“I lean on my community. I lean on the power of the pen. I lean on remembering who my ancestors are and what they endured, the colonization that they survived in the Americas, I think, ‘we've been here before, and the lineage from which I come is one that is powerful and resistant.’ I would be dishonoring that legacy and that lineage if I didn't st…

“Their white classmates can read Harry Potter and relate to going to Hogwarts and flying on brooms. But a Black kid can't aspire to go to Paris, which can actually happen.” – Jerry Craft Growing up, Jerry Craft did not enjoy reading. He says he simply never encountered a children's book that intrigued him enough or felt right. But Jerry loves defyi…

“For every child that thinks something is wrong with them, my books are saying, ‘be you, even if others can’t see you. The people who don’t see your beauty, see your glory–they have a problem. Something is wrong with their eyes, their soul.’” – Jewell Parker Rhodes Raised mainly by her grandmother on a steady diet of porch stories (and lots of brea…

“Every time I read “Big” at a school, obviously I’m there to speak to kids about the story, and I hope they’re all connecting with it, but at every single reading there is always an adult woman that comes to me and says, this is my story, I needed this when I was young. And I just wish we all knew that we were all going through the same thing.” -Va…

“Life is a wheel and humanity has been through countless cycles of ups and downs. The things that seem so dire now won't be this dire forever. Eventually, there is an upswing. I always needed that reminder, and it made me think that my young readers need that reminder as well.” - Yamile Saied Mendez With a storytelling style that radiates warmth an…

It’s official. Two years in a row makes it a tradition. The Reading Culture Yearbook is here. It’s the year-end celebratory episode where we look back and highlight some of our favorite moments in the form of awarding superlatives. Or, as we dubbed them last year and seemingly forgot, “The Readies.” This year’s edition features awards such as “Best…

“I am saying: reader, we're going on a journey. You are going to come with me and then I'm pulling them gently into the narrative. And then again, if I'm doing my job, I'm holding them like a hug.” - Andrea Davis Pinkney Andrea Davis Pinkney stands tall at just 4’11”, but she is still somehow larger than life. In her writing, she has what she refer…

We revisit our episode with Gregory Maguire. ****** "That's really all we are obliged to do for those we call our enemies. We are obliged to see them as humans, and then we behave the way we will. We are obliged not to consider them as less than human because that way, all hell breaks loose. - Gregory Maguire Gregory Maguire expresses himself with …

“I think kids are actually generally a better audience for literary fiction, for art, for ambitious storytelling that asks the reader to do work. And a lot of that is just based on how their brains work and their place in the world.” - Mac Barnett Growing up, Mac Barnett’s mom never took their picture books off their shelves. They remained a part o…

“I think it caused me to get over some of the sort of narcissistic impulses in my writing and not make it about me and impressing, but instead about having the best reading experience I could imagine.” - Eliot Schrefer At a young age, Eliot Schrefer acknowledged that he was hiding himself. Growing up queer when he did meant concealing a key part of…

“The two most important things you can do as a writer are to make people wonder what will happen next and to understand why it matters. - Katherine Marsh Every moment of every day, our attention is the subject of a battle. As adults, we struggle to focus on the 'right' things—so how can we expect our kids to? With this in mind, capturing and holdin…

“Why am I fighting this? Like, why am I fighting the thing that I want to write? For who? For like a teacher that I haven't seen in five years or ten years? For a critic who I don't know?” - Zoraida Córdova Zoraida Córdova doesn’t care about what a book should be. When she writes, she’s interested in.. well… what she’s interested in. That means Zor…

“I cannot do an interview without talking about who I come from as it pertains to the writers who have influenced my work because their fingerprints are all over [it].” - Elizabeth Acevedo In an interview, we may hear Elizabeth Acevedo's singular voice, but she assures us she is not alone. Elizabeth reminds us that she is part of a lineage and an a…

“I talked about how I didn't process things in my journals. Well, in poetry, I did. All of a sudden, it was cracking that door open.” - Ari Tison When we’re kids, the world still feels so big. Everything is a discovery, from why flowers bloom to why we go to school and what it feels like to make friends… everything is new. But for some kids, life c…

“I see my job as trying to soothe the trauma that teenagers don't know they have yet because everybody's so busy telling them that they don't.” - A.S. King The older we get, the more we understand that life is impossible to actually understand. Things are not often straightforward, and the more we do discover, the more we realize there is to discov…

“I think it has to do with powerlessness, and with the kind of hierarchy that kids endure every day, where these grown ups are not making sense, and the world doesn't make sense, and animals are basically suffering the same fate.” - Katherine Applegate Why do kids see themselves in animals? Children’s media is full of stories from and about the per…

We revisit our episode with Matt de la Peña. **** "Kids are growing up in an interesting time and they're led to believe that if we don't feel happy, we're doing something wrong. I think what I respond to is a deeper truth, which is, happiness is incredible and we should strive for it, but we should also acknowledge that half of our life is challen…

