Whether you want to learn more about the eye movements of students when they’re reading, how to enrich their knowledge of the world, or how to build their capacity for complex texts, Hiebert is the person to ask. Recently, we spoke with her about why it’s important for kids to read all year long, especially in summer.

Q. Why are so many students in the U.S. reading below grade level?

A. We’re seeing an enormous stagnation of reading rates, particularly in middle school. Students don’t have something called stamina. Why not? They’re not reading enough.

Q. How can we get them reading more?

A. Educator Jean Chall recognized the need for popular literature in students’ reading development. That’s one of the places you get lots of grit and build stamina to read stories that are not as compelling initially. Reading really popular things is something adults do, and we want to let kids know that that’s OK. Education is not just about the “canon.” It’s also about reading to enjoy and to find out how writers create different worlds.

Q. How can we help kids become more proficient readers?

A. We need to step away from the jargon and talk more about words, ideas, and knowledge. Yes, understanding syntax is important, but acquiring vocabulary comes first—and a rich vocabulary is something that many of our students lack. In the 19th century, British authors wrote convoluted sentences. William Faulkner wrote convoluted sentences. But if kids don’t know the words, they won’t be able to parse the sentences.

Q. What incentives can we give young people to encourage reading?

A. I don’t want to get too much into external rewards. What we want is the internal satisfaction that comes from knowing that you know something. As important, that you know how to know. That, to me, is one of the proficiencies of the digital age.

Q. Many parents want their kids to read more. How do they get their reluctant readers started?

A. We know from research that what kids do over the summer has a tremendous influence on the size of the achievement gap between lower- and middle-income kids. The booklist on the Scholastic Summer Challenge site is one way to give children an example of the breadth of reading that’s available. The SummerReads™  selections at TextProject also give kids an opportunity to explore various aspects of the season—including heat waves, thunderstorms, strawberries, and the history of flip-flops.

The biggest piece of advice I have for families is to make visits to the library part of your summer ritual. The library is free. The Internet has information too, but it’s easier to go to a library and see curated, vetted collections.

Think about ways that children can develop an interest or a passion in something so that they’ll want to read more. How do skateboarders figure out new moves? What are the physics of some of those moves? There are websites and books by experts. When you read deeply on a topic, you start to realize the power of literacy and the power of the written word.

Talking about books with children can also go a long way. Kids love to share information that they’ve gained from their reading. Such conversations show them that books are a way of sharing knowledge and communicating. Talk with kids about their reading goals—and keep track of how they’re achieving them.

Q. Summer is a time for fun. Shouldn’t reading be fun?

A. Absolutely. These days, I talk about something called “unhomework.” It’s the notion that what you read at home over the summer doesn’t have to be something you would read in school. If you want to learn about Greek myths, say, you don’t have to read the Iliad, or the children’s version. You can read a series about heroes. Even with a popular book, you’re building vocabulary and improving your reading skills. You’re also seeing that reading can be really enjoyable.

Image via sowmya-nagesh

If a ghost going through the stacks isn’t your first thought, then I am willing to bet the majestic lions on sentry duty outside of the library on 42^nd Street are.  Today the library on Fifth Ave. and 42^nd St. New York Public Library turns 102.  It first opened its doors May 23, 1911 and instantly captured the imagination of bibliophiles everywhere.  Being one of those bibliophiles myself, I love that this institution exists for researchers and the book curious alike. In fact — I love that ALL libraries exist for researchers and the book curious alike!

If you haven’t had a chance yet, check out the NYPL’s website.  It is a wealth of information and you don’t have to be a New Yorker to take advantage their online collections.  There you will find facts about the history of the library.  Through NYPL Labs you can check out all of the innovations revolving around its archives and special collections.  You can even get book recommendations from their librarians right on the front page!

Do you have any specific memories of the New York Public Library?  Tell us in the comments!

This week we’re posting about graduation to celebrate the many students who will complete this rite of passage over the coming month. Yesterday we looked at what role graduations play in our growth. Today we have a special guest post—an honorary commencement address, if you will, from Andrew Jenks, documentary filmmaker and host of the hit MTV show World of Jenks. Jenks began his filmmaking career at the age of 19 when he moved into an assisted-living facility in order to capture the true essence of this often overlooked community in HBO’s, Room 335.  Three years later at age 21, Jenks further pushed the boundaries of his work as he spent seven months in Japan filming the ESPN documentary, The Zen of Bobby V. Jenks rose to fame with his innovative MTV documentary series, World of Jenks, where he lived the life of a different person (a homeless teen, a teen with autism, a rapper, an NFL cheerleader, and more) in each episode. The season two finale aired last night on MTV. In March 2013, Jenks published his biography, Andrew Jenks: My Adventures as a Young Filmmaker (ages 12 and up), a collection of personal stories and anecdotes, along with Jenks’ own photographs and images of sentimental memorabilia, and inspiring life lessons for teenagers. Below are some words of wisdom for the class of 2013. Take it away Jenks!

I remember it was high school graduation day. I was sweating bullets. I had no idea what college would be like. I had no idea what the rest of my life would be like. I can’t say I was out of my mind scared, but I was starting to realize that it was time to grow up. I wouldn’t have the comfort of my parents house, or my lifelong friends, or the town I knew inside and out. I wanted to see what else was out there but that definitely created some serious anxiety. I would sit in bed at night, “Am I really old enough to move on?”

During college, I made close to no friends. I stopped going to class. I got depressed. But I quickly realized the value of making sure you stick to following a career you believe in – and love. You have to find your own vision. Sometimes it takes longer for some, easier for others. So I started making movies I really believed in (and ones that I knew would cost little to no money, since I was broke). There were many nay-sayers. A lot of people holding me back. But I ended up making a movie for HBO, ESPN, and then a show on MTV.

You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into and that’s okay. It turns out that’s life.

If you’re looking for more inspiring stories from Jenks make sure you watch this great video interview with the Hollywood Reporter or this one on The Huffington Post.

 Andrew Jenks is the award-winning filmmaker who created the MTV documentary series: World Of Jenks. Andrew Jenks: My Adventures as a Young Filmmaker is his first book for young adults. To learn more about him and his work visit www.andrewjenks.com and follow him on twitter @AndrewJenks. 

I will be out at our local parade on Monday with my kids watching the local marching band, fire trucks and of course, our Veteran’s cavalcade through town. While my kids are too young to understand the full meaning of Memorial Day, the patriotism that goes hand in hand with it, allows me to break out some great Red, White and Blue books! Here’s a few titles we’ll be reading this weekend:

Clifford Sees America

O, Say Can You See?

LaRue across America

Go, Go America

And of course, the beautifully illustrated picture book, America the Beautiful: Together We Stand. (Pictured Above)

There is also a fantastic list of books about our soldiers for older kids over at our Common Core site that my colleague Suzanne put together, including both non-fiction and historical fiction like the I Survived series. (For parents that don’t know I Survived, it is a wonderful way to sneak a little history into your kids reading repertoire.)

However you are celebrating, have a sensational weekend!

It’s graduation season! (Even our own Megan is in on it — she graduates today with her Master’s degree in English and American Literature! Go, Megan!) Julia Graeper

Last week, a friend asked me to contribute to a “words of wisdom” book that she is compiling for her daughter who will graduate from college this month.  As I wrote to her about my own experience, I also wondered whether it is possible to discover some universal truth about graduation.  A big idea, I know.  But graduation seems to be the occasion when, in a single breath, we’re most likely to talk about such topics as the future, the past, career, ambition, life, love, death.  Well, maybe not death.  But the rest seems fair game during graduation season.

A student might experience many graduations: kindergarten, eighth grade, high school, college, maybe even graduate school.  I wondered what these have in common.  Reasonably, greeting cards and commencement speakers focus on what’s been accomplished (“you did it!”) and what lies ahead. In the letter to my friend’s daughter, I used the word “transition” a lot, particularly the disconnect between what I expected the transition to be after college, and what it actually was.  I thought it would be about learning to wake up at 7:00 a.m. instead of 10:00 a.m.  Instead, it was about learning how to be myself, to do new kinds of work, to fit in and find myself.  Again.  I thought I already did that in high school! And college!

I realized that to me, that’s what graduations are really about: the preparation for the periodic re-evaluation and self-discovery that happens throughout life.  When I was little, I thought there would be a single moment when I would become a grown-up.  It turns out, that’s not true!  We are always changing and shifting to accommodate new knowledge, new circumstances, and new expectations.  Graduations help us learn to recognize these shifts and adjust.

