Podcast appearances and mentions of Jerry Craft

“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 CraftGrowing 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 defying expectations, and so naturally, the boy who rarely set foot in a library grew up to become a celebrated children's book author and illustrator. He has made defying expectations—and breaking stereotypes—a guiding principle in his storytelling. Jerry Craft is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, best known for “New Kid,” the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Medal. “New Kid,” along with the subsequent books in the three-part series—“Class Act” and “School Trip”—were groundbreaking for middle-grade literature, especially the power of graphic novels. While many of us may know and love Jerry's more recent graphic novels, his road to those books was winding and unexpected.  In this episode, Jerry tells us about the one teacher who finally found the secret to inspiring him, explains how being a Black comic strip creator was a lot like the movie Highlander, and ponders whether his dad's night shifts might be the reason he still works best at 3 AM.Settle in for an episode filled with wry humor and the colorful stories of Jerry Craft's journey to becoming a beloved author for students and teachers alike!***Jerry curated a group of graphic novels for his reading challenge, How It Started, How It's Going. These graphic novels chronicle his own journey as a creator—from the books that inspired him to those that helped forge his path and finally to those for which he laid the groundwork. Learn more and download Jerry's reading challenge at thereadingculturepod.com/jerry-craft***This episode's Beanstack Featured Librarian is Laurie Schalliol, media specialist at Heritage Intermediate School in Middlebury, Indiana. Laurie dishes about a spicy incentive that pushed her students' reading to the next level.***Show ChaptersChapter 1 - Oh SnapChapter 2 - Stay HumbleChapter 3 - Xylem StripsChapter 4 - To One PersonChapter 5 - The HighlanderChapter 6 - That's Not For YouChapter 7 - Reading Challenge Chapter 8 - Beanstack Featured LibrarianLinksThe Reading CultureThe Reading Culture Newsletter SignupJerry CraftMomma's BoyzTo the World… (Jerry's Quote)Follow The Reading Culture on Instagram (for giveaways and bonus content)Beanstack resources to build your community's reading cultureJordan Lloyd BookeyHost: Jordan Lloyd BookeyProducers: Mel Webb, Jackie Lamport, and Lower Street MediaScript Editors: Josia Lamberto-Egan, Mel Webb, Jackie Lamport, Jordan Lloyd Bookey

Jerry Craft is an award-winning author, illustrator, and pioneer in children's literature who has brought humor, heart, and a unique perspective to the world of storytelling. Best known for New Kid, the first graphic novel to win the prestigious Newbery Medal, Craft has dedicated his career to creating authentic stories that resonate with children and families alike. From his beloved comic strip Mama's Boyz to his groundbreaking graphic novels, Craft's work often draws from his own experiences, blending humor with poignant themes of identity, community, and resilience. As a father, storyteller, and trailblazer, Craft has left an indelible mark on literature and continues to inspire readers of all ages. Today, we are thrilled to dive into his creative journey, his reflections on fatherhood, and his vision for the future of inclusive storytelling.

Chances are, you know cartoonist Jerry Craft from one of two projects: his syndicated comic strip Mama's Boyz or his award-winning series of graphic novels: New Kid, Class Act, and School Trip. But he got his start as an advertising copywriter and magazine editor, eventually doing his first comics work at Marvel and Harvey Comics. Now, in addition to his highly successful graphic novel work, he runs cartooning workshops at schools, camps, and libraries across the country.You can follow Jerry at jerrycraft.com and on all the socials @jerrycraft.____________________Check out a video version of this episode on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/dollarbinbandits.If you like this podcast, please rate, review, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts. And if you really like this podcast, support what we do as a member of the Dollar Bin Boosters: buzzsprout.com/1817176/support.Looking for more ways to express your undying DBB love and devotion? Email us at dollarbinbandits@gmail.com. Follow us @dollarbinbandits on Facebook and Instagram, and @DBBandits on X._____________________Dollar Bin Bandits is the official podcast of TwoMorrows Publishing. Check out their fine publications at twomorrows.com.Face Your EarsExplore home recording and music creation with Rich and Justin on 'Face Your Ears'!Listen on: Apple Podcasts SpotifySupport the show

Tad and his librarian friend Sarah discuss New Kid, Class Act, School Trip, book banning, and more with Award Winning Author Jerry Craft.Consider becoming a patron!Support the show

The Wildcats celebrate as Troy and Gabriella sing their hearts out on the stage of the spring musicale. Chandra and Tyler talk every minute detail of Minute 98 of High School Musical 3: Senior Year, and then they discuss ideas for adapting the graphic novel New Kid by Jerry Craft into a DCOM. Wildcat Minute is a production of the Amateur Nerds. Rate, review, subscribe, tell your friends! Follow us on Instagram @amateurnerds, Twitter @amateurnerds, and Tumblr @WildcatMinute Email us amateurnerdspresent@gmail.com Logo by @tgoldenart Music by Joe Winslow

Writer Jerry Craft confesses that he wasn't much of a reader when he was a kid. Kitty Felde is host.

We continue our series of episodes featuring books that have been banned or challenged around the country. This time, it's the Newbery Award-winning graphic novel NEW KID by Jerry Craft. Books in Katy, Texas were pulled from library shelves in 2021 after a parent petition complained that it contained harmful content about critical race theory. CRT examines how racism has shaped laws and public policy in America. Writer Jerry Craft says he'd never heard the term before and had to google it. An African American parent in another part of the country objected to Craft's use of the word “oreo” – a derogatory term used to describe a person as black on the outside, but white on the inside. She said she didn't want her child to be exposed to the term. The challenge in Katy, Texas was dismissed and the book was returned to library shelves. What do you think? Listen to our Book Club for Kids podcast discussion of Jerry Craft's New Kid.

Jerry Craft, #1 NYT best selling author and only winner of the John Newbery Medal for outstanding contribution to children's literature for a graphic novel as well as other awards speaks with Dr. Elisabeth Paige about his life, his writing and publishing journey, and his work. He wrote over 30 books, primarily for African American kids that were, in his eyes, less about what you usually see in children's books targeting African American kids such as single parenthood, gun and police violence and slavery, and more about other issues confronting African American kids such as fitting into primarily white schools, differing socioeconomic statuses, parental relationships and friendships. As he hoped, the primarily African American characters in his trilogy, New Kid, Class Act, and School Trip have become iconic characters in kids lit. He began his adventures in children's literature by starting his own publishing company where he published like-minded almost exclusively African American authors. You can find Dr. Paige's website at :www.mindfulhappykids.com

Jerry Craft, #1 NYT best selling author and only winner of the John Newbery Medal for outstanding contribution to children's literature for a graphic novel as well as other awards speaks with Dr. Elisabeth Paige about his life, his writing and publishing journey, and his work. He wrote over 30 books, primarily for African American kids that were, in his eyes, less about what you usually see in children's books targeting African American kids such as single parenthood, gun and police violence and slavery, and more about other issues confronting African American kids such as fitting into primarily white schools, differing socioeconomic statuses, parental relationships and friendships. As he hoped, the primarily African American characters in his trilogy, New Kid, Class Act, and School Trip have become iconic characters in kids lit. He began his adventures in children's literature by starting his own publishing company where he published like-minded almost exclusively African American authors.                           You can find information about Dr. Elisabeth Paige at www.mindfulhappykids.com.

