Tag Archives: kid lit

Podcast #33: Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sacher

An Interview with Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White

For my thirty-third Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed authors Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White about their favorite middle grade novel,  Wayside Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sacher.

First published in 1978 by Avon Camelot Books, Wayside Stories from Wayside School is a collection of thirty stories about a strange school with thirty classrooms built one on top of the other. There you will meet Mrs. Jewls, the teacher who thinks all her students are monkeys;  John, who can only read upside down and has to stand on his head to read the right way;  Leslie, who decides her toes are useless and tries to sell them; Calvin, who has to deliver a note to the nineteenth floor which was never built to a teacher who does not exist;  and many more. With its light-hearted absurd humor and  nonsensical situations, Wayside School has long been a favorite book of kids who want to get lost in a school that seems even nuttier than their own.

Annabeth Bondor-Stone and Connor White  are co-authors of the middle grade novels Shivers! The Pirate Who’s Afraid of Everything  and Shivers!, The Pirate Who’s Back in Bunny Slippers as well as Time Travelers, which will be released this Spring.  In addition, Annabeth and Connor perform for school assembly programs and have produced several videos about the writing process for kids. You can find Annabeth and Connor’s website at annabethandconnor.com

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. The next podcast will be published on May 1st, 2018.

Podcast #32: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diane Wynne Jones

An Interview with Bonny Becker

For my thirty-second Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed author Bonny Becker about her favorite middle grade novel,  Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.

First published in 1986 by Greenwillow Books, the novel tells the story of Sophie, who as the eldest sister of three doesn’t expect much out of life. But when she is cursed by a witch, her transformation into an old woman changes her in more ways than one.  With nowhere else to turn, she flees to the moving castle of the notorious wizard Howl to try to get her spell lifted by a fire demon without Howl finding out. Howl, though, does not turn to be quite the monster she expected.  As a matter of fact, no one is quite who they are pretending to be, including Sophie. Part fantasy and part fairy tale, with a lot of humor, whimsy and just a touch of romance thrown in, Howl’s Moving Castle is a story about deception and magic and finding yourself in the most unexpected of ways.

Bonny Becker is author of the Mouse and Bear picture books, such as A Christmas for Bear  and A Visitor for Bear, as well as the picture book  Cloud Country and the middle grade novels The Magical Ms. Plum and Holbrook: A lizard’s tale.  She also contributes to the blog Books Around the Table. You can find Bonny’s website at bonnybecker.com and the blog she writes for at booksaroundthetable.wordpress.com.

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. The next podcast will be published on April 16th, 2018.

Podcast #30: Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry

An Interview with Mike Grosso

For my thirtieth Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed author, educator and musician Mike Grosso about his favorite middle grade novel,  Anastsia Krupnik by Lois Lowry.

Published in 1979 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the novel is the first of a series of nine books is about unusual young girl named Anastasia Krupnik. Anastasia has a green notebook where she keeps track of the things she loves, like the new wart on her thumb, and the things she hates, like the baby brother who’s on his way much too soon.  But when life comes at her, like her crush on Washburn Cummings who doesn’t even know she’s alive, her 92 year old grandmother who can’t remember her name, and teachers who don’t understand when she pours her heart out in her poetry, it’s a whole lot for one ten year old girl to figure out.  But if anyone is up for meeting life head on, it’s Anastasia.

Mike Grosso is a fifth grade elementary teacher, musician, and author of the middle grade novel I am Drums. You can find Mike’s website at www.mikegrossoauthor.com.

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. The next podcast will be published on March 16th, 2018.

Podcast #29: The No. 1 Car Spotter and The No. 1 Car Spotter and the Firebird by Antinuke

An Interview with Meera Sriram

For my twenty-ninth Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed author Meera Sriram about two of her favorite middle grade novels,  The No. 1 Car Spotter and The No. 1 Car Spotter and the Firebird , written by Antinuke and illustrated by Warwick Johnson Cadwell.

Published in 2010 and 2011 respectively,  The No. 1 Car Spotter and The No. 1 Car Spotter and the Firebird tell a variety of stories about Oluwalase Babatunde Benson, a young boy in a rural African village (based on the author’s own childhood in Nigeria) who has a special talent for spotting cars before anyone else can, so much so that everyone calls him No. 1.  But car spotting isn’t No.1’s only talent. He has a knack for finding just the right solution for whatever problem visits his village. Whether it’s finding a way to get a group of rich tourists across a flooded road so Mama Coca-Cola can feed them her fried akara, or figuring out how to get his family’s goods to the market when their cart breaks down by inventing the Cow-rolla, No. 1 always finds a way to save the day. These two books (and there are four more in the series) are funny and entertaining and shine a small light on a part of the world not often seen in children’s books.

Meera Sriram is co-author of such books as Bijoy and the Big River and Endangered Animals of India. In addition, she blogs about multicultural children’s books  and offers presentations with a focus on Early Literacy. You can find Meera’s website at www.meerasriram.com

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. The next podcast will be published on March 1st, 2018.

Podcast #28: Beatrice Zinker, Upside Down Thinker by Shelley Johannes

An Interview with Kimberly McDermid

For my twenty-eighth Dream Gardens kid lit podcast, I interviewed educator and kid lit blogger Kimberly McDermid  about one of her favorite middle grade novels,  Beatrice Zinker, Upside Down Thinker, written and illustrated by Shelley Johannes.

Published in 2017 by Hyperion, Beatrice Zinker, Upside Down Thinker is a book about an unusual young girl  who prefers to do her best thinking upside down (naturally). So when she shows up for her first day of third grade dressed as a Ninja, ready to start another upside down year with her best friend Lenny, everything turns topsy-turvy when Lenny shows up in new dress clothes . . . and with a new friend. Worse yet, Lenny is no longer interested in all the secret plans she and Beatrice had talked about last year. What’s an upside down girl to do? Come up with another secret plan to win back her friend of  course. Beatrice Zinker, Upside Down Thinker is a book about friendship and change and trying to find your place in a world that doesn’t always see eye to eye with an upside down thinker.

Kimberly blogs about kids’ books and authors at Storymamas with her two fellow kid lit bloggers Courtney and Ashley. You can find Storymamas at storymamas.com.

All podcasts are available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. Please link, share, comment, or subscribe. The next podcast will be published on February 15th, 2018.