One of my first, jarring, life transitions was the move from kindergarten to first grade.  That which was enforced but resisted in kindergarten – the afternoon nap – suddenly became a fond memory in first grade.  The grim determination that I summoned in order to sound out Pig can jig.  Dan can dig. felt positively monumental. Boy, I really wanted that afternoon nap after all the jigging and digging.

After that initial struggle, reading became the very best way for me to work out who I wanted to be, again and again.  And Scholastic publishes so many books at all levels about finding and being yourself, from David Shannon’s hilarious “David” series, to the brand-new Openly Straight.

Because what else – if not books – helps us figure out who we are in life?

Image via

If you don’t know Meg, get ready. She’s the bestselling author of books like the Allie Finkle series, The Princess Diaries, and the Abandon trilogy, among others. (Psst: the third installment, Awaken, hits stores in July!) And, frankly, she’s a total hoot.

We asked her some serious, hard-hitting questions. Okay…they’re actually more like fun, bookish questions that will make you laugh. Right after we filmed this, she hosted a live chat over on the Scholastic Book Clubs Facebook page, so if you missed that, check out the replay here!

Take it away, Meg!

My favorite classic children’s book? Growing up, I absolutely adored The Boxcar Children series. The first book was my favorite; in addition to reading it multiple times, I used to fall asleep to it on cassette tape night after night. To this day, my mother still has my copies in a box in the garage. Though The Boxcar Children was originally published in 1924–and then reissued in 1942–it resonated with me in the ’90s. I loved how the Alden siblings looked out for each other, and always looked forward to reading about the various mysteries they solved!

My favorite modern children’s book that I hope will become a classic?
Am I allowed to say the Harry Potter series? Or is that already considered a classic? (For the purpose of this post, I’ll classify it as “modern” since it was published in the late 20th/early 21st century.) I actually have a confession to make: I didn’t read the Harry Potter books until after college. Shameful, I know, especially given the fact that I work at Scholastic. But reading Harry Potter in my 20′s led to a sense of appreciation that I may not have felt had I read the series sooner. J.K. Rowling’s writing is just gorgeous, and so, so smart. The name of every character and every spell is loaded with meaning, the characters are wonderfully developed, and the lessons threaded throughout the text are subtle and moving. I can only hope this series will remain a staple for future generations.

How about you, readers? What are your favorite classic and modern children’s books? We’d love to hear from you!

Makayla with her “Old Lady” books!

In honor of Children’s Book Week, we asked the children in our lives to tell us what their favorite book is and why. Although we got some pretty great answers, we also encountered a few children who said they didn’t read. Even beyond Children’s Book Week, it is critically important for children of all ages to have access to books and reading role models in their life. Whether you have children or not, it’s never too late to become a reading role model, as proven by this 91-year-old.

So without further ado, here are the children we polled and their top picks:

Jake, age 3, said he likes books that have trucks!

Ashlee, age 5, enjoys The Froggy books. While hopping, Ashlee said she likes The Froggy books because “He hops! Hops! Hops! Like a frog!”

Makayla, age 5, said she likes The “Old Lady” books because she always swallows funny stuff! She has six of the books, but her favorites are The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose and The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell. Makayla also said she loves any books that have dogs in them.

Sophia, age 6, likes the Fly Guy books because “he is funny.”

Emily, age 8, enjoys reading Ramona and Beezus because Ramona always gets into mischief.

And last but not least are Jacob and Olivia, who you may remember from a guest post by Sara Sinek, Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Scholastic.

Jacob at the book fair!

Jacob, age 2, loves anything to do with Elmo, so it’s no surprise his pick at the Scholastic Book Fair this week was Sesame Street, Opposites Day! The book has cool sound buttons he can press. He also loves the Dinosaurs! board book as each page has big and bright dinosaurs that he makes roar with every page turn.

Olivia, age 4, loves the colors pink and purple so an obvious pick of hers is Pinkalicious. She always thinks it is funny how Pinkalicious turns pink and red. Keeping to her theme of favorite colors, Olivia also loves My Big Pink Book of Everything and asks to read it 6 out of 7 nights a week! Olivia also enjoys reading Zoe Gets Ready; Zoe gets to pick out her own outfits on Saturdays, and now Olivia gets to do the same at home.

Do you remember your favorite childhood book? Share it in the comments!

For the Sports Lover

Learn how baseball great Jackie Robinson became a sports and civil rights icon with Jackie Robinson: American Hero (ages 7 and up), written by his daughter Sharon Robinson. If basketball is more your game, check out Jeremy Lin: Rising Star (ages 8-12) which chronicles Lin’s early days as a high school hoops player through the rise of Linsanity.

iBiographies for the tech junkie

Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter…These companies revolutionized the world and changed the ways in which we do everything from reading a book to communicating with friend to taking a picture. Get to know the industry’s leaders behind the influential companies in Profiles: Tech Titans (ages 9-14) and discover how Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and others who changed technology.

A trip down memory lane

Travel the Missouri river with Sacajawea. Discover Relativity with Einstein. Ask not what your country can do for you (but what you can do for your Country) with JFK. Take a perilous journey on the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman. If you’re looking for historical biographies, be sure to read Scholastic’s I Am series for readers ages 8-12. I Am is a biography series featuring some of the most important people from history and today.

Who do you want to read about? Let us know which biographies fascinate you in the comments!

My favorite classic children’s book?  The Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  The truth is that I loved the entire series and reread them so many times that I can’t even fathom my childhood without them.  When we went on car trips or moved when I was a child, at least one book of this series was always in the car with me within easy reach.  I had never lived in the time that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about and I had never been to any of the places that she had been but as a child with a book in her hand, I could go there with her.  Because of this series, I became interested in lifetimes and histories other than my own.  Although Laura and I came from different times and places, I connected with her in a way that captured my imagination.  It was through these books that I understood that there was time that happened before I was alive and there were places that I had never been.  That can be a big revelation when you are 8. 

My favorite modern children’s book that I hope will become a classic?  A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban.  This one was very hard for me.  There are three books that I just adore and admittedly re-read even now.  (The other two are The Princess Academy by Shannon Hale and The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo in case you were wondering.)  The reason I ultimately chose A Crooked Kind of Perfect is because as I was reading this book I remember having the thought “If I ever have girls I want them to read this book”.  The story is about a 10 year old named Zoe and how more than anything she wants to learn how to play the piano. Instead her parents get her organ lessons.  While she is incredibly disappointed, Zoe comes to see the impact that her musicianship has on her family.  This is an incredibly relatable story for girls and allows them to see the value in their world, even if it isn’t “perfect”.

Have your own picks for favorite children’s books classic and future?  Let us know in the comments!

Fourth-grade teacher Laura Murray is here again with some great Storia ideas! Today, she’s talking about historical fiction. And who doesn’t love some good historical fiction? Thanks, Laura!

History was never my favorite nor my best subject when I was in school. I could never remember names, dates, places, and all the important facts of historical events. I still have a hard time with it, which makes it surprising that my favorite genre to read is historical fiction. Although many times I find that the events in these books are extremely disturbing, I am very intrigued by reading about how people lived long ago. And I can use Storia, Scholastic’s free ereading software, to engage my students with it!

I share the love of this genre with my students every year at about this time. It is sometimes a difficult genre for fourth graders since they don’t have a whole lot of historical knowledge and background. However, tying this reading genre to our current social studies unit, or periods of time that we have already studied this year, helps out with this problem. One of the most important aspects of a historical fiction book to pay attention to is the setting. Without the historical knowledge of the time period, readers miss a lot of what is happening in the story. This is definitely something to keep in mind when you see your child reading a historical fiction book. If you find that they are missing major ideas in the book, or are having a hard time understanding what is going on, try having a conversation with them about the time period first. This may clear up any misunderstandings that they are having.

When we begin a unit on historical fiction I like to refresh the students’ memories by looking at pictures of the time period, talking about them, and sometimes watching short videos about them. This gets their minds thinking about the setting that the characters will be facing in the story. Setting is so important when reading historical fiction because it will most likely be the cause of the problem or maybe even the solution. Students need to know the major events that were going on in the country during the time period that they book takes place. For example, they need to know about slavery and how dangerous it was for a slave to escape to fully understand Corey’s Underground Railroad Diary. They need to know that people were placed on the Titanic based on social and economic status before they could understand fully the events of I Survived: The Sinking of the Titanic. Reviewing the most important ideas of a time period will help your child when reading this genre.

