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

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

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

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

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

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

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

→ Coming Soon

Reach Out and Read: 35 for 35

Kelly Yang Has the Scoop on Top Story

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

→ Coming Soon

The Scholastic Innovation Lab

Goosebumps Heads Back to Television

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—Alex Gino, author, Melissa

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

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

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

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

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

Resources:

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

Special Thanks:

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

Coming Soon:

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

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