MELISSA
PANARA
Author
Educator
Speaker
on a mission to empower
kids of all ages
About the Author
Melissa Panara is a certified teacher and lifelong advocate of children. Even after twenty-four years in the field, she considers herself to be as much a learner as she is a teacher. She has taught in various traditional and nontraditional educational settings but has found her professional home in the K-2 school just up the street.
Melissa uses humor, music, and open-ended play as powerful tools for connecting with children. She believes it is only after this connection is established that children feel safe taking the necessary learning risks. These relationships foster both confidence and resilience.
When she isn’t writing (or trying to find her cell phone), Melissa enjoys kayaking, doing crossword puzzles, and being in almost any audience, but especially those of musicals and local bands. A native Long Islander, Melissa lives in Fairport, New York, with her husband, two teenage children, and their Goldendoodle, Ruby.
The Backstory
Life is written in pencil. It is a belief that author Melissa Panara has held for quite some time. It is her way of expressing a sentiment that, she believes, can be applied to many scenarios, big and small: we always have options. Panara has learned that, on this sometimes bumpy road of life, we are not powerless when changing things up. She thinks it might even be our superpower.
In June of 2022, Melissa Panara did something she had never done; returned greeting cards. In this case, graduation cards with sayings like “Go out there and do something BIG” and “Your moment is NOW”. The more she thought about it, the more she felt these sentiments were not what she wanted to convey to the newly diplomaed in her life. Were they really supposed to now know, with a fair degree of certainty, what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives? Since a diploma is not a crystal ball, she returned the cards and wrote her own.
From this homemade graduation card comes a series of stories that offer a different perspective on life – one in which plans B through Z can lead to far more contentment than plan A.
Panara uses relatable anecdotes and light-hearted humor to validate the course-corrections we all make. She argues that we just need to take another look at what we can choose and what we can change, including our perspective from behind the wheel, the people with whom we travel, and the routes and detours we want to take.
Coming Fall 2026
Grown Up Part Way:
Helpful Ideas for
Somewhere-In-The-Middle-Kids
Because we're all somewhere in the middle, after all