Not only do readers need to know about different time periods, they also need to understand what to think about when reading historical fictions.  So, here are some questions that you can discuss with your child as they read historical fiction books.  These questions will also help your child decide what they should be putting on their virtual post it notes when using Storia.  They can also use the highlight feature to highlight some of the historical components of the book and how they are effecting the characters.  Hopefully these questions will help lead you in a discussion with your child to deepen their understanding of the text.

What Good Readers Think and Talk About When Reading Historical Fiction

In the beginning…

• What is the setting of the book?  What do you already know about this setting/time period?
• What are the conditions in which the characters live?
• What problems would you expect characters to face based on this setting/time period?

In the middle…

• What elements of the characters’ daily lives teach about the setting?
• How is the setting affecting the character?
• How is the setting creating a problem?
• How is the character using resources from the time period to help them solve their problem?

In the end…

• What have you learned about the historical period?
• How were the problem, setting, and characters uniquely tied to the time period?
• How might the story have been different if it took place today?

I really love how historical fiction forces readers to think deeply about story events and setting.  I find that my students need to stop and think deeply more often to answer some of these questions and to have great book club conversations.  Not only are these great “thinking books”, they are also a great way to incorporate the learning of history as well.  I hope this genre makes history come to life for your readers.

Happy Reading!

We are so thrilled for our colleagues across the pond. The Bookseller Industry Awards recognize the very best in and of the British book trade – celebrating publishing, retailing and libraries. Apparently this year the competition was especially tough, with entries across all categories notable for their quality and quantity.

In their wrap-up of the awards, Bookseller notes, “Scholastic Children’s Books won Children’s Publisher of the Year after its success with Hunger Games trilogy, which notched up three number one slots and saw exponential digital sales growth, including more than 1m Hunger Games e-book downloads. ‘It left a huge mark on the market in 2012,’ the judges said.”

As the @ScholasticUK Twitter account noted, “Of course without our incredible authors and illustrators we wouldn’t even have made Children’s Publisher of the Minute… *salutes them*”

Congratulations to Scholastic UK!

As Morgan mentioned yesterday, this week is Children’s book Week!

My favorite classic children’s book? The Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume. With its simple watercolor illustrations, it’s the humorous story of two siblings, splitting narration duties— the pain and the great one both think the other gets more attention and is more loved. I have an older brother whom I love an adore, but we were not immune to our fair share of bickering growing up. Blume’s hilarious look at sibling rivalry resonated with me from a very young age. Whenever my brother and I argue, it’s still the first thing I think of.

My favorite modern children’s book that I hope will become a classic? The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen. From the flap copy alone, I knew this book was going to be right up my alley. “Four boys. One treacherous plan. An entire kingdom to fool.” I was right. The book delivered on it’s promise of edge-of-your-seat adventure, heart-racing action, and a mystery that had me gripped from start to finish. It was so good, I read it one sitting. When I was done, I couldn’t wait for the sequel. As future readers pick it up, I have no doubt they’ll feel the same way.

You can’t talk about children’s books without mentioning Dr. Seuss. Al Roker lists Seuss’s classic Green Eggs and Ham as one of the books that shaped his life (Tony Hawk and Kristi Yamaguchi agree!) So does Jim Parsons, who said “Green Eggs and Ham, along with other Seuss books, was a big help in teaching me to actually read — I loved hearing this book over and over and was able to memorize it which allowed me to associate the words I heard with the words I saw on the page.”

Judy Blume includes Madeline in her Bookprint, while Taylor Swift lists the lovely Charlotte’s Web.

Rick Riordan seconds the love for Charlotte’s Web, and adds James and the Giant Peach and The Phantom Tollbooth to his list.

We love that all of the books in Christina Applegate’s Bookprint are children’s books—from The Giving Tree to Where the Sidewalk Ends to My Book About Me. The same can be said for George Lopez, who dedicates his entire Bookprint to children’s literature, such as Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Lily Collins lists the beloved Goodnight Moon and the Harry Potter series in her Bookprint. Also Harry fans? Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Radcliffe (are you surprised?).

Brian Selznick chose some wonderful children’s titles for his Bookprint: Where the Wild Things Are, The Borrowers, and Fortunately, by Remy-Charlip.

Also a kid lit fan? Writer Jeff Kinney, who has titles like Flat Stanley, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and My Book About Me in his Bookprint.

Discover all of our celebrity Bookprints on Scholastic’s Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life. site.

The first Children’s Book Week poster from 1921!

Today kicks off Children’s Book Week, an annual celebration of books for young people and the joy of reading. Yeah, I think that’s something we can all get behind!

Children’s books are the first books we read, and of course, we read them at a time when we’re devouring the world around us as fast as we possibly can. Everything is new when we’re kids — the sights and sounds and feelings of the world around us — and so children’s books become markers by which we remember our certain times in our life. And those memories become heightened over the years. I was seven years old when I first read that book, I can say to myself about The Baby-sitters Club; I remember how I got my first copy and where it lived in my bedroom.

Children’s books leave their mark in ways adult books don’t, I’ve found. This week we’ll all be sharing our favorite classic children’s books as well as the modern books we hope will become classics as a way of honoring the books that nurtured our childhood.

My favorite classic children’s book? The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. First published in 1978, it won the Newbery in 1979 (the year I was born, which feels like fate) and was developed into a movie in the late 1990′s. This book is such a favorite of mine that I inadvertently memorized much of the first chapter, simply by reading it so often as a kid. (My twin sister and I still spontaneously burst into our recitations occasionally…) Turtle Wexler is, of course, one of the best characters I’ve ever come across.

My favorite modern children’s book that I hope will become a classic? The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. (Coincidentally, Selznick also designed the poster for this year’s Children’s Book Week!) Full of a riveting story and the most incredible artwork, Hugo is a multiple award-winner that is sure to capture kids’ imaginations — like it did mine! — for years to come.

How about you, readers?

This weekend marks a fabulous holiday…other than Mother’s Day, that is. It’s NATIONAL BABY-SITTING DAY! All the true fans (ahem!) will be celebrating with an exclusive BSC eCard on the Facebook fan page, but all in all, it’s a perfect opportunity for us all to reflect on our relationship with The Baby-sitters Club. The Club has become much more than a book series full of tween drama and slumber parties; for a lot of young readers, it’s become a rite of passage.

For millions of readers across the globe (more than 176 million, to be exact), the life experiences of Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne and Stacey are gripping testaments to pre-teen girl world. Responsible enough to care for a sitting charge but not old enough to choose how you wear your hair (looking at you, Mary Anne) – the everyday successes and struggles of the BSC crew are the same that kept many of us on our toes through middle school and beyond. And thanks to Ann M. Martin and the BSC girls, we were never alone.

Everyone has a favorite Baby-sitters Club book. Maybe it’s your favorite because it was about something close to home (diabetes? Losing a loved one?) or maybe, it’s just the most memorable because of its downright genuine navigation of eighth grade.

Regardless, it’s easy to remember why we love the series so darn much: the BSC girls could have been in our groups of friends, homerooms, or down the block. And yet as familiar as they seemed, the characters also gave us a chance to connect with different versions of ourselves. Even when we didn’t agree with all their actions (did you really think your substitute math teacher would share your romantic intentions, Stacey?), we learned with them and through them.

As a 20-something year old, it still feels good to peruse the pages of a BSC book. That’s why I’m so excited to keep reading the ebooks as they roll out with the classic covers I know and love! It feels just as cozy to read Kristy’s Great Idea on my e-reading device in the subway as it did with the original paperback on the top bunk bed. With the launch of Super Specials in ebook coming June 1st, there’s a lot for BSC fans to keep looking forward to. Don’t forget to send our BSC eCard to all your fellow fans and a very happy National Baby-sitting Day!
 

Be Kind to Animals Week

Here are a few suggestions for how to get involved (from the American Humane Association):

• Adopt an animal from a shelter or rescue
• Take care of your pet
• Appreciate wildlife
• Report animal abuse

For more ideas and resources, check out their Be Kind to Animals Week webpage.

Looking for other ways to celebrate animals with your students or children? We’ve got a ton of resources to share. Check out our animal favorites Pinterest board, our Discover More series (which is all about nature, animals, and life science), and our “Everything you Need” collections for Insects & Bugs and Clifford! And this is a lovely article on how children can learn from pets.

We also want to mention and thank one of our Literacy Champions, Paws for Healing. A few months ago, we shared with you the success of Scholastic’s Fall 2012 reading program, Paws for Reading, which partnered with Paws for Healing and other non-profit organizations to donate 1,000,000 books to kids in need.

