APRIL 2023
Our April line-up includes interviews with Steve Giroux, Chris Paul, Ruth Ballard, Wes Molebash, Linda Ashman, and Aimee Isaac! The Teaching Toolbox and Conrad’s Classroom columns are back with a beloved character and the magic of metamorphosis!
Judy Newman is ready to hit the dance floor, Nick Spake reviews Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and Dr. Joy Pillay is celebrating the season of bloom.
Check out our newest book reviews and spring reading list! It's all inside!
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Story Monsters Ink® is sponsored by Once Upon a Dance and Dr. Joy Pillay
FEATURES
Steve Giroux
The Firestarter of Flangoo
by Raven Howell
Steve Giroux has been working at Teacher’s Discovery for over 20 years. As the Director of World Languages, he’s implemented FlangooTM, a new program that’s attracting lots of attention.
“Our job is to discover, through genius and innovation and trial-and-error, what solutions or services we can provide,” Steve says. “This will make teachers and schools more valuable to their communities and students. We aim to make teachers’ professional lives easier, enriched, and more effective while creating fun for students.”
The Teacher’s Discovery mission statement emphasizes the uplifting goal of having a good time while learning world languages in a new format. Steve is enthusiastic about that mission. “Teacher’s Discovery is a fantastic place to work. Skip McWilliams started the company 30 years ago. We change and evolve, with innovation and creativity as our guides.
“Education is one of the most rewarding industries to work in,” he adds. “Despite what people think, there’s an abundance of life-changing creative energy. I mean, I always talk to teachers, who are a fantastic group of people—selfless, energetic, and hard-working. This is why Teacher’s Discovery hasn’t changed its audience.”
NBA All-Star
Chris Paul
Inspires Kids On and Off the Court
by Lindsey Giardino
Growing up in Lewisville, North Carolina, Chris Paul—a twelve-time NBA All-Star, two-time Olympic gold medalist, and the former president of the National Basketball Players Association—looked to his grandfather, Papa Chilly, as a shining example of the values he could apply both in basketball and in life.
Paul’s grandfather taught him about respect, faith, kindness, generosity, and the determination to succeed. Serving as a guiding force, Papa Chilly and his lessons propelled Paul to become the star NBA player and person he is today.
“I’ve loved basketball from the first moment I stepped on the court. My game became more serious in high school, and I was selected to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game. After that, I went to Wake Forest University for two years to play college basketball. In 2005 I was drafted into the NBA, and the rest is history. My grandfather not only helped me foster a love of basketball, but became a pioneer in his own way, becoming the first Black service station owner in the state of North Carolina at a time when such opportunities were not readily available,” Paul said. “Everything I do stems from his inspiration.”
In fact, Paul’s latest picture book, Basketball Dreams, is an ode to Papa Chilly, who continues to inspire Paul to be a better basketball player and a better person. The inspirational and uplifting book, which is illustrated by Courtney Lovett, offers a glimpse into Paul’s early years and how he chased his basketball dreams, as well as shares some of the lessons he learned both on and off the court.
Wes Molebash
Is in It to Win It
by Marcella Comerford
Wes Molebash seems to have been led by the hand of fate, guided to a career in illustration starting at 10 years old, when his mom handed him an instructional video cassette on how to draw newspaper comic strips. Molebach wore that cassette out, but his love of comics didn’t wear out with it—he went on to draw for his high school newspaper, and a local newspaper as well.
Molebash kept at it, and after working as a comic strip artist, freelancing, and self-publishing, 2020 gifted him with a dream come true: a contract with First Second Books for his debut graphic novel series. The first book in this series, Travis Daventhorpe for the Win! was released last month, with a planned four books total.
The next few books have a solid plan, said Molebash. “I’ve got the plot pretty well figured out. At least, I know the high points pretty well. There are still a lot of dots to connect, and I’m extremely thankful for my awesome editors who’ve helped me shape this story into what it is and what it’s becoming.”
Molebash’s signature illustration style shown in the series is as intriguing as the adventurous, quirky, and engaging storyline. His personal technique developed with the influence of some of his most-loved cartoonists. “My favorite cartoonists are Bill Watterson who did Calvin and Hobbes, and Jeff Smith, who did Bone. I’ve always loved Watterson’s brushstrokes. He was and is a master of conveying weight and texture with the thickness and thinness of his lines.”
One to Read:
Dr. Ruthy Ballard
by Marcella Comerford
One of the biggest curiosities about writers is often how they came to be a writer. The question is even more prominent for Ruthy Ballard. Ballard not only writes books for youth, she is also a human geneticist specializing in forensic serology and DNA—and teaches courses in genetics and forensic biology at California State University, Sacramento and developed the concentration in Forensic Biology within the Department of Biological Sciences.
Ballard was a scientist before she delved into writing and didn’t necessarily plan on becoming a successful young adult author—rather, this path seemed to unfold for her. Ballard said it all began with a vacation taken with a dear friend after losing a mentor that was hugely important to both her and this friend, and who, Ballard said, “steered me in the direction of science when I was in my late teens.”
Ballard and her friend attended the memorial service for their mentor, and “then we took off for a vacation at Joshua Tree National Park. We rented an off-the-grid house in the middle of the desert, where the stars were like diamonds in black velvet, and we talked about the trouble she was having with her son, who was a preteen, did a lot of daydreaming, and seemed to have no ambition.”
“Frankie,” the friend’s son, had his parents in a tizzy. “My friend and her husband were worried he’d never go to college and never amount to anything, but I saw something different in him. I really liked the kid and figured he’d find his way if his parents just relaxed and gave him more room to grow into himself,” Ballard says.
MONTHLY COLUMNS
-
Life of a Reader
I Got the Rhythm (in Me)
by Judy Newman -
Q&A
Aimee Isaac
by Julianne Black DiBlasi -
The Book Bug
Linda Ashman
by Raven Howell -
Monsters at the Movies
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
by Nick Spake -
Liv On Life
Technology: Growth or Destruction?
by Olivia Amiri -
Kids Corner
Take a Listening Walk
Click here -
Dr. Joy Pillay
“Bloom” Where You Are!
by Dr. Joy Pillay, Ed.D, MBA -
Conrad‘s Classroom
The Magic of Metamorphosis
by Conrad J. Storad
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