Author: Jennifer Ryan

With History Smashers: The Underground Railroad. My kids and  I always love when non-fiction text reads with the excitement and page-flippability of fiction. That is part of why we can’t get enough of Messner’s History Smashers series.  I thought that I knew the story of the Underground Railroad. That was, until I read this book.… Continue reading Another Smash Hit for Kate Messner!

by Kashmira Sheth All it takes is that one special series to hook young readers and keep them reading! Own Voices author, Kashmira Sheth brings an engaging and relatable main character to young audiences through the Nina Soni series.  Nina Soni is an American-Indian girl  who is as genuine and lovable as she is completely… Continue reading Nina Soni, Master of the Garden

by Kelly Yang Love is the only vaccine for hate.” I’m an elementary school teacher.  I have three elementary school-aged children of my own. Two years and an eternity into congruent pandemics - a war with a virus and another with racism -  while much of life has resumed “business-as-usual,” my colleagues and I often… Continue reading New From Here

How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball Written by Jen Bryant and illustrated by Frank Morrison Sometimes you have to sit down, to stand up." It’s that time of year again! While fans are glued to their screens, anticipating college basketball wins through their March Madness brackets, elementary schoolers far and wide are elbow deep in picture… Continue reading Above the Rim

by Paddy Donnelly Children are sponges.  From the moment they’re born, they learn through experiencing the world around them with all of their senses. If we were to quantify the amount of new information and skill that young children learn on a daily basis, the number would be staggering.  Why do they learn so much,… Continue reading The Vanishing Lake

by Joseph Bruchac The fifth graders at our little elementary school in suburban New England are in the midst of an immersive poetry unit. Before beginning this unit of study, our 10 and 11 year-olds thought they knew all that poetry had to offer….boy, were they wrong! In recent weeks, our students have engaged in… Continue reading Rez Dogs

by Kate Messner When will the pandemic be over? Will the vaccine give me Covid? Once I’m vaccinated will I still need to wear my mask? How do vaccines work, anyway? Kids all over the country are lining up to get their Covid-19 vaccinations. While adults everywhere hold their breaths, hoping that this will lead… Continue reading History Smashers: Plagues and Pandemics

Monday Written by Lucy Branam Illustrated by Kevin M. Barry Hot off of the presses! Monday, is a newly released picture book that humorously personifies the days of the week. It tells the story of the main character, Monday, who, as everyone knows, is the worst day of the week. Monday envies every other day… Continue reading An Interview with the Illustrator

Featuring Your Name is a Song Written by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow and illustrated by Luisa Uribe Perhaps you’ve been a student in a classroom when attendance is taken and the teacher trips over the pronunciation of your name. Or maybe you’ve experienced new friends who avoid saying your name completely, out of fear that they will… Continue reading Honoring Our Names

by James Patterson and Kwame Alexander When my ten-year old son came home from his school book fair with Becoming Muhammed Ali, by James Patterson and Kwame Alexander, he had no idea that he was about to become immersed in Alexander’s poignant poetry and Patterson’s powerful prose. Never having read a novel in verse before,… Continue reading Becoming Muhammed Ali

Like many educators, I look forward to summer not just as a time to rejuvenate and recharge, but as a chance to learn and grow by reading all of the texts that I didn’t have time to get to during the school year. This summer, my professional text stack is quite tall as we are… Continue reading Digging into that Summer Stack!

Featuring Measuring Up by Lily Lamotte and Illustrated by Ann Xu Immersing our children in diverse literature is on the forefront of many of our minds. We fill our classroom libraries and family bookshelves with stories that feature heterogeneous arrays of main characters. All diverse books, however, are not created equal. In a commitment to… Continue reading Honoring Own Voices Literature

Written by Silvia Lopez and Illustrated by Pablo Pino Many of us remember reading the Japanese folktale, Tikki Tikki Tembo when we were younger. Pacho Nacho is a slide-splitting story about what’s in a name, that mirrors this classic tale. Cuban-born author, Silvia Lopez brings humor to this story of family, community, and the importance… Continue reading Pacho Nacho

Featuring The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World’s Coral Reefs Written by Kate Messner Illustrated by Matthew Forsythe It starts with one..." If your school, or your child’s school, is like most, literacy is developed through instruction and immersion in three main genres and their related subgenres: narrative, informational, and opinion. As readers, children ascend through… Continue reading Harnessing Curiosity to Grow Literacy and to Change the World