We’re proud to call Paws for Healing a Scholastic Literacy Champion. Their community outreach and canine therapy programs provide comfort and help to people of all ages.

A 2nd grader draws a response to David Shannon’s book Duck on a Bike. She called it “Two Ducks Falling in Love”.

On the first Wednesday of every month, a handful of Scholastic employees — myself included — have the opportunity to visit a New York City elementary school to read aloud to students. We’re all assigned to different classrooms; each month, we bring books to distribute to the students, read a few of the titles aloud, and then spend time working on coloring and/or activity sheets related to the books we just read. The program, Scholastic Reads, is one of my favorite parts about my job, and an experience I look forward to every month.

Here at Scholastic, almost all of what we do and who we are as a company centers on books and education, but on a day-to-day basis it’s easy to forget what things are like in the classroom. Taking that hour and a half once a month to pop in and spend time with the students is a great reminder of why we do what we do, and why it’s so important to encourage kids to read every day.

Education is, and always has been, an incredibly important part of my life. Coming from a family of educators and administrators has only reinforced its importance, and I often find myself wondering what it would be like to be a teacher. I would imagine that teaching, like most professions, comes with both rewards and challenges, and looking back on my K-12 experience, I’m blown away by just how awesome so many of my teachers were. I owe them all a huge thank you. Needless to say, Teacher Appreciation Week seems like a good time to reflect on the fantastic teachers I’ve had over the years, and to note that somewhere along the line, I think I subconsciously absorbed some of their tips and tricks. During my Scholastic Reads visit last week, perched on a wooden chair in front of a group of squirming first-graders, I realized just how much of my own elementary school education I draw upon in situations where I’m in the teacher’s seat.

Some observations:

• I found myself referring to the students as “first-graders” instead of “boys and girls.” Growing up, the principal of our school was the only one who ever called us “boys and girls”; the teachers preferred something more gender-neutral.
• “Quiet Coyote” lives on. You know that hand-signal that teachers make– the one with the pinky- and pointer-fingers up in the air and the middle- and ring-fingers pressed closed onto the thumb? My teachers used to call it “Quiet Coyote”, and raising a hand in the air was a call for silence in the classroom. The teacher in the room I was visiting spoke at regular volume, asking her students to clap once if they could hear her, then twice if they could hear her, and so on. But I definitely had flashbacks to the “Quiet Coyote” days…
• “Raise your hands, please, first-graders.” Never have I ever felt more teacher-like. I loved the enthusiasm the students brought to read aloud, but it’s definitely hard to get a word in when there’s lots of shouting out.
• I’d totally forgotten about the criss-cross applesauce days! Getting to use the phrase “criss-cross applesauce” was something I never thought I’d get to do. And then Scholastic Reads gave me the chance.
• I’m pretty sure this was a tip from The Baby-sitters Club, but when making the rounds as students worked on their coloring sheets, I made sure to ask, “Can you tell me about your picture?” instead of “What are you drawing?” or — lesson learned the hard way — “Is that your family?” (That assignment was “draw something you love”; when I asked a student if he was drawing his family, he looked at me like I had three heads and said, “No, it’s the Power Rangers. Duh.”)

How about you? Are there any tips you’ve picked up from your elementary school teachers? We’d love to hear them in the comments below!

We hope that your students will follow Snicket’s advice as they head off for summer vacation. Whether their interests lie with snakes, spiders, or the supernatural, if kids read they won’t have to leave the house to find adventure.

As Donalyn Miller observes in The Book Whisperer: “Readers lead richer lives, more lives, than those who don’t read.” Captain Underpants creator Dav Pilkey agrees.

Avid young readers also tend to be more successful later in life. “Reading—whether Wikipedia, Michael Lewis, or Aristotle—is one of the quickest ways to acquire and assimilate new information,” says John Coleman, author of Passion & Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders. “Leaders who can sample insights in other fields, such as sociology, the physical sciences, economics, or psychology, and apply them to their organizations are more likely to innovate and prosper.”

Encouraging news, right? Unfortunately, “reading has declined among every group of adult Americans,” according to the National Endowment for the Arts. For the first time in American history, “less than half of the U.S. adult population is reading literature.”

Why does this matter? As Miller told us recently, if we want to create a generation of readers, “they need to see people reading, including parents. They need to understand what a literate life looks like.”

Children who benefit from rich classroom instruction and lots of reading time during the school year, Miller adds, often lose ground during the summer—with dire consequences. Consider these statistics:

• Learning losses during the summer months are cumulative. By the time a struggling reader reaches middle school, summer reading loss results in a two-year lag in reading achievement.
• The “Summer Slide” accounts for as much as 85 percent of the reading achievement gap between lower-income students and their middle- and upper-income peers.
• Third graders who can’t read on grade level are four times less likely to graduate by age 18 than proficient readers.

The 2013 Scholastic Summer Challenge, a free reading program designed to help stop the “Summer Slide,” is a great way to motivate kids to read—and exercise their math muscles at the same time. Last year, kids set a new world record of 95,859,491 minutes read.

Make sure your kids will be ready for back-to-school—and the demands of the Common Core State Standards. You’ll find lots of great resources on our Summer Challenge site, including book recommendations, a reading pledge, and weekly chances to win prizes.

At the end of the summer, the school with the most minutes logged will win a visit from author Dav Pilkey.

Want to be a winner? Ask your students: “Have you read your UNDERPANTS today?”

The epic saga is right at your fingertips! Star Wars Thumb Doodles teaches young Jedis to make thumbprint versions of their favorite characters—from clone troopers and battle droids, to Ewoks and Wookies. Star Wars fans will love re-creating key moments from the movie and designing scenes of their own, like the ultimate battle between Thumb Yoda and Thumb Darth Vader. (Klutz, Ages 8+)

If thumb doodles aren’t your thing, learn to draw like a Jedi Master! When you draw R2-D2, does he look more like a watermelon on roller skates than a cool droid? Does the Yoda you see in your head look nothing like the green blob that ends up on paper? Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars is packed with tips and techniques, practice space to draw right in the book, and translucent overlays that make tracing a snap. (Klutz Ages 8+)

Looking for some outdoor fun? Try Star Wars Folded Flyers. Make 30 paper starfighters directly from the movie. You can make your own fleet of X-wings, Y-wings, and Millennium Falcons. An awesome added bonus, each book included descriptions of each flyer written by the pilots—where else will you hear Darth Vader describe maneuvering a TIE fighter? (Klutz, Ages 8+)

3-D isn’t just for the movies anymore! Renowned paper engineer Matthew Reinhart brings your favorite Star Wars characters to life with two epic pop-up books, the #1 New York Times bestselling Star Wars: A Pop-up Guide to the Galaxy (Orchard Books, All Ages) and Star Wars: A Galactic Pop-up Adventure (Orchard Books, All Ages). Each book delivers a 3-D experience packed with awesome, in-your-face novelty features. Check out the trailer for Star Wars: A Galactic Pop-Adventure here. 

And there’s more exciting Star Wars fun on the way! Today, EW.com premiered the vidoe trailer for the forthcoming Star Wars: Jedi Academy (Ages 8-12) in an exclusive first look. The new book, by New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Brown, follows Roan Novachez first year at Jedi Academy under the tutelage of Master Yoda. Look for this new book series wherever books are sold in September 2013.

How did you celebrate May the 4^th? Let us know in the comments!

The Scholastic Summer Challenge is a free online reading program that encourages kids to log the minutes they spend reading during the summer months (from now until September 6, 2013) in an effort to set a new world record in reading! They’ve got a tough record to beat: kids logged a total of 95,859,491  minutes in the summer of 2012.

Here’s how it works: kids can sign up online in just a few easy steps (with the help of a teacher or parent, if necessary). They can choose to read on behalf of their school or they can read and log minutes independently. Either way, the minutes they log will contribute to the total number of minutes read, which we hope will be the NEW reading world record! Plus, new this year: the farther kids read, the more places they’ll go; a new reading meter will match minutes to global landmarks, like the Taj Mahal, Big Ben, The Empire State Building, and Mount Everest! Just this morning, kids have already logged enough minutes to get them on their way to the Colosseum. 

There are some amazing new features and prizes for 2013: The 20 schools with the most minutes logged will be listed in the 2014 Scholastic Book of World Records and will also receive a congratulatory plaque to hang with pride in their school. Plus, the school with the most minutes read at the end of the summer will win a school visit from Captain Underpants creator, Dav Pilkey! 

