APRIL 2025
Reasons to Be Cheerful
by Judy Newman
I felt terrible when I failed to get the word SPARE within five tries and broke my 187-day Wordle winning streak.
There are plenty of other things—large and small—to feel bad about, so I don’t understand why breaking my Wordle winning streak really crushed me. I tried to figure out why it hit me so hard—I mean, really? An online word game?
I think my distress might be connected to the passage of time that is marked by all those days of guessing the right word within five tries. 187 days = approximately six months. And a lot of amazing and not-so-amazing things happened in the past half year! But it’s as if when I break my winning streak and have to reset back to zero on Wordle, it erases the past half year of progress. I know that’s not the healthiest way to look at it: I could say, “You go, girl! You won for six months—amazing! Now you have a great opportunity to start again.”
But I am not always wired that way. So, I decided to quit playing Wordle. That lasted for no days and I find myself back at it today. Because, as the slogan says, “Life is More Fun With Games.” And it’s true.
Believe me: I understand there is a lot of pressure on all of us, and I do not want to play Pollyanna (although the Dell Yearling Classic edition of the book by Eleanor H. Porter was one of my childhood favorites). But there are also lots of other reasons—big and small—to be cheerful. Here are a few of mine:
This adorable little book nook that my husband, Jeff, is building for me.
The opportunity to read Rapunzel and Junie B. Jones is a Beauty Shop Guy to my granddaughter, Sophie, when she decided to give her bangs a trim herself with her kid’s safety scissors. (There really is an excellent children’s book for every life event.)
The chance to meet with the Bijan Robinson Foundation team and hear about how Bijan, a running back for the Atlanta Falcons, and his foundation is committed to helping kids in Atlanta experience the joy and power of choosing books they want to read and being able to say loud and proud: I Am a Reader!
I love that Bijan—who is beloved in his community and throughout the NFL—wants to use his voice and his influence to see reading as fun, develop their self-confidence as readers, and see themselves as part of an inspired, literate community of kids who love to read.
And every day in my new-ish role as Scholastic’s Chief Impact Officer, I find joy in the people we meet—in government, in nonprofit organizations, and the philanthropic community—among teachers, families, community leaders, and most of all children who want to be a part of the United States of Readers.
With the United States of Readers, we are launching a movement—a program, named a Big Bet for America by the Rockefeller Foundation, designed to partner with classroom teachers, families, and communities to ensure that 10M children living in poverty and attending under-resourced schools in every state in the US have access to choose and own their own books and develop their identities as confident readers. If you’re interested in hearing more, please contact me anytime.
I DO understand people are under so much pressure these days. But I promise, the USOR and the energy it is inspiring across the US is a reason to be cheerful.
Judy •
Judy Newman, Chief Impact Officer, Scholastic