The Children's Book Podcast artwork

The Children's Book Podcast

757 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 days ago -

Exploring big ideas and the way that stories can help us feel seen, understood, and valued. The Children's Book Podcast features insightful and sincere interviews with authors, illustrators, and everyone involved in taking a book from drawing board to bookshelf. Hosted by a teacher and school librarian, each episode seeks to connect kids and listeners of all ages to powerful, impactful, and lasting stories, and the people who tell them.

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Episodes

Torrey Maldonado

April 24, 2020 17:35 - 49 minutes - 45.3 MB

Torrey Maldonado (@TorreyMaldonado) shares WHAT LANE?!. This is a story about Stephen, a young black boy trying to find his way, one circumstance at a time. It’s a story about a neighborhood and a bunch of kids. It’s a story about confronting racism, confirmation bias, white privilege… all of it. And what it looks like to be an ally. It’s a story, as Torrey puts it, for anyone who has to navigate a duality. It is an outstanding story, and a really exceptional audiobook, to boot. You can acces...

Mahogany L. Browne

April 21, 2020 13:58 - 38 minutes - 35.7 MB

Mahogany L. Browne (@mobrowne) shares WOKE: A YOUNG POET’S CALL TO JUSTICE, written with Elizabeth Acevedo and Olivia Gatwood and illustrated by Theodore Taylor III. This evocative picture book companion to WOKE BABY is an emotional powerhouse, laying groundwork for conversations about advocacy, anti-bias practices, intersectionality, disability acceptance, youth empowerment, and more. This book was constructed to hold a volume of voices, meaning that these poems can and should be read by mor...

Jillian Tamaki

April 17, 2020 14:06 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MB

Jillian Tamaki (@dirtbagg) shares MY BEST FRIEND, written by Julie Fogliano. Jillian won a Caldecott honor for her art in THIS ONE SUMMER, a graphic novel written by Mariko Tamaki, her cousin. She later turned a lot of heads in a picture book she wrote and illustrated called THEY SAY BLUE. But in choosing to make the art for MY BEST FRIEND, Jillian shares that there was one line in the manuscript that definitely sealed the deal. In this story of best friends at first sight, one child narrates...

Carole Lindstrom and Michaela Goade

April 14, 2020 14:30 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MB

Carole Lindstrom (@CaroleLindstrom) and Michaela Goade (@MichaelaGoade) share WE ARE WATER PROTECTORS.  The story was inspired by Standing Rock, by indigenous people fighting pipelines and fracking, fighting for the earth. It’s a story for everyone, because we all have a part in this. But it’s also a story about acknowledging those who care deeply for our earth and our waters. We all can be water protectors, even from our homes. This April 22, 2020 we are celebrating the 50 anniversary of Ear...

Tami Charles and Jacqueline Alcántara

April 11, 2020 14:04 - 50 minutes - 46 MB

Tami Charles (@TamiWritesStuff) and Jacqueline Alcántara (@_jacqueline_ill) share FREEDOM SOUP. What food traditions do you have in your family? And how do these traditions speak to your family’s history? This is a story about making soup, but it’s also a story about making traditions while looking back on the past. The origin of freedom soup dates back to the Haitian Revolution and it’s that revolution that lives inside the characters in the story as well the many, many ancestors of those in...

Lily Williams and Karen Schneemann

April 07, 2020 13:59 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MB

Lily Williams (@lwbean) and Karen Schneeman (@themeanmagenta) share GO WITH THE FLOW, a comic about menstruation. Period. It's a story about getting your first period and how not all periods are the same from one woman to the next, but it’s also about destigmatizing menstruation in our society. It’s about public embarrassment, but it’s also about barriers to access of feminine hygiene products to the general public. It’s about friendship, and it’s also about demonstration, protest, and advoca...

Marcie Colleen (2020)

April 03, 2020 11:44 - 34 minutes - 31.7 MB

Marcie Colleen (@MarcieColleen1) shares THE BEAR’S GARDEN, illustrated by Alison Oliver. The story, inspired by a community garden in Brooklyn, centers on a girl caring for a seedling until she can’t any longer. It’s a story about those hidden spaces that become worlds for the person or people who find them. And it’s also a story about the worlds that can be created when we give trust over to others. THE BEAR’S GARDEN is a bit of a fantastical prequel to a garden you can imagine passing in Br...

