At six years old, Rebecca Elliott knew she wanted to write and illustrate books for kids. Today, she is doing exactly that with her hugely popular book series, Owl Diaries and Unicorn Diaries.
\n\nThis 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.
\n\n→ Resources
\n\nAbout Rebecca Elliot: Learn more about the author and her many books.
\n\nAbout 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.
\n\nAbout Eva the Owlet: The Apple TV+ animated series based on the bestselling Owl Diaries book series, produced by Scholastic Entertainment.
\n\nAbout 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.
\n\nOwl 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.
\n\nGrowing 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.
\n\n→ Highlights
\n\nRebecca Elliott, author, illustrator Owl Diaries
\n\n“[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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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].”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n→ Special Thanks
\n\nProducers: Maxine Osa, Anne Sparkman, Allyson Barkan
\n\nSound Engineer: S. Shin
\n\nMusic Composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
\n\n→ Coming Soon
\n\nR.L. Stine and actor Jayden Bartels talk all things Goosebumps with Billy DiMichele
","summary":"In today’s episode, author and illustrator, Rebecca Elliott 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. ","date_published":"2024-12-20T17:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/6b60ccde-b029-4e0b-9fa2-a508060a715b.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":63770048,"duration_in_seconds":1594}]},{"id":"b5acd523-a04d-4909-b2df-dfe239c18603","title":"When We Flew Away: A Conversation with Alice Hoffman ","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/159","content_text":"For decades Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl has inspired and challenged readers to look for the good in an often-brutal world. \n\nIn 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. \n\nIn 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. \n\n→ Resources\n\nAbout Alice Hoffman: Learn more about the author and her many novels. \n\nWhen 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. \n\nHope 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. \n\nThe 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. \n\n→ Highlights\n\nAlice Hoffman, author, When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary\n\n“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.” \n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Maxine Osa\nSound Engineer: S. Shin \nMusic Composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl \n\n→ Coming Soon\nRebecca Elliot with guest host Billy DiMichele ","content_html":"For decades Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl has inspired and challenged readers to look for the good in an often-brutal world.
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nIn 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.
\n\n→ Resources
\n\nAbout Alice Hoffman: Learn more about the author and her many novels.
\n\nWhen 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.
\n\nHope 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.
\n\nThe 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.
\n\n→ Highlights
\n\nAlice Hoffman, author, When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n→ Special Thanks
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound Engineer: S. Shin
\nMusic Composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\nRebecca Elliot with guest host Billy DiMichele
In honor of Hispanic/Latiné Heritage Month, we’ve invited Francisco X. Stork to talk about his latest young adult novel, One Last Chance to Live. Francisco, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico at the age of nine with his mother and adoptive father, is the author of several award-winning novels, including Marcelo in the Real World, Disappeared, and The Memory of Light. Francisco calls One Last Chance to Live “the most personal of all my books.”
\n\n→ Resources
\nAbout Francisco X. Stork: Learn more about the author and his many novels for young readers.
\nCelebrating Hispanic and Latiné Heritage Month: Check out these titles for the young readers in your life.
→ Highlights
\nFrancisco X. Stork, author, One Last Chance to Live
\n“Once you start writing, the characters take over, and it’s their story that becomes important.”
\n“When I was a little boy in Mexico, I used to tell people . . . ‘I want to be a writer.’”
\n“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
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: S. Shin
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\n\nAlice Hoffman: When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary
","summary":"In honor of Hispanic/Latiné Heritage Month, we’ve invited Francisco X. Stork to talk about his latest young adult novel, One Last Chance to Live.","date_published":"2024-10-11T13:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/75492e9c-1ad4-417c-a863-0b2ff448615b.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":44994440,"duration_in_seconds":1124}]},{"id":"1b3424b2-ff7f-468e-a7f6-cb8dd3d824f2","title":"Cat on the Run: A Conversation With Aaron Blabey","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/157","content_text":"In this episode, we’re spotlighting bestselling author Aaron Blabey. Aaron visited our New York City headquarters in late 2023 from his home in Australia. \n\nHe 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. \n\nYou 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.\n\nAaron 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. \n\n“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.”\n\n→ Resources\nCat 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.\nCat 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. \nThe 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.\n\n→ Highlights\nAaron Blabey, bestselling author and illustrator\nOn 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.”\nOn 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.” \nOn 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.”\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Maxine Osa \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\n\nAlice Hoffman: When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary","content_html":"In this episode, we’re spotlighting bestselling author Aaron Blabey. Aaron visited our New York City headquarters in late 2023 from his home in Australia.
\n\nHe 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.
\n\nYou 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.
\n\nAaron 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.
\n\n“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.”
\n\n→ Resources
\nCat 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.
\nCat 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.
\nThe 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
\nAaron Blabey, bestselling author and illustrator
\nOn 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.”
\nOn 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.”
\nOn 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.”
\n→ Special Thanks
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\n\nAlice Hoffman: When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary
","summary":"In this episode, we’re spotlighting bestselling author Aaron Blabey. Aaron visited our New York City headquarters in late 2023 from his home in Australia. ","date_published":"2024-08-15T16:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/1b3424b2-ff7f-468e-a7f6-cb8dd3d824f2.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":22339655,"duration_in_seconds":929}]},{"id":"e214c804-fc54-44a4-a0a3-86f71e72f8d3","title":"35 for 35: Reach Out and Read Launches a New Book Collection","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/156","content_text":"In this episode, we celebrate the 35th anniversary of Reach Out and Read and an uplifting new book collection. Marty Martinez, the nonprofit’s CEO, and Judy Newman, Chief Impact Officer at Scholastic, talk with host Suzanne McCabe about 35 for 35—a new, curated collection of titles for young children. \n\nA 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. \n\nThe 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. \n\n“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.”\nAs 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. \n\nIn 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. \n\nFor 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. \n\n→ Resources\nReach 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.\n35 for 35: Learn more about this free, curated book collection, a collaboration between Reach Out and Read and Scholastic. \n\n→ Highlights\nMarty Martinez, CEO, Reach Out and Read \n“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.” \n“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.” \n“A child learns to read and then reads to learn.”\n“It opens doors not only for a child but for a whole family when you focus on early literacy.”\nJudy Newman, Chief Impact Officer, Scholastic \n“Programs like these don’t happen unless someone leads the charge.” \n“Twelve publishers from across the publishing industry contributed titles to [35 for 35].”\n\n“For American democracy to continue, we have to have literacy.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Maxine Osa \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\n\nBad Guys Author Aaron Blabey Talks About Cat on the Run \n\nWhen We Flew Away: Author Alice Hoffman Discusses Her New Novel About Anne Frank Before the Diary","content_html":"In this episode, we celebrate the 35th anniversary of Reach Out and Read and an uplifting new book collection. Marty Martinez, the nonprofit’s CEO, and Judy Newman, Chief Impact Officer at Scholastic, talk with host Suzanne McCabe about 35 for 35—a new, curated collection of titles for young children.
\n\nA 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.
\n\nThe 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.
\n\n“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.”
\nAs 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.
\n\nFor 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.
\n\n→ Resources
\nReach 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.
\n35 for 35: Learn more about this free, curated book collection, a collaboration between Reach Out and Read and Scholastic.
→ Highlights
\nMarty Martinez, CEO, Reach Out and Read
\n“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.”
\n“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.”
\n“A child learns to read and then reads to learn.”
\n“It opens doors not only for a child but for a whole family when you focus on early literacy.”
\nJudy Newman, Chief Impact Officer, Scholastic
\n“Programs like these don’t happen unless someone leads the charge.”
\n“Twelve publishers from across the publishing industry contributed titles to [35 for 35].”
“For American democracy to continue, we have to have literacy.”
\n\n→ Special Thanks
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\n\nBad Guys Author Aaron Blabey Talks About Cat on the Run
\n\nWhen We Flew Away: Author Alice Hoffman Discusses Her New Novel About Anne Frank Before the Diary
","summary":"In this episode, we celebrate the 35th anniversary of Reach Out and Read and an uplifting new book collection.","date_published":"2024-07-23T16:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/e214c804-fc54-44a4-a0a3-86f71e72f8d3.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":34134011,"duration_in_seconds":1420}]},{"id":"77c63e59-9643-418f-ac8d-739ab76c1b31","title":"A Darker Mischief: Celebrating Pride Month With Author Derek Milman ","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/155","content_text":"In this episode, we’re celebrating Pride Month with author Derek Milman. Derek talks with host Suzanne McCabe about his latest YA novel, A Darker Mischief. The gripping story revolves around Cal, a queer teen from a poor town in Mississippi. At Essex Academy, an elite boarding school in New England, Cal tries to fit in and falls in love along the way. \n\n“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.”\n\nIn 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). \n\n→ Resources\nA 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.\nYou Are Loved: This curated book list from Scholastic celebrates LGBTQIA+ themes and experiences, with stories centered around identity, acceptance, and love. \n\n→ Highlights\nDerek Milman, author, A Darker Mischief\n“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.” \n“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.” \n“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.” \n“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.”\n“A lot of young love, especially young, gay love, is not easy.”\n“Queer teens need a classic, sweeping, epic romance.” \n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Maxine Osa \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\n\nReach Out and Read: 35 for 35 \n\nKelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story","content_html":"In this episode, we’re celebrating Pride Month with author Derek Milman. Derek talks with host Suzanne McCabe about his latest YA novel, A Darker Mischief. The gripping story revolves around Cal, a queer teen from a poor town in Mississippi. At Essex Academy, an elite boarding school in New England, Cal tries to fit in and falls in love along the way.
\n\n“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.”
\n\nIn 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).
\n\n→ Resources
\nA 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.
\nYou Are Loved: This curated book list from Scholastic celebrates LGBTQIA+ themes and experiences, with stories centered around identity, acceptance, and love.
→ Highlights
\nDerek Milman, author, A Darker Mischief
\n“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.”
\n“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.”
\n“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.”
\n“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.”
\n“A lot of young love, especially young, gay love, is not easy.”
\n“Queer teens need a classic, sweeping, epic romance.”
→ Special Thanks
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\n\nReach Out and Read: 35 for 35
\n\nKelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story
","summary":"In this episode, we’re celebrating Pride Month with author Derek Milman. Derek talks with host Suzanne McCabe about his latest YA novel, A Darker Mischief. ","date_published":"2024-06-20T16:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/77c63e59-9643-418f-ac8d-739ab76c1b31.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":31595795,"duration_in_seconds":1315}]},{"id":"60ce4b79-80da-43dd-a5fd-23bab92bc489","title":"Helping Children Thrive: A Conversation With Dr. Linda C. Mayes","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/154","content_text":"“Children are just suffering more,” says Dr. Linda C. Mayes, director of the Yale Child Study Center. A pediatrician by training, Dr. Mayes specializes in child and adolescent psychiatry. Like other health care professionals, she is sounding the alarm about the rise in anxiety and depression in young people. In this episode, Dr. Mayes talks with host Suzanne McCabe about the reasons for this disturbing trend and explores how we, as a society, can address the challenges our children are facing.\n\nDr. 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.\n\n→ Resources\nNew 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.\nMeet 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. \nKids & Family Reading Report: There’s lots to explore in Scholastic’s biennial national survey of parents’ and children’s reading attitudes and behaviors. \nReach Out and Read: Learn how the nonprofit organization partners with pediatric care providers to help families make reading a part of their routines. \n\n→ The Conversation\nWhat 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?\nAt 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.\nCOVID 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. \nOur 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.\n\nThe lack of civility and lack of empathy among adults is striking. Where did that come from?\nI 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.\n\nWhat signs should parents and educators look for if they think a child needs clinical intervention?\nWhen 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.\n\nIf a child is withdrawn, they may not want to speak. Are there ways to spur conversation without asking repeated questions?\nOne 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.\n\nMany areas in the U.S. have a shortage of mental health professionals. What is being done to make treatment more accessible and more effective?\nThere’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.\nBefore 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.\nAnother 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.\nAs 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. \nWe’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.\n\nCan you describe the mechanisms by which literacy can lead to improved physical and mental health outcomes?\nHow 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. \nReading 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. \nSo, 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.\n\nThere’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.\nYes, 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. \n\nThe 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?\nI 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.\nI 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.\nI 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.\n\nWhat measures among key stakeholders are being taken to improve literacy outcomes for children, even starting with preschoolers?\nI 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.\nThat 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.\nBut 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.\n\nMany 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?\nThere 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.\nI 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.\nBehavioral 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. \nThe 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. \n\nGuns 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?\nI 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.\nWe 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.\nWhat’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.\nMy 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.\n\nResearchers 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?\nIt’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.\nSo, 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.\nSo, 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.\n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Maxine Osa \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\nTop Story: Author Kelly Yang Talks With a Scholastic Kid Reporter \n\nA Darker Mischief: Celebrate Pride Month With Author Derek Millman","content_html":"“Children are just suffering more,” says Dr. Linda C. Mayes, director of the Yale Child Study Center. A pediatrician by training, Dr. Mayes specializes in child and adolescent psychiatry. Like other health care professionals, she is sounding the alarm about the rise in anxiety and depression in young people. In this episode, Dr. Mayes talks with host Suzanne McCabe about the reasons for this disturbing trend and explores how we, as a society, can address the challenges our children are facing.
\n\nDr. 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.
\n\n→ Resources
\nNew 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.
\nMeet 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.
\nKids & Family Reading Report: There’s lots to explore in Scholastic’s biennial national survey of parents’ and children’s reading attitudes and behaviors.
\nReach 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
\nWhat 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?
\nAt 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.
\nCOVID 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.
\nOur 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?
\nI 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?
\nWhen 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?
\nOne 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?
\nThere’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.
\nBefore 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.
\nAnother 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.
\nAs 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.
\nWe’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?
\nHow 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.
\nReading 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.
\nSo, 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.
\nYes, 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?
\nI 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.
\nI 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.
\nI 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?
\nI 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.
\nThat 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.
\nBut 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?
\nThere 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.
\nI 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.
\nBehavioral 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.
\nThe 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?
\nI 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.
\nWe 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.
\nWhat’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.
\nMy 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?
\nIt’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.
\nSo, 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.
\nSo, 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
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\nTop Story: Author Kelly Yang Talks With a Scholastic Kid Reporter
A Darker Mischief: Celebrate Pride Month With Author Derek Millman
","summary":"In this episode, Dr. Mayes talks with host Suzanne McCabe about the reasons for this disturbing trend and explores how we, as a society, can address the challenges our children are facing.","date_published":"2024-05-16T14:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/60ce4b79-80da-43dd-a5fd-23bab92bc489.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":29934768,"duration_in_seconds":2137}]},{"id":"a1626919-aca5-4d6d-9df3-191d0ac3b69a","title":"From Intention to Impact: How to Create More Inclusive Environments ","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/153","content_text":"We hear a lot about DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies these days. But the work is often misunderstood, and even disparaged. In this episode, Lindsey Cotter, Chief Inclusion Officer at Scholastic, and Malia C. Lazu, Founder and CEO of the consulting firm Lazu Group, discuss ways to create more inclusive environments. Doing so is not just a moral imperative, they argue. Statistically, it leads to better outcomes for everyone. \nLindsey has been at Scholastic for more than 20 years. Before taking on her current role, she served as Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Employee Services. Malia is a Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the author of From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2024). \nEarly in her career, Malia worked with singer Harry Belafonte and other civil rights leaders to help bring more opportunities to young people in marginalized communities. “Instead of just rushing in with solutions and answers,” Malia writes, “we listened and learned before we took action.” Her book is essential reading for anyone serious about implementing DEI policies. \n\n→ Resources\n\n7 reasons why your organization isn’t making DEI progress: Malia C. Lazu discusses common pitfalls in DEI implementation. \nFrom Intention to Impact: Check out Malia’s book on diversity, equity, and inclusion.\n\n→ Highlights\nLindsey Cotter, Chief Inclusion Officer, Scholastic Inc.\n“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.” \n“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.” \n“This [work] is going to make a difference for girls coming up now, for women who are out there.” \nMalia C. Lazu, author, From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion\n“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.”\n“Being an ally is about deconstructing power and trying to keep doors and windows open [for others].”\n“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.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Maxine Osa \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\n\nKelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story","content_html":"We hear a lot about DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies these days. But the work is often misunderstood, and even disparaged. In this episode, Lindsey Cotter, Chief Inclusion Officer at Scholastic, and Malia C. Lazu, Founder and CEO of the consulting firm Lazu Group, discuss ways to create more inclusive environments. Doing so is not just a moral imperative, they argue. Statistically, it leads to better outcomes for everyone.
\nLindsey has been at Scholastic for more than 20 years. Before taking on her current role, she served as Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Employee Services. Malia is a Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the author of From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2024).
\nEarly in her career, Malia worked with singer Harry Belafonte and other civil rights leaders to help bring more opportunities to young people in marginalized communities. “Instead of just rushing in with solutions and answers,” Malia writes, “we listened and learned before we took action.” Her book is essential reading for anyone serious about implementing DEI policies.
→ Resources
\n\n7 reasons why your organization isn’t making DEI progress: Malia C. Lazu discusses common pitfalls in DEI implementation.
\nFrom Intention to Impact: Check out Malia’s book on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
→ Highlights
\nLindsey Cotter, Chief Inclusion Officer, Scholastic Inc.
\n“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.”
\n“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.”
\n“This [work] is going to make a difference for girls coming up now, for women who are out there.”
\nMalia C. Lazu, author, From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
\n“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.”
\n“Being an ally is about deconstructing power and trying to keep doors and windows open [for others].”
\n“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
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\n\nKelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story
","summary":"We hear a lot about DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies these days. But the work is often misunderstood, and even disparaged. In this episode, Lindsey Cotter, Chief Inclusion Officer at Scholastic, and Malia C. Lazu, Founder and CEO of the consulting firm Lazu Group, discuss ways to create more inclusive environments.","date_published":"2024-04-03T14:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/a1626919-aca5-4d6d-9df3-191d0ac3b69a.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":29203862,"duration_in_seconds":2084}]},{"id":"cb59c76d-bd91-46c7-93e1-0ae4d99ebb96","title":"We Dream a World: Celebrating Black History Month With Yolanda Renee King ","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/152","content_text":"In honor of Black History Month, Yolanda Renee King talks with host Suzanne McCabe about her new picture book, We Dream A World: Carrying the Light From My Grandparents Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Yolanda is joined in the studio by her editor, Andrea Davis Pinkney, who is vice president and executive editor of Scholastic Trade Publishing.\n\nYolanda 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. \n\nWe 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.” \n\n→ Resources\nWe Dream a World: Learn more about 15-year-old activist and author Yolanda Renee King and her “love letter” to her grandparents. \nShare Black Stories: These works of fiction and nonfiction showcase the many facets of Black life in America.\nRealize 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.\nMeet 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. \n\n→ Highlights\nYolanda Renee King, author, We Dream a World: Carrying the Light From My Grandparents Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King\n\n“Learning about [my grandparents’] perseverance and all that they had to endure, that’s what my parents taught me.” \n\n“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.”\n\n“[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.”\n\nAndrea Davis Pinkney, vice president and executive editor, Scholastic Trade Publishing\n“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.”\n“[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.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Maxine Osa \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\n\nAaron Blabey: Cat on the Run\n\nKelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story","content_html":"In honor of Black History Month, Yolanda Renee King talks with host Suzanne McCabe about her new picture book, We Dream A World: Carrying the Light From My Grandparents Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Yolanda is joined in the studio by her editor, Andrea Davis Pinkney, who is vice president and executive editor of Scholastic Trade Publishing.
\n\nYolanda 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.
\n\nWe 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.”
\n\n→ Resources
\nWe Dream a World: Learn more about 15-year-old activist and author Yolanda Renee King and her “love letter” to her grandparents.
\nShare Black Stories: These works of fiction and nonfiction showcase the many facets of Black life in America.
\nRealize 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.
\nMeet 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
\nYolanda 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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“[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.”
\n\nAndrea Davis Pinkney, vice president and executive editor, Scholastic Trade Publishing
\n“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.”
\n“[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
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\n\nAaron Blabey: Cat on the Run
\n\nKelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story
","summary":"In honor of Black History Month, Yolanda Renee King talks with host Suzanne McCabe about her new picture book, We Dream A World: Carrying the Light From My Grandparents Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Yolanda is joined in the studio by her editor, Andrea Davis Pinkney, who is vice president and executive editor of Scholastic Trade Publishing.","date_published":"2024-02-07T11:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/cb59c76d-bd91-46c7-93e1-0ae4d99ebb96.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":15902471,"duration_in_seconds":1134}]},{"id":"e67005bc-fba4-495f-a89f-4f66d3a34d60","title":"Authors Neal Shusterman and Sharon Cameron Share Stories of Hope From the Holocaust","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/151","content_text":"In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we spotlight two Scholastic authors who depict everyday acts of heroism in their latest novels about the Holocaust. First, Neal Shusterman talks about Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust, his new graphic novel for young readers. The book is beautifully illustrated by Andrés Vera Martínez. \n\nThen, Sharon Cameron discusses Artifice, her latest work of historical fiction for middle graders.\n\n“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.”\n\nNeal 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. \n\nSharon 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.\n→ Resources\nStoryman: Check out Neal Shusterman’s author bio. \nThe “Accidental” Author: Learn more about Sharon Cameron and her titles for young readers. \n24 Books for Teaching the Holocaust: These powerful works of fiction and nonfiction are for students in Grades 1 – 12. \nWhen 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. \nThe 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. \nInternational 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. \n\n→ Highlights\nNeal Shusterman, author, Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust\n“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.”\n“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.”\n“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.”\nSharon Cameron, author, Artifice\n“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.” \n“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.”\n“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.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Maxine Osa \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\n\nYolanda Renee King on the Legacy of Her Grandparents \n\nKelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story","content_html":"In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we spotlight two Scholastic authors who depict everyday acts of heroism in their latest novels about the Holocaust. First, Neal Shusterman talks about Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust, his new graphic novel for young readers. The book is beautifully illustrated by Andrés Vera Martínez.
\n\nThen, Sharon Cameron discusses Artifice, her latest work of historical fiction for middle graders.
\n\n“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.”
\n\nNeal 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.
\n\nSharon 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.
\n→ Resources
\nStoryman: Check out Neal Shusterman’s author bio.
\nThe “Accidental” Author: Learn more about Sharon Cameron and her titles for young readers.
\n24 Books for Teaching the Holocaust: These powerful works of fiction and nonfiction are for students in Grades 1 – 12.
\nWhen 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.
\nThe 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.
\nInternational 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
\nNeal Shusterman, author, Courage to Dream: Tales of Hope in the Holocaust
\n“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.”
\n“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.”
\n“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.”
\nSharon Cameron, author, Artifice
\n“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.”
\n“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.”
\n“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
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\n\nYolanda Renee King on the Legacy of Her Grandparents
\n\nKelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story
","summary":"In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we spotlight two Scholastic authors who depict everyday acts of heroism in their latest novels about the Holocaust. ","date_published":"2024-01-23T11:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/e67005bc-fba4-495f-a89f-4f66d3a34d60.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":29393751,"duration_in_seconds":2097}]},{"id":"9a5552c3-cfe8-4e30-99a8-b1aa24529acb","title":"Celebrating Hispanic Latine Heritage Month With Dr. Maria Armstrong ","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/150","content_text":"In this episode, we celebrate Hispanic Latine Heritage Month with Dr. Maria Armstrong. A longtime educator, Dr. Armstrong is executive director of the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents {ALAS]. She talks with host Suzanne McCabe about her experiences in education and how we can better serve Latino children and families.\n\nDr. 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.\n\nHaving 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). \n\n“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.”\n\n→ Resources\nHispanic and Latine Heritage Book Picks: Check out these featured titles for young readers from Scholastic. \nEquity 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. \nRising 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. \nMy 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)\n\n→ Highlights\nDr. Maria Armstrong, executive director, the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents [ALAS]\n“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.”\n“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.” \n“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.” \n\n“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.” \n\n“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.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Maxine Osa\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\nGoosebumps Heads Back to Television\n\nTop Story: A Conversation With Kelly Yang and Kid Reporter Zoya Siddiqui\n\nAaron Blabey Introduces Cat on the Run","content_html":"In this episode, we celebrate Hispanic Latine Heritage Month with Dr. Maria Armstrong. A longtime educator, Dr. Armstrong is executive director of the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents {ALAS]. She talks with host Suzanne McCabe about her experiences in education and how we can better serve Latino children and families.
