Hello! I’m Pam Allyn, and here are the stories behind my books.

The Complete 4 and the Complete Year Series:

For many years in my work with teachers, I would hear teachers saying that they wanted to know more about the “what” of teaching: what to teach tomorrow! They were given a lot of information on the “how”: balanced literacy structures, small group instruction, etc., but very little information on what to teach inside these structures. They would say that in science, social studies and math it is much easier to identify the content, whereas in reading and writing it all felt so much more amorphous.

This was on my mind when we Team Leaders at LitLife went on our annual retreat up to a beautiful lake in Connecticut. At about midnight of that weekend, as we sat around the fire and ate our snacks (a key feature of LitLife gatherings!), we had a big brainstorm which I immediately named The Core 4. We realized that if we poured all we wanted kids to learn into containers, there were four that seemed so clear and so visible to us right away: process, genre, strategy and conventions. This was a huge excitement for us and we jumped up and down in our pajamas (perhaps the best attire for generating great new ideas)!

With our extraordinary Scholastic editor Lois Bridges, we revised the name to The Complete 4, and we love, love, love that word “complete”. It seemed to signal something very special about our community: we are not judgmental in how we work with teachers; we are very open to the idea that people have different ways of being “complete” and that being “complete” can mean different things to different people. But at the same time, there are ways that we have lost the essence of wholeness in literacy instruction as we become polarized politically: people being grouped as either whole language or phonics based. Neither of these polarizations seemed to define us in any way: we liked the “complete” package. As women who work and have kids, we do believe we can have it all, and that is true for our teaching as well. We don’t have to be either phonics based or whole language based; we can be both.

I published my book The Complete 4: How to Teach Reading and Writing Through Daily Lessons, Monthly Unites and Yearlong Calendars later that year and have received emails and cards from people all over the country in response. I am very grateful for the feedback: The Complete 4 means a lot to me, and I am happy to have it matter to you, too.

It wasn’t long before the wonderful Scholastic team, led by Terry Cooper, received our request to write follow up books and said YES! We were thrilled and got right to work. I co-authored these books with an incredible team: Karen McNally, Jaime Margolies, Patty Vitale-Reilly, Abi Gotthelf and Laurie Pastore. Each of these women brought her attention to a specific grade level with a joy and passion for teaching that are remarkable. It was a packed time: several of us had babies during the process of writing the books, and we were all working in schools and, of course, keeping LitLife rolling forward. But we were inspired by the teachers we met, and also, of course, the beautiful marvelous children who responded with such enthusiasm to the lessons in the Complete Year series.

The entire series is driven by and fueled by the love of children. I hope you can feel that in every page of every book. Our biggest dream was to write books specifically for each grade level that would be of true help and support for you. We had heard so much about the dilemma of working with K-2 books and 3-5 books and the lack of articulation between grade levels that we knew our mission had to be to create books that had the nuance and the care for every particular grade level. In addition, teachers are so bound by the constraints of time. We felt strongly that if we could link reading and writing together more carefully, this would save you time and maximize your teaching quality. The books are here, in all their colorful glory, jam-packed with anchor text suggestions, resource materials and actual lessons! We are beyond proud of our books—proud of how we worked together in the spirit of LitLife to create a complete set that still feels very much like it honors the individual voices of all of us and especially of the teachers we serve.

What to Read When: The Books and Stories to Read with Your Child – And all the Best Times to Read Them:

Over the years in my town, moms and dads would approach me, call me or email me to ask questions about the best books to read aloud to their kids. Someone once said to me: “Pam, I had a baby and no one gave me a course on how to do any of this!” I think parenting is a lot like that: it is the one biggest thing you will do in your life that does not require any prerequisite, mandatory training of any kind, or a graduate degree! So you are in some ways on your own.

In writing this book, my dream was to offer you some company along this journey, so that it doesn't feel like you are alone in searching for answers to your excellent questions. Libraries and bookstores are full of books, but there are millions of them and to match the right one with the right child at the right time is always a challenge, even for those of us in the field of education. So often, a parent would call me and begin with, “I want to know what to read when...” One day, I was thinking about it and said to myself, “What to read when! That's IT!”

My fantabulous agent Lisa DiMona had been urging me to write a book for parents, but since I was in the middle of writing several others for Scholastic, I told her that I couldn't possibly have the time. She said, “Will you just write an email to me about what you most would love to share with parents about reading aloud?” And then before I knew it, she had so cleverly tricked me into writing a chapter! From there, I was so lucky to have the support of the amazing Lucia Watson at Penguin who embraced the idea instantly and has been a true champion of this book from the first moment. She has nurtured this book along in the best way.

It is a book that is filled with love and appreciation for children at different ages, and at different times in their lives. I tried to balance both the chronological development of children with their emotional development. My favorite part of the book is the “Emotional When,” a list of fifty themes, as these were sheer joy to put together: all my most favorite books and some brand new ones that are stunningly original and will lead to hours of conversation with you and your child. I have such faith in good literature: it creates bonds, it sparks ideas, it creates community. What a miracle a great children’s book is! I am always amazed at how children of all ages and adults alike come together around story. It is magical.

I hope you enjoy the book. Please email me at contactpam@litlifeinfo.com to share your own favorite read-aloud!