Scholastic Reads

In 1941, when Yaffa Eliach was six years old, German troops invaded her town in what was then Poland. Most of the Jewish population was rounded up and murdered. Within two days, 900 years of history was sundered. But Yaffa and her family managed to escape. After the war, Yaffa settled in the United States, where she earned a PhD, writing and telling stories about the Holocaust. Yaffa is the subjec...

How can individual members of a community help children flourish in the classroom? One way is through mentoring. Scholastic’s nationwide mentorship program helps students boost their literacy skills while creating meaningful bonds with caring individuals. Our read-aloud mentoring program, which comes with books and teaching guides, is called R.E.A.L. — READ, EXCEL, ACHIEVE, and LEAD. In this episo...

The arrival of the Mayflower in Plimouth in 1620, and the Pilgrims’ feast with Wampanoag Indians a year later, are recalled each November when we celebrate Thanksgiving. But what actually happened at that three-day feast, and how did the narrative change over time? In 2021, host Suzanne McCabe posed those questions to Chris Newell, an award-winning educator and author, and a proud citizen of the P...

We often talk about the joy and power of reading. But how does a child get there? How do they actually learn how to read, to recognize words on a page and make sense of them? In this episode, Dr. Julia B. Lindsey talks with host Suzanne McCabe about the science of reading and how she recommends putting it into practice. Dr. Lindsey is a leading expert on foundational skills and early reading. Her...

In this episode, we’re celebrating Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month with three favorite Scholastic authors. First, Carmen Agra Deedy talks about her extraordinary new picture book, The Children’s Moon. Illustrated by Jim LaMarche, the book is available in both English and Spanish editions. Carmen is a master storyteller who was born in Havana, Cuba, and grew up in Decatur, Georgia. Her acclaimed...

Every September, we celebrate banned books. These are the stories that are so powerful—and so transformative—that some people think others shouldn’t be able to read them. Banning or censoring a book may be done with good intentions, but it ends up limiting access to diverse, often marginalized, voices and deprives readers of important historical information. In this episode, award-winning author A...

In this episode, we’re honoring John Lewis, the civil rights hero and Congressman who died in 2020. The bond that Lewis forged with young Tybre Faw is the subject of a new picture book by best-selling author Andrea Davis Pinkney. Illustrated by Keith Henry Brown, the book is called Because of You, John Lewis: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship. Andrea joins host Suzanne McCabe to talk about...

In this episode, author and illustrator Aaron Blabey talks about the creation of The Bad Guys, his hit book series with Scholastic. The series inspired the 2022 computer-animated film of the same name from DreamWorks Animation. Aaron describes the series, which follows the adventures of a hapless gang of criminal animals who finally do good, as “Tarantino for kids.” The impulse in creating the ser...

In this episode, we’re spotlighting the Scholastic Summer Reading program. Authors Christina Soontornvat, Kwame Mbalia, Tracey West, and Lauren Tarshis join host Suzanne McCabe to introduce the books they will be sharing with young readers this summer. Lauren offers a sneak peek of her upcoming I Survived The Wellington Avalanche, 1910, which is due out in September. Later in the episode, Shane Ga...

In this episode, we’re celebrating Pride Month with Alex Gino. Alex is the acclaimed author of several queer and progressive middle grade novels, including Rick, You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P!, and the newly-released Alice Austen Lived Here. Alex talks with host Suzanne McCabe about Melissa, which was originally published as George in 2015. The novel introduces young readers to a transgender...

In this episode, we honor Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with authors Debbi Michiko Florence and Gita Varadarajan. A former classroom teacher, Debbi is the author of award-winning middle grade novels Keep It Together, Keiko Carter, and Just Be Cool, Jenna Sakai, among several other titles. Debbi is a third-generation Japanese American, who was born in raised in California. She...

During the pandemic, an increasing number of children and adolescents have reported struggling with anxiety and depression. How can we help them process their emotions and get the support they need? In this episode, Dr. Amanda Alexander and Dr. Jose Paez talk with host Suzanne McCabe about the role social and emotional learning (SEL) plays in the classroom and how it can foster the knowledge and s...

In this episode, author and actress Holly Robinson Peete talks about her family’s journey with autism. Holly became a fierce advocate for families like hers after her son R.J. was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Holly and R.J. recently collaborated on a picture book, Charlie Makes a Splash! It tells the story of a boy with autism who finds calm and joy playing in water. In the back of t...

