Classroom Blog

One  of my favorite movies of all time is the classic “The Wizard of Oz” starring Judy Garland. A memorable scene in the movie for me is when the four new friends enter the Haunted Forest on [...]

Growing up, I always looked forward to the Thanksgiving holiday. It was a time to gather with family and celebrate being thankful for life’s blessings. As I grew older and encountered multiple [...]

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the public library in Hicksville, New York, where I grew up in the years when librarians were revered and where their domains were quiet and benign [...]

One of my greatest joys is getting students excited about reading and writing. As a child, I loved to do both. Starting in first grade, I wrote poems in a marble composition book, and if I wasn’t [...]

Once upon a time… Or, in the world of Alliana, Girl of Dragons, since it has a strong Japanese influence: mukashi, mukashi… Stories begin in interesting ways. For me, it often occurs as a flash [...]

As writer of fiction, I often wonder about the real-world impact of the stories I tell. Sometimes, when I read the news and pause to reflect on the ongoing struggles in so many parts of the [...]

by Christina Soontornvat, author of The Tryout I once heard a teacher tell her students that graphic novels were “dessert” books; meaning, they were light, sweet, and fluffy, and kids should only [...]

When I was a classroom teacher, I hung my students’ names vertically on the back cabinets and under their names, I strung their art projects, essays, pictures, conference goals—whatever we were [...]

Creativity begins with wonder. For my first picture book, Leo + Lea, my wonder began upon meeting a boy who didn’t like stories; he just liked math. As a lover of stories, I was filled with [...]