Ellen Oh is an award-winning author of numerous middle grade and young adult books including The Spirit Hunters series and Prophecy trilogy, and is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books. Melissa Thom is a teacher librarian at Bristow Middle School in Connecticut with 22 years of educational experience and former president of the Connecticut Association of School Librarians.
Originally published on June 10, 2025
Melissa Thom, MA, (she/her) is a teacher librarian at Bristow Middle School in West Hartford, CT. She has been an educator for 22 years and is the immediate past President of the Connecticut Association of School Librarians (CASL). She was a 2019 AASL Social Media Superstar Reader Leader finalist and a Library Journal Mover and Shaker in 2022. In her free time, she sews #LiteracyInspiredCrafts for her Joyful Making Etsy Shop.
Award-winning author Derrick Barnes, National Book Award Finalist and two-time Kirkus Prize winner known for Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut and Victory. Stand!, joins Dr. Chandra Maxwell, an NWP teacher-leader and equity-focused literacy researcher, to discuss the power of intentional writing and diverse literature in education.