There’s something for everyone this summer:

For Kids

• Read as many books as possible this summer and log the minutes they spend reading.
• Beat weekly reading milestones and download virtual badges
• Take extra reading challenges to win additional prizes, like downloadable chapter excerpts and audio files.
• Enter sweepstakes for a chance to win cool prizes, like a signed copy of The False Prince, a Harry Potter box set, and more!

For Parents

• Download booklists for every age, featuring recommendations for reluctant readers, best read-alouds, award winners, nonfiction titles, and more. 
• Join a Facebook chat on summer reading, happening TONIGHT, at 9pm EST. RSVP here!
• Check out the summer reading content calendar, which features tips, articles, and book recommendations for every day of the summer. Plus, there’s a giveaway every Friday!
• Download a free Storia eBook when your child registers for the Summer Challenge.

For Teachers

• Send a welcome letter home to parents to emphasize the importance of summer reading.
• Encourage students to sign a reading pledge to signify their commitment to summer reading.
• Bulk register your students and enter for a chance to win a classroom library!
• Stay up to date on your students’ reading progress through your Teacher Dashboard on the Summer Challenge website.

What are you waiting for? Register for the Summer Challenge today! Let’s make this the best summer for reading ever. 

How did you know you wanted to be a librarian?

When I was studying for my undergraduate degree in history, I became interested in how information was organized to be found again.  After many conversations with the subject librarian at my university, I decided that I wanted to go to graduate school for library science instead of history.

What’s the hardest part about being a librarian?

The hardest part for me is trying to overcome the stereotypes of what everyone believes a librarian does.  My job is very technical and requires a great deal more knowledge of IT than most people believe.

Do you still use the Dewey Decimal System in the digital age?

In the Scholastic library, yes I do.  The Dewey Decimal Classification System is at its core a way to arrange books on a shelf according to subject.  This allows for an easily searchable collection.  While the Dewey Decimal System is the most famous of all the classification systems it is not the only one.  It is certainly not without its flaws – I will leave it at that otherwise the answer to this question will get a great deal longer – but it is one that is in most use today, particularly in public libraries.  Academic libraries use the Library of Congress classification system.  There are other classification systems used in specialist libraries that were developed with the needs of their collection in mind.  The Dewey Decimal Classification System is used to classify and shelve physical books and is separate from any digital organization in use today.

Have all librarians gone for their Master’s degree?

Generally people with the job title of Librarian do have a Master’s degree.  This is not a hard and fast rule, however, and there are many wonderful people in the profession who do not have a Master’s in Library or Information Science.  That said, if you are contemplating a career in libraries, a Master’s degree is preferable.

What is the one thing about your job that you wish that you could tell everyone?

It is both harder than you would think and more fun than you imagine it to be.

If you weren’t a librarian, what would you want to do for a living?

Some days in my wildest dreams, I would own a food truck selling homemade soup.  But realistically, I would be a history professor specializing in the social history of the 1960’s which was my original plan.

Any words of wisdom for aspiring librarians?

Become a librarian because you love and find fulfillment in it.  As anyone will tell you this is not a profession in which you will become fabulously wealthy but I can’t imagine doing anything else

I want to thank everyone who submitted a question.  If there is anything else that you would like to ask, feel free to leave a comment.

It’s not a secret — you don’t have to be a teen to read YA.

As longtime fans of young adult literature, we at Scholastic are thrilled that more and more adults are finding great stories in a section previously reserved for teens, and that teens themselves are reading YA in record numbers!

We wanted to spread the love for YA even further, and encourage fellow YA-fanatics to be loud and proud about their reading tastes. So, this month, we will begin an ongoing campaign for readers of all ages to state proudly: I read YA!

 Join in the movement by tweeting what you’re reading @this_is_teen using #IreadYA. Each week throughout the month of May, we’ll be picking three winners to receive an I read YA tote back stuffed with seven of our favorite YA titles!

We hope you’re excited as we are to engage with other book lovers, and hopefully get some great book recommendations to add to your “To Read” lists! We can’t wait to hear from you on Twitter. Spread the word: We all read YA!

Just added are photos from Can You See What I See: Out of This World, including a look at the Time Traveler and the Early Morning puzzles. I can’t decide which one I find more impressive — the huge scale of the robot, or the attention to detail of the sleeping princess!

You may remember that a while back, Walter even built one of his sets right in our Scholastic Store window! You can find those photos and a great video interview with Walter right here.

We’ll update this post as the discussion begins. Some thoughts to get you started:

• How would you describe the world of The Summer Prince?
• What role does art play in this book? What role does technology play?
• In what ways is Palmares Tres similar to today? In what ways is it different?

Stay tuned! And, join us on Twitter at #summerprince.

 And the discussion has begun!

 The book’s editor, Arthur A. Levine, has just joined us too!

• Jess is leading the discussion and begins by noticing how this book — while a YA, a dystopian, a book about art, love, rebellion — is, at its core, a book about relationships.
• What stuck out for you from this book? Some of us in the room are noting: the fluid approach to sexuality; the idea that skin color and age still were issues even though sexuality wasn’t; language.
• Let’s talk about language! One participant here says they sometimes felt like they weren’t in on the joke because of the specific language used in this title. Did any of you feel that way?
• In response, Arthur says, “A writer in speculative fiction orscifi has to strike a delicate balance. How much is too much alienation? How much would explaining it all upfront ruin the flow of the scene?”
• General consensus in the room: This book showed some great examples of an author not sticking to the stereotypical “rival” relationships you can find in YA.
• How did death factor into this title? How did the author use science fiction to demonstrate the ways we all have to face our mortality and that of our families?
• “There’s a lot of stuff going on in this book,” says an employee here in the room. “How much time do we have to talk about it all?” What do you think? What’s the “stuff” happening in the book? 
• How about setting? A friend on Twitter mentions that setting The Summer Prince in futuristic Brazil was intriguing, because most dystopians are set in the US. How did you feel about the setting?
• Also on Twitter, someone asked Arthur what drew him to the manuscript. He says: “The incredible breadth of her intellect, and that she didn’t allow that to overwhelm the emotional story. To have a book that’s so thought provoking, has so much intellectual weight, in a story with characters you care about is incredibly impressive.”
• On the cover: how much did it draw you in? The cover model is the exact combination of races that June, the main character, is. “We really wanted to get it right,” says Arthur.  
• What role does art play in this book? How would you feel if your mood was broadcast on your arms the way it is for June?
• How does the shape of Palmares Tres influence your perceptions of the book? The city is a pyramid. The smells and shapes and sounds of the levels are vividly described.
• Enki gets called “the summer prince” midway through the book…but he’s actually the Summer King. What’s the symbolism there?
• June has a deep, deep love for her city of Palmares Tres. That’s something you don’t see a lot of in YA — a teenager who loves the city she’s from.
• The friendship between June and Gil is special, too. He didn’t put his name in for the summer prince election because he could never abandon June the way her father did.
• We the readers see June’s insecurities even when June herself doesn’t. “The author takes a lot of risks by making June be as unsympathetic as she is for most of the book,” says Arthur.
• “The great thing about books: you bring yourself into the reading of the book, and you take what the author gives you.” – Arthur  

 Final thoughts: where is June in five years? Has she changed her city for the better?

A guest post from Russell Thomas, our Intranet director, on the role libraries have always played in his life.

Growing up in the Bronx and moving from neighborhood I was always privileged to have a branch of the New York Public Library within easy walking distance. Whether it was the Francis Marion branch — I didn’t know who he was the first time I visited, but took his biography out to learn — that was right across the street from what was then New York University’s uptown campus; the Fordham Library which was the largest I had ever seen until I stepped inside the fabled Main Branch, or the Van Cortlandt Library where I brought my own children to introduce them to the magic of books and the rite of passage of their own Library card. They were all so close that you could take a young child by the hand and walk there and back without the slightest complaint.

Libraries have always been a part of my life, and the relationship has been a complex one. Sometimes they’ve been refuges and places of escape from a larger world that was not always particularly pleasant.  Sometimes they’ve been places of pure excitement, offering the ability to randomly pick a book from a shelf and by doing so, enter a new and different world. Sometimes they’ve been counselors, with thousands of voices calling from hundreds of shelves offering knowledge, solace and solutions to every problem imaginable. Always they’ve been sources of joy.

