Scholastic Parents Night: The Power of Summer Reading

At Scholastic Parents Night: The Power of Summer Reading, a virtual panel of Scholastic authors, education experts, and booksellers will give tips and book recommendations that will keep kids excited to read all summer long!

Presented in patnership with Scholastic

Virtual event

REGISTER HERE

John Schu: John Schu is a lecturer at Rutgers University and the Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs. He is also the host of the Facebook show Book Joy Live and the  author of the popular blog Watch. Read. Connect. He works diligently to put the right book in every child’s hand.

Varian Johnson: Varian Johnson is the author of several novels for children and young adults, including The Parker Inheritance, for which he won a Coretta Scott King Honor award; The Great Greene Heist, which was an ALA Notable Children’s Book, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2014, and a Texas Library Association Lone Star List selection; To Catch a Cheat, a Kids’ Indie Next List pick; and the forthcoming middle-grade novel, Playing The Cards You’re Dealt, publishing in October 2021 from Scholastic Press. Varian is also the author of the graphic novel Twins, co-created by illustrator Shannon Wright, which received five starred reviews and was named a “Best Book of 2020” by the Washington Post, NPR, and TODAY.com. 

Lauren Savage: Lauren Savage is the co-founder and owner of the Reading Bug Bookstore in San Carlos, California, where she manages merchandising, buying, marketing, event planning, and more! She is also the narrator and music writer for the Reading Bug Adventures podcast and author of Duck & Goose, Let's Dance!

Lizette Serrano: Lizette Serrano is the VP of Educational Marketing at Scholastic. For over 20 years, she’s been living her dream job championing authors and their books to readers of all ages. She is also the co-founder of the Power of Story initiative which aims to create a hub of resources to direct educators, booksellers and caregivers on how to build an equitable bookshelf, a 2021 Scholastic Summer Reading Ambassador. 

Kelly Yang: Kelly Yang is the author of Front Desk, which won the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature and was chosen a Best Book of the Year by multiple publications, including NPR, the Washington Post, and the New York Public Library. Kelly's family immigrated to the United States from China when she was a young girl, and she grew up in California, in circumstances very similar to those of Mia Tang. She eventually left the motels and went to college at the age of 13, and is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard Law School. She is the founder of The Kelly Yang Project, a leading writing and debating program for children in Asia and the United States. Her writing has been published in the South China Morning Post, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Atlantic. To learn more about her and the Front Desk books, visit frontdeskthebook.com.