We revisit our episode with Sabaa Tahir. ****** "This is happening in our world and at the very least you can bear witness to it. That's literally the absolute least you can do. - Sabaa Tahir Sabaa Tahir’s (“All My Rage,” “An Ember in the Ashes” quartet) upbringing in the Mojave desert, isolated nearly 100 miles from the nearest city, exposed her t…

"I feel like it was this little miracle that in some areas of my life, I'm shutting myself up and shutting myself down. But with my writing, I was always really connecting with that inner voice.” - Shannon Hale Flaws. We do everything to hide them away and pretend they don’t exist. But what if these flaws that we try so desperately to mask are exac…

"I'm not a person that's like, let's throw out the classics. It's, let's move forward. Let's disrupt the canon. Some of these universal themes, some of these ingredients that we love, how do I remix them into a new stew?” - Dhonielle Clayton What is life without a little magic? Fantasy gives us the space to break free from the confines that reality…

"That barrier between what is “real” and what is not, when that's more fluid, I think it's that's where the fun of fiction comes in. Especially when you're writing for kids.” - Minh Lê Life is full of barriers. Barriers between reality and the imagination, the spiritual and physical world, and perhaps most crucially, the ones we create for ourselve…

"I've found that the books that have resonated with me the most are books where your body is incidental, but it's still something that you can never leave behind.” - Julie Murphy Julie Murphy has an unexpected story, one that involves a winding road to her writing career. With equal parts quick wit and matter-of-factness, Julie shares that part of …

"...the reader's mind is filling in the blanks in between those panels and as a lip reader, that's what I do. I fill in the blanks. I'm trying to piece together what that person says. So, comics really make sense to me.” - Cece Bell I first came to know Cece Bell through her groundbreaking semi-autobiographical graphic memoir novel, “El Deafo.” It …

"That's really all we are obliged to do for those we call our enemies. We are obliged to see them as humans, and then we behave the way we will. We are obliged not to consider them as less than human because that way, all hell breaks loose. - Gregory Maguire Gregory Maguire expresses himself with extreme precision. While many of us may grasp for wo…

"I spend a lot of time trying to hope that I'll remember little things and how a certain simple thing felt. … Writing is one way of trying to capture that feeling, even if I'm fictionalizing it still.” - Nina LaCour If Nina LaCour were a drink, she would be a cozy cup of tea. You’re not rushing to finish a conversation with Nina. Rather, you are sp…

"There's something very lovely about feeling like, well, it's not my name, and it's not me, it's just the books.” - LeUyen Pham To listen to LeUyen Pham is to feel inspired. She is full of hope and ideas and sees potential everywhere and in everyone. In LeUyen’s ideal world, diverse representation is a natural outgrowth of art that truly reflects o…

"Love is risky. Love always ends. Should you do it anyway?” - Nicola Yoon Love is a feeling that never exists solely on its own, and those likely companions to love (anxiety, grief) often bring questions such as, is this worth it? It’s this question and others like it that Nicola Yoon explores in each of her novels. Nicola is a hopeless romantic. T…

"I'm putting every single ounce of who I am into every single book that I write, so y'all know to expect the blackest books you have ever read from yours truly.” - Derrick Barnes Derrick Barnes’ introduction to vulnerable storytelling was through the jazz and R&B records he found in his family’s collection. For young Derrick, reading the liner note…

"I'm a bad liar. So I'm just like, I'm really good at telling the truth.” - Brandy Colbert Going down internet rabbit holes and discovering everything there is to know about random subjects is a relaxing way to spend an evening, according to Brandy Colbert. This passion for research is part of the secret sauce that helps her build such deep and bel…

"Books can be the perfect prescriptions to let us know that we're going to be okay.” - John Schu John Schu’s entire life has been shaped by books. As a kid, he fell in love with Shel Silverstein; Emily Dickinson comforted him as he was battling an eating disorder, and “The One and Only Ivan,” well, that book changed his life. In fact, it nearly put…

On Today's Show "It's practice. Vulnerability is practice. It is learning that you can do things and say things that seem scary, but ultimately know that you're safe.” - Mark Oshiro Mark Oshiro was taught to fear the world. To be someone they were not and to repress someone they were. But books were an escape. Books taught them that freedom was pos…

With the 2023 year coming to a close (our first full year in production!), we wanted to celebrate. And what better way to do that than high school yearbook superlative style? Welcome to a special edition of The Reading Culture podcast – "The Reading Culture: Yearbook." In this episode, we're rolling out the red carpet to unveil "The Readies," an aw…

"It's not like I haven't experienced pain or tragedy or grief in my life, and it's not like I want to deny that. I don't think that that's the entirety of my song. When I want to look back on my life, I want to look at all the amazing things and experiences I had because that's what makes the time we have in this world so incredibly special, is tha…

