Give a story to twenty kids, and you might get twenty different takeaways. Some will catch the details you didn’t even notice. Others will pull out meaning that wasn’t intentionally placed, but rings true all the same. Sharon M. Draper writes for everyone and fiercely advocates for students’ right to read for themselves.
Sharon knows the capacity of a book to transport and transform kids; she was the kid who maxed out her library card every Saturday at the Cleveland Public Library. She then became the teacher who read aloud to even the most skeptical students, and the writer whose bestselling novel "Out of My Mind," which was adapted into a film for Disney+ and remains requisite reading for many middle schoolers year after year. A two-time Coretta Scott King Award winner, Sharon is the author of "Stella by Starlight," "Blended," "Tears of a Tiger," and many, many more.
In this episode, "Good Luck, They’re Yours: Sharon Draper on Giving Students Room to Read," Sharon discusses what it means to trust readers, how her students helped guide her first book, and seeing her stories banned in classrooms. We also talk about church music, spiked lemonade, and how she ended up with a special library card that gave her access to the library's adult section, even as a child.
When we asked Sharon to come up with a reading challenge, she was reluctant to give us a list of must-reads. Maybe that’s not surprising, given her past frustrations with inflexible required reading lists. In true teacher fashion, she flipped the assignment and gave us a lesson plan.
This week’s Beanstack featured Librarian is William Schaller, the middle school librarian at Hoffman Middle School in Houston, Texas, for the past seven years! William shares his secret sauce for getting kids excited about reading.
Show Chapters
Chapter 1 - The Reader Kid
Chapter 2 - Spike Lemonade and Porch Stories
Chapter 3 - Shut Up and Say You Like It
Chapter 4 - We Never Say That in the Locker Room
Chapter 5 - Student Teachers
Chapter 6 - Reading Challenge
Chapter 7 - Beanstack Featured Librarian
Links
Host and Production Credits
Host: Jordan Lloyd Bookey
Producers: Mel Webb and Lower Street Media
Script Editors: Josia Lamberto-Egan, Mel Webb, Jackie Lamport, Jordan Lloyd Bookey