In this episode, newbery award winning author/illustrator Jerry Craft joins Jennifer to discuss his journey as a reader and the importance of representation in children's books. He shares his experiences  meeting legendary authors and the impact it had on him. Jerry also talks about the fear of books for young people and the layers of jokes in his graphic novels. He reflects on the impact of his work and the recognition he has received.  Finally, Jerry reflects on the rise of graphic novels and their importance in getting kids to read. Both he and Jennifer also throw a great deal of (playful) shade at Kwame Alexander.  Show notes and other information related to this episode can be found here. Takeaways Representation in children's books is crucial for all readers to see themselves and others in the stories they read. Graphic novels can have a powerful impact on reluctant readers and provide layers of meaning and humor for readers of all ages. The fear of books for young people often stems from a resistance to challenging existing worldviews and acknowledging systemic inequities. Creating graphic novels requires careful consideration of every word and visual element to ensure a cohesive and engaging reading experience. Stories connect us Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 06:06 Jerry's Journey as a Reader 13:11 The Importance of Representation in Children's Books 18:38 The Fear of Books for Young People 23:39 The Craft of Creating Graphic Novels 27:26 The Layers of Jokes in Jerry's Books 33:39 Jerry's Next Project 35:49 Closing Remarks

Recording of Off the Shelf Radio Show from WDLR with co-hosts Nicole Fowles and Molly Myers LaBadie. This week we talk with Teen Librarian, Claire Ehmann, from the Liberty Branch. She talks about upcoming teen programs happening this month. Including hot chocolate crafts, teen volunteering, and Dungeons & Dragons. Recommendations include: Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas, Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross, and School Trip by Jerry Craft.  Read more about today's episode here. Listen live every Friday morning at 9 AM https://my967.net/program-schedule/off-the-shelf/ This episode originally aired on February 2nd, 2024.

Highlights from this episode with Jerry Craft include:   Why building a story is like building a house How eavesdropping enriches characterization… and body odor Evolution of attending book conferences as a fan to becoming a headline author Tricks to building a series that continues to feel fresh and relevant Resistance to writing stories with horrific events, especially while centering Black characters Exploring small, mesmerizing details that will crack open a kid's world   Jerry Craft is the NYT bestselling author and illustrator of many books for kids including graphic novels New Kid and Class Act. New Kid was the first graphic novel to win the Newbery Medal, and the only book in history to win the Newbery, the Kirkus Prize, AND the Coretta Scott King Author Award. He has been a copywriter, a cartoonist and creator of the beloved comic strip, Mama's Boyz, and even an editorial director at Sports Illustrated. Jerry was born in Harlem and grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City and now travels the world telling kids and their families about the importance of reading.

January 2024 Solicits Comic Reviews: DC Catwoman 58 by Tini Howard, Nico Leon, Veronica Gandini Harley Quinn: Black, White, and Redder 4 by Zoe Thorogood, Sean Lewis, Hayden Sherman, Kyle Starks, Chris Schweizer Jay Garrick: The Flash 1 by Jeremy Adams, Diego Olortegui, Luis Guerrero Justice League vs Godzilla vs Kong 1 by Brian Buccellato, Christian Duce, Luis Guerrero Superman 7 (850) by Joshua Williamson, Gleb Melnikov, Edwin Galmon, Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, Alejandro Sanchez   Marvel Crypt of Shadows 1 by Al Ewing, Paul Davidson, Rain Beredo, Steve Orlando, Paul Azaceta, Cavan Scott, Devmalya Pramanik, Neeraj Menon, Declan Shalvey, Alex Lins, Matt Milla, Sarah Gailey, Eder Messias, Jonas Trindade, Michael Wiggam Sensational She-Hulk 1 by Rainbow Rowell, Andres Genolet, Dee Cunniffe Spine-Tingling Spider-Man 1 by Saladin Ahmed, Juan Ferreyra Marvel Unlimited Avengers United by Derek Landy, Marcio Fiorito Who is Kraven? by J.M. DeMatteis, Andrea Di Vito It's Jeff 25 by Kelly Thompson, GuriHiru Image Hack/Slash: Back to School 1 by Zoe Thorogood, Tim Seeley IDW Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees 1 by Patrick Horvath Dark Horse Cyberpunk 2077 XOXO 1 by Bartosz Sztybor, Jakub Rebelka Headless Horseman Halloween Annual by Tyler Crook, Lukas Ketner, Phillip Sevy, Frank Cvetkovic, David Dastmalchian, Olivia Stephens, Angela Slatter, Valeria Burzo, Christie Porter, Leah Kilpatrick Subgenre 1 by Matt Kindt, Wilfredo Torres, Bill Crabtree Dynamite Gargoyles Halloween Special by Greg Weisman, Bonesso Diego, Nicolo Laporini Oni Man From Maybe 1 by Jordan Thomas, Shaky Kane Archie Fear the Funhouse Presents Toybox of Terror 1 by Timmy Heague, Ryan Caskey, Danielle Paige, Tango, Michael Northrop, Ryan Jampole, Matt Herms Comics Experience (CEX) Opus & Ashes 1 by Brett Simon, Sergi Domenech OGNs Marvel Super Stories by Jerry Craft, Mike Curato, C.G. Esperanza, John Gallagher, Gale Galligan, Chris Giarrusso, Nathan Hale, Michael Lee Harris, Ben Hatke, Priya Huq, John Jennings, George O'Connor, Lincoln Pierce, Maria Scrivan, Jessi Zabarsky Tales from the Death Star by Cavan Scott, Eric Powell, Vincenzo Riccardi, Soo Lee, Juan Samu, Ingo Romling Project Monarch by Michael Avon Oeming, Victor Santos The Nightcrawlers by Marco Lopez, Rachel Distler Grumpy Cat: Grumpus and Other Stories Mabuhay by Zachary Sterling City of Dragons Vol 2: Rise of the Shadowfire by Jaimal Yogis, Vivian Truong Paws Vol 3: Priya Puts Herself First by Michele Assarasakorn, Nathan Fairbairn Unfamiliar Vol 2 by Haley Newsome Additional Reviews: Loki s2e3, Happy Valley, Molly Danger News: Live action remakes of Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Frozen, and Tarzan, Omninews, 10 new Spawn titles, Canto moves to Dark Horse, Prey sequel to be set during WW2, new Lego Avengers special Trailers: Invincible s2, Leo Longbox of Horror Part 3: Happy by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson Comics Countdown (17 Oct 2023): 1.     Bone Orchard Mythos: Tenement 5 by Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino, Dave Stewart 2.     Friday 8 by Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martin, Muntsa Vicente 3.     Superman 7 (850) by Joshua Williamson, Gleb Melnikov, Edwin Galmon, Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, Alejandro Sanchez 4.     Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees 1 by Patrick Horvath 5.     Jay Garrick: The Flash 1 by Jeremy Adams, Diego Olortegui, Luis Guerrero 6.     Mabuhay by Zachary Sterling 7.     Duck and Cover 2 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, Marcelo Maiolo 8.     Wild's End 5 by Dan Abnett, INJ Culbard 9.     Rogue Sun 16 by Ryan Parrott, Marco Renna, Abel, Natalia Marques 10.  Local Man 6 by Tim Seeley, Tony Fleecsm Brad Simpson, Felipe Sobreiro  

Graphic novels and comic books sales in the U.S. have grown in recent years, but the format is still a "prime target" for book ban lists. Maia Kobabe's award-winning graphic memoir Gender Queer was named the top challenged book of 2022 and 2021 by the American Library Association. Jerry Craft, Connecticut native and the author of graphic novel New Kid, also found his book on ban lists. RELATED LISTEN: Earlier this year, Jerry Craft spoke on Connecticut Public's Disrupted. He "talks about his banned, award-winning graphic novel New Kid, in addition to his latest book, School Trip." This hour, we hear from the national and state Library Association about this important and often-undervalued format. Newtown recently saw challenges to two graphic novels. We hear from local librarian and Immediate Past President of the Connecticut Library Association, Douglas Booth. Plus, one youth librarian describes the explosion of interest in graphic novels she's seeing in Simsbury. GUESTS: Samantha Lee: Chair, Connecticut Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee; Head of Reference Services at Enfield Public Library Douglas Lord: Director, C.H. Booth Library in Newtown; Immediate Past President, Connecticut Library Association Deborah Caldwell Stone: Director, American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom Mary Richardson: Teen Services Librarian, Simsbury Public Library; Co-Host, "The Book Jam"Podcast Where We Live is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jordan Banks, the protagonist of New Kid, is a seventh grade student who loves to draw and hopes to one day become a cartoonist. But the graphic novel following Jordan's arrival at a predominantly white, elite, private school has been challenged numerous times in the state of Texas by people claiming it promotes critical race theory. In today's episode, author Jerry Craft tells NPR's A Martinez how those challenges were often presented by parents who had not truly engaged with the material – and why it's crucial for him to tell coming-of-age stories for Black kids that don't involve catastrophe.