\n\nDr. 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.
\n\nHaving 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).
\n\n“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.”
\n\n→ Resources
\nHispanic and Latine Heritage Book Picks: Check out these featured titles for young readers from Scholastic.
\nEquity 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.
\nRising 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.
\nMy 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
\nDr. Maria Armstrong, executive director, the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents [ALAS]
\n“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.”
\n“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.”
\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n→ Special Thanks
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\nGoosebumps Heads Back to Television
Top Story: A Conversation With Kelly Yang and Kid Reporter Zoya Siddiqui
\n\nAaron Blabey Introduces Cat on the Run
","summary":"In this episode, we celebrate Hispanic Latine Heritage Month with Dr. Maria Armstrong. ","date_published":"2023-10-06T09:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/9a5552c3-cfe8-4e30-99a8-b1aa24529acb.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":19314205,"duration_in_seconds":1609}]},{"id":"dc821233-6cae-4366-9b67-e5f9d02acecb","title":"Welcome to Camp Sunshine: Jarrett J. Krosoczka Talks About His Award-Winning Graphic Memoir","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/149","content_text":"If you’ve ever been to summer camp, or wish you had gotten the chance to go, you’ll love hearing author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka talk with host Suzanne McCabe about his latest graphic memoir. It’s called Sunshine: How One Camp Taught Me About Life, Death, and Hope.\n\nCamp 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.\n\nDuring 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. \n\nSunshine, 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.\n\n→ Resources\n\nStudio JJK: Learn more about Jarrett’s books and Ted Talks, and get writing and illustrating tutorials from a master. \nExpress Yourself: Jarrett is featured in this Washington Post article about how everyone can benefit from creating art.\nHey, 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. \n\n→ Highlights\n\nJarrett J. Krosoczka, author, Sunshine \nVolunteering at Camp Sunshine “was something as a part of the experience of high school as the prom.” \n\n“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.” \n\n“I hope that young readers can understand that they have the power to make a big difference in someone’s life.” \n\n“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.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\n\nProducer: Maxine Osa \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\n\nMeet Our Scholastic Kid Reporters\nGoosebumps Heads Back to Television","content_html":"If you’ve ever been to summer camp, or wish you had gotten the chance to go, you’ll love hearing author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka talk with host Suzanne McCabe about his latest graphic memoir. It’s called Sunshine: How One Camp Taught Me About Life, Death, and Hope.
\n\nCamp 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.
\n\nDuring 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.
\n\nSunshine, 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.
\n\nStudio JJK: Learn more about Jarrett’s books and Ted Talks, and get writing and illustrating tutorials from a master.
\nExpress Yourself: Jarrett is featured in this Washington Post article about how everyone can benefit from creating art.
\nHey, 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.
Jarrett J. Krosoczka, author, Sunshine
\nVolunteering 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.”
\n\n“I hope that young readers can understand that they have the power to make a big difference in someone’s life.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Meet Our Scholastic Kid Reporters
\nGoosebumps Heads Back to Television
In this episode, we’re celebrating Pride Month with British author and screenwriter Simon James Green. Simon joins host Suzanne McCabe to talk about Gay Club!, his hilarious new novel for young adults. The story revolves around Barney Brown, a self-described chess geek who wants to lead his high school’s LGBTQIA+ Society to better days. But Barney faces unexpected competition in the group’s presidential election from rival Bronte, who manages to have the voting opened to the entire student body at Greenacre Academy. Little by little, the stakes are raised, showing the teens at their worst—and, ultimately, their best.
\n\nSimon 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.
\n\n→ Resources
\nRead With Pride: These LGBTQIA+ books for kids are relatable and eye-opening for all readers.
\nLearn More About Simon James Green: Find out why Simon is considered one of the UK’s leading writers of LGBTQIA+ fiction for teens.
\nOrder 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
\nSimon James Green, author, Gay Club!
\n “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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“I wrote my first book when I was 12 years old on my grandmother’s typewriter in her little study at home.”
\n\n→ Special Thanks
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\n\nThe Scholastic Innovation Lab
\n\nGoosebumps Heads Back to Television
","summary":"In this episode, we’re celebrating Pride Month with British author and screenwriter Simon James Green. ","date_published":"2023-06-27T13:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/20f8d056-5206-4070-8193-382ab2b65713.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":28047079,"duration_in_seconds":1168}]},{"id":"a9aa7538-dd9b-4849-965c-6467cd3db0cf","title":"Celebrating 100 Years of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/147","content_text":"In 1923, Scholastic founder and CEO Maurice R. Robinson deemed that artistic students should be celebrated every bit as much as their athletic peers. Robinson created the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards to recognize talented young artists and writers from across the United States. \n\nThe 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. \n\nA 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. \n\nIn 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. \n\n→ Resources\nA 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. \nScholastic Art & Writing Awards: Administered by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the awards have fostered creativity among young people since 1923.\n\n→ Highlights\nHannah Jones, editor, A Thousand Familiar Faces\n“It was [surprising] how vital and important and immediate and fresh the voices from the ’20s and ’30s and ’40s felt.” \n\n“I want every single one of these writers to just have their moment of being read by someone new.”\nHenry Trinder, researcher, A Thousand Familiar Faces\n“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.” \n\n“It was comforting to read these stories and see myself in them.” \nDeimosa Webber-Bey, researcher, A Thousand Familiar Faces\n“It was very satisfying to . . . come away that much richer in knowledge about Scholastic history, about teenagers, about the 20th century.” \n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Maxine Osa \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\nPride Month: Author Simon James Green Talks About Gay Club! ","content_html":"In 1923, Scholastic founder and CEO Maurice R. Robinson deemed that artistic students should be celebrated every bit as much as their athletic peers. Robinson created the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards to recognize talented young artists and writers from across the United States.
\n\nThe 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.
\n\nA 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.
\n\nIn 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.
\n\n→ Resources
\nA 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.
\nScholastic Art & Writing Awards: Administered by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the awards have fostered creativity among young people since 1923.
→ Highlights
\nHannah Jones, editor, A Thousand Familiar Faces
\n“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.”
\nHenry Trinder, researcher, A Thousand Familiar Faces
\n“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.”
\nDeimosa Webber-Bey, researcher, A Thousand Familiar Faces
\n“It was very satisfying to . . . come away that much richer in knowledge about Scholastic history, about teenagers, about the 20th century.”
→ Special Thanks
\nProducer: Maxine Osa
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\nPride Month: Author Simon James Green Talks About Gay Club!
In this episode, we’re celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with New York Times bestselling comic artist Betty C. Tang. Betty talks with host Suzanne McCabe about her extraordinary new graphic novel, Parachute Kids.
\n\nThe 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.
\n\nBetty 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?
\n\n→ Resources
\nParachute 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.
\nHonoring AANHPI Voices: Check out these titles for young readers.
→ Highlights
\nBetty C. Tang, author, Parachute Kids
\n“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.”
\n\n“[Feng-Li’s] purpose is to hold her family together before she loses everything.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“Sometimes, as a newcomer, you really feel like you’re the only one.”
\n\n“I hope the book will help foster a sense of empathy.”
\n\n→ Special Thanks
\nProducer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\n\nScholastic Art & Writing Awards
\n\nPride Month
","summary":"In this episode, we’re celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with New York Times bestselling comic artist Betty C. Tang. Betty talks with host Suzanne McCabe about her extraordinary new graphic novel, Parachute Kids. ","date_published":"2023-05-11T13:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/9c17f4db-64ab-4504-8709-85275532980a.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":31696247,"duration_in_seconds":1320}]},{"id":"49919921-535e-4844-b198-05f40e211fe3","title":"Big Tree: A Conversation With Author and Illustrator Brian Selznick","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/145","content_text":"In this episode, we introduce you to siblings Merwin and Louise. They are two tiny sycamore seeds, living in a world filled with dinosaurs, asteroids, and volcanoes. Merwin and Louise are the creation of author and illustrator Brian Selznick, who discusses his new novel, Big Tree, with host Suzanne McCabe\n\nThe 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. \n\nBrian 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. \n\n→ Resources\n\nBig 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.\n\nBig Tree audiobook: The audio version of Big Tree is narrated by Meryl Streep and features music composed by Ernest Troost.\n\n→ Highlights\n\nBrian Selznick, author, Big Tree\n“[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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“The anthropomorphizing that I’m doing is all based in scientific ideas.”\n\n“We’re facing a real threat to the environment today. The world is in real danger.”\n\n“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.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\n\nProducer: Constance Gibbs \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\n\nBetty C. Tang: Parachute Kids\n\nScholastic Art & Writing Awards","content_html":"In this episode, we introduce you to siblings Merwin and Louise. They are two tiny sycamore seeds, living in a world filled with dinosaurs, asteroids, and volcanoes. Merwin and Louise are the creation of author and illustrator Brian Selznick, who discusses his new novel, Big Tree, with host Suzanne McCabe
\n\nThe 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.
\n\nBrian 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.
\n\nBig 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.
\n\nBig Tree audiobook: The audio version of Big Tree is narrated by Meryl Streep and features music composed by Ernest Troost.
\n\nBrian Selznick, author, Big Tree
\n“[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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“The anthropomorphizing that I’m doing is all based in scientific ideas.”
\n\n“We’re facing a real threat to the environment today. The world is in real danger.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\nProducer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Betty C. Tang: Parachute Kids
\n\nScholastic Art & Writing Awards
","summary":"","date_published":"2023-04-20T14:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/49919921-535e-4844-b198-05f40e211fe3.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":43606160,"duration_in_seconds":1816}]},{"id":"088fb9ea-811a-405c-8c4f-ab05c28e5fac","title":"Iceberg: Author Jennifer A. Nielsen Reimagines the Sinking of the Titanic","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/144","content_text":"Everyone loves a good Titanic story. Jennifer A. Nielsen has written a great one! In this episode, she talks with host Suzanne McCabe about Iceberg, her new middle grade novel. It’s already a best-seller.\n\nIceberg 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. \n\nJennifer is also the author of the Ascendance series, the historical thrillers Resistance and A Night Divided, and several other acclaimed titles. \n\n→ Resources\n\nIceberg: In this middle-grade novel, readers meet 12-year-old Hazel Rothbury, who is traveling from her home in England aboard the celebrated Titanic.\n\nJennifer A. Nielsen: Learn more about the New York Times bestselling author.\n\n→ Highlights\n\nJennifer A. Nielsen, author, Iceberg\n“Curiosity is such a gift, a trait, for anybody to have, and Hazel is thick with it.”\n\n“There are so many ‘What if’ questions. What if this one thing might have been different? Could all of history have changed?”\n\n“You can write your future, and if you don’t like the future that is ahead for you, write!”\n\n“A reader will always get what they need from a story.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\n\nProducer: Constance Gibbs \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\n\nEARTH DAY—Brian Selznick: Big Tree\n\nAAPI MONTH—Betty C. Tang: Parachute Kids","content_html":"Everyone loves a good Titanic story. Jennifer A. Nielsen has written a great one! In this episode, she talks with host Suzanne McCabe about Iceberg, her new middle grade novel. It’s already a best-seller.
\n\nIceberg 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.
\n\nJennifer is also the author of the Ascendance series, the historical thrillers Resistance and A Night Divided, and several other acclaimed titles.
\n\nIceberg: In this middle-grade novel, readers meet 12-year-old Hazel Rothbury, who is traveling from her home in England aboard the celebrated Titanic.
\n\nJennifer A. Nielsen: Learn more about the New York Times bestselling author.
\n\nJennifer A. Nielsen, author, Iceberg
\n“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?”
\n\n“You can write your future, and if you don’t like the future that is ahead for you, write!”
\n\n“A reader will always get what they need from a story.”
\n\nProducer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
EARTH DAY—Brian Selznick: Big Tree
\n\nAAPI MONTH—Betty C. Tang: Parachute Kids
","summary":"Jennifer A. Nielsen has written a great one! In this episode, she talks with host Suzanne McCabe about Iceberg, her new middle grade novel. It’s already a best-seller.","date_published":"2023-04-12T16:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/088fb9ea-811a-405c-8c4f-ab05c28e5fac.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":33024112,"duration_in_seconds":1375}]},{"id":"c331137a-2c08-49a1-81a7-5be3b4d689c9","title":"I Kick and I Fly: A Conversation With Author and Activist Ruchira Gupta","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/143","content_text":"During Women’s History Month, we celebrate women who paved the way in a range of fields—from politics and the law to aviation and technology. In this episode, host Suzanne McCabe talks with Ruchira Gupta, a journalist, author, and activist who is ensuring a future for girls who otherwise might not have one. Ruchira has worked tirelessly to help girls in India, Nepal, and other countries escape the brutal world of child sex trafficking. She is the co-founder of Apne Aap, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that empowers women and girls to escape the vicious cycle of prostitution.\n\nRuchira’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.”\n\nRuchira 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. \n\n→ Resources\nMeet 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.\n\nApne Aap: The NGO that Ruchira co-founded works to end sex trafficking by preventing intergenerational prostitution. \n\nI Kick and I Fly: Order the new YA novel by Ruchira Gupta.\n\nCelebrating Courageous Women: Check out these biographies for young people from Scholastic.\n\n→ Highlights\n\nRuchira Gupta, author, I Kick and I Fly\n\n“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.” \n\n“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.” \n\n“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.” \n\n“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.” \n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.” \n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\n\nProducer: Constance Gibbs\n\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\n\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\n\nTHE TITANIC—Jennifer A. Nielsen: Iceberg\n\nEARTH DAY—Brian Selznick: Big Tree","content_html":"During Women’s History Month, we celebrate women who paved the way in a range of fields—from politics and the law to aviation and technology. In this episode, host Suzanne McCabe talks with Ruchira Gupta, a journalist, author, and activist who is ensuring a future for girls who otherwise might not have one. Ruchira has worked tirelessly to help girls in India, Nepal, and other countries escape the brutal world of child sex trafficking. She is the co-founder of Apne Aap, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that empowers women and girls to escape the vicious cycle of prostitution.
\n\nRuchira’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.”
\n\nRuchira 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.
\n\n→ Resources
\nMeet 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.
\n\nI Kick and I Fly: Order the new YA novel by Ruchira Gupta.
\n\nCelebrating Courageous Women: Check out these biographies for young people from Scholastic.
\n\n→ Highlights
\n\nRuchira Gupta, author, I Kick and I Fly
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n→ Special Thanks
\n\nProducer: Constance Gibbs
\n\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\n\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
\n\n→ Coming Soon
\n\nTHE TITANIC—Jennifer A. Nielsen: Iceberg
\n\nEARTH DAY—Brian Selznick: Big Tree
","summary":" In this episode, host Suzanne McCabe talks with Ruchira Gupta, a journalist, author, and activist who is ensuring a future for girls who otherwise might not have one.","date_published":"2023-03-09T15:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/c331137a-2c08-49a1-81a7-5be3b4d689c9.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":35199324,"duration_in_seconds":1464}]},{"id":"aeece2b4-f363-4b8f-8012-dce741fc61f0","title":"Dreamer: Akim Aliu Talks About His New Graphic Novel and Racism in the Hockey World","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/142","content_text":"When Akim Aliu was a young boy, he and his family moved to Canada. His parents wanted a better life for their two sons. Akim’s father is Nigerian, and his mother Ukrainian. Whether they lived in Ukraine, Nigeria, or Canada, the family faced discrimination and bigotry. \n\nThings 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. \n\nAkim 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. \n\nIn 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. \n\nAkim 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. \n\n→ Resources\n\nDreamer: 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.\n\nHockey Diversity Alliance: Find out how the organization that Akim co-founded is changing the face of hockey. \n\nRacism in the NHL: As this New York Times article explains, Akim publicly addressed racism in the hockey world in 2020. \n\n35 Books for Black History Month: These titles for grades K-12 celebrate individuals whose contributions have changed the world. \n\n→ Highlights\n\nAkim Aliu, co-author, Dreamer\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.” \n\n“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.”\n\n“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.” \n\n“For me, dreaming and faith go hand in hand because . . . it’s believing in something that you can’t yet see.” \n\n“I hope kids don’t give up on their dreams.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\n\nProducer: Constance Gibbs \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\nRuchira Gupta: I Kick and I Fly\n\nBrian Selznick: Big Tree","content_html":"When Akim Aliu was a young boy, he and his family moved to Canada. His parents wanted a better life for their two sons. Akim’s father is Nigerian, and his mother Ukrainian. Whether they lived in Ukraine, Nigeria, or Canada, the family faced discrimination and bigotry.
\n\nThings 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.
\n\nAkim 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.
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nAkim 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.
\n\nDreamer: 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.
\n\nHockey Diversity Alliance: Find out how the organization that Akim co-founded is changing the face of hockey.
\n\nRacism in the NHL: As this New York Times article explains, Akim publicly addressed racism in the hockey world in 2020.
\n\n35 Books for Black History Month: These titles for grades K-12 celebrate individuals whose contributions have changed the world.
\n\nAkim Aliu, co-author, Dreamer
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“For me, dreaming and faith go hand in hand because . . . it’s believing in something that you can’t yet see.”
\n\n“I hope kids don’t give up on their dreams.”
\n\nProducer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\nRuchira Gupta: I Kick and I Fly
Brian Selznick: Big Tree
","summary":"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.","date_published":"2023-02-10T09:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/aeece2b4-f363-4b8f-8012-dce741fc61f0.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":15989773,"duration_in_seconds":1323}]},{"id":"7f6e34b5-07ec-44b7-b97c-86df87d6050a","title":"Owl Diaries: Rebecca Elliott on Reading Aloud and Eva the Owlet ","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/141","content_text":"If you haven’t met Eva the Owlet, you’re in for a treat. She’s headed to Apple TV+ for her own animated series, which debuts on March 31. \n\nEva 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+. \n\nRebecca 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.\n\nThis 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.”\n\n→ Resources\nRebecca Elliott: Learn more about the best-selling author. \n\nEva the Owlet: The spirited narrator of Owl Diaries gets her own animated show. \n\nWorld Read Aloud Day: Download the “WRAD-a-thon” schedule and instructions. \n\n100 Best Read-Aloud Books: Check out this list of favorite read-alouds for young readers.\n\n→ Highlights\nRebecca Elliott, author, Owl Diaries \n“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.”\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.” \n\n“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.”\n\n“Every chapter ends on some sort of cliffhanger, so it makes [readers] want to pick up the book the next time.” \n\n“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.’”\n\n“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.” \n\n“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.”\n\n“Films and TV are great, but books put you in the action.”\n\n“If you’re reading a funny book out loud, and the person you’re reading to laughs, my goodness, that’s an amazing thing.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.” \n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Constance Gibbs \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\nAkim Aliu Introduces Dreamer\n\nA Conversation With Ruby Bridges ","content_html":"If you haven’t met Eva the Owlet, you’re in for a treat. She’s headed to Apple TV+ for her own animated series, which debuts on March 31.
\n\nEva 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+.
\n\nRebecca 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.
\n\nThis 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.”
\n\n→ Resources
\nRebecca Elliott: Learn more about the best-selling author.
Eva the Owlet: The spirited narrator of Owl Diaries gets her own animated show.
\n\nWorld Read Aloud Day: Download the “WRAD-a-thon” schedule and instructions.
\n\n100 Best Read-Aloud Books: Check out this list of favorite read-alouds for young readers.
\n\n→ Highlights
\nRebecca Elliott, author, Owl Diaries
\n“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.”
\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“Every chapter ends on some sort of cliffhanger, so it makes [readers] want to pick up the book the next time.”
\n\n“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.’”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“Films and TV are great, but books put you in the action.”
\n\n“If you’re reading a funny book out loud, and the person you’re reading to laughs, my goodness, that’s an amazing thing.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n→ Special Thanks
\nProducer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\nAkim Aliu Introduces Dreamer
A Conversation With Ruby Bridges
","summary":"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+. ","date_published":"2023-01-30T13:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/7f6e34b5-07ec-44b7-b97c-86df87d6050a.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":15666096,"duration_in_seconds":1302}]},{"id":"8d76a4b4-1f97-4a4c-a685-1a021786709a","title":"The Tower of Life: Remembering the Holocaust ","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/140","content_text":"In 1941, when Yaffa Eliach was six years old, German troops invaded her town in what was then Poland. Most of the Jewish population was rounded up and murdered. Within two days, 900 years of history was sundered. But Yaffa and her family managed to escape. After the war, Yaffa settled in the United States, where she earned a PhD, writing and telling stories about the Holocaust. \n\nYaffa 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. \n\nChana 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. \n\n→ Resources\nChana Stiefel: Includes a teaching guide for The Tower of Life and summaries of other books by the award-winning author.\n\nUnited 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. \n\n→ Highlights\nChana Stiefel, author, The Tower of Life \n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Constance Gibbs \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\nWorld Read Aloud Day\nAkim Aliu Introduces Dreamer","content_html":"In 1941, when Yaffa Eliach was six years old, German troops invaded her town in what was then Poland. Most of the Jewish population was rounded up and murdered. Within two days, 900 years of history was sundered. But Yaffa and her family managed to escape. After the war, Yaffa settled in the United States, where she earned a PhD, writing and telling stories about the Holocaust.
\n\nYaffa 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.
\n\nChana 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.
\n\n→ Resources
\nChana 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.
\n\n→ Highlights
\nChana Stiefel, author, The Tower of Life
\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n→ Special Thanks
\nProducer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\nWorld Read Aloud Day
\nAkim Aliu Introduces Dreamer
How can individual members of a community help children flourish in the classroom? One way is through mentoring. Scholastic’s nationwide mentorship program helps students boost their literacy skills while creating meaningful bonds with caring individuals. Our read-aloud mentoring program, which comes with books and teaching guides, is called R.E.A.L. — READ, EXCEL, ACHIEVE, and LEAD.
\n\nIn 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.”
\n\nChristian 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.
\n\n→ Resources
\nR.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.
\n\n→ Highlights
\nChristian Adair, educator and mentor, Fayette County Public Schools
\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.’”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.’”
\n\n→ Special Thanks
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\nRemembering the Holocaust
World Read Aloud Day
\n\nBlack History Month
","summary":" One way is through mentoring. Scholastic’s nationwide mentorship program helps students boost their literacy skills while creating meaningful bonds with caring individuals. Our read-aloud mentoring program, which comes with books and teaching guides, is called R.E.A.L. — READ, EXCEL, ACHIEVE, and LEAD. ","date_published":"2023-01-11T12:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/37873ea8-65bb-4a96-a8d8-25ec79fa73c6.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":20831939,"duration_in_seconds":1733}]},{"id":"d465badd-3dae-4837-9443-7620a345eebe","title":"If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving Revisited ","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/138","content_text":"The arrival of the Mayflower in Plimouth in 1620, and the Pilgrims’ feast with Wampanoag Indians a year later, are recalled each November when we celebrate Thanksgiving. But what actually happened at that three-day feast, and how did the narrative change over time? \n\nIn 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. \n\nLater, 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. \n\n→ Resources\nIn 2021, Smithsonian Voices spotlighted If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving.\n\nIf You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving is available from Scholastic and Amazon.\n\nIn 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. \n\n→ Highlights\nChris Newell, author, If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving:\n“English is a foreign language. Our languages are actually the original languages of this landscape.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.”\n\nIt 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.” \n\n→ Special Thanks\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\n→ Coming Soon\nDr. Karen Mapp on Family-School Partnerships","content_html":"The arrival of the Mayflower in Plimouth in 1620, and the Pilgrims’ feast with Wampanoag Indians a year later, are recalled each November when we celebrate Thanksgiving. But what actually happened at that three-day feast, and how did the narrative change over time?