Featuring Bo the Brave, by Bethan Woollvin   Read Them Again...And Again Featuring Bo the Brave, by Bethan Woollvin Are you a parent who has ever said to your child; You seriously want to read that book again? You’ve read it 1,000 times!! Or, maybe you’re a teacher who has been told by another teacher;… Continue reading Read Them Again…And Again…And Again

by Sili Recio, illustrated by Brianna McCarthy "If Dominican were a color, it would be the sunset in the sky, blazing red and burning bright. If Dominican were a color, it’d be the roar of the ocean in the deep of the night, With the moon beaming down rays of sheer delight.”    If Dominican… Continue reading If Dominican Were A Color

by Remy Lai Pie In The Sky, by Remi Lai has been one of the greatest additions to our school’s book room in recent years. Pie In The Sky is the story of a boy’s journey from his former life in China to a brand new life in Australia, following the sudden death of his… Continue reading Pie In The Sky

How many times in the last year have you heard people say, “Ugh! 2020!”?  Many of us feel like 2020 has dealt us one tsunami after another and our personal shorelines are eroding rapidly. Though I am ready for 2020 to end as much as the next person, as a writing teacher, I recognize that… Continue reading Using Silver Linings As Ideas for Stories

Get out the Vote!  Kate Messner’s History Smashers: Women’s Right to Vote,  illustrated by Dylan Meconis, is an inspiring and timely history of the centuries of struggle that women waged to vote in America. History Smashers: Women's Right to Vote - Written by Kate Messner and Illustrated by Dylan Meconis When we think of the… Continue reading History Smashers: Women’s Right To Vote

bOOKS AS mIRRORS AND wINDOWS Dr. Rudine Simms Bishop, in her 1990 article, wrote about the importance of literature as “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors.” Our students come to us during this unique year, in the midst of two pandemics; a global health crisis and the urgent battle to dismantle systemic racism. As we… Continue reading Launching Readers Workshop with Books as Mirrors and Windows

"So maybe it isn't the fewest mistakes that wins. Maybe it's having the courage to take that next step--even at the risk of making a mistake."

I’m sure that many of you felt that this summer’s vacation would never arrive. Parents and teachers alike have just completed the complicated dance of balancing teaching and parenting their children and sustaining work from home. Now that summer is here, it’s important to step back, slow down, and unplug. There is one type of… Continue reading Unpacking Identity

by Kat Zhang & illustrated by Charlene Chua Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao is a zesty story about the perfect recipe for perseverance. Chinese-American Amy Wu loves her family tradition of making bao together almost as much as she loves eating them. Amy becomes frustrated when she struggles to make bao that look as… Continue reading Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao

by Kheryn Challender No one would ever say, "Come and join us, Caroline," so I would then spend the rest of the lunch period feeling sorry for myself and trying to remember that the lonely children like me are the ones who grow up to be someone that everyone wishes they could be.” Hurricane Child… Continue reading Hurricane Child

By Sydney Smith  “I know what it’s like to be small in the city”, “The streets are always busy. It can make your brain feel like there’s too much stuff in it.”  Small in the City, written and illustrated by Sydney Smith, is a beautiful narrative picture book about, what at first seems to be… Continue reading Small In The City

by Stacy McAnulty and Illustrated by David Litchfield Hi! I’m Earth! But you can call me Planet Awesome. Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years, tells the autobiographical story of Earth’s history, from the beginning of time to the present. This text takes you on a walk through geologic time from the perspective of Earth, herself.… Continue reading Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years

“If everyone decided nothing could change, nothing ever would.” As fifth graders’ worldview begins to expand, they start to understand that the things that they might take for granted are treasures to children in other parts of the world. Amal Unbound, by Aisha Saeed is a beautiful story that demonstrates how our perspectives are shaped… Continue reading Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed

We are all interconnected. Towers Falling, by Jewell Parker Rhodes brilliantly brings this message of societal interconnectedness to life as main character, Deja Barnes uncovers her  community’s and family’s history.  Fifth grader, Deja, is new to school. Deja’s family of five lives in a one room apartment in a homeless shelter in Brooklyn. As Deja… Continue reading Towers Falling By Jewell Parker Rhodes

Much like Brown Girl Dreaming, Jaqueline Woodson’s ability to weave together challenging, yet relevant story lines with subtle imagery and graceful, melodic language does not fall short in her 2018 novel, Harbor Me.This is an important story for adults (particularly teachers) and older students alike, as it reminds readers that each child has defining layers… Continue reading Harbor Me