Enchanting Resources for Fairy Tales and Folklore by Deborah B. Salyer

With thousands of titles in the Fairy Tale and Folklore Collection, TeachingBooks offers bountiful and bewitching resources to support your teaching. Fairy tales and folklore adjust themselves to myriad cultural and narrative experiences. Adapt the ideas below at all grade levels to extend discussions and lessons about the fabulous flexibility of fairy tales!

CSLF Scholarship Opportunity

In remembrance of Rosemarie Bernier, the California School Library Foundation is offering a $1500 scholarship to a student who is pursuing a Teacher Librarian Services credential.

The application deadline is June 30, 2022. The decision will be made by mid July. 

CSLF Celebrates Nancy Hayashi

CSLA/CSLA partnered with CafePress (https://www.cafepress.com/) to sell school library-related merchandise. Several children’s illustrators have donated their artwork to use on these items, and part of the proceeds go to CSLF, which supports school libraries and their workers. 

Summertime and the Reading is Easy

by Deborah Salyer

At the end of a more difficult-than-expected year is the promise of a time of renewal, refreshment, and relaxation—Summertime! With many school doors closing, perhaps you are off to the beach or some other destination. Wherever we go, there is nothing like the simple pleasure of reading a book—just for fun. 

Jazz Up a Classic | April 2022

A recent listserv member asked this question: “What core novels are your 5th graders reading at your school?” One of the answers was: “My 5th-grade team is using these oldies but goodies (in our district in CA there is no budget to replace classroom/grade level sets with new titles, sadly).”

Having seen the same thing (and taught it myself), I started thinking about solutions. While it is sad (and often true) that budget can drive our teaching choices, I wondered, “What can we do about that?” From there I jumped to how I teach teachers about TeachingBooks. I often ask, “What’s a title you always teach?” Usually, it’s a classic that’s been taught forever. I ask them to consider new resources for the same title—jazzing up the classics.

CSLF celebrates illustrator, Sarajo Frieden

CSLA’s CafePress presence includes children’s illustrator Sarajo Frieden. Some of the children’s books that she has illustrated include Noonie’s Masterpiece and The Care and Feeding of Fish. Sarajo has had several group and solo exhibitions since 2005 and has garnered illustration commissions for a variety of clientele: Valentine’s Day Godiva packaging, Honest to Nod bedding, voting posters, positive education publication, and other artists’ art shows. 

Celebrating Women’s History Month

Did you know?…



Madam C. J. Walker was one of the first Black female millionaires in the United States.

Bessie Coleman attended aviator school in France because American flight schools wouldn’t accept people of color or women.