In today’s episode, host Billy DiMichele is joined by Chris Wisniewski, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, Karlotta Frier and Anyango Mpinga, two professional artists and national jurors for the 2025 Scholastic Awards, and Nia Cao, a teen writer and recipient of the 2025 New York Life Award, a sponsored Scholastic Award that recognizes outstanding works dealing with grief. Each of these interviews will explore a particular component of the Scholastic Art & Writing Award—from a work first being submitted through to a national winner taking a bow on the incomparable stage of Carnegie Hall.

Listen to hear more about what makes a program like the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards so special, so enduring, and so necessary.

Resources
About the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards: https://www.artandwriting.org/
About the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers: https://www.artandwriting.org/the-alliance/
About the New York Life Award: https://www.artandwriting.org/scholarships/new-york-life-award
Gallery of teen work recognized in the 2025 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards: https://www.artandwriting.org/gallery/
More listening: Scholastic Reads! Celebrating 100 Years of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Highlights
Chris Wisniewski, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers

“More than anything else, when we talk to teenagers and ask why did you enter the program? It was really about the opportunity to share their work, to have their work celebrated, particularly in their home communities, or even on the stage of Carnegie Hall. That’s a really extraordinary thing for a young person who’s at a crucial moment in their creative development and really thinking about what’s next for them. So that recognition is really important.”

“We also see the Scholastic Awards as being almost like a big national tailgate party for art and culture. What we’re doing is bringing communities together all around the country to celebrate these young people who are doing extraordinary things in their art and writing.”

“When you think about the fact that one out of every four high schools in the country has a young person who enters this program, we can rightfully say that we are conducting a celebration of creative teens on a truly national scale. And when we award 2-3,000 national medals, that really is a recognition of some of the very finest creative work that has happened anywhere in this country over the past year by teenagers.”

“With 103 years of Scholastic Awards under our belt, that makes us a unique repository of teen creativity. We can tell a story about what young people were thinking about, and what was on their minds when they were making art and writing over the course of these past 100 years, and that’s something that’s unique to this program.”

“The work that I find tends to resonate most powerfully with our jurors is the work that expresses a unique point of view. So young people who have the courage to really put themselves out there and to go beyond a classroom assignment or a sense of the expected, that’s always the best path, not just to winning a Scholastic Award, but to really developing as a creative. To remember to always be true to yourself first.”

Karlotta Frier, professional artist and 2025 national juror

[On what intrigued her about participating as a juror] “I got invited and didn’t know it was going to be so much fun and feel so important to me…Winning an award was really important to my path…and that experience of being seen by someone else other than my mom who always believed in me this whole time, but somebody else, in New York [meant] maybe I can do this.”

Anyango Mpinga, professional artist and 2025 national juror

[On the message she would want Scholastic Awards participants to hear] “I just want them to know that their voice is valid and to not change for anyone…If you’re really connected to who you are, and this is your creativity, the best thing you can do for yourself is cultivate that creativity and become even better than you were yesterday, and stick to it, and make that your voice…you have to stick to your guns, and you have to fight for yourself.”

_Nia Cao, teen poet and recipient of the 2025 New York Life Award _

“[My poem] was a really important work to me, and it was the first time that I processed [my uncle’s] death. Applying for the New York Life Award, it wasn’t something that I hesitated about. This is something that really resonates with my poem and with my work, and I think it was something that really tied into his legacy.”

“It’s validating to be acknowledged and know that my poem resonated with someone, and it feels as if the judges are saying to me, ‘I see you, I hear you.’”

Special Thanks
Producers: Allyson Barkan and Anne Sparkman
Sound engineer: S. Shin
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

In today’s episode, former elementary school teacher and current Editorial Director of Scholastic’s Acorn early readers and Branches early chapter books lines, Katie Carella, is back in the studio with guest-host Billy DiMichele to talk about this magical moment in a child’s literacy journey. And joining the podcast for the first time is Bernard Mensah, author of beloved Branches series Kwame’s Magic Quest.

Over the years, Branches has helped grow so many readers through highly illustrated, early chapter books that kids devour. Currently with 58 million books in print and 34 published series, the line has experienced a “meteoric” rise since we last spoke about this important line in 2019 when it had about 17 million books and about 25 series in print.

Listen on to find out what’s behind this meteoric rise, to get a glimpse of Kwame’s magical world, and to learn about Bernard’s passion for writing for the Branches age group and representing Ghanaian culture in children’s books. And stay to the end for a read aloud sneak peek!

→Resources
About Branches: https://www.scholastic.com/site/branches.html
About Kwame’s Magic Quest: https://www.scholastic.com/site/branches/kwame-s-magic-quest.html
Fuse #8 Blog Review from Betsy Bird: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2025/02/04/the-fast-paced-page-turning-adventure-series-thats-a-celebration-of-african-cultures-bernard-mensah-discusses-kwames-magic-quest/
More listening: Scholastic Reads! EVA-DORABLE: Rebecca Elliott Talks a Decade of the Owl Diaries, Eva the Owlet, and more!
More listening: Scholastic Reads! Growing Readers with Branches and Acorn from 2019!

→Highlights
_Katie Carella: Editorial Director, Acorn & Branches, Scholastic _

“Having been a 1st-3rd grade teachers myself, I’m always excited to talk about that very exciting point in a child’s reading journey where they begin to read books independently. You get to see that light go off and it’s just the best feeling ever.”

“All of the Branches books have a second grade reading level. But the books all feature really rich, layered plots so they do appeal to children across many grade levels. From Kindergarten, I’d say up through fourth and even fifth grade, especially now with reading levels behind where they should be. So it’s more important than ever to have these “high-low” books. These books are high-interest, layered plots and yet written at a lower reading level.”

“If a child chooses a book that’s too easy for them the child can speed through it and they gain fluency and stamina. If they choose a book that’s slightly too hard for them, the child might struggle, but if they want to read they will do the work. And they’ll learn decoding skills along the way. So both experiences ultimately grow a child’s vocabulary and their reading skill set.”

“The accolades [for Kwame’s Magic Quest] keep coming in…it was highlighted on Betsy Bird’s Fuse #8 blog…I just wanted to say a quote she had in her blog, ‘it’s amazing how much story Mensah and Nayo [the illustrator] are able to pack into this thing.’ You are getting this really rich and magical world that Bernard has created but in this really digestible format.”

_Bernard Mensah, Author, Kwame’s Magic Quest _

“[Kwame’s Magic Quest] has got that mix of authenticity, friendship, lots and lots of magic, some peril and danger, there’s evil magicians and spells. I think it brings together a lot of things that you would typically find exciting if you wanted to read a book about magic or an epic adventure.”

“[on working with the illustrator Natasha Nayo] Having an illustrator who came from the same background who understands the cultural context of some of things that I was trying to put across, I could rely on the art to do some of the talking for me. She brought her own unique flare.”

“My son, when he was about five years old, I remember looking at his bookshelf and thinking to myself, well, I’ve managed to find stories for him or write something that speaks to his culture at every age. Where is the book that speaks to him from five to eight years old? And I couldn’t find it so foolishly I thought to myself, well, I’ll write it. And that’s where the idea for Kwame’s Magic Quest came from.”

On what the characters would do over summer break, “By the end of the summer they would probably save the world again because that’s what they do in every book. They come close to not doing it but they find a way to rally together and make magic safe again for everybody.”

→Special Thanks
Producers: Anne Sparkman, Allyson Barkan, and Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: S. Shin
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→Coming Soon
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards 2025

Inspired by Dr. King’s unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and a compassionate society, Realize the Dream embodies his vision of a strong, unified foundation for all. The initiative seeks to empower hundreds of thousands of teachers and bring hope to over six million students in underfunded schools across the United States.

As a company deeply committed to education and literacy for every child, Scholastic has partnered with this transformative mission. And as part of this commitment, Scholastic will be donating half a million dollars’ worth of books over the course of the initiative to help support Realize the Dream’s ongoing programming.

Late last year, Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King visited Scholastic Headquarters in New York City to discuss the initiative in a conversation moderated by award-winning author, and Scholastic Vice President and Editor, Andrea Davis Pinkney. In today’s episode, the Kings and Andrea are back, joining guest-host Billy DiMichele in the studio for another compelling conversation about Realize the Dream!

→ Resources

About Realize the Dream: Learn more about the initiative.

About Martin Luther King III: Learn more about the American human rights activist, philanthropist, advocate and the eldest son of Doctor Martin Luther King Junior and Coretta Scott King.

About Andrea Waters King: Learn more about the social justice leader and President of the nonprofit Drum Major Institute.

About Andrea Davis Pinkney: Learn more about award-winning author award-winning author, and Scholastic Vice President and Editor.

About Yolanda Renee King and We Dream a World: Learn more about the author, activist and sole grandchild of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Corette Scott King, and her book.

Realizing the Dream with Scholastic: Kid Reporter Leyla Saldanha’s coverage of Martin Luther King III, Arndrea Waters King, and Yolanda Renee King’s October 2024 visit to Scholastic Headquarters to talk about the Realize the Dream initiative.

We Dream a World: Celebrating Black History Month With Yolanda Renee King: Suzanne McCabe speaks with Yolanda Renee King and Andrea Davis Pinkney in this 2024 episode about the picture book We Dream a World: Carrying the Light from My Grandparents Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

→ Highlights

*Martin Luther King III, American human rights activist, philanthropist, and advocate
*
“We wanted to create something that causes people to turn to each other. As we’re working together, we’re doing something that’s bigger than ourselves, in a climate, which is divided, this will hopefully begin to create the beginning elements of some level of community.”

“What we really want is not to share what someone should do. What we want is people to decide for themselves what they want to do…What we know is when one is passionate about something, they’re going to do a better job.”

“Civility is kindness. Civility is how we say, what we say. Because we can say it in a constructive way, or we can say it in a destructive way. And we need to be creating the climate for constructiveness.”

“My greatest hope is that our nation becomes closer and not to just Realize the Dream, but people will realize their own dreams in a way that compliments everyone.”

Arndrea Waters King, social justice leader and President of the nonprofit Drum Major Institute
“One person can make a difference. All together we can change the world.”

“It is important, again, for all of us to find ourselves within the King legacy, but also for everyone to understand that if you’re doing something for someone else, if you’re serving your community, you are doing something to realize the dream of Martin Luther King Jr.”

“Acknowledging the shared humanity of us all, at its core, is the foundational principle of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King’s work…As a humanity, we are all brothers and sisters. And that to me is what the cornerstone of what this movement is.”

*Andrea Davis Pinkney, award-winning author and Vice President and Executive Editor, Scholastic Trade Publishing
*
“[Kids] want to take action. They’re big-hearted. And they know what it means to work together.”

“As well all know, books change lives. Books spark conversations. And that’s what We Dream a World does. It’s changed lives. It has sparked conversations.”

“Stories connect us. They unify us. They bring us together. In the case of the book, We Dream a World, it’s a jewel and a tool. It’s a jewel because it glistens, because its beautifully illustrated, because young people will engage with it and its beautifully written. It’s a tool, because it’s a way that young people can have the roadmap to say, “how do I make a change?”

→ Special Thanks
Producers: Maxine Osa, Anne Sparkman, Allyson Barkan
Sound Engineer: S. Shin
Music Composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon
Art & Writing 2025

Last November saw the latest installment in the series, I Spy Love, which brims with whimsical and heartwarming scenes accompanied by delightful riddles, all centered on the theme of love. The title also marks a significant milestone for the series as it’s the first time Dan and Dave Marzollo, sons of original co-creator Jean, have written an I Spy book entirely on their own, alongside Walter Wick!

In today’s episode, guest-host Billy DiMichele is joined by Walter, Dan, and Dave about the newest installment, what goes into creating an I SPY book, and so much more!

→ Resources

About I Spy Love: Check out the latest installment in the I Spy Series.

About I Spy Series: Learn more about the widely popular seek-and-find book series, published by Scholastic Press.

Walter Wick: Learn more about the illustrator.

Let’s Find Out!: Check out the nonfiction magazine designed for kindergarteners, featuring fun, seasonal content on science and social studies themes.

→ Highlights

Walter Wick, Illustrator, I Spy
“As soon as the first I Spy book came out Jean started to realize how to articulate what those educational values were all about. And that really came to fruition in I Spy School Days…she really set the curriculum on that book.”

“You can almost think of each of my scenes as a window display, but without the window.”

“A child who struggled with reading was actually better at finding the objects from the riddles than the advanced readers. We called [these books] a 'great equalizer' because they brought people together and got them on the same page.”

Dan and Dave Marzollo, Authors, I Spy
“My favorite book of the series is I Spy Mystery, where Walter built these mysteries within the pictures. That to me is really great—to find those hidden things within the bigger picture.” – Dan

“We were the first ones that got to see the very first fold and gathered copy of I Spy and test it.” – Dave

“My mom always said that the moment she realized how big of a success the series was going to be, was when all the high school kids were pushing each other out of the way to try to find the blue thumbtack first. In the beginning, she thought this was going to be just something for kids but saw that high school kids were just as fully riveted by the books.” - Dave

→ Special Thanks

Producers: Maxine Osa, Anne Sparkman, Allyson Barkan

Sound Engineer: S. Shin

Music Composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

With over 400 million books in print, two feature films, video games, consumer products, multiple television adaptations, and more in store for 2025, Goosebumps continues to be one of the most notable cultural phenomena of the past century.

This January 10th, 2025 marked the release of the second season of the thrilling live-action Disney+ anthology series Goosebumps: The Vanishing, and this coming March will see the release of R.L. Stine’s newest book in his House of Shivers series, Say My Name, Say My Name.

In today’s episode, guest-host Billy DiMichele is joined by the master of horror himself, R.L. Stine, to talk all things funny and scary, while later in the program, we get to hear from Jayden Bartels, one of the stars of Disney+’s newly released Goosebumps: The Vanishing.

→ Resources

About R.L. Stine: Learn more about the author and his many books.

About Goosebumps: Learn more about the thrilling Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine.

About Goosebumps: The Vanishing: Learn more about the newest installment of the live-action Goosebumps television series, executive produced by Scholastic Entertainment, and now available to stream in full on Disney+ and Hulu.

Spooky stories for Halloween: Suzanne McCabe interviews R.L. Stine about what it is about spine-chilling books that’s so compelling for young readers, in this spooky-season-themed 2019 Scholastic Reads episode.

25 Years of Goosebumps: R.L. Stine visits Scholastic Reads to talk about the 25th anniversary of the Goosebumps series in this 2017 Scholastic Reads episode.

→ Highlights

R.L. Stine, author, Goosebumps

“No one expects this kind of thing. To get so lucky, to have a big bestselling series that lasts. No one plans on it. We had no idea. It all happens, Harry Potter or Hunger Games, Twilight, etc. because of kids. Kids telling kids.”

“I LOVE the middle-grade audience.”

“I think horror is funny. [It] makes me laugh.”

“I’m a huge believer that television shows really encourage reading. Back in the 90s, when the original Goosebumps series went on FOX kids, we gained a million readers a month.
So, I’ve always been a big believer that television can encourage reading.”

Jayden Bartels, actor, Goosebumps: The Vanishing

“I think it’s so interesting how [R.L. Stine] found a way to scare children without giving them nightmares.”

“I think it was a big thing for this show, taking the monsters, we all know and love and grew up on, and bringing in new characters and new stories to life.”

“We can bring in a new perspective that the younger generation can relate to. And I think that the characters in the show are so multifaceted and so deep and layered.”

→ Special Thanks

Producers: Maxine Osa, Anne Sparkman, Allyson Barkan

Sound Engineer: S. Shin

Music Composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

I SPY LOVE

This coming January marks the 10th anniversary of the Owl Diaries’ debut, and in today’s episode Rebecca joins guest-host Billy DiMichele to talk about the milestone, the success of her hugely popular books, and the animated Apple TV+ series Eva the Owlet, which recently announced its return for a second season and the release of a very special holiday episode.

→ Resources

About Rebecca Elliot: Learn more about the author and her many books.

About The Owl Diaries: In Rebecca’s widely popular book series, Owl Diaries, readers follow the adventures of Eva Wingdale, a young owl who navigates school life, friendships, and various challenges in her town of Treetopolis.

About Eva the Owlet: The Apple TV+ animated series based on the bestselling Owl Diaries book series, produced by Scholastic Entertainment.

About the Unicorn Diaries: Rebecca’s other entertaining book series follows the adventures of Bo Tinseltail, a young unicorn with the power to grant wishes, as he navigates life in Sparklegrove Forest.

Owl Diaries: Rebecca Elliott on Reading Aloud and Eva the Owlet: Suzanne McCabe speaks with Rebecca Elliott in this 2023 Scholastic Reads episode about the runaway success of Owl Diaries, its Eva the Owlet adaptation, and her participation in World Read Aloud Day 2023.

Growing Readers with Branches and Acorns: In this 2019 episode, Suzanne McCabe interviews Katie Carella, Executive Editor at Scholastic, about the Branches and Acorn books and their impact. She also speaks with authors Troy Cummings (The Notebook of Doom), Rebecca Elliott (Owl Diaries), and Jonathan Fenske (Crabby) about creating these engaging books for kids.