Today on the podcast, I'm so excited to bring you the first writer ever to win three very important prizes in literature - the Newberry Award, The Kirkus Prize, and the Coretta Scott King Award - for a single book. Would it surprise you to know the first person to win all of these for one amazing book is a graphic novelist? That's right, today we're talking to the creator of the new Kid Series, which now includes New Kid, Class Act, and School Trip. This is a special episode designed to be played right to this special author's favorite audience - students. My hope is that you'll play this episode - or a part of it - in class. I've designed a sketchnotes sheet for you that students can use while they listen (make your copy here). Check out all three of Jerry's popular graphic novels for middle schoolers here.  Explore Jerry Craft's website here.    Go Further:  Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram.  Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!

Today we're heading to the 9th Annual Mississippi Book Festival, happening August 19th, in Jackson with multi-award winning, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Jerry Craft, and MS Book Fest Board Member Talya Straughter before our second stop at the 2023 Red Brick Roads Music & Art Festival, happening August 25th - 26th, in Clinton, with Festival Director Anna Boyd Hawks and Anna Nutt, Director of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce. Plus, we'll also let you know what's happening around your neck of the woods! Stay tuned, buckle up and hold on tight for your Next Stop MS!Next Stop, Mississippi is your on-air source for information about upcoming events and attractions across the state. Get to know the real Mississippi! Each week the show's hosts, Germaine Flood and Kamel King, Tourism Development Bureau Manger with Visit Mississippi, will highlight well-known and unknown places in Mississippi with the best food, parks, music and arts. They'll not only tell you what's going on in your neck of the woods, but also share the history and people behind the markets, sporting events, concerts, fairs and festivals all over Mississippi. Hear the personal stories and traditions behind that favorite event you attend each year on Next Stop, Mississippi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jerry Craft is the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the graphic novels New Kid and Class Act. New Kid is the only book in history to win the John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature (2020); the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature (2019), and the Coretta Scott King Author Award for the most outstanding work by an African American writer (2020). Jerry was born in Harlem and grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jerry Craft is the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator of the graphic novels New Kid and Class Act. New Kid is the only book in history to win the John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature (2020); the Kirkus Prize for Young Readers' Literature (2019), and the Coretta Scott King Author Award for the most outstanding work by an African American writer (2020). Jerry was born in Harlem and grew up in the Washington Heights section of New York City.

Author and illustrator Jerry Craft discusses attempts to remove his graphic novels from school libraries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author and illustrator Jerry Craft discusses attempts to remove his graphic novels from school libraries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amanda Gorman discusses reading her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden's inauguration. Jerry Craft discusses the irony of having an award-winning book banned for critical race theory, and the importance of creating books that inspire kids to feel represented and have hope. And Ibram X. Kendi and Nic Stone discuss their collaboration on "How to Be a (Young) Antiracist," a book that gives young people the tools to change the world.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour on Disrupted, we are listening back to our interviews with Black cartoonists who pushed their medium forward despite the reluctance of newspapers outside of the Black press to nationally syndicate their work. Jerry Craft talks about his banned, award-winning graphic novel New Kid, in addition to his latest book, School Trip. Barbara Brandon-Croft discusses her pioneering comic strip Where I'm Coming From and her new book, a collection of her comic strips. That book is also titled Where I'm Coming From. GUESTS: Jerry Craft: author and illustrator of the graphic novels New Kid, Class Act and School Trip. He is also the creator of the comic strip Mama's Boyz and a former Connecticut resident. Barbara Brandon-Croft: creator of the comic strip Where I'm Coming From. Her new book is a collection of her comic strips and is also called Where I'm Coming From. This episode originally aired on March 1, 2023.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Clarence Thomas faces impeachment talks for not disclosing gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow, Jill Biden causes drama by inviting LSU and Iowa to the White House, and Chipotle sues Sweetgreen over trademark rights. NYT bestselling author and illustrator Jerry Craft discusses the irony of having an award-winning book banned for CRT.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour on Disrupted, we are looking at Black cartoonists who have pushed their medium forward despite the reluctance of newspapers outside of the Black press to nationally syndicate their work. Jerry Craft talks about his banned, award-winning graphic novel New Kid, in addition to his upcoming book School Trip. Barbara Brandon-Croft discusses her pioneering comic strip Where I'm Coming From and her new book, a collection of her comic strips. That book is also titled Where I'm Coming From. GUESTS: Jerry Craft: author and illustrator of the graphic novels New Kid, Class Act and the upcoming School Trip. He is also creator of the comic strip Mama's Boyz and a former Connecticut resident. Barbara Brandon-Croft: creator of the comic strip Where I'm Coming From. Her new book is a collection of her comic strips and is also called Where I'm Coming From. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jordan Banks, the protagonist of New Kid, is a seventh grade student who loves to draw and hopes to one day become a cartoonist. But the graphic novel following Jordan's arrival at a predominantly white, elite, private school has been challenged numerous times in the state of Texas by people claiming it promotes critical race theory. In today's episode, author Jerry Craft tells NPR's A Martinez how those challenges were often presented by parents who had not truly engaged with the material – and why it's crucial for him to tell coming-of-age stories for Black kids that don't involve catastrophe.

As we get ready for the Newbery winner award to be announced we wanted to revisit an episode we did with 2020 Newbery Winner for the book The New Kid author and illustrator Jerry Craft.

And just like that, 2022 is coming to an end. It's been a tumultuous time for the profession: We're on course for another record-breaking year of book challenges, politically driven groups are working to pass laws that censor materials and measures that defund libraries, and library workers continue to experience burnout. But one source of hope and inspiration has been the authors who have stepped up to advocate for—and sing the praises of—books, libraries, and democracy. In Episode 78, Call Number with American Libraries presents its "2022 Author Chats." Featured in this installment are never-before-released clips from conversations with actor John Cho; Newbery Medal–winning graphic novelist Jerry Craft; comic book artist Kevin Eastman; broadcast journalist Maria Hinojosa; Banned Books Week honorary chair George M. Johnson; historian Ibram X. Kendi; and Newbery Medal winners Cynthia Kadohata, Tae Keller, and Lois Lowry. Hear them share what roles libraries have played in their lives. Is there a story or topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know at callnumber@ala.org. You can also follow us on Twitter and SoundCloud and leave a review on iTunes. We welcome feedback and hope to hear from you soon. Thanks for listening.

I Love When Daddy Reads to Me is an adorable children's book that celebrates Fathers reading with their children, while introducing new readers to 36 sight words. This book is unique in that it was written by a Father and his 4th and 6th grade daughters. This story is read by Michael McCrary. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/avant-garde-books/support

On this special episode, we're celebrating the 2022 Kirkus Prizes! Featuring behind-the-scenes interviews with judges Deesha Philyaw (fiction), Hanif Abdurraqib (nonfiction), and Jerry Craft (young readers' literature). And in a sponsored interview, host Megan Labrise talks with Carmen Agra Deedy, author of Wombat Said Come In, illustrated by Brian Dies (Margaret Quinlin Books, Oct. 4).