Minh Lê (2020)

March 31, 2020 14:47 - 39 minutes - 36.5 MB

Minh Lê (@bottomshelfbks) shares GREEN LANTERN: LEGACY, a brand new graphic novel from DC Kids. Stepping into the DC universe was an experience for Minh and how he made his mark was something truly unique and authentic. What results is a fast-moving, page-turning comic with depth and heart. One of the qualities I especially loved in the story was Minh’s exploration of coming-of-age through Tai Pham, his main character, and what Tai assumes about where strength is derived as well as what he ul...

Katrina Moore (2020)

March 27, 2020 12:22 - 53 minutes - 48.6 MB

Katrina Moore (@kmoorebooks) shares ONE HUG and GRANDPA GRUMPS. ONE HUG is Katrina’s picture book debut. It’s about what a hug can mean to someone else and speaks to the nature of hugs as a means of comfort, communication, and companionship. GRANDPA GRUMPS is about communication between generations despite a language barrier. The earnestness of the main character in this story as she tries to interact with her grandpa is something I found to be so sweet and so genuinely childlike. Each of the...

Ryan Andrews

March 24, 2020 12:01 - 38 minutes - 35.3 MB

Ryan Andrews (@HeyRyanA) shares THIS WAS OUR PACT, a graphic novel about a band of friends determined to see where the lanterns end up after being sent down the river by the folks in their town as part of the Equinox Festival. There’s a legend that they turn into stars, but no one has actually ever followed them to see. Where the river and these lanterns lead Ben and Nathaniel is beyond anything you could ever dream. I found Ryan’s story to be moving and wondrous and beautiful. It’s by far on...

Kidlit These Days Combats the Coronavirus

March 22, 2020 21:21 - 47 minutes - 43.5 MB

I cohost a podcast on Book Riot called Kidlit These Days, where we examine the intersection between current events and children’s literature. It’s a lot of fun and feels like the most NPR thing I’ve ever done, which is pretty awesome in my mind. We’re about to record an episode celebrating our first anniversary of the show, but I thought I’d invite you to listen to an episode we just recorded in response to what’s on all of our minds right now. On this episode Nicole Young, that’s my cohost, ...

Deborah Marcero (2020)

March 19, 2020 20:30 - 40 minutes - 36.8 MB

Deborah Marcero (@deborahmarcero) shares IN A JAR, a picture book about storing memories, shared or gathered on your own. It’s about making what’s distant near. There’s something very special about experiencing something with someone else and Deborah’s book speaks to being present, to stopping and noticing. I know we’re distant now, but I hope you can call on those memories and feelings you’ve stored in jars and I hope they can make you feel comforted. You can access even more information abo...

Scott Simon

March 17, 2020 11:46 - 38 minutes - 35.7 MB

Recorded live at ALA Midwinter 2020, Scott Simon shares SUNNYSIDE PLAZA, his middle grade debut about a group home for developmentally disabled adults. The story is loosely based on Scott’s own childhood experiences and I think it says a lot about who we see and who we make invisible in our society. We recorded this conversation in front of a packed audience in a very, very noisy exhibit hall, but I think our voices come through clearly above the din of the giant room. And it’s a good convers...

We Are Little Feminists

March 10, 2020 10:16 - 57 minutes - 52.2 MB

Little Feminist Book Club (@Little_Feminist) team founder Britt Murlas and educational director Archaa Shrivastav join me to share the WE ARE LITTLE FEMINISTS board book series, including HAIR, FAMILIES, and ON-THE-GO. Each board book is full of beautiful photos depicting all kinds of kids and families from all different backgrounds, traditions, ages, shapes, and skin tones. The accompanying text in each book is pragmatic and joyful, creating a board book that transcends age. Seriously. I rea...

Traci Sorell (2020)

March 06, 2020 04:00 - 43 minutes - 40 MB

This is a dedication to the life and light of Charlene Willing McManis, and the story she told the world. Traci Sorell (@tracisorell) joins me to share INDIAN NO MORE, a debut middle grade novel by the late Charlene Willing McManis with Traci Sorell. Charlene poured a lot of life and a lot of history we don’t get taught in schools into the writing of her debut novel. The result is an unforgettable protagonist named Regina Petit who has always been Umpqua and has always lived with her family o...

Margarita Engle (2020)

March 03, 2020 03:29 - 43 minutes - 39.6 MB

Margarita Engle (@margaritapoet) shares DREAMS FROM MANY RIVERS: A HISPANIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES TOLD IN POEMS. Margarita blends voices of real people with fictionalized accounts in order to create a book of many voices and many experiences in order to represent hispanic history in the U.S. Choosing poetry as her vessel helped to make the history personal, bringing us closer to the characters and speaking to our present through moments of the past. It’s quite an exceptional work and I...