→ Highlights

Rebecca Elliott, author, illustrator Owl Diaries

“[It’s] mind-blowing that [my books] could play the smallest role in a child’s journey into books, which to me is one of the most important of journeys, as it’s not only for entertainment, but it builds your worldview. It shapes your curiosity and knowledge.”

“There’s something about [owls] that’s so elusive and imaginary even though they’re clearly not. We can almost imagine that they have a secret world where they do wear berets and go to owl elementary school. And the fact that they are such great fodder to write about for children. They have big eyes, they can fly, they have super hearing, and super sight. They are incredible creatures and just so wonderful to wrap this story around.”

“I was always drawing. Always, always, from as far back as I can remember. That’s what I did with most of my time. And then I would make up stories about the drawings I [created].”

“I think kids are just as interested in stories now, as they ever were. And that’s never going away. It’s a human need to want stories.”

→ Special Thanks

Producers: Maxine Osa, Anne Sparkman, Allyson Barkan

Sound Engineer: S. Shin

Music Composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

R.L. Stine and actor Jayden Bartels talk all things Goosebumps with Billy DiMichele

In today’s episode, critically acclaimed author, Alice Hoffman, joins host Suzanne McCabe to talk about her newest young adult novel When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary, which reimagines the life of Anne Frank before she wrote her famous diary. This gripping and lyrical novel, informed by extensive research and extraordinary support from the Anne Frank Center, captures the highs, lows, and unyielding hope of Anne and her family during the harrowing Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. Amid danger, deprivation, and countless indignities, a young Anne Frank discovers who she is and cultivates the writer within her.

In addition to When We Flew Away, Alice Hoffman has written over thirty works of fiction, including The Dovekeepers, The World That We Knew, and Practical Magic to name a few.

→ Resources

About Alice Hoffman: Learn more about the author and her many novels.

When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary: Check out Alice Hoffman’s latest novel about Anne Frank before her writing her famous diary.

Hope From the Holocaust: Suzanne McCabe speaks with authors Neal Shusterman and Sharon Cameron about their latest novels Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust, and Artifice.

The Tower of Life: Suzanne McCabe talks with author Chana Stiefel about The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs.

→ Highlights

Alice Hoffman, author, When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary

“A lot of other people and teenagers wrote diaries, but [Anne Frank’s], I think, kind of transcends just being her personal story. It feels much more universal. And I think also that she was a fantastic writer. So she was a great writer. And so I think her voice reminds us, because it's so innocent and so helpful that, I think it has to come in many ways for us, the Holocaust, because it's a story that she will not let us forget.”

“For one, I would hope that [readers of When We Flew Away] they would want to go read the diary. And for the other part, I hope that they would want to read about somebody who really had hope in the world, despite the cruelty, despite the war, who really felt that people were good at heart and that it was still possible to change the world.”

“I thought there might be lots of young readers who wouldn't know anything about [Anne Frank], wouldn't even know who she was. So, I think as you're reading [When We Flew Away], you're seeing that the world is closing in and you're having a sense that, there's not going to be a positive ending for the Jews in the Netherlands, but you really kind of want to find out what happens to [Anne]. How does she get through it? How does somebody manage to stumble, live that life is worth living.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound Engineer: S. Shin
Music Composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon
Rebecca Elliot with guest host Billy DiMichele

→ Resources
About Francisco X. Stork: Learn more about the author and his many novels for young readers.
Celebrating Hispanic and Latiné Heritage Month: Check out these titles for the young readers in your life.

→ Highlights
Francisco X. Stork, author, One Last Chance to Live
“Once you start writing, the characters take over, and it’s their story that becomes important.”
“When I was a little boy in Mexico, I used to tell people . . . ‘I want to be a writer.’”
“This is a month in which we see the contributions of immigrants, who decided to live in this country and who love this country, like me.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: S. Shin
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

Alice Hoffman: When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary

He talked with host Suzanne McCabe about the genesis of Cat on the Run, his latest series for young readers. In Book 1, Cat on the Run in Cat of Death!, Princess Beautiful, the world’s biggest cat video star, is accused of a crime she didn’t commit. Can the most famous feline on the planet avoid capture and prove her innocence? Readers will find out in Aaron’s hilarious new trilogy about the perils of social media and cancel culture.

You probably know Aaron from The Bad Guys, his mega-bestselling book series. The Bad Guys was made into an animated movie in 2022 by Universal Pictures and DreamWorks. A sequel is on the way next summer.

Aaron is also the author of the popular series Pig the Pug and Thelma the Unicorn. With the 20th and final installment of The Bad Guys due out in November, Aaron says that he’s ready to step away from writing.

“I always wrote my books specifically for my own kids, to make them laugh, but now they’re all grown up,” he told Publishers Weekly. “It was a magical time but it’s over, just like childhood. It’s bittersweet but it’s also beautiful.”

→ Resources
Cat on the Run in Cat of Death!: How do you avoid capture and prove your innocence when you’re the most famous feline on the planet? Princess Beautiful finds out the hard way.
Cat on the Run in Cucumber Madness: Social media star Princess Beautiful has been plunged into a world where danger lurks everywhere, and cucumbers are no laughing matter.
The Bad Guys: In Aaron’s wildly-popular book series, The Bad Guys, a motley collection of wannabe heroes are doing good deeds—whether you like it or not.

→ Highlights
Aaron Blabey, bestselling author and illustrator
On creating the character of Princess Beautiful in Cat on the Run: “She was inspired by the world we currently live in, I have to say. My kids are now 15 and 18, and I’ve been watching them navigating social media…. I’ve been watching with interest how that universe is sort of playing out in the world. I also have a really highly strung cat. Those two things . . . and the old movie The Fugitive, they all kind of clicked together in my head, and Cat on the Run popped out.”
On writing The Bad Guys: “I was only trying to make my son laugh, but it seems that the same stuff that makes him laugh has made lots of other kids laugh.”
On writing graphic novels: “We live in a world where kids are just bombarded with visual information, and they’re so visually literate. What I’ve tried to do with The Bad Guys and also certainly with Cat on the Run is do something that feels relevant for them.”
→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

Alice Hoffman: When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary

A joint venture between Reach Out and Read and Scholastic, with help from several other publishers, the 35 for 35 project will distribute 350,000 free books to children ages five and under during their well-child visits.

The books celebrate the vibrant neighborhoods and diverse cultures of the children who are served by Reach Out and Read. Kids will be introduced to titles by acclaimed and emerging authors and illustrators, including poet Nikki Giovanni, basketball great LeBron James, and writer and educator Joanna Ho.

“Evidence shows that if children are exposed to books and reading through their pediatric well-child visits,” Marty says, “they’re more likely to get read to at home. They’re more likely to spend time with their parents or caregivers connecting over a book.”
As Chief Executive Officer of Reach Out and Read, Marty leads the Boston-based nonprofit’s vast network, which includes more than 6,000 program sites in all 50 states and nearly 30 regional, state, and local affiliates. He has spent decades working on behalf of young people and families in underserved communities across the Boston area. Most recently, as the city’s Chief of Health and Human Services, Marty led Boston through some of the most acute challenges posed by the pandemic.

In her role as Chief Impact Officer at Scholastic, Judy helps to ensure equal access to books and literacy for all children through partnerships with nonprofits and other organizations. She currently serves on several boards, including at Reach Out and Read and the Ruby Bridges Foundation, where she is Board President.

For many years, Judy led the iconic Scholastic Reading Club, aka the Book Clubs. She is known fondly in the office as our Reader-in-Chief. During the pandemic, Judy went back to school, earning a master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

→ Resources
Reach Out and Read: For 35 years, the Boston-based nonprofit has helped millions of young families across the country access literacy through well-child visits.
35 for 35: Learn more about this free, curated book collection, a collaboration between Reach Out and Read and Scholastic.

→ Highlights
Marty Martinez, CEO, Reach Out and Read
“The mission of Reach Out and Read is to provide opportunities and moments for children and their parents to have shared moments of connection and bonding through reading.”
“We’re a very simple model that integrates early literacy and books into well-child visits for our children five and under all across the United States.”
“A child learns to read and then reads to learn.”
“It opens doors not only for a child but for a whole family when you focus on early literacy.”
Judy Newman, Chief Impact Officer, Scholastic
“Programs like these don’t happen unless someone leads the charge.”
“Twelve publishers from across the publishing industry contributed titles to [35 for 35].”

“For American democracy to continue, we have to have literacy.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

Bad Guys Author Aaron Blabey Talks About Cat on the Run

When We Flew Away: Author Alice Hoffman Discusses Her New Novel About Anne Frank Before the Diary

“I would encourage any teen picking up A Darker Mischief,” Derek says, “to see how Cal can surmount everything that has happened in the past and his sense of unbelonging and intense alienation to find love.”

In addition to A Darker Mischief, Derek is the author of the acclaimed Scream All Night (Balzer + Bray, 2018) and Swipe Right for Murder (Jimmy Patterson, 2021). A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Derek has performed on stages across the country and appeared in several TV shows and films, including The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).

→ Resources
A Darker Mischief: Check out Derek Milman’s boarding school thriller about a queer teen named Cal, who finds himself swept up into a world of old money and privilege privilege.
You Are Loved: This curated book list from Scholastic celebrates LGBTQIA+ themes and experiences, with stories centered around identity, acceptance, and love.

→ Highlights
Derek Milman, author, A Darker Mischief
“While the secret society [in A Darker Mischief] is based on this very real secret society that’s still functioning at Yale, it’s fictional at the same time.”
“Cal comes from a poor family from a small town in Mississippi, and he has to contend with a lot and confront moral choices, in terms of how he can survive at Essex.”
“There are going to be things in life that you have to confront and decisions you’re going to have to make in order to get ahead, but you’re going to have to find a way to preserve who you really are and your values.”
“Holden [Caulfield in A Catcher in the Rye] might have been the first time I felt like I really connected with a kid in a book.”

“A lot of young love, especially young, gay love, is not easy.”

“Queer teens need a classic, sweeping, epic romance.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

Reach Out and Read: 35 for 35

Kelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story

Dr. Mayes is also the Arnold Gesell Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center and Special Advisor to the Dean at the Yale School of Medicine. She heads the Child Study Center–Scholastic Collaborative, which arose from a shared commitment to exploring how literacy can be used to foster resilience among children and families.

→ Resources
New Mental Health Resource From Scholastic: Check out our new online hub of books and curated, free resources fostering emotional health with insights from leading child development experts.
Meet Dr. Linda C. Mayes: The director of the Yale Child Study Center, Dr. Mayes is an expert in developmental psychology, pediatrics, and child psychiatry literature.
Kids & Family Reading Report: There’s lots to explore in Scholastic’s biennial national survey of parents’ and children’s reading attitudes and behaviors.
Reach Out and Read: Learn how the nonprofit organization partners with pediatric care providers to help families make reading a part of their routines.

→ The Conversation
What trends are you seeing at the Yale Child Study Center in terms of children’s mental health? What types of emotional and behavioral disorders are kids presenting?
At the Child Study Center here in New Haven, what we’re seeing is no different than what’s being seen across the country and around the world. The increase in mental health needs among children and adolescents often is framed as a post-COVID phenomenon. But over the past few years, there’s been a steady increase in children’s mental health needs—depression, suicidality, anxiety, increased feelings of stress—that speaks to an overall stress among children and families.
COVID and the pandemic added to the mental health crisis. The pandemic also highlighted some of the fragilities in our healthcare system. One might think in the same way, that the pandemic highlighted the mental health needs and vulnerabilities of our youngest citizens, and that we’re seeing an increased volume is important to know. We’re also seeing an increase in severity. Children are just suffering more, and we’re seeing children thinking about suicide at an earlier age. We’re seeing more eating disorders starting at an earlier age.
Our children’s distress is also an expression of the increasing distress and fragmentation of our society. Children, in a sense, are like the canaries in the coal mine. They’re experiencing the distress, the increased lack of civility, the increased fragmentation.

The lack of civility and lack of empathy among adults is striking. Where did that come from?
I think there are multiple causes. We’ve had an economically stressed society. We have the stresses of the pandemic. We have a politically divided society now. Whatever side of the aisle you’re on, to use that metaphor, it’s very hard to cross the aisle. We’ve lost the ability to have a conversation where you see the other person as an individual who may or may not agree with you, but who is still an individual worthy of respect. How to do that is a fundamental skill. It’s the glue that holds society together. When children see and feel and experience that kind of fracturing, it’s not good for their—or anyone’s—mental health.

What signs should parents and educators look for if they think a child needs clinical intervention?
When children are just not themselves, when they’ve changed, when they might have been the outgoing, playful, always-helping child who now is quiet, maybe even a little bit irritable, when there’s a real change in who they are in their presentation. Typically, people talk about when grades start to go down. That’s another indicator. When kids start to lose their enjoyment for the things they dearly loved. If they love to read, for example, but they stop reading. Or they love to play with friends, but now they just want to stay in the house. Those kinds of changes in behavior are important to notice. It’s not always the child who’s sad and withdrawn. It can be the child who suddenly is acting out or the child who is now afraid of a whole number of things. Those kinds of changes, and especially parents who know their children well, when they see that they’re just not themselves, that’s what to pay attention to.

If a child is withdrawn, they may not want to speak. Are there ways to spur conversation without asking repeated questions?
One of the most important ways is to be present. Sometimes, it may be taking a walk, or reading a book together, or just doing something together. Silence can be quite deafening. In our busy lives, families don’t often have those moments, those dinner-together moments, or those quiet walk-after-dinner together moments, or those times just sitting on the steps and talking. Those are the kinds of moments that bring people together. A child may not start talking right then. They may need to have a bit of quiet reassurance that, yes, somebody is going to be there, and they’re going to be listening.

Many areas in the U.S. have a shortage of mental health professionals. What is being done to make treatment more accessible and more effective?
There’s a shortage of healthcare professionals broadly, and there’s a shortage of healthcare professionals around children’s needs broadly. That includes physicians, pediatricians, psychologists, and social workers, because mental health for children is delivered not just by one profession.
Before addressing what is being done and what can be done, we need to ask the question of why. Why is there a shortage of healthcare providers, especially post-COVID, but why is there especially a shortage of mental health providers? There are a few reasons that we, as a society, need to look at very deeply. One of them is how we think about mental health. We often think about it as “the other,” that it’s not a part of overall health, that it’s not a part of physical health. The division between physical and mental health is an artificial one. They go together.
Another why is the stigma about mental health. As much as we’ve tried to work on it, it’s still alive and well in this country. It still impacts policy and decisions that people make about going into the field. It affects how we reimburse and support mental health, especially children’s mental health. Generally, children’s health is reimbursed less. By reimbursement, I mean by commercial payers and the individuals or institutions that pay for care. Then you take children’s mental health care and it’s not on par with other kinds of care. It’s very hard [for a health care professional] to make a wage that would support themselves and their family after years of training. So, we have a reimbursement structure that also perpetuates the bias.
As a country, we need to put that front and center because the other things we can do to improve access or care will be great and are great. During the pandemic, we learned a lot about the delivery of telehealth. We learned how to deliver mental health care across virtual platforms, making it available to children and families across state lines, from rural to urban, extending the capacity of a clinician in an urban area. We still need to increase broadband access in rural areas, and states need to work together so that clinicians can deliver care across state lines.
We’ve also learned that some children need just a few sessions with a mental health care provider. Some even respond to one or two sessions. Thinking more creatively about how we deliver services across telehealth platforms will improve access dramatically. We’re in a revolutionary time for mental health care for kids.

Can you describe the mechanisms by which literacy can lead to improved physical and mental health outcomes?
How does literacy impact health? It opens the world. You learn what a variety of people do. You also learn about your body. You learn how it works, what’s good and not good. Reading—including storytelling—is stress-relieving. Reading has dropped blood pressure to a healthy level in some studies. It’s what we call emotionally organizing.
Reading also brings people together. If you’ve read a good book, you tell a friend about it, and soon the two of you are talking about that book. The same is true if a child brings you a book and wants you to read it. Reading builds interpersonal links between parent and child or teacher and child. It’s a very strong glue for building relationships. And we know from research that relationships and social connectedness have as strong an impact on health as good nutrition and not smoking, for example.
So, it’s through those areas, and then another, what we would call a meta or proxy variable: If you’re more literate, you’re more educated. If you’re more educated, you know how to access health resources better. You make better choices. Yet we have two systems—our healthcare system and our educational system. The two don’t always work together. What’s good for kids in this country is to bring health and education together.

There’s a significant finding in Scholastic’s latest Kids & Family Reading Report that reinforces this notion. Kids who read more reported better mental health overall, with fewer occurrences of anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
Yes, and that’s a very important finding. As a researcher, though, I need to warn that it’s associative and not necessarily causal. It may be that children who have better mental health read more and by reading more, they feel better.