On this week's episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing: Some of our highlights and learning experiences from Season 4. Who can believe we are four full years into the podcast? Giving you 12 additional presses to fill up your summer and fall TBRs. If you want more presses, an additional 30 will be made available to Patreon subscribers next week!. Join us over at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast ! As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down!  New: we are now including transcripts of the episode (this link only works on the main site). These are generated by AI, so they may not be perfectly accurate, but we want to increase accessibility for our fans! *Please note that all book titles linked below are Bookshop affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. If you'd prefer to shop on Amazon, you can still do so here through our main storefront. Anything you buy there (even your laundry detergent, if you recently got obsessed with switching up your laundry game) kicks a small amount back to us. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . 2:50 - Reflecting on Season 4 3:50 - Season 4: Episode 21  4:19 - Season 4: Episode 26  4:31 - Season 4: Episode 34 4:39 - Season 4: Episode 25 5:29 - Season 4: Episode 1 5:33 - A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles 5:40 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 6:13 - Season 4: Episode 37 (the rainbow shelves episode) 6:53 - Season 4: Episode 26  7:12 - Season 4: Episode 42 w/Kenda Adachi 8:21 - Currently Reading Patreon 17:54 - Email us your suggestions for cap segments at currentlypodcast@gmail.com or DM us on Instagram @currentlyreadingpodcast 18:39 - Currently Reading Patreon 19:23 - Listener Presses Part Two 19:34 - Lacy Eye by Jessica Treadway (Pressed by Beth) 23:31 - The Rent Collector by Camron Wright (Pressed by Mic) 26:49 - Five Little Indians by Michelle Good (Pressed by Francis) 30:08 - Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang (Pressed by Nicole) 30:45 - El Deafo by Cece Bell 30:46 - When Stars Are Scattered by Omar Mohamed and Victoria Jamieson 30:49 - New Kid by Jerry Craft 32:56 - Vicious by V.E. Schwab (Pressed by Katie) 34:37 - Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots 34:30 - An Unlikely Story  35:01 - The Hierarchies by Ros Anderson (Pressed by Amanda) 36:38 - I, Robot by Isaac Asimov 36:39 - The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin 36:40 - The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 37:52 - All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Murderbot #1) 38:04 - The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey 38:21 - Beach Music by Pat Conroy (Pressed by Tiffany) 38:25 - Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy 40:08 - Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy 41:24 - Answers in the Pages by David Levithan (Pressed by Avery) 44:38 - Afterlife by Julia Alvarez (Pressed by Amy) 46:22 - The Bottom of the 33rd by Dan Barry (Pressed by Michele) 48:13 - Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown 48:40 - The Diddakoi by Rumor Godden (Pressed by Mary Faith, amazon link) 51:24 - The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Pressed by Madeline) 53:14 - Currently Reading Patreon Connect With Us: Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram Mindy is @gratefulforgrace on Instagram Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram Roxanna is @roxannatheplanner on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast.com @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com Support us at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast and www.zazzle.com/store/currentlyreading

This year, the Newbery Medal celebrates 100 years of recognizing distinguished children's literature. In Episode 73, American Libraries associate editor and Call Number host Diana Panuncial interviews four authors with four prior winners of the award: Jerry Craft, 2020 Newbery Medal winner for New Kid; Cynthia Kadohata, 2005 winner for Kira-Kira; Tae Keller, 2021 winner for When You Trap a Tiger; and Lois Lowry, two-time winner for Number the Stars in 1990 and The Giver in 1994. The authors share their memories of getting the call, what they hope kids are taking away from their books, and what projects they're working on these days. If you have feedback for the podcast team, email us at callnumber@ala.org or call us at 312-280-4216. Tell us what you liked, what you didn't like, and what you'd like to see us cover; we may feature your comment on a future episode. You can also follow us on Twitter and SoundCloud and leave a review on iTunes.

Join Alyssa and Kaitlyn as they explore juvenile literature that adults will love! Titles include: Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Neil Gaiman novels, Brown Girls Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, Rick Riordan Presents Imprint, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Gmorning, Gnight! By Lin-Manuel Miranda, The Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novels by Raina Telgemeier and Gale Galligan, When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamison and Omar Mohamed, New Kid by Jerry Craft, Dog Man by Dav Pilkey, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz, The Giver series by Lois Lowry, Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan.

Writer/Illustrator Yehudi Mercado @ymercado shares the inspirations behind some of his many comics hitting the shelves. We talk about late friend of the show Jenny Colvin, conformity, masculinity, combining genres, being the only Jewish and Latinx kids in school, book bans, black joy, maxing out Photoshop layers, Shazam, and Miles Morales.   Jenny Colvin's Reading Envy blog Yehudi Mercado at supermercado.pizza How Can I Stop Book Bans? The Mean Streets of South Uptown (from Jerry Craft's New Kid)  Friends of the Furman Libraries Greenville Animal Care   Fresh Picks Sci-Fu Chunky Shazam: Thundercrack What If Miles Morales Was Thor? The Ghoul Next Door   Find a comics shop near you Secret Stacks artwork by Severin Piehl, creator of Tove Theme song by Julie Jurgens, who blogs at Hi, Miss Julie! and is on twitter as @himissjulie

Indy reveals the winners (and who he thinks should have won) from the 2022 Young Readers Choice Awards like; New Kid by Jerry Craft, The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman, With The Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo, and more. Samantha revisits the early days of the pandemic with Jodi Picoult's novel Wish You Were Here. Then we reveal next week's big watch, the underappreciated 1999 animated classic The Iron Giant!   Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult: https://www.jodipicoult.com/wish-you-were-here.html    YRCA at EPL: https://www.epl.ca/yrca/ The Young Reader's Choice Awards (YRCA) is a year-long reading program for children in Grades 4 to 12 living in Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Idaho, Montana and Washington. Sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Library Association (PNLA), it is the only award where children choose the nominated books and the winners. The Iron Giant trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhS6Uinx5jw&ab_channel=WarnerBros.   The Iron Giant on Tubi: https://tubitv.com/movies/589394?utm_source=justwatch-feed&tracking=justwatch-feed   The Iron Giant on Hoopla: https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/14428392

All kids are readers. Some just haven't discovered it yet. Courtesy of Orange Coast Magazine Kitty Felde is the host and executive producer of Book Club for Kids. That's the belief of Kitty Felde, former NPR correspondent and current host and executive producer of the podcast “Book Club for Kids.” In May, she joined Kerri Miller for a Friday episode of Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about how to get kids reading over their summer break. Here are a few of her top tips. If you have a reluctant reader, any book is a good book. Felde recommends parents or caregivers take kids to a library or a bookstore and let them choose any book they show interest in. “Don't censor them,” she cautions. “They are going to go and [choose] the dumbest thing you've ever seen in your entire life. But I don't care! They will be reading words, and that's what you want them to do.” Stop looking down on graphic novels. Felde believes the new crop of graphic novels is some of the most wonderful literature around. They aren't lesser reading experiences. She recommends kids and adults alike check out Jerry Craft's “New Kid” for a story that is both beautiful and compelling. She also points to the many books now being re-released as graphic novels. Rick Riordan's “Percy Jackson” series, the popular books about a modern boy who finds out he is a Greek demigod, is coming out in graphic form. So are the original “Baby-Sitters Club” books. (Attention Millennial parents.) Find a series to keep their interest. “Kids like to spend more time with the characters they've invested in so much emotionally,” advises Felde. “If you can help them find a good series they enjoy, that will keep them reading.” Consider a daily 20-minute quiet time where everyone reads. That includes parents, says Felde. “This is really the secret sauce. Whether kids admit it or not, they do want to emulate the good side of you. And if the good side of you is reading, then it makes reading less onerous.” Read out loud. “We all like to be read to,” Felde says, “that's why we get audio books.” Use their beloved devices in your favor. Artwork by Emma Steinkellner Book Club for Kids is a podcast dedicated to middle graders talking about the books they love. “Kids are going to use screens,” Felde admits. “They just are. But we can use those screens to get them to start enjoying books.” Audio books are one way, she says. But podcasts for kids about books — like Book Club for Kids — are also powerful tools. They let kids hear other kids talk about what they like to read and why. “That's one way to use a device for good,” Felde says. Tap librarians to help kids find a book they connect with. If you have a child that hasn't found a book that's connected with them, “librarians are like gold,” says Felde. “Or the person who works in the children's department at your favorite indie bookstore.” “I've watched them work. They will interview a kid. They will say, ‘Well, what do you like?' ‘Oh, I hate books.' 'That's fine, but what do you like?' ‘Oh, well, I like fishing.' ‘OK, then let's go look at the fishing section.' Or: ‘I only like video games.' ‘Great! Let me show you this fabulous Minecraft series.'” Let the experts find a sneaky way in that might tempt kids to read. Start a book club for kids. Take a tip from social media, and use books as a social tool. Felde says there are great examples of this all over the country, especially in the summer. “If a kid won't read by themselves, get a few of their friends over. Serve some cookies. Set it up like a grown-up book club — without the alcohol — but you start with a book and let the conversation go.“ And again, try not to be judgmental about what they want to read. Don't forget about nonfiction. There are two kids of people in the world,” says Felde, “fiction readers and nonfiction readers.” Don't neglect the Dewey decimal side of the library. To listen to the full conversation between Kerri Miller and Kitty Felde, you can use the audio player above.  Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or RSS. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. Kitty's Book Suggestions Graphic novel favorites: Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey Check out the Baby-Sitters Club graphic novel series If your child likes gaming, look for the Minecraft series by Sfé R. Monster Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books are also being released as graphic novels Anything by Raina Telgemeier, but especially “Sisters,” “Guts,” and “Smile” New graphic novels: “New Kid” by Jerry Craft “Amulet” by Kazu Kibuishi For younger kids who just graduated from “Captain Underpants”: “The Wild Robot” by Peter Brown “Stella Diaz Has Something to Say” by Angela Dominguez Fairy tales: Anything by Gail Carson Levine Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt “The Girl Who Drank the Moon” by Kelly Barnhill “Rooftoppers” by Katherine Rundell “Red Queen” by Victoria Aveyard For kids who will miss school over the summer: “Because of Mr. Terupt” by Rob Buyea “Ungifted” by Gordon Korman “Lupe Wong Won't Dance” by Donna Barba Higuera For kids who are asking about the war in Ukraine: “Good Night, Mr. Tom” by Michelle Magorian “The War That Saved My Life” by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley “Code Talker” by Joseph Bruchac “Chains” by Laurie Halse Anderson “The Night Diary” by Veera Hiranandani “Other Words for Home” by Jasmine Warga “The Book Thief” by Marcus Zusak Spooky/Sci Fi books: “Ghost Boys” by Jewell Parker Rhodes “Hoodoo” by Ronald L. Smith “When You Reach Me” by Rebecca Stead “Orleans” by Sherri L. Smith “A Wish in the Dark” by Christina Soontornvat Mythology: “The Storm Runner” by J.C. Cervantes “Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword” by Henry Lien “The Hound of Rowan” by Henry Neff “The Jumbies” by Tracey Baptiste Just plain good writing: “The Crossover” by Kwame Alexander “Dead End in Norvelt” by Jack Gantos “Skelig” by David Almond “Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case” by Patricia Hruby Powell “Orbiting Jupiter” by Gary D. Schmidt “The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street” by Karina Yan Glaser Spies: “Spy School” by Stuart Gibbs “Stormbreaker” by Anthony Horowitz “Milo Speck, Accidental Agent” by Linda Urban “Spy Mice” by Heather Vogel Frederick

