Congratulations to the U.S. Creative Writing Award Winners

  We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2026 Creative Writing Awards, including the inaugural winner of the Chinua Achebe Award for Freedom of Expression. The Chinua Achebe Award for Freedom of Expression is a new creative writing prize honoring the celebrated author’s powerful legacy. Open to public high school students, the award invites applicants

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Use It or Lose It: Improve Student Reading with Your Budget Spend Down Funds

As the school year draws to a close, it’s time to start thinking about utilizing leftover school funds before they expire. Why not focus on allocating remaining dollars to resources that directly impact student success? Increasing access to diverse, relevant, high interest texts at various reading levels is a perfect way. Explore Penguin Random House

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Exploring DK’s Against the Odds and Mount Olympus Mysteries Series

DK’s Against the Odds and Mount Olympus Mysteries Hi-Lo chapter book series for kids ages 10–14+ have a morphology focus and thus provide a vital bridge between decodable and mainstream books. By focusing on suffixes, prefixes, and word roots/bases, these series will improve readers’ spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension, and empower them to confidently understand

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Supporting Educators and Inspiring Young Readers This May With First Book

Penguin Random House is proud to continue its partnership with First Book in celebrating and supporting educators nationwide throughout the month of May. To recognize the vital role teachers, play, 25 educators will each receive a $200 credit to the First Book Marketplace helping them bring new books and resources into their classrooms ahead of summer. This initiative aims to

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NCSS and Penguin Random House Education: Spring Author Spotlight Event

Join us in conversation on Thursday, May 21st at 7:00 PM Eastern with award-winning author Sherri L. Smith to discuss her book American Wings: Chicago’s Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky (co-authored with Elizabeth Wein; G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers), a thrilling and inspiring true story of the desegregation of the

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Independent Reading Matters: A Handbook by Laura Robb

Need help ramping up your independent reading time? Download our comprehensive handbook written by Laura Robb, Independent Reading Matters. Based on research-based practices and decades of classroom experience, the handbook provides educators with practical tips to: Self-select “good fit” books students can read and enjoy Apply reading strategies to improve critical thinking Summarize fiction and

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Publisher Spotlight: Manga Quest – a new series from TOKYOPOP Learning

Standards-Aligned Manga Gives Students a New Way to Learn, One Adventure at a Time Penguin Random House is thrilled to offer titles from Manga Quest, a new series from TOKYOPOP Learning. TOKYOPOP, the pioneering manga publisher that introduced an entire generation of American readers to the art form, has launched Manga Quest, the debut series from

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An Interview with Jonathan Kozol, Author of We Shall Not Bow Down

Interview in April 2026 by Claire Kelley, Seven Stories Press, with Jonathan Kozol author of We Shall Not Bow Down: Children of Color Under Siege, An Invocation to Resistance. You have long argued that educational inequality is not inevitable but the result of political decisions. Why do you think the idea that inequality is “natural”

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