Cody Simpson Interview

Cody Simpson Interview

Cody Simpson's life has been a whirlwind the past few years since he moved to the U.S. from Australia to pursue a singing career. We first met him at Scholastic two years ago when he first started making some noise, and it’s really exploded for him since then. (Have you seen the video of our acoustic performance of Cody's song "iYiYi" from 2 years ago? Adorable, right?) He is a lot more grown up now (as you can see in this new video), and his life has a lot of cool perks like getting invited to Justin Bieber's birthday party, and getting court-side Lakers tickets. Recently, he came back to Scholastic to talk about his life now.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Part 3

Happy Earth Day!! REDUCE, REUSE, AND RECYCLE!

Every time you go to throw something away, ask yourself these questions: Is there a way I could have avoided buying this disposable thing? (Reduce) Is there a way I can reuse it before getting rid of it? (Reuse) Can I bring this somewhere to be recycled so it doesn't end up in a landfill? (Recycle) After learning about how to reduce and reuse stuff before you throw it away, you should barely have anything left to recycle. Recycling should be your last option, but for those times when there is just nothing left to do, here are some recycling ideas:

Dreamsleeves

Dreamsleeves by Coleen Murtagh Paratore (for ages 10 and up)

It's summertime, and Aislinn O'Neill only has 9 weeks before the start of 8th grade. Aislinn is the oldest of 5 children named in alphabetical order. After her is Beck, Callie, Dooley, and Eddie. Because of that, everyone just calls her A.

A hopes to spend the summer conducting summer school in the shed for B, C, D, and E, and trying to get Mike Mancinello to like her. But when the family drops Nana off at the airport for her summer-long trip, everything starts to go downhill. With Nana gone, A is the only one home all day with the little ones. And if her father gets too angry, A won't have Nana to run to for help. Her father seems to be drinking more and his behavior is getting worse and worse. Like when he woke her up in the middle of the night, screaming at her to clean crumbs off the kitchen floor. A swept the floor, but there weren't any crumbs.

No one ever talks about it, but A's father has a problem. And now A's mom is pregnant again after the doctor told her not to have any more. To top it all off, A's best friend Maizey is barely spending any time with her. Aislinn has to figure out how to get her dad to stop drinking before all their lives fall apart. It's going to be a tough summer, but A has big dreams that will pull her through.

--Emily, Scholastic Booktalker

One Direction Quiz

Are you dying of One Direction infection? If so, I'm totally with you. I'm old enough to be their auntie, but I still think they are awesome, so I made this One Direction Trivia Quiz to test how much you really know about these 5 adorable boys from the U.K. 

You can find some of the answers in our One Direction interview. For the rest, just use your "sense of Direction." (Ha ha! Sorry I'm such a dork.) I hope you like my quiz!

Book Title Mashup Answers

Book Title Mashup Answers

Last week, I posted a Book Title Mashup Quiz, and today I am proud to bring you the answers. I know you guys worked so hard decoding those mixed up titles, and now you deserve a good ole answers post! Did you solve them all? There's only one way to know. Check the answers below!

Writing Prompt: Swallowed into a Book!

Writing Prompt: Swallowed into a Book!

This week's Write On Writing Prompt takes a spin into the supernatural.

AthleteGirl4 writes:
You are sucked into one of your favorite books and you can’t get back to reality. What will you do?

Ooh, it's just like Inkheart! Maybe you would become part of the story. Or change it all together! Inquiring minds, like AthleteGirl4 want to know. Tell us your answers in the Comments below.

— Ratha, STACKS Writer