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nLater, 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.
\n\n→ Resources
\nIn 2021, Smithsonian Voices spotlighted If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving.
If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving is available from Scholastic and Amazon.
\n\nIn 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.
\n\n→ Highlights
\nChris Newell, author, If You Lived During the Plimouth Thanksgiving:
\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\nIt 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.”
\n\n→ Special Thanks
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
→ Coming Soon
\nDr. Karen Mapp on Family-School Partnerships
We often talk about the joy and power of reading. But how does a child get there? How do they actually learn how to read, to recognize words on a page and make sense of them?
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nA 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.
","summary":"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.","date_published":"2022-10-27T06:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/ae611663-2de3-4ba2-9c8e-f3fba439c2d2.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":16370028,"duration_in_seconds":1361}]},{"id":"72e8ea10-f7b2-4fc6-874f-2a026b792484","title":"Celebrating Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month With Carmen Agra Deedy, Sonia Manzano, and Claribel A. Ortega","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/136","content_text":"In this episode, we’re celebrating Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month with three favorite Scholastic authors. First, Carmen Agra Deedy talks about her extraordinary new picture book, The Children’s Moon. Illustrated by Jim LaMarche, the book is available in both English and Spanish editions. \n\nCarmen 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. \n\nNext, 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. \n\nLast 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. ","content_html":"In this episode, we’re celebrating Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month with three favorite Scholastic authors. First, Carmen Agra Deedy talks about her extraordinary new picture book, The Children’s Moon. Illustrated by Jim LaMarche, the book is available in both English and Spanish editions.
\n\nCarmen 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.
\n\nNext, 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.
\n\nLast 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.
","summary":"In this episode, we’re celebrating Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month with three favorite Scholastic authors. ","date_published":"2022-09-30T06:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/72e8ea10-f7b2-4fc6-874f-2a026b792484.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":37069784,"duration_in_seconds":3085}]},{"id":"2afd1760-373c-4620-a1eb-3849f1060db6","title":"Honoring Banned Books Week with Amy Sarig King","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/135","content_text":"Every September, we celebrate banned books. These are the stories that are so powerful—and so transformative—that some people think others shouldn’t be able to read them. Banning or censoring a book may be done with good intentions, but it ends up limiting access to diverse, often marginalized, voices and deprives readers of important historical information.\n\nIn 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. \n\nAmy is also the author of The Year We Fell From Space, Me and Marvin Gardens, and several other acclaimed titles for young readers.","content_html":"Every September, we celebrate banned books. These are the stories that are so powerful—and so transformative—that some people think others shouldn’t be able to read them. Banning or censoring a book may be done with good intentions, but it ends up limiting access to diverse, often marginalized, voices and deprives readers of important historical information.
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nAmy is also the author of The Year We Fell From Space, Me and Marvin Gardens, and several other acclaimed titles for young readers.
","summary":"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.","date_published":"2022-09-19T06:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/2afd1760-373c-4620-a1eb-3849f1060db6.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":16452290,"duration_in_seconds":1367}]},{"id":"87410db6-a559-4358-b823-c668f0972fda","title":"“Make Good Trouble” — Remembering U.S. Representative John Lewis","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/134","content_text":"In this episode, we’re honoring John Lewis, the civil rights hero and Congressman who died in 2020. The bond that Lewis forged with young Tybre Faw is the subject of a new picture book by best-selling author Andrea Davis Pinkney. Illustrated by Keith Henry Brown, the book is called Because of You, John Lewis: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship. \n\nAndrea 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. \n\n“I watched this child honoring this civil rights hero, and I wondered what had led him to this moment,” Andrea says.\nTybre 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. \n\nLater 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. ","content_html":"In this episode, we’re honoring John Lewis, the civil rights hero and Congressman who died in 2020. The bond that Lewis forged with young Tybre Faw is the subject of a new picture book by best-selling author Andrea Davis Pinkney. Illustrated by Keith Henry Brown, the book is called Because of You, John Lewis: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship.
\n\nAndrea 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.
\n\n“I watched this child honoring this civil rights hero, and I wondered what had led him to this moment,” Andrea says.
\nTybre 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.
","summary":"In this episode, we’re honoring John Lewis, the civil rights hero and Congressman who died in 2020. The bond that Lewis forged with young Tybre Faw is the subject of a new picture book by best-selling author Andrea Davis Pinkney. Illustrated by Keith Henry Brown, the book is called Because of You, John Lewis: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship. 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.","date_published":"2022-07-18T11:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/87410db6-a559-4358-b823-c668f0972fda.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":18001220,"duration_in_seconds":1496}]},{"id":"0ca21098-411d-4144-a8c0-fa62cab02ff3","title":"Aaron Blabey and The Bad Guys","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/133","content_text":"In this episode, author and illustrator Aaron Blabey talks about the creation of The Bad Guys, his hit book series with Scholastic. The series inspired the 2022 computer-animated film of the same name from DreamWorks Animation. Aaron describes the series, which follows the adventures of a hapless gang of criminal animals who finally do good, as “Tarantino for kids.” \n\nThe impulse in creating the series, Aaron tells host Suzanne McCabe, “was to make sure my son had a book to read that was fun.” \n\nThe 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. \n\nResources:\nAaron Blabey: Learn more about the #1 New York Times best-selling author. \nThe Bad Guys: Read the books. Watch the movie. \n\nHighlights:\nAaron Blabey, author and illustrator, The Bad Guys:\n\n“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.” \n\n“Mr. Wolf and Mr. Snake are two halves of me…. I think we all have it—your optimistic side and your pessimistic side.” \n\n“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.’” \n\nOf his teenage sons’ view of him: “’It’s just Dad in the garage. How hard can it be?’” \n\nSpecial Thanks:\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\nComing Soon:\nBecause of You, John Lewis: A conversation with author Andrea Davis Pinkney and U.S. Representative Nikema Williams","content_html":"In this episode, author and illustrator Aaron Blabey talks about the creation of The Bad Guys, his hit book series with Scholastic. The series inspired the 2022 computer-animated film of the same name from DreamWorks Animation. Aaron describes the series, which follows the adventures of a hapless gang of criminal animals who finally do good, as “Tarantino for kids.”
\n\nThe impulse in creating the series, Aaron tells host Suzanne McCabe, “was to make sure my son had a book to read that was fun.”
\n\nThe 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.
\n\nResources:
\nAaron Blabey: Learn more about the #1 New York Times best-selling author.
\nThe Bad Guys: Read the books. Watch the movie.
Highlights:
\nAaron 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.”
\n\n“Mr. Wolf and Mr. Snake are two halves of me…. I think we all have it—your optimistic side and your pessimistic side.”
\n\n“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.’”
\n\nOf his teenage sons’ view of him: “’It’s just Dad in the garage. How hard can it be?’”
\n\nSpecial Thanks:
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Coming Soon:
\nBecause of You, John Lewis: A conversation with author Andrea Davis Pinkney and U.S. Representative Nikema Williams
In this episode, we’re spotlighting the Scholastic Summer Reading program. Authors Christina Soontornvat, Kwame Mbalia, Tracey West, and Lauren Tarshis join host Suzanne McCabe to introduce the books they will be sharing with young readers this summer. Lauren offers a sneak peek of her upcoming I Survived The Wellington Avalanche, 1910, which is due out in September.
\n\nLater 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.
\n\nThe 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.
","summary":"It's summer time and that only means one thing at Scholastic--it's time to grab a book and read! Listen to some of our feature authors and hear about our reading partnership with Save the Children that's helping us get books into the hands of children in rural America!","date_published":"2022-06-21T14:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/14b43458-5746-4bd2-9afc-8813dc17ec10.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":32604426,"duration_in_seconds":2712}]},{"id":"1c01fd39-6205-4eed-827a-38a6709c95f7","title":"“Be Who You Are” — A Conversation with Alex Gino","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/131","content_text":"In this episode, we’re celebrating Pride Month with Alex Gino. Alex is the acclaimed author of several queer and progressive middle grade novels, including Rick, You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!, and the newly-released Alice Austen Lived Here. \n\nAlex 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. \n\n“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.”\n\nHighlights:\n“I didn’t figure out who I was until I was 19, [when] I found the word genderqueer in a book.”\n\n“I have heard so many positive, wonderful stories of people who were able to figure who they were because they saw Melissa.”\n\n“The book doesn’t make someone trans, but it gives tools for talking about it.”\n\n“I love hearing from adults who say, ‘This is the book I wish I had when I was a kid.’”\n\n“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.”\n\n“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.” \n\n—Alex Gino, author, Melissa\n\nSpecial Thanks:\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\nComing Soon:\nSummer Reading • Aaron Blabey and The Bad Guys • Because of You, John Lewis","content_html":"In this episode, we’re celebrating Pride Month with Alex Gino. Alex is the acclaimed author of several queer and progressive middle grade novels, including Rick, You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!, and the newly-released Alice Austen Lived Here.
\n\nAlex 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.
\n\n“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.”
\n\nHighlights:
\n“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.”
\n\n“The book doesn’t make someone trans, but it gives tools for talking about it.”
\n\n“I love hearing from adults who say, ‘This is the book I wish I had when I was a kid.’”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n“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.”
\n\n—Alex Gino, author, Melissa
\n\nSpecial Thanks:
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Coming Soon:
\nSummer Reading • Aaron Blabey and The Bad Guys • Because of You, John Lewis
In this episode, we honor Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with authors Debbi Michiko Florence and Gita Varadarajan. A former classroom teacher, Debbi is the author of award-winning middle grade novels Keep It Together, Keiko Carter, and Just Be Cool, Jenna Sakai, among several other titles.
\n\nDebbi 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.
\n\n“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.”
\n\nLater, 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.”
\n\nGita 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.
","summary":"In this episode, we honor Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with authors Debbi Michiko Florence and Gita Varadarajan. ","date_published":"2022-05-24T14:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/d92a856a-31fc-45fd-929b-d7f00d0b7705.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":22428938,"duration_in_seconds":1866}]},{"id":"971133e2-96f6-40ad-aad6-e8de916502b9","title":"Social and Emotional Learning: What Is it and How Can it Help Kids?","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/129","content_text":"During the pandemic, an increasing number of children and adolescents have reported struggling with anxiety and depression. How can we help them process their emotions and get the support they need? In this episode, Dr. Amanda Alexander and Dr. Jose Paez talk with host Suzanne McCabe about the role social and emotional learning (SEL) plays in the classroom and how it can foster the knowledge and skills kids need to thrive. Amanda and Jose also discuss how reading and storytelling can help children and families cope with the higher levels of stress and anxiety many are feeling.\n\n“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.”\n\nAmanda 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.\n\nResources:\nAdvancing 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. \nYale Child Study Center – Scholastic Collaborative: Learn how the Collaborative is developing ways to build child and family resilience. \nSEL Resources: The editors of Scholastic Magazines+ have curated worksheets, letter-writing templates, and book recommendations for early-elementary and upper-elementary students.\nSocial and Emotional Learning Collections: Check out these book collections for primary and elementary school classrooms. \n\nHighlights:\n“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?”\n—Dr. Amanda Alexander, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic\n\n“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.”\n—Dr. Jose Paez, Clinical Fellow, Yale Child Study Center\n\n“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.”\n—Dr. Amanda Alexander, Chief Academic Officer, Scholastic\n\n“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.”\n—Dr. Jose Paez, Clinical Fellow, Yale Child Study Center\n\nSpecial Thanks:\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\nComing Soon:\nCelebrating AAPI Month With Authors Gita Varadarajan and Debbi Michiko Florence • Author Alex Gino Introduces Melissa • Summer Reading • Aaron Blabey and The Bad Guys","content_html":"During the pandemic, an increasing number of children and adolescents have reported struggling with anxiety and depression. How can we help them process their emotions and get the support they need? In this episode, Dr. Amanda Alexander and Dr. Jose Paez talk with host Suzanne McCabe about the role social and emotional learning (SEL) plays in the classroom and how it can foster the knowledge and skills kids need to thrive. Amanda and Jose also discuss how reading and storytelling can help children and families cope with the higher levels of stress and anxiety many are feeling.
\n\n“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.”
\n\nAmanda 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.
\n\nResources:
\nAdvancing 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.
\nYale Child Study Center – Scholastic Collaborative: Learn how the Collaborative is developing ways to build child and family resilience.
\nSEL Resources: The editors of Scholastic Magazines+ have curated worksheets, letter-writing templates, and book recommendations for early-elementary and upper-elementary students.
\nSocial and Emotional Learning Collections: Check out these book collections for primary and elementary school classrooms.
Highlights:
\n“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?”
\n—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.”
\n—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.”
\n—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.”
\n—Dr. Jose Paez, Clinical Fellow, Yale Child Study Center
Special Thanks:
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Coming Soon:
\nCelebrating AAPI Month With Authors Gita Varadarajan and Debbi Michiko Florence • Author Alex Gino Introduces Melissa • Summer Reading • Aaron Blabey and The Bad Guys
In this episode, author and actress Holly Robinson Peete talks about her family’s journey with autism. Holly became a fierce advocate for families like hers after her son R.J. was diagnosed with autism at the age of three.
\n\nHolly 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.
\n\nHolly 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.
\n\nHolly is also the author of Same But Different and My Brother Charlie, which won an NAACP Image Award.
\n\nSpecial Thanks:
\n\nComing Soon:
\n\nCultivating Genius, One Stitch at a Time: Bisa Butler and Gholdy Muhammad
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nBisa’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.
\n\n“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.”
\n\nBisa, 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.
\n\nBisa 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.
","summary":"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.","date_published":"2022-03-10T06:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/d48206c9-daf7-4d62-bd2b-83425dcda8df.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":22969152,"duration_in_seconds":1911}]},{"id":"b61b8966-8760-4ab5-bcf7-e10edf597e04","title":"Sharing Black Stories with Andrea and Brian Pinkney","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/125","content_text":"In this episode, author Andrea Davis Pinkney and her husband, illustrator Brian Pinkney, join host Suzanne McCabe to talk about their new picture book: Bright Brown Baby: A Treasury. Andrea and Brian have created dozens of acclaimed books for children, including Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America, Martin Rising: Requiem for a King, and illustrated biographies of Alvin Ailey, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald. \n\nAndrea, 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. \n\nIn 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.\n\nResources:\nBooks by Andrea Davis Pinkney: See more titles by the Coretta Scott King award-winning author. \nThe Art of Brian Pinkney: See more of Brian’s illustrations. \nShare Black Stories: Scholastic has curated titles ranging from picture books to young adult novels that center around Black lives and Black joy. \nRemembering Jerry Pinkney: The New York Times calls the late children’s book illustrator “one of the most revered artists in the genre.” \n\nSpecial Thanks:\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs \nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\nComing Soon:\nCelebrating Women’s History Month with Bisa Butler and Gholdy Muhammad","content_html":"In this episode, author Andrea Davis Pinkney and her husband, illustrator Brian Pinkney, join host Suzanne McCabe to talk about their new picture book: Bright Brown Baby: A Treasury. Andrea and Brian have created dozens of acclaimed books for children, including Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America, Martin Rising: Requiem for a King, and illustrated biographies of Alvin Ailey, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald.
\n\nAndrea, 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.
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nResources:
\nBooks by Andrea Davis Pinkney: See more titles by the Coretta Scott King award-winning author.
\nThe Art of Brian Pinkney: See more of Brian’s illustrations.
\nShare Black Stories: Scholastic has curated titles ranging from picture books to young adult novels that center around Black lives and Black joy.
\nRemembering Jerry Pinkney: The New York Times calls the late children’s book illustrator “one of the most revered artists in the genre.”
Special Thanks:
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Coming Soon:
\nCelebrating Women’s History Month with Bisa Butler and Gholdy Muhammad
In this episode, we’ve made World Read Aloud Day a family affair. Author Tami Charles and her son, Christopher, join host Suzanne McCabe to discuss Tami’s picture book, All Because You Matter, which was named the Best Children’s Book of 2020 by Amazon. Next, author Varian Johnson and his daughters, Savannah and Sydney, read from Varian’s graphic novel, Twins, which was chosen as a top-10 graphic novel of 2021 by the ALA Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table. Then, author Aida Salazar and her children, Avelina and M.J. Santos, read from Aida’s brand-new picture book in verse, In the Spirit of a Dream: 13 Stories of American Immigrants of Color.
\n\nCreated 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.
\n\nResearch 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.”
\n\nSpecial Thanks:
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
The arrival of the Mayflower in Plimouth in 1620, and the Pilgrims’ feast with Wampanoag Indians a year later, are recalled each November when we celebrate Thanksgiving. But what actually happened at that three-day feast, and how did the narrative change over time?
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nChris 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.
\n\nSpecial Thanks:
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Coming Soon:
\nSharing Black Stories
Clifford the Big Red Dog first found his home at Scholastic in 1963. His now-famous creator, Norman Bridwell had been rejected by nearly a dozen other children’s publishers. Beatrice de Regniers, then the editor of Scholastic’s Lucky Book Club, took one look at Bridwell’s black-and-white drawings of Clifford and said, “The kids are going to love this!”
\n\nWhat 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.’”
\n\nSince 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.
\n\nNow, 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.
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nThe 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.
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nSpecial Thanks:
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Coming Soon:
\nIf You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving
In this episode, author Tami Charles joins host Suzanne McCabe to talk about her latest book, Muted. The young adult novel in verse introduces readers to three aspiring musicians: Denver, Dali, and Shaq. The gifted Black teens are coping with high school, family, and friends in rural Delaware Valley.
\n\nThe 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.
\n\nTami, 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.
\n\nA 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.
","summary":"In this episode, author Tami Charles joins host Suzanne McCabe to talk about her latest book, Muted. The young adult novel in verse introduces readers to three aspiring musicians: Denver, Dali, and Shaq. The gifted Black teens are coping with high school, family, and friends in rural Delaware Valley. ","date_published":"2021-10-19T10:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/64bd4d78-b419-4ce6-aebb-33650e5c9ff3.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":17594791,"duration_in_seconds":1463}]},{"id":"cee6df1a-3d4f-4faf-9c1f-81ba9518408e","title":"Celebrating Hispanic & Latine Heritage Month","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/121","content_text":"In this episode, we celebrate Hispanic & Latine Heritage Month with some favorite Scholastic authors. First, Sonia Manzano revisits her 2015 memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx. \n\nYou 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. \n\nHost 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. \n\nIn 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.” ","content_html":"In this episode, we celebrate Hispanic & Latine Heritage Month with some favorite Scholastic authors. First, Sonia Manzano revisits her 2015 memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx.
\n\nYou 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.
\n\nHost 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.
\n\nIn 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.”
","summary":"In this episode, we celebrate Hispanic & Latine Heritage Month with some favorite Scholastic authors Sonia Manzano, Pam Muñoz Ryan and Justin A. Reynolds and illustrator Pablo Leon. ","date_published":"2021-09-28T10:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/cee6df1a-3d4f-4faf-9c1f-81ba9518408e.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":18447131,"duration_in_seconds":2629}]},{"id":"68b22404-d3c7-4010-a13d-c01beb3b598b","title":"The Day Our World Changed: Remembering 9/11","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/120","content_text":"In this episode, award-winning author Alan Gratz discusses the 9/11 attacks and the complicated fallout in the United States and abroad after that fateful day. Alan’s latest book, Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11, helps young readers understand what it was like to be in Lower Manhattan when two airplanes struck the Twin Towers, and how the attacks led to a 20-year war in Afghanistan. \n\nGround 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. \n\nThe 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. \n“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.” \n\nIn 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. \n\nResources:\nMeet Alan Gratz: In his latest middle-grade novel, the best-selling author of 17 titles for young readers spotlights the September 11 attacks. \n\nEncountering 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.\n\nResources 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. \n\nAnniversary 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. \n\n“Empty Sky”: Read a 2011 essay recalling the 9/11 attacks in Lower Manhattan by Scholastic Reads host Suzanne McCabe. \n\nSpecial Thanks:\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\nComing Soon:\nHonoring Hispanic Heritage \nA Conversation With Muted Author Tami Charles","content_html":"In this episode, award-winning author Alan Gratz discusses the 9/11 attacks and the complicated fallout in the United States and abroad after that fateful day. Alan’s latest book, Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11, helps young readers understand what it was like to be in Lower Manhattan when two airplanes struck the Twin Towers, and how the attacks led to a 20-year war in Afghanistan.
\n\nGround 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.
\n\nThe 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.
\n“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.
\n\nResources:
\nMeet 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.
\n\nResources 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.
\n\nAnniversary 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.
\n\n“Empty Sky”: Read a 2011 essay recalling the 9/11 attacks in Lower Manhattan by Scholastic Reads host Suzanne McCabe.
\n\nSpecial Thanks:
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Coming Soon:
\nHonoring Hispanic Heritage
\nA Conversation With Muted Author Tami Charles
A new school year is upon us, and students are returning to the classroom—some for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic was declared in March 2020. How can educators and families navigate an uncertain landscape? To help everyone get off to a great start, the Yale Child Study Center + Scholastic Collaborative have created “Back to School, Back Together,” an online hub with SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) resources, stories of resilience, and expert insights.
\n\nIn 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.”
\n\nThree 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.
\n\nResources:
\nBack 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+.
\n\nA 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.
\n\nBringing Books to Kids: Find out more about Casey’s Book Mobile and her ClassroomsCount™ fundraiser.
\n\nSpecial Thanks:
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
According to the Scholastic Teacher & Principal School Report, more than 60% of educators notice a learning loss among students—also known as the “summer slide”—at the start of the academic year. Educators overwhelmingly agree that reading books when school is out supports students’ academic success.
\n\nThe 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.
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nSayantani, 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.
\n\n“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.”
\n\nResources:
\nScholastic 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.
\n\nLearn more about New York Times-bestselling author Sayantani DasGupta.
\n\n**Special Thanks:
\n\nIn this episode, we celebrate Pride Month with new queer romances by award-winning YA authors Leah Johnson (Rise to the Sun) and Molly Knox Ostertag (The Girl From the Sea).
\n\nLeah’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.”
\n\nMolly 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.
\n\nRise to the Sun and The Girl From the Sea are both included in Shondaland’s Summer 2021 Reading List.
\n\nResources:
\n\nSpecial Thanks:
\n\nComing Soon:
\n\nKelly is the award-winning author of the bestselling Front Desk series for middle-graders. She has won numerous accolades for her work, including the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature. Kelly talks with host Suzanne McCabe about her writing journey and about Room to Dream, the latest title in her wildly popular series about the indomitable Mia Tang. It’s due out September 21.
\n\nKelly 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.”
\n\nLater 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.
\n\nEducators 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.
\n\nResources:
\nFront Desk: Learn more about author Kelly Yang and her books for young people.
\nLife, Literacy, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Learn more about Dr. Don Vu and his new title for educators.
