Teacher’s Guide: Pie in the Sky

Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai

A poignant, laugh-out-loud illustrated middle-grade novel about an eleven-year-old boy’s immigration experience, his annoying little brother, and their cake-baking hijinks!

When Jingwen moves to a new country, he feels like he’s landed on Mars. School is torture, making friends is impossible since he doesn’t speak English, and he’s often stuck looking after his (extremely irritating) little brother, Yanghao.

To distract himself from the loneliness, Jingwen daydreams about making all the cakes on the menu of Pie in the Sky, the bakery his father had planned to open before he unexpectedly passed away. The only problem is his mother has laid down one major rule: the brothers are not to use the oven while she’s at work. As Jingwen and Yanghao bake elaborate cakes, they’ll have to cook up elaborate excuses to keep the cake making a secret from Mama.

In her hilarious, moving middle-grade debut, Remy Lai delivers a scrumptious combination of vibrant graphic art and pitch-perfect writing that will appeal to fans of Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham’s Real Friends, Kelly Yang’s Front Desk, and Jerry Craft’s New Kid.

Download the teacher’s guide here →

Giveaway: Enter for a Chance to Win a Copy of the Teacher’s Edition of Writing Radar!

Newberry Medal winner Jack Gantos shares advice for how to be the best brilliant writer in WRITING RADAR, a funny and practical creative writing guide perfect for middle-grade readers

“An excellent guide for aspiring authors.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Teachers will also find Gantos’s breakdown on the creation of a story valuable for teaching critical reading as well as writing skills.”
—VOYA, starred review

Giveaway ends 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, May 31, 2019.

Enter for your chance to win →

Teacher’s Guide: The Lost Boy’s Gift

The Lost Boy’s Gift by Kimberly Willis Holt

Kimberly Willis Holt explores themes of divorce, acceptance, intergenerational friendship, and the power that comes with noticing in The Lost Boy’s Gift, an insightful middle-grade novel.

There are places where you want to go and places where you want to leave. There are also places where you want to stay.

Nine-year-old Daniel must move across the county with his mom after his parents’ divorce. He’s leaving behind his whole life—everything—and he’s taking a suitcase of anger with him. But Daniel is in for a surprise when he settles into While-a-Way Lane and meets his new neighbors—the Lemonade Girl, the hopscotching mailman, the tiny creatures, and especially Tilda Butter. Tilda knows how to look and listen closely, and it’s that gift that helps Daniel find his way in that curious placed called While-a-Way Lane.

Download the teacher’s guide here →

April YA Galley Chat Books

Love chatting about new YA books? Join EarlyWord’s monthly YA galley chat to hear what your fellow librarians are excited to read + add more books to your TBR list. Follow along at #ewgcya and don’t miss next month’s galley chat–May’s galley chat date is TBA.

Here are just a few of the titles that Twitter is buzzing about this month:

See more books librarians are buzzing about →

Teacher’s Guide: Locked in Ice: Nansen’s Daring Quest for the North Pole

Locked in Ice: Nansen’s Daring Quest for the North Pole by Peter Lourie

A spellbinding biography of Fridtjof Nansen, the pioneer of polar exploration, with a spotlight on his harrowing three-year journey to the top of the world.

An explorer who many adventurers argue ranks alongside polar celebrity Ernest Shackleton, Fridtjof Nansen contributed tremendous amounts of new information to our knowledge about the Polar Arctic. At a time when the North Pole was still undiscovered territory, he attempted the journey in a way that most experts thought was mad: Nansen purposefully locked his ship in ice for two years in order to float northward along the currents. Richly illustrated with historic photographs, this riveting account of Nansen’s Arctic expedition celebrates the legacy of an extraordinary adventurer who pushed the boundaries of human exploration to further science into the twentieth century.

Download the teacher’s guide here →