All kids are readers. Some just haven't discovered it yet. Courtesy of Orange Coast Magazine Kitty Felde is the host and executive producer of Book Club for Kids. That's the belief of Kitty Felde, former NPR correspondent and current host and executive producer of the podcast “Book Club for Kids.” In May, she joined Kerri Miller for a Friday episode of Big Books and Bold Ideas to talk about how to get kids reading over their summer break. Here are a few of her top tips. If you have a reluctant reader, any book is a good book. Felde recommends parents or caregivers take kids to a library or a bookstore and let them choose any book they show interest in. “Don't censor them,” she cautions. “They are going to go and [choose] the dumbest thing you've ever seen in your entire life. But I don't care! They will be reading words, and that's what you want them to do.” Stop looking down on graphic novels. Felde believes the new crop of graphic novels is some of the most wonderful literature around. They aren't lesser reading experiences. She recommends kids and adults alike check out Jerry Craft's “New Kid” for a story that is both beautiful and compelling. She also points to the many books now being re-released as graphic novels. Rick Riordan's “Percy Jackson” series, the popular books about a modern boy who finds out he is a Greek demigod, is coming out in graphic form. So are the original “Baby-Sitters Club” books. (Attention Millennial parents.) Find a series to keep their interest. “Kids like to spend more time with the characters they've invested in so much emotionally,” advises Felde. “If you can help them find a good series they enjoy, that will keep them reading.” Consider a daily 20-minute quiet time where everyone reads. That includes parents, says Felde. “This is really the secret sauce. Whether kids admit it or not, they do want to emulate the good side of you. And if the good side of you is reading, then it makes reading less onerous.” Read out loud. “We all like to be read to,” Felde says, “that's why we get audio books.” Use their beloved devices in your favor. Artwork by Emma Steinkellner Book Club for Kids is a podcast dedicated to middle graders talking about the books they love. “Kids are going to use screens,” Felde admits. “They just are. But we can use those screens to get them to start enjoying books.” Audio books are one way, she says. But podcasts for kids about books — like Book Club for Kids — are also powerful tools. They let kids hear other kids talk about what they like to read and why. “That's one way to use a device for good,” Felde says. Tap librarians to help kids find a book they connect with. If you have a child that hasn't found a book that's connected with them, “librarians are like gold,” says Felde. “Or the person who works in the children's department at your favorite indie bookstore.” “I've watched them work. They will interview a kid. They will say, ‘Well, what do you like?' ‘Oh, I hate books.' 'That's fine, but what do you like?' ‘Oh, well, I like fishing.' ‘OK, then let's go look at the fishing section.' Or: ‘I only like video games.' ‘Great! Let me show you this fabulous Minecraft series.'” Let the experts find a sneaky way in that might tempt kids to read. Start a book club for kids. Take a tip from social media, and use books as a social tool. Felde says there are great examples of this all over the country, especially in the summer. “If a kid won't read by themselves, get a few of their friends over. Serve some cookies. Set it up like a grown-up book club — without the alcohol — but you start with a book and let the conversation go.“ And again, try not to be judgmental about what they want to read. Don't forget about nonfiction. There are two kids of people in the world,” says Felde, “fiction readers and nonfiction readers.” Don't neglect the Dewey decimal side of the library. To listen to the full conversation between Kerri Miller and Kitty Felde, you can use the audio player above.  Subscribe to the MPR News with Kerri Miller podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or RSS. Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations. Kitty's Book Suggestions Graphic novel favorites: Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey Check out the Baby-Sitters Club graphic novel series If your child likes gaming, look for the Minecraft series by Sfé R. Monster Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books are also being released as graphic novels Anything by Raina Telgemeier, but especially “Sisters,” “Guts,” and “Smile” New graphic novels: “New Kid” by Jerry Craft “Amulet” by Kazu Kibuishi For younger kids who just graduated from “Captain Underpants”: “The Wild Robot” by Peter Brown “Stella Diaz Has Something to Say” by Angela Dominguez Fairy tales: Anything by Gail Carson Levine Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt “The Girl Who Drank the Moon” by Kelly Barnhill “Rooftoppers” by Katherine Rundell “Red Queen” by Victoria Aveyard For kids who will miss school over the summer: “Because of Mr. Terupt” by Rob Buyea “Ungifted” by Gordon Korman “Lupe Wong Won't Dance” by Donna Barba Higuera For kids who are asking about the war in Ukraine: “Good Night, Mr. Tom” by Michelle Magorian “The War That Saved My Life” by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley “Code Talker” by Joseph Bruchac “Chains” by Laurie Halse Anderson “The Night Diary” by Veera Hiranandani “Other Words for Home” by Jasmine Warga “The Book Thief” by Marcus Zusak Spooky/Sci Fi books: “Ghost Boys” by Jewell Parker Rhodes “Hoodoo” by Ronald L. Smith “When You Reach Me” by Rebecca Stead “Orleans” by Sherri L. Smith “A Wish in the Dark” by Christina Soontornvat Mythology: “The Storm Runner” by J.C. Cervantes “Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword” by Henry Lien “The Hound of Rowan” by Henry Neff “The Jumbies” by Tracey Baptiste Just plain good writing: “The Crossover” by Kwame Alexander “Dead End in Norvelt” by Jack Gantos “Skelig” by David Almond “Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case” by Patricia Hruby Powell “Orbiting Jupiter” by Gary D. Schmidt “The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street” by Karina Yan Glaser Spies: “Spy School” by Stuart Gibbs “Stormbreaker” by Anthony Horowitz “Milo Speck, Accidental Agent” by Linda Urban “Spy Mice” by Heather Vogel Frederick

My book talk is about New Kid by Jerry Craft.