\n19 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:
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Coming Soon:
\nCelebrating Pride Month with authors Leah Johnson and Molly Knox Ostertag
Inside the music biz with authors Tami Charles and Lamar Giles
","summary":"In this episode, we spotlight Asian American heritage and the immigrant experience with author Kelly Yang and educator Don Vu. ","date_published":"2021-05-13T06:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/5e5772d5-c660-4271-a668-a6a896160341.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":67744640,"duration_in_seconds":2821}]},{"id":"b1d31cb1-1887-4565-8ef8-1af559c05479","title":"From Fear to Hope: Covering the Pandemic in our Classroom Magazines ","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/115","content_text":"Lauren Tarshis remembers the responsibilities that fell to her on March 11, 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was declared, and schools around the country began to shift to virtual learning. Lauren is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Scholastic Classroom Magazines. \n\nThe 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. \n\nLauren 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. \n\nLater 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. \n\nResources:\nFrom 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.\n\nThe Killer Flu of 1918: Young readers learn about the powerful flu that claimed millions of lives and disrupted everyday life. \n\nScience World Magazine’s COVID-19 News Hub: Young readers can get updates on the virus and vaccines here.\n\nNEW: 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. \n\nScholastic Classroom Magazines: Reserve your magazines for the fall now, and get free online access. \n\nMeet Lauren Tarshis: Learn more about Lauren and I Survived, her best-selling book series for kids. \n\nScholastic 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. \n\nScholastic Kid Reporter Siroos Pasdar: Read Siroos’s news articles for our young readers. \n\nSpecial Thanks:\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\n\nComing Soon:\nCelebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with author Kelly Yang and educator Don Vu \n\nInside the music biz with authors Tami Charles and Lamar Giles ","content_html":"Lauren Tarshis remembers the responsibilities that fell to her on March 11, 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was declared, and schools around the country began to shift to virtual learning. Lauren is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Scholastic Classroom Magazines.
\n\nThe 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.
\n\nLauren 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.
\n\nLater 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.
\n\nResources:
\nFrom 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.
\n\nScience World Magazine’s COVID-19 News Hub: Young readers can get updates on the virus and vaccines here.
\n\nNEW: 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.
\n\nMeet Lauren Tarshis: Learn more about Lauren and I Survived, her best-selling book series for kids.
\n\nScholastic 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.
\n\nScholastic Kid Reporter Siroos Pasdar: Read Siroos’s news articles for our young readers.
\n\nSpecial Thanks:
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
Coming Soon:
\nCelebrating 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
","summary":"Lauren Tarshis remembers the responsibilities that fell to her on March 11, 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic was declared, and schools around the country began to shift to virtual learning. Lauren is the editor-in-chief and publisher of Scholastic Classroom Magazines. ","date_published":"2021-04-29T09:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/b1d31cb1-1887-4565-8ef8-1af559c05479.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":54599716,"duration_in_seconds":2273}]},{"id":"caf04b92-7d97-4c6f-b1e5-157890710666","title":"To Fly Among the Stars: Celebrating Women in Science","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/114","content_text":"Do you know a little girl who dreams of becoming an astronaut, a fighter pilot, or an aeronautical engineer? In this episode, we celebrate the achievements of women who dared to follow their own dreams at a time when they were laughed at and dismissed. \n\nFirst, 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. \n\nSuzanne 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.\n\nSpecial Thanks:\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin\nAssociate Producer: Constance Gibs\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan\n\nComing Soon:\nHonoring the Asian American Experience with Kelly Yang \nMusic in Literature: Tami Charles and Lamar Giles","content_html":"Do you know a little girl who dreams of becoming an astronaut, a fighter pilot, or an aeronautical engineer? In this episode, we celebrate the achievements of women who dared to follow their own dreams at a time when they were laughed at and dismissed.
\n\nFirst, 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.
\n\nSuzanne 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.
\n\nSpecial Thanks:
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate Producer: Constance Gibs
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Coming Soon:
\nHonoring the Asian American Experience with Kelly Yang
\nMusic in Literature: Tami Charles and Lamar Giles
In this episode, author Varian Johnson and illustrator Shannon Wright talk about Twins, their new graphic novel for middle-graders. The story centers around Maureen and Francine Carter, twin sisters who are growing up—and growing apart as they enter middle school. The Carter sisters also happen to be Black. “Writing the girls in this way, where there’s not a big trauma arc, was a very intentional choice,” Varian says. “It’s almost like a political act.”
\n\nVarian 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.
\n\nResources:
\nThe Power of Story: Diverse Books for All Readers
\n
\n13 Black-Owned Bookstores to Know About
\n
\nLearn More About Author Varian Johnson
\n
\nLearn More About Illustrator Shannon Wright
\n
Special Thanks:
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate Producer: Constance Gibbs
\nSound Engineer: Daniel Jordan
Coming Soon:
\nWomen and STEM
For 12 years, World Read Aloud Day has challenged participants to grab a book, find an audience, and read aloud. The global effort is now celebrated in 173 countries and counting.
\n\nFor 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.
\n\nIn 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.
\nMalcolm 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.”
\nMalcolm 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:
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Coming Soon:
\nCoretta Scott King Honor Author Varian Johnson Talks About Twins, His Graphic Novel
In this episode, we focus on anti-racism education in the classroom and at home. Host Suzanne McCabe talks with Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, an associate professor of language and literacy at Georgia State University and the author of Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. Muhammad explains how researching Black literary societies from the 1800s inspires her work with students and teachers around the country. Monique Melton, an author, international speaker, and host of the Shine Brighter Together podcast, also offers her perspective on “what it looks like to actually explore, identify, and eliminate racism in every aspect of our society from the inside out.”
\n\n**Special Thanks:
\n**Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
**Coming Soon:
\n**A Celebration of Black History
“Only those who try can achieve the impossible.” In this episode, we spotlight Stillwater, a new animated children's series from Apple TV Plus. Inspired by the beloved Zen shorts book series by Jon J Muth, the new series follows the adventures of three siblings whose neighbor happens to be a giant panda named Stillwater. Through his beautiful stories, the wise Stillwater helps the children cope with life's disappointments and sorrows, and hold onto their sense of joy and wonder.
\n\nHost 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.
\n\nResources:
\nYou can learn more about Jon J. Muth here and about Stillwater, the new animated TV series from Apple TV+ here.
Special thanks:
\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
Coming Soon:
\nAntiracism Resources for the Classroom
Today, we're celebrating Scholastic's 100th anniversary with President, Chairman, and CEO Dick Robinson. Dick's father, Maurice R. Robinson, known affectionately to generations of staffers as Robbie, founded the company in 1920, a venture that started with a small weekly newspaper has since grown into the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books. Generations of readers have fond memories of attending a Scholastic Book Fair on an autumn afternoon, or checking off a list of books to purchase on one of the many Scholastic Book Club order forms that arrived in classrooms.
\n\nKids 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.
\nLast, 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.
In this episode, we’re celebrating Hispanic Heritage with two of our favorite Latinx authors. First, host Suzanne McCabe talks with Aida Salazar about how one word, “deportation,” led to her heart-wrenching new novel, Land of the Cranes. Aida is also the author of The Moon Within, which won an International Latino Book Award for middle-grade fiction in 2019.
\n\nThen 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.
\n\nYou 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.
\nTo check out the Scholastic Student Vote, a virtual mock-election that has been running since 1940, visit scholastic.com/election.
When you hold a new book in your hands, the rest of the world seems to fade away. Lots of great titles from Scholastic are hitting the shelves this fall, bringing the promise of adventure to our young readers.
\n\nWe 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)
\n\nNext, 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)
\n\nWe 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)
\n\nThen, 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)
\n\nFor 8- to 12-year-olds who enjoy horror and spooky mysteries, Daka Hermon reads from her suspense-filled debut, Hide and Seeker. (25:39)
\n\nLast 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)
\n\nYou can learn more about these titles and all of our latest fiction and nonfiction at scholastic.com/kids.
\n\nTo check out the Scholastic Student Vote, a virtual mock-election, that has been running since 1940 visit scholastic.com/election.
\n\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Mackenzie Cutruzzula
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
“It all started at the very beginning of seventh grade.” Sound familiar? To millions of Baby-Sitters Club fans, Kristy Thomas, Claudia Kishi, Mary Anne Spier, Stacey McGill, and Dawn Schafer are favorite childhood friends. In this episode, the breakout stars of the new Netflix TV show—Sophie Grace (Kristy), Momona Tamada (Claudia), Malia Baker (Mary Anne), Shay Rudolph (Stacey), and Xochitl Gomez (Dawn)—answer questions from our Scholastic Kid Reporters.
\n\nWe 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.
\n\nYou can learn more about The Baby-Sitters Club book series, including the graphic novels, here and the Netflix TV show here.
\n\nMusic composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nProducer: Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate producer: Mackenzie Cutruzzula
\nSound engineer: Daniel Jordan
On November 14, 1960, Ruby Bridges integrated the all-white William Frantz Public School in her New Orleans neighborhood. She was six years old.
\n\nRuby’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.
\n\nSixty 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.”
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nTo learn more about the Ruby Bridges Foundation, go to rubybridges.com, and follow Ruby on Instagram at @RubyBridgesOfficial.
\n\nIf 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.
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nProduced by Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate produced by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
\nSound mix, editing and recording by Colin Poellot
Change is in the air, and we're delighted to bring a fresh new voice to the podcast. Debut author Leah Johnson is here to talk about You Should See Me in a Crown, her joyful, hilarious young adult novel about the irrepressible Liz Lighty.
\n\nAs 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.
\n\nIn 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.”
\n\nLearn more about Leah and You Should See Me in a Crown.
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nProduced by Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate produced and edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
\nSound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
During the pandemic, many of us have experienced feelings of fear, anxiety, and loss. These feelings extend to children, too, who are learning new lessons at home and wondering what the future holds. They may be worried about family members and their own safety while trying to keep up with schoolwork, which is looking very different these days.
\n\nWhat 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.
\n\nIn 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.
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nProduced by Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate produced and edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
\nSound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
In this episode, host Suzanne McCabe, who is the editor of Scholastic Kids Press, talks with five Kid Reporters about life during the coronavirus pandemic. She asks young journalists in Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and the Philippines how they are coping with the global health crisis and what “the new normal” means to them. Scholastic Kids Press, which was founded in 2000, is an award-winning program of journalists between the ages of 10 and 14 who write "news for kids, by kids." The program is open to students around the world.
\n
\nSpecial thanks:
In her latest novel, Furious Thing, Jenny Downham discusses the insidious nature of gaslighting, the power of one 15-year-old girl’s anger, and the risk of speaking up about those feelings. Downham is also the author of Unbecoming, You Against Me, and Before I Die, which was made into a 2012 movie, Now Is Good, starring Dakota Fanning.
","summary":"In her latest novel, Furious Thing, Jenny Downham discusses the insidious nature of gaslighting, the power of one 15-year-old girl’s anger, and the risk of speaking up about those feelings. ","date_published":"2020-03-05T09:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/9d11e164-b492-4060-8bfd-bdd679f721fd.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mp3","size_in_bytes":13643542,"duration_in_seconds":1134}]},{"id":"05b832c8-c502-4b90-b9b2-5b7479eb43e7","title":"The Librarian of Congress: Why Representation Matters","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/100","content_text":"In this episode, we chat with Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden about the importance of representation for our young readers. Dr. Hayden is the first woman and first African American to serve as the Librarian of Congress, the world’s largest library. She also discusses the Library’s Rosa Parks exhibit that immerses visitors in Parks’ reflections, handwritten notes, and photos.\n\nAdditional Resources:\nRosa 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.\n\nSpecial thanks:\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nProduced and edited by Bridget Benjamin\nAssociate produced by Mackenzie Cutruzzula\nSound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan","content_html":"In this episode, we chat with Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden about the importance of representation for our young readers. Dr. Hayden is the first woman and first African American to serve as the Librarian of Congress, the world’s largest library. She also discusses the Library’s Rosa Parks exhibit that immerses visitors in Parks’ reflections, handwritten notes, and photos.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\nRosa 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:
\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nProduced and edited by Bridget Benjamin
\nAssociate produced by Mackenzie Cutruzzula
\nSound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan
World Read Aloud Day is annual celebration that encourages kids, parents, and educators everywhere to grab a book, find an audience, and read aloud. On today’s episode, we’ll be talking with two literacy experts, Pam Allyn and Lester Laminack about the many benefits of reading aloud.
\n\nPlus, 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!
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nHappy holidays from all of us in the Scholastic Family! On this episode, we asked our employees to share their fondest holiday memories. You'll hear about Christmas read-alouds, a Chanukah grab bag, and even a fashion show on Eid al-Fitr.
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nAcclaimed author, Maggie Stiefvater describes Call Down the Hawk, the first book in a brand-new trilogy, as a “big, strange, weird novel” full of all of the things she likes in both novels and life. This includes art, magic, music, and mythology.
\n\nCall 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.
\n\nIf 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.
\n\nOn 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.
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nYou may remember Alyssa from her hilarious role on Who’s the Boss? In addition to being an actress, Alyssa is an activist, and now a children’s book author. She recently wrote Hope: Project Middle School. On this episode she joins us to discuss her new novel and the power of hope. We're also joined by Scholastic Kids Press reporter Alula Alderson who recently interviewed Alyssa on her book tour in Los Angeles. Alula also talks about what Hope: Project Middle School means to her as a current middle school student.
\n\nAlyssa Milano:
\n\nActress 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.
\n\nAlula Alderson: A Scholastic Kids Press reporter since 2017, Alula Alderson covers a variety of topics including entertainment, the enviornment, and history.
\n\nLearn more about Hope: Project Middle School by Alyssa Milano and Debbie Rigaud, illustrated by Eric S. Keyes here.
\n\nLearn more about the Scholastic Kids Press here.
\n\n*Suzanne McCabe is the Editor of Scholastic Kids Press
","summary":"","date_published":"2019-12-03T16:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/cdf358ac-fe91-4b00-8036-3b3e546f412d.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mp3","size_in_bytes":13846673,"duration_in_seconds":1151}]},{"id":"f19f5d15-b9f5-40fc-bf59-cd8d30379a94","title":"Classroom Libraries: Finding a Book for Every Student","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/95","content_text":"Access to books, whether in or outside of the home, is not a reality for many children.\n\nAccording 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.\n\n\nOn this episode, we’re talking with two educators who are working to bridge this gap. \n\n\nGuests:\n\n\nDavid C. Banks: \n\n\n\nDavid is the president and CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation. He and Scholastic have joined forces to curate collections of culturally relevant fiction, nonfiction, and biographies for perhaps the most under-represented group in literature: boys of color. This new classroom library, “Rising Voices,” celebrates the stories of Black and Latino boys. \n\n\n\nIllysa Thomas:\n\n\nA kindergarten teacher at Empowerment Academy Charter School in Jersey City, New Jersey who is a Patterson Pledge grant winner. \n\n\nAdditional Resources:\n\n\n\nRising Voices\n\n\n\nPatterson Pledge \n\n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nProduced and edited by Bridget Benjamin\nProduced and edited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula\nSound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan\n\n\n\n ","content_html":"Access to books, whether in or outside of the home, is not a reality for many children.
\n\nAccording 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.
\n\nOn this episode, we’re talking with two educators who are working to bridge this gap.
\nDavid C. Banks:
\nDavid is the president and CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation. He and Scholastic have joined forces to curate collections of culturally relevant fiction, nonfiction, and biographies for perhaps the most under-represented group in literature: boys of color. This new classroom library, “Rising Voices,” celebrates the stories of Black and Latino boys.
\nIllysa Thomas:
\nWhat’s that creaking sound down the hall? Did you feel a sudden chill in the air? And where is that haunting piano music coming from?
\n\nIt’s Halloween-time! And we’re sure you’re getting into the spirit—scary noises and all.
\n\nTo celebrate this spooky season, we’re talking with four authors who specialize in writing scary stories for kids!
\n\nOn 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!
\n\nAdditional Resources
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\n","summary":"","date_published":"2019-10-24T11:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/8016c2d7-9525-43f5-aa38-28324ac6aa67.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mp3","size_in_bytes":54171594,"duration_in_seconds":2256}]},{"id":"24d60905-b5da-48d1-90c8-4841e2fc0fc4","title":"In Their Own Words: Sharon Robinson and Da Chen","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/93","content_text":" This week, we’re talking about the power of telling your own story. You’ll hear from two incredible authors. First is Sharon Robinson, the daughter of baseball legend Jackie Robinson. Sharon is the author of several works of fiction and nonfiction, including many widely praised nonfiction books about her father’s life. This year, she’s telling her OWN story in Child of the Dream — a memoir about one of the most important years in the Civil Rights Movement, 1963, when Sharon was just 13. \n\nLater, 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.\n\nAdditional Resources\n\nLearn more about Child of the Dream (A Memoir of 1963) by Sharon Robinson\n\nLearn more about Girl Under a Red Moon by Da Chen\n\nGuests:\n\nSharon 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.\n\nDa 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.\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan\nEdited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n\n\n \n\n \n\n ","content_html":"
This week, we’re talking about the power of telling your own story. You’ll hear from two incredible authors. First is Sharon Robinson, the daughter of baseball legend Jackie Robinson. Sharon is the author of several works of fiction and nonfiction, including many widely praised nonfiction books about her father’s life. This year, she’s telling her OWN story in Child of the Dream — a memoir about one of the most important years in the Civil Rights Movement, 1963, when Sharon was just 13.
\n\nLater, 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.
\n\nAdditional Resources
\n\nLearn more about Child of the Dream (A Memoir of 1963) by Sharon Robinson
\n\nLearn more about Girl Under a Red Moon by Da Chen
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSharon 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.
\n\nDa 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.
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","summary":"","date_published":"2019-10-11T17:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/24d60905-b5da-48d1-90c8-4841e2fc0fc4.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mp3","size_in_bytes":42748945,"duration_in_seconds":2670}]},{"id":"eee472bd-53d5-44aa-831a-64d2b0b9437a","title":"It Takes Guts: Raina Telgemeier and Eli Lebowitz","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/92","content_text":"It takes guts to face your fears. Bestselling creator Raina Telgemeier is encouraging young readers to do just that with her latest graphic novel memoir, Guts, which shares the stories of Raina's own experiences with anxiety as a child.\n\nThis 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.\n\nAdditional resources:\n\n\nLearn more about Guts by Raina Telgemeier\nFollow Raina Telgemeier on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook\nLearn more about the Yale Child Study Center–Scholastic Collaborative for Child & Family Resilience\nSee more data from the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report\n\n\nGuests:\n\n\nRaina 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.\nEli 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.\n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan\nEdited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n","content_html":"
It takes guts to face your fears. Bestselling creator Raina Telgemeier is encouraging young readers to do just that with her latest graphic novel memoir, Guts, which shares the stories of Raina's own experiences with anxiety as a child.
\n\nThis 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.
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\n\nThis week, we're talking with Dav Pilkey, creator of the worldwide bestselling Dog Man series! Dav discusses his latest book, Dog Man: For Whom the Ball Rolls, and his Dog Man \"Do Good\" tour that's taking him around the world this fall. Dav shares stories from his own childhood growing up with ADHD and dyslexia and talks about the importance of creativity, why reading is a superpower, and the importance of not just being good, but doing good.
\n\nPlus, you'll also hear from young readers themselves who sent us messages describing why they love Dog Man!
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\n\nSummer reading this year is all about kids' empowerment with the Scholastic Summer Read-a-Palooza, our nationwide movement to unite kids, parents, educators, public librarians, community partners, and booksellers in efforts to get books into the hands of more kids during the summer and keep every child reading.
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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!
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Guests:
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\n\nBefore executive editor Katie Carella came to Scholastic, she taught first, second, and third grades, and she noticed a hole in her classroom library: There weren't enough books for the readers who were ready to move beyond leveled readers, but who weren't quite ready for chapter books.
\n\nAnd 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.
\n\nIn 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.
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\n\nIt's Pride Month! We love to celebrate our LGBTQIA authors all year long, but we wanted to take the opportunity now to shine a spotlight on what it means to create and share stories about those who are marginalized and underrepresented.
\n\nToday, 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.
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\n\nIn our biennial Kids & Family Reading Report, we came across some findings that were a bit, well, concerning: At nine years old — usually when a child is in third grade — kids across the board report a significantly reduced interest in reading.
\n\nHere are some of the stats:
\n\nWe 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.
\n\nWhat's causing the \"decline by nine\"? And what can we do about it? We talked with education and reading experts to find out.
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\n\nAspiring writers and illustrators, this episode is for you! Maybe you keep a running list on your Notes app of book ideas, possible titles, and first lines. Maybe you have a sketchbook in the bottom of your drawer. But where do you go from there? Ally Carter and Raina Telgemeier are here with answers. They’ll talk about their new books, Dear Ally, How Do I Write A Book? and Share Your Smile, which aim to help creators transfer their ideas to the page.
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\n\nScholastic surveys thousands of kids and their families across the U.S. biennially for our Kids & Family Reading Report, gaining special insight into the latest trends in children's reading habits. The second of three installments, Finding Their Story, focuses on what kids want in books and characters, the rising demand for diversity in children's books, and the importance of access to books.
\n\nThis 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.
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\n\nThis week, we're talking with author Keith Calabrese about his middle grade debut. His new book, A Drop of Hope, is set in a small Midwestern town, where times are tough, jobs are scarce, and miracles are in short supply.
\n\nKeith 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.
\n\nAdditional resources
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\n\nWe're kicking off Women's History Month with debut novelist Aida Salazar and her stunning book for 8- to 12-year-olds, The Moon Within.
\n\nThe 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.
\n\nThe 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.
\n\nToday, 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.
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\n\nThis week, we're discussing narrative nonfiction and its power to help turn young readers into critical thinkers and global citizens.
\n\nLast 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.
\n\nToday, 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.
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\n\n","summary":"","date_published":"2019-02-21T18:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/345c1d3b-6a38-411f-bc3f-8c125195d529.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":26793247,"duration_in_seconds":2231}]},{"id":"8d4fe364-4511-422e-bae7-a24aba1ccdaa","title":"The Rise of Read-Aloud","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/81","content_text":"Scholastic surveys thousands of kids and their families across the U.S. biennially for our Kids & Family Reading Report, gaining special insight into the latest trends in children’s reading habits. The first of three installments, The Rise of Read-Aloud, focuses exclusively on the practice of, you guessed it, reading aloud. We wanted to know: When do parents start reading aloud to their children? How often are they reading? What are they reading? And how do kids feel about it all?\n\nThis 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. \n\nAdditional resources: \n\n\nSee all of our findings from our Kids & Family Reading Report: The Rise of Read-Aloud\nRead more from Pam Allyn about the findings in our report\nLearn more about Sandra Magsamen\nLearn more about World Read Aloud Day from Scholastic and from LitWorld\n\n\nGuests:\n\n\nPam 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.\nSandra 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. \nLiza Baker is the vice president and executive editorial director of Scholastic's Cartwheel Books and Orchard Press imprints.\n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan\nEdited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula\nProduced by Emily Morrow \n\n\n ","content_html":"
Scholastic surveys thousands of kids and their families across the U.S. biennially for our Kids & Family Reading Report, gaining special insight into the latest trends in children’s reading habits. The first of three installments, The Rise of Read-Aloud, focuses exclusively on the practice of, you guessed it, reading aloud. We wanted to know: When do parents start reading aloud to their children? How often are they reading? What are they reading? And how do kids feel about it all?
\n\nThis 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.
\n\nAdditional resources:
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\n","summary":"","date_published":"2019-02-01T17:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/8d4fe364-4511-422e-bae7-a24aba1ccdaa.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":39162073,"duration_in_seconds":1630}]},{"id":"21df7435-b0bb-42e6-86eb-ba59428ca5d1","title":"Aaron Blabey on Bad Guys and Good Friends","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/80","content_text":"Bestselling author Aaron Blabey stopped by our New York offices earlier this year while on his book tour The Bad Guys: Mission to America, and we're so excited to share our conversation with you. Aaron talks about his latest Bad Guys book, The Bad Guys in Superbad, the Bad Guys movie that's currently in development with DreamWorks, and shares some insight into his creative process. He also treats us to not one, but two amazing read-alouds!\n\nAdditional resources:\n\n\nLearn more about The Bad Guys series\nLearn more about Aaron's latest picture book, I Need a Hug \nLearn more about Thelma the Unicorn \nLearn more about the Pig the Pug series\n\n\nGuests:\n\n\nAaron 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.\n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and recording by Daniel Jordan\nEdited by Mackenzie Cutruzzula\nProduced by Emily Morrow \n","content_html":"
Bestselling author Aaron Blabey stopped by our New York offices earlier this year while on his book tour The Bad Guys: Mission to America, and we're so excited to share our conversation with you. Aaron talks about his latest Bad Guys book, The Bad Guys in Superbad, the Bad Guys movie that's currently in development with DreamWorks, and shares some insight into his creative process. He also treats us to not one, but two amazing read-alouds!
