If your digital‑literacy lessons feel stuck on the same old slide deck, Gordon Korman’s brand‑new novel Snoop (Scholastic Press, July 1 2025) offers a timely narrative hook. The story follows Carter, a phone‑addicted tween who—after two broken legs and zero mobility—turns police webcams into his personal feed and learns the hard way that surveillance isn’t a superpower.

Teacher Take‑Aways

1. Mirror, then Question. Use Snoop’s live‑cam plot to ask: Who controls the lens in your daily media diet?

2. Empathy through POV. Have students rewrite a chapter from the watched classmate’s perspective to surface the ethics of surveillance.

3. Data Literacy Mini‑Lab. Compare Carter’s police‑cam feeds to real‑world open‑data CCTV dashboards; chart what’s missing from each data set.

Learn more about this week's guest:

Gordon Korman is a household name in the middle grade space. With over 100 titles to his name, he’s written a book for every kind of reader in this age group—from reluctant to voracious and all the shades in between. His brand-new adventure: SNOOP is the story of a screen-obsessed boy who finds himself trapped at home—and discovers that life gets harder when screens are all you have.

If Carter hadn't been checking his phone, he might have seen his brother coming down the ski slopes in his direction. And if Carter had seen his brother in time and avoided the crash, he might not have two broken legs right now. Oops. Now Carter is stuck at home for weeks, with both his legs in casts. Bored, he starts checking out the live feeds from police cams around his town.

Before he knows it, he's obsessed—watching his classmates when they don't know he's looking and discovering some other very strange things going on that no one else is noticing. But what happens when Carter is found out... and the people he's watching know where he lives?

SNOOP tackles finding a balance between screen-free time and being connected to the outside world. When screen-addicted Carter is forced to relate to the outside world only through screens he discovers that there’s something missing. Between being unable to stand up for himself to his classmates via Zoom to getting only part of the story through the police cameras, Carter finds that screens aren’t the perfect medium he thought they were. But he also manages to break up an illegal animal-smuggling ring and call an ambulance for a woman who unexpectedly goes into labor. The story, wisely, ends with a call for balance and moderation. As Carter says, “I took it too far. You just have to know where to draw the line.”

Get your copy: https://gordonkorman.com/from-snoop

Learn more about Tricia five week AI Literacy challenge:

https://www.shiftingschools.com/aingela

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Join Tricia Friedman and Joanna Ho in this inspiring conversation about cultural identity, creativity, and the power of food as a storytelling medium. Joanna reflects on her transition from K–12 educator to published author, revealing how intergenerational learning—especially the wisdom exchanged over a cup of boba—fueled her narrative style. We dive deep into her creative process, the challenges of balancing productivity with lived experience, and why embracing life’s full spectrum of emotions is essential for authentic storytelling. If you’re passionate about personal narrative, Asian American culture, or using food as a metaphor for connection, this episode is for you.

Learn more about Joanna Ho's latest book: Becoming Boba https://www.joannahowrites.com/books

Key Topics & Takeaways:

Educator → Author: How Joanna’s teaching background informs her writing practice

Cultural Identity: The role of Asian American heritage in shaping personal narrative

Food as Story: Why boba becomes a bridge between generations and cultures

Bidirectional Learning: Stories of wisdom flowing both up and down the family tree

Creative Process: Overcoming productivity myths to live fully and write authentically

Self‑Discovery: Defining your identity beyond labels and expectations