Tag Archives: interview

Call Me Maria – an interview with Dania Ramos

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Podcast #061

For my sixty-first Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed author and playwright Dania Ramos about the young readers novel Call Me Maria by Judith Ortiz Cofer. Maria is torn between two worlds, her old home in Puerto Rico where her mother lives, and her new home in the barrio in New York City with her father. Told in a mix of poems, letters, and prose, this lyrical novel tells of a young girl’s search for a place where she can feel like she belongs, and a voice to express the life around her and within her.

Dania Ramos is an educator and playwright as well as author of the 7th Grade Sleuths books Who’s Ju and Ignacio in the Dark. In addition she is podcast manager for the Cocatazo Audio theater, for which she has written the children’s audio fiction series Time Storm. You can find Dania’s website at www.daniaramos.com and the Cocatazo Audio theater  at www.cocotazomedia.com.

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Please link, share, comment, write a review or subscribe. Let me know what you think! And if you are interested in participating in the Dream Gardens podcast, send me a request through my contact page.

My next podcast will be with author Christina Uss talking about the middle grade novel Lizard Music by Daniel Pinkwater and The Trolls by Polly Horvath. It will be published on October 7th.

Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings; Soaring Earth – an interview with Padma Venkatraman

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Podcast #058

For my fifty-eighth Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed author Padma Venkatraman about the verse memoirs Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings and Soaring Earth by Margarita Engle.

Enchanted Air was published in 2015, followed by Soaring Earth in 2019.  Each details  Margarita’s experience immigrating to the US after the Cuban revolution of the 1960’s. In the first book we meet Margarita as a child, torn between her love of the Cuba she longs to return to and her struggle to find her place in a country that doesn’t always welcome her with open arms. In the second book we meet up with Margarita again as a young adult as she travels from California to New York in a journey to figure out where she belongs and what she has to offer the world. Told entirely in free verse, Margarita’s story is lyrical and personal, a story that is both unique and universal in her quest to find a place to call home.

Padma Venkatraman is author of  the novels Climbing the Stairs, Island’s End, A Time to Dance, and the 2019 middle grade novel The Bridge Home. You can find Padma’s website at padmavenkatraman.com.

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. And if you are interested in participating in the Dream Gardens podcast, send me a request through my contact page.

My next podcast will be with author Kathi Appelt, talking about The Grand Plan To Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami . It will be published on August 19th.

Ida, Always by Caron Levis and Charles Santoso: an interview with author Artie Knapp

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Podcast #045

For my forty-fifth Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed author Artie Knapp about his favorite children’s book, the picture book Ida, Always, written  by Caron Levis and illustrated by Charles Santoso.

Originally published in 2016, and winner of the Christopher Award, this picture book tells the true story of two polar bears, Ida and Gus, who live a happy and carefree life in the Central Park Zoo in New York City . But one day, Ida gets sick, and the two of them must adjust their lives to a new reality full of little sorrows and unexpected joys.  Ida, Always is a  smartly written and beautifully illustrated book about friendship and loss and and the persistence of memory, and like all good books  for children, has a great deal to say to adults of all ages.

Artie Knapp is the author of many stories and poems for children as well as the books View from the Zoo, Living Green: A Turtles Quest for a Cleaner Planet, and his latest book, Little Otter Learns to Swim.   You can find Artie’s website at wwww.artieknapp.com.

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and now Spotify. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. And if you are interested in participating in the Dream Gardens podcast, send me a request through my contact page.

My next podcast will be with author Rebecca Caprara, talking about the Middle Grade verse novel Inside Out and Back Again, written by Thanhha Lai. It will be published on January 2nd.

Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee: an interview with author Margaret Peterson Haddix

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Podcast #044

For my forty-forth Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed author Margaret Peterson Haddix about her favorite children’s book, the middle grade novel  Millicent Min, Girl Genius, written  by Lisa Yee.

Originally published in 2003, Millicent Min, Girl Genius tells the story of an amazingly gifted but painfully awkward eleven year old girl who’s having a terrible summer.  Her mother is not only forcing her to join a summer volley ball league and tutor her least favorite person in the world, Stanford Wong, but the one person who understands her best, her grandmother, is moving away. Still, thing start looking up when she meets Emily, who seems to like her for who she is, especially since Emily knows nothing about Millicent’s reputation as a genuine genius. And Millicent would prefer to keep it like that as long as she can. But brilliant as she is, Millicent will soon find out she has  a lot to learn about what it takes to keep a friend. A funny, heartwarming, and engaging book for anyone who’s felt like they don’t quite fit in.

Margaret Peterson Haddix is the best selling author of such books as The Missing and The Shadow Children Series, Uprising, The Summer of Broken Things and many, many more including her Children of Exile series, the third book of which, Children of Jubilee, comes out this November.  You can find Margaret’s website at haddixbooks.com.

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and now Spotify. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. And if you are interested in participating in the Dream Gardens podcast, send me a request through my contact page.

My next podcast will be with author Artie Knapp, talking about the picture book Ida Always, written by Caron Levis and illustrated by Charles Santoso. It will be published on December 1st.

Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins: an interview with author Kat Shepherd

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Podcast #043

For my forty-third Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed author Kat Shepherd about her favorite children’s book, the middle grade novel  Criss Cross, written  and illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins.

Originally published in 2005, and awarded the Newbery in 2006, the novel tells the story  a single summer in the life of a group of young teens. There is Debbie, who wishes something would happen, though she isn’t quite sure what, and Hector, who’s hoping he can find a way to connect to someone special out there through the guitar he’s learning to play.  Their stories, and the stories of several others, intersect with each other in unexpected ways, and though things don’t quite work out for anyone in the ways they’d hoped for, by the end of the summer they’re a little bit wiser about what life has to offer them.  Criss Cross is a unique novel, thoughtful and lyrical and even somewhat experimental in its stream of consciousness narrative and structural playfulness, but at its heart a coming of age story about the joys, the discoveries, the disappointments, and the heartaches of growing up.

Kat Shepherd is author of The Shadow Hand, Book 1 of the series Babysitting Nightmares, and coming in 2019, the interactive mystery series The Gemini Mysteries. You can find Kat’s website at katshepherd.com.

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and now Spotify. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. And if you are interested in participating in the Dream Gardens podcast, send me a request through my contact page. My next podcast will be with author Margaret Petersen Haddix, talking about Lisa Yee’s middle grade novel Millicent Min, Girl Genius. It will be published on November 16th.