Welcome back, bookworms! Allegra makes up for lost time by sharing quick thoughts on a bunch of different books she's been into lately. They include The Okay Witch by Emma Steinkellner; The Okay Witch and the Hungry Shadow by Emma Steinkellner; New Kid by Jerry Craft; Class Act by Jerry Craft; Stargazing by Jen Wang; The Odyssey adapted by Gareth Hinds; Romeo & Juliet adapted by Gareth Hinds; Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman; The Insiders by Mark Oshiro; Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro; The Sun is also a Star by Nicola Yoon; Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon; The League of Seven by Alan Gratz; Allies by Alan Gratz; The Simon Snow Trilogy (Carry On, Wayward Son, and Any Way the Wind Blows) by Rainbow Rowell; Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell; The Fault in Our Stars by John Green; They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera; Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz; and Aristotle & Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Saenz.

Hi! I'm graphic novelist Jarrett J. Krosoczka and welcome to Origin Stories. In this podcast, I go on a deep dive into the upbringings and artistic developments of some of the very brightest and most talented graphic novelists working today. In this episode, we are going to get to know how Jerry Craft became Jerry Craft!I like to rib Jerry and call him an “overnight success.” Jerry's first full-length graphic novel, NEW KID, published in 2019. And it did what many in the publishing community thought for years was unattainable—it won the prestigious Newbery Medal. THE GOLD MEDAL—for a graphic novel. While the Newbery is quite arguably the most legendary of the book awards, NEW KID also garnered Jerry a Coretta Scott King MEDAL for writing! Truthfully, I lost count as to how many awards stickers Jerry's book won. NEW KID is such an important book. We follow Jordan Banks and we get to see the world through his eyes, a young Black man who enters a predominantly white private school. Oh, and why is it ironic to call Jerry an “Overnight success”? Well, you're about to find out!Let's get to know Jerry Craft's Origin Story!Before we get into my conversation with Jerry Craft, Origin Stories is sponsored in part by High Five Books, a beautiful and incredible indie bookshop here in Florence, Massachusetts. Check out StudioJJK.com/OriginStories for links to buy Raul's books from this fabulous indie. They even have a limited supply of autographed copies. And while you are over on the High Five website, check out their curated lists of book recommendations. Truly High Five Worthy. Okay, on to my chat with … JERRY CRAFT!If you are enjoying my chat with Jerry and want to SEE the conversation, which includes visuals of the books we reference, check out StudioJJK.com/OriginStories. I recorded this talk via Switcher Studio. Switcher Studio is a simple and powerful IOS app that makes your live video feeds look like a professionally produced piece. Your iPad becomes like the production control room as you switch between your iPhone camera (which acts as a webcam), your remote guests, and any pre-recorded video or visuals you want to bring on screen. I would like to thank Switcher Studio for sponsoring this podcast. And as a thank you to you for listening, you may use code “StudioJJK” at switcherstudio.com to receive a free month of the service!

In this book talk bonus episode, Jerry Craft shares three recent kidlit books he loves:ALMOST AMERICAN GIRL by Robin HaDEAR JUSTICE LEAGUE and DEAR SUPER-VILLAINS by Michael NorthropOCTOPUS STEW by Eric VelasquezNote that this episode was recorded in Spring 2021, but is being released in March 2022.You can learn more about Jerry's work on his website at jerrycraft.com. You can connect with him on Twitter @JerryCraft, and on Instagram @JerryCraft.You can support independent bookstores by purchasing the Jerry's books through bookshop.org:NEW KID by Jerry CraftCLASS ACT by Jerry CraftThank you for listening to the show. You can connect with host Chrissie Wright on Instagram @chrissiemwright and on Twitter @chrissiemwright, and follow the show on Instagram @authorvisitspod.