The report also found that 41% of students get most of their books at school, which highlights the importance of teacher curation and accessibility. Are you and other experts seeing adverse effects on children due to book banning?
I deeply worry for our society because of book banning. In my world, the medical world, we talk about symptoms that are the danger signs of something more serious. A very high fever, for example, or very high blood pressure, or a very low white blood cell count, indicates that something serious is going on in that individual. I see book banning as one of those indicators of something serious going on in our society, what we talked about earlier, the fractionated society.
I can certainly talk about book banning and children, but I think we also need to think about what it says diagnostically about our social fabric. That said, there are no empirical studies about book banning that I know of, but it’s just common sense. You don’t limit a child’s curiosity. You don’t say to them, “You shouldn’t read this. This book has principles that aren’t good for you.” Let them read it and have an open discussion. Let them watch a television program, watch it with them, and have an open discussion. When you ban a book, you’re saying that certain forms of knowledge and experience are off-limits. That is just fundamentally against learning, building curiosity, building an ability to engage with the world in any way.
I do realize that my stance is from a particularly liberal point of view. I’m very aware of that. At the same time, I know what’s good for children and I know what’s good for children’s learning, and I know that inhibiting or prohibiting pathways to learning in any way is not good for children’s cognitive development.

What measures among key stakeholders are being taken to improve literacy outcomes for children, even starting with preschoolers?
I would say even starting with infancy and prenatally. I think one of the fundamental messages, if you want to go back even further, is that talking, storytelling, building relationships, using words, is a fundamental literacy skill. So, a mom or a couple who are pregnant: Talk to the baby inside the mom’s tummy. Build up a repertoire of stories, and when that baby comes, you’ll have the repertoire of stories. When you have your infant in your arms, talk to them about the world around them. Tell them stories about yourself. Tell them stories about what just happened during the day. Tell them about the sun and the rain outside. You’re building literacy when you do that. Literacy doesn’t have to just be by books, by just using words and creating a narrative.
That said, while we certainly need more pediatricians in this country, and more access to children’s special healthcare, we miss an opportunity in the healthcare world, and this gets back to bringing education and health together. We miss an opportunity to not use pediatricians even more than Reach Out and Read already does. We should use pediatricians as the conduit for literacy and the conduit for books because pediatricians are the individuals or healthcare professionals are the individuals that children see before they are of school age.
But it’s not just putting books in children’s hands, it’s also having adults know how to use those books. It’s not just reading the words, but helping the child think about what else could have happened in a story. The blue bear did this with his friend, the goose, but what else could bear have done? Or what was goose thinking about? Why do you think goose did that? To really help children expand that narrative and to engage with them around building out the story, not just literally reading the story. In doing that, you’re encouraging their imagination. The most fundamental way to build literacy is to build narrative and storytelling.

Many teachers are encountering not just mental and emotional challenges among students, but also behavioral issues to an extent they haven’t seen before. What advice do you have for educators who are feeling overwhelmed and don’t have the resources to address this rise in students’ mental health needs?
There are three things I would say to teachers. One is that, besides parents, you have the hardest and most responsible job in our society. You’re taking care of and launching our next generation. I deeply appreciate not only the work that all teachers do, but also the stress that teachers are under and the burdens they feel.
I also would say is that if you can hold in mind, and it’s incredibly hard to do, when a child is melting down in front of you or angrily yelling or out of control, that all behavior is a communication, and then take just a little space inside yourself to wonder what is this child trying to tell me? What are they trying to say with this behavior? Maybe the child won’t know, but you’ll know that they’re communicating something through their behavior. Maybe they’re trying to say that they’re scared. Maybe they’re trying to say that they’re exhausted. Maybe they’re trying to say that they need you or they need someone more, but they’re trying to say something. It’s a really hard thing to do in the moment, but it’s extraordinarily important.
Behavioral disruptions are happening across the country at all ages. It’s not just kids in classrooms. We’re seeing adults lose it in various settings. When children cause behavioral disruptions, the preschool phrase is often, “Use your words.” Preschool teachers know that if you can get the behavior into words, you can help.
The third thing I would offer to teachers is, if you can, have a peer or someone else you can talk to. You have your own mental health needs that shouldn’t go unheard.

Guns are now the leading cause of death among children and teens. Do we know the psychological and social impact of community violence, mass shootings, and even active shooter drills in schools?
I have many colleagues who think a lot about this and who are much more expert in it than I. For example, here at the Child Study Center, we have our Child Development-Community Policing Program. My colleagues Steven Marans and Carrie Epstein and the rest of their team, Megan Goslin, are often called to consult and help teachers, and they do that in such a clinically skilled and sensitive way.
We have an enormous availability of guns in this country and a history of guns being used to express a range of distress and feelings. The corollary is that it has happened so often, we’re numbed by it. A staggering number of mass shootings have happened in this country, defined as four or more injured. Some of them don’t even make the news at this point.
What’s the effect on children? Broadly, school is no longer as safe a place as it once was. What do active shooter drills do? As a researcher, I would want to know more about that, but I’m guessing it makes children more scared. I’m guessing it raises the anxiety level of teachers, too. Whether they’re effective for that event, may it never happen, is another question. I’ve often heard people compare active shooter drills to back when the threat of nuclear war began. Schools had drills, and kids were asked to get under their desks. If you look back on it, it looks kind of crazy.
My worry about active shooter drills is, not just are they effective, not just do they raise teachers’ anxiety and children’s anxiety, but my worry is that we may be putting our attention in the wrong place. We’re putting our attention on the possibility that this terrible thing might happen. Really, our attention should be on why? Why is it happening more frequently? Why is it that we can’t look at the harsh truth of the availability of guns? Why can we not look at other societies experiencing the same broad global stress that don’t have these kinds of mass shootings? Ask those questions.

Researchers at the Yale Child Study Center-Scholastic Collaborative have identified altruism as a hallmark of resilience. How can altruism play a role in helping children and communities emerge stronger after a traumatic event?
It’s not just us. There’s a large body of work about altruism across several settings, altruism and prisoner of war situations, altruism during natural disasters. Altruism is a fundamentally human capacity. We also see it in some non-human primates, as well. It’s the ability to reach outside of yourself and think about the needs of others, to make some sacrifice of yourself in order to help someone else.
So, for example, in the darkest of situations, like in a prisoner of war situation, when you take your food ration and give it to the person next to you who you know is starving, although you yourself don’t have much. It’s the ability to reach out and make a connection to someone else, thinking outside yourself about someone else’s needs. You see it all the time in this country. When there’s a tragedy, you see people coming together in the most remarkably altruistic ways: firemen risking their own lives to bring a family to safety, families who have almost nothing bringing everything they have to the neighbor down the street whose house was wiped out by a tornado. It’s a basic human. We survive because we are a community.
So, what can we do more of? Talk about altruism. Highlight it. Altruism is good for your health. It’s a very ironic message, that by sacrificing yourself for someone else, you also are doing something good for yourself. You’re improving your own health and your own likelihood of a healthy outcome. But you don’t do it for that reason. You do it because of the basic human need to create community.

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon
Top Story: Author Kelly Yang Talks With a Scholastic Kid Reporter

A Darker Mischief: Celebrate Pride Month With Author Derek Millman

→ Resources

7 reasons why your organization isn’t making DEI progress: Malia C. Lazu discusses common pitfalls in DEI implementation.
From Intention to Impact: Check out Malia’s book on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

→ Highlights
Lindsey Cotter, Chief Inclusion Officer, Scholastic Inc.
“How do we use DEI as a way to strengthen our ability to communicate and interact with one another, to have an awareness of the differences in culture, and be sure that the things that we’re doing from a business perspective as well as an interpersonal perspective are respectful of one another? That’s hard. It’s a journey. It’s not a destination.”
“My mother was a kindergarten teacher, and she colored in the characters in picture books. She did the same thing with cards because there was no representation.”
“This [work] is going to make a difference for girls coming up now, for women who are out there.”
Malia C. Lazu, author, From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
“After [the murder of] George Floyd, so many people were asking us, ‘What can we do?’ What can we do?’ As a woman of color, as a woman of color firm, it was a frustrating question because we had been talking about what you could do for hundreds of years, long before I was born.”
“Being an ally is about deconstructing power and trying to keep doors and windows open [for others].”
“I’ve had clients look at me and say, ‘But we’re good people.’ I wish that were enough. If you set an intention to do something that you haven’t done before, you need to know that you probably don’t have the tools, skills, or understanding to do it, and you need to respect those blind spots in yourself.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

Kelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story

Yolanda is only 15 years old. Already, she is following in her grandparents’ footsteps as an activist and author. “Leaders are those who ask the questions, who challenge things,” she says.

We Dream a World, which is illustrated by Nicole Tadgell, evokes the legacy of Yolanda’s grandparents and exhorts members of her generation to follow their own dreams for “liberty, justice, and food for all.”

→ Resources
We Dream a World: Learn more about 15-year-old activist and author Yolanda Renee King and her “love letter” to her grandparents.
Share Black Stories: These works of fiction and nonfiction showcase the many facets of Black life in America.

Realize the Dream: Get involved in the movement to rally communities to perform 100 million hours of service by the 100th anniversary of Dr. King’s birth.
Meet Andrea Davis Pinkney: The award-winning author and editor has written and edited dozens of books celebrating the Black experience, including Martin Rising: Requiem for a King.

→ Highlights
Yolanda Renee King, author, We Dream a World: Carrying the Light From My Grandparents Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King

“Learning about [my grandparents’] perseverance and all that they had to endure, that’s what my parents taught me.”

“A lot of people forget that throughout my grandfather’s life, he was one of the most disliked men on Earth and one of the most critiqued.”

“[My grandmother] was perceived . . . as Dr. King’s widow, as the wife who didn’t do anything. Without her efforts, there would be no King legacy, and his message and the dream would have been gone with him.”

Andrea Davis Pinkney, vice president and executive editor, Scholastic Trade Publishing
“No matter your age, your race, where you live, what you believe, the family that you come from, you can make a difference, big or small.”
“[Tadgell’s art] presents this canvas of what dreaming a world can be. The colors are vibrant. They’re imaginative. They’re filled with hope.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

Aaron Blabey: Cat on the Run

Kelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story

Then, Sharon Cameron discusses Artifice, her latest work of historical fiction for middle graders.

“I hope [young readers] take away a sense of hope in the face of despair,” Neal says. “Even in these dark times, there were stories of people who did remarkable things, who put themselves at risk to help save others.”

Neal is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 30 award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including the Skinjacker trilogy, the Unwind dystology, and Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Neal was recently honored by the ALA with the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults.

Sharon is the author of the international bestseller and Reese’s Book Club pick, The Light in Hidden Places, and the acclaimed thriller, Bluebird. Her debut novel, The Dark Unwinding, was awarded the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Sue Alexander Award for Most Promising New Work and the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award, among other honors.
→ Resources
Storyman: Check out Neal Shusterman’s author bio.
The “Accidental” Author: Learn more about Sharon Cameron and her titles for young readers.
24 Books for Teaching the Holocaust: These powerful works of fiction and nonfiction are for students in Grades 1 – 12.
When We Flew Away: In an upcoming novel for young readers, author Alice Hoffman reimagines the life of Anne Frank before she began keeping a diary.
The Tower of Life: Suzanne McCabe talks with author Chana Stiefel about The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs. The picture book, which is illustrated by Susan Gal, won the 2023 Sydney Taylor Book Award and the Margaret Wise Brown Prize for Children’s Literature, among other honors.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day: Learn more about the annual commemoration, which takes place on January 27, and read survivors’ accounts collected by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

→ Highlights
Neal Shusterman, author, Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust
“There are a lot of kids who might not pick up a book about the Holocaust. They might not want to delve into such a difficult subject. But here was a way of bringing in readers who might not normally read this kind of story and then get them interested in it and wanting to know what really happened.”
“I hope [young readers] take away a sense of hope in the face of despair. Even in these dark times, there were stories of people who did remarkable things, who put themselves at risk to help save others.”
“This is a book about history. I didn’t want to talk about what was going on today. But since the October 7 attacks, there has been a 400% rise in antisemitic acts in the United States.”
Sharon Cameron, author, Artifice
“Writing is a second career for me. I was a classical pianist for a very long time, about 20 years, and I thought that’s what I would do forever. But one fateful day, with a 45-minute session at my computer, I fell head over heels in love with creating story and the written word.”
“Artifice tells the story of Isa DeSmit, a girl who has grown up in the glittering bohemian world of her parents’ art gallery in Amsterdam. But this is a world that has been utterly destroyed by the Nazi occupation. The art has been confiscated because it is considered degenerate, and the artists are gone. Friends and family are gone because they’re Jewish or communist or gay. So Isa decides to create her own revenge. She decides to learn the art of a master forger so that she can sell a forged painting to Hitler. She’ll take the money from this forged painting and use it to fund a baby smuggling ring, a wing of the Dutch resistance that is smuggling the last Jewish babies and toddlers out of the city.”
“The novel is based on two true stories—of Johan van Hulst, who was an absolutely amazing man who rescued Jewish children during the war, and Han van Meegeren, one of the great art forgers of the 20th century who sold a forged Vermeer to Hermann Göring. The painting hung over Göring’s desk as the jewel of his art collection. Van Meegeren made money hand over fist, and he lived it up during the war while the rest of the country starved. The juxtaposition between these two men [is what] really interested me and made me want to write this book.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

Yolanda Renee King on the Legacy of Her Grandparents

Kelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story

Dr. Armstrong grew up in the Southwest, in an extended family of Latino, Mescalaro Apache, and Yaqui heritage. “My family didn’t cross the border,” she says. “The border crossed us.” A high school dropout, she eventually earned a PhD in organizational leadership. In 2021, she was named one of the Top 20 Female Leaders in the Education Industry.

Having served as a teacher, superintendent, school counselor, and tech expert, among several other roles, Dr. Armstrong is dedicated to helping children thrive, especially children who have been historically marginalized. She is an adviser to Scholastic’s Rising Voices book series elevating Latino stories and a contributor to Equity in the Classroom (Scholastic Teaching Solutions, 2022).

“What I’m most proud of are my own children and grandchildren,” Dr. Armstrong says. “My children saved my life, and public education was my family’s saving grace.”

→ Resources
Hispanic and Latine Heritage Book Picks: Check out these featured titles for young readers from Scholastic.
Equity in the Classroom: 20 educational leaders, including Dr. Armstrong, share their views on what equity in education looks like and how we can achieve it.
Rising Voices Library: Learn more about our K - 5 book collections, which feature stories of the Latin diaspora, as well as print and digital teaching materials.
My Two Border Towns, by David Bowles and Erika Meza. A picture book debut by an award-winning author depicts a boy's life on the United States-Mexico border. (Kokilla, 2021)

→ Highlights
Dr. Maria Armstrong, executive director, the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents [ALAS]
“Being a voice is really one of the greatest gifts that I get to experience [on behalf of our administrators and superintendents], because I spend a lot of time listening to what they’re going through, but [more important] the things that they’re so proud of, that they are working on and doing for students across this nation.”

“Education in our families, the Latino families, is far bigger than the four walls we send our kids to . . . from the morning to the afternoon.”
“There was no white picket fence for sure. But what we had was family, and what we had was the security of knowing that when anybody in that neighborhood needed anything, we were there. Not just as an individual, but as a community.”

“Food is a central part [of celebrations], because it’s something that you compartir, you share. So food is a place to be able to make something with love and be able to show that this is my specialty, and I want to share it with you. So everybody brings something that they are proud of. It makes it all tastier, of course, because you’re eating the best from everyone.”

“Food is very central, but I also think that it’s just the gathering and the sharing of the stories…. The stories are always so, so rich.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa

Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon
Goosebumps Heads Back to Television

Top Story: A Conversation With Kelly Yang and Kid Reporter Zoya Siddiqui

Aaron Blabey Introduces Cat on the Run

Camp Sunshine is not just any camp. It’s a place in Maine where seriously ill kids and their families get the opportunity to just be themselves and enjoy campfire stories, wilderness activities, and the company of others who also are facing extraordinary challenges.

During his senior year of high school in Worcester, Massachusetts, Jarrett signed up to be a counselor at Camp Sunshine. While he looked forward to the experience, he didn’t quite know what to expect. He didn’t know that it would change his life forever.

Sunshine, which is published by Scholastic Graphix, is the recipient of the 2023 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction, among other honors. Jarrett is also the author of the award-winning graphic memoir, Hey Kiddo!, and the wildly-popular Lunch Lady graphic novel series. To find out when he will be visiting your area, follow him on Twitter and Instagram @StudioJKK.

→ Resources

Studio JJK: Learn more about Jarrett’s books and Ted Talks, and get writing and illustrating tutorials from a master.
Express Yourself: Jarrett is featured in this Washington Post article about how everyone can benefit from creating art.

Hey, Kiddo: A Conversation About Family, Addiction and Art: Hear Jarrett talk with Scholastic Reads podcast host Suzanne McCabe about the challenges he overcame as a child to become an award-winning author and illustrator.

→ Highlights

Jarrett J. Krosoczka, author, Sunshine
Volunteering at Camp Sunshine “was something as a part of the experience of high school as the prom.”

“I kept photo albums, and in those photo albums, I placed [my] sketches. In fact, we basically recreated what my photo albums look like with those chapter headers.”

“I hope that young readers can understand that they have the power to make a big difference in someone’s life.”

“The story is told through the perspective of me . . . a young kid who had his health and was unsure he could make a difference in the life of anyone.”