Helena Ku Rhee

February 28, 2020 16:04 - 37 minutes - 34.3 MB

Helena Ku Rhee (@HelenaRhee) shares THE PAPER KINGDOM, a new picture book illustrated by Pascal Campion. In our conversation Helena talks about the invisible people of our society or, rather, those that we have a tendency to make invisible. Helena’s parents were night janitors, much like the parents in THE PAPER KINGDOM, and Helena recounts stories of going into work late at night with her parents and the fantastical stories they would make up about the people who worked in the offices during...

Weshoyot Alvitre

February 25, 2020 01:58 - 40 minutes - 37.3 MB

Weshoyot Alvitre (@weshoyot) shares AT THE MOUNTAIN’S BASE, a poetic story written by Traci Sorell and illustrated by Weshoyot about a family nervously awaiting the return of a family member serving in WWII. This is a story where you notice the silence. The large illustrations and colorful thread framing and connecting the art draw eyes to the hands and faces we meet in a cabin at the base of a mountain, but the waiting and the working in silence builds such terrific tension that I personally...

Nikki Grimes (2020)

February 21, 2020 13:48 - 35 minutes - 32.4 MB

Nikki Grimes (@nikkigrimes9) shares ORDINARY HAZARDS, a memoir in verse that has not only garnered six starred reviews on top of being named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, and a Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor Book, but it is also without question one of the most beautiful, heart-breaking and heart-mending audiobooks I have ever heard. For those familiar with Grimes’ body of work, you will find through lines throughout pointing back to childhood trauma, family separation, and yearning t...

Kat Leyh

February 18, 2020 04:11 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MB

Kat Leyh (@kaymlay) shares SNAPDRAGON, solo debut graphic novel about a girl named Snap, an old lady named Jacks (who might actually be a witch), and a favor that turns into something of an apprenticeship. Snapdragon is a kid who’s not afraid to question or explore an ominous setting or situation, being a bit of an outcast herself. Her curiosity leads to a kind of compassion and affinity toward those lucky few in her life and, I think, after reading SNAPDRAGON you’ll know just how lucky it wo...

Introducing Levine Querido

February 14, 2020 16:53 - 55 minutes - 51.1 MB

Today I’m welcoming Arthur A. Levine (@ArthurALevine1), head of Levine Querido and a publisher and advocate responsible for bringing many widely loved books in our world and in front of our readers. Arthur previews his Fall 2020 titles as well as what else is to come from Levine Querido. Our conversation looks broadly at publishing and at the world, but it also focuses on that one reader that needs the book you’re publishing. The one that needs to know they’re not alone in their experiences o...

The 2020 Sydney Taylor Book Awards

February 11, 2020 03:00 - 32 minutes - 30 MB

There are countless individuals working throughout publishing to center historically marginalized voices. Perhaps none do it more publicly or with greater lasting impact than those serving on award committees through the Association for Library Service to Children, or ALSC. That’s the branch of the American Library Association responsible for awarding medals such as the Newbery, the Caldecott, the Coretta Scott King, the Pura Belpré, the Stonewall, and many others. These medals often have dir...

Elizabeth Lilly

February 04, 2020 03:58 - 30 minutes - 28.3 MB

Elizabeth Lilly (@elizabethmlilly) shares GERALDINE, a picture book about a giraffe whose family moves to a new town where they are the only giraffe family. Geraldine tries to fit in as much as she can, but an encounter with a schoolmate and a conversation centered on labels gives new light to what it looks like to see and make space for another. Elizabeth Lilly is local to our school and so my 3rd graders had the chance to interview her in person. We also went totally off script, asking Eliz...

Redefining the Boy Hero (NCTE panel)

January 31, 2020 21:16 - 1 hour - 60 MB

Last November I had the esteemed privilege of moderating a panel at NCTE, the annual conference of the National Council of Teachers of English. The panel was titled “Redefining the Boy Hero: Empowering Sensitive Boys and Bucking Gender Stereotypes Through Middle Grade Fiction”. Sitting on the panel among a standing room only crowd were four exceptional children’s book authors: Elana K. Arnold, Erin Entrada Kelly, Kekla Magoon, and Katherine Marsh. We only had one mic and it was affixed to the...

