Resources for Teachers, Librarians, and Parents
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If you are putting together plans for teaching remotely or homeschooling your children and are looking for resources, click below for discussion guides, activities, and more available for FREE to download.
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Meet the author of LIES LIKE WILDFIRE!
A Letter from Jennifer Lynn Alvarez
Dear Educator,
I hope you enjoy my first thriller, Lies Like Wildfire, which is based on personal experience. Over the past several years, wildfires have burned and besieged my community in Northern California with unrelenting ferocity. Nothing has terrified me more in my adult life than wildfire, so writing about five friends who accidentally start one was a natural choice for me.
However, writing the book wasn’t the end of the story. Soon after finishing the first draft in October 2019, a Nixle alert pinged on my phone informing me that another massive fire had started, and it was headed directly toward me. I packed up my kids, horses, and pets and evacuated along with 200,000 other people. Cal Fire’s computer model predicted that my home, my town, and 90,000 structures would be destroyed. Wind gusts hit 93 miles per hour.
Featured Resource
Dr. Seuss in the Classroom Activities and Celebrations Calendar
As educators, you know that Dr. Seuss’s books can teach, inspire, delight, and motivate young readers all year long. Here’s a Dr. Seuss in the Classroom calendar with ideas for using the books from August through June.
Video of the Month
Book of the Month
Alma Presses Play By Tina Cane
A lyrical novel-in-verse that takes us through the journey of coming of age in New York during the 80s.
Alma’s life is a series of halfways: She’s half-Chinese, half-Jewish; her parents spend half the time fighting, and the other half silent; and she’s halfway through becoming a woman. But as long as she can listen to her Walkman, hang out with her friends on the stoops of the Village, and ride her bike around the streets of New York, it feels like everything will be all right. Then comes the year when everything changes, and her life is overtaken by constant endings: friends move away, romances bloom and wither, her parents divorce and–just like that–her life as she knew it is over. In this world of confusing beginnings, middles, and endings, is Alma ready to press play on the soundtrack of her life?
Author Spotlight
Nic Stone
Nic Stone was born and raised in a suburb of Atlanta, GA. After graduating from Spelman College, she worked extensively in teen mentoring and lived in Israel for a few years before returning to the US to write full-time. You can find her on her website: nicstone.info.