→ Special Thanks

Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

Meet Our Scholastic Kid Reporters

Goosebumps Heads Back to Television

Simon is also the author of Heartbreak Boys, Alex in Wonderland, Noah Could Never, and You’re the One That I Want, among many other acclaimed titles.

→ Resources
Read With Pride: These LGBTQIA+ books for kids are relatable and eye-opening for all readers.
Learn More About Simon James Green: Find out why Simon is considered one of the UK’s leading writers of LGBTQIA+ fiction for teens.
Order Gay Club! on Amazon: Barney is a shoo-in for president of his school's LGBTQIA+ Society until he’s not. Simon James Green’s new YA novel offers “shade, scandals, and sleazy shenanigans.”

→ Highlights
Simon James Green, author, Gay Club!
“You can't help but look at the state of politics, both in the UK and the U.S., and all around the world, actually, and just see how increasingly ridiculous things seem to be getting…. I wanted to capture a little bit of that sort of craziness.”

“When I go into the schools and visit students, I am filled with a sense of hope because my overwhelming impression is that they are very open, very accepting. They really don't understand this pushback from various adults in their communities. They don't get it. They think it's ridiculous.”

“It's very hard to work out who you are as a young person if you never see yourself represented in a book. And certainly for me, in the ‘90s . . . I never got to see an LGBT character in a book or an LGBT storyline. And so I grew up having no real idea about that. It would've had such an amazing effect on me if I'd seen a kid going through what I was going through, feeling similar things. It gives you an enormous amount of reassurance and comfort. It lets you know you're not the only one. And beyond that, of course, even if you're not LGBT yourself, what it does is it opens your eyes to the whole world, the wider world, the stuff that your friends, your peers, are going through.”

“What you need to do is stand together, united, to fight for your rights and for freedom, and for the freedom to read whatever book you want to read in the school library.”

“I wrote my first book when I was 12 years old on my grandmother’s typewriter in her little study at home.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

The Scholastic Innovation Lab

Goosebumps Heads Back to Television

The program gained fame through the students who won its awards, many of whom went onto groundbreaking careers in art, fashion, film, and literature. They include Bernard Malamud, Ezra Jack Keats, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Cy Twombly, Kay WalkingStick, Robert Redford, Stephen King, Ken Burns, Yolanda Wisher, Zac Posen, Lena Dunham, and Amanda Gorman.

A century after Robinson laid out his vision, the program is still going strong. The Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, which administers the program, recently published A Thousand Familiar Faces: 100 Years of Teen Voices. The new anthology offers a look at life through young people’s eyes, whether they’re grappling with World War I, the Great Depression, the Vietnam War, or the September 11 attacks. You’ll find memoirs, poems, and essays about teenage life, family, identity, grief, racism, and immigration.

In this episode, Hannah Jones, Deimosa Webber-Bey, and Henry Trinder join host Suzanne McCabe to talk about A Thousand Familiar Faces. Hannah, who edited the anthology, is also an author. She won a Scholastic Award, herself, in 2004. Deimosa and Henry combed through the Scholastic archives to find the best of the best of student writing from the past 100 years. Deimosa is the director of Information Services & Cultural Insight at Scholastic, and Henry recently earned a master’s degree in library science from Pratt Institute.

→ Resources
A Thousand Familiar Faces: A new anthology of award-winning teen writing features works dating back to the 1920s. You can download it for free here.
Scholastic Art & Writing Awards: Administered by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the awards have fostered creativity among young people since 1923.

→ Highlights
Hannah Jones, editor, A Thousand Familiar Faces
“It was [surprising] how vital and important and immediate and fresh the voices from the ’20s and ’30s and ’40s felt.”

“I want every single one of these writers to just have their moment of being read by someone new.”
Henry Trinder, researcher, A Thousand Familiar Faces
“Poetry was a more dominant form as a means for expression for the teenagers in the ’20s and ’30s. As that went on, short stories became more popular, and now, it seems, essays have become much more popular.”

“It was comforting to read these stories and see myself in them.”
Deimosa Webber-Bey, researcher, A Thousand Familiar Faces
“It was very satisfying to . . . come away that much richer in knowledge about Scholastic history, about teenagers, about the 20th century.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Maxine Osa
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon
Pride Month: Author Simon James Green Talks About Gay Club!

The story introduces readers to 10-year-old Feng-Li, a Taiwanese girl who can’t wait to vacation in the United States with her family. But she gets shocking news along the way. Her parents will be heading back to Taiwan after the family’s vacation, leaving Feng-Li and her older brother and sister to fend for themselves. By turns harrowing and hilarious, the story shows the siblings learning to navigate a strange new country and language on their own, while struggling to hold the family together.

Betty is the New York Times bestselling illustrator of the Jacky Ha-Ha series of graphic novels by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein. She has worked for several Hollywood animation studies, including Disney TV and Dreamworks Animation. She also co-directed an animated feature called Where’s the Dragon?

→ Resources
Parachute Kids: Betty C. Tang’s graphic novel about three siblings living on their own as undocumented new immigrants is inspired by her own childhood as a parachute kid.
Honoring AANHPI Voices: Check out these titles for young readers.

→ Highlights
Betty C. Tang, author, Parachute Kids
“A lot of times, books tend to make parents the bad guys, [but] parents who want an opportunity to provide a new life for their children are not villains.”

“I wanted to be a manga artist, and I couldn’t. So now here I am creating a graphic novel.”

“[Feng-Li’s] purpose is to hold her family together before she loses everything.”

“To the immigrant readers, whether they’re parachute kids or not, I would like them to realize that they’re not alone and that they can get through this.”

“Sometimes, as a newcomer, you really feel like you’re the only one.”

“I hope the book will help foster a sense of empathy.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Pride Month

The siblings’ story began with an idea from filmmaker Steven Spielberg. It evolved into Big Tree, an epic adventure of more than 500 pages. In the episode, you’ll hear a clip of the audiobook, which is narrated by Meryl Streep.

Brian is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator whose books have sold millions of copies, garnered countless awards worldwide, and been translated into more than 35 languages. He broke open the novel form with his genre-defying thematic trilogy, beginning with The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which was adapted into Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-winning movie, Hugo.

→ Resources

Big Tree: The fate of all life on Earth may depend on the bravery of two little sycamore seeds, Louise and Merwin, in this epic adventure.

Big Tree audiobook: The audio version of Big Tree is narrated by Meryl Streep and features music composed by Ernest Troost.

→ Highlights

Brian Selznick, author, Big Tree
“[Steven Spielberg] realized he had never seen a movie told from the point of view of nature—a movie about nature from nature’s point of view.”

“The pandemic hit, and it became very clear that the movie was never going to happen…. But I had fallen in love with these characters and the story.”

“When you begin Big Tree, it looks like we’re in a forest today, but then you eventually discover there’s a dinosaur walking by, and you realize we’re 66 million years in the past.”

“The anthropomorphizing that I’m doing is all based in scientific ideas.”

“We’re facing a real threat to the environment today. The world is in real danger.”

“I really do hope that [readers] take away a love for the characters because that’s the main thing I feel about Merwin and Louise.”

→ Special Thanks

Producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

Betty C. Tang: Parachute Kids

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Iceberg follows the journey of 12-year-old Hazel Rothbury, who is traveling alone on the Titanic. She dreams of escaping her fate as a factory worker by telling hidden stories about the majestic ship that is speeding across the Atlantic Ocean.

Jennifer is also the author of the Ascendance series, the historical thrillers Resistance and A Night Divided, and several other acclaimed titles.

→ Resources

Iceberg: In this middle-grade novel, readers meet 12-year-old Hazel Rothbury, who is traveling from her home in England aboard the celebrated Titanic.

Jennifer A. Nielsen: Learn more about the New York Times bestselling author.

→ Highlights

Jennifer A. Nielsen, author, Iceberg
“Curiosity is such a gift, a trait, for anybody to have, and Hazel is thick with it.”

“There are so many ‘What if’ questions. What if this one thing might have been different? Could all of history have changed?”

“You can write your future, and if you don’t like the future that is ahead for you, write!”

“A reader will always get what they need from a story.”

→ Special Thanks

Producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

EARTH DAY—Brian Selznick: Big Tree

AAPI MONTH—Betty C. Tang: Parachute Kids

Ruchira’s work with vulnerable women and girls inspired her new novel for young adults. It’s called I Kick and I Fly. The story introduces readers to 14-year-old Heera, who is growing up in a red-light district in India. Heera escapes being sold into the sex trade when a local activist teaches her kung fu and helps her understand the value of her body. As Gloria Steinem says, I Kick and I Fly is a book “that could save lives.”

Ruchira is also a visiting professor at New York University. Her documentary about sex trafficking in India and Nepal, The Selling of Innocents, won an Emmy Award in 1996 for outstanding investigative journalism. She holds a Doctor of Humane Letters from Smith College.

→ Resources
Meet Ruchira Gupta: Learn more about the author, artist, and activist, who divides her time between New York and Forbesganj, her childhood home in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Apne Aap: The NGO that Ruchira co-founded works to end sex trafficking by preventing intergenerational prostitution.

I Kick and I Fly: Order the new YA novel by Ruchira Gupta.

Celebrating Courageous Women: Check out these biographies for young people from Scholastic.

→ Highlights

Ruchira Gupta, author, I Kick and I Fly

“I Kick and I Fly is about a young girl who's only 14 years old, and she’s born in a nomadic tribe in India. She’s about to be sold into prostitution until a woman’s right advocate enrolls her in a kung fu program. Through the practice of kung fu, she discovers the power of her body, and fights for it.”

“I've been running an NGO called Apne Aap, which means self-action in Hindi. The NGO works amongst nomadic tribes which are marginalized, so marginalized that prostitution is passed on from mother to daughter, and pimping from father to son.”

“I was a journalist, and I was walking through the hills of Nepal, when I came across rows of villages with missing girls. I decided that I wanted to find out more, so I began to ask the men drinking tea and playing cards where the girls were. And the answer changed my life. They told me that they were in Bombay. Now, Bombay was nearly 1,400 kilometers away, and these villages were in remote Himalayan hamlets…. I followed the story, and I ended up in the brothels of Bombay. I saw little girls as young as 13 and 14 locked up in tiny rooms for years.”

“I went on to win an Emmy for outstanding investigative journalism. And when I was on stage in the Broadway Marquis Hotel, and everyone was clapping, and there were the bright lights, all I could see were the eyes of the women in the brothels of Bombay who had spoken out in my documentary, because they said they wanted to save their daughters.”

“Behind the story of me being a journalist was that I used to love reading books as a child. And librarians were some of the most important people in my life. My mother enrolled me as a 10-year-old in a library. These librarians would tell me, ‘Take this book, take that book,’ so I lived in the world of stories. I became a free thinker because of the stories I read, because of the family I grew up in, which encouraged ideas, but also the books that I read.”

“I saw the mothers who were scared to come to our meetings slowly challenge the men who would say, ‘We’ll bury you alive,’ ‘We'll cut your head off,’ et cetera. And they would still walk from that mud hut to our mud hut, which is just 500 feet away, but it was really an emotional journey. They would come in spite of the heckling, the shouting. I could go back home to the safety of my garden and my walls, and the women could not. And yet they took this on.”

“The three top organized crimes in the world are drug smuggling, arms smuggling, and human trafficking. A girl can be traded, or a boy can be traded again and again, whereas drugs can be consumed only once.”

“Most of the kids trafficked in the U.S. are from inside the country. They are normally poor, they are normally female, and they are normally from a marginalized race, Black, or from Native American communities, and they’re teenagers.”

“How do we say there’s bodily autonomy compared to bodily shaming? How do we say, instead of bullying, there’s friendship and equality? How can we say that, instead of alienation, there’s community? All these things are there in my book.”

→ Special Thanks

Producer: Constance Gibbs

Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan

Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon

THE TITANIC—Jennifer A. Nielsen: Iceberg

EARTH DAY—Brian Selznick: Big Tree

Things didn’t improve when Akim developed a love of ice hockey. Money was tight, and the sport wasn’t welcoming to children of color. Still, Akim’s parents did everything they could to help him follow his dreams.

Akim made it all the way to the National Hockey League. But he faced systemic racism at every level of the game. He’s now speaking out in the hope that a new generation of young athletes won’t have to endure the brutality he did.

In this Black History Month episode, Akim talks with host Suzanne McCabe about Dreamer, his new graphic memoir for 8- to 12-year-olds. Co-authored by Greg Anderson Elysée, the book is illustrated by Karen De La Vega and Marcus Williams, and published by Scholastic Graphix and Kaepernick Publishing.

Akim also founded the Time to Dream Foundation and is co-chairman of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, where he continues his mission of broadening access and eradicating racism in youth sports.

→ Resources

Dreamer: Akim’s graphic memoir for 8- to 12-year-olds is co-authored by Greg Anderson Elysée and illustrated by Karen De La Vega and Marcus Williams.

Hockey Diversity Alliance: Find out how the organization that Akim co-founded is changing the face of hockey.

Racism in the NHL: As this New York Times article explains, Akim publicly addressed racism in the hockey world in 2020.

35 Books for Black History Month: These titles for grades K-12 celebrate individuals whose contributions have changed the world.

→ Highlights

Akim Aliu, co-author, Dreamer

“The whole goal around doing this book was to inspire the next generation of kids who look like me, Black and Brown kids, but also at the same time, the kids who are socio-economically disadvantaged. My story is one that had a lot of trials and tribulations, but I also learned a lot through my journey.”

“It’s a book to inspire people who are going through tough times, to know that anything is possible. I’m a kid who was born in Africa who ended up making it to the NHL.”

“Hockey . . . is my passion, and it’s my love. I’m glad I got those $10 pair of skates, because they gave me an opportunity to be where I am today.”

“Starting at such an early age, at 11, 12 years old, and hearing the N-word being hurled at you, and not being able to do anything about it…. The hardest thing about it was just never, ever playing with anybody else who looked like me.”

“In my 12 years that I played professionally, I played with one other player of color…. There’s not really anybody to turn to that you can have a conversation with, that would understand what you’re going through.”

“There are a lot of kids who look like me and come from the areas that I come from that also deserve an opportunity and deserve not to be excluded from our game.”

“For me, dreaming and faith go hand in hand because . . . it’s believing in something that you can’t yet see.”

“I hope kids don’t give up on their dreams.”

→ Special Thanks

Producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon
Ruchira Gupta: I Kick and I Fly

Brian Selznick: Big Tree

Eva is the adorable narrator of Owl Diaries, a New York Times bestselling book series by author and illustrator Rebecca Elliott. In this episode, Rebecca talks with host Suzanne McCabe about the runaway success of Owl Diaries and Eva the Owlet, the upcoming adaptation from Apple TV+.

Rebecca will be participating in this year’s World Read Aloud Day, which takes place on February 1. For the past 13 years, World Read Aloud Day has called attention to the importance of sharing stories by challenging participants to grab a book, find an audience, and read aloud. The global effort, created by the nonprofit Lit World and sponsored by Scholastic, is celebrated annually in more than 173 countries.

This year, for the first time, there will be a live read-a-thon featuring Rebecca and several other favorite Scholastic authors, including Dav Pilkey and Brian Selznick. “Many studies have shown the educational benefits of children reading aloud,” Rebecca says. “But that’s not the main reason you should read aloud. The main reason is it’s fun, and it’s about sharing stories. To be human is to want to share stories.”

→ Resources
Rebecca Elliott: Learn more about the best-selling author.

Eva the Owlet: The spirited narrator of Owl Diaries gets her own animated show.

World Read Aloud Day: Download the “WRAD-a-thon” schedule and instructions.

100 Best Read-Aloud Books: Check out this list of favorite read-alouds for young readers.

→ Highlights
Rebecca Elliott, author, Owl Diaries
“Eva Wingdale—she’s a creative and adventurous owlet, and she lives in Treetopolis next to her best friend, Lucy…. She’s got a little brother and an older brother who can be a bit of a pain sometimes, and her parents. She goes to Treetop Owlementary School with her friends. She just gets up to lots of adventures.”
“Owls obviously are all around us. In fact, I can hear owls most nights here. But you rarely ever see them, so you can almost imagine that owls have a secret world, where they do go to school, and they do speak to each other on their Pinecone phones.”

“Kids will smell a moral a mile off. [But] if you can impart some sort of tiny life lessons in a fun way, then why not.”

“I wrote the kind of book that I would have wanted to read when I was eight or nine. Maybe that’s why it worked…. I was obsessed with animals and nature, but also, of course, being that age, obsessed with my friends, my family. I loved starting clubs.”

“Eva is always starting clubs, too. Family and friends should always be the most important thing at that age. It’s everything. But if you can get in some fantastical adventure—of course, the main characters fly. They’re like superheroes.”

“Every chapter ends on some sort of cliffhanger, so it makes [readers] want to pick up the book the next time.”

“I hear from lots and lots of parents, [saying], ‘My child has learning difficulties. My child has dyslexia. Or my child is a reluctant reader. And it was Owl Diaries that got them reading every night, and now we look forward to story time.’”

