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Author Guest Post: “Friendship in Schools” by Arleen McCarthy, Author of My Friend John

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“Friendship in Schools”

When we think of the word “friend,” we think of so many different people. We think of friends we grew up with, friends we went to college with, friends we know through our children, and friends we work with. But are they all really “friends?”

When I was younger, I would use this word a lot, but the older I get, the more selective I am with it. I think life teaches you that. 

But what if we learned what a friend is early on? What if we learned this valuable definition in elementary school? Would we be different as adults? Would our world be better?

I believe the answer is yes. We may not have a lot of friends, but I bet we would have good ones.

In my book, MY FRIEND JOHN, I wanted to easily convey to young readers that friends make you feel good. Friends make you feel safe. There are no judgments with friends, no whispers of envy, no passive aggressive comments–just advice, listening, acceptance, laughter, warm hugs, and a lot of love. This is what I know for sure, and this is so valuable to know as a child.

But how often have children and adults been hurt by their friends? If we, as humans “felt” our way through friendships, our friend list might decrease but the value of it would increase and we’d be much happier in the long-run.

In MY FRIEND JOHN, a young boy named John, who has Tourette Syndrome, starts at a new school. As he faces bullying, his new friend, Emma, stands up for him and educates herself and others on neurodiversity. 

When I think of Bella, I think about the kind of person she is: She did not judge her new classmate. Instead, she embraced a new student because she was kind, and even though he appeared very different from her, she wanted to be his friend. 

This was exactly what John needed. This is what we all need in life, especially children and especially children with disabilities. If more children were like Bella, our world would be a better place. John’s experience at his new school would not have been as pleasant if Bella had not taken the time to stand up for him. But the transformative power of human connection causes us to feel empowered and resilient.

How many times as an adult have you heard someone make fun of someone else? How many times have you seen people leave mean comments on social media posts? How many times have you heard gossiping? Why is this acceptable behavior? Where did we learn this from?

Life can be so hard at times, and we all need genuine friends to get us through it. I believe if children realize the true meaning of friendship and its connection to kindness, they would be able to make better choices.

When I think of my own experiences as a child and the moments I felt left out, it felt awful. I remember one time while I was in high school, I was walking home from the bus stop with a friend. I asked her if she wanted to do something that night as it was a Friday. She said she had already made plans with another friend, and they were going to a party. Why didn’t she just invite me? I never understood it. I remember feeling so sad. It felt terrible not to be included. 

And yet, Monday morning, I continued to be her friend.

Why do children and adults accept this behavior from their “friends?”

We all need human connection. We all need love. And we need to have this message conveyed to children, so they have the knowledge and understanding to make better choices when it comes to choosing friends. 

I feel this is especially important for our children with disabilities. We need more people to see past a disability. We need more people embracing diversity. We need more people like Bella.

Life is hard even without a disability…imagine living with one…imagine being a child living with one. 

But now just imagine being at a party where there were people with and without disabilities. Everyone is laughing and everyone is having fun. Everyone feels safe and everyone feels happy. Everyone is included.

I want to be at that kind of party.

What is a friend? A friend is someone who makes you feel good. A friend is someone who makes you feel safe.

Published November 8th, 2024 by Austin Macauley Publishers

About the Book: Meet John, a remarkable new student at The Huckleberry School. John’s life takes a heartwarming turn when he befriends a sweet little girl named Bella. Everything seems to be going smoothly for him, until a challenging situation resurfaces, shaking the foundations of his world. 

In My Friend John, we are invited to witness a touching journey which explores not only the essence of friendship but also the profound qualities of kindness and leadership. This poignant tale serves as a powerful reminder of the resilience within us all and the transformative power of genuine connection.

About the Author: Arleen McCarthy teaches at a public school in New York City and has always been passionate about making the world a better place. She grew up with two brothers with special needs and saw first-hand the struggles they endured while they were in school. Arleen, her husband, and their dog live in New York and divide their time between Manhattan and Westchester.

Thank you, Arleen, for this look and lesson about friendships in schools!

Author Guest Post: “Using Storytelling to Flip the Script on our Fears” by Adam Rosenbaum, Author of The Ghost Rules

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“Using Storytelling to Flip the Script on our Fears”

I used to be afraid of sharks when I was a kid. Like, really afraid. And maybe still am? Okay, that’s a lie. I am definitely, 100% still afraid of sharks, across the board, all the time. I blame a way too early viewing of JAWS and a wildly active imagination. But instead of facing my fears head-on back in the day, I am now an adult with children of my own who won’t venture more than a few feet into the ocean because a 30-foot great white shark might pop out of the depths and turn me into a morning snack.

There are so many amazing ways to help kids face their fears. And while I am by no means an expert on emotional health (see: my inability to swim in an ocean), I’d like to throw out a suggestion that might help some kids view their fears from a different angle. And it involves a little creativity!