*Links to resources to be added soon!00:00:00 Molly RauhHello and welcome back to this CCIRA Literacy Conversations podcast. I'm your host, Molly Rauh with my co-host...00:00:08 Jessica Rickert...Jessica Rickert. Today's podcast features, Whittany La Rocca, Whitney's work centers around authentic reading and writing instruction. Whitney shares, ideas for grammar instruction, blending science of reading and balanced literacy, and the Patterns of Power resource. Well, welcome Whitney. We're so excited to have you on the podcast. Why don't we start with you just telling us a little bit about your background.00:00:35 Whitney La RoccaOkay, well, thank you. And thank you for having me on this podcast. So I'm excited to be here my background, I guess, you know, starts since since you're up in Colorado, I can say, I'm originally from Wyoming. So we're formerly neighbors. I graduated from the University of Wyoming and then moved to Texas. And that's where I'm at no. I live in the Houston area. I have over 20 years of education experience. I I've taught I've been an instructional coach, and now I'm a full-time consultant, author, staff developer, co-author of the Patterns of Power family of resources. So Patterns of Power, Patterns of Power Plus. And recently we came out with Patterns of Wonder that I got to take the lead on for emergent writing. So my passion is definitely just supporting children as they find their identities and develop their identities in this world of literacy. So I'm super excited to continue to do this work all over the place, rather than just in my little bubble outside of Houston.00:01:43 Jessica RickertSo I'm wondering, because you talk about authentic grammar instruction, and I think teachers really struggle with authentic grammar instruction and not just putting a worksheet in front of them, but integrating it. So what are your thoughts on authentic grammar instruction?00:02:01 Whitney La RoccaAbsolutely. You know, we're told so often as teachers well just teach grammar in context and keep it authentic. And we're like, okay, sure, how do we do that? What does that really mean? Right? And so when we think about authentic grammar instruction, what we want to do is really lean on brain research and the research that goes into education and how our brains are wired to learn. And if we look at these cognitive structures in our brain, we have this, this structure of observation. And so we get to observe what writers do. And that's what we begin with. We begin with, published children's literature, the books that we love that are in our classrooms. We share some sentences from those or with the emerging writers we share an entire page from a picture book where we look at both pictures and words. And we just ask our students, what do you notice? And we get to have these authentic conversations where students get to really just talk about what they're noticing, what the brain is observing, right? And this power of talk, this power of inquiry, just drives this instruction. And through these observations, our students begin to recognize what writers do. And we get to pull in grammar into this conversation as well. When we do pick sentences or a page from a book, we're very particular about what we choose, right? And so we're going to curate a sentence or a page that really demonstrates this grammar skill that we're looking to show off. But we don't tell our students what that is, because we want them to kind of discover that on their own through inquiry. And that's how this process begins with this authentic grammar instruction. We begin with authentic literature, and we have these authentic conversations within the context of reading and writing about what authors do, why they do that, how they do that. And then we move into comparing and contrasting that to something else, like another piece of writing, right? We're leaning in on the comparative analysis structure, cognitive structure of our brain, which is our brains are wired to learn through, compare and contrast. So we move into that to really retain that information even more. And then we turn around and authentically produce a piece of writing that looks like the model. So we get to imitate that, and we can imitate that together. And then we invite our students to turn around and try it out on their own. And we celebrate this. And our celebration, again it's through this conversation, the sharing, this displaying of the authentic writing that they have tried out, and we turn around and invite them to continue to play with this skill in other parts of their day of writing. In writing workshop, in writing in the content areas - continue to produce more writing in different ways, using that skill. And then we get to end with this conversation around editing and what that really looks like. So rather than starting with the wrong and correcting, correcting, correcting, correcting and focusing on right or wrong, we invite, you know, risk taking, because we're celebrating the craft of writing rather than wasting our time correcting errors. And with that celebration, and with this authentic move looking at what writers do and the craft that they use, we are able to move towards correctness. And we have to, as teachers have this understanding too that every writer has approximations along the way even adult writers, right? So we never have perfect writing. We're always moving towards correctness, but we're starting with correct writing to teach that, rather than starting with the wrong. So, in context, within the frame of reading and writing and using authentic literature and asking our students to produce authentic literature as well, and they lean on their scaffolds when they need to. And when they're ready to move away from that, they take those risks and try it out. And then we can. We can teach into those risks that they are trying.00:06:30 Molly RauhSo knowing that you said, you know, we, it's an inquiry process, and we should start by observing and know, you know, every teacher has some of their like favorite books, or some of their go os. Yeah. So if you were going to share some of your favorite, some of your go-to is with our listeners, what might be some of those, you know, awesome books that you would choose for our class of emerging readers.00:06:55 Whitney La RoccaOh, my goodness, it's so this is this is so hard for me, because you, you both can see like my background or what's behind to be right? I'm in my home office right now, and the wall is just covered with books. I am a book, a holic. So for me, just to share a couple is like ridiculous. I could go for hours of my favorites. My biggest, my biggest tip, first of all, is a mentor text is a text that you love. So I could said, I could share text all day. I could send you lists and everything, but honestly, you have to love it for your students to really love it too. And so those books that are in your classroom, if you really love them, then they're probably a really good mentor text to use. And but I also will say it that we need to be diverse in the text that we choose, right? And we need to make sure that we have a wide representation and of people in the books that we use. We want to be inclusive. We want to make sure that our readers see themselves, and they see others. And this is how we build community. And this is how we build empathy through the books that we I said. Just those little tidbits before I do share some titles with you. So few for emergent writing, I guess, some of my very favorites and "Quit Calling Me a Monster" by Jory John, one of my favorite mentor texts that really could be used for anything. There's a lot of teaching points inside of that Troy Cummings', "Can I be Your Dog" is one of my favorites. He also has "Can I be Your Cat" or along that line. I'm waiting on it. I waiting on the paper back to show up to my house next month. So but there's a second one about a cat cat, as opposed to a dog. Anything by Mo Willems hands down, right? The Pigeon books, the elephant piggy books, pretty much anything there. I also love they, these, the Yasmine books, the these ones by Saadia Faruqi. I'm not sure that I pronounced her last name, right? But it's a series, the Yasmine books I absolutely love for younger readers as mentor texts as well. For older readers, I really enjoy pretty much anything by Matt De La Pena is one of my favorite authors, for sure. And I also love Peter Brown's "The Wild Robot" is probably one of my favorite novels, as well as Katherine Applegate's "The One and Only Ivan," but even more so, "The One and Only Bob," I like that one even more than Ivan, which I didn't think I could like anything more than Ivan. But Bob is just another one as well. So those are just some off the top of my head that I absolutely love. My some of my favorite authors might go-tos. But like I said, I could pull so many books off and just keep talking. So.00:09:58 Molly RauhYou had talked too about, you know, when they're observing, especially with our younger, I called them emerging readers before. But we're really talking about emerging writers. Like you said.00:10:10 Whitney La RoccaBoth. Readers and writers and writers are readers. We make that reading-writing connection in everything that we do.00:10:15 Molly RauhWhen you're working with, you know, some of the really and honestly, I would probably still even do it with my high school kids looking at pictures specifically. You know, I think some teachers are really skilled at analyzing images as kind of a component of writing and others, you know, maybe that's something they're still trying to build. And I'm thinking, you know, this is one of my favorite books, so you said, you talking about books that you love, there's a book called "This is Not My Hat."00:10:53 Whitney La RoccaYes, I have it on my wall.00:10:53 Whitney La RoccaIt's very like it's an inference sort of book, because so much of what's going on in the story isn't in the written words. It's visual. How, how do you bring together something like that when they're looking at writing when the story isn't fully in the writing? Like, what would the conversation look like for a book like that? If I want to bring in one of my favorite books to talk?00:11:17 Whitney La RoccaWell, as you think about this visual literacy. And with graphic novels being so popular here, there's so much more in those pictures than there are in the words as well, and so much thinking that occurs with students who read graphic novels. So I'm a huge proponent of graphic novels as well. So I just think, when we take a look at that again, it's that observation. So, you know, what do you notice? In older students, if we're having conversations around grammar, they're probably going to lean more towards the words that you're sharing an entire page. And I like to think about this process, even outside of teaching grammar, right? This is an inquiry process. What do you notice? Compare it and contrast it with something else, turn around and try it out, right? So that's that's the inquiry part of it. So we can share. I was thinking, I was working with some junior high students not too long ago, and we were talking about I wanted, but we had to a lesson on flashbacks, right? So I actually just put up a page from Jerry Craft's "Class Act" and where he does, he has a flashback and around, the flashback he has like a wavy line. And so they're bell ringer when they came in was just a what do you notice the authors doing on this page? Right? That's all it was. What do you notice? And so they wrote in their notebooks. You know, a lot about, kind of the meaning of what's going on the back story of the student, what they were gathering just from that one page, which so much was in the pictures versus the words themselves. But and but it was interesting, none of them really noticed that little move around the flashback. But they did realize that he was flashing back to something different. And so just that what you know is conversation then moved us into. Well, this is called a flashback and look what Jerry did for us as readers, right? And he made this wavy line. So we actually transferred that over to text. When you did, we did a compare contrast. We moved to where we were just looking at text itself and finding the flashback. And we actually drew the squiggly line. So if you think about about that, that's, you know, that's that visual literacy of what's going on. So if we have books where we're looking at pictures as well, when we asked, what do you notice? You can say, you know, look at the words. But also look at the pictures. What do you notice is happening here in both. Now with emergent readers and writers, the writing that they're doing is mostly pictures as they're learning that there's this thing called letters. And these letters make words. And these words make sentences, right? So when we're looking at really emergent writers, they're just scribbling for their writing. They have this understanding that there's this thing called writing, but they don't have this understanding that there's these letters, you know, these symbols that make letters that tie the sounds yet. And so when we're asking them to look at pictures and what we're doing, we're still looking at the words as well. But their eyes tend to look more at the pictures, because they're not reading these words yet. So we get to lean in on what it is they're noticing, and then we get to develop their oral language through those pictures. So when they're using the pictures in their own books and say, we're working with nouns, right, it's a focus brace we might use is I tell about people, places and things in my story. And so they have these scribbles on the page. Well, as we're developing the oral language, they can be bringing in people, places and things into their language as their sharing, what's in their pictures. And that's just the, the, the foundation of grammar that were working on with our students. 