“Eva the Owlet, based on the Owl Diaries series, will be released on Friday, March 31, in over 100 countries. I have seen a tiny bit of it, and it’s just amazing how they’ve brought my illustrations to life. It’s 3-D. It’s beautiful. It’s funny. It’s fun. It’s fast-paced. It’s cute as anything, and they still got the diary-writing element in. Obviously, I like it because it’s based on my books, but it’s such a classy show. The girl who voices Eva is just an incredible talent.”

“Many studies have shown the educational benefits of children reading aloud—vocabulary, comprehension, understanding what they’re reading, and confidence in their own voice. Reading aloud just affirms the value of reading…. But you’re never going to get a kid to do anything by [listing] the educational benefits of something. So for me, that’s not the main reason you should read aloud. The main reason is it’s fun, and it’s about sharing stories. To be human is to want to share stories.”

“Films and TV are great, but books put you in the action.”

“If you’re reading a funny book out loud, and the person you’re reading to laughs, my goodness, that’s an amazing thing.”

“Any book you like is better read aloud if you can share it. And it doesn’t need to be books. It can be comics. My 10-year-old gets a fantastic kids’ newspaper. He’ll read aloud his favorite stories.”

“In terms of picture books for young readers, you just can’t beat The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. It’s so fun to read aloud. Part of the success of The Gruffalo—it’s a fantastic story, and kids love to hear it—is parents love to read it. It’s funny, but the flow, the rhythm, is just so pleasing.”

“For older kids, I do think a scary book is a great read-aloud. My favorite would be The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It’s about a boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard. Each chapter is a story in itself.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon
Akim Aliu Introduces Dreamer

A Conversation With Ruby Bridges

Yaffa is the subject of a new picture book by Chana Stiefel. Illustrated by Susan Gal, the book is called The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs.

Chana is the award-winning author of more than 30 books for children. In this episode, she talks with host Suzanne McCabe about Yaffa’s remarkable story, The Tower of Life, and why it’s so important for young people to learn about the Holocaust.

→ Resources
Chana Stiefel: Includes a teaching guide for The Tower of Life and summaries of other books by the award-winning author.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Learn more about Yaffa Eliach’s “Tower of Faces,” and get resources for observing International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.

→ Highlights
Chana Stiefel, author, The Tower of Life
“Yaffa was born in a shtetl called Eishyshok, which was then part of Poland and now Lithuania. She was born in 1935. When the Nazis invaded, the Jews were rounded up into the synagogue. Her father had told the family to hide.”

“Two of Yaffa’s grandmothers, not just her mother, worked. One of them sold candles at the local market, and the other was the town photographer. Yaffa's grandfather had visited America in the 1920s, and he came home with this new invention, a camera, and they started a business above the family pharmacy. Everyone would come to have their photo taken. People would send New Year's cards, Rosh Hashanah cards, to their families who had left Eishyshok.”

“When Yaffa fled, she had the sense to tuck some of those photos into her shoes. She held onto them throughout the war, and that definitely played a role in the incredible exhibit she later created.”

“The focus of my book is not so much the war, but the life before the war and the rebuilding afterward, and how Yaffa rebuilt her town.”

“I learned from Yaffa's daughter, Smadar Rosensweig, who is also a professor, that her mother was a groundbreaking teacher and she wanted to teach. She wanted to create a curriculum about the Holocaust. But after the war, many survivors didn't even want to talk about their history, and she felt it was so important. She realized that a lot of the history that was being taught was from the Nazi perspective, and she wanted to change that.”

“She encouraged Holocaust survivors to tell their stories, and she began documenting them. And that was groundbreaking work. No one had done that at that point.”

“In 1979, President Jimmy Carter wanted to build a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in Washington, D.C., and he asked Yaffa to help build a memorial. She didn't want to focus on death and dying and destruction. She wanted to focus on the lives that were lived and the beautiful lives of the people from her town. She remembered the photos she had tucked in her shoes, and she thought, well, other people must have photos, too.”

“She traveled for 17 years, to six continents, to nearly all 50 United States, and she collected 6,000 photographs, and she built this “Tower of Life,” which has over a thousand photographs in it.”

“Yaffa wanted people to see themselves in these photographs. That, essentially, was her mission. And you do, you connect, because here you are seeing people celebrating with their families, having weddings, playing outdoors, the picture of Yaffa feeding the chickens, hugging each other. And it’s very relatable. And you realize the tragic endings for many or most of these people all around her.”

“One thing that really was gripping to [illustrator Susan Gal] was that when she started to research Nazis, she was seeing a lot of images come up of present-day Nazis, neo-Nazis. And that was really upsetting and disturbing to her, and she just threw herself entirely into this story because she felt it was so important.”

“If you look at the book, you'll see that the pages of the Germans and Nazis invading, those people, the soldiers don’t have faces. Because she felt that if you try to take away someone’s humanity, you don’t deserve to have your face in a book. So she erased their faces.”

“When Yaffa and her family were in hiding, her parents taught her that a glimmer of light can chase away the darkness. Yaffa’s mother taught her how to read and write by etching letters into the walls of a shelter where they were staying. They were clay walls. You'll see a page where her mother is writing on the wall, and that’s actually my Hebrew handwriting. I speak and write in Hebrew. The words are tikvah, which means hope, shalom, which means peace, ohr, which means light and haim, which is life. And those are the major themes of the book.”

“When you see a lot of photographs of the Holocaust, you see these horrible photos of emaciated victims, and they’re dehumanized. That was what the Nazis mission was, to dehumanize the Jewish people. So that’s what you see in the photographs, people who are starving and they don’t even look human. By restoring humanity to the victims, Yaffa restored their dignity. [She showed] that these were people just like you and me. And I think that’s a universal message, that we need to stop hating each other and bullying, and we need to stop just othering people. We are all human, and we need to see our common bonds.”

“There are so many wonderful books out there about Jewish life. In addition to books about the Holocaust, it’d be wonderful if people could also enjoy books about Jewish life.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon
World Read Aloud Day
Akim Aliu Introduces Dreamer

In this episode, in honor of National Mentoring Month, educator Christian Adair tells host Suzanne McCabe how the R.E.A.L. program has enhanced learning and community engagement in his Kentucky school district. “You want to be very thoughtful and purposeful when you engage the community,” he says. “You need to start creating a relationship before you ask [a potential mentor] to do something. You need to acknowledge their existence. You need to acknowledge that they’re worthy, and they’re wanted.”

Christian is the founder and director of Alpha League, a mentoring and leadership organization focused on underserved and marginalized boys and young men. He currently leads mentoring initiatives in the Fayette County Public Schools.

→ Resources
R.E.A.L.: Learn more about Scholastic’s read-aloud mentoring program.

Bridging the gap between the community and the classroom: Educator Christian Adair discusses the power of mentoring.

→ Highlights
Christian Adair, educator and mentor, Fayette County Public Schools
“We have over 185 languages in our city of Lexington, and over 94 languages in our school system. Spanish is the second most spoken language…. Because of that, we wanted to be more inclusive and diverse in our literature, bringing in readers and volunteers to interact with our students.”

“We wanted our kids to have books with characters that looked like them. And we wanted students to have books with characters that didn't look like them.”

“We wanted our African American students to see men of color reading. But we realized that it was just as important for our teachers to see men of color reading. It was just as important as for our White female students to see men of color reading.”

“The students were benefiting, but I think the [mentors] benefited just as much if not more because they became educators, in a sense. They were connecting to our students, and they found themselves in that.”

“The books were reflective of our students, and that’s probably one of the most exciting things, when kids open up a book and say, ‘Wow, that’s me in that book.’”

“This program isn’t just about reading. This program is about the connection and the fact that I was there. I showed that I cared…. That’s when I realized I had to go get more men, especially men of color, to come in and read.”

“We were thinking literacy, literacy, literacy. But social emotional learning also took place…. We know that when you build family and community engagement, you build relationships with your students, and you’re able to reach them and educate them better.”

“One of the first books I actually read from cover to cover was about Malcolm X, and that wasn't until high school. I am 50 years old, so I didn't have that connection [before]. And the reading wasn't that fun. When I did read, it was a Sports Illustrated, it was about sports . . . because that’s what I was shown. That's what I thought I was supposed to be. And I didn't see the books about all the amazing accomplishments of African Americans to this country, not just to the African American community, but all the contributions that African Americans have made for everyone to do better in the United States.”

“We got to say that 56,000 books went home. We had over 500 new volunteers. We had over 150 men of color volunteering. We had over 50 businesses and organizations volunteering and competing to be in our schools.”

“Historically, men of color haven't felt very welcome in the schools. We haven't felt welcome because our interaction with school, according to the data, hasn’t been that great. When you create a welcoming atmosphere and an understanding that they have value, they can bring value to the school because they're going to bring a lens that isn't there. They're going to bring a cultural connection…. But you have to do it on purpose. You have to let them be themselves and tell them to bring their authentic self. Tell them to bring their stories.”

“You want to be very thoughtful and purposeful when you engage the community…. You need to start creating a relationship before you ask [a potential mentor] to do something. You need to acknowledge their existence. You need to acknowledge that they’re worthy, and they’re wanted. Sometimes, we only go after people when we want to ask them to do something for us, when there should be some type of relationship started before then.”

“We had high school students volunteering, too…. I envision those students continuing after they graduate. [Many are going to want to become] teachers, and we need more teachers.”

“Coaches were reading at football practice. I asked them to read for five minutes before practice starts. [I said], ‘They might not hear what you said, but they saw that you were reading.’”

→ Special Thanks
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon
Remembering the Holocaust

World Read Aloud Day

Black History Month

In 2021, host Suzanne McCabe posed those questions to Chris Newell, an award-winning educator and author, and a proud citizen of the Passamaquoddy tribe in Maine. In this episode, Chris returns to talk about Native American Heritage Month and what it means to him.

Later, listeners can hear the original conversation about Chris’s acclaimed book for children, If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving. With help from Wampanoag scholar Linda Coombs, Chris offers young readers a fuller understanding of how we came to celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States, as well as the toll that colonization took on Indian tribes. In the discussion, Chris and Suzanne were joined by Katie Heit, a senior editor at Scholastic and the editor of the What If book series.

→ Resources
In 2021, Smithsonian Voices spotlighted If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving.

If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving is available from Scholastic and Amazon.

In this Nation article, author Rebecca Nagle explains what’s at stake in Haaland v. Brackeen, a case before the Supreme Court that threatens to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.

→ Highlights
Chris Newell, author, If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving:
“English is a foreign language. Our languages are actually the original languages of this landscape.”

“When we teach about Native peoples . . . we start in the present to make sure people understand that these cultures are still here. They are still valid, and they are still just as valuable to the future of this country as they were during colonization.”

“The biggest issue we’re facing right now is a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act. This particular case before the Supreme Court is a big deal for all tribes in the United States because it could affect the way the U.S. looks at the sovereignty of our nations.”

“What we call Thanksgiving today didn't exist necessarily in the seventeenth century, and you learn that in the book…. I give people a more real picture of how our country actually came to be. There is some good, but there’s also a lot of bad and ugly.”

“It’s about looking at these histories, being critical of them as human beings, and saying where things went wrong so that we can learn from them and create a better collective future for all of us.”

“I wanted to make sure that in the book the Wampanoag people were being centered within their own historical narrative. That involves including the complexity of life before 1620.”

“The 1621 feast . . . became a seminal moment of the creation of the country. And it’s a very beautiful feast of Native people and colonists getting together. But as much as we have lionized and lauded the story in history, it was so unremarkable to the English that they actually only wrote a paragraph about it.”

It wasn't until President Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Proclamation that Thanksgiving was regularly commemorated each year. “The [Civil War] still raging. The North was winning. Abraham Lincoln was in charge of the Union Army, and they were thinking, ‘What do we do after the war is over? The Southern states are going to still be part of this country. How do we bring all these people together?’ There was a lot of pressure on Abraham Lincoln to find a way to heal from the bloodiest war on this landscape ever.”

→ Special Thanks
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

→ Coming Soon
Dr. Karen Mapp on Family-School Partnerships

In this episode, Dr. Julia B. Lindsey talks with host Suzanne McCabe about the science of reading and how she recommends putting it into practice. Dr. Lindsey is a leading expert on foundational skills and early reading. Her new book for educators is called Reading Above the Fray: Reliable, Research Based Routines for Developing Decoding Skills.

A former kindergarten and first-grade teacher, Dr. Lindsey earned her PhD in Literacy Education at the University of Michigan. She now works with teachers, district personnel, and curriculum developers to translate reading research into practice. You can follow her on Twitter at @JuliaBLindsey.

Carmen is a master storyteller who was born in Havana, Cuba, and grew up in Decatur, Georgia. Her acclaimed picture books include Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale, Rita & Ralph’s Rotten Day, and The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet.

Next, author and actress Sonia Manzano, known to generations of kids as the beloved Maria on Sesame Street, discusses Coming Up Cuban, her lyrical new novel for middle graders. Sonia, who has won 15 Emmy Awards, is also the author of Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx and The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano, which won the Pura Belpre Award in 2013. Sonia’s animated series for PBS Kids, Alma’s Way, was recently renewed for a second season. Inspired by her own childhood, it features a 6-year-old New Yorker of Puerto Rican heritage.

Last but not least, Claribel A. Ortega introduces Witchlings, her highly-anticipated novel for middle-graders. The imaginative story follows a group of aspiring witches who learn that the magic in their lives is found not so much in the spells they cast but in the friendships they make. A former newspaper reporter of Dominican heritage, Claribel is also the author of Ghost Squad, a New York Times bestseller.

In this episode, award-winning author Amy Sarig King talks with host Suzanne McCabe about Attack of the Black Rectangles, her new novel for middle graders. The book, which takes on censorship and intolerance, is based on an experience Amy had in her Pennsylvania town. After her son came home from school with a novel about the Holocaust, in which certain passages were blacked out, the author sought to find out why. What followed may surprise you.

Amy is also the author of The Year We Fell From Space, Me and Marvin Gardens, and several other acclaimed titles for young readers.

Andrea joins host Suzanne McCabe to talk about the inspiration for the book—the moment she saw Tybre, then 12, reading William Ernest Henley’s poem, “Invictus,” at the Congressman’s funeral.

“I watched this child honoring this civil rights hero, and I wondered what had led him to this moment,” Andrea says.
Tybre first met Lewis in 2018 in Selma, Alabama. His two grandmothers had driven him from their home in Tennessee to the annual march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The bridge was the site of an assault by state troopers on Lewis and hundreds of voting rights demonstrators in March 1965. “Bloody Sunday” would prove to be a turning point in the civil rights movement, outraging the nation and leading to the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act.

Later in the episode, U.S. Representative Nikema Williams shares her memories of Lewis and explains how Tybre and other young people are following in the courageous leader’s footsteps. Williams now represents Georgia in the same congressional seat Lewis once held.

The impulse in creating the series, Aaron tells host Suzanne McCabe, “was to make sure my son had a book to read that was fun.”

The author and illustrator, who was an award-winning actor in Australia in a previous life, is also the creator of the Pig the Pug series and Thelma the Unicorn.

Resources:
Aaron Blabey: Learn more about the #1 New York Times best-selling author.
The Bad Guys: Read the books. Watch the movie.

Highlights:
Aaron Blabey, author and illustrator, The Bad Guys:

“Mr. Snake is my favorite of the ‘Bad Guys’ because he’s the one who struggles the most with the journey, which makes him the most interesting to write.”

“Mr. Wolf and Mr. Snake are two halves of me…. I think we all have it—your optimistic side and your pessimistic side.”

“When kids saw the cover with the guys in the suits, with a shark and a wolf and this title, The Bad Guys, I think there’s this sort of frisson of ‘that looks a little bit naughty.’”

Of his teenage sons’ view of him: “’It’s just Dad in the garage. How hard can it be?’”

Special Thanks:
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:
Because of You, John Lewis: A conversation with author Andrea Davis Pinkney and U.S. Representative Nikema Williams

Later in the episode, Shane Garver, associate vice president of rural education at Save the Children, explains why now—especially now—is the perfect time for kids to grab a book and get lost in a reading adventure. Shane also discusses Save the Children’s pivotal role in getting books into the hands of children in rural America through its partnership with Scholastic. Participants in the Scholastic Summer Reading program can be a part of that mission, helping to unlock a donation of 100,000 books with their reading minutes.

The Summer Reading program will be available through August 19. Students can sign up for stories, games, author events, and other free resources on Home Base.

Alex talks with host Suzanne McCabe about Melissa, which was originally published as George in 2015. The novel introduces young readers to a transgender girl who yearns to play the role of Charlotte in her school play. The book won a Lamda Literary Award and a Children’s Choice Book Award, among many other honors. It also was the most-banned book in the United States in 2020.

“As a trans person writing about another trans person, when Melissa’s story is challenged, someone is saying that my existence is too scary, too deviant, too monstrous, to show to children,” Alex says. “It hurts.”

Highlights:
“I didn’t figure out who I was until I was 19, [when] I found the word genderqueer in a book.”

“I have heard so many positive, wonderful stories of people who were able to figure who they were because they saw Melissa.”

“The book doesn’t make someone trans, but it gives tools for talking about it.”

“I love hearing from adults who say, ‘This is the book I wish I had when I was a kid.’”