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\n\n\"I've spent my whole adult life chasing the high of a Scholastic Book Fair.\" - @merman_melville
\n\n\"[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
\n\nWe'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?
\n\nThis week, we set out to record some of the magic.
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\nThere are many ways to create a book desert — an area where a child has little or no access to books. Maybe a school's budget cuts lead to closure of the library. Maybe a neighborhood bookstore closes. Maybe the closest public library is too far away to reach by public transportation.
\n\nWhatever the cause, the problem is clear: Too many children in the U.S. lack access to books.
\n\nThis 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!
\n\nDonalyn 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.
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\n\nStudents across the U.S. have shown the power and importance of news articles in the classroom. Moved by the resilience of their peers and a desire to help, kids—supported by their teachers—have developed student-led activism initiatives to raise awareness and funding for the causes they’ve read about in Scholastic Classroom Magazines such as Storyworks® for grades 4–6 and Scholastic Scope® for grades 6–8.
\n\nThis 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.
\n\nWe'll also hear from a third grade teacher in Cleveland, OH, about how her Scholastic News readers have made a real difference at their school with anti-bullying and recycling efforts.
\n\nAdditional resources:
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\nThis week, we're talking with Alex Gino about what it means to be an ally.
\n\nAlex is the author of the award-winning book George, about a transgender girl who wants the world to see her the way she sees herself. We talk with them about the importance of that message, as well as the messages readers will find in their latest book, You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P!, about a girl who learns to be an ally, a sister, and a friend, understanding that life works in different ways for different people.
\n\nGuest:
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\n\nThis week, we're talking with Jarrett J. Krosoczka about his graphic novel memoir for young adults, Hey, Kiddo.
\n\nThe memoir, which has been longlisted for the National Book Award, follows Jarrett's childhood: His mother was a heroin addict who was in and out of rehab, so he was raised by his grandparents — loud, opinionated, but loving people who struggled with their own demons. In the midst of it all, he found art.
\n\nWe also hear from Kim Tranell, executive editor, Scholastic Classroom Magazines, about ways she has covered topics of addiction—specifically, the opioid crisis—in Choices magazine for teen readers.
\n\nIf you're planning to share this episode with young listeners, please note that it includes some mature themes, including drug use.
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\n\n","summary":"","date_published":"2018-10-04T17:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/06b23aad-e423-45be-bec1-f9d1187e155b.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":20774369,"duration_in_seconds":1727}]},{"id":"eb87153f-4590-4d07-9dc2-855fa7bb7163","title":"20 Years of Magic Part 3: The Making of Harry Potter","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/74","content_text":"From editorial and art direction to publicity, marketing, sales, and legal — publishing the Harry Potter series involved a dedicated team across all divisions at Scholastic. In the third and final installment of our special Harry Potter series, we're talking with some of the people who have helped bring the books to life over the last twenty years.\n\nOur guests include:\n\n\nArthur A. Levine, publisher of Arthur A. Levine books and the American editor of the Harry Potter series\nDavid Saylor, creative director \nRachel Coun, vice president of marketing and brand management\nKris Moran, director of publicity at Scholastic in 1998\nMark Seidenfeld, vice president and deputy general counsel\nLizette Serrano, executive director of educational marketing and event strategy\nRoz Hilden, sales representative \n\n\nAdditional resources:\n\n\nListen to part 1 of our series: The Harry Potter Fandom\nListen to part 2 of our series: The Artists of Harry Potter\nWatch our special video commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Harry Potter series in the U.S.\nSee an archive of photos and videos from the last 20 years of Harry Potter magic\nWant more behind-the-scenes trivia? Read these 20 fun facts about the Harry Potter series\n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n","content_html":"
From editorial and art direction to publicity, marketing, sales, and legal — publishing the Harry Potter series involved a dedicated team across all divisions at Scholastic. In the third and final installment of our special Harry Potter series, we're talking with some of the people who have helped bring the books to life over the last twenty years.
\n\nOur guests include:
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\n\nIn part two of our special Harry Potter series, we're talking with some of the illustrators who have brought Harry to life over the last 20 years, including: Mary GrandPré, the illustrator of the original U.S. editions of the Harry Potter series; Brian Selznick, the illustrator of the 20th anniversary edition covers; and Jim Kay, the artist behind the fully illustrated editions.
\n\nEach artist will talk about what it was like to join the Harry Potter universe and bring to life their vision of the Boy Who Lived.
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\n\nIn September 1998, Scholastic published Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, introducing U.S. readers to the orphaned boy living in a cupbord under the stairs. Since then, the Harry Potter series has become a global phenomenon, selling more than 500 million copies, translated into more than 80 languages, and adapted into eight blockbuster films.
\n\nTo celebrate the 20th anniversary, we're hosting a series of special episodes. Over the next few weeks, we'll talk with some of the extraordinary illustrators behind the stories, as well as Scholastic employees who were with Harry from the very beginning.
\n\nBut first, we're going to talk about the fandom. This week, you'll hear from fans themselves about what Harry Potter means to them. You'll also hear from two librarians who are bringing the books to new generations of readers every day.
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\n\nDavid Shannon is the creator of more than 30 picture books including A Bad Case of Stripes and the beloved David books: No, David!, David Gets in Trouble, David Goes to School, and It's Christmas, David. This week, he joins us in conversation about his latest book, Grow Up, David! (available in both English and Spanish)
\n\nComing 20 years after the first publication of the Caldecott Honor book No, David!, Grow Up, David! introduces David's big brother and follows our trouble-making hero from one antic to the next in an effort to win his brother's approval.
\n\nDavid talks about just how autobiographical the David books are, why No, David! was such a departure for him, and some of his favorite moments from the last 20 years.
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\n\nJeff Smith broke ground with the graphic novelization of his long-running comic, BONE. Now, he's introducing the beloved cousins from Boneville to a younger audience with his first picture book, Smiley's Dream Book.
\n\nThis week, we sit down with Jeff to talk about writing a picture book, the cartoonists who inspire him, and why he'll never say you shouldn't doodle on your math homework.
","summary":"Jeff Smith broke ground with the graphic novelization of his long-running comic, BONE. Now, he's introducing the beloved cousins from Boneville to a younger audience with his first picture book, Smiley's Dream Book.\r\n\r\nThis week, we sit down with Jeff to talk about writing a picture book, the cartoonists who inspire him, and why he'll never say you shouldn't doodle on your math homework.","date_published":"2018-07-26T07:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/eadfab90-6e64-49e6-9219-50fee39e7b51.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":16244504,"duration_in_seconds":958}]},{"id":"a2fb85cd-ebe0-468b-bb78-f1c2d3382129","title":"Cornelia Funke returns to Dragon Rider","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/69","content_text":"This week, we’re talking with award-winning author Cornelia Funke, author of beloved books like the Inkheart series, The Thief Lord, and Dragon Rider. After many years, Cornelia is returning to the Dragon Rider world with the long-anticipated sequel, The Griffin’s Feather, out July 31.\n\nWe’re also joined in the studio by Cornelia’s editor, Barry Cunningham. Barry is the founder and publisher of Chicken House, and the acquiring editor of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the UK. He talks about what he looks for in a manuscript, and the advice he gives aspiring writers.\n\nAdditional resources:\n\n\nLearn more about Dragon Rider #2: The Griffin's Feather \nListen to our earlier episode with Barry Cunningham: \"Barry Cunningham and M.G. Leonard talk books (and beetles!)\"\nLearn more about Chicken House\n\n\nGuests:\n\n\nCornelia Funke is one of today’s most beloved writers of magical stories for children. She is the author of The Thief Lord, Dragon Rider, Inkheart, Inkspell, the Ghosthunters series, When Santa Fell to Earth, and Igraine the Brave. She lives with her family in Los Angeles, California, in a house full of books.\nBarry Cunningham is the founder of Chicken House, a lively and creative company publishing highly original and enjoyable children’s books, with a special emphasis on new fiction. Chicken House launched in the US in 2001 and marked its 15th anniversary here this past summer. Barry is also known for signing up J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone while at Bloomsbury. Together with Chicken House and Scholastic, Barry is proud to have brought the voices of five-time New York Times bestselling author Cornelia Funke (The Thief Lord; Dragon Rider; the Inkheart trilogy), Printz Honor Award-winning Lucy Christopher (Stolen), Kevin Brooks (Martyn Pig; Lucas; Candy), Rachel Ward (Numbers trilogy), Cathryn Constable (The Wolf Princess), and M.G. Leonard (Beetle Boy) to the world.\n","content_html":"This week, we’re talking with award-winning author Cornelia Funke, author of beloved books like the Inkheart series, The Thief Lord, and Dragon Rider. After many years, Cornelia is returning to the Dragon Rider world with the long-anticipated sequel, The Griffin’s Feather, out July 31.
\n\nWe’re also joined in the studio by Cornelia’s editor, Barry Cunningham. Barry is the founder and publisher of Chicken House, and the acquiring editor of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in the UK. He talks about what he looks for in a manuscript, and the advice he gives aspiring writers.
\n\nAdditional resources:
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\n\nWe are a nation of immigrants. And they have stories to tell. Today, we invite you to listen to stories from authors and illustrators who are creating work that shares the immigrant experience and what it means to leave your home in search of a better life.
\n\nFeatured authors:
\n\nAdditional resources:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\n","summary":"","date_published":"2018-06-28T17:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/0c004020-6f09-4906-acda-d989a19ea696.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":46154316,"duration_in_seconds":2262}]},{"id":"554be139-cd75-459e-b0c4-db6a562a0e87","title":"Away From Keyboard: Taking Gaming Offline","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/67","content_text":"As video games continue to captivate kids around the world, Scholastic AFK—or \"Away From Keyboard\"—books aim to harness that gaming passion, and convert it into a literacy tool.\n\nTo learn more about this initiative, we sat down with Michael Petranek, an executive editor at Scholastic, and Matthew J. Kirby, the author of the Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants series.\n\nThey tell us about what they love about gaming as well as some of the many benefits these books provide to growing readers: they encourage time away from screens, while also supporting reading and literacy by keeping fans engaged in the worlds they love.\n\nAdditional resources:\n\n\nLearn more about AFK\nSee all of our AFK books\nLearn more about Matthew J. Kirby\nRead more about the study around Assassin's Creed Discover Mode\n\n\nGuests:\n\n\nMichael Petranek is an executive editor at Scholastic\nMatthew J. Kirby is the author of Last Descendants: An Assassin's Creed Novel Series\n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n","content_html":"
As video games continue to captivate kids around the world, Scholastic AFK—or \"Away From Keyboard\"—books aim to harness that gaming passion, and convert it into a literacy tool.
\n\nTo learn more about this initiative, we sat down with Michael Petranek, an executive editor at Scholastic, and Matthew J. Kirby, the author of the Assassin's Creed: Last Descendants series.
\n\nThey tell us about what they love about gaming as well as some of the many benefits these books provide to growing readers: they encourage time away from screens, while also supporting reading and literacy by keeping fans engaged in the worlds they love.
\n\nAdditional resources:
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nSeveral months ago, we asked authors of different cultures, races, abilities, genders and orientations to tell us about the first time they saw themselves in the pages of a book. (You can listen to that episode here.)
\n\nWe expected the answer. We knew it was coming. But still, it tore at us: Over and over, these authors said, \"I didn't. I didn't see myself.\"
\n\nAt Scholastic, we are proud to publish books that give all children the chance to see themselves as heroes. But we know that we still have work to do. And part of that work is listening.
\n\nSo, this week, in celebration of Pride Month, we are spotlighting some of our LGBTQ+ authors who are writing to fill the void they felt growing up.
\n\nContributing authors:
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\n\nResearch shows that when children and their families have the resources they need to read throughout the summer, fewer students experience a loss of skills while school is out. This week, we're talking with two experts about ways they work to keep books in the hands of their students all summer long, and the incredible results they've seen as a result of their focus on summer reading.
\n\nFirst, we talk with Jennifer Boren, a library media specialist in Collierville, Tennessee. Jennifer talks about her experience with the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge, the importance of representation in children's books, and some of the accomplishments of her summer readers. We also hear from a few of Jennifer's students about why they love to read!
\n\nLater, we talk with Ansel Sanders, president and CEO of Public Education Partners in Greenville, South Carolina. In 2016 and 2017, PEP collaborated with Scholastic to measure the impact of their award-winning Make Summer Count initiative to eliminate summer reading loss. The results were incredibly positive: 78% of participating students maintained or increased their reading level from spring to fall.
\n\nAdditional resources:
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\n","summary":"","date_published":"2018-05-31T16:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/7d5b78d9-0981-4fe7-8539-c67c1775842f.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":34690565,"duration_in_seconds":2826}]},{"id":"a3a148bd-e9fc-405e-bb80-5fb205c1c7a5","title":"The Maker Movement","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/64","content_text":"This week, we're taking a look at the maker movement. What does a makerspace look like? Why are libraries considered the perfect place to host a makerspace? And what does being a maker mean, anyway?\n\nFirst, we talk with Kristina Holzweiss, a media specialist at Bay Shore Middle School in New York who is spearheading the maker movement across Long Island. Later, we sit down with two Scholastic employees who have helped create the Klutz Maker Lab line of products, which include DIY gumball machines and remote control racecars!\n\nAdditional resources:\n\n\nLearn more about Klutz Maker Lab\nLearn more about SLIME (Students of Long Island Maker Expo)\nLearn more about Long Island LEADS\nRead about Kristina Holzweiss' nomination as a Library Journal Mover and Shaker\nFollow Kristina Holzweiss on Twitter\nFollow Klutz on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook\n\n\nGuests:\n\n\nKristina Holzweiss is the school library media specialist at Bay Shore Middle School, as well as the founder of Students of Long Island Maker Expo and Long Island LEADS. In 2015, she was named the School Librarian of the Year by School Library Journal and Scholastic.\nNetta Rabin is the vice president of product development at Klutz.\nOwen Keating is a senior packaging designer at Klutz.\n\n\nSpecial thanks: \n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n","content_html":"
This week, we're taking a look at the maker movement. What does a makerspace look like? Why are libraries considered the perfect place to host a makerspace? And what does being a maker mean, anyway?
\n\nFirst, we talk with Kristina Holzweiss, a media specialist at Bay Shore Middle School in New York who is spearheading the maker movement across Long Island. Later, we sit down with two Scholastic employees who have helped create the Klutz Maker Lab line of products, which include DIY gumball machines and remote control racecars!
\n\nAdditional resources:
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nThis week, we're talking with Varian Johnson, author of the new middle grade book The Parker Inheritance.
\n\nVarian talks about his inspiration for the book, the research it took to dig back into his own hometown’s past, and about social justice — how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.
\n\nAdditional resources:
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\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nThis week, we're introducing you to some of the incredible members of Scholastic News Kids Press Corps! Each year, 10- to 14-year-olds around the world are selected to be a part of the award-winning program. These young journalists report news for kids, by kids, covering breaking news, sports events, entertainment and more from their hometowns and on the global stage. Since the application for next year is now open, we asked some of our reporters to tell us about their favorite assignments. We'll find out what they've learned from their experiences, which range from covering the Westminster Dog Show in New York City to child labor in India.
\n\nKnow a kid with a nose for news? The Scholastic News Kids Press Corps is accepting applications through May 31, 2018. Find out more details and apply here!
\n\nAdditional resources:
\n\n\n\n
Guests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\n","summary":"","date_published":"2018-04-12T15:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/00a42109-853c-4377-8959-f9c890345559.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":30757168,"duration_in_seconds":1242}]},{"id":"7349bd06-2bcd-4d0e-b050-9ebb76b8deaa","title":"Martin Rising","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/61","content_text":"April 4, 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and to honor his life and legacy, we're sitting down with Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney, the author and illustrator behind Martin Rising: Requiem for a King Andrea and Brian share how they were inspired to create the book, which is a combination of poetry and colorful artwork; how they work together as husband and wife creators; how their own lives were impacted by King's work; and the message of hope and empowerment they hope their young readers take from the book.\n\nAdditional resources: \n\n\nMore information about Martin Rising\n\n\n Guests:\n\n\nAndrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney have made an outstanding contribution to the field of children's literature both as individuals and as a team. Between them, they have published more than seventy children's books that have received the highest awards and accolades, including Caldecott Honors, Coretta Scott King Honors, NAACP Image Award nominations, and the May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture Award, to name a few. To learn more, please visit andreadavispinkney.com and brianpinkney.net\n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n","content_html":"
April 4, 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and to honor his life and legacy, we're sitting down with Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney, the author and illustrator behind Martin Rising: Requiem for a King Andrea and Brian share how they were inspired to create the book, which is a combination of poetry and colorful artwork; how they work together as husband and wife creators; how their own lives were impacted by King's work; and the message of hope and empowerment they hope their young readers take from the book.
\n\nAdditional resources:
\n\n\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nDid a beloved teacher ever read aloud to your class when you were a kid? Did a friend or relative ever hand you a book that became a lifelong favorite? That's what we're talking about today—the magic of reading role models, individuals who play a crucial role in helping kids succeed. First, we talk with Malcolm Mitchell, the author of the picture book The Magician's Hat, the founder of Read With Malcolm, AND a Super Bowl winning football player with the New England Patriots. Malcolm talks about his personal struggle with reading as a kid, and how that's motivated him to show kids how important—and wonderful—books can be. We then move from football to basketball, as we sit down with with Marc Davis, an NBA Referee who participates in a program called TIMEOUT for Reading, a collaboration between Scholastic and the NBA Referee Association in which referees read aloud and disribute books to sixth grade classrooms. Finally, Greg Worrell, the president of Scholastic Education, joins us to talk about his experience with Houston Real Men Read and how he met his mentee.
\n\nAdditional resources:
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\n\nFollowing the Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, the nation's attention has shifted to the issue of school safety. But how do we reassure children after traumatic events? Our guests this week offer advice for parents and educators on helping kids cope with fear and anxiety. First, we speak with Dr. Jamie Howard, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, who shares some of the unique ways that children experience and express trauma. We also talk with Julie Ballew, a fifth-grade teacher from Houston, Texas, who helped her students rebuild a sense of community after Hurricane Harvey devastated their city.
\n\nDon't miss an episode! Subscribe to our podcast on an iOS device here or an Android device here, and the latest episodes of Scholastic Reads will be automatically delivered to your device.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
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\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nThis week, we're talking with Sayantani DasGupta, the author of the forthcoming middle grade fantasy novel The Serpent's Secret, in which sixth grader Kiranmala discovers she's a princess...and an interdemensional demon slayer! Sayantani talks with her 13-year-old daughter, Sunaya, who is a Scholastic News Kids Press Corps reporter, and tells us about her childhood ask a daughter of immigrants, as well as her love of storytelling, folktales, science, and Madeleine L'Engle.
\n\nDon't miss an episode! Subscribe to our podcast on an iOS device here or an Android device here, and the latest episodes of Scholastic Reads will be automatically delivered to your device.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\n\nGuest:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nThis week, we're talking with creators who saw a void in the marketplace: books with black girls as the heroines. Marley Dias, a 13-year-old from New Jersey who has been hailed as someone who \"could be president in 30 years\" by InStyle, is the founder of the #1000BlackGirlBooks hashtag andthe ensuing movement. We talk with her about her own book, Marley Dias Gets It Done: And So Can You and Suzanne gets a little hosting help from Scholastic News Kids Press reporter Titus Smith, III.
\n\nLater on, we sit down with Kelly Greenawalt and Amariah Rauscher, the creators of the indomitable, inventive, and adorable Princess Truly. Kelly tells us that she started writing the Princess Truly picture books for her own daughter who was once told by a classmate that her curls weren't \"magical princess hair.\"
\n\nAdditional Resources:
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\n\n","summary":"","date_published":"2018-02-08T16:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/06f2fbbb-5615-4780-a1c4-d9e006ddc415.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":52559346,"duration_in_seconds":2151}]},{"id":"96cacd74-4af8-4a7a-a097-b2c3ed55888e","title":"Christopher Paul Curtis: Learning from History","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/56","content_text":"This week, we're talking with Christopher Paul Curtis, the author of many beloved, award-winning books for young readers including The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 and Bud, Not Buddy. He's joining us via Skype from his home in Canada to talk about his newest book, The Journey of Little Charlie, the latest installment in the Buxton Chronicles. Christopher talks about his love of history, his childhood in Flint, MI, and why humor is a crucial element of his heart-wrenching books.\n\nDon't miss an episode! Subscribe to our podcast on an iOS device here or an Android device here, and the latest episodes of Scholastic Reads will be automatically delivered to your device.\n\nAdditional resources: \n\n\nRead more about The Journey of Little Charlie \nWatch Christopher Paul Curtis talk about The Journey of Little Charlie\nRead a review of The Journey of Little Charlie\nDiscover more works by Christopher Paul Curtis\n\n\nGuests: \n\n\nChristopher Paul Curtis was awarded both a Newbery Honor and a Coretta Scott King Honor for his debut book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, and won the Newbery Medal and the Coretta Scott King Award for his second book, Bud, Not Buddy. Mr. Curtis is also the author of the Golden Kite Award-winning Bucking the Sarge, as well as The Mighty Miss Malone, and two previous books in The Buxton Chronicles: The Madman of Piney Woods, and the Newbery Honor book Elijah of Buxton.\n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n\n\n \n\n ","content_html":"
This week, we're talking with Christopher Paul Curtis, the author of many beloved, award-winning books for young readers including The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 and Bud, Not Buddy. He's joining us via Skype from his home in Canada to talk about his newest book, The Journey of Little Charlie, the latest installment in the Buxton Chronicles. Christopher talks about his love of history, his childhood in Flint, MI, and why humor is a crucial element of his heart-wrenching books.
\n\nDon't miss an episode! Subscribe to our podcast on an iOS device here or an Android device here, and the latest episodes of Scholastic Reads will be automatically delivered to your device.
\n\nAdditional resources:
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\n\n\n
","summary":"We talk with award-winning author Christopher Paul Curtis about his latest book, The Journey of Little Charlie.","date_published":"2018-01-25T10:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/96cacd74-4af8-4a7a-a097-b2c3ed55888e.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":30699497,"duration_in_seconds":1241}]},{"id":"fef24b30-6086-48c9-91ed-a848bf8e4949","title":"Children's Book Trends to Watch for in 2018","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/55","content_text":"Happy holidays! We're kicking this episode off by looking ahead to 2018: Three Scholastic Book Clubs editors share their predictions for five trends we're going to see in children's books in 2018. We also take a trip to the annual Scholastic Employee Holiday Book Fair and talk with some of our colleagues about what books are on their must-buy list this holiday season. (Spoiler alert: Everyone wants the Harry Potter illustrated editions!) \n\nAdditional Resources:\n\n\nSee the complete list of trends Scholastic Book Clubs editors predict we'll see in 2018 plus additional book recommendations\nLearn more about the Harry Potter illustrated editions with art by Jim Kay\nSee the Book Boys' music video, \"Jump Around\"\nSee the Scholastic Book Clubs Dollar Deal of the week\n\n\nGuests: \n\n\nDarcy Evans, Jaewon Oh, and Lori Wieczorek are editorial managers with Scholastic Book Clubs.\n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n","content_html":"
Happy holidays! We're kicking this episode off by looking ahead to 2018: Three Scholastic Book Clubs editors share their predictions for five trends we're going to see in children's books in 2018. We also take a trip to the annual Scholastic Employee Holiday Book Fair and talk with some of our colleagues about what books are on their must-buy list this holiday season. (Spoiler alert: Everyone wants the Harry Potter illustrated editions!)
