Intro
Hi everyone and welcome to Books Between - a podcast to help teachers, parents, and librarians connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love. I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a 5th grade teacher, a mom of two girls, and a new aunt!! A few weeks ago, my brother and his wife had a beautiful baby girl they named Nora and has been so wonderful to have a baby in the family again!
This is Episode #50 and today I am sharing with you a conversation with Laurie Morrison and Cordelia Jensen - authors of Every Shiny Thing
But first I am excited to tell you that today’s episode is sponsored by MoxieReader - a literacy app that’s like a fitness tracker for your reading life. It gives teachers insights into their students’ reading, customized recommendations, and a way for kids to set and work toward their own reading goals in a way that is engaging and fun. My 5th graders and I have been trying it out over the past couple of weeks and they really, really loved it! They had armfuls of books they were excited to scan in and share with each other. I really feel like the end of the year is the perfect time to try something new that will energize your class and launch them into a summer full of reading. So head over to MoxieReader.com and try out their $7 for 3 months special by using the code welovereading!
A few announcements to pass along! The Twitter chat for Every Shiny Thing will be on Monday, June 5th at 8pm EST using #MGBookClub.
There is also a fantastic educator’s guide available for the novel and a Flipgrid for the book where you can watch videos of Laurie and Cordelia and submit your own to ask questions about the book!
Our next Middle Grade at Heart book club picks are The Mad Wolf’s Daughter in June, Just Under the Clouds in July, and Where the Watermelons Grow in August.
Also - Ann Braden and Jarrett Lerner have teamed up with some other educators to launch the #KidsNeedMentors project to connect authors with classrooms through book deliveries, postcard exchanges, Skype visits and lots more exciting things.
A quick reminder that the outline of today’s interview and links to every book we chat about along with other awesome middle grade content can be found right at MGBookVillage.org.
Cordelia Jensen & Laurie Morrison - Interview Outline
Our special guests this week are Cordelia Jensen and Laurie Morrison - authors of the newly released middle grade novel Every Shiny Thing .
Take a listen...
Every Shiny Thing
Let’s start with introductions -
Can you take a moment to tell us about yourself?
How did you two meet and decide to collaborate on this book?
Tell us about Every Shiny Thing!
Let’s talk about Lauren first since we meet her character first - as she is thinking about saying goodbye to her brother Ryan as her family is leaving him off at a therapeutic school for kids with autism. And we learn right away how upset Lauren feels about this.
Laurie - can you talk a bit about any experiences you had or research you did to write your part of the novel?
One of the things that’s been on my mind lately as a teacher and as someone who is always searching for books that are mirrors for children’s own lives is the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences. And oh does Sierra have so many of those - her mother is an alcoholic, her father is in jail, and she is living with a foster family.
Cordelia - how did Sierra’s character first come to you and how did you find that balance between her vulnerability and her resilience?
There are two images in Sierra’s section of the novel that are so powerful to me - the kaleidoscope and the garden. That symbolism of Sierra’s and Lauren’s and all of our lives fragmenting and reflecting and then cycling back together….
Can you talk a bit about those parts of your novel and how you came to include them in Sierra’s story?
One part of Every Shiny Thing that fascinated me was the Quaker school that the girls attend! And the Quaker values they study - can you talk a little but about that aspect of the book?
I really noticed how much of school life your novel got right.
Did that come from your own experiences as educators or did you do some research for that aspect of the book?
Let’s talk about the ending!! (I’ll cut this section of the interview and put it after the credits to avoid spoilers.)
Was the ending of the book different than how you first envisioned it?
Your Writing Life
What was your collaboration process like for writing Every Shiny Thing? Did you meet in person or do most of your work online?
What’s next for each of you?
Your Reading Life
Was there an adult in your life who made you the reader you are today?
What have you been reading lately?
Thank You!
Links:
Cordelia Jensen’s website - http://www.cordeliajensen.com
Laurie Morrison’s website - https://lauriemorrisonwrites.com
Cordelia on Twitter and Instagram
Laurie on Twitter and Instagram
Good Morning Sunshine Breakfast Cookies
Books & Authors We Chatted About:
NeuroTribes (Steve Silberman)
You Go First (Erin Entrada Kelly)
Star Crossed (Barbara Dee)
The Female Persuasion (Meg Wolitzer)
Well That Was Awkward (Rachel Vail)
The Science of Breakable Things (Tae Keller)
The Girl With Two Hearts
Dumplin (Julie Murphy)
One for the Murphys (Lynda Mullaly Hunt)
Forget Me Not (Ellie Terry)
Closing
Alright, that wraps up our show this week! And thanks again to MoxieReader for supporting the podcast this month - definitely check out their website for an engaging way for your students to build their reading resume.
If you have a question about how to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love or a suggestion about a topic we should cover, I would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.
Books Between is a proud member of the Education Podcast Network. This network features podcasts for educators, created by educators. For more great content visit edupodcastnetwork.com
If you are liking the show, please leave us some love on iTunes or Stitcher so others can discover us as well.
Thanks and see you soon! Bye!