“A character in a book can be real in the sense [that] they have thoughts. They have beliefs. You’re inside their mind in a way that you’re often not inside the minds of real people. If my book can help someone respect who’s in the world, that’s invaluable.”

“My book would not have been banned 20 years ago because my book wouldn’t have existed. Something needs to exist, and something needs to be recognized in order to be challenged.”

—Alex Gino, author, Melissa

Special Thanks:
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:
Summer Reading • Aaron Blabey and The Bad Guys • Because of You, John Lewis

Debbi is a third-generation Japanese American, who was born in raised in California. She now lives in Mystic, Connecticut, where her upcoming middle grade novel, Sweet and Sour, is set. She talks with host Suzanne McCabe about Sweet and Sour and the summer romance between characters Mai and Zach.

“All of my books star Japanese American main characters,” Debbi says. “It is such an honor to be able to write from my personal experience and background, but [also] to be able to focus on universal things like friendship and those first-crush feelings.”

Later, Gita talks about her upcoming picture book, My Bindi, illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan. “The bindi in Hindu culture is considered the third eye,” Gita explains. “It looks inward, and it symbolizes strength, your inner strength.”

Gita earned her master’s degree in literacy education at Teachers College at Columbia University. Born and raised in India, she developed a love of storytelling hearing her grandfather weave fantastical tales. She is currently an elementary school teacher in Princeton, New Jersey.

“Across racial lines, across socioeconomic status, folks were dealing with a lot during the pandemic,” Amanda says. “We realized that we needed to tend to our mental health and well-being. The acknowledgement has led to meaningful conversations among educators and parents about the needs of our children.”

Amanda is the Chief Academic Officer at Scholastic, and Jose is a clinical fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center. They are part of the Yale Child Study Center – Scholastic Collaborative, a partnership that arose from a shared commitment to exploring how literacy can be used to foster resilience among children and families.

Resources:
Advancing SEL: The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) provides resources to schools and statehouses to promote the understanding of SEL and SEL instruction.
Yale Child Study Center – Scholastic Collaborative: Learn how the Collaborative is developing ways to build child and family resilience.
SEL Resources: The editors of Scholastic Magazines+ have curated worksheets, letter-writing templates, and book recommendations for early-elementary and upper-elementary students.
Social and Emotional Learning Collections: Check out these book collections for primary and elementary school classrooms.

Highlights:
“Isn’t it important for all of us to be aware of ourselves, to be able to manage our emotions, to engage with others, and to make sound decisions?”
—Dr. Amanda Alexander, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic

“The concept of literacy can also be translated into emotional literacy, helping kids put words to emotions. Books are a great avenue to do that.”
—Dr. Jose Paez, Clinical Fellow, Yale Child Study Center

“America is a democracy, and in a democracy, it’s important for citizens to be educated. We learn by reading books and forming our own opinions about matters and events in the past. That level of interpretation and judgment belongs to the reader as an individual in a democracy. The taking away of books, essentially, stops that process from happening.”
—Dr. Amanda Alexander, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic

“I find myself talking about things such as race, gender identity, and sexual orientation a lot more openly and a lot more frequently during my sessions with children and parents alike.”
—Dr. Jose Paez, Clinical Fellow, Yale Child Study Center

Special Thanks:
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:
Celebrating AAPI Month With Authors Gita Varadarajan and Debbi Michiko Florence • Author Alex Gino Introduces Melissa • Summer Reading • Aaron Blabey and The Bad Guys

Holly and R.J. recently collaborated on a picture book, Charlie Makes a Splash! It tells the story of a boy with autism who finds calm and joy playing in water. In the back of the book, Holly shares insights and resources that have helped her family navigate autism.

Holly is the co-founder of the HollyRod Foundation with her husband, former NFL quarterback Rodney Peete. They started the nonprofit in 1997, after Holly’s father, Matt Robinson (the original Gordon on Sesame Street), was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The foundation provides help for families living with Parkinson’s and autism.

Holly is also the author of Same But Different and My Brother Charlie, which won an NAACP Image Award.

Special Thanks:

• Producer: Bridget Benjamin
• Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
• Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
• Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:

• Celebrating AAPI Month With Authors Gita Varadarajan and Debbi Michiko Florence
• Alex Gino Talks About Melissa
• Aaron Blabey and The Bad Guys

In this episode, we celebrate Women’s History Month and the power of women to transform our world, one stitch at a time. Host Suzanne McCabe talks with Scholastic Kid Reporter Camille Fallen, 13, about a recent interview she conducted with acclaimed textile artist Bisa Butler and Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, an educator and the author of the bestselling Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.

Bisa’s textile portraits, which are inspired by black and white photographs that she collects, tell the story of both ordinary and notable Black Americans. She uses the medium of quilting to interrogate the historic marginalization of her subjects, while conveying the subjects’ complex individuality.

“My work is a recording of what life is like for me as a Black woman and the way I see things,” Bisa says. “By creating these portraits, I’m giving other people a window into how Black people see themselves. It’s an insider’s view of a community that is not always paid attention to, a community that has been mischaracterized deliberately, lied about, or ignored.”

Bisa, who had a solo show in 2020-’21 at the Art Institute of Chicago, will be honored this spring at the 60th Anniversary Benefit Gala of the American Folk Art Museum.

Bisa and Gholdy both approach their work as educators. Bisa is a former high school teacher, and Gholdy, an associate professor of language and literacy at Georgia State University, has served as a school district curriculum director and a middle school teacher. Camille, who lives in Virginia, is a member of the award-winning Scholastic Kids Press team.

Andrea, who is an executive editor and vice president at Scholastic, wrote the libretto for an operatic adaptation of Ezra Jack Keats’s 1962 classic, The Snowy Day, which had its world premiere at the Houston Grand Opera in December 2021.

In the episode, Andrea and Brian talk about their creative process, trends in children’s literature, and the recent loss of Brian’s father, Jerry Pinkney, an award-winning illustrator of more than 100 books for children.

Resources:
Books by Andrea Davis Pinkney: See more titles by the Coretta Scott King award-winning author.
The Art of Brian Pinkney: See more of Brian’s illustrations.
Share Black Stories: Scholastic has curated titles ranging from picture books to young adult novels that center around Black lives and Black joy.
Remembering Jerry Pinkney: The New York Times calls the late children’s book illustrator “one of the most revered artists in the genre.”

Special Thanks:
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:
Celebrating Women’s History Month with Bisa Butler and Gholdy Muhammad

Created by the nonprofit LitWorld and sponsored by Scholastic, World Read Aloud Day is celebrated in more than 173 countries. The annual event takes place this year on February 2. Participants are invited to grab a book, find an audience, and, yes, read aloud.

Research shows that reading aloud provides several benefits to children. It helps strengthen their cognitive development, improve their vocabulary, and increase their attention span. Best of all, it fosters joy. As one teacher told us: “My favorite part is when I look up and see ‘that look, that smile’ that tells me I’ve hooked one more reader who will fall in love with reading for a lifetime.”

Special Thanks:
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

In this episode, host Suzanne McCabe talks with Chris Newell, the author of If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving, a new book for children. With help from Wampanoag scholar Linda Coombs, Chris offers young readers a fuller understanding of this pivotal encounter in American history and shows the devastating toll that colonization took on Indian tribes along the Eastern coast.

Chris is an award-winning educator, as well as a proud citizen of the Passamaquoddy tribe. He is joined by Katie Heit, the editor of Scholastic’s What If book series.

Special Thanks:
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:
Sharing Black Stories

What made de Regniers so sure that Clifford would win over young hearts? “That’s how kids feel,” she said. “They feel like, ‘I don’t belong here. I’m somebody odd in the crowd.’”

Since then, more than 160 Clifford titles have made their way into print. The books have been translated into more than 20 languages and sold more than 134 million copies. Along the way, TV series and video games have been created about the lovable character.

Now, Clifford is hitting the big screen in Clifford the Big Red Dog, a new movie from Paramount Pictures. The film, which is also available for streaming on Paramount+, is directed by Walt Becker and produced by Jordan Kerner and Iole Lucchese, who is Chief Strategy Officer at Scholastic and President of Scholastic Entertainment. Caitlin Friedman, SVP and General Manager of Scholastic Entertainment, serves as Executive Producer.

In the new film, Darby Camp stars as Emily Elizabeth, the little girl whose puppy magically grows to be 10 feet tall. She and her Uncle Casey, played by Jack Whitehall, must cope with Clifford’s somewhat unmanageable size in a New York City apartment.

The film also features John Cleese, as animal trainer Mr. Bridwell; Izaac Wang as Emily Elizabeth’s steadfast friend, Owen; and Tony Hale as Zack Tieran, the scheming villain of tech giant LyfeGrow. Kenan Thompson turns in a hilarious performance as Clifford’s baffled—and intimidated—veterinarian.

In this episode, Kerner talks with podcast host Suzanne McCabe about his role producing the movie. He explains the hopeful message that everyone’s favorite big red dog offers this holiday season and gives a behind-the-scenes look at filming in New York City, where the CGI-animated Clifford was represented by two talented puppeteers. Kerner has served as a producer on dozens of films for television and the big screen, including The Mighty Ducks, George of the Jungle, Charlotte’s Web, and The Smurfs. He is a former Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Special Thanks:
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:
If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving

The girls get their first big break when they meet Sean “Mercury” Ellis, the undisputed king of R&B. But Merc has other ideas for them.

Tami, herself, is no stranger to the music scene. In her teens and early twenties, she tasted fame with an all-girl R&B group. She found her voice. But as the title of her book suggests, not everyone does. Muted amplifies the voices and the promise of Black and Brown girls, while painting a harrowing picture of the abuse and violence that many suffer in silence.

A former classroom teacher, Tami is also the author of The New York Times-bestselling picture book, All Because You Matter, which began as a love letter to her young son.

You may know Sonia as Maria, the beloved character she played on Sesame Street for more than 30 years. Growing up in a struggling Puerto Rican family in the 1950s, Sonia wondered how she could contribute to a society that didn’t see her. “I felt invisible,” she says. Her story of resilience and hope continues to inspire readers of all ages.

Host Suzanne McCabe also talks with Pam Muñoz Ryan, the award-winning author of Esperanza Rising and several other celebrated novels. Pam discusses the genesis of her latest book, an enchanting novel for middle-graders called Mañanaland. The mythical tale introduces readers to a brave boy named Max, who learns what it means to help people fleeing danger and persecution.

In the final segment, author Justin A. Reynolds and illustrator Pablo Leon introduce their new graphic novel, Miles Morales: Shock Waves. It is already a hit with young Marvel fans. “Maybe you’re not able to have web slingers and scale the city walls,” Justin tells kids, “but your voice can travel just as far.”

Ground Zero features nine-year-old Brandon, who finds himself in an elevator in the North Tower when an explosion jolts him and the other passengers sideways. His father is working at Windows on the World, a restaurant that occupies one of the top floors of the building.

The novel also introduces readers to Reshmina, an 11-year-old Afghan girl who, in 2019, is living with her family in a remote, mountainous region of the country, where U.S. and Afghan National Army soldiers are battling the Taliban.
“Afghans did not do this attack,” Reshmina says to a U.S. soldier when he recalls 9/11. “You are seeking revenge against the wrong people.”

In Ground Zero, Alan deftly explores the parallels between Brandon and Reshmina’s lives, and shows why we, as a country, need to ask tough questions about our actions, both past and present. Alan is the New York Times best-selling author of Refugee, Allies, and Code of Honor, among several other titles.

Resources:
Meet Alan Gratz: In his latest middle-grade novel, the best-selling author of 17 titles for young readers spotlights the September 11 attacks.

Encountering History: In this webinar, Scholastic Magazines+ editors and a classroom teacher offer ways to address the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks with upper-elementary students.

Resources for Teaching 9/11 for Grades 3 - 12: Articles, videos, and lesson plans from the editors of Scholastic Magazines+ help teachers discuss the 9/11 attacks in the classroom.

Anniversary in the Schools Webinar: Join students and teachers from around the world to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 by registering for the 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s free Anniversary in the Schools program.

“Empty Sky”: Read a 2011 essay recalling the 9/11 attacks in Lower Manhattan by Scholastic Reads host Suzanne McCabe.

Special Thanks:
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:
Honoring Hispanic Heritage
A Conversation With Muted Author Tami Charles

In this episode, Lauren Tarshis, who is Senior Vice President, Editor-in-Chief, and Publisher of Scholastic Magazines, as well as the author of the best-selling I Survived series, talks with host Suzanne McCabe about “Back to School, Back Together.” The site was designed, Lauren says, “to help teachers feel fortified, optimistic, ready.”

Three teachers, Janine Hsieh, Shaniqua Ashby, and Chrissy Casey, also join Suzanne to talk about  ClassroomsCount™, a platform that Scholastic recently launched to help educators in communities around the country raise funds for books and resources for their students.

Resources:
Back to School, Back Together: SEL resources and expert insights from the Yale Child Study Center + Scholastic Collaborative to help educators and students heading back to the classroom.

ClassroomsCount™: Learn how educators can raise funds to purchase books and resources from Book Clubs, The Teacher Store, The Scholastic Store, and Scholastic Magazines+.

A Lending Library With Love: Teacher Chrissy Casey, who is featured in this episode, helps promote a love of reading among kids of all ages in the Malvern, Pennsylvania, area.

Bringing Books to Kids: Find out more about Casey’s Book Mobile and her ClassroomsCount™ fundraiser.

Special Thanks:
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan

The Scholastic Summer Reading program was designed to help meet this need. The free, annual initiative keeps kids motivated to read all summer long, while expanding access to books. The program hosts virtual author events, provides e-books, and empowers kids to unlock a donation of 100,000 print books from Scholastic that are distributed in rural communities by Save the Children.

In this episode, host Suzanne McCabe talks with Lizette Serrano and Dr. Sayantani DasGupta about the Scholastic Summer Reading program and how kids can enjoy all of the free resources on Scholastic Home Base. Lizette is the vice president of educational marketing and event planning at Scholastic. She has a wealth of experience motivating kids to read for pleasure—not just in the summer months, but all year long.

Sayantani, who is a pediatrician by training, is the New York Times-bestselling author of Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond, a wildly-popular middle-grade fantasy series. Her latest book, a stand-alone novel from The Kingdom Beyond, is called Force of Fire. She teaches at Columbia University in the Graduate Program in Narrative Medicine, the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, and the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.

“If there’s ever been a time that all of us—young readers, teenage readers, adult readers—need the healing power of story, it’s this summer,” Sayantani says. “There is so much loss and confusion and anguish that we’ve all been through.”

Resources:
Scholastic Summer Reading: Gain access to a fun, free, and safe program for kids.

Check out Home Base, a free 3D interactive world that celebrates favorite stories through book-based games, live author events, and a community of readers.

Learn more about New York Times-bestselling author Sayantani DasGupta.

**Special Thanks:

• **Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Producer: Bridget Benjamin
• Associate Producer: Connie Gibbs
• Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan

Leah’s best-selling debut novel, You Should See Me in a Crown, is a 2021 Stonewall Honor Book and was the inaugural YA pick for Reese’s Book Club. Leah dedicates Rise to the Sun “to the Black girls who have been told they’re too much and to the ones who don’t believe they’re enough.”

Molly describes The Girl From the Sea, a graphic novel about first love, as “absolutely the most self-indulgent book I've ever done, [with] a lot of delicious wish fulfillment.” It debuted on the Amazon YA bestseller list. Molly’s 2017 graphic novel, The Witch Boy, is being adapted into a feature film by Netflix.

Rise to the Sun and The Girl From the Sea are both included in Shondaland’s Summer 2021 Reading List.

Resources:

• Leah Johnson writes things: Learn more about this Midwestern author, essayist, and pop culture whiz.
  
• Molly Knox Ostertag: Delve into Molly’s comics, art, & animation.
• Read With Pride: Check out these essential LGBTQIA+ titles for young readers.

Special Thanks:

• Producer: Bridget Benjamin
• Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
• Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
• Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:

• Diving Into Summer Reading
• Inside the Music Biz with Tami Charles

Kelly also describes the struggles that she faced immigrating to the U.S. with her parents when she was a child. “You don’t have to strip away everything about yourself to conform,” she says. “That was a hard lesson for me growing up because there were definitely times I felt that pressure.”

Later in the episode, Dr. Don Vu, an educator with more than two decades of experience in the classroom, talks about his new book, Life, Literacy, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Supporting Our Immigrant and Refugee Children Through the Power of Reading.

Educators and parents will want to hear Dr. Vu’s incredible insights into helping young students thrive as readers, writers, and learners. He also tells the moving story of his own family’s escape from Vietnam in 1975, when the city of Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces. Dr. Vu’s experiences as a refugee growing up in California helped him develop empathy for families much like his, who arrive in America with little more than a dream.

Resources:
Front Desk: Learn more about author Kelly Yang and her books for young people.
Life, Literacy, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Learn more about Dr. Don Vu and his new title for educators.
19 Books by Asian & Pacific Islander Americans to Read All Year: Here are lots of great titles to share with the young readers in your life.