\n\nAdditional Resources:
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\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nWith Star Wars fever running high, we are talking with Jarrett Krosoczka this week, the author and illustrator of the two latest books in the Star Wars: Jedi Academy series, A New Class and The Force Oversleeps! Jarrett talks about how he got his start in children's publishing and what it's been like to take over the helm at Jedi Academy. He also shares a little bit about his forthcoming graphic novel memoir, Hey, Kiddo, which is due out in Fall 2018.
\n\nAs Yoda would say, \"Listen, you must!\"
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nThis week, we're talking (and singing!) with Julia Donaldson, the 2011-2013 Children's Laureate in the UK and the author of more than 140 books for children including The Gruffalo, Stick Man, and most recently, Zog and the Flying Doctors.
\n\nIn this episode, Julia and her husband, Malcolm, share part of their song \"Zog and the Flying Doctors,\" and Julia talks with us about her passion for storytelling, her love of libraries, and why she decided to write a feminist princess.
\n\nResources:
\n\nGuest:
\n\nThis week, we're talking about civics education. At a time when our republic feels particularly unsettled, we’re asking: What do students know about their government? What SHOULD they know? Teachers tell us that there is a critical need for materials that help students understand their role in a democracy and as citizens of the world—whether the lesson is understanding the three branches of government, spotting fake news, or simply learning how to disagree respectfully, teachers of all grade levels are having civics-related discussions almost daily.
\n\nIn this episode, we sit down with four of our Scholastic Classroom Magazines editors to talk about how they help teachers bring civics into the classroom. We also talk with a fourth-grade teacher from New York about the types of lessons she's sharing with her students.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\n","summary":"","date_published":"2017-11-17T11:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/8b75a3e4-d25e-4769-adf3-d65723d6ddc1.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":29415215,"duration_in_seconds":2372}]},{"id":"3cef1b81-20a8-42d8-9908-8af49df2e2c4","title":"Talking Wonderstruck with Brian Selznick","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/51","content_text":"This week, we're taking you with us to the Queens Museum as we attend a special event honoring the Panorama of the City of New York exhibit — a miniature model fo New York City that was built for the 1964-1965 World's Fair. The exhibit plays a pivotal role in Brian Selznick's bestselling novel Wonderstruck, as well as its recent movie adaptation. We talk with Brian about Wonderstruck and what it was like to see his novel come to life on the big screen. Later in the episode, we also hear from Louise Weinberg, curator and archives manager from the Queens Museum, who will share some of the history of the Panorama.\n\nAdditional Resources:\n\n\nRead more about Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick\nWatch the trailer for \"Wonderstruck\"\nRead more about the Panorama of the City of New York\n\n\nGuests: \n\n\nBrian Selznick is the Caldecott Medal-winning creator of the New York Times bestsellers The Invention of Hugo Cabret, adapted into Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning Hugo; Wonderstruck, adapted into Todd Haynes’s eponymous movie; and The Marvels. Among the celebrated picture books Selznick has illustrated are the Caldecott Honor Book The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley, and the Sibert Honor Book When Marian Sang by Pam Muñoz Ryan. His books appear in over 35 languages. He has also worked as a bookseller, a puppeteer, and a screenwriter. He divides his time between Brooklyn, New York, and San Diego, California.\nLouise Weinberg is a curator and archives manager at the Queens Museum\n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n","content_html":"
This week, we're taking you with us to the Queens Museum as we attend a special event honoring the Panorama of the City of New York exhibit — a miniature model fo New York City that was built for the 1964-1965 World's Fair. The exhibit plays a pivotal role in Brian Selznick's bestselling novel Wonderstruck, as well as its recent movie adaptation. We talk with Brian about Wonderstruck and what it was like to see his novel come to life on the big screen. Later in the episode, we also hear from Louise Weinberg, curator and archives manager from the Queens Museum, who will share some of the history of the Panorama.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\n`
"I stopped reading books that had humans in them after Harriet [the Spy] because I knew there wouldn't be any humans like me," — Sarah Moon, author of Sparrow.
\n\nAt Scholastic, we're proud to publish authors of differend backgrounds, cultures, races, abilities, and orientations. But we also know that many of our authors have felt the same way Sarah did as a child. Like her, many felt that they didn't exist in children's books when they were growing up. And like her, many are now writing to change that for future generations. We invited them to share their stories and to talk about why representation in children's books is so crucial. These stories will break your heart, but they will also give you hope: hope that today's children will never doubt that they can be the heroes of their own stories.
\n\nContributing authors:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nThis week, we're talking myths, magic and metaphors with bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater, whose newest novel,All the Crooked Saints, will be in stores on October 10. Maggie is joined in the studio by her editor, David Levithan, as well as some extra special guests: her dad and her brother! Later in the episode, we'll also talk with Booklist editor Daniel Kraus about Booklist's 50 Best YA Books of All Time list, which just so happens to include Maggie's New York Times bestselling series The Raven Cycle.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\n\nGuests:
\n\nThis week, we're joined in the studio by Daniel José Older, author of the New York Times bestselling Shadowshaper, an urban fantasy for young adults that follows the adventures of Sierra Santiago, a Brooklyn teen with supernatural powers. Daniel is also a musician, an artist, and a former paramedic. We're talking with him about his latest book, Shadowhouse Fall, and about his efforts to bring more diversity to children's literature.
Additional Resources:
Guests:
Special thanks:
","summary":"This week, we're joined in the studio by Daniel José Older, author of the New York Times bestselling Shadowshaper, an urban fantasy for young adults that follows the adventures of Sierra Santiago, a Brooklyn teen with supernatural powers.","date_published":"2017-09-21T14:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/14248d06-672e-4d18-8db5-816fd636db77.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":37958022,"duration_in_seconds":1544}]},{"id":"9f579497-958c-4f26-b048-00a8c38b9596","title":"Getting Families Engaged in the Classroom","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/47","content_text":"Research tells us that when families are engaged in their children's learning, great things happen. But what does it look like when families and educators are working together? To find out, we're talking with Dr. Karen L. Mapp from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (and co-author of Powerful Partnerships: A Teacher’s Guide to Engaging Families for Student Success). ","content_html":"
Research tells us that when families are engaged in their children's learning, great things happen. But what does it look like when families and educators are working together? To find out, we're talking with Dr. Karen L. Mapp from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (and co-author of Powerful Partnerships: A Teacher’s Guide to Engaging Families for Student Success).
","summary":"Research tells us that when families are engaged in their children's learning, great things happen. But what does it look like when families and educators are working together? To find out, we're talking with Dr. Karen L. Mapp from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (and co-author of Powerful Partnerships: A Teacher’s Guide to Engaging Families for Student Success). ","date_published":"2017-09-07T11:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/9f579497-958c-4f26-b048-00a8c38b9596.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":48858681,"duration_in_seconds":1997}]},{"id":"e247982a-e5fb-41eb-8743-fb257f91c13d","title":"Summer Short: Middle Grade Read-Alouds","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/46","content_text":"This week, we’re excited to share another short episode full of read-alouds with you! Here at Scholastic, we know that reading aloud with your child is one of the most important things you can do to, and it shouldn’t stop once they can read on their own.","content_html":"This week, we’re excited to share another short episode full of read-alouds with you! Here at Scholastic, we know that reading aloud with your child is one of the most important things you can do to, and it shouldn’t stop once they can read on their own.
","summary":"This week, we’re excited to share another short episode full of read-alouds with you! Here at Scholastic, we know that reading aloud with your child is one of the most important things you can do to, and it shouldn’t stop once they can read on their own.","date_published":"2017-08-24T16:30:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/e247982a-e5fb-41eb-8743-fb257f91c13d.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":21405239,"duration_in_seconds":853}]},{"id":"45ac028b-6add-44e7-9b55-cf8c2542e3bb","title":"Summer Short: Picture Book Read-Alouds","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/45","content_text":"This week, we have something special — and a little different. We know from research that reading aloud is one of the best ways to turn kids into lifelong readers, and over the past 40 plus episodes, we’ve asked A LOT of talented authors to read aloud from their work. Today, we’ve stitched our picture book read-alouds together into one short episode that’s perfect for your 3- to 8-year-old!","content_html":"This week, we have something special — and a little different. We know from research that reading aloud is one of the best ways to turn kids into lifelong readers, and over the past 40 plus episodes, we’ve asked A LOT of talented authors to read aloud from their work. Today, we’ve stitched our picture book read-alouds together into one short episode that’s perfect for your 3- to 8-year-old!
","summary":"This week, we have something special — and a little different. We know from research that reading aloud is one of the best ways to turn kids into lifelong readers, and over the past 40 plus episodes, we’ve asked A LOT of talented authors to read aloud from their work. Today, we’ve stitched our picture book read-alouds together into one short episode that’s perfect for your 3- to 8-year-old!","date_published":"2017-08-10T15:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/45ac028b-6add-44e7-9b55-cf8c2542e3bb.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":28490687,"duration_in_seconds":1149}]},{"id":"e622366c-1906-43b9-9202-81f828127bb1","title":"Making Magic with Wings of Fire","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/44","content_text":"This week, we're talking with author Tui Sutherland about her New York Times and USA Today bestselling series, Wings of Fire.","content_html":"This week, we're talking with author Tui Sutherland about her New York Times and USA Today bestselling series, Wings of Fire.
","summary":"This week, we're talking with author Tui Sutherland about her New York Times and USA Today bestselling series, Wings of Fire.","date_published":"2017-07-27T12:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/e622366c-1906-43b9-9202-81f828127bb1.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":40892262,"duration_in_seconds":1661}]},{"id":"26231bfd-b133-4ec8-9e7e-cfc3e39fd3d7","title":"25 Years of Goosebumps","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/43","content_text":"In July 1992, Scholastic introduced a monthly book series by R.L. Stine called Goosebumps with Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House. Twenty-five years (and several generations of frightened kids later), Goosebumps is now one of the best-selling children's series of all time with more than 350 million English language books in print. To celebrate this milestone, we invited R.L. Stine into the studio to reflect on the last 25 years and to give us a look at what's still to come for the master of horror. \n\nJoining us in the studio today is a special co-host, Gina Asprocolas. Gina is a Scholastic employee who was a die-hard Goosebumps fan as a child. She shares her story of growing up with Goosebumps, gives Stine some inspiration for millennial-inspired stories, and we test her R.L. Stine-related knowledge with some trivia!","content_html":"In July 1992, Scholastic introduced a monthly book series by R.L. Stine called Goosebumps with Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House. Twenty-five years (and several generations of frightened kids later), Goosebumps is now one of the best-selling children's series of all time with more than 350 million English language books in print. To celebrate this milestone, we invited R.L. Stine into the studio to reflect on the last 25 years and to give us a look at what's still to come for the master of horror.
\n\nJoining us in the studio today is a special co-host, Gina Asprocolas. Gina is a Scholastic employee who was a die-hard Goosebumps fan as a child. She shares her story of growing up with Goosebumps, gives Stine some inspiration for millennial-inspired stories, and we test her R.L. Stine-related knowledge with some trivia!
","summary":"In July 1992, Scholastic introduced a monthly book series by R.L. Stine called Goosebumps with Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House. Twenty-five years (and several generations of frightened kids later), Goosebumps is now one of the best-selling children's series of all time with more than 350 million English language books in print. To celebrate this milestone, we invited R.L. Stine into the studio to reflect on the last 25 years and to give us a look at what's still to come for the master of horror. ","date_published":"2017-07-13T11:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/26231bfd-b133-4ec8-9e7e-cfc3e39fd3d7.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":45919698,"duration_in_seconds":1870}]},{"id":"b1f6c7e9-de52-42be-bcde-d2538dd4d862","title":"Telling the Stories of Refugees","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/42","content_text":"Actors Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, and author Alan Gratz join us this week to talk about the refugee crisis, and how they are giving voice to the children affected.\n\nFirst, we speak with Alan Gratz, a children's author whose most recent book, Refugee, hits shelves July 25, 2017. The book follows three children from three periods of history fleeing three different evils: Josef, a young Jewish boy fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s; Isabel, a Cuban girl whose family sets out on a raft bound for America in 1994; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015, who hopes to escape the violence and destruction of his homeland and begin a new life with his family in Europe.\n\nLater in the episode, we talk with Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody. Mandy is an actor and singer whom you may know from his roles in \"The Princess Bride,\" the Showtime series \"Homeland,\" or as the voice of Papa Smurf in the recent movie \"Smurfs: The Lost Village.\" Over the past few years, Mandy and his wife, actress and writer Kathryn Grody, have begun working with the International Rescue Committee, traveling to refugee camps in Greece and Serbia to meet with refugees and listen to their stories. They join us in the studio this week to share some of those stories.","content_html":"Actors Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, and author Alan Gratz join us this week to talk about the refugee crisis, and how they are giving voice to the children affected.
\n\nFirst, we speak with Alan Gratz, a children's author whose most recent book, Refugee, hits shelves July 25, 2017. The book follows three children from three periods of history fleeing three different evils: Josef, a young Jewish boy fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s; Isabel, a Cuban girl whose family sets out on a raft bound for America in 1994; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015, who hopes to escape the violence and destruction of his homeland and begin a new life with his family in Europe.
\n\nLater in the episode, we talk with Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody. Mandy is an actor and singer whom you may know from his roles in "The Princess Bride," the Showtime series "Homeland," or as the voice of Papa Smurf in the recent movie "Smurfs: The Lost Village." Over the past few years, Mandy and his wife, actress and writer Kathryn Grody, have begun working with the International Rescue Committee, traveling to refugee camps in Greece and Serbia to meet with refugees and listen to their stories. They join us in the studio this week to share some of those stories.
","summary":"Actors Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, and author Alan Gratz join us this week to talk about the refugee crisis, and how they are giving voice to the children affected.","date_published":"2017-06-23T11:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/b1f6c7e9-de52-42be-bcde-d2538dd4d862.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":43673614,"duration_in_seconds":3552}]},{"id":"d0786882-bdee-49bd-8aa9-e91d02df1a9b","title":"Openly, Honestly Bill: Bill Konigsberg on Reading and Writing with Pride","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/41","content_text":"Award-winning author Bill Konigsberg joins us in the studio for this week's episode, just in time to celebrate Pride Month. Bill is the author of Openly Straight, which won the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor, the Stonewall Award-winning The Porcupine of Truth, and most recently, Honestly Ben, a follow-up novel to Openly Straight. He talks about why he decided to write Honestly Ben several years after Openly Straight's release. Bill also shares what his life was like growing up as a gay teen in New York City during a time when there were little to no books in which he could see himself, his experiences, or even any role models.\n\nLater in the episode, we also talk with Scholastic librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey and art director Jeremy Goodwin about their recent experiences when Bill came to a meeting of the Scholastic Employee Book Club while they were discussing Honestly Ben. \n\nAdditional Resources:\n\n\nRead an excerpt of Openly Straight, Honestly Ben, and The Porcupine of Truth\nGet a free copy of Bill Konigsberg's novella, Openly, Honestly here\nSee more of our recommendations for great Pride Month reads\nFollow along with our #ReadWithPride campaign on Twitter and Instagram\n\n\nGuests:\n\n\nBill Konigsberg is the author of novels including Openly Straight, which was named to the YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults list, and The Porcupine of Truth, which won the Stonewall Book Award and the PEN Center Literary Award. Bill lives in Arizona with his husband. Visit him online at billkonigsberg.com and follow him at @billkonigsberg.\nDeimosa Webber-Bey is the Library Manager at Scholastic and is responsible for the corporate archive, readers advisory, cataloging, and the employee book club. She also taught for several years in public schools in Queens, Brooklyn, Albuquerque, and the Pueblo of Jemez.\nJeremy Goodwin is the Art Director for Scholastic's Corporate Communications department. He works on maintaining and elevating the equity of the Scholastic corporate brand across the many divisions of the company. He’s been in the design industry for more than 10 years and is an avid reader and independent artist. \n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan \nProduced by Emily Morrow\n","content_html":"Award-winning author Bill Konigsberg joins us in the studio for this week's episode, just in time to celebrate Pride Month. Bill is the author of Openly Straight, which won the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor, the Stonewall Award-winning The Porcupine of Truth, and most recently, Honestly Ben, a follow-up novel to Openly Straight. He talks about why he decided to write Honestly Ben several years after Openly Straight's release. Bill also shares what his life was like growing up as a gay teen in New York City during a time when there were little to no books in which he could see himself, his experiences, or even any role models.
\n\nLater in the episode, we also talk with Scholastic librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey and art director Jeremy Goodwin about their recent experiences when Bill came to a meeting of the Scholastic Employee Book Club while they were discussing Honestly Ben.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\nMemorial Day is a time of reflection and patriotism. But we recognize that it can sometimes be challenging to explain what we're celebrating — and the realities of war — to children. In this episode, we talk with authors C. Alexander London (Dog Tags and Tides of War series), Kate Messner (Rolling Thunder), and Lauren Tarshis (I Survived series) who share with us why and how they write about war for their young readers.
","summary":"Memorial Day is a time of reflection and patriotism. But we recognize that it can sometimes be challenging to explain what we're celebrating — and the realities of war — to children. In this episode, we talk with authors C. Alexander London (Dog Tags and Tides of War series), Kate Messner (Rolling Thunder), and Lauren Tarshis (I Survived series) who share with us why and how they write about war for their young readers.","date_published":"2017-05-25T11:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/933e24b9-b493-4022-918f-869246d53ce6.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":26226092,"duration_in_seconds":2099}]},{"id":"7f250d91-10d5-45a4-bd46-eb4a7f39ca72","title":"Meet the Kids Press","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/39","content_text":"Know a kid with a nose for news? The Scholastic News Kids Press Corps is accepting applications through May 31, 2017. Find out more details and apply here!\n\nAdditional resources:\n\n\nLearn more about the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps\nRead recent stories from the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps\nRead Esther Appelstein's stories\nRead Adedayo Perkovich's stories\nRead Titus Smith III's stories\nRead Maxwell Surprenant's stories\nApply to join the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps\n\n\nGuests:\n\n\nEsther Appelstein is a 12-year-old member of the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps from St Louis, Missouri. Esther joined the Kids Press in 2015.\nAdedayo Perkovich is a 13-year-old member of the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps from New York, New York. Adedayo joined the Kids Press in 2014.\nTitus Smith III is an 11-year-old member of the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps from Southfield, Michigan. Titus joined the Kids Press in 2016.\nMaxwell Surprenant is a 13-year-old member of the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps from Needham, Massachusetts. Maxwell joined the Kids Press in 2015.\nMichael Cappetta is an alumnus of the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps program and a producer at NBC Universal.\n\n\nSpecial thanks:\n\n\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n","content_html":"Know a kid with a nose for news? The Scholastic News Kids Press Corps is accepting applications through May 31, 2017. Find out more details and apply here!
\n\nAdditional resources:
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\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\n"A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love sickness." — Robert Frost
\nThis week, we're celebrating Poetry Month by talking about the power and joy of poetry. First, we hear from renowned novelist, essayist, and poet Calvin Trillin, who shares some of the inspiration behind his new poetry collection for children, No Fair! No Fair!. We also talk with two high school students, Maya Eashwaran and Gopal Raman, who were honored as National Student Poets in 2016, as well as an educator, Adam Couturier, who speaks about the wonderful poetry program in his Massachusetts school district.
Additional resources:
\n\nMore information about No Fair! No Fair! by Calvin Trillin and illustrated by Roz Chast
\nLearn more about the National Student Poets Program
\nMeet the other 2016 National Student Poets, and hear more from Maya Eashwaran and Gopal Raman
\nRead a blog post from Adam Couturier about his district's We Read Big initiative
\nGuests:
Calvin Trillin is a journalist, humorist, poet, novelist, memoirist, and food writer. A long-time staff writer at The New Yorker, he is also The Nation’s “deadline poet.” He has published thirty books, many of them bestsellers. His books include Remembering Denny, About Alice, Tepper Isn't Going Out, and Dogfight: The 2012 Presidential Campaign in Verse. In 2012, he won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He lives in New York.
\nMaya Eashwaran is a senior at Milton High School in Milton, Georgia, and a 2016 National Student Poet. In addition to writing poetry, she is also an avid musician.
\nGopal Raman is a senior at St. Mark’s School in Dallas, Texas, and a 2016 National Student Poet. In addition to writing poetry, he edits for his high school newspaper and chairs the St. Mark’s Literary Festival.
\nAdam Couturier is the 6-12 Humanities Curriculum Coordinator for Southbridge Public Schools in Southbridge, Massachusetts. Mr. Couturier was a 2016 Pioneer Valley Teacher of Excellence award winner as a result of his work in Springfield, MA. He served as a teacher, Social Studies Department Chair, and as a Middle Years Programme Coordinator at an International Baccalaureate school. In addition to this, he wrote curriculum for the National Parks Service at the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, Springfield Public Schools, and now at Southbridge Middle and High Schools.
\nSpecial thanks:
Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan
\nProduced by Emily Morrow
Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst are trying to change how we read. In their new book, Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, the award-winning authors and literacy educators explore a new approach where reading is viewed as a transformational experience rather than a practice of decoding, recalling, and responding to questions. As Bob says, \"We're looking for the replacement of artificial and formulaic reading with REAL reading.\" This week, Kylene and Bob join us in the studio to talk about how teachers can start implementing changes in their classrooms today, ways parents can be reading role models for their children at home, and why it's more important that kids recognize how a text makes them feel than remember the main character's name.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\n\nGuests:
\nKylene Beers and Robert E. Probst are trying to change how we read. In their new book, Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, the award-winning authors and literacy educators explore a new approach where reading is viewed as a transformational experience rather than a practice of decoding, recalling, and responding to questions. As Bob says, \"We're looking for the replacement of artificial and formulaic reading with REAL reading.\" This week, Kylene and Bob join us in the studio to talk about how teachers can start implementing changes in their classrooms today, ways parents can be reading role models for their children at home, and why it's more important that kids recognize how a text makes them feel than remember the main character's name.
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\r\nGuests:
\r\n\n\n
What do you do with a story that's too big to be contained in a book series? This week, we're talking about Horizon, a new multiplatform adventure for 9- to 12-year olds. Joining us in the studio are New York Times bestselling author Scott Westerfeld (Uglies, Leviathan, Afterworlds), game designer Gavin Brown, and editor Nick Eliopulos to talk about the unique approach Scholastic's multiplatform team takes to storytelling. As Nick says, \"The books that we love become these spaces that we want to play in.\"
\n\n\n\n
Additional Resources:
\n\n\r\n
What do you do with a story that's too big to be contained in a book series? This week, we're talking about Horizon, a new multiplatform adventure for 9- to 12-year olds. Joining us in the studio are New York Times bestselling author Scott Westerfeld (Uglies, Leviathan, Afterworlds), game designer Gavin Brown, and editor Nick Eliopulos to talk about the unique approach Scholastic's multiplatform team takes to storytelling. As Nick says, \"The books that we love become these spaces that we want to play in.\"
\r\n\r\n
Additional Resources:
\r\nAuthor Peter Reynolds is redefining what ADHD stands for. In his world, and in his new picture book, Happy Dreamer, it's simply an acronym for Amazing Delightful Happy Dreamer. This week, we talk with Peter and educator Lester Laminack about how we can encourage dreamers of all forms to feel included, engaged, and welcomed whether it's at home, in the classroom, or on the playground.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\n\nGuests:
\nAuthor Peter Reynolds is redefining what ADHD stands for. In his world, and in his new picture book, Happy Dreamer, it's simply an acronym for Amazing Delightful Happy Dreamer. This week, we talk with Peter and educator Lester Laminack about how we can encourage dreamers of all forms to feel included, engaged, and welcomed whether it's at home, in the classroom, or on the playground.