My debut Middle Grade novel, The Ghost Rules, is about a boy named Elwood who can see ghosts. But in my book, ghosts aren’t scary at all. They aren’t haunting the living or terrifying children at night. My ghosts are goofy and annoying and drool a lot and are kind of obsessed with coffee. I took another fear of mine from when I was a kid (I was an anxious child, believe it or not), put a funny spin on it, and built a story around it.

Which is exactly what you can do!

I’ve brought this simple exercise into schools and nonprofits and have been blown away at the creativity and vulnerability of the kids who participate. Not only do some of the kids genuinely confront their fears, they also end up revealing those fears to one another before turning what they’re afraid of into something a little less scary.

If that sounds like something that could be valuable, here are some suggestions for how you can encourage the kids in your life to face their fears through storytelling:

1) IDENTIFY A FEAR

Some kids are MORE THAN happy to share their fears. Other kids have kept those fears bottled up for so long that to even utter them out loud is too much. So I usually say, “Let’s pick something that can be scary. It doesn’t have to be your own fear. Maybe it’s something your little brother or sister is afraid of, or something you used to be afraid of.” And I usually give my fear of sharks as an example to kick things off.

2) FIND A WAY TO MAKE IT SILLY

For The Ghost Rules, I made my ghosts bumbling, forgetful, and covered in ghost drool. To extend my shark example, I ask the kids how we can make something like a shark a little less scary. The ideas they’ve come up with have been so fun and imaginative: a shark who can’t see underwater and needs glasses, or a shark that only wants to eat pickles.

The opportunities here for fun, creative discussion are endless.

3) BUILD A STORY

When crafting a story with kids, I narrow it down to 3 basic things: a main character, a problem, how the main character overcomes that problem.

Sometimes they build a story together in smaller groups, sometimes the kids want to go off on their own and write and illustrate by themselves.

4) SHARE OUR STORIES

The best part of the whole exercise is when we come back together to share our stories, and the kids reveal what fear they chose (individually or as a group) and how they made it goofy. I give extra points to the kids who also illustrate their stories.

To state the obvious, I doubt any child walks away completely changed and fear-free. But it’s pretty amazing to see a kid smile and laugh as they’re talking about something that just minutes earlier had made their voice quiver.

And hopefully it’s a good first step toward their own emotional health so they avoid turning into a 40-something who still can’t swim in the ocean.

Published August 13th, 2024 by Holiday House for Young Readers

About the Book: Twelve-year-old Elwood McGee never asked to have “ghost-sight,” and it involves a lot more drool-dodging than he expected. Ghosts are the WORST—and they’re all over the place in this sharp-witted middle grade debut novel.

Did you know that ghosts love coffee? They’re not trying to be scary. They’re just deprived of an appropriate amount of caffeine! They also bump into things by accident, are occasionally nosy, and get a little nervous when they’re seen by the living.

Elwood McGee knows these ghost facts because he’s one of those rare people with the gift of ghost-sight. And it turns out ghosts are everywhere! Especially in the small Tennessee town where Elwood and his family had to move following the death of his big brother Noah, which Elwood thinks was his fault.

Once Elwood figures out he can see ghosts, he becomes single-mindedly determined to use his powers to see Noah and talk to him once last time. With the help of two girls who live on his street, Elwood embarks on a journey through the surprisingly funny world of ghosts and faces the realities of letting go.

At once hilarious and heart wrenching, Adam Rosenbaum makes his middle grade debut with a supernaturalish novel about grief that’s perfect for fans of Gordon Korman and Dan Gutman.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Thank you, Adam, for this exercise to use with students to face fears and do some writing!

Author Guest Post: “Why Nature is the Best Classroom” by Jill Neimark, Author of Forest Joy & Nature Explorers

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“Why Nature is the Best Classroom”

On a crisp autumn afternoon last week at Naturally Nurtured Nature School here in Macon, Georgia, I held two sugar gliders—small, nocturnal, gliding animals that look similar to flying squirrels. They peeped out from a soft fleece ‘bag’, gazing up at me with enormous and curious eyes. The kids gathered round, oohing and aahing. We each got to commune with these exotic creatures, and talk about how, at this very moment, similar flying squirrels were sleeping in the trees and waiting for night to hunt for food. The children had lots of questions and comments. “It was so cool!” “The sugar glider tickled when it crawled on me.” “How far can they fly?”

It all happened because the school’s owner, Dawn Willis, and I were planning a class for the kids from my new STEAM activity book, Nature Explorers: Outdoor Activity Book for Kids (Blue Jasper Editions, 2023). We were discussing one of the most basic outdoor activities kids can do, almost anywhere. It’s a kind of gold standard for forest schools. And that is to sit down with a tree and make it your ‘friend’, observing it closely, sketching it, writing down all its features, even decorating it with your own handmade art.