Special Thanks:
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:
Celebrating Pride Month with authors Leah Johnson and Molly Knox Ostertag

Inside the music biz with authors Tami Charles and Lamar Giles

The magazines, which reach more than 25 million students and their teachers, have been a staple in classrooms for more than a century. In this episode, Lauren tells host Suzanne McCabe how a talented team of writers, editors, designers, video producers, and IT experts have helped support educators and keep students engaged and learning this past year—even though many classrooms have been empty.

Lauren is also the author of the best-selling I Survived book series, which recounts terrifying and thrilling stories from history through the eyes of a child who lived to tell the tale.

Later in the episode, Scholastic Kid Reporter Siroos recounts his journalistic experiences during the pandemic. Siroos, who is 12 years old and lives in New York City, is a member of Scholastic Kids Press, a team of 45 young journalists from around the world who report “news for kids, by kids” on our websites and in our Classroom Magazines.

Resources:
From Fear to Hope: Author Lauren Tarshis tells young readers how the polio epidemic affected her grandmother’s generation and finds similarities to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Killer Flu of 1918: Young readers learn about the powerful flu that claimed millions of lives and disrupted everyday life.

Science World Magazine’s COVID-19 News Hub: Young readers can get updates on the virus and vaccines here.

NEW: Filled with music and special sound effects, this audio feature brings students into the action of the story and boosts their reading and listening skills. Try it for free here.

Scholastic Classroom Magazines: Reserve your magazines for the fall now, and get free online access.

Meet Lauren Tarshis: Learn more about Lauren and I Survived, her best-selling book series for kids.

Scholastic Kids Press: Check out recent articles by our Scholastic Kid Reporters. If you know a 10- to 14-year-old with a nose for news, encourage them to apply to Kids Press. Applications must be received by June 1. Learn more here.

Scholastic Kid Reporter Siroos Pasdar: Read Siroos’s news articles for our young readers.

Special Thanks:
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:
Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with author Kelly Yang and educator Don Vu

Inside the music biz with authors Tami Charles and Lamar Giles

First, host Suzanne McCabe talks with Rebecca Siegel, the author of To Fly Among the Stars: The Hidden Story of the Fight for Women Astronauts. Rebecca describes the early years of America’s space program, when 13 brave women trained in a secret, privately-funded program, hoping to earn their spot among the stars. These accomplished air racers, test pilots, and flight instructors later lobbied the White House and Congress to have women included in the astronaut program. Rebecca’s riveting tale about Jerrie Cobb, Janey Hart, and 11 other women serves as an inspiration for any girl who doubts that she can achieve whatever she sets her mind to.

Suzanne also talks with Dr. Ronke Olabisi, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of California, Irvine. She tells listeners about her childhood dream of becoming an astronaut and how that led to her career as a biomedical engineer and inventor.

Special Thanks:
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate Producer: Constance Gibs
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan

Coming Soon:
Honoring the Asian American Experience with Kelly Yang
Music in Literature: Tami Charles and Lamar Giles

Varian has written several critically-acclaimed novels, including The Great Greene Heist and The Parker Inheritance, which was named a Coretta Scott King Honor Book in 2019. He and Shannon describe the experience of creating their first graphic novel together and why they think Twins is such a hit with young readers.

Resources:
The Power of Story: Diverse Books for All Readers

13 Black-Owned Bookstores to Know About

Learn More About Author Varian Johnson

Learn More About Illustrator Shannon Wright

Special Thanks:
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate Producer: Constance Gibbs
Sound Engineer: Daniel Jordan

Coming Soon:
Women and STEM

For the past decade, Scholastic has been the title sponsor of World Read Aloud Day, which was created by LitWorld, a global non-profit that fosters a love of reading in children everywhere.

In this episode, host Suzanne McCabe talks with literacy expert and author Pam Allyn, who is the founder of LitWorld. She'll share ideas for educators and families who would like to participate in this year's celebration, which takes place on February 3.
Malcolm Mitchell will describe his own reading journey. “I was a 19-, 20-year-old college student whom the world praised for my ability to catch a pass,” he says. “But in the bookstore, I was buying The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Exclamation Mark, and The Giving Tree to help teach myself how to become more literate.”
Malcolm is now the best-selling author of The Magician's Hat and My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World. His Share The Magic Foundation helps transform young lives through literacy. In his past life, Malcolm was a star wide receiver for the New England Patriots. He has a Super Bowl ring to prove it!

Special Thanks:
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan

Coming Soon:
Coretta Scott King Honor Author Varian Johnson Talks About Twins, His Graphic Novel

**Special Thanks:
**Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan

**Coming Soon:
**A Celebration of Black History

Host Suzanne McCabe talks with Mallika Chopra, an author, speaker, and wellbeing expert who serves as the mindfulness consultant on the TV series, and award-winning children's book illustrator and artist, Jon J Muth.

Resources:
You can learn more about Jon J. Muth here and about Stillwater, the new animated TV series from Apple TV+ here.

Special thanks:
Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan

Coming Soon:
Antiracism Resources for the Classroom

Kids have grown-up with, and obsessed over Clifford the Big Red Dog, Goosebumps, The Baby-Sitters Club, Harry Potter, and Captain Underpants. Stories by Suzanne Collins, the late Walter Dean Myers, Raina Telgemeier, Pam Muñoz Ryan, and Kelly Yang, to name a few, still captivate young readers. Scholastic News and Junior Scholastic are still staples in classrooms across the country, and Scholastic Kid Reporters are still out there getting stories that matter to them and their young readers.
Last, but not least, young people still receive coveted Scholastic Art & Writing Awards each year, as they have done for nearly a century. Past recipients include Andy Warhol, Bernard Malamud, Kay WalkingStick and Mozelle Thompson. The list goes on, but we wanted to hear from Dick about his memories of his father, the early years at the company, and how he has remained true to his father's vision, that few things are more magical than children discovering themselves in the pages of a book.

Then Francisco Stork, the author of such acclaimed YA titles as The Memory of Light and Marcelo in the Real World, talks about his latest novel, Illegal. This page-turning thriller follows Sara Zapata and her brother, Emiliano, and their desperate escape from Mexico to the U.S. Illegal is a sequel to Francisco’s earlier novel, Disappeared.

You can learn more about Land of the Cranes, Illegal, and all of our latest fiction and nonfiction at scholastic.com/kids. For a catalog of diverse books for readers of all ages, click here.
To check out the Scholastic Student Vote, a virtual mock-election that has been running since 1940, visit scholastic.com/election.

We wanted to give you a preview of the books you can look forward to, so we invited some of our authors to read aloud. First, Tami Charles reads All Because You Matter, her love letter to Black and brown children. (2:31)

Next, Christina Soontornvat takes us inside the pages of Icing on the Snowflake, the latest title in her popular chapter book series, Diary of an Ice Princess. Christina’s adventures for elementary school readers start with a simple premise: What if Frozen’s Elsa went to regular school? If you have any Elsa fans in your house, this is the series for them! (6:41)

We also hear from Brazilian author Vitor Martins. He shares an excerpt from his new queer romance, Here the Whole Time. This story about the magic of first love explores the insecurities that many teens feel around body image. (11:12)

Then, Kara McDowell reads from her new novel for young adults, One Way or Another. It’s a poignant story about a girl who learns to face her debilitating anxieties as she navigates a relationship with her best friend and longtime crush. (17:55)

For 8- to 12-year-olds who enjoy horror and spooky mysteries, Daka Hermon reads from her suspense-filled debut, Hide and Seeker. (25:39)

Last but not least, middle-grade favorite Kelly Yang reads the opening pages of Three Keys, the highly-anticipated sequel to her debut best-seller, Front Desk. (31:52)

You can learn more about these titles and all of our latest fiction and nonfiction at scholastic.com/kids.

To check out the Scholastic Student Vote, a virtual mock-election, that has been running since 1940 visit scholastic.com/election.

Special thanks:

Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Mackenzie Cutruzzula
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan

We also spotlight author Ann M. Martin, who created the beloved book series. Host Suzanne McCabe spoke with Ann in 2016, amid celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the best-selling series, which began in 1986 with the publication of Kristy’s Great Idea.

You can learn more about The Baby-Sitters Club book series, including the graphic novels, here and the Netflix TV show here.

Special thanks:

Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Producer: Bridget Benjamin
Associate producer: Mackenzie Cutruzzula
Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan

Ruby’s courageous journey helped pave the way for Black and brown students across the United States to gain access to educational opportunities that had been denied to them for centuries.

Sixty years later, “Black Lives Matter” has become a rallying cry for an end to the systemic racism that continues to harm African Americans nationwide. Ruby is still speaking out and still speaking up. In 1995, she created the Ruby Bridges Foundation, which is dedicated to fostering respect and equality for people of all races and backgrounds. She talks with children everywhere about the disease of racism, which she says is “a disease of the heart.”

In this episode, Ruby talks with host Suzanne McCabe about the events that led her parents to risk the hostility of segregationists for a better life and how her story can help today’s young people bring about lasting change and equality.

To learn more about the Ruby Bridges Foundation, go to rubybridges.com, and follow Ruby on Instagram at @RubyBridgesOfficial.

If you’d like to share Ruby’s story with your students, you can order her 1999 memoir, Through My Eyes, here. Click here to access the Power of Story, a catalog of diverse books for readers of all ages.

Special thanks:
Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
Produced by Bridget Benjamin
Associate produced by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
Sound mix, editing and recording by Colin Poellot

As a queer, Black teen in a prom-obsessed Midwestern town, Liz thinks that it’s impossible to fit in. But when she meets the new girl at school—who is also her competition for prom queen—everything changes.

In this episode, Leah talks with host Suzanne McCabe about growing up in Indiana, becoming a fiction writer, and “giving queer folks the happy ending they deserve.”

Learn more about Leah and You Should See Me in a Crown.

Special thanks:
Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
Produced by Bridget Benjamin
Associate produced and edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan

What can parents and educators do to help kids cope with uncertainty and continue to learn and thrive? In this episode, host Suzanne McCabe talks with Dr. Eli Lebowitz, an associate professor at the Yale Child Study Center and director of their Program for Anxiety Disorders.

In 2018, Scholastic and the Child Study Center formed a collaborative to explore how literacy can be used to foster resilience among children and families. You can find additional information about the collaborative and explore their coronavirus resources here.

Special thanks:
Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
Produced by Bridget Benjamin
Associate produced and edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Produced by Bridget Benjamin
• Associate produced and edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan

Additional Resources:
Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words exhibit features rarely seen materials that offer an intimate view of Rosa Parks and documents in her life and activism.

Special thanks:
Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
Produced and edited by Bridget Benjamin
Associate produced by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan

Plus, you’ll hear exciting read alouds from authors like, Dav Pilkey, Carmen Agra Deedy, and Peter Reynolds. Don’t forget to read aloud on February 5!

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Produced and edited by Bridget Benjamin
• Associate Produced by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• *Suzanne McCabe is the Editor of Scholastic Kids Press

Guests:

• Kevin Kirschner: Nephew of host Suzanne McCabe
• Mark Seidenfeld: Vice President and Deputy General Counsel
• Talia Seidenfeld: Assistant Editor
• Patti Vaughan: Convention Manager, Corporate Conventions
• Raisa Masood: Internal Communications Coordinator
• Amanda Erbe: Scholastic Kid Reporter

Special thanks:

• Hosted by Suzanne McCabe
• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Produced and edited by Bridget Benjamin
• Associate produced by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan

Call Down the Hawk follows Ronan Lynch, a character who can take things out of his dreams and bring them into real life, and Jordan Hennessy, an artist, a thief, and maybe something else.

If you’re a fan of young-adult literature, you’re probably familiar with Maggie’s work. She is the New York Times best-selling author of The Raven Cycle, The Shiver Trilogy, and The Scorpio Races.

On this episode, we'll talk with her and award-winning author Scott Westerfeld about what it’s like to expand a fictional universe for eager fans. Scott is the author of The Uglies Series, The Leviathan Trilogy, and Impostors, among many other titles.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Produced and edited by Bridget Benjamin
• Associate Produced by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• *Suzanne McCabe is the Editor of Scholastic Kids Press

Guests: 

Alyssa Milano:

Actress and activist Alyssa Milano has spent almost her entire life in the public eye. A famous child actor, she has continued to work throughout her adulthood in both television and film, most notably starring in the wildly popular television series Who's the Boss? and Charmed. Alyssa is also a lifelong activist and is passionate about fighting for human rights around the world. In 2003, UNICEF invited Alyssa to become a National Ambassador in recognition of her charitable work on behalf of children. Ever since then, Alyssa has been a champion of children's rights, working closely with UNICEF to raise money and awareness and provide aid to the children who need it most all over the world. Alyssa also speaks to kids in schools around the country about the importance of voting and teaches them how to fill out a ballot because she believes it's never too early to be civic-minded. Most recently, Alyssa is known for popularizing the #MeToo hashtag on Twitter, sparking the massive viral movement. She was named one of the 2017 Persons of the Year in Time magazine alongside other prestigious activists. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two kids.

Alula Alderson: A Scholastic Kids Press reporter since 2017, Alula Alderson covers a variety of topics including entertainment, the enviornment, and history. 

Additional Resources:

Learn more about Hope: Project Middle School by Alyssa Milano and Debbie Rigaud, illustrated by Eric S. Keyes here.

Learn more about the Scholastic Kids Press here. 

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Produced and edited by Bridget Benjamin
• Associate Produced by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan

*Suzanne McCabe is the Editor of Scholastic Kids Press

According to the latest Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report™, classroom libraries are only available for 43 percent of school-age children. And only one-third of kids say that they have access to a classroom library with enough of the types of books they’d like to read.

Guests:

It’s Halloween-time! And we’re sure you’re getting into the spirit—scary noises and all. 

To celebrate this spooky season, we’re talking with four authors who specialize in writing scary stories for kids!

On this episode, you’ll hear from Victoria Schwab, Max Brallier, India Hill Brown, and R. L. Stine. We asked them what it is about spine-chilling books that’s so compelling for young readers. Each author also shares a spooky read-aloud from their latest book!  

Additional Resources

• Learn more about the Cassidy Blake series by Victoria Schwab
• Learn more about the Acorn line Mr. Shivers series by Max Brallier
• Learn more about The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown
• Learn more about the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine

Guests:

• Victoria Schwab: Victoria is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels for readers of all ages, including City of Ghosts, the Shades of Magic series (which has been translated into over 15 languages), This Savage Song, and Our Dark Duet. Victoria can often be found haunting Paris streets and trudging up Scottish hillsides. Usually, she's tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up stories. Visit her online at veschwab.com.
• Max Brallier: Max Brallier is the author of more than 20 books for children, including the Galactic Hot Dogs and The Last Kids on Earth middle-grade series. Under the pen name Jack Chabert, he is the creator and author of the Eerie Elementary series with Scholastic Branches. Max lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.
• India Hill Brown: India Hill Brown is a southern belle who recently moved back down south to North Carolina after living in NYC and working at HBO. Her day job is in social media, and her passion is writing. Her freelance work has been published in Teen Vogue, Essence, Sesi Mag, and The Everygirl. Visit her at booksandbighair.com or on Twitter at @booksandbighair.
• R.L. Stine: R.L. Stine's books have sold more than 300 million copies, making him one of the most popular children's authors in history. Besides Goosebumps, R.L. Stine has written series including: Fear Street, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room, and Dangerous Girls. R.L. Stine lives in New York with his wife, Jane, and his King Charles spaniel, Minnie. www.RLStine.com.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Produced and edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula

Later, we talk with Da Chen. Da is a New York TImes bestselling author who joins us to talk about his memoir for young readers, Girl Under a Red Moon. The deeply moving story focuses on Da’s older sister Sisi and their childhood growing up together during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

Additional Resources

Learn more about Child of the Dream (A Memoir of 1963) by Sharon Robinson

Learn more about Girl Under a Red Moon by Da Chen

Guests:

Sharon Robinson: daughter of baseball legend Jackie Robinson, is the author of several works of fiction and nonfiction. She has also written several widely praised nonfiction books about her father.

Da Chen: Da Chen’s life is a true immigrant success story. A native of China, Chen grew up in a tiny village without electricity or running water. He was a victim of communist political persecution during the Chinese Cultural Revolution but then went on to study at the Beijing Languages and Culture University. Da arrived in America at the age of twenty-three with only $30 and a bamboo flute, and attended the Columbia University School of Law on a full scholarship. He lives in Southern California, with his family.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow

This week, Raina joins us in the studio to talk about Guts. We also talk with Dr. Eli Lebowitz, who studies and treats childhood and adolescent anxiety and is Director of the Program for Anxiety Disorders at the Yale Child Study Center.

Additional resources:

• Learn more about Guts by Raina Telgemeier
• Follow Raina Telgemeier on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
• Learn more about the Yale Child Study Center–Scholastic Collaborative for Child & Family Resilience
• See more data from the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report

Guests:

• Raina Telgemeier is the #1 New York Times bestselling, multiple Eisner Award-winning creator of Smile and Sisters, which are both graphic memoirs based on her childhood. She is also the creator of Drama and Ghosts, and is the adapter and illustrator of four Baby-sitters Club graphic novels. Raina lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. To learn more, visit her online at goRaina.com.
• Eli Lebowitz studies and treats childhood and adolescent anxiety and is Director of the Program for Anxiety Disorders at the Yale Child Study Center. His research focuses on the development, neurobiology, and treatment of anxiety and related disorders, with special emphasis on cross-generational and familial influences in these disorders. Dr. Lebowitz is the lead investigator on multiple funded research projects, and is the author of numerous research papers and of books and chapters on childhood and adolescent anxiety. He is also the father of three great boys.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow

Plus, you'll also hear from young readers themselves who sent us messages describing why they love Dog Man!

