Hootie's Story Nest: Mrs. Peters Artwork

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Hootie's Story Nest: Mrs. Peters

July 06, 2026 • Season 1 • Episode 18

0:00 | 5:57

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🎧 Show Notes
Hootie’s Story Nest – Episode 6
Featuring Mrs. Peters

Welcome back to Hootie’s Story Nest, part of the PHPS Difference Podcast Summer Series!

In this episode, Mrs. Peters shares an excerpt from Wayside School Is Falling Down by Louis Sachar, published by HarperCollins. A favorite of hers beginning in third grade, this hilarious and imaginative story is filled with quirky characters, unexpected twists, and plenty of laughs.

🌟 In This Episode

An excerpt from Wayside School Is Falling Down
Mrs. Peters shares why this book has been one of her favorites since third grade
Mrs. Peters' favorite childhood books and series:
- Ramona and Beezus and Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
- The Fudge series by Judy Blume
- The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies
- Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
Mrs. Peters also shares that one of her family's favorite traditions is reading the Harry Potter series together.
A celebration of imagination, humor, and the joy of reading

🎯 Our Goal

To inspire a love of reading, encourage imagination, and help students discover books they'll want to revisit again and again.

📚 Keep Listening

Join us each week as a new PHPS teacher shares their favorite stories and helps keep our students connected to books all summer long.

💛 Special Thanks

Before we wrap up, we want to give full credit to the authors, illustrators, and publishers of the books shared in today's episode. These excerpts are shared to celebrate and support reading. Hootie's Story Nest is an educational summer series on the PHPS Difference Podcast, created to inspire a love of reading, spark curiosity, and keep students connected to books all summer long.

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hi everyone, I'm Carmen. I'm a PHPS Owl. Welcome to Hootie Story Nut. We missed you this summer, so we're sharing some of our favorite books with you. Each week, a teacher will read a fun part of a story and tell you about other books you might like. So get comfy and enjoy today's story. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_03 0:26

Hi, PHPS readers. We're so excited to have Miss Peters, our wonderful music teacher, on the podcast with us today to talk about books, summer reading, and some of her favorite recommendations. But first, we'd love to know what are you doing this summer?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

So we don't have a whole lot planned for the summer yet. My family's in Oklahoma, so we'll go up and see them. My son is going to Sky Ranch, which will give us some one-on-one time with my daughter. And I'm sure volleyball will be sprinkled in there in and out. That's good. Looking forward to slower days.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Yes, absolutely. That'll be wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Well, I see you've got a book there. One of my favorites. So I brought um Wayside School is Falling Down by Lewis Sacker, illustrated by Tim Heights, and um the publisher is Harper Collins. Oh I loved this book. I read this in third or fourth grade and just loved it.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

I know. They're super funny. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

So they are.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

Would you like to share a little bit with our friends?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

All right. This is um chapter one, a package for Mrs. Jules. Lewis, the yard teacher, frowned. The schoolyard was a mess. There were pencils and pieces of paper everywhere. How'd all this junk get here? He wondered. Well, I'm not going to pick it up. It wasn't his job to pick up garbage. He was just supposed to pass out the balls during lunch and recess, and also make sure the kids didn't kill each other. He sighed, then began cleaning it up. He loved all the children at Wayside School. He didn't want them playing on a dirty playground. As he was picking up the pencill and pieces of paper, a large truck drove into the parking lot. It honked its horn twice, then twice more. Lewis ran to the truck. Quiet, he whispered. Children are trying to learn in there. He pointed at the school. A short man with big bushy hair stepped out of the truck. I have a package for somebody named Mrs. Jules, he said. I'll take it, said Lewis. Are you Mrs. Jules? asked the man. No, said Lewis. I have to give it to Mrs. Jules, said the man. Lewis thought for a moment. He didn't want the man disturbing the children. He knew how much they hated to be interrupted when they were working. I'm Mrs. Jules, he said. But you just said you weren't Mrs. Jules, said the man. I changed my mind, said Lewis. The man got the package out of the back of the truck and gave it to Lewis. Here you go, Mrs. Jules, he said. Lewis grunted. It was a very heavy package. The word fragile was printed on every side. He had to be careful not to drop it. I'm going to stop right there. You're going to need to go get the book and find out what is in the package. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

That was a good stopping point. That's fun. Yeah, these stories remind me of even listening to them on uh audio tape when I was young, but they have them on Audible or other recordings as well. And it's just, it's really fun and funny to listen to. So if you can't find the book, check out one of the audiobook locations that you like to check out books from. Yes. And I love that they're just a mix of really short stories. So short chapters. Yeah. Yeah. One of the things that we love to ask all of our guests on the podcast is what did you love reading as a kid? Or are there books that you've liked reading with your own children over the years?

SPEAKER_01 4:05

So I was a big Beverly Cleary fan and uh Ramona and Bezus and all of those. And in fact, during COVID, we started doing family read alouds. You know, when kids are younger, it's really easy to tuck them into bed and read them a story. But as they get older and there's so many more activities. And so COVID gave us a chance to really slow down. And so we read through a whole bunch of series during that. In fact, we started with the Wayside School series and read the books in that. And then we moved into Fudge with Judy Bloom and Ramona and Henry Huggins, and then we did the Lemonade Wars series, and then um Mary Poppins, which was really fun. Yeah. Um and then we watched the movie and saw all the things that were different. Um, and then we ended with the whole Harry Potter series. But it was really fun because my children were like nine and seven at the time. So we had intentional family time every night reading. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

That's great. And I think that's a great thing to be able to do in summer when it is a little slower, like you mentioned. So thank you so much for being here and for sharing your favorite books. We will definitely share those in our show notes as well.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

Absolutely. And before we wrap up, we want to give full credit to the authors, illustrators, and publishers of the books shared in today's episode. These excerpts are shared to celebrate and support reading. Hootie Story Ness is an educational summer series on the PHPS Difference Podcast, created to inspire a love of reading, spark curiosity, and keep students connected to books all summer long.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Thank you for listening to the PHPS Difference Podcast. See you next time.

Becky Barrett

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Lauren Marold

Host