In addition to providing the latest news about our books, this website also offers: free teacher's guides; articles for professional development; links to lesson plans; author biographies; and an educational calendar marking key anniversaries with teachable book suggestions.

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Now Available: Videos from the Fifth Annual Author Event for NYC Educators

On Friday, June 28th, 2013, Random House hosted its Fifth Annual Author Event for NYC Educators in its midtown NYC headquarters. The event was attended by 200+ K-12 educators, school librarians, and college professors/administrators. A PDF of the event program may be viewed here.

We are happy to announce that videos from the event are now available for all to view on the Random House Common Reads YouTube channel. Event photos may be found on the Random House High School Facebook page.

For your convenience, here is a list of the featured speakers with links to video of their talks (in order of presentation):

David Liben (Video), Student Achievement Partners

Chris Pavone (Video), author of The Expats: A Novel (Broadway Books)

Adele Griffin (Video), author of Loud Awake and Lost: A Novel (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

Emily Bazelon (Video), author of Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy (Random House)

Carlin Flora (Video), author of Friendfluence: The Surprising Way Friends Make Us Who We Are (Anchor)

Byron Hollinshead (Video), editor of I Wish I'd Been There: Volumes & II (Anchor)

Kimberly N. Parker (Video), speaking on A Time to Break Silence (Beacon Press)

Free Classroom Skype Offer with Author Sampson Davis, M.D.

Sampson Davis, author of Living and Dying in Brick City: Stories from the Front Lines of an Inner-City E.R. and co-author of the New York Times bestseller The Pact, will be available this fall to Skype with your students.

Click here for more information about requesting a free 30-minute Skype session with Sampson Davis. Please note Skypes are limited and subject to the author's availability.

To bring Sampson Davis to your school, click here.

Read the author's message to educators here.

Lacks' Family Members to Serve on HeLa Genome Council

In a news conference, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced an agreement with the family of Henrietta Lacks that will restrict NIH-financed research on the HeLa genome. Two members of Lacks' family will serve on the HeLa Genome Council, marking the first time tissue donors have had a voice in the process and finally giving the Lacks family a say in how Henrietta's cells are used. To learn more about this landmark announcement for which author Rebecca Skloot's book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has played such a large role, please read the following articles: The HeLa Genome: An Agreement on Privacy and Access from the NIH, Nature Magazine and The New York Times.

Adrian Bejan on Discovery's Through the Wormhole

Adrian Bejan, who discovered the constructal law of design and evolution in nature, was featured recently on an episode of the Discovery Channel series Through the Wormhole. The following 8-minute clip from the episode "Did God Invent Evolution" features a segment with Bejan discussing the constructal law. For a more in depth dissection of constructal law check out Bejan's groundbreaking Design in Nature which takes the recurring patterns in nature—trees, tributaries, air passages, neural networks, and lightning bolts—and reveals how this single principle of physics accounts for the evolution of these and many other designs in our world.

• Sonia Nazario, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother, addressed the United Nations in New York City on June 25th, 2013 about how to better manage global migration as part of its Panel Discussion on International Migration and Development. Click here to watch Nazario speak to the UN General Assembly (Nazario appears at 23:50).

• Millburn High School in New Jersey has selected Born to Run for Millburn's Second Annual Big Read! All high school students will read the book this summer and the greater community is invited to participate. Author Christopher McDougall will visit the campus in October, coinciding with a charity 5K that is currently being planned.

• Susan Cain, author of the bestseller Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (Crown), has won the prestigious Golden Gavel award. The award, presented annually by Toastmasters International, is given to an individual distinguished in the fields of communication and leadership. Cain will accept the award at a dinner in her honor, held during Toastmasters' annual convention August 23rd in Cincinnati, OH.

• Is your high school classroom going digital? We're pleased to announce that titles by Sandra Cisneros are now available in ebook format! This includes both English and Spanish-language editions of The House on Mango Street and Caramelo, and English-language editions of Loose Woman: Poems and Woman Hollering Creek: And Other Stories.