Scholastic Media Room

What can parents do to keep kids learning at home if they are out sick, or if their school is closed due to H1N1?

Try virtual learning.

In preparation for a Swine Flu epidemic this year, the U.S. Department of Education asked high tech companies like Scholastic if they could provide tools and resources to make learning possible for kids if their school closed, or if they caught the bug.

Scholastic created Stay Smart! (www.scholastic.com/staysmart), which includes twenty days of reading, writing and math instruction to keep kids reading and learning and free access to high end digital programs that are normally only available through schools and libraries, such as BookFlix® (pre-K to 3), a rich digital curriculum across content areas, Expert Space (grades 4-8), and downloadable reading intervention materials from READ 180® (grades 4-12) for those kids who REALLY can't afford to fall further behind and additional downloadable worksheets for pre-K to 8. It’s all FREE and the digital programs are very visual for TV.

Scholastic does not censor books. We review thousands of titles each year for our book clubs and book fairs, and we are committed to a review process that considers all books equally regardless of their inclusion of LGBT characters and same sex parents. In an interview with School Library Journal, Scholastic stated that we are currently carrying Luv Ya Bunches by Lauren Myracle in our school book clubs. We also said we were still reviewing the book for possible inclusion in our book fairs. Having completed our review of Luv Ya Bunches, Scholastic Book Fairs will carry the title in our spring fairs for middle school.

Scholastic is proud of our long history of providing books that will appeal to the wide range of interests and reading abilities of children in the many diverse cultures and communities we serve. Luv Ya Bunches is just one example.