\r\nAdditional Resources:
\r\nGuests:
\r\nHow many times have you heard the story of Cinderella? Or Beauty and the Beast? Probably dozens. And yet somehow, they never get old. No matter how they're told and re-told, we know good will triumph over evil, our heroine will find love, and everyone will live happily ever after. But why do those stories have so much appeal?
\n\nToday, we have two fairy tale experts joining us to share their thoughts on why these stories have endured generation after generation: authors Sarah Mlynowski and Garth Nix. Sarah and Garth are two writers who have often fractured, or re-told, fairy tales. Sarah, for her bestselling Whatever After series, and Garth, in his most recent YA novel, Frogkisser!.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\n\nGuests:
","summary":"
How many times have you heard the story of Cinderella? Or Beauty and the Beast? Probably dozens. And yet somehow, they never get old. No matter how they're told and re-told, we know good will triumph over evil, our heroine will find love, and everyone will live happily ever after. But why do those stories have so much appeal?
\r\nToday, we have two fairy tale experts joining us to share their thoughts on why these stories have endured generation after generation: authors Sarah Mlynowski and Garth Nix. Sarah and Garth are two writers who have often fractured, or re-told, fairy tales. Sarah, for her bestselling Whatever After series, and Garth, in his most recent YA novel, Frogkisser!.
\r\nAdditional Resources:
\r\nGuests:
\r\n","date_published":"2017-03-10T16:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/8a0b1b69-1aad-47ab-a0d2-9f73f9f7b51f.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":16691416,"duration_in_seconds":1303}]},{"id":"http://oom.bigreddog.org:8080/podcast/rooster-who-would-not-be-quiet-giving-children-voice","title":"The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet: Giving Children a Voice","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/32","content_text":"This week, we're talking about the importance of raising children's voices. First, we're joined by Carmen Agra Deedy, the acclaimed author of the new picture book The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet!, an allegorical tale of a brave, little rooster in a town where singing has been outlawed. Carmen shares the story of her own childhood as a Cuban refugee living in Decatur, Georgia, and talks about the importance of the message that children should be encouraged to speak their truths. Next, we talk with Dana McDonough, a second grade teacher who was named the 2016 State Teacher of the Year from New York. Dana tells us how she works to make every child feel heard in her classroom.\n\nAdditional Resources:\n\nMore information on The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet! by Carmen Agra Deedy, illustrated by Eugene Yelchin\nDana McDonough's blog post about invisible backpacks\nMore about Carmen Agra Deedy\nGuests:\nCarmen Agra Deedy is one of America's most foremost storytellers. Her many award-winning books include Martina the Beautiful Cockroach, which received a Pura Belpré Honor, and her New York Times bestseller 14 Cows for America. Born in Havana, Cuba, Carmen drew on her love of folklore to create The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet! She lives with her family in Atlanta, Georgia. \nDana McDonough is the 2016 State Teacher of the Year from New York. She teaches second grade at Fostertown ETC Magnet School in Newburgh, NY.\n ","content_html":"
This week, we're talking about the importance of raising children's voices. First, we're joined by Carmen Agra Deedy, the acclaimed author of the new picture book The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet!, an allegorical tale of a brave, little rooster in a town where singing has been outlawed. Carmen shares the story of her own childhood as a Cuban refugee living in Decatur, Georgia, and talks about the importance of the message that children should be encouraged to speak their truths. Next, we talk with Dana McDonough, a second grade teacher who was named the 2016 State Teacher of the Year from New York. Dana tells us how she works to make every child feel heard in her classroom.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\n\nGuests:
","summary":"
This week, we're talking about the importance of raising children's voices. First, we're joined by Carmen Agra Deedy, the acclaimed author of the new picture book The Rooster Who Would Not Be Quiet!, an allegorical tale of a brave, little rooster in a town where singing has been outlawed. Carmen shares the story of her own childhood as a Cuban refugee living in Decatur, Georgia, and talks about the importance of the message that children should be encouraged to speak their truths. Next, we talk with Dana McDonough, a second grade teacher who was named the 2016 State Teacher of the Year from New York. Dana tells us how she works to make every child feel heard in her classroom.
\r\nAdditional Resources:
\r\nGuests:
\r\n","date_published":"2017-02-23T04:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/6a7cb62f-6f27-4c0f-ab49-432c6846330a.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":29482563,"duration_in_seconds":2372}]},{"id":"http://oom.bigreddog.org:8080/podcast/read-out-loud-celebrate-world-read-aloud-day","title":"Read Out Loud: Celebrate World Read Aloud Day","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/31","content_text":"On February 16, we are celebrating the power of the read aloud with World Read Aloud Day. Every year, this global celebration calls attention to the importance of sharing stories by challenging participants to grab a book, find an audience, and read out loud. In fact, data from Scholastic's Kids & Family Reading Report shows us that reading aloud to children regularly from birth is crucial for their happiness and their development as readers. Today, we'll explore why that is and hear from four guests who have all been powerfully impacted by their memories of childhood read-alouds.\n\nGuests:\n\nPam Allyn is a literacy expert and the founder of LitWorld, the organization behind World Read Aloud Day. She is also a co-author of Every Child a Super Reader.\nErnest Morrell is an award-winning author, teacher, and researcher, and a co-author of Every Child a Super Reader.\nNick Cannon is an actor, comedian, rapper, and the author of Neon Aliens Ate My Homework.\nAndrea Davis Pinkney is a Coretta Scott King Award-winning author and an editor at Scholastic.\nAdditional Resources:\nLearn more about World Read Aloud Day\nLearn more about Every Child a Super Reader by Pam Allyn and Ernest Morrell\nLearn more about Neon Aliens Ate My Homework by Nick Cannon\nLearn more about A Poem for Peter by Andrea Davis Pinkney\nSee more data around the importance of reading aloud\nSpecial Thanks:\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n","content_html":"
On February 16, we are celebrating the power of the read aloud with World Read Aloud Day. Every year, this global celebration calls attention to the importance of sharing stories by challenging participants to grab a book, find an audience, and read out loud. In fact, data from Scholastic's Kids & Family Reading Report shows us that reading aloud to children regularly from birth is crucial for their happiness and their development as readers. Today, we'll explore why that is and hear from four guests who have all been powerfully impacted by their memories of childhood read-alouds.
\n\nGuests:
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\nSpecial Thanks:
\nOn February 16, we are celebrating the power of the read aloud with World Read Aloud Day. Every year, this global celebration calls attention to the importance of sharing stories by challenging participants to grab a book, find an audience, and read out loud. In fact, data from Scholastic's Kids & Family Reading Report shows us that reading aloud to children regularly from birth is crucial for their happiness and their development as readers. Today, we'll explore why that is and hear from four guests who have all been powerfully impacted by their memories of childhood read-alouds.
\r\nGuests:
\r\nAdditional Resources:
\r\nSpecial Thanks:
\r\nIn the sixth edition of our Kids & Family Reading Report, we asked U.S. parents and children about their attitudes and behaviors around reading books for fun, and now the results are in! Key findings reveal what kids and parents look for in children's books, the increase in reading aloud to children from an early age, the inequities around access to books in the home, and more.
View all our findings and learn more about the methodology behind the survey at scholastic.com/readingreport.
Be sure to keep an eye out for forthcoming episodes diving more deeply into the topics of reading aloud and summer reading!
\n\nGuests:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\n\n
","summary":"
In the sixth edition of our Kids & Family Reading Report, we asked U.S. parents and children about their attitudes and behaviors around reading books for fun, and now the results are in! Key findings reveal what kids and parents look for in children's books, the increase in reading aloud to children from an early age, the inequities around access to books in the home, and more.
View all our findings and learn more about the methodology behind the survey at scholastic.com/readingreport.
Be sure to keep an eye out for forthcoming episodes diving more deeply into the topics of reading aloud and summer reading!
\r\nGuests:
\r\nSpecial thanks:
\r\n\r\n
","date_published":"2017-02-06T15:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/ac5a15c4-8078-473f-b77c-b3b65a12a76c.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":25369779,"duration_in_seconds":1013}]},{"id":"http://oomscholasticblog.com/podcast/best-scholastic-reads-year-review","title":"Best of Scholastic Reads: A Year in Review","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/29-5","content_text":"Scholastic Reads recently celebrated its first anniversary, and we wanted to mark the occasion by sharing some of our favorite moments from the last year! In this short episode, we'll hear clips from Lauren Tarshis (I Survived series), Sonia Manzano (Becoming Maria), Edwidge Danticat (Untwine), Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants series), Ann M. Martin (The Baby-sitters Club series), Arthur A. Levine (publisher and editor), David Levithan (author and editor), Cheryl Klein (editor), and Pam Muñoz Ryan (Esperanza Rising). Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or visit scholasticreads.com to listen to all of our episodes! Links to the full episodes for each clip are below.\n\nLauren Tarshis: Episode #19, \"Stories of Survival with Lauren Tarshis\"\nSonia Manzano: Episode #8, \"Sonia Manzano: Shaping a Life Story\"\nEdwidge Danticat: Episode #18, \"Edwidge Danticat: Beating the Darkness\"\nDav Pilkey: Episode #29, \"Dav Pilkey: Using Humor to Get Kids Reading\"\nAnn M. Martin: Episode #20, \"The Baby-sitters Club Turns 30\"\nArthur A. Levine: Episode #16, \"We Have Diverse Books\"\nDavid Levithan: Episode #17, \"Drag Teen with Jeffery Self\"\nCheryl Klein: Episode #1, \"The Magic of Harry Potter\"\nPam Muñoz Ryan: Episode #27, \"Pam Muñoz Ryan: Getting Readers to Turn the Page\"\nSpecial thanks:\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n","content_html":"
Scholastic Reads recently celebrated its first anniversary, and we wanted to mark the occasion by sharing some of our favorite moments from the last year! In this short episode, we'll hear clips from Lauren Tarshis (I Survived series), Sonia Manzano (Becoming Maria), Edwidge Danticat (Untwine), Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants series), Ann M. Martin (The Baby-sitters Club series), Arthur A. Levine (publisher and editor), David Levithan (author and editor), Cheryl Klein (editor), and Pam Muñoz Ryan (Esperanza Rising). Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or visit scholasticreads.com to listen to all of our episodes! Links to the full episodes for each clip are below.
\n\nSpecial thanks:
\nScholastic Reads recently celebrated its first anniversary, and we wanted to mark the occasion by sharing some of our favorite moments from the last year! In this short episode, we'll hear clips from Lauren Tarshis (I Survived series), Sonia Manzano (Becoming Maria), Edwidge Danticat (Untwine), Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants series), Ann M. Martin (The Baby-sitters Club series), Arthur A. Levine (publisher and editor), David Levithan (author and editor), Cheryl Klein (editor), and Pam Muñoz Ryan (Esperanza Rising). Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or visit scholasticreads.com to listen to all of our episodes! Links to the full episodes for each clip are below.
\r\nSpecial thanks:
\r\nLaughter is a universal language, and Dav Pilkey speaks it fluently. The award-winning author and illustrator of the Captain Underpants series joins us in the studio this week to introduce his newest series, Dog Man, and to talk about why funny books are often the right books to spark a love of reading. Dav also shares his own story about growing up with ADHD, dyslexia, and behavioral problems, and leaves us with some wise words of hope and encouragement for children who might be struggling with similar issues today.
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\n\nGuests:
Special thanks:
\n\n
","summary":"
Laughter is a universal language, and Dav Pilkey speaks it fluently. The award-winning author and illustrator of the Captain Underpants series joins us in the studio this week to introduce his newest series, Dog Man, and to talk about why funny books are often the right books to spark a love of reading. Dav also shares his own story about growing up with ADHD, dyslexia, and behavioral problems, and leaves us with some wise words of hope and encouragement for children who might be struggling with similar issues today.
\r\nAdditional Resources:
\r\nGuests:
\r\nSpecial thanks:
\r\n\r\n
","date_published":"2017-01-04T15:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/3db816d5-afb6-4d5f-8f20-7e50860e7951.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":13707377,"duration_in_seconds":1062}]},{"id":"http://oom.bigreddog.org:8080/podcast/holiday-book-fair-must-have-books-2016","title":"Holiday Book Fair: Must-have Books for 2016","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/28","content_text":"The holidays bring many wonderful thing to Scholastic, chief among them, the employee book fair! There's something for readers of every age, from picture books, coloring books, and cookbooks, to how-to books, graphic novels, and memoirs. In this episode, we talked with colleagues who are shopping and volunteering at the fair to find out what are the must-have books this holiday season.\n\nHere's a list of all the books mentioned in this episode with links to their Goodreads pages:\n\nThe Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead\nBorn to Run by Bruce Springsteen\nOne Plus One by Jojo Moyes\nFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling\nFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Movie Tie-in books\nHarry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, Jack Thorne\nHarry Potter and the Sorcerer' Stone Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling, illustrated by Jim Kay\nHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Illustrated Edition by J.K. Rowling, illustrated by Jim Kay\nSlide and Find Animals by Roger Priddy\nMy First Book of Colors by Scholastic\nDuck and Goose Let’s Dance by Tad Hills and Lauren Savage\nGoosebumps: Slappy’s Revenge by R.L. Stine\nGoosebumps: Night of the Living Dummy by R.L. Stine\nGive Yourself Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine\nRed Queen by Victoria Aveyard\nRed by Michael Hall\nSmile by Raina Telgemeier\nAmulet series by Kazu Kibuishi\nAda Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts\nPinball Science\nLunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer\nHeartless by Marissa Meyer\nUntwine by Edwidge Danticat\nHidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly\nHidden Figures Young Readers' Edition by Margot Lee Shetterly\nHamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter\nLife-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondō\nThe Girl in the Spider’s Web by David Lagercrantz\nHolding up the Universe by Jennifer Niven\nAnother Brooklyn by Jaqueline Woodson\nPirates Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort\nIzzy the Ice Cream Fairy by Tim Bugbird\nThe Airport Book by Lisa Brown\nSpecial thanks:\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson\nProduced by Emily Morrow\n ","content_html":"
The holidays bring many wonderful thing to Scholastic, chief among them, the employee book fair! There's something for readers of every age, from picture books, coloring books, and cookbooks, to how-to books, graphic novels, and memoirs. In this episode, we talked with colleagues who are shopping and volunteering at the fair to find out what are the must-have books this holiday season.
\n\nHere's a list of all the books mentioned in this episode with links to their Goodreads pages:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
","summary":"
The holidays bring many wonderful thing to Scholastic, chief among them, the employee book fair! There's something for readers of every age, from picture books, coloring books, and cookbooks, to how-to books, graphic novels, and memoirs. In this episode, we talked with colleagues who are shopping and volunteering at the fair to find out what are the must-have books this holiday season.
\r\nHere's a list of all the books mentioned in this episode with links to their Goodreads pages:
\r\n\r\nSpecial thanks:
\r\n","date_published":"2016-12-19T14:00:00.000-05:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/70e69a32-f620-4ba0-b601-b57e255858fb.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":15229617,"duration_in_seconds":1188}]},{"id":"http://oom.bigreddog.org:8080/podcast/pam-mu-oz-ryan-getting-readers-turn-page","title":"Pam Muñoz Ryan: Getting Readers to Turn the Page","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/27","content_text":"Pam Muñoz Ryan, the celebrated and critically acclaimed author of Esperanza Rising, The Dreamer, and Riding Freedom, among many others, joins us in the studio today with her editor, Tracy Mack, to talk about her writing process, the genesis of her latest New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor novel, Echo, and why so many of her novels contain themes of social justice. Additional Resources:More about EchoPam Muñoz Ryan on TwitterPam Muñoz Ryan's websiteAbout Echo:Lost and alone in a forbidden forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica.Decades later, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California each, in turn, become interwoven when the very same harmonica lands in their lives. All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together. And ultimately, pulled by the invisible thread of destiny, their suspenseful solo stories converge in an orchestral crescendo.Guests:Pam Muñoz Ryan is the author of the Newbery Honor winner and New York Times bestseller, Echo, as well as the recipient of the Kirkus Prize, the NEA's Human and Civil Rights Award, and the Virginia Hamilton Literary Award for multicultural literature. She has written more than thirty books for young readers. Her celebrated novels, Esperanza Rising, Riding Freedom, Becoming Naomi Léon, Paint the Wind, and The Dreamer, have received numerous accolades, among them two Pura Belpré Awards, a NAPPA Gold Award, a Jane Addams Children's Book Award, and an Americas Award. Ryan's acclaimed picture books include Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Rideand When Marian Sang, both illustrated by Brian Selznick, and Tony Baloney, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham, as well as a beginning reader series featuring Tony Baloney. Kirkus Reviews described Echo as \"a grand narrative that examines the power of music to inspire beauty in a world overrun with fear and intolerance.\" Ryan lives near San Diego, California with her family. You can visit her at pammunozryan.com.Tracy Mack is a vice president and publisher at Scholastic, and Pam Muñoz Ryan's editor.Special thanks:Music composed by Lucas Elliot EberlSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher JohnsonProduced by Emily Morrow","content_html":"
Pam Muñoz Ryan, the celebrated and critically acclaimed author of Esperanza Rising, The Dreamer, and Riding Freedom, among many others, joins us in the studio today with her editor, Tracy Mack, to talk about her writing process, the genesis of her latest New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor novel, Echo, and why so many of her novels contain themes of social justice.
Additional Resources:
About Echo:
Lost and alone in a forbidden forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica.
Decades later, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California each, in turn, become interwoven when the very same harmonica lands in their lives. All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together. And ultimately, pulled by the invisible thread of destiny, their suspenseful solo stories converge in an orchestral crescendo.
Guests:
Special thanks:
Pam Muñoz Ryan, the celebrated and critically acclaimed author of Esperanza Rising, The Dreamer, and Riding Freedom, among many others, joins us in the studio today with her editor, Tracy Mack, to talk about her writing process, the genesis of her latest New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor novel, Echo, and why so many of her novels contain themes of social justice.
Additional Resources:
About Echo:
Lost and alone in a forbidden forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica.
Decades later, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California each, in turn, become interwoven when the very same harmonica lands in their lives. All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together. And ultimately, pulled by the invisible thread of destiny, their suspenseful solo stories converge in an orchestral crescendo.
Guests:
Special thanks:
Libraries are the heart of a school, but many suffer from chronic under-funding. Author James Patterson is working to change that. In this episode, he joins us to discuss his pledge to donate $1.75 million to school libraries for the second year in a row. We also hear from librarian Teresa Israel, who works at one of the schools that received a grant from Patterson’s 2015 pledge.
\n\nGuests:
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\nSpecial Thanks:
\nLibraries are the heart of a school, but many suffer from chronic under-funding. Author James Patterson is working to change that. In this episode, he joins us to discuss his pledge to donate $1.75 million to school libraries for the second year in a row. We also hear from librarian Teresa Israel, who works at one of the schools that received a grant from Patterson’s 2015 pledge.
\r\nGuests:
\r\nAdditional Resources:
\r\nSpecial Thanks:
\r\nGraphic novels are having a moment. Inspired by the rise of this popular genre, we asked Greg Grunberg, actor and author of the recently released Dream Jumper, to share the story of his inspiration. Illustrator Lucas Turnbloom also discusses his role in the book and his artistic process. Finally, David Saylor, the founder and editorial director of Scholastic's Graphix imprint, joins us with an exciting announcement: a new Graphix contest, where aspiring graphic novelists can get published.
\n\nGuests:
\n\nAdditional Resources:
\nSpecial Thanks:
\nGraphic novels are having a moment. Inspired by the rise of this popular genre, we asked Greg Grunberg, actor and author of the recently released Dream Jumper, to share the story of his inspiration. Illustrator Lucas Turnbloom also discusses his role in the book and his artistic process. Finally, David Saylor, the founder and editorial director of Scholastic's Graphix imprint, joins us with an exciting announcement: a new Graphix contest, where aspiring graphic novelists can get published.
\r\nGuests:
\r\nAdditional Resources:
\r\nSpecial Thanks:
\r\nJust in time for Halloween, Dan Poblocki, author of the new multiplatform series Shadow House, joins us to talk about the origins of his spooky tales. The series comes with an app, which is perfect for young readers. In the episode, Dan (pictured here with his bewitching editor, Erin Black) reveals all of the creepy things that have happened to people who have worked on the Shadow House series. Join us for some scary stories!
\n\nGuest:
\n\nAdditional resources:
Special thanks:
\n\n
\n\n
","summary":"
Just in time for Halloween, Dan Poblocki, author of the new multiplatform series Shadow House, joins us to talk about the origins of his spooky tales. The series comes with an app, which is perfect for young readers. In the episode, Dan (pictured here with his bewitching editor, Erin Black) reveals all of the creepy things that have happened to people who have worked on the Shadow House series. Join us for some scary stories!
\r\nGuest:
\r\n\r\nAdditional resources:
\r\nSpecial thanks:
\r\n\r\n
\r\n
","date_published":"2016-10-17T16:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/6684f1ce-b32e-48e7-b55a-b488a2487938.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":17011753,"duration_in_seconds":1337}]},{"id":"http://oom.bigreddog.org:8080/podcast/barry-cunningham-and-mg-leonard-talk-books-and-beetles","title":"Barry Cunningham and M.G. Leonard Talk Books (and Beetles!)","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/23","content_text":"15 years ago, Scholastic partnered with Chicken House, a publishing company based in the UK begun by publisher Barry Cunningham. In this episode, Barry, perhaps best-known for being the original acquiring editor of a little book called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the U.K., shares his vision of book publishing and talks about the state of the industry. He's joined by Chicken House author M.G. Leonard, writer of Beetle Boy, who regales listeners with her story of writing children's books about creepy-crawlies...while being utterly terrified of them. Guests:\n\nBarry Cunningham is the founder of Chicken House, a lively and creative company publishing highly original and enjoyable children’s books, with a special emphasis on new fiction. Chicken House launched in the US in 2001 and marked its 15th anniversary here this past summer. Barry is also known for signing up J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone while at Bloomsbury. Together with Chicken House and Scholastic, Barry is proud to have brought the voices of five-time New York Times bestselling author Cornelia Funke (The Thief Lord; Dragon Rider; the Inkheart trilogy), Printz Honor Award-winning Lucy Christopher (Stolen), Kevin Brooks (Martyn Pig; Lucas; Candy), Rachel Ward (Numbers trilogy), Cathryn Constable (The Wolf Princess), and M.G. Leonard (Beetle Boy) to the world.\nM. G. Leonard is the senior digital media producer at Britain’s National Theatre where she creates podcasts and documentaries about theater. Beetle Boy is her debut novel and the first in a trilogy. Leonard lives in Brighton, England with her family. Please visit her online at www.MGLeonard.com.\nAdditional resources:\nChicken House Books \nBeetle Boy book trailer\n5 Fascinating Facts About Beetles\nBarry Cunningham on Twitter\nM.G. Leonard on Twitter\nSpecial thanks:\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson\nProduced by Morgan Baden\n","content_html":"
15 years ago, Scholastic partnered with Chicken House, a publishing company based in the UK begun by publisher Barry Cunningham. In this episode, Barry, perhaps best-known for being the original acquiring editor of a little book called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the U.K., shares his vision of book publishing and talks about the state of the industry. He's joined by Chicken House author M.G. Leonard, writer of Beetle Boy, who regales listeners with her story of writing children's books about creepy-crawlies...while being utterly terrified of them.
Guests:
Additional resources:
\nSpecial thanks:
\n15 years ago, Scholastic partnered with Chicken House, a publishing company based in the UK begun by publisher Barry Cunningham. In this episode, Barry, perhaps best-known for being the original acquiring editor of a little book called Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the U.K., shares his vision of book publishing and talks about the state of the industry. He's joined by Chicken House author M.G. Leonard, writer of Beetle Boy, who regales listeners with her story of writing children's books about creepy-crawlies...while being utterly terrified of them.