I moved from the city to suburbia in 1986. That move had a horrible consequence.  The nearest library was five miles away, far too dear in terms of distance and time to walk.  Of course the family still made a weekly trip to the library.  But somehow, planning a trip, instead of just letting feet follow the silent but still compelling siren call of books unread, took some of the fun out of it.  So did the crowded library parking lot which many times was full.

But recently something wondrous has happened.  The next town over now has a library, and it’s only two miles away! True, it’s a small library, built to serve the needs of a new senior citizens housing complex — happily I’m not there yet –  but it has thousands of books and you don’t need to burn gasoline to get them.  Somehow walking to the library magnifies the experience.  Every step there increases the anticipation of what will be found on arrival. Every step back is one step closer to the moment when you can open the treasure chest of an unread book.

An inexhaustible supply of books on demand, from a library within ready walking distance. Now there’s a privilege worth celebrating.

Image via

I was listening to the Slate Audio Book Podcast on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice when this every question came up.  The question was posed: Do you need a plucky young girl who doesn’t follow the rules of her society to make a beloved classic?  Admittedly there is a lot of antidotal evidence on bookshelves and reading lists across the world that point to the answer being yes.

Take Pride and Prejudice to start.  Had Lizzie Bennett been a good and dutiful daughter of her age, she would have become Mrs. William Collins.  Both she and — let’s be honest, all of us – would have missed out on her great love story.  What others saw as pragmatism, Lizzie saw as compromise.  Lizzie Bennett followed her own rules, staked a claim in her own life and ultimately lived a life that made her happy. 

In literature she is by far not the only one.  If Alice from Alice in Wonderland had been a good girl, she never would have followed a white rabbit in a waist coat down the rabbit hole into Wonderland.  If Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God didn’t hold on to the dreams that she wanted for herself and instead embraced what other people wanted for her, would we remember her?  If Jo March from Little Women had been less of a tomboy and more refined young woman, would we have adored her as fiercely as we do today? 

There is something refreshing about a girl who looks at her world and says I have my own path and I want to walk it.  Those are the characters that are timeless. 

It isn’t just the classics that have this appeal.  Look at the wonderful characters that we have today.  Lyra Silvertongue from the His Dark Materials trilogy, Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games trilogy and June Costa from this month’s book club selection The Summer Prince are the girls that we will remember for their grit and for stealing both the hearts and the imagination of readers for years to come. 

If it wasn’t for the heroines these books, while all beautifully crafted, may not hold the same impact today as they do then.  They hold a place on our shelves because we can’t imagine our literary lives without them and maybe just because we can’t imagine a childhood where we didn’t hope that we were like them.

What do you think?  Do you need a strong female protagonist with a knack for ignoring the rules to make a classic?  Do you find that the books you love have a strong female character?  Which is your favorite female protagonist?  Tell us in the comments.

As part of Scholastic’s global literacy campaign, Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life., we’ve identified organizations that work every day to see that children learn to read, love to read, and have access to books. We call them “Literacy Champions”and we want to acknowledge their hard work here on the blog in our Literacy Champions series. In this next installment, we’re focusing on one of our more recent Literacy Champions, Hands Across the Sea. 

Harriet and Tom Linskey, Co-Founders of Hands Across the Sea, share with us a bit about their program.

We live by the words, “The gift of literacy lasts a lifetime,” because we’ve witnessed how literacy can transform the life path of children in need. In the Eastern Caribbean, where most families are unable to afford books and schools are severely underfunded, we’ve shipped over 141,000 books to 291 schools, libraries, and reading programs, giving over 55,000 children access to literacy and a better life.

Since our start in 2007 we’ve been working hands-on in the Caribbean with principals, teachers, and U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers at local schools (from pre-school to high school), and from this this we’ve developed our three-step CLASS (Caribbean Literacy and School Support) program: 1. Send great new books; 2. Create vibrant borrowing libraries; 3. Foster sustainability through support from the school staff and local community.

One of our favorite bits of news about a Hands shipment reaching the islands came from a local parent helping to put together the library at tiny Bonne Terre Preparatory School on St. Lucia: “I’m having such a great time watching students check out the new books. I had one little boy ask me with very wide eyes, ‘You mean I am the very first person to read this book?’ Yep!!!”

Words like these, along with the joy and hope that great new books bring to Caribbean children, make this the most rewarding work we’ve ever done. 

For more information, visit the Hands Across the Sea website. 

Anyone who helps a child to read is a Literacy Champion in our book, and we invite you to join our growing list of people committed to supporting childhood literacy. You can also support a Literacy Champion near you—browse a full list on our Read Every Day Lead a Better Life. site.

image via Hands Across the Sea

Now that’s a bookshelf.

Julia Graeper from the Classroom and Community Group recently told us about the book collection her family has. Naturally, we had to hear more, so she’s back to talk about it. Take it away, Julia!

My baby is lucky.  Her family is full of book lovers.

Recently, I wrote about reading aloud with Raina, who will be one year old next month.  But Raina doesn’t just read with me; she also reads with her grandparents, who watch her during the work week.  She spends most days with my parents, and often emerges from their care with new skills and desires. My mom emails me at work every day to remark on sweet or funny things the baby has done.  (If I am lucky, I get a picture of that sweet or funny thing, too.)

The other day I got a one-sentence email, all uppercase: NEED MORE BOARD BOOKS.  My mom and dad are definitely taking Raina’s reading life seriously.

Both of my parents read to me as a child, and my dad kept doing so well after I became an independent reader.  Together, my dad and I made it through all of Little House on the Prairie as well as Anne of Green Gables.  I view Raina’s time reading with my parents as a continuation of a relationship that began decades ago.  (And yes, I did bring home more board books.)

My mother-in-law collects children’s books, so Raina’s paternal grandparents love reading with her, too.  When my daughter visits, she gets to spend time in a playroom that is small, cozy, and painted the warmest shade of pumpkin.  The best part about the room?  It has two entire bookcases overflowing with children’s books, all organized by theme.  Recently, Morgan wrote about de-stressing with books, and sometimes I think it is not just what you read, but where you read it.  This playroom is the perfect spot.  I imagine my daughter when she is older, picking out books from a home library that was started over thirty years ago.

Do you have any family reading traditions, or a single spot where you go to read? Tell us about it!

Photo: Courtesy Illustration

Can you imagine walking into your local library, eager to pick up something new to read, and finding all of the shelves of books replaced with computers? The first bookless public library is scheduled to open this fall in San Antonio, Texas, where computer terminals and tablets will take the place of printed books (read more about it here). The reaction to the announcement seems to be a mix of curiosity, excitement, and bewilderment. The idea of a completely digital library is fun and futuristic, but are readers still too attached to the printed page to make such a drastic change?

Scholastic News 5/6, our current events classroom magazine for 5th and 6th graders, ran a poll in their March 18th issue that explained San Antonio’s bookless library and then asked kids: Should we eliminated printed books in libraries? As of today, 54,858 students have voted in the poll, and it’s a close call! 52% of kids voted NO (we should keep printed books in libraries), and 48% voted YES (we should eliminate printed books in libraries)!

The results aren’t too shocking when you consider that the number of kids who have read an ebook has almost doubled since 2010 (25% vs. 46%), according to Scholastic’s most recent Kids & Family Reading Report. The same report also showed that among children who have read an ebook, one in five says he or she is reading more books for fun, and that half of children age 9–17 say they would read more books for fun if they had greater access to ebooks. That’s a lot of enthusiasm from kids about reading digitally!

One finding that may help print books to retain their place on the shelf is that eighty percent of kids who read ebooks still read books for fun primarily in print. So while it will be interesting to see how a bookless library fares in San Antonio, it will likely be a while before they become a trend.

So what do you think — do you prefer to leave the library with an ereader full of files or a bag brimming with books? Let us know in the comments!

Since old is back in a big way (Morgan and I can’t be the only ones excited by the news of the new Lizzie Skurnick Imprint, which will republish old YA titles!), I couldn’t resist sharing a few of the titles with you. Check out the covers and the blurbs from the back of the book.  Enjoy!

The Night We Stopped the Trolley by Earl Schenck Miers: What was it like to be young in America half a century ago? In a series of memorable vignettes – some funny, some bittersweet — historian, author, and editor Earl Schenck Miers “tells it like it was.” His reminiscences bring back to life a world that no longer exists – a world of hobos, trolley cars, block parties, Rally Day parades, and home- baked bread.