Intro
Hi everyone and welcome to Books Between - a podcast to help teachers, parents, and librarians connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love. I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a 5th grade teacher, a mom of two girls who are 8 and 11, and feeling extraordinarily lucky on this Mother’s Day to have my mom in my life. And having a mother who is and has always been such a staunch supporter of my reading life.
This is Episode #49 and Today I’m discussing three new middle grade releases, and then I’ll share with you a conversation with authors Ann Braden and Saadia Faruqi from the Lifelines Podcast.
Alright - announcements! I hope you have been loving the May Middle Grade at Heart Book Club pick Every Shiny Thing as much as I have. Laurie Morrison and Cordelia Jensen will on the podcast soon so if you have a question you want me to ask them, please let me know! In June we’ll be reading The Mad Wolf’s Daughter by Diane Magras and July’s pick is Just Under the Clouds by Melissa Sarno.
And - I hope you’ve been as inspired as I have by the Educator Spotlight interviews at the MGBookVillage site. We have lots more coming, so keep an eye out!
A quick reminder that the outline of today’s interview and a full transcript of all the other parts of this show can be found at MGBookVillage.org - including links to every topic and book we mention. I know you are busy and I want to make it effortless for you to find things.
Book Talk - Three Fantastic Spring Releases
This week we are back to some book talks! And instead of having them fit a particular theme, I thought I’d simply share with you three really great recent releases from this past spring. They are Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein by Jennifer Roy & Ali Fadhil, Me, Frida and the Secret of the Peacock Ring by Angela Cervantes, and Rebound by Kwame Alexander.
Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein
Our first featured middle grade novel this week is Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein by Jennifer Roy with Ali Fadhil. This historical fiction novel is set in 1991 in Basra, Iraq - just as the United States is launching Operation Desert Storm. And it’s based on the true story of Ali Fadhil’s life as an ordinary 11 year old boy who loves playing video games and watching American TV like the The Muppet Show. But then, the bombings come and life for Fadhil and his family is becoming more and more bleak. Here are three things to know about Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein:
- The main character does NOT actually play Atari with Saddam Hussein. Although as an adult, he does become a translator who ended up working at his trial. In the novel, one way that Ali copes is to imagine that he is playing Pitfall as he travels through his war-torn streets and also because some of the Americans dubbed it “the video game war” because the night-vision green streaks of bombs across the dark sky looked to them like a video game.
- That this book gives a much-needed window into a time-period that is often overlooked in children’s literature. We are now getting a lot of great books about 9/11 but the era of the Gulf War is still lacking. And many of my students’ parents are veterans of those wars so knowing more about the perspectives of an Iraqi child going through those experiences is important. And humanizes a group of people that some wish to label as enemies.
- How many similarities students will discover between themselves and Ali. Despite being set halfway around the world in a country the United States was at war with, Ali’s family plays Monopoly while they hide out waiting for the bombs to pass. Ali plays soccer and video games and collects American Superman comics. His sister has a Barbie Dreamhouse! Probably the same one I did with the elevator you pulled up with a little string. And I think back to when I was a teenager watching this war live on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and Bernie Shaw and I never would have realized the kids on the other side of those bombs were so much like me.
Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein is a great book for 5th graders through middle schoolers who are interested in the real impacts of war, Iraqi history, or just want a good historical fiction book. And it would make a great complement to the many World War II novel studies out there to add a more modern perspective.
Me, Frida and the Secret of the Peacock Ring
A second great spring middle grade release is Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring by Angela Cervantes. You might know her work from her two earlier novels - Gaby, Lost and Found and Allie, First at Last. This novel is a mystery and centers around a missing ring belonging to the artist Frida Kahlo. The main character is 12 year old Paloma Marquez, who begrudgingly travels with her mom from their home in Kansas City to Mexico City for 4 weeks of the summer. (Her mom is a professor and has a fellowship there.) Although Paloma’s father was Mexican, she doesn’t speak Spanish, she worries about missing out on fun with her friends, and she just doesn’t want to go. But…. on her first night in Mexico, she attends a reception at Frida Kahlo’s home - Casa Azul - and receives the following note from a mysterious boy. Here are three things to love about Angela Cervantes’ Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring:
- I love how Paloma is inspired in this book by her favorite mysterious series starring Lulu Pennywhistle. And as she gets further and further into the thick of things with brother and sister Gael and Lizzie - midnight break-ins, and secret rooms, and strange fortune-tellers - Paloma is always referencing Lulu Pennywhistle to figure out how she should proceed.
- All the Frida Kahlo!! When I found out this book had to do with my favorite artist - I knew I had to read it. And I was so happy to discover that this book does her such justice. Frida Kahlo’s paintings illicit such a visceral reaction from students and once you tell them a little bit about her life - how she painted her pain and made it beautiful - they are enthralled by her. And yes, some notice the exaggerated eyebrows first and some find it funny. But I like how Paloma discussed that at on page 119.
- How this book is really all about identity and belonging. Paloma’s father was Mexican but died before she could have her own memories of him. And she feels as if she is searching for that connection while she is in Mexico City. And as Paloma learns more about Frida, she discovers how complex her life was - sometimes feeling torn between being an international artist and wanting the roots of her native Mexican heritage.
Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring is a great book for kids who love art or travel, for kids who are intrigued by Mexican culture and the Spanish language - and for anyone who loves a great mystery!
Rebound
Last up this week is Kwame Alexander’s Rebound - the much-awaited prequel to the much-loved and much-awarded, novel-in-verse The Crossover. This book is all about Josh & Jordan’s father - Chuck “Da Man” Bell. But - this is an origin story. So when we first meet him, he is just Charlie - an 80’s kid reeling from a family tragedy and trying to find his way forward and trying to find his smile again. When home becomes tense, he is involuntarily shipped off to his grandparent’s house for the summer where he starts to find that path forward. Let me read you the first page….
Here are three things I loved about Kwame Alexander’s Rebound:
- The illustrations by Dawud Anyabwile. While The Crossover had black-out poems throughout the book, Rebound includes these awesome two-page spreads of these mini graphic-novel type sketches of Charlie’s basketball daydreams and wishes and memories. So so cool. And a great hook for kids who love the graphic novel format.
- The 80s vibe of this book! Now, you all know I am sucker for 70s and 80s nostalgia! And this book took me back to skating parties and trying for that high score on the Pac Man machine at the rec center where ALL your friends gathered after school. But also - some things haven’t changed - like Black Panther and the Fantastic Four, the importance the right brand of shoes (and not those knockoffs your mom gets you), Strawberry Pop-Tarts, and your folks not letting you watch THAT video on MTV.
- Discovering all the little references and plot threads that will appear later in The Crossover. How Charlie becomes Chuck, the origins of his Basketball Rules, where his love of jazz came from - and boy it was NOT there at first! And… the little hidden surprises revealed toward the end about who some of the characters end up being in the later book. And I know there’s a ton more that I haven’t figured out yet - so for that reason alone, definitely a rich book to read with a friend or with a book club to mine and discuss all those little details.
Rebound is a must-get for your classroom or library. And fans of The Crossover are going to absolutely relish this prequel. It’s a book you finish and want to immediately talk to your friends about. It’s not necessary to have read The Crossover first, but I think it’s a better and more enjoyable reading experience to read them in the order they were published. So The Crossover, the Rebound, and then go read Crossover again!
Ann Braden & Saadia Faruqi - Interview Outline
Our special guests this week are Ann Braden and Saadia Faruqi. Ann is the author of the upcoming middle grade novel The Benefits of Being an Octopus and founder of GunSenseVT. Saadia is an interfaith activist and author of a new early chapter book series called Meet Yasmin. Ann and Saadia recently teamed up to launch a podcast - Lifelines: Books That Bridge the Divide. I have been loving their show and am so happy to be bring you this conversation. We chat about why they started a new kidlit podcast, their novels, how they make time for reading with their kids, and some secrets for the perfect French Toast.
Take a listen..
Lifelines Podcast
Can you take a moment to tell us about yourself?
I was so excited to see your new podcast, Lifelines, pop up in my Twitter feed a few weeks ago! How did you two connect with each other and then how did the podcast start?
What is your collaboration process like to produce the show?
I know when I first started podcasting, it took a while to get into a groove… what mistakes have you made along the way?
And what are some plans you have for the future of the podcast?
So Ann - your pictures of your baby posed with the stuffed animals is adorable!
So Saadia, I started following you on Instagram and realized that you and I share a love of French Toast. What is your secret for the perfect French Toast?
Your Writing Life
You both have children’s books coming out this year! Can you tell us about them and when they’ll be available?
Your Reading Life
What were some of your favorite or most influential reads as a child?
I’ve realized that something we all have in common is that we have young children. I’m wondering - how do you foster that love of reading in your family? And how do you make reading a priority when family life can be so busy?
What have you read lately that you’ve loved?
Thank You!
Links:
Ann Braden’s website - http://annbradenbooks.com
Saadia Faruqi’s website - http://www.saadiafaruqi.com
Ann on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram
Saadia on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram
Books & Authors We Chatted About:
Witch of Blackbird Pond (Elizabeth George Speare)
Fifteen (Beverly Cleary)
Frog and Toad (Arnold Lobel)
The High King Series (Lloyd Alexander)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
Homecoming (Cynthia Voigt)
The Famous Five (Enid Blyton)
Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene)
Hardy Boys (Franklin W. Dixon)
I Survived Series (Lauren Tarshis)
Crenshaw (Katherine Applegate)
Wishtree (Katherine Applegate)
Orbiting Jupiter (Gary D. Schmidt)
Okay For Now (Gary D. Schmidt)
Closing
Alright, that wraps up our show this week!
If you have a question about how to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love or a suggestion about a topic we should cover, I would love to hear from you. You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or message me on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.
Books Between is a proud member of the Education Podcast Network. This network features podcasts for educators, created by educators. For more great content visit edupodcastnetwork.com
Thank you so much for joining me this week. You can get an outline of interviews and a full transcript of all the other parts of our show at MGBookVillage.org. And, if you are liking the show, please leave us some love on iTunes or Stitcher so others can discover us as well.
Thanks and see you soon! Bye!