Readers' Thoughts on Reading

January 28, 2020 20:19 - 28 minutes - 26.1 MB

Today I am joined by a team of 3rd graders at my school. Specifically, these are 3rd graders who signed up to take a podcasting class with me. You may have heard them on previous episodes interviewing Ricardo Cortes about his illustrations in PARTY: A MYSTERY or asking Adam Rex about ARE YOU SCARED, DARTH VADER? or writing PLUTO GETS THE CALL, which is illustrated by Laurie Keller. I’ve got one more episode with them after this where they interview debut picture book author Elizabeth Lilly. G...

Frané Lessac

January 21, 2020 03:30 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MB

Frané Lessac (@franelessac) shares UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS and UNDER THE MILKY WAY. Frané has made many beautiful books, but it was Traci Sorell’s debut picture book, WE ARE GRATEFUL: OTSALIHELIGA, in 2018 that really made me sit up and pay attention. Today Frané brings two picture books about the stars, both sharing a U.S. publication date. Frané tours the northern skies over our United States in UNDER THE MILKY WAY, highlighting different activities and occurrences that happen beneath the ...

Elizabeth Zunon

January 17, 2020 17:03 - 38 minutes - 35.6 MB

Elizabeth Zunon (@ElizabethZunon) shares BEDTIME FOR SWEET CREATURES, which is written by Nikki Grimes. It is a bedtime story of a parent telling the story of putting her child to bed. Elizabeth’s illustrations play alongside the text in enticing the child to bed by likening the child to different animals throughout this bedtime process. It’s just the right amount of silly with a sincere through line that’s caught in the parent’s eyes at the hand of Elizabeth’s brush. And it’s become our bedt...

Angela Joy

January 14, 2020 02:34 - 54 minutes - 50.2 MB

Angela Joy shares BLACK IS A RAINBOW COLOR. This beautiful book, illustrated by one-to-watch and the one-to-wow Ekua Holmes, is Angela’s debut to the children’s book world. The book answers a question from her daughter, and it also bears witness to history, to legacy, and to community. Angela included robust back matter, incorporating an author’s note, an explanation of phrases referenced, a selection of poems from poets mentioned, a timeline entitled “And What Shall We Call You?”, and a play...

Ann Braden

January 07, 2020 02:33 - 32 minutes - 30 MB

Ann Braden (@annbradenbooks) shares THE BENEFITS OF BEING AN OCTOPUS. This is a story about the strength of a 12-year-old girl named Zoey, even from before the moment when she realized she possessed such strength. It is a story about the things people tell us about ourselves and others, and how those things can become truths if we believe them, for good or for harm. It is a story about depending on someone to provide for you, and being taken advantage of and degraded because of your dependenc...

Rajani LaRocca

January 04, 2020 03:00 - 39 minutes - 36.4 MB

Rajani LaRocca (@rajanilarocca) shares MIDSUMMER’S MAYHEM. Mimi, the main character in Rajani’s middle grade debut, enters a baking competition at her town’s newest sweet spot, but things aren’t quite as they appear. The baked goods they sell are awful and overpriced, the employees seem to be speaking exclusively in rhyme, and crowds of locals are inexplicably showing up in droves for the bakery’s latest confections. Mimi’s dad is a food writer and has just returned from a trip abroad, but he...

Introducing Matthew in the Stacks

December 30, 2019 02:53 - 16 minutes - 15.3 MB

Let's get up-to-date on plans for the podcast in 2020, including the introduction of Matthew In The Stacks, a brand new podcast available to Patrons. This show follows an ask-me-anything style format in which authors and illustrators submit questions they have about the libraries, librarians, and all things bookish. It’s a chance to turn the tables and for me to offer insight into how libraries work from the perspective of one school librarian. The episodes are about 10-minutes in length and ...

Jin Xiaojing

December 27, 2019 03:00 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MB

Jin Xiaojing shares I MISS MY GRANDPA. This stunning picture book examines remembering a lost loved one through the memories and characteristics of other family members. It is without doubt a book that will stop you in your tracks, without question one of the most stunning and memorable picture books I read this year. This is our last interview episode of the year, and it’s one I hope that will carry you into the new year with the promise and hope and wonder of all that children’s publishing ...

Julie Fogliano

December 24, 2019 16:04 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MB

Julie Fogliano (@oneredhen) shares JUST IN CASE YOU WANT TO FLY, illustrated by Christian Robinson. Julie’s stories express themselves in poetic verse and they are some of my most beloved on our bookshelves. JUST IN CASE YOU WANT TO FLY grew from a playful game she used to engage her daughter. It’s lines and page turns are filled with sincerity and humor. IF I WAS THE SUNSHINE, illustrated by Loren Long, praises the way our love and presence in one another’s lives has the power to complete an...