Peppermint: Teen-agers ask…Who am I? What makes me laugh, cry, dream? What’s cruel, what’s kind… what’s courage? Teen-agers look…At the world around them – at themselves, their friends, their families. Teen-agers look at today, and wonder about tomorrow. Teen- agers write…with humor, honesty, imagination. And each year thousands of them submit their best work to the annual Scholastic Magazines Writing Awards. (Note:  Now the Scholastic Magazine Awards is called The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.  The awards are currently celebrating their 90^th year!)

Mystery of the Haunted Mine by Gordon D. Shirreffs: The Espectros … The Haunted Mountains! Somewhere in those canyons is a fortune… thousands of dollars worth of gold that men have searched and died for. The Indians say it is guarded by ghosts – but Gary and Tuck refuse to believe that ghosts use live ammunition!

Star Spangled Summer by Janet Lambert: The summer Carol Houghton spends with Penny Parish and her warm, light hearted family brings important changes in the lives of three people…Carol, who had never before lived in a happy house. Her father, who has been unable to show his love for Carol. David, who hadn’t liked girls. Everyone agrees: It was truly a Star-Spangled Summer.

Girls Can Dream Too! by Janet Lambert: “Essay Contest! First Prize: Free flying lessons. Contest open to all qualified students 16 years or older. Rules available in principal’s office.” All of Avondale High School is agog at the announcement, especially Loretta Larkin. But when she makes it known she will be an entrant in the contest, Jeff Chandler is taken aback. What an unladylike thing to do! “And suppose I don’t particularly want to be a lady?” counters Rette. “Will the sky fall in if I learn how to fly a plane?”

That’s just what I found but I am sure that you have some hidden gems on your shelves too!  Take a fresh look at your bookshelves.  Did you find anything that you forgot that you had? Did you rediscover a title you had almost forgotten about?  Let us know in the comments!

According to earthday.org, more than a billion people in 192 countries are celebrating today, 43 years after it was first marked in 1970. Earth Day seems to be something that appeals strongly to kids, and offers simple, actionable ways they can help.

And Scholastic can help too, of course.

For teachers: Check out the Earth Day collection on the Teacher channel and find “everything you need” right here

For parents: These 6 Ways to Celebrate Earth Day can get your whole family involved

For kids: The Stacks has some super-fun kid-friendly activities, like these and these!

For readers: Here are 8 books for Earth Day (and beyond!)

We’d love to hear how you’re marking the day in your classrooms and homes. Let us know in the comments!

I caught up with Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer and the forthcoming Reading in the Wild, at the IRA convention this weekend in San Antonio. Here are excerpts from our conversation.

Q. How can we encourage children to read more?

A. One of the best ways is to be reading role models for kids. They need to see people reading, including parents. We can tell kids to read a lot, but if they don’t see others reading, they don’t read as much.

Q. How do we engage parents in this effort?

A. I often say that if we want children to have reading role models, we need to graduate some. A lot of parents were in the same educational system that their children now sit in. They didn’t learn how to love to read after 12 years of formal schooling, and yet we expect them to get it when they become parents. One thing we can do is start graduating kids from school as readers so that they don’t become parents who are disengaged. As for parents right now, my concern is that they don’t necessarily feel the urgency about reading. Parents understand when their fourth grader doesn’t get multiplication, that it’s a big deal. But they don’t always get that reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Lightning Thief helps their children academically.

Q. What strategies do you use with struggling readers?

A. The more struggling readers you have in a classroom, the more you should read aloud. We know, for example, that kids from low socioeconomic circumstances walk into kindergarten about a year behind their middle-income peers. During the school year, they make about the same level of gains because they’re with teachers in a structured setting, getting quality instruction. But then we have summer learning loss. Kids from middle-income homes go to camp, and they have books at home, while kids in low socioeconomic circumstances often decline two to three months. That loss is cumulative, so the gap never goes away. Book access is huge. We also need to provide kids positive literacy experiences through read-alouds and reading that’s maybe considered light but offers a gateway to more rigorous reading. Those are the things that I really focus on.

Q. Can you tell us why you emphasize reading communities?

A. We’re living in a society that doesn’t necessarily value reading. My own students tell me that their parents say, “You should put that book down. You’re reading too much. Go outside and play.” It’s pervasive throughout the culture. Illiteracy is also outside of our social norm. We want people to be literate enough. But once you cross over into avid readership, you’re seen as an outlier. You’re an intellectual snob, you’re a bookworm, you’re socially stunted. Kids need to be in communities where reading is valued.

Q. How does the prevalence of technology affect reading habits among young people?

A. I have students who are avid video gamers and like to watch TV, but they also like to read. I don’t think it has to be either-or. It’s about balance and parents setting limits. I’m not a parenting expert, but I am a parent. I see what works in my own home and advise the parents of my students. I ask how much screen time children have. Is reading time also built into those days? Or are kids spending eight hours on a Saturday playing video games? Some of them are, but not all of them. We know from research that the more engaged kids are with the books they’re reading, the more time they’ll spend reading them. I often go back to that engagement piece. I can give you a stack of books, but if they’re all books you can’t read, or books you don’t want to read, you won’t read them. Kids need to see that the same kind of excitement, adventure, joy and mystery that they get out of video games, TV shows, and movies can be in books too.

Q. Can you tell us about your new book?

A. It’s called Reading in the Wild, and it will be out this fall. We looked at the habits of lifelong readers and how we could teach those habits to kids. From the research, we’ve designed lessons, assessment pieces, and readers’ notebook sheets. We’re teaching kids how to live like readers.

Q. What do you think about the new ELA Standards for the Common Core?

A. I’ve taught in Texas for my entire career. We’ve always had standards and standardized testing. So teaching to standards is nothing new to me. But that is only one piece of instruction. No matter what standards we implement, or how we test them, the children who read the most are always going to outperform those who read the least.

Still, the Common Core can be felt everywhere here—from the nervous smiles of the teachers toting laptops, iPads, and Lexile conversion charts—to the strange new vocabulary that doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue.

Say hello, dear Texans, to “text complexity,” “qualitative versus quantitative,” “reader-task considerations,” and “Tier Three words.” And who can go five yards in these colossal hallways without hearing the word “assessment”?

For months, people in 45 states—or 46, depending upon how you slice Minnesota—have been hungry for news about the student assessments expected in the 2014-15 school year.

Information is starting to emerge. The biggest takeaway: Students will be asked to read and analyze long passages in a variety of text types and content areas. Central to this demand will be the ability to read well. In the rush to master the new vocabulary of the Core, let’s keep in mind a familiar phrase, “reading stamina.”

How can teachers help students build enough stamina to read long passages silently and fluently? The question was posed to top educators at one seminar I attended. Here are some of the responses:

• Your goal might be silent reading, but some of that practice needs to be oral reading. We know what that can do in terms of building up stamina and speed. Rereading is really important too, so is having kids read in a range of text difficulties. Also, vary the lengths. It’s the same thing you do as a distance runner. You don’t run just one distance if you’re trying to build stamina. You run three miles one day, four miles another, then you drop back to three. You do sprint work. Giving kids a much more varied experience in reading will offer them the best chance for building stamina.

• I agree that we should ensure a diverse experience in reading. I would also vary the interest level of the texts.

 • Let kids run longer distances! It’s very unusual to see classrooms where kids actually have time to sit and read and think and discuss.

• Don’t start developing kids’ stamina in third or fourth grade. Let children experience longer texts when they’re younger. Introduce them to complex texts in kindergarten and first grade through read-alouds.

Keep in mind, assessments are just assessments—they are not the full measure of a child, or a teacher, for that matter. The next time you’re tempted to google “PARCC” or “Smarter Balanced,” pull a good book off the shelf instead and read it to your students. Take them on a journey they won’t forget.

As Dr. Seuss said: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

Famed baseball player Jackie Robinson has been in the news a lot lately. Scholastic is the proud publisher of many books about the baseball legend, written by his daughter Sharon Robinson. Charisse Meloto, Executive Director of Publicity in Trade, has worked with Sharon for many years to get the books into the hands of young readers. Below she has a very special behind-the-scenes look at working with the Robinson family. Take it away, Charisse!

There’s been a lot of excitement surrounding the Jackie Robinson movie  “42,” which topped this past weekend’s box office.  The Robinson family has been in the media lately, featured in a recent CBS Sunday Morning and in the Los Angeles Times.

Scholastic is the publisher of many books about Jackie Robinson, some of which were written by Jackie’s only daughter, author Sharon Robinson.

