It is National Punctuation Day.

Or should I say: 'It's National Punctuation Day!'?

And what better way to celebrate than a book all about a punctuation mark? With a fantastic message that the best thing you can be is yourself, Exclamation Mark is one of my favorites of the year! It tells the story of an exclamation mark that is just trying to fit in...until he meets a new friend that opens the door to a world of new possibilities. He learns that being different can be very exciting!

I thought it would be fun to ask my fellow OOM-ers if they had a punctuation mark that best described them.

• 'The em dash' — Emma. After all, it is her nickname and she's always in a rush.
• Kristen also prefers the em dash — she loves the emphasis it adds to a sentence. 
• Morgan is a semi-colon. She employs them frequently; plus, they look like a winky face.
• Alex would be an asterisk.*
• Megan would be a parentheses. (She rarely completes a sentence without inserting some sort of aside.)
• Nadia is a bullet point:
  • She's a very list-oriented person.
  • She likes to think things out thoroughly.
  • She likes that bulleted lists are organized and logical.
• What's Tyler? Well, there is no doubt he is a question mark. He's always curious and with his background as a journalist, he's trained to ask questions!
• Jessica tells me "I would probably be quotation marks. When I was younger, I loved them and would use them as often as I could. As I got older, I majored in history; a discipline that valued the importance of precise quoting."
• Suzanne decided that she was best described by a combination of punctuation marks. She's moved onto emoticons in the digital age. :)
• I favor the ellipsis. Suggestive of a pause, intentional omission or sarcasm, I use it often...
• Lia is the most excited about National Punctuation Day! Our resident punctuation guru, she's definitely an exclamation mark! She dedicates herself to something 110%, and loves that extra punch of enthusiasm that an exclamation mark conveys. (As someone who NEEDS Lia's copy editing skills often, I can tell you, she would probably have a problem with me agreeing wholeheartedly and adding multiple exclamation points. I will do it anyway!!!!!)

*Alex has so many ideas swirling in her head that she sometimes feels the need to add a footnote for her audience.

Books can entertain us, educate us, enlighten us. And sometimes, books can help promote peace.

These readers, students at the Martha Tubman High School in Salala, Liberia, were caught reading Scholastic books purchased by the Liberian Education Trust (LET) and given to schools where LET has implemented libraries.
LET supported Librarians and students manage the LET libraries with some help from Peace Corps volunteers who have provided the photos.  
 
They're reading the Peace Warriors series by Andrea Davis Pinkney, a biographic series that features men and women who have worked passionately to pioneer peaceful solutions to conflicts throughout history that includes President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Nobel Laureate and the first democratically elected woman president in Africa..

All photos are courtesy of Peace Corps volunteers.

Harry Potter. Captain Underpants. The Hunger Games. Goosebumps. While these books may not share similar themes, plots, or authors, they do share something important in common: they have all earned a place on the list of books most often banned or challenged in the past decade, according to the American Library Association. This week is Banned Books Week and OOM has put together a slideshow of Scholastic titles that have been challenged over the years.

Check out the slideshow below and let us know your thoughts.

What do you think about efforts to ban books? And what would you do if your favorite book were challenged?

We’re thrilled to introduce Sojourner Ahebee, Michaela Coplen, Nathan Cummings, Aline Dolinh and Louis Lafair - the second annual class of literary ambassadors for the National Student Poets Program, the nation’s highest honor for young poets presenting original work. The program, a signature initiative of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, promotes and celebrates young people as makers and doers who can engage audiences of all ages in the art of poetry.

They had an amazing first weekend to kick off their one year of service. Coming from all across the country, the five distinguished poets met for the first time in Washington DC.  There, they not only were able to read their work at the National Book Festival but they also met First Lady Michelle Obama!

The poets have unique writing styles and even more unique stories behind their work. I am so excited to see what they accomplish during the next year as National Student Poets! Keep an eye out for this talented group of teens – their passion for poetry is infectious! You can read all about the new class of National Student Poets here:

• Sojourner Ahebee, 17, is a senior at Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, MI. Born in Cote d’Ivoire, when Sojourner was 7 she and her family moved to the United States where they settled down in Philadelphia, PA. Her poetry is often inspired by ideas of identity and belonging, and the exploration of social issues - linking back to her African roots.
• Michaela Coplen, 17, is a senior at Carlisle High School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. This aspiring actress dreams of a career on Broadway and has been involved in 36 local productions. As the daughter of two military officers, Michaela moved 11 times during her childhood. But, no matter where she was living, the arts were always a constant in her life.
• Aline Dolinh, 15, is a sophomore at Oakton High School in Vienna, Virginia, near the Washington DC area, where she grew up. Aline is a first generation Vietnamese American with a vivid imagination for all things science fiction. For as long as she can remember, Aline has been writing poetry, often exploring her favorite topics such as romance, history and the possibility of time travel.
• Louis Lafair, 18, is a senior at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, TX. Throughout his life, Louis has always expressed himself through creative writing, in school and largely on his own. His entrepreneurial spirit propelled him to become a co-licensee of the 2013 TEDxYouth event in Austin where he discovered a unique community for sharing big ideas as well as poetry with his peers.
• Nathan Cummings, 18, is a senior at Mercer Island High School in Mercer Island, WA, outside of Seattle. An athlete by nature and self-proclaimed trivia geek, Nathan’s inspiration can come from any number of places – from his personal experiences to unknown ideas he learns about through reading.  He also takes advantage of the digital age by exploring new ideas and connecting with poets everywhere.

Congratulations National Student Poets! And, if you are an aspiring teen poet, or know someone who is, enter the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards this year to be considered for the next class of National Student Poets. Winning a national medal in poetry is the exclusive pathway to become eligible for the program. Scholastic Art & Writing Awards call for submissions is open now, click here to enter! 

Choices magazine is proud to announce the birth of our brand-spanking new blog, TeenBeing: For all the adults who are helping teens make great decisions.

While putting together the magazine every month, we come into contact with a ton of useful resources, amazing experts, interesting research tidbits, and teen-world trends—some inspiring, some worrying; some that make us laugh, some that make us think. But the one thing they have in common is that they’re all important to parents, teachers, and other adults responsible for guiding, raising, teaching, or being a role model for teenagers.

And since everyone likes lists, here are 6 Reasons You Should Read TeenBeing Every Day (and share it with everyone you know):

1. Learn useful tools for making teens’ lives less stressful and more productive.  For example, who wouldn’t want to know how to use body language to feel more powerful? Or how to help your teen to stop procrastinating?
2. Find out what’s happening under the adult radar. My 15-year-old has only heard the sound of a dial-up modem because he clicked on link from Buzzfeed. It’s scary to think of what our teens don’t know about—but even scarier to think of what they know and adults are still figuring out! At TeenBeing, we’re keeping up with (and explaining) all of the newest apps and shocking digital trends (have you heard about cyber-hitch hiking?) and sharing the facts about the little-known substances that are suddenly making headlines.
3. Discover great healthy recipes. We’re not all gloom and doom over here. Our Monday Munchies series shares nutrient-packed yummy ideas for meals that your teens can make themselves.
4. Get the latest anti-bullying developments and news. From cool ways to teach teens about bullying to coverage of how communities around the country are handling these difficult issues, we’re toplining the latest tools and dedicated experts.
5. Watch the Best. Explainer-video. Ever. On how to read nutrition labels—not to brag or anything, but we watched a lot of confusing, snooze-y videos… until we realized the teens of America deserve better and made our own.
6. Help your teens make the best Choices. Our magazine isn’t only for health and life skills teachers to hand out in the classroom. All middle and high school students need deeply researched, compellingly written stories about how to navigate their lives in a healthy, spirited, kind way. We’re hoping that TeenBeing will help more people discover Choices magazine.

So become a part of our community by visiting, commenting, sharing, and contributing to TeenBeing! We can’t wait to see you there.

Judy Goldberg, Executive Editor, Choices Magazine

 

Do you have a Star Reader in your life? Scholastic is celebrating readers from Pre-K through Middle School by featuring Star Readers in the print flyers, which are distributed to millions of classrooms and families each month! (You may remember, the flyers were recently redesigned to make it easier than ever for parents to find books tailored to their child’s interests and reading level.)

It’s easy to nominate the reader in your life for the Star Reader Sweepstakes. Parents and teachers can log on to scholastic.com/starreader and share what makes their students Star Readers. Each month through December, we’ll be randomly selecting one Star Reader from each grade who will be featured in print flyers in the spring. They could also win a specially selected ten-book library.

It’s a great chance for students of all ages to inspire their classmates, along with readers across the country, by sharing their enthusiasm and love for reading. All submissions will be featured on the gallery at Scholastic.com/StarReader and will include: child’s first name, grade, state, reason they are a Star Reader, and image (if submitted.)

The deadline to enter for the February flyer is September 30, so start nominating! But if you don’t do it in time, don’t worry – the student will be entered into the March sweepstakes. There is no limit to how many Star Students a parent or teacher can enter. For complete details on how to enter and official rules, visit www.scholastic.com/starreader.

Decades ago, Maurice Sendak felt dismissed by reviewers of "adult" books. They didn't take him seriously. But the brilliant, hilarious, and often cantankerous (apparently with good reason) author and illustrator of children's books came to relish his role.