Thanku Contributors

December 18, 2019 14:47 - 44 minutes - 41.1 MB

Today I invited contributors of THANKU: POEMS OF GRATITUDE to share their work with you today. This picture book, beautifully illustrated by Marlena Myles and edited by Miranda Paul, is something really special and I credit that to the exceptional list of contributors that made it possible. Each poet used a different poetic style and each gives thanks in a uniquely personal way, but I’ll let them tell you about that. Contributors on today’s episode (as they appear): Joseph Bruchac Kimberly Bl...

Adam Rex (2019)

December 13, 2019 14:26 - 29 minutes - 26.7 MB

Adam Rex (@MrAdamRex) shares ARE YOU SCARED, DARTH VADER?, which is nominated for our state book award. Adam also shares PLUTO GETS THE CALL, which is illustrated by Laurie Keller. Exploring fear, identity, and value through the context of humor (and Star Wars) takes just the right touch, and these books do so in wonderful ways. I’ve been working with a group of 3rd graders in a special podcasting seminar. Students nominate books for us to consider. Once we select the book and reach out to th...

Gilly Segal (Live at the Baltimore Book Festival)

December 10, 2019 11:26 - 45 minutes - 41.2 MB

Gilly Segal (@really_gilly) shares I’M NOT DYING WITH YOU TONIGHT. This episode was recorded live at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland as part of the Baltimore Book Festival. Kimberly Jones, Gilly’s co-author, had to cancel at the last minute and was sorely missed in this conversation. I’M NOT DYING WITH YOU TONIGHT is a YA novel told in two voices about two high school students, Lena and Campbell, who are forced to flee their school football game when a fight breaks out and a student i...

Tiffany Jewell

December 06, 2019 04:21 - 50 minutes - 46.3 MB

Tiffany Jewell (@tiffanymjewell) shares THIS BOOK IS ANTI-RACIST, her debut book. Listeners, I cannot even do this interview justice in this intro. Tiffany Jewell is an anti-bias, anti-racist educator and leader. This book dropped like a bomb into my professional learning and having the opportunity to interview Tiffany was both an inspiration and an education. Tiffany speaks on allowing her students to show her where to go. That’s something I’ve been working hard on as well. I’m going to keep...

Paula Chase

November 30, 2019 15:42 - 42 minutes - 38.5 MB

Paula Chase shares DOUGH BOYS, her latest novel and a companion to SO DONE. There are not an abundance of stories reflecting the diversity of black identity. Many stories being published today center on black pain. They take place in similar settings. They portray characters in similar ways. But there are many, many talked authors who are black and who are portraying black lives in ways communicate the complexity and diversity of blackness. Wait. Let me back that up. These diverse stories are...

Mina Javaherbin

November 26, 2019 16:36 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MB

Mina Javaherbin (@minajuna) shares MY GRANDMA AND ME, her latest picture book. The story weaves memories from Mina’s own childhood with the observation of what your heritage brings to a place. Mina’s grandmother was a devout Muslim and this story speaks to the revelation that everyone, no matter what religion you observe, what part of the world you live in, or what time in history you observe… everyone wants to teach love. Not a bad thought to carry you through your week. You can access even ...

Ricardo Cortés

November 19, 2019 01:25 - 27 minutes - 24.9 MB

Ricardo Cortés (@Rmcortes) shares PARTY: A MYSTERY. When my students first read PARTY: A MYSTERY they were stunned, they had lots and lots of questions, and they were each confident that he or she knew the solution to the mystery. But the more we discussed the book, the more their predictions changed. It was the perfect candidate for a group interview. Ricardo discovered Jamaica Kincaid’s “PARTY” in  a book of her essays, a collection of New Yorker “Talk of the Town” pieces she wrote in the b...

Joanna Rudnick

November 15, 2019 04:46 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MB

Joanna Rudnick shares STORY AND PICTURES BY, a feature-length documentary exploring the power and reach of children's picture books through the lens of three of today's most original authors/illustrators: Mac Barnett, Christian Robinson, and Yuyi Morales. Joanna is the film's director and producer and she's also a mom of two really adorable readers. The project launched on Kickstarter at the end of October and as of posting this they are in their final week of raising funds for the project. W...