As Sharon Robinson’s longtime publicist at Scholastic, I’ve had the honor and pleasure of accompanying her to many events over the years—in bookstores, schools, book festivals, ballparks, TV and radio interviews, All-Star and World Series games, and even to the U.S. Capitol.

With the movie release and publication of her newest book, Jackie Robinson: American Hero, Sharon has been doing the media-rounds, including CBS This Morning, and has been keeping a hectic appearance schedule. Every year on April 15^th, Jackie Robinson Day is celebrated across Major League Baseball. This year, Sharon and her family joined in the festivities at Dodgers Stadium with part owner Earvin “Magic” Johnson. A few years ago, I joined the Robinson family at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, for Jackie Robinson Day and for the unveiling of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda.

Clockwise: at a Breaking Barriers event with Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter; on book tour with illustrator Kadir Nelson; working with editor Dianne Hess (and Rachel Robinson); and talking to Robin Roberts on Good Morning America.

In addition to being an author, Sharon Robinson is an educational programming consultant for Major League Baseball where she developed the Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life program. Every year, Breaking Barriers runs an essay contest which asks children to write about barriers or obstacles they have faced or are still facing in their lives, and how they overcome those obstacles using the values demonstrated by Jackie Robinson. Grand prize winners of the essay contest get a visit from Sharon Robinson, sometimes a baseball player would accompany Sharon to the event.

Many of my favorite memories as a publicist have been spent with Sharon talking to kids around the country, not only about the legacy of her pioneering father, but also about her passion for education and writing children’s books. Sharon enjoys the collaboration process. 

One of the best things about my job is having the opportunity to work with amazing people like Sharon Robinson…authors who create books that inspire and nurture a child’s lifelong love of reading.

Every now and then I get a serious urge to drop everything and pick up a Baby-sitters Club book. And that, my friends, is how I know I’m stressed.

I guess you could say the stories of Stoneybrook, CT help de-stress me. And considering what a stressful week it’s been, you can imagine I’ve been turning to my BSCs often over the past few days.

Tuesday was National Stress Awareness Day and all of April is Stress Awareness Month, and I don’t mean to be flip when I say I find books to be the single biggest stress reliever in my life. (Well…maybe a close second to a good yoga class.) It’s pretty obvious why books can help — they offer us an escape and, especially if children’s books are your de-stressor (like me), they harken back to a time when we were probably less stressed than we are now. And who doesn’t want to be less stressed?

I asked around to find out what books other people turn to when they’re stressed:

• Nadia: Harry Potter!
• Kristen: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
• Lia: No specific book, but definitely bookstores and/or libraries in general. (Whatever’s closest!)
• Megan: The Coloring Book by Herve Tullet
• Alex: A childhood favorite, The Giving Tree.  (And an US Weekly usually does the trick too!)

What books do you read when you need to de-stress?

A great book that encourages an understanding of what it is like to be a parent, teacher, sibling, or friend of someone with autism is My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete (it’s also available on Storia). For older readers, The Encyclopedia of Me by Karen Rivers is a witty alphabetic novel about Tink Aaron-Martin’s summer with her best friend, Freddie and how she deals with the challenges of growing up, being grounded, and being a sister to her older brother, Seb, who has autism. Our friends on the Parents side of Scholastic.com also have some suggested readings — check them out here.

The Parents team also has a helpful, comprehensive article about what autism is, how it’s diagnosed, and how to find support — including from your child’s teachers.

Parents and teachers, are there books you turn to for autism support? We’d love to hear about them.

• Scholastic News: Tragedy at the Boston Marathon — a kid-friendly way of learning about the events
• From the Raise a Reader blog: Using Books to Break the Ice and Tips for Talking With Kids About Scary News
• From our Parents site: Talking to Your Kids About Natural Disasters, War and Violence
• From the Yale Child Study Center: Tips for Helping Families and Children Cope with Disaster and Stress
• And, Scholastic’s editor-at-large Suzanne McCabe talked with NPR about helping kids through difficult times following the Sandy Hook shootings. We think it’s helpful and relevant today, too. You can find it here.

Updated: And, a teacher in Boston reflects on what happened — a lovely piece about the role teachers can play in times like this. And, Instructor Magazine shares an important article, When Terrible Things Happen.

What are your strategies for talking to kids about issues like this?

As a busy woman, time is always fleeting.  Always.  It is a very common problem to have to figure out how to fit in friends, hobbies, relationships, work and just plain relaxing when you have so much going on.  With all of that, the library is perfect for me.  Here’s why: easy access and deadlines.  Whenever a book idea crosses my way, finding out if the library has it is just a few clicks away in the online catalogue.  And I can place a hold so the next time it is available, they set it aside for me and I swoop in during lunch and have a book in just a few minutes.  To be fair, some times I have to wait awhile for the book to become available.  But, I’m busy so it’s completely OK to not have the book right this second.  Then I have the book, and there is a deadline to get it completely read.  I can understand that sounding stressful, but I look at it like I HAVE to read it in a good way.  If I don’t have a deadline, what else will convince me to take some time out of my day to get the book started and finished?  Love it. Not to mention the library is budget-friendly and small apartment-friendly. 

Old-fashioned? Have you been in a library lately?  They are increasingly high-tech.  And I actually love the nostalgia I feel in libraries.  When I was a kid, getting my library card meant I was growing up.  And it really was one of the only places I had a true carte blanche as a little one.  Any book I wanted (in the kids section) could come home with me.  Lots of good memories. Plus, you have to appreciate a place that encourages the quiet.  The world is so noisy.

Yes, they have all the books I want.  The brand new ones are there along with the older titles that I missed out on when they were popular or weren’t on my school list. 

There you have it, I love the library and this is my love letter in honor of National Library Week.  I hope if anyone sees this post and has thought to themselves that libraries have past their prime, or heck haven’t even considered a library trip in the last year, that they realize it is a great place for the book lover/crazy busy adult.

photo via Paul Lowry

I’ll be honest, when I got the summons one month ago, my heart sank a little. I’ve heard jury duty horror stories, am reluctant to miss work, and unfortunately, impatience is a fault of mine. Most of what I’ve heard about jury duty is that it’s a lot of waiting around. And since my arrival yesterday, everything—from the signage to the speeches they give you to the frequent delays—confirms this. Here, time is at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts (what time is lunch? When do we get released? How many breaks can we take?). I think it’s no coincidence that the clock on the wall is gigantic and happens to have a resounding tick. This past day and a half have been so strange and so interesting. I’d go on, but the court system operates around Las Vegas rules—what happens here, stays here.

Upon telling colleagues, friends and family that I would be going to jury duty, the top response was, “bring a good book”. Luckily, I did. I decided to combat my sinking feeling head-on and embrace my civic duty to the fullest—I brought Sandra Day O’Connor’s new book Out Of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court. I also brought my laptop, but they usher you into so many different rooms, have rules about when you can and can’t use technology, and make announcements about every four minutes, so any attempt at accomplishing serious work was futile. As I opened up my book yesterday morning, I looked around me to see what my fellow potential jurors were reading. To my astonishment, very few people were reading. There were 67 people in the room (yes, I did the math. I had a lot of time of my hands). Of the 67, three people were reading print books, including me. Three. That’s 4.47%. Six of the 67 had iPads or tablets, one person was reading a newspaper, and one person was reading a magazine. The other 56? They were either staring into space, on their phones, chatting with neighbors, or milling about. I kept tabs on people’s behavior for the rest of the day, and as time wore on, even less people were reading. Cliques had formed. People were swapping strategies (“say you have a bias against pedestrians”, “tell them you have restless leg syndrome”), opting to talk with these strangers-turned-comrades.

I wondered, why aren’t more people reading? One reason might be the aforementioned focus on time. What better way to kill time than to read a book? Well, maybe not. While there is a lot of waiting around, the environment is not exactly conducive to engrossing oneself in a book. Just the anxiety over being selected is enough to make a person lose their focus. And unless you brought your own reading material, you were out of luck. The clerk in charge offered us fodder to pass the time, pointing to a sad-looking stack of women’s magazines from the late 1990s and one withered newspaper. He blamed budget cuts for the lack of reading material, and given the fact that the television looked like something left in a junkyard, I believed him. He even asked people to donate their papers or magazines to the pile once they were read, but given the fact that exactly two people brought a newspaper or magazine, that pile wasn’t growing any bigger.

So, here I am, about to dive back into Stories from the History of the Supreme Court. Maybe if I’m here long enough, I’ll finish it and donate it to the needy communal pile. Though it might come off as eerily ironic to whomever picks it up.

image via SalFalko