In the book, I had added a storytelling prompt to help the kids with language arts: imagine you’re a flying squirrel named Tom, living in a tree and hunting by night. My book gave the kids a few facts (the squirrels can glide as far as a football field; they can pivot in midair; they huddle in groups to keep warm, they even cuddle with owls sometimes). In a group setting, kids were to gather after a session with their tree friend, and tell a group story about Tom the flying squirrel.

Dawn, ever resourceful, said, “I’ve got a surprise for you!” and ran off to get her two pet sugar gliders, rescued four years earlier. Yes, Dawn has sugar gliders, among many other creatures, from bunnies to frogs to horses.

That led us all to a discussion about what humans can learn from gliding or flying creatures and how creatures like sugar gliders have influenced human flight systems. Just as sugar gliders spread their limbs and use their “patagia” (the flap of skin that stretches between their limbs) to catch air currents, modern aircraft use flaps and winglets to control lift and stability, helping to reduce drag and improve efficiency. Next day’s lesson and activity: design a paper helicopter, and collect different seeds to see how they are designed to ‘fly’ on the wind.

Forest schools like Dawn’s, where learning takes place almost entirely outdoors, are increasingly popular across the globe. And here in the USA, there were over 800 nature-based schools as of 2022. Their popularity is driven by parental concerns over excess screen time, as well as recognition of the benefits of nature-based play. Children today are spending more time inside and on screens than ever before. Studies show that the average kid now spends an average of 7 hours per day on screens, and outdoor playtime has declined by 50% over the last few decades. Many parents want to change that. There are nature pre-schools and forest schools in almost every state now.

Even when kids don’t attend forest school full time, homeschooling parents may send them to a day or two of forest school every week. As of 2023, an estimated 3.7 million students in the U.S. were being homeschooled. Homeschooling parents are often deeply invested in providing their children with diverse learning opportunities, and outdoor play and nature-based education are key components of many homeschool curriculums. According to a 2021 study by Homeschool.com, 72% of homeschooling families reported that spending time outdoors and engaging in nature-based activities were essential parts of their educational plans. These families recognize that outdoor learning enhances academic skills, physical health, and emotional well-being.

That’s why I started my own children’s imprint, Blue Jasper Editions, and wrote Forest Joy (a picture book on mindfulness in nature) and Nature Explorers (an outdoor activity book focused on STEAM skills), to join in this growing movement to help kids enjoy cross-disciplinary learning and life skills while immersed in nature.

My books join some towering classics in the field, such as Play The Forest School Way and the related series of books, by Jane Worroll & Peter Houghton. These books, which come out of Great Britain and are aimed at middle grade and older kids, give detailed instructions on activities in the ‘bush’, along with instructive line drawings (there are 5 copies in my state’s library system, and they are always checked out).

­­Even the recent Caldecott award-winning picture book Watercress, by Andrea Wang, illustrated gorgeously by Jason Chin, is an homage to the intersection of nature and culture, weaving plants in with identity. In the story, while driving through Ohio in an old Pontiac, a young girl’s Chinese immigrant parents see watercress growing wild by the side of the road, and decide to forage it, cook it, and in that way weave their new world with their old traditions.

Connecting with Nature to Learn and Thrive

When children step outside and immerse themselves in nature, they’re not just playing—they’re learning. Nature offers an endless classroom filled with hands-on activities that stimulate curiosity, self-regulation, adventure and joy. Through outdoor activities, kids can engage in science, language arts, history, and hone their social and emotional skills, all while exploring the world around them. And in play they can connect and develop social competency as well. It’s just easier to bond, to learn to share, when you’re foraging, building, exploring in nature. Nothing substitutes for experience! Learning about flight is one thing. Classroom learning will never match actually holding a sugar glider, learning about its anatomy and how it glides on air currents, examining seeds to see how they utilize wind currents, and building your own paper helicopter.

Here are a few very simple activities from my books you can easily do with your kids or students to get started:

  1. Take a slow, sensory nature walk. Take children on a sensory walk in the woods or your backyard. Ask them to close their eyes and describe the sounds they hear—rustling leaves, chirping birds, the wind in the trees. Ask them to use a magnifying glass to examine seeds, leaves, flowers, and pine cones, anything they find. Ask them to stand still and smell the air and describe it. Afterward, invite them to draw or write about how it all made them feel. This activity helps kids center themselves and practice mindfulness.
  2. Collect leaves, and then examine the leaf veins and stomata under the glass. This can be a jumping off point for teaching kids about stomata (pores in leaves), transpiration (did you know trees are constantly moving water up through their roots, trunks, branches, and out their leaves?), and many more activities explained in Nature Explorers. You can then make leaf skeletons with your kids (there are many step by step instructions to be found online, as well as in my book). Then talk about insect skeletons, mammal skeletons, and plant “skeletons”. What do they have in common? What is unique in each? I have some illustrations in the book, but there are many on the internet as well.
  3. Start a phenology wheel. A phenology wheel is a wonderful way for children to engage with nature and learn about the changing seasons. It’s a circular calendar that tracks natural events, such as plant growth, animal activity, or weather patterns, throughout the year. To get started, get a nature journal and some colored pencils and chalk for your child. Encourage your child to pick a tree or place in the front or back yard, and to observe and record the environment around them every week or month—whether it’s the blooming of flowers, the falling of leaves, the arrival of migratory birds, or the color changes in the landscape. They should record temperature, weather, their own feelings, and sketch what they see as well. As you fill in the wheel together, your child will begin to notice the cyclical nature of life, deepening their connection to the natural world. This hands-on project is not only educational but also fosters mindfulness and curiosity about the environment.
  4. Create a dreamcatcher. Creating a dreamcatcher from a paper plate is a fun and simple craft that can teach children about different cultural traditions while developing their fine motor skills. Start by cutting out the center of a paper plate, leaving the outer ring intact. Punch small holes evenly around the edge of the plate and have your child weave yarn or string across the circle, looping it through the holes to create a web-like pattern. For added decoration, tie colorful feathers and beads to the bottom of the dreamcatcher. You can hang the finished dreamcatcher above your child’s bed or in a window as a creative way to introduce them to the Native American tradition of dreamcatchers, believed to catch bad dreams and let good ones pass through. At forest school, Dawn works with the kids to make dreamcatchers out of vines they collect from wooded areas and weave together. If you’re feeling inspired, you can do the same with your child. The circular nature of the dreamcatcher can lead you into discussions of geometry, sundials and many other areas for exploring science, culture, history and art.
    • Unleashing Readers note: Please make sure to build this foundation around indigenous folks and honoring their beliefs and traditions.
  1. Hold a tea ceremony in nature. Spread a blanket, gather a group of children, and hold a tea ceremony. While drinking tea and perhaps eating some tasty treats, think of ways to thank the sky, trees, flowers, rivers, and earth for all they give. When the tea ceremony is over, pour the last little bit of tea into the earth and say together, “Thank you trees. Thank you sky. Thank you earth. Thank you, green good world.”

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(illustration from Forest Joy)

The Power of Outdoor Learning

By encouraging kids to spend more time outdoors, we can help them cultivate the tools they need to thrive in an increasingly busy, digital world.

Students who participate in cross-disciplinary learning activities show improved problem-solving skills and higher engagement levels. By linking different subjects, such as having kids learn about seed dispersal while practicing engineering principles through the design of paper planes, they not only deepen their understanding but also enjoy the process. This engagement makes learning more enjoyable and can lead to long-term retention of the skills they acquire.

Parents value how outdoor education promotes active, hands-on learning that engages children in subjects like science, math, and language arts in ways that traditional indoor classrooms may not. And for those whose kids are happy in standard schools, or who don’t have the extra funds or time to add in a few days of forest school every week, books like Forest Joy and Nature Explorers offer an accessible way for families to integrate nature-based activities into a solid curriculum, helping their children develop essential skills while fostering a deeper connection with the natural world.

You can purchase either one of my books here on Amazon:

Forest Joy: https://mybook.to/jSfWIIO

Nature Explorers: https://mybook.to/beEaeQe

About the Author: Gillian (Jill) Neimark is an author of adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction, as well as a prolific science journalist. She has published poetry, essays and reviews in numerous literary magazines. Her picture book, The Hugging Tree (Magination Press) is a bestseller and was selected by University of Michigan’s First Great Eight Program for their environmental stewardship module. To read more about her you can access her website: https://www.jillneimark.com and to read more about her new children’s imprint, visit https://www.bluejaspereditions.com

Thank you, Jill, for sharing all of these fun ways to bring the classroom to nature!

Author Guest Post: “Classic Remixes: On Learning to Appreciate Jane Austen” by Tirzah Price, Author of In Want of a Suspect

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“Classic Remixes: On Learning to Appreciate Jane Austen”

I have a confession to make: My first encounter with the work of Jane Austen was not with any of her books, but with the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Maybe it’s because I am now a writer, but this fact often elicits shock and occasionally horror when people learn that I first fell in love not with Jane Austen’s words on the page, but with (gasp) a TV series.

However, I am not at all embarrassed to admit this! I can still remember spending a rainy day at a friend’s house sometime in the sixth or seventh grade, and her mom pulling out a box set and introducing me and my friend to Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, as played by Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. We watched two episodes (on VHS tape because yes, I am that old) before I had to go home. I begged my mom to take me to the library so I could check out the rest and see how it ended.

From there, I watched Emma (the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow version), and of course the incredible Sense and Sensibility, starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, as well as the 1999 Mansfield Park. I don’t think that I put two and two together that all of these period movies and shows that I brought to every sleepover were, you know, written by the same person until a couple of years later, when I first attempted to read Pride and Prejudice. (It did not go well–there was much skipping around.) From there, I muddled my way through Emma, and then got about twenty-five pages into Sense and Sensibility before giving up. The prose was dense, there wasn’t nearly as much dialogue as I’d have liked, and Austen spent an awful lot of time summarizing scenes that I’d rather watch unfold on the screen.

I wouldn’t pick up any of Austen’s work for another four years.

In the meantime, I continued to seek out adaptations. I saw Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Bennet in theaters. I fell in love with Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood retelling with exciting singing and dance numbers. I read YA Austen retellings and Austen adjacent books, such as Austenland by Shannon Hale. Sometimes, I struggled with feeling like I wasn’t a “true” fan because I enjoyed adaptations more than the source material.

I was in college before I attempted to read another Austen novel, and this time it clicked. With an ingrained knowledge and appreciation for Austen’s stories and characters, as well as the reading stamina that I honed over years of reading novels that didn’t intimidate me, I actually loved the Austen novels I picked up. I had a better understanding of the Regency period and the social commentary, and that allowed me to laugh at the humor and get swept up in the romance. And with every reading since, I only fall more in love with Austen’s writing and her distinct outlook on social class and society. I appreciate her much more now, as an adult, than I did as a young teen. But without the adaptations and retellings that I consumed by the bucketful from ages 11-18, I’m not sure I ever would have been the Austen fan I am today.

For this reason, I don’t get upset or offended when readers sheepishly tell me that they’ve never read any of Austen’s work, and it’s why when I set out to write my first novel, Pride and Premeditation, it was very important to me to write a satisfying retelling that could also stand on its own, especially for younger readers who might not have had the chance or have the inclination to pick up a more challenging classic. My version is, admittedly, a bit unconventional as I mash up Austen’s classic characters with a murder mystery plot, but it is exactly the sort of thing I would have inhaled at age 13, and I had a lot of fun writing it, even as I worried about whether or not it would find an audience beyond Austenites.

Luckily for me, I needn’t have worried and I am delighted every time I get a note from a reader telling me that they enjoyed my books. More often than not, this is also followed by an admission that they’ve never read the original classic. And that is okay with me. Not every teen is going to gravitate toward the classics just because they’re classics. (Heck, not every adult reader wants to read the classics!) Retellings pique readers’ interest with fun and approachable twists on the classic stories, and especially for younger readers, they give them the confidence and framework to perhaps pick up the original classic someday. I’d even go so far as to say that genre mashups of classics and fresh retellings are what keep those classics relevant and talked about–not necessarily assigning them in high school English class.

I’ve seen the retellings to classics pipeline play out in real life, too. When I was a teen librarian, a few years before my first book was released, I ran a teen book club. We picked the book A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro, a fantastic gender-bent retelling of Sherlock Holmes. Most of my teens had never even read Sherlock Holmes before, and at least one didn’t know the legendary character at all. But they all enjoyed that book, and at the end of the session, a few of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books were checked out of the collection. That wasn’t my end goal, but it was satisfying nonetheless.

And similarly, now that I have my own classic retelling series out in the world, I hope that teen readers pick it up because they’re intrigued by the premise and curious about the plot and characters. I hope the idea of a genre mashup gives them a thrill, and that it sparks an interest that wasn’t there previously. Because no matter how you come to these characters, whether it’s through a YouTube webseries or a musical or a YA novel, we can all agree on one thing: Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are a pretty iconic couple.

Published November 12th, 2024 by HarperCollins

About the Book: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that London’s first female solicitor in possession of the details of a deadly crime, must be in want of a suspect.

The tenacious Lizzie Bennet has earned her place at Longbourn, her father’s law firm. Her work keeps her busy, but luckily she often has help from (and steals occasional kisses with) Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, a stern but secretly soft-hearted solicitor at Pemberley.

Lizzie is hired to investigate a deadly warehouse fire, and to find the mysterious woman who was spotted at the scene moments before the flames took hold. But when the case leads her to the sitting room of a woman Darcy once proposed marriage to, the delicate balance between personal and professional in their relationship is threatened.

Questions of the future are cast aside when the prime suspect is murdered and Lizzie’s own life is threatened. As the body count rises, and their suspicions about what was really going on in the warehouse grow, the pressure is on for Lizzie and Darcy to uncover the truth.

Lizzie and Darcy are back for more suspense, danger, and romance in this first in a duology spinoff of the Jane Austen Murder Mysteries!

About the Author: Tirzah Price grew up on a farm in Michigan, where she read every book she could get her hands on and never outgrew her love for YA fiction. She holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and is a former bookseller and librarian. Now, she’s a senior contributing editor at Book Riot, and co-host of the Hey YA podcast. When she’s not writing, reading, or thinking about YA books, she splits her time between experimenting in the kitchen and knitting enough socks to last through winter. She lives in Iowa.

Thank you, Tirzah, for sharing the resurgence of the love of Austen with us!

Author Guest Post: “Fostering Empathy in Kids Through Literature” by Claire Swinarski, Author of Take it From the Top

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“Fostering Empathy Through Literature”

Most kids are, by their nature, self-centered. This is developmentally appropriate: after all, they’re learning who they are and building up their self-esteem. Children should be focused on themselves. Think of babies, who will happily ruin a wedding or concert by screaming simply because they’re hungry or uncomfortable. Their entire world is their needs and desires.

We do not, however, want kids to stay that way. A large part of growing into an adult is recognizing that there’s an entire world that exists outside of yourself, and that your viewpoint is not the be-all-end-all of a given situation.

That said, teaching empathy is one of the most difficult tasks of a parent, teacher, or caregiver. But luckily, one of the easiest tools at our disposal is a robust reading list.

In my latest novel, Take It from the Top, kids are able to see the exact same events from two different perspectives. Eowyn, who comes from a one-parent household filled with both grief and financial resources, experiences things very differently than Jules, who comes from a family that’s short on cash but rich in affection and affirmation. These two have done what children are so good at doing: looking past differences in order to create a friendship based on love, joy, and common interests. But, at the ripe age of thirteen, as they transition from being children to being young adults, those differences are feeling starker and heavier.

How do books like Take It from the Top help form empathy in kids?

  • Books give kids a safe space to discuss complicated topics. Within stories, kids are able to ask questions that might otherwise feel awkward. They can see the missteps of certain characters—like how Jules struggles to understand Eowyn’s grief, or how Eowyn misinterprets Jules’s envy—and learn from them without making them on their own. So many topics these days are heated and we require perfection in conversations. But kids are imperfect, just like us! They need time and space to learn about issues and form their opinions.
  • Books help kids see themselves. Take It from the Top takes place at a summer camp for musical theater. Will most kids go to a summer camp for musical theater? No. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be in positions where they’re competing with friends, or feeling left out of friend groups, or being disappointed by their own lack of skills in any given department. They can identify problems within books, helping to illuminate these problems in their own lives. By understanding themselves better, they can better regulate their emotional responses.
  • Books help kids explore perspectives they’re unfamiliar with. Kids are laser-focused on their own lives because at their young age, that’s all they’ve really known. Depending on their circumstances, they may be surrounded by a wide diversity of thoughts and experiences, but they may not be. Books allow kids to experience things from different points of view and understand what it’s like for kids that are radically different from themselves.
  • Books fill kids’ hearts with hope. Lastly, any good middle grade book should point kids towards hope. That doesn’t always mean a happy ending—it’s not a spoiler alert to say that Jules doesn’t win the lottery at the end of Take It from the Top, and Eowyn’s mom doesn’t suddenly come back to life. Grief and hardship are real, and kids know that. But what they need to be reminded of is that they can handle grief and hardship. They can be equipped with virtue and courage so that these difficulties become manageable burdens, not all-consuming difficulties. It’s impossible to have empathy without hope for connection.

By reading and discussing books like Take It from the Top, kids can grow in empathy and begin the complicated process of moving from me to we.

Published November 19th, 2024 by Quill Tree Books

About the Book: Set at a camp over the course of six summers, this novel dives into the falling-out of two girls from different backgrounds who thought they’d be friends forever. Claire Swinarski, Edgar Award nominee of the ALA Notable What Happened to Rachel Riley?, tackles privilege, perspective, and the power of friendship in this page-turning puzzle that readers will devour.

Eowyn Becker has waited all year to attend her sixth summer at Lamplighter Lake Summer Camp. Here, she’s not in the shadow of her Broadway-star older brother; she’s a stellar performer in her own right. Here, the pain of her mom’s death can’t reach her, and she gets to reunite with her best friend, Jules Marrigan—the only person in the world who understands her.

But when she gets to camp, everything seems wrong. The best-friend reunion Eowyn had been dreaming of doesn’t go as planned. Jules will barely even look at Eowyn, let alone talk to her, and Eowyn has no idea why.

Well, maybe she does…

There are two sides to every story, and if you want to understand this one, you’ll need to hear both. Told in a series of alternating chapters that dip back to past summers, the girls’ story will soon reveal how Eowyn and Jules went from being best friends to fierce foils. Can they mend ways before the curtains close on what was supposed to be the best summer of their lives?

About the Author: Claire Swinarski is the author of multiple books for both kids and adults. Her writing has been featured in the Washington Post, Seventeen, Milwaukee magazine, and many other publications. She lives in small-town Wisconsin with her husband and three kids, where she writes books, wears babies, and wrangles bread dough.

Thank you, Claire, for supporting our belief that books are the key to empathy!

Author Guest Post: “Heroes: One Size Does Not Fit” by Karl Fields, Author of The Accidental Warriors

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“Heroes: One Size Does Not Fit”

All It’s been said that there are no new ideas in literature, just new takes on existing ones. Some of our most beloved stories borrow heavily from their predecessors. For example, long before Harry Potter there was “The Sword In the Stone,” which tells the story of Britain’s King Arthur from boyhood and which Rowling cites as one of her influences.

Similarly, the Hero’s Journey is one of the oldest ideas in fiction, regardless of medium. From Homer’s Odyssey to the Hunger Games, it’s a story structure that’s been around almost as long as stories themselves. Dante’s Inferno. To Kill A Mockingbird. The Hobbit. Even Miles Morales: Across the Spider-Verse. All make use of the hero’s journey.

 But what makes a hero? All too often in popular media, the hero is big, tough, infallible, and would never even entertain the thought of not meeting the moment; like most summer blockbuster action heroes, for example. But these larger-than-life types have a way of sucking all the air out of the balloon, leaving no room for growth or change.

Thankfully, that isn’t the only type of hero. Some are less tough, less sure of themselves, less obvious. Often, these characters want nothing to do with this hero stuff in the first place. That’s what makes them so much fun!

When I set out to write The Accidental Warriors, I knew heroism would be at the center of the story overall and also at the heart of the route traveled by Jalen, the main character. At the outset, he’s brash and confident to a fault. In fact, early on you could say he’s more like the first type of hero. That, however, is a front he uses to camouflage some serious insecurities.

As Jalen makes his physical journey — trying to find his way back to his familiar home from a magical, mysterious land he reaches by way of a portal — his internal journey forces him to confront his fears and doubts, of which there are many. And despite the story’s title, Jalen’s ultimate heroism results from him using his wits more so than in ways typically associated with a warrior.

Jalen isn’t the only hero in The Accidental Warriors. Heroism, in all of its forms, is on display throughout the story. Ram, Jalen’s best friend who is Autistic, shows courage in the face of danger and won’t let Jalen retreat from his destiny. The kids in village show heroism beyond their years in standing up to the local nemesis.

We love heroes because they give us someone to cheer for, but a hero without a journey can easily become a character with little dimension, and therefore easily forgettable. However, a hero on a journey speaks to the growth and self-discovery that we experience ourselves and becomes the kind of character that can live in a reader’s mind for a lifetime.

Exercise 1 The Hero’s Journey consists of twelve steps. Have students identify steps of The Hero’s Journey evident in The Accidental Warriors. (For example, Jalen’s call to adventure comes when his karate instructor’s daughter is kidnapped by a monster who escapes through a portal. It is at the insistence of his instructor that Jalen pursues, albeit reluctantly. He initially refuses the call, another of the 12 steps, choosing to focus on finding his way back home.)

Exercise 2 How many heroes are there in The Accidental Warriors? Is Jalen a hero? What about Ram? The villagers? Cyrus? The ancient magicians? If yes, explain what makes each of these characters heroic. If no, what could they do to show heroism?

Bonus Exercise While not necessarily a hero in The Accidental Warriors, what are some ways in which Jalen’s father could turn out to be a hero?

Published October 12th, 2022

About the Book: Jalen Banneker has a confidence problem … as in, too much of it. But what no one knows is that it’s all an act, hiding years of self-doubt.

But when an evil monster kidnaps his friend, Jalen must overcome his fears as he travels to a mystical world where he’ll have to defeat the monster, break an ancient curse, save his friend and find his way back home in time for dinner.

With an engaging story and vivid illustrations, this book will have readers ages 7-10 turning the pages right up until the end. The Virginia Library Association said “these fun and exciting reads that have a good mix of characters are the kinds of novels we need more of,” while BookLife Reviews says it’s filled with “lightning-paced transitions and supercharged magic!”

About the Author: Karl Fields is an army brat who spent much of his youth in places like Germany, Spain, and Okinawa. Away from American television and no such thing yet as social media, he developed a love for reading that continues to this day and that also led to his desire to be a storyteller himself. He has written several books for children and adults, including the Kate Albertson mystery series. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California. The Accidental Warriors is his first graphic novel. Find him online at www.facebook.com/karlfieldsbooks and @writerkarl on Blue Sky.

Thank you, Karl, for this insight into your transformation of the hero’s journey for The Accidental Warriors!

Author Guest Post: “All in the Family” by Sarah Everett, Author of The Shape of Lost Things

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“All in the Family”

A couple of books ago, I realized I was always writing about families. Several books into my career at that point, you’d think I’d have already figured this out, but it was news to me. There is that saying that writers are often the last to realize what their own books are about, so maybe that’s why it hadn’t occurred to me all this time. Either way, that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it.

I grew up in a fairly “straightforward” nuclear family. A first-generation Nigerian-Canadian family with two parents, a handful of siblings, and the most mischievous Golden Retriever you’d ever meet. I was an abnormally shy kid. Like, take-her-to-a-therapist shy, but no matter how much the adults around me tried to offer help, I didn’t feel safe enough or able to communicate what was happening in my world. Coming from a different culture, in a home that wasn’t always happy or healthy, there wasn’t a ton of media that explained me – to me or to other people. And make no mistake, for better or for worse, media does explain things. (Fun fact: As a kid, I [correctly] diagnosed myself with a fairly serious illness after I heard it described on TV.) In the same way I longed to see nerdy Black girls like me reflected in books, I longed to see my family reflected in books. But sadly it has taken well into my adulthood to find stories that resonate with me, stories that truly capture what it felt like to live in that structure, with those people, in these bones.

I think this is true for a lot of people, of all races, ages and genders.

When I think of family, I think of the skeletal system, the frame that the muscles and tendons and flesh hold on to and find their way around. But just like there are no two identical individuals, there are no two identical families. Families differ in structure, in relational dynamics, in history, in size, in genetics, in strengths and weaknesses and so much more. When we talk of diversity, we must also talk about the diversity of family. We don’t all grow up the same way or face the same set of challenges, and that matters. Some kids have two mothers, single fathers, blended families, multigenerational family living situations; some kids grow up in happy homes, abusive homes, neglectful homes, sad homes, and it is all worth writing and talking about.

In my book, The Shape of Lost Things, twelve-year-old Skye is dealing with an abrupt change in her family – her older brother who has been missing for four years has returned home. It’s good news. Great news. Until she starts to suspect that the boy who came home isn’t her brother after all, but an imposter.

It is unlikely that many kid readers of Shape will relate to the main plot, but my hope is that they might relate to the uncertainty that comes with parental divorce, to the difficulty of growing up with a mentally ill parent, to the pain and mental dissonance that comes with loving someone while possibly fearing them. Then, there are other things. Like first crushes, friendship breakups, scientific facts supplied daily.

It is true, of course, that family is more than just your family of origin; it is also pets, partners, friends, extended family, people who come to matter to you over time. As a writer, I consider it part of my job to keep writing about families. Different kinds of families, different configurations of families. My hope is that, someday, even one reader might find the vocabulary to describe their home life because of my work or somebody else’s. As writers, we are never going to represent every type of family that exists; it’s physically impossible. But in your role as an educator, please never doubt the power of asking kids where they come from and what their family looks like. ‘Draw [Or Write About] Your Family’ prompts can be an opener for vital discussions about families, the safety of people’s homes, the concerns that might be making learning difficult.

Family is a beautiful, complicated thing, and like the skeletal system, it can hold you upright and make you who you are. It can also suffer from breaks and frailty and a hundred different ailments. While, ultimately, you are not your family, speaking about yours and asking about someone else’s could be life-saving.

Published October 22nd, 2024 by HarperCollins

About the Book: From the award-winning author of The Probability of Everything, which has been called “one of the best books I have read this year (maybe ever)” (Colby Sharp, Nerdy Book Club) and “Powerful” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), comes a heartfelt exploration of family and change as twelve-year-old Skye reunites with her older brother, Finn, after he spent four years on the run with their father.

Skye Nickson’s world changed forever when her dad went on the run with her brother, Finn. It’s been four years without Finn’s jokes, four years without her father’s old soul music, and four years of Skye filling in as Rent-a-Finn on his MIA birthdays for their mom. Finn’s birthday is always difficult, but at least Skye has her best friends, Reece and Jax, to lean on, even if Reece has started acting too cool for them.

But this year is different because after Finn’s birthday, they get a call that he’s finally been found. Tall, quiet, and secretive, this Finn is nothing like the brother she grew up with. He keeps taking late-night phone calls and losing his new expensive gifts, and he doesn’t seem to remember any of their inside jokes or secrets.

As Skye tries to make sense of it all through the lens of her old Polaroid camera, she starts to wonder: Could this Finn be someone else entirely? And if everyone else has changed, does it mean that Skye has to change too?

About the Author: Sarah Everett is the author of The Probability of Everything as well as several books for teens. Charlotte’s Web was the first book that ever made her cry, and while she despises spiders, she still has an abiding love of stories that move her. When she is not reading or writing, she is dreaming about summer, gearing up for her next travel adventure, perfecting her tree pose, or yodeling with her dog. She lives in western Canada.

Thank you, Sarah, for this love letter to families!