Guests:
Additional resources:
\r\nSpecial thanks:
\r\nMaria Dominguez, executive editor at Scholastic en Español, and Nancy Mercado, editorial director of Scholastic Press, share their experiences reading and editing Spanish-language or Latino-culture-driven children's books in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. They discuss the books they love and recommend, from Sonia Manzano's Becoming Maria to Christina Diaz Gonzalez's Moving Target. Maria also highlights her own experience growing up in Cuba, while Nancy talks about the importance of reading Spanish-language books to her daughters.
\n\nGuests:
\n\nAdditional resources:
\n\nBooks discussed in this episode include:
\n\nSpecial thanks:
Maria Dominguez, executive editor at Scholastic en Español, and Nancy Mercado, editorial director of Scholastic Press, share their experiences reading and editing Spanish-language or Latino-culture-driven children's books in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. They discuss the books they love and recommend, from Sonia Manzano's Becoming Maria to Christina Diaz Gonzalez's Moving Target. Maria also highlights her own experience growing up in Cuba, while Nancy talks about the importance of reading Spanish-language books to her daughters.
\r\nGuests:
\r\nAdditional resources:
\r\nBooks discussed in this episode include:
\r\nSpecial thanks:
\r\nFor generations, teachers have been using Scholastic Reading Club to help their students foster a lifelong love of reading. Judy Newman, President of Scholastic Reading Club, joins us to talk about the unique business, its book-selection process, and her team of book-loving editors. We’re also joined by teacher-customer turned employee Carol Levine; Editorial Director David Allender; and Reading Club Teacher Advisor Beth Prince.
\n\nGuests:
\n\nBeth Prince, Kindergarden teacher at Hearst Elementary School in Washington, D.C., and Scholastic Reading Club Teacher Advisor.
\nAdditional Resources:
\nFor generations, teachers have been using Scholastic Reading Club to help their students foster a lifelong love of reading. Judy Newman, President of Scholastic Reading Club, joins us to talk about the unique business, its book-selection process, and her team of book-loving editors. We’re also joined by teacher-customer turned employee Carol Levine; Editorial Director David Allender; and Reading Club Teacher Advisor Beth Prince.
\r\nGuests:
\r\nBeth Prince, Kindergarden teacher at Hearst Elementary School in Washington, D.C., and Scholastic Reading Club Teacher Advisor.
\r\nAdditional Resources:
\r\nThirty years ago this month, readers were first introduced to the founding members of The Baby-sitters Club: Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Stacey. With nearly 250 titles in print, and new graphic novel adaptations by Raina Telgemeier, The Baby-sitters Club remains one of the most beloved series of all time. In this episode, we talk with BSC creator Ann M. Martin and her longtime editor, David Levithan, about the groundbreaking series and its loyal following.
\n\nGuests:
\n\nAdditional resources:
\nSpecial thanks:
\nThirty years ago this month, readers were first introduced to the founding members of The Baby-sitters Club: Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Stacey. With nearly 250 titles in print, and new graphic novel adaptations by Raina Telgemeier, The Baby-sitters Club remains one of the most beloved series of all time. In this episode, we talk with BSC creator Ann M. Martin and her longtime editor, David Levithan, about the groundbreaking series and its loyal following.
\r\nGuests:
\r\nAdditional resources:
\r\nSpecial thanks:
\r\nLauren Tarshis, author of the bestselling I Survived series, explains why her stories of survival resonate so deeply with young readers. Her thrilling tales about such momentous events as the sinking of the Titanic and the bombing of Pearl Harbor allow her fictionalized characters to confront life-or-death challenges. Lauren also dons her editor’s hat to talk about Storyworks Jr., Scholastic's new English Language Arts magazine for third graders.
\n\nGuest:
\n\nAdditional resources:
Special thanks:
Photo credit: David Dreyfuss
","summary":"Lauren Tarshis, author of the bestselling I Survived series, explains why her stories of survival resonate so deeply with young readers. Her thrilling tales about such momentous events as the sinking of the Titanic and the bombing of Pearl Harbor allow her fictionalized characters to confront life-or-death challenges. Lauren also dons her editor’s hat to talk about Storyworks Jr., Scholastic's new English Language Arts magazine for third graders.
\r\nGuest:
\r\nAdditional resources:
\r\nSpecial thanks:
\r\nPhoto credit: David Dreyfuss
","date_published":"2016-08-03T12:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/78c3ce81-f429-4edf-a08d-18ec79a89a31.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":39374516,"duration_in_seconds":1600}]},{"id":"http://oom.bigreddog.org:8080/podcast/edwidge-danticat-beating-darkness","title":"Edwidge Danticat: Beating the Darkness","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/18","content_text":"In this episode, we’re joined by Edwidge Danticat, whose work recounts the stories of Haitians and Haitian-Americans. Her haunting YA novel, Untwine, tells the story of an unbreakable bond between twin sisters of Haitian descent. \n\nGuest:\n\nEdwidge Danticat is the author of several award-winning works, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah’s Book Club pick; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award nominee; The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award Winner, and Untwine (Scholastic, 2015). Edwidge, who was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2009, lives in Miami, Florida, with her family. You can learn more about her work at www.EdwidgeDanticat.com.\nAdditional Resources:\nLearn more about Untwine and read an excerpt here.\nRead about Edwidge's story of Haiti's heroic queen Anacaona here.\nSpecial thanks:\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan\nProduced by Megan Kaesshaefer\nPhoto credit: Mark Dellas, 2015","content_html":"In this episode, we’re joined by Edwidge Danticat, whose work recounts the stories of Haitians and Haitian-Americans. Her haunting YA novel, Untwine, tells the story of an unbreakable bond between twin sisters of Haitian descent.
\n\nGuest:
\n\nAdditional Resources:
Special thanks:
Photo credit: Mark Dellas, 2015
","summary":"In this episode, we’re joined by Edwidge Danticat, whose work recounts the stories of Haitians and Haitian-Americans. Her haunting YA novel, Untwine, tells the story of an unbreakable bond between twin sisters of Haitian descent.
\r\nGuest:
\r\nAdditional Resources:
\r\nSpecial thanks:
\r\nPhoto credit: Mark Dellas, 2015
","date_published":"2016-07-12T15:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/ce0880c6-7d5e-41b2-9e74-94084c3530e4.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":21400269,"duration_in_seconds":1699}]},{"id":"http://oom.bigreddog.org:8080/podcast/drag-teen-jeffery-self","title":"Drag Teen with Jeffery Self","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/17","content_text":"June is Pride Month, so we’re dragging it up with Jeffery Self! Jeffery is the author of Drag Teen, his debut YA novel. The book follows a high school senior (and aspiring drag queen) on a quest to go to college. Jeffery is joined by his editor, acclaimed YA novelist David Levithan.\n\nNote: This episode was recorded before the tragic shootings in Orlando. Our hearts are with the victims, families, and friends of this devastating event.\n\nGuests:\n\nJeffery Self is a writer and an actor who has appeared in Desperate Housewives, 90210, and 30 Rock. He has also starred in his own show, Jeffery & Cole Casserole. Jeffery currently appears as the host of the MTV talk show, Scream After Dark. The author of two books for adults, he hosts a weekly podcast called This Is Really Important on iTunes. In a starred review, Booklist praised Drag Teen, Jeffery’s first novel for young adults, saying, “Drag queens are virtually nonexistent in YA fiction, and Self does an excellent job introducing that world, as well as conveying the happiness that performing brings JT…. In the end, it may not be Prince Charming who is JT’s prize, but rather the discovery of his true self.” Follow Jeffery on Twitter at @JefferySelf.\nDavid Levithan is an editorial director and publisher at Scholastic, as well as the author of several YA novels, including Boy Meets Boy, Every Day, and (with Nina LaCour) You Know Me Well. Follow David on Twitter at @loversdiction.\nAdditional resources:\nLearn more about Drag Teen here, and read an excerpt of Drag Teen here!\nCelebrate LGBT culture with our round-up of books featuring lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender characters.\nSpecial thanks:\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan\nProduced by Megan Kaesshaefer\n","content_html":"June is Pride Month, so we’re dragging it up with Jeffery Self! Jeffery is the author of Drag Teen, his debut YA novel. The book follows a high school senior (and aspiring drag queen) on a quest to go to college. Jeffery is joined by his editor, acclaimed YA novelist David Levithan.
\n\nNote: This episode was recorded before the tragic shootings in Orlando. Our hearts are with the victims, families, and friends of this devastating event.
\n\nGuests:
\n\nAdditional resources:
\nSpecial thanks:
\nJune is Pride Month, so we’re dragging it up with Jeffery Self! Jeffery is the author of Drag Teen, his debut YA novel. The book follows a high school senior (and aspiring drag queen) on a quest to go to college. Jeffery is joined by his editor, acclaimed YA novelist David Levithan.
\r\nNote: This episode was recorded before the tragic shootings in Orlando. Our hearts are with the victims, families, and friends of this devastating event.
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\r\nIn this episode, Arthur A. Levine, Vice President and Publisher of Arthur A. Levine Books, joins us to talk about the authors, topics, and books that he has championed throughout his career. Authors Francisco Stork (Marcelo in the Real World, The Memory of Light) and Mike Jung (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, Unidentified Suburban Object) will also join us to talk about their new work.
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\nIn this episode, Arthur A. Levine, Vice President and Publisher of Arthur A. Levine Books, joins us to talk about the authors, topics, and books that he has championed throughout his career. Authors Francisco Stork (Marcelo in the Real World, The Memory of Light) and Mike Jung (Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, Unidentified Suburban Object) will also join us to talk about their new work.
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\r\nIn this episode, we're talking about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7–12. Created in 1923 by Scholastic founder Maurice R. \"Robbie\" Robinson, the program has a noteworthy roster of past winners, including Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, and Joyce Carol Oates, among many others. We sat down with the Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, Virginia McEnerney, Scholastic CEO Dick Robinson, and two 2016 Gold Medal Portfolio Recipients, Razan Elbaba and Alex Zhang.
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","summary":"
In this episode, we're talking about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the nation’s longest-running and most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in grades 7–12. Created in 1923 by Scholastic founder Maurice R. \"Robbie\" Robinson, the program has a noteworthy roster of past winners, including Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, and Joyce Carol Oates, among many others. We sat down with the Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, Virginia McEnerney, Scholastic CEO Dick Robinson, and two 2016 Gold Medal Portfolio Recipients, Razan Elbaba and Alex Zhang.
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\r\n","date_published":"2016-06-02T14:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/ee838fd3-ca00-4f71-b05f-4a92cc646748.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":35017556,"duration_in_seconds":2833}]},{"id":"http://oom.bigreddog.org:8080/podcast/making-summer-leap","title":"Making the Summer Leap","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/14","content_text":"In this episode, literacy expert Pam Allyn joins us to talk about summer learning and how we can turn the dreaded “summer slide”—the learning loss children experience when they’re out of school—into the “summer leap,” a time filled with opportunity and joy around reading. Kelli Cedo, Principal of Forrest Elementary in Virginia, and Bruce Butler, Principal of Marieville Elementary School in Rhode Island, also join us to talk about how their schools embrace year-round learning.\n\nGuests:\n\nLiteracy expert Pam Allyn is the Founding Director of LitWorld and the co-author of Every Child a Super Reader: 7 Strengths to Open a World of Possible (Scholastic, 2015). Follow her on Twitter at @pamallyn and @litworldsays.\nDr. Kelli Cedo is the principal of Forrest Elementary School in Hampton, Virginia. She has served as Title I Coordinator, Division Contact for School Improvement, Literacy Coach, Academic Coordinator, and Family Engagement Liaison in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Kelli is the co-creator of the Virginia PLC Consortium around Professional Learning.\nBruce Butler is the principal of Marieville Elementary School in Marieville, Rhode Island. Marieville Elementary won a “best in state” award in the 2015 Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge. \nAdditional resources:\nLearn more about the Summer Reading Challenge, our free online reading program for kids.\nLearn more about LitCamp, a 4- to 8-week program developed by Pam Allyn. The program combines research-based curricula with an interactive summer camp structure.\nLearn more about Scholastic Summer Book Packs.\nSpecial thanks:\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan\nProduced by Megan Kaesshaefer\n","content_html":"
In this episode, literacy expert Pam Allyn joins us to talk about summer learning and how we can turn the dreaded “summer slide”—the learning loss children experience when they’re out of school—into the “summer leap,” a time filled with opportunity and joy around reading. Kelli Cedo, Principal of Forrest Elementary in Virginia, and Bruce Butler, Principal of Marieville Elementary School in Rhode Island, also join us to talk about how their schools embrace year-round learning.
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\nIn this episode, literacy expert Pam Allyn joins us to talk about summer learning and how we can turn the dreaded “summer slide”—the learning loss children experience when they’re out of school—into the “summer leap,” a time filled with opportunity and joy around reading. Kelli Cedo, Principal of Forrest Elementary in Virginia, and Bruce Butler, Principal of Marieville Elementary School in Rhode Island, also join us to talk about how their schools embrace year-round learning.
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\r\nWe’re celebrating School Library Month with three of the most dedicated librarians we know. John Schumacher (the famous “Mr. Schu”) and Scholastic librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey talk with us about why they became librarians, the crucial task of finding the right book for a child, and why—as John describes it—the library is “the heart and soul of a school.\" Kristina Holzweiss, the 2015 School Library Journal School Librarian of the Year, also joins us to share her thoughts on why libraries matter.
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\nWe’re celebrating School Library Month with three of the most dedicated librarians we know. John Schumacher (the famous “Mr. Schu”) and Scholastic librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey talk with us about why they became librarians, the crucial task of finding the right book for a child, and why—as John describes it—the library is “the heart and soul of a school.\" Kristina Holzweiss, the 2015 School Library Journal School Librarian of the Year, also joins us to share her thoughts on why libraries matter.
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\r\nCraig Hatkoff and his daughter Isabella join us to talk about Cecil’s Pride: The True Story of a Lion King, their stunning new picture book. Craig and Isabella give us a behind-the-scenes look at the famed lion’s life and death, and explain how their family’s passion for animals has resulted in a series of children’s books about resilience and survival.
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\nCraig Hatkoff and his daughter Isabella join us to talk about Cecil’s Pride: The True Story of a Lion King, their stunning new picture book. Craig and Isabella give us a behind-the-scenes look at the famed lion’s life and death, and explain how their family’s passion for animals has resulted in a series of children’s books about resilience and survival.
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\r\nActor, author, philanthropist, and rockstar mom Holly Robinson Peete joins us to talk about her new book, Same But Different: Teen Life on the Autism Express, which she co-wrote with her twins, RJ and Ryan Elizabeth. The book explores the funny, painful, and unexpected sides of teen autism.
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Special thanks:
Photo credit: Stephanie Willis
","summary":"Actor, author, philanthropist, and rockstar mom Holly Robinson Peete joins us to talk about her new book, Same But Different: Teen Life on the Autism Express, which she co-wrote with her twins, RJ and Ryan Elizabeth. The book explores the funny, painful, and unexpected sides of teen autism.
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\r\nPhoto credit: Stephanie Willis
","date_published":"2016-04-12T09:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/d97a6b63-bd0c-4b9f-a008-eb5e9e26861f.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":37636905,"duration_in_seconds":1527}]},{"id":"http://oom.bigreddog.org:8080/podcast/phyllis-hunter-reading-civil-right","title":"Phyllis Hunter: Reading Is a Civil Right","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/10","content_text":"Literacy expert Phyllis C. Hunter joins us to talk about what inspires her (Jennifer Hudson, passionate teachers, and the musical Hamilton), and to share advice on how to help children become avid readers.\n\nGuests:\n\nPhyllis C. Hunter is an internationally renowned and beloved literacy expert who has served as an adviser to both the President of the United States and the Secretary of Education. She has worked as a district reading manager, principal, and speech and language therapist. In 2009, Hunter was named the Marcus Garvey Educator of the Year by the National Alliance of Black Educators and received the Scholastic Education Heroes Award for her contributions to the field of children’s literacy. In addition to having created the Phyllis C. Hunter Classroom Libraries, Hunter is the author of It’s Not Complicated! What I Know For Sure About Helping Our Students of Color Become Successful Readers. \nAdditional Resources:\nDo you have questions on how to reach disengaged students? Or, how to face the challenges of the achievement gap? Ask Phyllis anything! \nLearn more about the Phyllis C. Hunter Classroom Libraries here.\nSpecial thanks:\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan\nProduced by Megan Kaesshaefer\n","content_html":"Literacy expert Phyllis C. Hunter joins us to talk about what inspires her (Jennifer Hudson, passionate teachers, and the musical Hamilton), and to share advice on how to help children become avid readers.
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\nLiteracy expert Phyllis C. Hunter joins us to talk about what inspires her (Jennifer Hudson, passionate teachers, and the musical Hamilton), and to share advice on how to help children become avid readers.
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\r\nJust in time for Women’s History Month, Kate Beaton joins us to talk about her bestselling picture book, The Princess and the Pony, writing female characters, and her work on the wildly popular Hark! A Vagrant comic strip. Editors Cheryl Klein and Emily Clement also join us to talk about how they first discovered Kate’s work and to share some of their favorite female characters in literature.
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Photo credit: Notker Mahr
","summary":"Just in time for Women’s History Month, Kate Beaton joins us to talk about her bestselling picture book, The Princess and the Pony, writing female characters, and her work on the wildly popular Hark! A Vagrant comic strip. Editors Cheryl Klein and Emily Clement also join us to talk about how they first discovered Kate’s work and to share some of their favorite female characters in literature.
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\r\nPhoto credit: Notker Mahr
","date_published":"2016-03-18T12:00:00.000-04:00","attachments":[{"url":"https://aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/ecb077ee-4b89-4a98-bbd2-5609c0248a92/366d05aa-33c2-4d38-8a65-8dbaae9cd070.mp3","mime_type":"audio/mpeg","size_in_bytes":45942897,"duration_in_seconds":1874}]},{"id":"http://oom.bigreddog.org:8080/podcast/sonia-manzano-shaping-life-story","title":"Sonia Manzano: Shaping a Life Story","url":"https://scholasticreads.fireside.fm/8","content_text":"Author and actress Sonia Manzano, along with editor Andrea Davis Pinkney, discuss the making of Sonia's coming-of-age memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx. Sonia joined the cast of the acclaimed television series Sesame Street in 1971, where she defined the role of \"Maria\" and went on to write for the show, retiring in 2015 after 44 years. Sonia has won 15 Emmy Awards for her television writing and is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Arts and Sciences.\n\n \n\nGuests:\n\nSonia Manzano, actress (Sesame Street) and writer (The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx)\nAndrea Davis Pinkney, VP and Executive Editor, Scholastic Trade Publishing\nSpecial thanks:\nMusic composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl\nSound mixing and editing by Daniel Jordan\nProduced by Megan Kaesshaefer\n","content_html":"Author and actress Sonia Manzano, along with editor Andrea Davis Pinkney, discuss the making of Sonia's coming-of-age memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx. Sonia joined the cast of the acclaimed television series Sesame Street in 1971, where she defined the role of \"Maria\" and went on to write for the show, retiring in 2015 after 44 years. Sonia has won 15 Emmy Awards for her television writing and is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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\nAuthor and actress Sonia Manzano, along with editor Andrea Davis Pinkney, discuss the making of Sonia's coming-of-age memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx. Sonia joined the cast of the acclaimed television series Sesame Street in 1971, where she defined the role of \"Maria\" and went on to write for the show, retiring in 2015 after 44 years. Sonia has won 15 Emmy Awards for her television writing and is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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\r\nThe Scholastic News Kids Press Corps is the country’s oldest and largest student reporting program. This year, our team of young journalists is out on the campaign trail, meeting candidates and covering caucuses, primaries, and debates. In this episode, we talk with two Kid Reporters about their experiences reporting on the election so far. We also hear from Classroom Magazines editorial director Steph Smith about how Scholastic covers the race for the White House for kids, and from middle school teacher Josh Torpey about how he gets students in his Humanities class thinking deeply about the election.
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\nThe Scholastic News Kids Press Corps is the country’s oldest and largest student reporting program. This year, our team of young journalists is out on the campaign trail, meeting candidates and covering caucuses, primaries, and debates. In this episode, we talk with two Kid Reporters about their experiences reporting on the election so far. We also hear from Classroom Magazines editorial director Steph Smith about how Scholastic covers the race for the White House for kids, and from middle school teacher Josh Torpey about how he gets students in his Humanities class thinking deeply about the election.
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\r\nSharon Robinson, daughter of baseball great Jackie Robinson, joins us to discuss her new book, The Hero Two Doors Down: A Story of Friendship Between a Boy and a Baseball Legend. Plus, we hear from filmmaker Ken Burns about his new documentary, Jackie Robinson, coming this April.
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\nSharon Robinson, daughter of baseball great Jackie Robinson, joins us to discuss her new book, The Hero Two Doors Down: A Story of Friendship Between a Boy and a Baseball Legend. Plus, we hear from filmmaker Ken Burns about his new documentary, Jackie Robinson, coming this April.
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\r\nScholastic editor Liza Baker joins us to talk about Scholastic's new awareness campaign, “The Story Starts Here,” which emphasizes the importance of reading to children from day one. Plus, Stephen Savage (Where’s Walrus and Penguin?) joins us to discuss his work as an award-winning picture book author and illustrator.
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\nScholastic editor Liza Baker joins us to talk about Scholastic's new awareness campaign, “The Story Starts Here,” which emphasizes the importance of reading to children from day one. Plus, Stephen Savage (Where’s Walrus and Penguin?) joins us to discuss his work as an award-winning picture book author and illustrator.
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\r\nWhat are the big trends in children’s literature for 2016? Look out for superheroes, graphic novels, diverse characters and mythology! Experts David Allender and Preeti Chibberr share their projections for the coming year.
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\nWhat are the big trends in children’s literature for 2016? Look out for superheroes, graphic novels, diverse characters and mythology! Experts David Allender and Preeti Chibberr share their projections for the coming year.
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\r\nLiteracy experts Pam Allyn and Ernest Morrell join us to talk about their new book, Every Child A Super Reader. The book helps parents and educators develop seven key strengths in young learners, transforming them into “Super Readers”—avid, passionate and critical. Learn more about Every Child a Super Reader at scholastic.com/superreader.
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\nLiteracy experts Pam Allyn and Ernest Morrell join us to talk about their new book, Every Child A Super Reader. The book helps parents and educators develop seven key strengths in young learners, transforming them into “Super Readers”—avid, passionate and critical. Learn more about Every Child a Super Reader at scholastic.com/superreader.
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\r\nGiving the gift of reading isn’t always easy, especially when you have a reluctant reader on your holiday shopping list. Experts David Allender and Preeti Chhibber answer parents’ questions about their trickiest book-buying challenges. Plus, we interview Scholastic employees about what books they’re buying this holiday season and why.
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\nGiving the gift of reading isn’t always easy, especially when you have a reluctant reader on your holiday shopping list. Experts David Allender and Preeti Chhibber answer parents’ questions about their trickiest book-buying challenges. Plus, we interview Scholastic employees about what books they’re buying this holiday season and why.
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\r\nWhat makes the Harry Potter series so special? How did it become the most popular in all of children’s literature? Cheryl Klein talks about her work as continuity editor on the series and shares harrowing stories about keeping the manuscript secret. Literacy expert Pam Allyn, Founding Director of LitWorld, weighs in on how Hogwarts and the lessons Harry Potter teaches us can be valuable for educators.
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Special thanks:
What makes the Harry Potter series so special? How did it become the most popular in all of children’s literature? Cheryl Klein talks about her work as continuity editor on the series and shares harrowing stories about keeping the manuscript secret. Literacy expert Pam Allyn, Founding Director of LitWorld, weighs in on how Hogwarts and the lessons Harry Potter teaches us can be valuable for educators.
Guests:
Special thanks: