Griffin Martin learns that who ever said, "Names will never hurt you," isdefinitely wrong. At her new school, she faces Shae Turner, the classroombully, and all the painful rejection that goes with it.Sitting alone at her desk in an empty classroom, a tiny flower drops ontoGriffin's lap. Before she can react to this, vibrant bands of light swirl aroundher pulling her up and out of her seat. Griffin's muffled scream is never heardas she is quickly sucked through the classroom's whiteboard.Griffin awakens to find herself in another world, Thira. Here she encounters Cur Muffin and Sibbi. Acting as her guides, they take Griffin to visitthe Family Tree and meet the Sentinel of Time. Shockingly, Griffin learns thatthe tree is in trouble. To save it the Sentinel charges Griffin to find the Issiwil Plant. To accomplish this, Griffin must help a young student, Hunter Miller, face his classroom bully.On her quest to find the Issiwil Plant, Griffin discovers how to cope with her own problems when she discovers the magic of choice and the power of friendship.
Cynthia Sampson moved to the big island of Hawaii after dedicating nearly 27 years as a K-8 educator in Oregon and California. Now, she is a practicing elementary school counselor. Ms. Sampson believes that bullying has reached epidemic proportions. In her passion to address and to get rid of the problem at her school, she realized that working with her immediate students was not enough. So, she wrote The Classroom Secret. In her novel, she uses a mixture of fantasy and reality to reach out to young students, parents and teachers across the nation. She has drawn on real life bullying incidents that she has encountered in the course of her career.As apart of her many professional accomplishments, she established a school wide task force to create a bully free campus; designed and implemented K-6 guidance lessons that address bullying issues.Ms. Sampson received her BS degree in Family Life/Child Development fromOregon State University, her teaching K-9 license from Portland State University, and her Masters Degree in School Counseling from National University. She is a dedicated and consummate professional.Outside her professional interests, she likes to read, play golf with her husband, and roughhouse with Sibbi, their very spoiled dog.