Cultivating Genius, One Stitch at a Time: Bisa Butler and Gholdy Muhammad In this episode, we celebrate Women’s History Month and the power of women to transform our world, one stitch at a time. Host Suzanne McCabe talks with Scholastic Kid Reporter Camille Fallen, 13, about a recent interview she conducted with acclaimed textile artist Bisa Butler and Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, an educator and the auth...

In this episode, author Andrea Davis Pinkney and her husband, illustrator Brian Pinkney, join host Suzanne McCabe to talk about their new picture book: Bright Brown Baby: A Treasury . Andrea and Brian have created dozens of acclaimed books for children, including Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America , Martin Rising: Requiem for a King , and illustrated biographies of Alvin Ailey, Duke E...

In this episode, we’ve made World Read Aloud Day a family affair. Author Tami Charles and her son, Christopher, join host Suzanne McCabe to discuss Tami’s picture book, All Because You Matter, which was named the Best Children’s Book of 2020 by Amazon. Next, author Varian Johnson and his daughters, Savannah and Sydney, read from Varian’s graphic novel, Twins, which was chosen as a top-10 graphic n...

The arrival of the Mayflower in Plimouth in 1620, and the Pilgrims’ feast with Wampanoag Indians a year later, are recalled each November when we celebrate Thanksgiving. But what actually happened at that three-day feast, and how did the narrative change over time? In this episode, host Suzanne McCabe talks with Chris Newell, the author of If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving, a new book f...

Clifford the Big Red Dog first found his home at Scholastic in 1963. His now-famous creator, Norman Bridwell had been rejected by nearly a dozen other children’s publishers. Beatrice de Regniers, then the editor of Scholastic’s Lucky Book Club, took one look at Bridwell’s black-and-white drawings of Clifford and said, “The kids are going to love this!” What made de Regniers so sure that Clifford w...

In this episode, author Tami Charles joins host Suzanne McCabe to talk about her latest book, Muted. The young adult novel in verse introduces readers to three aspiring musicians: Denver, Dali, and Shaq. The gifted Black teens are coping with high school, family, and friends in rural Delaware Valley. The girls get their first big break when they meet Sean “Mercury” Ellis, the undisputed king of R&...

In this episode, we celebrate Hispanic & Latine Heritage Month with some favorite Scholastic authors. First, Sonia Manzano revisits her 2015 memoir, Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx. You may know Sonia as Maria, the beloved character she played on Sesame Street for more than 30 years. Growing up in a struggling Puerto Rican family in the 1950s, Sonia wondered how she could con...

In this episode, award-winning author Alan Gratz discusses the 9/11 attacks and the complicated fallout in the United States and abroad after that fateful day. Alan’s latest book, Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11, helps young readers understand what it was like to be in Lower Manhattan when two airplanes struck the Twin Towers, and how the attacks led to a 20-year war in Afghanistan. Ground Zero featu...

A new school year is upon us, and students are returning to the classroom—some for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic was declared in March 2020. How can educators and families navigate an uncertain landscape? To help everyone get off to a great start, the Yale Child Study Center + Scholastic Collaborative have created “Back to School, Back Together,” an online hub with SEL (Social and...

According to the Scholastic Teacher & Principal School Report, more than 60% of educators notice a learning loss among students—also known as the “summer slide”—at the start of the academic year. Educators overwhelmingly agree that reading books when school is out supports students’ academic success. The Scholastic Summer Reading program was designed to help meet this need. The free, annual in...

In this episode, we celebrate Pride Month with new queer romances by award-winning YA authors Leah Johnson (Rise to the Sun) and Molly Knox Ostertag (The Girl From the Sea). Leah’s best-selling debut novel, You Should See Me in a Crown, is a 2021 Stonewall Honor Book and was the inaugural YA pick for Reese’s Book Club. Leah dedicates Rise to the Sun “to the Black girls who have been told they’re t...

Kelly is the award-winning author of the bestselling Front Desk series for middle-graders. She has won numerous accolades for her work, including the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature. Kelly talks with host Suzanne McCabe about her writing journey and about Room to Dream, the latest title in her wildly popular series about the indomitable Mia Tang. It’s due out September...