Épisodes

  • Cindy Williams Schrauben, "Hank's Change of Heart" (The Little Press, 2025)

    Cindy Williams Schrauben, "Hank's Change of Heart" (The Little Press, 2025)
    Dec 10 2025
    In this, our second interview with children's author Cindy Williams Schrauben, we celebrate her new book, Hank's Change of Heart (The Little Press, 2025) Hardcover, illustrations by Sasha Richards, published by The Little Press just last month (Nov. 2025). We talk about the difficulties in traditional publishing, both for those aspiring to be published, and those already published. We discuss the role of the message in the story, the joy of writing, and the pain of rejection, and the importance of obsessive perseverence in getting traditionally published. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    34 min
  • Renée LaTulippe, "Limelight: Curtain Up on Poetry Comics" (Charlesbridge Moves, 2025)

    Renée LaTulippe, "Limelight: Curtain Up on Poetry Comics" (Charlesbridge Moves, 2025)
    Dec 5 2025
    A wonderful interview with children's author, poet and teacher of everything lyrical and rhyming, Renée LaTulippe, to celebrate her brand new book, Limelight: Curtain Up on Poetry Comics!, illustrated by Chuck Gonzales, just published (Charlesbridge Moves, 2025). In this, our second interview, we discuss the theatrical aspects of children's books and the role of lyrical and rhyming words in creating moving read-aloud stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    46 min
  • Jennifer Conrad on Teaching Through Picture Book Appreciation

    Jennifer Conrad on Teaching Through Picture Book Appreciation
    Dec 3 2025
    I have never spoken to anyone like Jennifer Conrad who teaches literature to her senior high school students through picture book appreciation. In our interview, we discuss how her unique program evolved, and how her students develop and deepen their love for this genre through interaction with young children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    40 min
  • Ziggy Hanaor, "Life (As We Know It)" (Cicada Books, 2025)

    Ziggy Hanaor, "Life (As We Know It)" (Cicada Books, 2025)
    Nov 8 2025
    Ziggy Hanaor is the director of Cicada Books, a boutique children’s publishing company. She has also written nine books including Fly Flies, Alex and Alex and The Pocket Chaotic, which have won awards and have been translated into over 20 languages. In our conversation we celebrate her new book about the history of the universe and us, entitled, Life (As We Know It) (Cicada, 2025, Cristóbal Schmal (Illustrator), and talk about her careers in publishing and writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    42 min
  • Julie Fette, "Gender by the Book: 21st-Century French Children's Literature" (Routledge, 2025)

    Julie Fette, "Gender by the Book: 21st-Century French Children's Literature" (Routledge, 2025)
    Nov 7 2025
    Gender by the Book: 21st-Century French Children's Literature (Routledge, 2025) investigates the gender representations that French children's literature transmits to readers today. Using an interdisciplinary, mixed methods approach, this book grounds its literary analysis in a sociohistorical examination of three key institutions – libraries, book clubs, and subscription magazines – that circulate reading material to children. It shows how French policies, cultural beliefs, and market forces influence the content of children's literature, including tensions between State support for unprofitable artistic endeavors and a belief in children’s right to high-quality products on the one hand, and suspicion of activism as anathema to creativity and fear of losing boy readers on the other. In addition, the notion of universalism, which asserts that equality is best achieved when society is blind to differences, thwarts a diverse and equitable array of literary representations. Nevertheless, conditions are favorable for 21st-century French children's publishers to offer a robust body of richly entertaining egalitarian literature for children. Guest Julie Fette, author of Gender by the Book: 21st-Century French Children's Literature published in October 2024 by Routledge. Dr. Fette is Associate Professor of French Studies at Rice University where she is also Rice Faculty Scholar at the Center for the Middle East, Baker Institute and a Faculty Affiliate with the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. She is also the author of Exclusions: Practicing Prejudice in French Law and Medicine, 1920-1945 from Cornell University Press in 2012 and the co-author of the textbook Les Français from Hackett in 2021, as well as numerous articles and book chapters on subjects from gender and professional life in France to teaching French studies in the classroom and online. Host Gina Stamm is Associate Professor of French at The University of Alabama. Their research is concentrated on the environmental humanities and speculative literatures of the 20th and 21st centuries, from Surrealism to contemporary science fiction and feminist utopias, in Metropolitan France and the francophone Caribbean. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    42 min
  • Stephanie Ellen Sy. "You Can't Tame a Tiger" (OwlKids, 2025)

    Stephanie Ellen Sy. "You Can't Tame a Tiger" (OwlKids, 2025)
    Nov 6 2025
    In our engaging interview, we celebrate award-wining illustrator Julien Chung's new book, You Can't Tame a Tiger (OwlKids) written by Stephanie Ellen Sy, published September, 2025, and talk about his many-faceted career, his ability to mix the commercial and the artistic, his love for surprises and 'wow' moments, and his transition from graphic design to illustrating children's books, and his belief in the importance of the 'writing community.' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    49 min
  • Children's Books with Annie Kelley, Executive Editor, Random House STUDIO

    Children's Books with Annie Kelley, Executive Editor, Random House STUDIO
    Oct 29 2025
    A splendid interview (I'm biased, but so what, it really is splendid) with Annie Kelley, Executive Editor, Random House STUDIO. We talk about what she looks for in a manuscript (strong voice and not generic, needs to stand out in some way). She talks about her love for children's books as a child and how she found her dream job as editor. Annie urges authors to ignore the advice of "writing to the trend" and to write from the heart. Annie talks about her 'specialty', finding the right illustrator for the right book. Annie talks about some of her recent and current books (including mine!!!). So am I lucky or what? Heads up, people: EMILY SAW A DOOR, illustrated fabulously by Orit Magia, launches on Feb. 24th, 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    41 min
  • Tami Lehman-Wilzig, "Rembrandt's Blessing" (Kar-Ben Publishing, 2025)

    Tami Lehman-Wilzig, "Rembrandt's Blessing" (Kar-Ben Publishing, 2025)
    Oct 26 2025
    Inspired by the true story of the friendship between Rembrandt and Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel. Painting scenes from Bible stories is Rembrandt's passion. Many of his Amsterdam neighbors are Sephardic Jews, and the children often come to play with the costumes at the renowned painter's house. Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel encourages his neighbors to pose for Rembrandt's biblical scenes. He helps the painter understand the descriptive words in the Hebrew bible. At the rabbi's home for Sabbath dinner, Rembrandt watches his friend cup his hands over his children's heads and say a blessing, which gives him an idea for a very special painting. Tami Lehman-Wilzig is the award-winning author of sixteen Jewish content picture books, including On the Wings of Eagles, SOOSIE, The Horse That Saved Shabbat; Keeping The Promise; Nathan Blows Out the Hanukkah Candles; Passover Around the World; and Hanukkah Around the World. Here, we we talk about her brand new picture book, Rembrandt's Blessing, (illustrated by Anita Barghigiani, Kar-Ben Publishing, Sept. 2025), and her writing journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    43 min