Kids Discover Talks with Author and Editor Kristine Gasbarre

School is out for the summer vacation and we are ready to talk about reading!

What is a book our teachers can enjoy in the coming summer days?

Author and editor, Kristine Gasbarre has written a book, with contributions from an important teacher in her life, and she shares all the lessons for school and life she discovered, thanks to Mrs. Korthaus, who is the reason Gasbarre found her eventual career path with words. 

Our teachers encourage interests in their students, help to discover talents and lend important support through all the academic and social parts of a school year.

This book is for the teachers who shape the lives of students with their selfless dedication and encouragement.

“You have one of the most challenging jobs on the planet…but the giver of this gift believes you’re one of the best at it in the world. In Show, Don’t Tell, we honor the souls like you, who dedicate your heart to your students. I wanted to celebrate Mrs. Korthaus as just one way to lift you up, too. Enjoy the read—and remember that even on the rough days, there’s no doubt you’re leaving a permanent mark on growing individuals, and therefore on our world. We love you, we applaud you, we hope this read brings you rest and inspiration.”

Kristine Gasbarre

Kids Discover got a chance to talk with author and editor Kristine Gasbarre about her book that celebrates our teachers!

What was the inspiration for this book?

With my past books, I’d noticed that educators are such a supportive, enthusiastic audience of readers. I wanted to create a book that was just for teachers, that would make them feel seen. I have a lot of teachers as personal friends, including Mrs. Korthaus, and I was hearing how uniquely challenging their jobs had become around the time of the pandemic. I argue that this is the most important role in our society. I just wanted this book to celebrate them.

Very organically, I was also reflecting on how fortunate I was as an adult—and especially as a professional who’d followed Mrs. Korthaus’s English class nudges to pursue my writing talent—to reconnect with my beloved teacher who had poured her heart into guiding so many of us inside, but also outside, of the classroom. Her encouragement was such a big reason I’d become a writer.

So I was growing curious about what would happen if we started to document our conversations and actually collaborate to make it into a book. Then the business partnership happened that I write about late in the story. That was my final push to show myself that I was capable of once again building something from the ground-up, which is what getting a book deal essentially is. I love the challenge of the business aspect of it, so I focused in and went for it.

What was the process like putting the book together?

It was beautifully creative. I write about how Mrs. Korthaus would spend quiet hours working on her own, documenting stories from her past, and I’d be working solo on my end, and then we’d come together and talk and eat and drink and I’d be recording our conversations and typing as fast as I could while she was making us dinner in the kitchen.

Some parts of the book are like jigsaw puzzles, where I pieced in stories from her journal entries. I wanted it to focus on her life as much as possible. She had so many wonderful stories that, if we learned about them in her classroom, I had forgotten them or in high school hadn’t yet learned to appreciate how interesting her life had been before teaching.

When did you realize the influence a teacher has in a student’s experience?

To be honest, I think even from my youngest years I understood how blessed I was to show up to a classroom and learn every day. I was one of those students who was genuinely engaged, and I think the way I was being raised made me very grateful for what my teachers were instilling in me. I grew up in a time, a community, and a school system where they taught us with such great love and attention.

My mom had grown up without having a lot, and when I was young she’d sometimes remind me that there were certain things not to be taken for granted in life. My great-grandmother on my dad’s side lived to be 101 and had a strong Italian accent. When I was about eight, she told me not to get married until I’d gotten my education and had a career. Coming from a woman who’d had almost a dozen children and was married before she ever got to finish high school, I understood that I had opportunities that the women before me hadn’t. Somewhere in my young little spirit, I just wanted to soak up knowledge from my teachers like their sponge.

What do you want readers to take away from this book?

I hope it will help some teachers stay inspired. Their impact is so enduring and far-reaching. I also hope it will make girls and women feel fierce.

How can people show appreciation for a teacher?

Readers will see: we open each chapter with a quote from a real-life teacher. I interviewed more than a dozen teachers from around the country. Some shared that they feel like we’ve moved away from being a society where a teacher is trusted to guide a child. We have to remember that outside the home, teachers are preparing children to succeed professionally and socially out in what is an increasingly complicated, harsh, fast-changing world. Parents and kids need to show them respect. It’s not an easy profession, and it’s only gotten harder in recent years.

What do you want to see happen in education now and in the future?

I want us to return to a time when children’s faces are not in an electronic device. I want kids to feel a sense of awe for the world again—for nature and big dreams and meeting people from all walks of life. We need to make sure younger generations know how beautiful our world is and how blessed we are to live in it and care for it. Mrs. Korthaus says it in the book, too: we need that sense of reverence for the world and each other.

What do you want future educators to know about their part in the educational process?

Oh my gosh, I have goosebumps thinking about this. You’re like tapestry workers, weaving the fabric that will one day be our whole future. It truly is the most important job in the world. I hope that at minimum, once every day, a student or a parent makes you feel loved and appreciated. Also, you deserve your summer breaks and I wish we all got them! We’re living in a time when we all need them, but if anyone truly deserves them, it’s you. Spend the time replenishing your soul and getting all the rest you can.

Kristine Gasbarre

Kristine Gasbarre is the senior editor overseeing health content for Reader’s Digest print and digital publications. She is a New York Times and internationally bestselling ghostwriter. Her collaborator’s books have sold nearly a million copies combined and received praise and coverage in PEOPLE, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Glamour, the New York Post, NPR, Bravo, E!, The Oprah Winfrey Network, Sirius/XM, Oprah Radio and Maria Shriver’s weekly newsletter.