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

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

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

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

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

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

Inside the music biz with authors Tami Charles and Lamar Giles

This 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.

First, 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!

Later, 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.

Additional resources:

• Learn more about the Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge
• Read more about the summer reading research from Greenvill, SC, and Stoughton, MA
• See some of the key data from Make Summer Count 2017
• Read the executive summary for Make Summer Count 2017
• Read the White Paper for Make Summer Count 2017

Guests:

• Jennifer Boren is the Library Media Specialist at Bailey Station Elementary and has worked in public education for sixteen years. She is Apple Teacher certified and serves her school district as the Lead Library Media Specialist and Vanguard Coach for Collierville Schools. In addition to reading avidly, traveling, and spending time with her family, she works as a freelance writer for Memphis Parent Magazine and blogs at https://bookjabber.wordpress.com
• Ansel Sanders is President and CEO of Public Education Partners (PEP), an education fund that incubates innovative pracitces and positions the community to advocate for excellent public education in Greenville, South Carolina. 

Special thanks:

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

Additional Resources:

• Learn more about All the Crooked Saints
• Read an excerpt from All the Crooked Saints
• See Booklist's 50 Best YA Books of All Time

Guests:

• Entertainment Weekly has called Maggie Stiefvater, “one of the finest YA novelists writing today.” Maggie Stiefvater is a writer, artist, and musician and a New York Times bestselling author. Her work includes the Shiver series, The Raven Cycle series, The Scorpio Races, and many more books for young readers. Stiefvater lives in Virginia with her family. You can visit her online at www.maggiestiefvater.com and follow her on Twitter @mstiefvater.
• Daniel Kraus is Booklist's Editor of Books for Youth. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielDKraus.

Later 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. 

Additional Resources:

• Read an excerpt of Openly Straight, Honestly Ben, and The Porcupine of Truth
• Get a free copy of Bill Konigsberg's novella, Openly, Honestly here
• See more of our recommendations for great Pride Month reads
• Follow along with our #ReadWithPride campaign on Twitter and Instagram

Guests:

• Bill 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.
• Deimosa 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.
• Jeremy 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. 

Special thanks:

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

Additional resources:

More information about No Fair! No Fair! by Calvin Trillin and illustrated by Roz Chast
Learn more about the National Student Poets Program
Meet the other 2016 National Student Poets, and hear more from Maya Eashwaran and Gopal Raman
Read a blog post from Adam Couturier about his district's We Read Big initiative
Guests:

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.
Maya 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.
Gopal 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.
Adam 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.
Special thanks:

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