"Children are the best living audience in the world," Sendak told Leonard S. Marcus, who compiled and edited Show Me a Story!, a collection of 21 interviews with legendary illustrators, including Sendak, Jerry Pinkney and William Steig.

Sendak, who died in 2012 at age 83, cherished kids' honesty and their artless way of getting to the point.

"I love your book. Marry me. Yours truly."

"I hate your book. Die soon. Cordially."

The author's works are currently on display with hundreds of other children's classics at the New York Public Library in "The ABC of It: why children's books matter." The exhibit traces the historical, cultural, and political currents that course through even the most innocent-seeming books.

Scanning the sometimes daring titles made me appreciate all the more the children's librarians who curate—and shield from censors—collections that are akin to delightfully forbidden lands. Back in the 1960s, when child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim denounced Where the Wild Things Are as being too scary for kids, a group of librarians awarded it a Caldecott Medal, thereby launching Sendak's career. For that, they too deserve a medal.

In the office, we're throwing around our favorite quotes about Hermione Granger. What's yours?

"We are off to a great start this year, as schools continue to turn to Scholastic for broad-scale instruction solutions to raise student achievement in the Common Core era," said Scholastic Chairman and CEO Dick Robinson when announcing the Company's first quarter results for Fiscal 2014 this morning. 

The results were largely driven by strong sales of Scholastic’s new education technology programs and guided reading programs. Revenue in the first quarter was $276.3 million, compared to $293.4 million a year ago. Scholastic typically records a loss in its fiscal first quarter, when most U.S. schools are not in session and its school book club and book fair businesses generate minimal revenue.

You can read our complete press release here.

176,438,473. That's how many minutes kids around the world logged this summer in the seventh annual Scholastic Summer Challenge! Open from May 6th to September 6th, 2013, the Summer Challenge program invited kids to log the minutes they spent reading—on behalf of their school or independently—in hopes of beating last year’s reading world record of 95,859,491 minutes. We’re thrilled to announce they surpassed this number just a few weeks after the program began.

This year, approximately 133,000 students from over 4,000 schools participated from every state in the U.S. and from 31 countries around the world, such as Japan, Dubai, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Venezuela, United Kingdom, and China. Nearly 250 schools logged over 100,000 minutes!

There’s a lot to celebrate today as we announce the schools with the most minutes read. Each of these schools will receive a plaque for their acccomplishment and will be listed in the 2014 Scholastic Book of World Records. The #1 school will be vistited by Captain Underpants author, Dav Pilkey!

Congratulations to all of our winners!

#1 school in the Scholastic Summer Challenge:

1. Jackson Elementary School, McAllen, TX, 6,333,482minutes read 

Top 20 Schools: 

1. Jackson Elementary School, McAllen, TX, 6,333,482
2. Sun Valley Elementary School, Monroe, NC, 6,042,663
3. Dovalina Elementary School, Laredo, TX, 5,359,066
4. Liberty Park Elementary School, Greenacres, FL, 4,206,222
5. Hill Intermediate School, Houston, TX, 3,039,434
6. St. Aloysius School, Baton Rouge, LA 2,933,169
7. Odom Elementary School, Houston, TX, 2,771,182
8. Hunter’s Creek Elementary School, Orlando, FL, 2,565,217
9. Flora Ridge Elementary School, Kissimmee, FL, 2,548,754
10. Timber Trace Elementary School, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, 2,288,345
11. Reedy Creek Elementary School, Kissimmee, FL, 2,238,484
12. Rayford Road Intermediate School, Humble, TX, 2,183,113
13. Oakridge Middle School, Clover, SC, 2,122,819
14. Worsham Elementary School, Houston, TX, 1,898,592
15. Newell Elementary School, Allentown, NJ, 1,885,364
16. Coral Reef Elementary School, Lake Worth, FL, 1,673,656
17. Stuart Public School, Stuart, NE, 1,639,619
18. Raymond Academy, Houston, TX, 1,623,279
19. Thompson Elementary School, Houston, TX, 1,604,302
20. Riverview Elementary School, Saratoga Springs, UT, 1,495,565

We're also so proud to share that 42 Governors’ Spouses and three Governors joined the Scholastic Summer Challenge as Reading Ambassadors in an effort to further the message about the importance of summer reading and access to books. 500 books were donated to each Reading Ambassador’s school of choice (for a total of 22,500 books) so that students in their states could take home books and read over summer vacation. We're so grateful for their support and partnership.  

To see the list of the Top 100 schools, visit www.scholastic.com/summer and to read more about the program and top schools, visit our media room.