Additional resources: 

• Get your copy of Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls
• See all of the stops on Dav Pilkey's Dog Man "Do Good" Tour

Guests:

• When Dav Pilkey was a kid, he suffered from ADHD, dyslexia, and behavioral problems. Dav was so disruptive in class that his teachers made him sit out in the hall every day. Luckily, Dav loved to draw and make up stories. He spent his time in the hallway creating his own original comic books. In the second grade, Dav Pilkey created a comic book about a superhero named Captain Underpants. His teacher ripped it up and told him he couldn't spend the rest of his life making silly books. Fortunately, Dav was not a very good listener. 
  

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow

This week, you'll hear from some kids first-hand about what they love about summer reading. We also talk about how Scholastic is getting 200,000 books into the hands of kids who need them through a national collaboration with United Way. And we talk with two booksellers who have been working to engage their communities in summer reading through book drives and Summer Reading Celebration events!

Additional resources:

• Learn more about the Scholastic Summer Read-a-Palooza
• Join the Summer Reading Challenge
• Find a Summer Reading Celebration near you
• Read more of our research around summer reading in the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report
• Learn more about United Way
• Learn more about Beanbag Books
• Learn more about The Bookstore Plus

Guests:

• Stephanie Smirnov is the executive vice president of global communications at Scholastic.
• Ayeola Fortune is the senior director of impact and global results at United Way Worldwide.
• Jody Everett is the owner of Beanbag Books in Delaware, OH.
• Sarah Galvin is the owner of The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, NY.
  

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow

And so, she created Branches — and now Acorn — highly illustrated, easy-to-read books with engaging storylines and characters that will help kids fall in love with reading.

In this episode, you'll hear more from Katie about the Branches and Acorn books and the needs they fill. We also talk with three authors — Troy Cummings (The Notebook of Doom), Rebecca Elliott (Owl Diaries), and Jonathan Fenske (Crabby) — about exactly what goes into making these delightful, compelling books for kids.

Additional resources:

• Learn more about Branches books at scholastic.com/branches
• Learn more about Acorn books at scholastic.com/acorn

Guests:

• Katie Carella is an executive editor at Scholastic.
• Troy Cummings is the author of The Notebook of Doom and The Binder of Doom series.
• Rebecca Elliott is the author of the Owl Diaries series.
• Jonathan Fenske is the author of the Crabby series.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow

Today, you’ll hear from Mason Deaver, Kacen Callender, and Bill Konigsberg. Each will introduce their latest novels, talk about their creative process, and discuss what it means to write books that are giving some young readers the chance to see themselves truly represented in the pages of a book.

Additional Resources:

• I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
• Hurricane Child by Kacen Callender
• The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg
• Learn more about our Read with Pride campaign
• LGBTQIA resource center

Guests:

• Mason Deaver is a non-binary author and librarian from a small town in North Carolina where the word "y'all" is used in abundance. When they aren't writing or working, they're typically found in their kitchen baking something that's bad for them or out in their garden complaining about the toad that likes to dig holes around their hydrangeas. I Wish You All the Best is their debut novel. You can find them online at masondeaverwrites.com.
• Kacen Callender was born and raised on St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands. They hold a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, where they studied fine arts, Japanese, and creative writing, as well as an MFA from The New School's Writing for Children program. Their debut novel Hurricane Child was a Stonewall Book Award winner, a Lambda Literary Award winner, and was named a Kirkus Best Book of 2018.
• Bill Konigsberg is the author of six books for young adults, most recently The Music of What Happens. His books have won awards including the Stonewall Book Award, the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor, and the Lambda Literary Award. Bill lives in Chandler, Arizona, with his husband, Chuck, and their two Labradoodles, Mabel and Buford. Please visit him online at www.billkonigsberg.com and @billkonigsberg.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Sound mixed by Daniel Jordan
• Produced by Emily Morrow

Here are some of the stats:

• 57% of 8-year-olds said they read books for fun 5 to 7 days a week. But by age 9, that drops to a mere 35%.
• 40% of 8-year-olds say they love to read. By age 9, only 28% say that.

We find similar decreases in the numbers around access to books (more 6- to 8-year-olds have a classroom library than 9- to 11-year-olds) and the presence of reading role models (more 6- to 8-year-olds say they have people in their lives who enjoy reading than 9- to 11-year-olds). Additionally, nearly half of 9-year-olds say they have trouble finding books they like. 

What's causing the "decline by nine"? And what can we do about it? We talked with education and reading experts to find out.

Additional resources:

• Read more about the findings from our Kids & Family Reading Report (and listen to past episodes around the importance of the read aloud and what kids are looking for in the books they read)
• Learn more about Scholastic Classroom Magazines
• Learn more about the I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis
• Learn more about Scholastic Literacy

Guests:

• Lauren Tarshis is the Senior Vice President and Editor-In-Chief/Publisher, Scholastic Classroom Magazines. She is also the author of the New York Times bestselling series I Survived.
• Michael Haggen is the Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic Education.
• Jaime Vandergrift is a third grade teacher at Sara Harp Minter Elementary.
• Kristen Cruikshank is a third grade teacher at Lamar Consolidated ISD.
• Dr. Donyall Dickey is an author and consultant for Scholastic Literacy.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow

Additional Resources:

• Learn more about Dear Ally, How Do I Write A Book?
• Learn more about Share Your Smile
• Follow Ally Carter on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow Raina Telgemeier on Twitter and Instagram

Guests:

• Ally Carter is the New York Times bestselling author of the Gallagher Girls, Heist Society, and Embassy Row series as well as the standalone novel Not If I Save You First. Her books have been published all over the world, in over 20 languages. You can visit her online at allycarter.com.
• Raina Telgemeier is he #1 New York Times bestselling, multiple Eisner Award-winning creator of Smile and Sisters, which are both graphic memoirs based on her childhood. She is also the creator of Drama and Ghosts, and is the adapter and illustrator of four Baby-sitters Club graphic novels. Raina lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. To learn more, visit her online at goRaina.com.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan and Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow

This week, you'll hear from four of our in-house experts — as well as some kids themselves! — about what the data tells us that kids and their families are looking for in the books they read.

Additional resources:

• See all of the findings from the Kids & Family Reading Report: Finding Their Story
• Learn more about Game of Stars by Sayantani DasGupta
• Learn more about the I Survived series by Lauren Tarshis
• Learn more about the Power of Story initiative and download the catalog
• See the full digital catalog on Edelweiss
• Read Lizette Serrano's blog post about Esperanza Rising 

Guests:

• Lauren Tarshis is the Vice President and Editor-in-Chief/Publisher of Scholastic Classroom Magazines. She's also the author of the bestselling I Survived series.
• Andrea Davis Pinkney is a Vice President, Executive Editor of Scholastic Trade books and an award-winning children's book author.
• Michael Haggen is the Chief Academic Officer at Scholastic.
• Lizette Serrano is the Executive Director of Educational Marketing and Event Strategy at Scholastic.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow, Mackenzie Cutruzzula, Suzanne McCabe

Keith joins us today to talk about his path to becoming an author and what he hopes his 8- to 12-year-old readers will take away from this heartwarming story about Ernest, Ryan, and Lizzie, and their efforts to help their divided town choose empathy and kindness over anger and fear. 

Additional resources

• Learn more about A Drop of Hope by Keith Calabrese
• Learn more about Keith Calabrese

Guests

• Keith Calabrese is an author and screenwriter who holds a degree in creative writing from Northwestern University. A former script reader, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife, kids, and a dog who thinks he's a mountain goat.

Special thanks

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow 

The novel is a modern day Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret set in Oakland, California, and steeped in the culture and traditions of the Mexica, indigenous people of Mexico.

The story introduces us to Celi Rivera. Like every 11-year-old, she has questions. Questions about her changing body, her first crush, and her best friend’s exploration of gender fluidity. But most of all, she has questions about her mother’s insistence that she have a moon ceremony when her first period arrives — an ancestral Mexica ritual that Mima and their community have reclaimed and that Celi does not want to participate in.

Today, Aida and her editor, Nick Thomas, join us to discuss why this lyrical coming-of-age own-voices story is a must-read for everyone.

Additional resources

• Read more about The Moon Within
• Learn more about Aida Salazar

Guests

• Aida Salazar is a writer, arts advocate, and homeschooling mother whose writings for adults and children explore issues of identity and social justice. In addition to her debut, The Moon Within, she is the author of the forthcoming books The Land of the Cranes and her debut picture book, Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Revolutionary Fighter, all published by Arthur A. Levine Books. Her story "By the Light of the Moon" was adapted into a ballet production by the Sonoma Conservatory of Dance and is the first Xicana-themed ballet in history. She lives with her family of artists in a teal house in Oakland, CA.
• Nick Thomas is a senior editor with Arthur A. Levine Books.

Special thanks

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow 

Last year, we launched the Scholastic Focus imprint, dedicated to presenting young readers with true and moving stories to help them better understand themselves and the world around them. 

Today, we're talking with editorial director Lisa Sandell as well as four Scholastic Focus authors: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Deborah Hopkinson, Robert Edsel, and Lawrence Goldstone. Listen as they tell us about their compelling new books and what they hope readers will take away.

Additional resources:

• Learn more about Scholastic Focus books
• Learn more about Dark Sky Rising by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., with Tonya Bolden
• Learn more about D-Day by Deborah Hopkinson
• Learn more about The Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert Edsel
• Learn more about Unpunished Murder by Lawrence Goldstone

Guests:

• Lisa Sandell is the editorial director of Scholastic Focus.
• Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is one of the premier U.S. scholars of African-American literature and history. Gates is the head of Harvard’s African-American Studies department. He is an acclaimed author and critic who has unearthed an array of literary gems; he has also hosted PBS programs such as Africa’s Great Civilizations; Finding Your Roots; Black in Latin America; and the Emmy Award-winning series, The African-Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. Gates is the recipient of more than 50 honorary degrees and numerous prizes. He was one of the first recipients of the MacArthur genius grant in 1981. He was the first African-American scholar to be awarded the National Humanities Medal, was named to Time’s 25 Most Influential Americans list in 1997, selected for Ebony’s Power 150 list in 2009, and to Ebony’s Power 100 list in 2010 and 2012.
• Deborah Hopkinson is an award-winning author of picture books, fiction, and nonfiction. Her nonfiction titles include Shutting out the Sky: Life in the Tenements of New York, 1880-1924, an NCTE Orbis Pictus Honor Book and Jane Addams Peace Award Honor Book; Titanic: Voices from the Disaster, a Sibert Medal Honor Book and YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction finalist; Courage & Defiance, Stories of Spies, Saboteurs and Survivors in World War II Denmark, a Sydney Taylor Notable Book, NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended Book, and a winner of the Oregon Book Award and Oregon Spirit Award; and  Dive! World War II Stories of Sailors & Submarines in the Pacific, which was named an NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended Book and Oregon Spirit Award honor book. Deborah lives with her family near Portland, Oregon. Visit her online at deborahhopkinson.com, and follow her on Twitter at @Deborahopkinson.
• Robert Edsel is the author of three books about the Monuments Men including the #1 New York Times bestseller The Monuments Men, which Academy Award winner George Clooney adapted into a feature film in 2014, and Saving Italy, also a New York Times bestseller. In 2007 he founded the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, which was a recipient of the National Humanities Medal, the United States’ highest honor for work in the humanities. He lives with his family in Dallas, Texas. Please visit him online at www.robertedsel.com and on Twitter at @RobertEdsel.
• Lawrence Goldstone is the author of more than twenty books for adults, including three on Constitutional Law. His first book for young readers, Higher, Steeper, Faster—The Daredevils Who Conquered the Skies, received three starred reviews and was named one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2017. Goldstone’s writing has been featured in The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. Visit his website at www.lawrencegoldstone.com.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow 

This week, you'll hear from a literacy expert, an author, an editor, and several kids and families all about what makes the read-aloud so special, and why it's a crucial experience for kids of all ages. 

Additional resources: 

• See all of our findings from our Kids & Family Reading Report: The Rise of Read-Aloud
• Read more from Pam Allyn about the findings in our report
• Learn more about Sandra Magsamen
• Learn more about World Read Aloud Day from Scholastic and from LitWorld

Guests:

• Pam Allyn is the Senior Vice President, Innovation & Development at Scholastic Education. She's also a leading literacy expert, author, and motivational speaker. In 2007, she founded LitWorld, a global literacy organization serving children across the United States and in more than 60 countries, pioneering initiatives including the summer reading program LitCamp and World Read Aloud Day.
• Sandra Magsamen is the author and illustrator of many books for young children, including  a number of bestselling novelty stories such as Baby Love, I Love You Little Pumpkin, and Peek-a-Boo I Love You. As an artist, an art therapist, and a mom, she uses her creativity to remind people to express themeselves and connect with others. 
• Liza Baker is the vice president and executive editorial director of Scholastic's Cartwheel Books and Orchard Press imprints.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow 

Additional resources:

• Learn more about The Bad Guys series
• Learn more about Aaron's latest picture book, I Need a Hug 
• Learn more about Thelma the Unicorn 
• Learn more about the Pig the Pug series

Guests:

• Aaron Blabey has written many well-loved, bestselling books for children. He has around five million books in print and is the creator of three hugely successful series for children — the New York Times bestselling The Bad Guys, Pig the Pug, and Thelma the Unicorn.
  In 2018 it was announced that a movie adaptation of The Bad Guys is in development at DreamWorks Animation with Aaron serving as an Executive Producer on the project.
  Aaron's books have won many awards including nine REAL Awards, an INDIE Book Award for Children's Book of the Year, a Children's Book Council of Australia — Book of the Year Award, a NSW Premiers Literary Award for Children's Literature, two Australian Book Design Awards, and a Children's Peace Literature Award.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow 

"[wedding]
'and now the groom will read his vows'
me: you make every day feel like a scholastic book fair" - @elleryonline

"U kno when u get a whiff of something and ur like ah yes this smells exactly like the scholastic book fair of 2008 in the afternoon on octob—" - @ilovedogs123

We've seen viral post after viral post about how much people love — and love reminiscing about — the Scholastic Book Fair. But what makes it so memorable?

This week, we set out to record some of the magic.

Additional resources:

• Read Brooke Huerter's tweet
• Read Kwazi Henderson's tweet
• Learn more about Scholastic Book Fairs

Guests:

• Brooke Huerter is a sophomore at Marquette University
• Kwazi Henderson is a software engineer from Austin, Texas
• Alan Boyko is the president of Scholastic Book Fairs
• Kevin Stange is a truck driver for Scholastic Book Fairs
• Theresa Thompson is a library media specialist at Eastside Elementary School in Rogers, AR
• Nancy Holodak is the Head of the Lower School at Rumson Country Day School
• Jayne Geiger is the Head of School at Rumson Country Day School

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
• Edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
• Produced by Emily Morrow

Whatever the cause, the problem is clear: Too many children in the U.S. lack access to books.

This week, we're talking with literacy advocates Donalyn Miller and Colby Sharp about how crucial access is. It's a topic they address in their new book for K-8 educators, Game Changer!

Donalyn and Colby discuss how access to a wide variety of texts, choice in what to read, and time to read are “game changers” for the lives of all children, enhancing academic achievement while shaping kids’ understanding of themselves and their world. They also offer practical ways that educators and families can make small changes that can enrich their readers' lives in major ways.

Additional resources:

• Learn more about Game Changer! 
• Learn more about The Nerdy Book Club
• Learn more about Nerd Camp
• Learn more about Donalyn Miller
• Learn more about Colby Sharp

Guests:

• Donalyn Miller is a leading expert on independent reading, children’s literature, and the author of two bestsellers, The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. She is founder of the annual #bookaday event, co-founder with Colby Sharp of The Nerdy Book Club, and co-host of the monthly Twitter chat, #titletalk. Her articles have appeared in Education Week Teacher, The Reading Teacher, Educational Leadership, The Washington Post, and other prominent periodicals.
• Colby Sharp, a fifth-grade teacher at Parma Elementary School in Parma, Michigan, is co-founder of Nerd Camp and The Nerdy Book Club. He co-hosts the monthly twitter chats #sharpschu (with John Schumacher) and #titletalk (with Donalyn Miller), and, with Travis Jonker, The Yarn Podcast. He is the editor of The Creativity Project: An Awesometastic Story Collection.

Special thanks:

• Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
• Sound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan
• Produced by Emily Morrow

This week, we're talking with Lauren Tarshis, editor-in-chief and publisher of Scholastic Classroom Magazines, and Kristin Lewis, editorial director of Scholastic Classroom Magazines, about how they craft the stories that inspire students to become changemakers.