Scholastic.com: Teachers: Online Activities: ClassroomsCare Author of the Month

Each month, an author shares his or her thoughts about reading and the ClassroomsCare mission—to share the joy of books with America’s neediest children. These author messages for your students are a great way to inspire them to read and get involved.

Listen to Mary Pope Osborne speak about ClassroomsCare Or read a transcript.		Mary Pope Osborne is the author of more than 80 books, including the best-selling Magic Tree House series. When Mary was growing up, she had no idea she wanted to be an author. But she loved reading and living in her imagination. She studied theater in college, as well as world religions. After college, she traveled in the Middle East and Asia and held different jobs in California and Washington, D.C. Eventually she moved to New York City to be with her husband, actor and writer Will Osborne. One day on the rooftop of their apartment building, Mary began writing the story of a young girl in the South, and suddenly "I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up: a children's book author." Some of Mary's other books include Pompeii: Lost and Found, the Spider Kane Mysteries series, and the Tales from the Odyssey series.

Mary Pope Osborne’s ClassroomsCare Reading Playlist *Charlotte's Web* by E.B. White Stuart Little by E.B. White The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell Julie of the Wolves** by Jean Craighead George