Michelle Markel
@michellemarkel.bsky.social
590 followers 370 following 280 posts
Author and aficionado of mostly narrative nonfiction picture books. Teacher, speaker. Art, activism, politics, cats. Find out more at www.michellemarkel.com
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michellemarkel.bsky.social
Sundays I'm posting quotes from #kidlit books about #resistance & #solidarity. Here's a page from FEARLESS BENJAMIN: The Quaker Dwarf Who Fought Slavery, written by Marcus Rediker and me, art by Sarah Bachman, which pubs this Tuesday. #edusky #booksky #PBBio 📚
Page from picture book shows Benjamin below deck with fellow sailors of different nationalities and skin colors, sitting at a table, with white cat and striped orange cat.
michellemarkel.bsky.social
And always save your drafts! Maybe title them with the first words of the beginning sentence .
michellemarkel.bsky.social
Picturing this monster. How many heads does it have? The media, Musk and other Big Tech Bros....
michellemarkel.bsky.social
And after deep fantasies and deliberations over snacks, shoppers leave Trader Joes in an altered state of consciousness, impairing their ability to drive
michellemarkel.bsky.social
Spectacular ignorance:

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...
gottalaff.bsky.social
👇🏼
cwebbonline.com
Did people actually believe Trump during his campaign, or did they just love the permission he gave them to be racist?

Trump on loop: “They’re stealing your jobs.”

If that were true, why aren’t Americans lining up to take those so-called “stolen” jobs?

Every Trump voter needs to see this.
michellemarkel.bsky.social
Yes. We should call out MSM when they do this. Propaganda alert!
michellemarkel.bsky.social
Brilliant thread about guiding kids in their processing of social media!
jenniferlagarde.bsky.social
When @dhudgins.bsky.social and I created this “Credibility Pyramid” 4 yrs ago, we were taken to task by educators who couldn’t let go of “source” as the sacred cow of #infolit. Now, I see many of those same ppl lamenting that they can no longer teach kids that .gov websites are trustworthy.

🧵/1
Illustration titled “The Digital Detective’s Credibility Pyramid.” Three tiers show: top, Information; middle, Source; bottom, Platform. Text explains that credibility should be judged by the information itself, not by who shared it or where it appeared.
michellemarkel.bsky.social
Brilliant thread. No more "consensus of truth." And a therapist tells me she's got many young clients (mostly boys) who've got depression & social anxiety from staying home and obsessively consuming social media.
Reposted by Michelle Markel
gottalaff.bsky.social
This is brutal.

This is America 2025.
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Remember that there are righteous people among us, always.

Left: Netherlands, 1942

Right: Illinois, 2025
One day in the summer of 1942, after the onset of the deportations of the Jews from Holland to “the East”, a student, who was a courier for the ASG student underground group in Amsterdam, approached the de Vries family, asking them to hide a Jewish child. The de Vrieses, who had two children of their own, decided to accept the offer despite the risk that was involved in hiding Jews, and soon four year-old Louise Pinto was brought to their home. Amid the smoke bombs and screams that ricocheted throughout a South Shore building last month during a massive military-style immigration raid, one man heard a knock on his door.

On the other side was a mom and her 7-year-old daughter, pleading for his help.

“I wasn’t planning on letting her stay, but I didn’t know what the hell was going on,” the man said of his Venezuelan migrant neighbors. But he quickly relented. The little girl was inconsolable and hid under his bed.

“I didn’t want them to take her,” said the man, who didn’t want to be named because he fears he’ll be targeted by federal authorities for his actions.

“I gave her my bedroom, and I just told her, ‘Just stay there. Don’t open, don’t, shh, just stay quiet,’” he recalled telling the mom and daughter as he choked back tears.
michellemarkel.bsky.social
From FEARLESS BENJAMIN: the Quaker Dwarf Who Fought Slavery (co-written w/ Marcus Rediker, art by Sarah Bachman)- pubs Oct 14.
At sea, Ben was educated by fellow sailors & came to 💙 📚 Later in Barbados he was threatened w/ banishment for befriending & defending the enslaved. #PBBio #edusky #kidlit
michellemarkel.bsky.social
Have a gander at Emma Goldman
Torture cat sitting in wicker basket
Reposted by Michelle Markel
normative.bsky.social
Dire as the stakes are, leaning into absurdist and lighthearted forms of protest seems like a great way to puncture the fantasy Trump & co are spinning to attempt to rationalize a violent crackdown.
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
As the administration goes all in on an alternate reality about portland that bears no resemblance to fact and rule of law, continuing radical (and just plain funny, ridiculing) acts of the imagination along with other ways of getting out the reality on the ground may help curb their momentum.
fake film poster with a sunset and the portland frog protestor with words The Portland War, A Film by Ken Burns
michellemarkel.bsky.social
We got up on the bridge (I stood behind the T) and told our brothers and sisters on the 101 freeway how we feel about this president. Thanks to Woodland Hills @indivisible.org for organizing! #resistance #losangeles
Photo of protestors and American flags on freeway bridge, on which letters spell out  "Americans Don't Bow to Kings".
michellemarkel.bsky.social
Yep. Keep throwing shiny objects for the MSM to chase.
michellemarkel.bsky.social
OMG my husband and I have been ranting about this for years, and we're in SoCal. Driving through Topanga Canyon at night is a terror. I'm surprised there's anything left of our burnt retinas.
michellemarkel.bsky.social
Yes, but the media frames Pam (& others) as a muscular attack dog, successfully fending off hard questions - not a weasel or sly fox for refusing to comply. She reminds me of the toxic people shrinks talk about - when they change the subject, you have to be a broken record, reiterate your demand.
michellemarkel.bsky.social
This is great! In Short Attention Span World, it would be useful to have a brief version to pass around. We should be talking more about these manipulative techniques, used in press conferences and congressional oversight hearings, and celebrated as "victories" by the MSM.
michellemarkel.bsky.social
Um, the lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Reposted by Michelle Markel
leahmcelrath.bsky.social
The Trump administration’s primary communication strategy is drawn from the DARVO tactics of abusers:

Deny
Attack
Reverse
Victim and
Offender
atrupar.com
NOTABLE -- Pam Bondi refuses to answer direct questions about if the FBI has incriminating photos of Trump with half-naked young women, but instead deflects from them by attacking Sen. Whitehouse
michellemarkel.bsky.social
One week out from publication day. We're launching our book about Benjamin Lay, a little person who was one of the world's first abolitionists, at the Abington Quaker Meeting House in PA. This is where he and his wife worshipped! #kidlit #nonfiction #resistance #edusky 📚
michellemarkel.bsky.social
I've seen a few MOC do that. Actually we should all be able to identify the various techniques they employ (besides lying) to avoid telling the truth, and to manipulate the public. Thanks for your attention to this matter😆
michellemarkel.bsky.social
What's an effective way for journalists and congresspeople interviewers to respond to this mock indignation shtick? Otherwise they'll keep using it...
michellemarkel.bsky.social
can they also have their intestines pulled out of their stomachs, and wrapped around their necks?