"There's these universal truths [...] specific details, but universal feelings and universal experiences that people hopefully can relate to. And that's what I go for in all of my books. Common humanity.” - Hena Khan Hena Khan didn’t believe her perspective mattered. As a Pakistani-American Muslim, she grew up not seeing her or her family reflected…

"Don't follow your dreams if that's the only thing you're doing. Ask yourself, what will make you most useful? What will make you most, in terms of a purpose, help you do meaningful work?” - Daniel Nayeri You want Daniel Nayeri at your dinner party. Always with a story or an insightful question, it turns out he is also the person you want on your p…

We revisit our Halloween special episode with Lamar Giles. ****** On Today's Show "The fear is like the ramp on the roller coaster. It's that build-up of adrenaline intention that you're having in that moment when that roller coaster is cranking. It's not the same fear of you walking through a dark alley at night and you sense someone's behind you …

On Today's Show "It (TV) was my junk food, but also it was my in with the kids to be able to talk about pop culture, to know all the little nuances and jokes about the cultural zeitgeist things.” - Dan Santat Media and stories around us around us are more than just entertainment. They provide a common space, a piece of the world around us that conn…

On Today's Show "I think that has a lot to do with why I was so interested in writing for children. It's like, I was trying to heal. I was trying to heal my childhood experiences through writing, through these characters.” - Kacen Callender Just as books provide readers with a space to learn, see themselves, reflect, and cope with their inner thoug…

On Today's Show "I'm just being real. I'm telling my story. I think Nikki Giovanni calls it dancing naked on the floor. I am unafraid and I'm doing my dance… I don't feel like I can go wrong if I'm just being me.” - Kwame Alexander Exciting reluctant middle school kids about reading (or really, anything) can be a battle. Getting them to think readi…

On Today's Show "I think it comes down to caring about the characters. When you care about the characters, you care about the world that they live in.” - Neal Shusterman When Neal Shusterman was in college, he was told to stop building worlds and start building characters. He listened. And from then on, his worlds became more magical and deep than …

On Today's Show "That's still my trick too, never tell them how they're feeling. Never begin to even show how they're feeling. They'll get it anyway. You're describing negative space and the negative space you can't even get at.” - Jon Klassen Where there is empty space, our brains will fill in the blanks, and often, the way in which we personally …

Grace Lin (The Year of the Dog, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon) shares her thoughts on the value art provides to those who experience it and those who create it, and how it contributes to getting us in touch with our own humanity. **** On Today's Show "Maybe if they haven't been in that situation, they know someone who has, or they have friends …

We revisit our episode with Renée Watson. **** On Today's Show "There's just something about literally raising your voice and letting these words come out of you. That's powerful." - Renée Watson Maya Angelou was mute for six years. After a traumatizing childhood experience, the famous poet and activist retreated inward and lost her voice. In Renée…

Exciting news! We are hosting a big summer reading giveaway in which you can choose any three titles by any three authors who have been on our podcast. Three books each for three winners. The magic number really is three, y’all! We will select our three winners on August 11, so make sure that you have done a few things to get maximum entries! Follo…

On Today's Show "For me, in the fiction, it is so much about keeping that continuum going, that someone's going to come along after me and tell a story that's connected to the story that I've told. I'm telling the story that's connected to the writers and the relatives who came before me.” - Jacqueline Woodson Jacqueline Woodson was born a watcher.…

On Today's Show "Kids are growing up in an interesting time and they're led to believe that if we don't feel happy, we're doing something wrong. I think what I respond to is a deeper truth, which is, happiness is incredible and we should strive for it, but we should also acknowledge that half of our life is challenging or melancholy." - Matt de la …

On Today's Show "This is happening in our world and at the very least you can bear witness to it. That's literally the absolute least you can do. - Sabaa Tahir Sabaa Tahir’s (“All My Rage,” “An Ember in the Ashes” quartet) upbringing in the Mojave desert, isolated nearly 100 miles from the nearest city, exposed her to an unforgiving landscape and a…

On Today's Show "I think there's recognition that publishing is better the more voices are heard, and the more diverse those rooms can be as well –that it's not just a matter of changing the skin tone of a character, it's that culture is all these things that are seen and unseen, and it's in your world building." - Angeline Boulley Angeline Boulley…

In This Episode "It is through these books and through this work that I'm doing that I hope that I can be a worthy companion of [children's] journeys, because they have a lot of journeys to go through, and there is nothing more difficult than going through those journeys alone." - Yuyi Morales Growing up in Mexico in the 60s and 70s, Yuyi Morales w…

On Today's Show “If you write about the world as it is, there's too much of a danger of it just feeding into our assumption that everything that we live with is right and normal. Whereas if you start to say, well wait, let's project this into the future, or let's see where this comes from in the past, suddenly it opens up a whole new vista about wh…