Dear Jerry Pallotta
by Judy Newman
Dear Jerry Pallotta,
This is a letter of appreciation from me, Scholastic’s Chief Impact Officer and President of Book Clubs for many decades, to an author and the most passionate advocate for making sure all children in grades K–5 are inspired to read and see themselves are readers. That would be you, Jerry Pallotta.
Thank you for your passionate devotion to creating books that all kids love to read and your unwavering determination to help every teacher, parent, and caregiver support their students and their children in becoming fluent readers.
Thank you for putting your resources, time, and energy where your mouth is and backing up your belief in your books by traveling the country in person and all over the globe virtually to 100+ schools each year to inspire, motivate, and entertain thousands and thousands of K–5 students and their teachers.
Thank you for being a champion for students and teachers. For calling yourself a “K–5 guy” who is most happy when he is in the midst of creating books for impressionable new readers—many of whose lives are changed when they discover your books. In addition to hailing from Massachusetts and being Red Sox fans, you and I have that in common. We agree that the K–5 space is not always the most glamorous, but for those of us who love seeing kids discover the joy and power of reading at critical ages when kids develop their identities as readers, there is no more thrilling and rewarding age group to hang out and share books with!
Thank you for starting every one of the hundreds of author presentations you make—in person or online—with “Hey, kids!” and making sure everyone is paying attention (which they always are). And thanks for acknowledging all the teachers with your boisterous “Hey, teachers!”—motivating all the educators in the building to stop grading papers or doing other work and listen to your presentation.
Thank you for making a Jerry Pallotta visit the school’s best author visit ever. For making the teachers who supported your visit look like heroes, and for giving the educators in the building that frisson of celeb status when they escort you into the teachers’ lounge for lunch and stand beside you as hundreds of students wait to get their books autographed.
You and I also agree that teachers and librarians are the defenders of Democracy, committed to ensuring every child in their class is able to choose the books they want to read and own to develop their literacy. And I truly respect—and am a little envious—that you consider most teachers you meet at schools and conferences your friends. I talk to so many of them who are very excited when they get a postcard from you with a local flower bud taped to it, when you remember their birthdays, and when you invite them to go lobstering off of Peggotty Beach in Scituate, MA.
Thank you for all your stories about your son, Neil, a U.S. Army Ranger, and for taking the photo of our former house on Fort Rucker Army Base where our family lived when my dad (Captain Newman, M.D.) was stationed there. It’s a wild coincidence that all these decades later, your son was also stationed at Fort Rucker.
And thank you for sharing stories about your ginormous family: your siblings and their children, your children and grandchildren, and your cousins, whom you write about with so much energy and compelling gusto in Ocean Cousins. My colleagues and I, who’ve read Ocean Cousins, all wish we could have hung out with all those Pallottas on Peggotty Beach each summer.
Thank you for getting on the dais at the International Reading Association convention and speaking to teachers at our Scholastic Book Clubs My Favorite Teacher breakfast, and for always being willing to make author appearances for a whole host of Scholastic special events. You are always willing, eager, and able (as long as your schedule allows) to represent your publisher and treat everyone to the Jerry Pallotta experience.
Thank you for coming with the Scholastic team to Jefferson City, MO, and shaking hands with—and signing books for—every single employee who works in our huge Scholastic distribution center, and helping us serve dinner to everyone and even staying up very late to make sure you met and signed books for all the folks who work on the third shift, which starts at 10 p.m.
Most of all, thank you for being a true partner to your publisher. You never take us for granted. You never assume we can do all the heavy lifting. Who Would Win? was launched in the K–5 world of the Scholastic SeeSaw, Lucky, and Arrow Book Club flyers. We sold your books as single titles, as Dollar Deals, in mega packs, and as specials for teachers for their classroom libraries. We offered Who Would Win? books in affordable and accessible ways to every classroom in the country, and year after year, the series got more and more popular. And then you would report in from the road on your school visits that the books were “everywhere.” You saw it happening in real-time. Then the series hit a tipping point and now the sky is the limit!
Today, there are 31 different titles in the series and, at last count, there were more than 20 million copies of these books in print. Thank you for believing in our partnership strategy between publisher and author and for not getting impatient or looking for an instant bestseller. Thank you for taking the long view and being willing to put your all into meeting kids where they are. Building a series with more than 20 million copies in print (and counting!) takes hard work, dedication, a huge focus on the kids in every school you visit, and a profound respect for their educators.
Oh, yeah … thank you for making me a hero with my friends’ kids and grandkids when they ask me with bated breath if, by any chance, I know the author of the Who Would Win? series. Typically cool, calm, and collected parents call me, bursting with enthusiasm and so grateful for the autographed book you sent, for answering their children’s letters, and for turning their kids into readers.
Thank you for being a model of what it takes to make a bestseller and to inspire kids to care about the books they read and identify as readers. You get what we all need to do: to engage the children, their teachers, and their families and communities at the same time in the vital work of inspiring all kids—not just kids whose families are familiar with literacy and not just kids who can afford expensive books—but ALL kids to be able to choose the books they want to read and see themselves as readers.
If kids can’t read your books and others, they cannot develop their vocabulary. They cannot express themselves or understand others. They cannot learn about the strengths and weaknesses of our natural world and learn to compare and contrast for themselves. You understand that we live in a country in which only 30 percent of kids can read at grade level. That means 70 percent of American kids are illiterate. You understand that is not acceptable and is a true threat to democracy.
Thank you for supporting our new efforts through the United States of Readers to expand book choice to kids attending high Title 1 schools, where they have no access to choose books they want to read and own and where it is unlikely they have ever had an author visit.
In this Who Would Win? world, all kids, teachers, and families need advocates who support literacy for every child. And publishers need enthusiasm and interest from their creators to help reach all children with their books. That’s who you are: a true advocate and a loyal, indefatigable partner.
That means: not only are you a winner, Jerry Pallotta, but all the kids whose lives you touch are winners, too!
Thank you!
XX,
Judy
Judy Newman, Chief Impact Officer, Scholastic