issue of school absenteeism. Be sure to request your local library purchase too (requesting is 🆓).

10/06/2026

90 (!!!!!) brand new books are now officially ready to be checked out at our local middle school. Yes, NINETY. The kids have been patient as I’ve learned how to add the books to circulation, print the labels, & order supplies to make them a little more sturdy. Our materials aren’t in just yet, but, I couldn’t make them wait any longer. And so, with promises they’ll be gentle, our first donations have been checked out.

Here’s the first 4 (I couldn’t keep up with the photos after this):
🏀 Who’s Got Game? Basketball by Derrick Barnes & Jez Tuya
🪦 Here Lies a Ghost by Shakirah Bourne
📓 The New Girl by Cassandra Calin
🏀 Shook by Julian Randall, MFA

Despite our addition of 90 new books, the average age of the library collection is 1997. This age is important, it’s more than having new books, it also has to do with the information that we’re making accessible. If we have outdated information, then we’re practically giving away misinformation 🫠 An average library collection age typically aims to stay within 10 to 15 years. This library is almost 30 years old. Imagine what it was without our 90 BRAND NEW books. 😮‍💨 Next step is weeding out the old, outdated, & racist (yes, racist) texts.

Stay tuned to hear what our friends say about their new books 🥹🫶🏼✨

10/05/2026

For the first time ever, we’re taking our MOSS Kids Book Club into high schools to read, craft, & discuss with teens! ✨

This month, we’re reading In Case of las Moscas by Jackie Morera & mariana ruiz johnson!! With the students, we used visual thinking strategies questioning how the images make us feel, what the images make us wonder, & how we can read further into the story using the visuals. We discussed the importance of representation in publishing & why MOSS Kids chooses brand new books by historically marginalized creators. Students explored Spanish idioms, using context clues to guess their meaning, and how language and culture are connected to identity, woven into the fabric of our being.

🪰🛡️ We’ll share more about the crafts, outreach activities, & literary games later this week with a new substack! We’ll be headed back to this HS later this month, encouraging more students to explore picture books and dive deeper into heavier subjects with nuance and clarity. And teens sometimes need to be reminded it’s okay to play & be creative.

10/02/2026

Our first lunch bunch book of the 2026-2027 school year is Amina Banana and the Formula for Friendship by Shifa Saltagi Safadi with art by Aaliya Jaleel (Penguin Kids)!! ✨

Every Thursday we head into a local elementary school to volunteer for their third grade lunch bunch program. Third grade is a pivotal year in North Carolina—state testing begins &, for these eight kids, their English AND Spanish (in the classroom) are tested. This is global school with a Spanish immersion program. We’re hoping to help develop their literacy skills & their global perspectives.

🍌 Amina Banana is a determined and clever third grader, and star of a new chapter book series with a STEM twist. Amina loves bananas, science, and all things yellow! Her family recently arrived from Syria to Indiana, and she’s starting at a brand-new school in a brand-new country. She’s excited but also nervous, especially about making friends! So she develops the perfect formula to get everything just right. But when the first few days are harder than Amina imagined, she’s left worrying: why doesn’t her formula add up?

Follow along as we read each week, learn more about refugees & Syria, work to develop our own formulas, & discuss what it means to be “American”. We’re so grateful for this opportunity to volunteer & to celebrate & educate new books by historically marginalized creators. To help diversify the shelves. To aid in developing kind, empathetic, & accepting kids.

10/01/2026

Our October MOSS Kids Book Club pick — In Case of las Moscas by Jackie Morera with art by mariana ruiz johnson 🪰🛡️✨

We’re so excited to be reading In Case of las Moscas for our October MOSS Kids Book Club pick!!!! A tiny misunderstanding snowballs into a wild adventure in this playful picture book that pokes gentle fun at what’s lost in translation between Spanish and English. ✨

When Diego hears Abuela preparing “por si las moscas,” in case of the flies, alarm bells go off in his mind and he preps his schoolmates for an epic attack of winged insects. Except. . . some phrases don’t translate literally.

What follows is a zany adventure filled with tactical meetings at recess, combat training in gym class, and keeping watch from the highest point of the playground, with illustrations that incorporate English and Spanish, and enough silliness for readers to enjoy in whatever language they speak.

Stay tuned as we share our craft & community outreach for October early next week.

Show your excitement below in the comments to join us on our journey to fight the flies while finding what’s lost in translation ⬇️🥳🫶🏼✨

Address

Rocky Mount, NC
27801-27804 (ROCKY MOUNT), 27809 (BATTLEBORO)

Website

http://www.mosskidsbooks.com/

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