Karina Yan Glaser

November 12, 2019 02:46 - 51 minutes - 47 MB

Karina Yan Glaser (@KarinaYanGlaser) shares THE VANDERBEEKERS TO THE RESCUE. In her third and latest installment in the VANDERBEEKERS series the five Vanderbeeker children find themselves in dire circumstances when new pets begin mysteriously arriving at their door. This might not seem like trouble alone, but the timing is less than ideal when the inspector shows up at their door in order to assess if the premises is up to regulation standards for mom to open her at-home bakery. And it really...

Meenal Patel

November 09, 2019 15:00 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MB

Meenal Patel shares PRIYA DREAMS OF MARIGOLDS AND MASALA. In this picture book, a life is India is recounted through an intergenerational connection between Priya and her Babi Ba, her grandmother. There is an intimacy evident in their relationship and a fondness for where you come from and where you call home. The answer is not always straightforward, of course, but helping make a house a home for those around you is a love that goes beyond words. Meenal has filled this story with those momen...

Joyce Wan (2019)

November 05, 2019 02:00 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MB

Joyce Wan (@joycewanbooks) shares DREAM BIG. This new board book engages our youngest readers with affirming language to take on the world, and it does so through micro-biographies of women who have done exactly that. As we discuss in our conversation, Joyce used DREAM BIG as a means to help give parents the tools for discussing the lives of these women throughout the world and throughout history. This isn’t just for the benefit of our youngest readers, of course, but also for the adults read...

Hena Khan (2019)

October 31, 2019 16:00 - 58 minutes - 53.1 MB

Hena Khan (@henakhanbooks) shares MORE TO THE STORY, a novel is inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and centering on a Pakistani-American family with four daughters: Jameela, Aleeza, Bisma, and Maryam. We experience the story through Jameela, a writer and budding journalist who passionately wants to make her mark on the school’s newspaper. The story is a lens through which readers experience that how we are in the world and how we react and respond to things going on in the world has...

Laurel Snyder and Chuck Groenink

October 29, 2019 02:46 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MB

Laurel Snyder (@LaurelSnyder) and Chuck Groenink (@ChuckGroenink) share HUNGRY JIM. In this new picture book, a boy awakens to realize that he is a lion... and that he is hungry. Moreover, his appetite seems insatiable and his urges irresistible. If you detect a hint of Sendak, you won’t be wrong. But this is the kind of story where Sendak and childhood and relationships and all of the little bits that make up you were all swallowed up. And the story that’s been churning inside feels a bit su...

Celia C. Pérez

October 22, 2019 02:00 - 57 minutes - 52.4 MB

Celia C. Pérez (@CeliaCPerez) shares STRANGE BIRDS: A FIELD GUIDE TO RUFFLING FEATHERS. Celia’s sophomore release is about four girls and one hat that bonded them in sororal friendship. It’s about the Floras and how traditions are made to be challenged. It’s about activism and how others will stand in your way. And as Celia says, it’s about how small actions can lead to big changes. Celia’s characters unite around a common cause, but their success depends on something more than friendship; it...

Stephanie V. W. Lucianovic

October 20, 2019 13:17 - 42 minutes - 38.9 MB

Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic (@grubreport) shares THE END OF SOMETHING WONDERFUL. Stephanie’s debut takes on a challenging topic through a compassionate voice. The death of a pet can be practice for children for when a family member passes, but it can also be an opportunity for a child to care deeply for another living thing. This is a big, awful thing, regardless of the fortitude or strength it may lend itself to later in life. Stephanie’s approach to the loss of your something wonderful is, in...

Tonya Engel

October 15, 2019 02:00 - 41 minutes - 38.3 MB

Tonya Engel (@tonyaengel) shares RISE! FROM CAGED BIRD TO POET OF THE PEOPLE, MAYA ANGELOU, written by Bethany Hegedus. Tonya talks about allowing her stream of consciousness to guide her when creating the art for RISE!. The result is a series of paintings rich in imagery and an inner strength that undeniably links that artist to her subject. Tonya speaks on how illustrating Maya Angelou’s life was like telling the story of one of her ancestors and how this book project shed light on how she ...

Daria Peoples-Riley

October 08, 2019 01:36 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MB

Daria Peoples-Riley (@dariaspeoples) shares I GOT NEXT. In her sequel to THIS IS IT, Daria explores allyship through a coming-of-age story on a community basketball court where decisions are made in a moment, and where how you play and what space you make for others is on display for all to see. Daria’s beautiful, layered work says volumes on how she sees children, development, activism, and resilience among failure. I hope this conversation resonates with you as it did me. You can access eve...

Guests

Rebecca Mock
1 Episode

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