John Schu

John Schu, widely known as Mr. Schu, is a children’s librarian, author, and former educator whose work centers on connecting young readers with stories. He is the author of The Gift of Story: Exploring the Affective Side of the Reading Life (Stenhouse, 2022), as well as the picture books This Is a School (illustrated by Veronica Miller Jamison) and This Is a Story (illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Lauren Castillo), and the middle-grade novel Louder Than Hunger (all from Candlewick Press). He serves as the children’s librarian for Bookelicious, has been a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University, and previously worked as a classroom teacher and school librarian.

Schu is the creator of the popular blog Mr. Schu Reads and formerly served as the Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs, roles through which he has advocated widely for kids, books, schools, and libraries. He has visited schools around the world and met with well over 100,000 students, teachers, and administrators to promote reading, and he lives in Naperville, Illinois.