During my eight years as a special education teacher, I frequently worked with high school students who struggled to be independent readers, due to disabilities and weak decoding and fluency skills. For them, reading meant devoting their energy to decoding the text, leaving no room for expressive reading. Read more
Darius Kellner has never fit in. His mom is Iranian. His dad is white. He doesn’t really speak Farsi, but his little sister, Laleh, does. He’s into Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, and tea. Not many people at his high school in Portland, Oregon, share those interests. He also has depression, which doesn’t make anything easier. Read more
This BOT Contributor is Keir Graff. He is the author of The Phantom Tower. Read more
Jeff Seymour has been creating speculative fiction since he was a teenager. His writing covers genres from magical realism to science fiction to epic fantasy. Read more
Wendy Mass is the New York Times bestselling author of fourteen novels for young people (which have been translated into fourteen languages and nominated for sixty-eight state book awards) Read more