00:14:55 Jessica RickertWell, in all of this is reader like based in readers' and writers' workshop and balanced literacy. What - something that's pushing in on education in Colorado and other places is Science of Reading. So how do you, how do you see merging those two things? Because science of reading is here to stay and whatever people think of it. But then it's, it seems like if they're trying to push out balanced literacy, and what you're talking about is these really great authentic experiences for kids. So what are your thoughts on that?00:15:29 Whitney La RoccaWell, we definitely have this pitch for a Science of Reading everywhere. And what I will say is the science of reading is attached to Scarborough's rope, right? And so to have skilled readers, we have to weave in the phonics. But we also have to leave in what we call language comprehension. And when we look at the language comprehension side of it that is developing this language of having an understanding of syntax and structure and all all of these pieces, you know, of developing how language should sound that fluency piece when we're reading. Well, we're not going to just get that fluency peace unless we are read aloud to right? And so read aloud happens during balanced literacy. And guess what? We need that read aloud to dive into that language comprehension side of the science of reading. And there are so many components in that language comprehension compre- "muuh" (sound to indicate tongue-tied moment) , the comprehension side, where a lot of balanced literacy components come in. I do see the need for a strong phonics part of your day. We need that, right? Our students definitely need to be able to decode it. They shouldn't just be guessing, but it definitely can be weaved together. And honestly, one of my favorite, it works out there right now that I go back to almost on a daily basis, because as a consultant, I'm getting calls constantly, because I do, my consulting is around balanced literacy and reading and writing workshop. And so I get calls all the time. Well, you know, we're really being told we have to do science of reading. How can we mix and match that? And the it's called "Shifting the Balance" by Kari Yates and Jan Birkins. If you haven't heard of it yet, I highly recommend you check it out, "Shifting the Balance" Stenhouse Publishers is the publishing company? But what they do is they share the research behind the science of reading, and then they give, and then they show how that can be balanced with balanced literacy. And there's actually actually six shifts that they dive into of how you can shift your balanced literacy to also follow and dive into this research behind science of reading. And it's beautiful I, like I said, I refer to it almost on a daily basis. It's definitely one of my favorite art pieces of work out there right now as we maneuver through these reading wars. What I will say is there needs to be a balance, right? So we don't need to be at one end or the other. It really needs to come together. There are some really good things with science of reading that I do believe in, but I am also my heart is with reading and writing workshop could, because when we're talking about authentic authenticity and we're talking about engagement, that's where that happens, right? And if we really dive into emergent reading and writing this writing that they're doing through their pictures and through their oral rehearsal, that's not going to happen if we wait until they can write CBC words, right? And so we don't want to stifle them because they're not yet writing words, encoding words or decoding words, right? We want them to be able to go ahead and develop that language comprehension through Reading the pictures as well as writing through pictures.00:19:00 Molly RauhOh, and this is this is more for listeners. This is not for you so much Whitney. But if you are looking for some cool science of reading strategies that you could maybe marry with what Whitney's talking about, we have another podcast with Jessica help me with the name, because it just fell out of my head. I had it a minute ago -Katie Garner. We talked to Katie Garner, and she's got these great little strategies to help kids access those sounds before they're you know, technically, I'm doing air quotes. You guys can't see me but air quotes before they're technically ready. And so, you know, that's that's a great resource. But I'm with you. I like, I'm such an inquiry, like my practice as a teacher is very inquiry-based and I, you know, I love Patterns of Power and the work that you and Jeff Anderson have done, and you know, that like, like you said, it's engaging work that can kids get excited about it. And, you know, Jeff, that I've made no secret about this. Jeff is, we'll see if you can beat him. This is your goal. You gotta beat him.00:20:06 Whitney La RoccaI don't - I don't think I can.00:20:06 Molly RauhJeff is my favorite podcast episode that I've recorded.00:20:11 Whitney La RoccaI can't beat Jeff. He's my favorite too. I absolutely love him. He's my mentor. I have learned so much from him, and when people asked me to come present and they're like, you know, we've seen Jeff, we really want you. And I'm like, okay, but, you know, I'm not Jeff. RIght like, not even close, just so incredible. I could listen to him all day. And I just laugh constantly, right? You know, he'll just have you rolling over. I love it when we present together, because I just almost pee my pants every time, because he's so funny, but I absolutely love him. We did. We had a webinar together this afternoon, and we talked on a daily basis. We're like our we're the married couple who are the we're definitely the work husband and wife there. And so we it's a lot of fun. But yeah, I can't beat Jeff, you can't don't even put me try to like put me there, because I'm not even close.00:21:04 Molly RauhI won't make you do that. But I'm still enjoying this a lot so far. So, absolutely I won't make you compete with Jeff.00:21:10 Whitney La RoccaAnd if you want to laugh more, you know, we have they he and Travis, who's the co-author for the Middle School patterns of winter. They host the podcast as well, called the POPCast. Which is the Patterns of Power podcas: the POPCast and they have you rolling. But the episodes are about 15 minutes long. And they're all and Patterns of Power. So they just have you you rolling. They brought me on to talk about Patterns of Wonder. They've brought Caroline on to talk about Spanish, you know, they've brought on some brain researchers that kind of bring in everybody, but it's those two and their two goofballs. So they really have a good time with this podcast. And it's a lot of fun to listen to.00:21:52 Molly RauhWell, I'm definitely going to have to give that a try. And I will also, this is the first time in a while. When I've had Whitney, you've given me like, you might have seen me like frantically writing things down. This will be the first time in a while where I'll have show notes with links to all kinds of resources. So thank you for sharing already, like so many names and books and resources, because I love to get to link those together for our audience so that they can access even more than we can talk about in, you know, a short podcast session.00:22:23 Whitney La RoccaWell, there's so many people doing so many good things out there. I just I love to just share what's going on out there in classrooms and out in the professional writing world. And it's just, it's just amazing, even though this year is just incredibly difficult for teachers. And I know that I see that I just love that they're still, you know, a little bit of excitement still out there. And I just want to share and celebrate that as often as possible.00:22:50 Jessica RickertWell for our listeners that don't know what Patterns of Power are -is in. You've been talking about that. Can you tell us a little bit about that?00:22:58 Whitney La RoccaYeah. So Patterns of Power is a resource. It's a professional book, but it's really professional resource. And Jeff and I created Patterns of Power for grades, one through five first. So that was our first one that we created together. And it really came from the work that he did with everyday editing and mechanically inclined. And just the back story behind that I was an instructional coach at the time on an elementary campus. We were struggling on our campus because we were using a lot of daily edit, daily oral language, worksheets, and we just weren't seeing a transfer of skills to their writing. And we were frustrated because we were using writing workshop, and it just it was frustrating for us. And I was reading his work. And I and I told my teachers, I said, hey, there's this guy out here who's doing some pretty cool stuff, and we're using mentor texts already. And during writing workshop, you know, this approach makes sense. What do you think we give it a try? And so for? And they said, sure, of course, we're willing. So I just I created some lessons, you know, at the lower grade levels and along the lines of his work, and they started using it, loved it. He came to my district. He and I got to talking, and he invited me to write this book with him, which was really exciting just to, because, Molly, just like you, I love him, right? I go back to my notes before I knew him of just the sessions. And there's so many exclamation marks in my notes, because he just had you so excited and energized and motivated. So I couldn't wait to do this work. So we came out with that. And the reason why we called it a resource over a professional book is because the professional reading that's in this book is a very short amount. We know teachers don't have time to do all of this professional reading. So we have about 50 pages that's the professional reading, and the other 400 pages are ready-to-use lessons that you could turn around and use tomorrow. Every lesson follows the same process and we call it the Patterns of Power process. It's this inquiry process that I referred to earlier where we begin with invitation to notice, we invite our students to notice what they observe in the sentence that we choose. And through that conversation, they discover this move that writers make, which is tied to grammar. And so we introduced in that Focus Phrase for them. And we learn, you know, like, "I use nouns to show people, places, and things" that's a focus phrase. And now we have a better understanding standing of what nouns are, rather than starting our lesson with okay writers. Today we're going to learn about nouns, pull out your notebooks. Let's do a three column chart, right? People places and things, you know know, we're going to start with just this sentence, and ask, what do you notice? And through that conversation, they discover this. And then we move into the invitation to compare and contrast where we compare and contrast that mentor sentence to another example, and continue our conversation around what they notice, which also leads back to our Focus Phrase, then you have the invitation to imitate where we imitate that model together. So that's where we create our own piece of writing. Thunder cracks Oh, my goodness, sorry, we're having a thunderstorm right now. That was a really loud thunder. My dog is freaking out. We have really bad thunderstorms down here. I'm sorry. So the invitation to imitate were imitating together using that Focus phrase, keeping that Focus Phrase in mind, they turn around and imitate on their own. So then they turn around and try it out on their own. And we celebrate that. And then we move into the apply where they go ahead and try it out in other areas. And we come back at the end for this conversation around editing. And our editing is still isn't about right or wrong, but it's about meaning and effect, and really thinking about, you know, when we don't put a period here, how does that affect the meaning? Or what effect does this have on the reader? So these conversations give way to editing to where students actually really edit their work. So often, our students think they're writing is perfect. There are no mistakes in my writing, and we hand them and editing checklist. And they check yes, all the way down, right? And when we look at their writing and there's nothing, they haven't edited, anything. But when we use these Focus phrases and we use this process and ending with that conversation well, and then they have a better understanding of what they really meant to do as editors, and they take more care, and they're more intentional with the editing that they do. So all of our lessons in Patterns of Power follow that process, and we have over seventy five lessons in Patterns of Power. And then we wrote Pattern of Power Plus, which were grade level specific. And that's where, like I was, Patterns of Power was Jeff Anderson with Whitney La Rocca. So my name was real tiny. Then with Patterns of Power Plus, I became an "And" so my name was the same size. And Jeff tells everyone I graduated from a preposition to a conjunction, and that grammar really does matter, right? And then, while Jeff and Travis were working on Patterns of Power for Middle School, I got to work, take the lead and become have my name first and work on Patterns of Wonder for emergent writers. So it just continues to grow. I guess I and I'm allowed to say it. Now we have Patterns of Power, Molly, for high school coming out. Yes! Nine through twelve and is in production right now. So it's supposed to be soon coming out. I don't, I can't tell you exactly when, but I know it's soon because it's been turned over to production. So...00:28:47 Molly RauhAnd to all of you that couldn't see me like mouth, jaw dropped, hands to face, like so excited.00:28:55 Whitney La RoccaYes, I know. I knew you would be excited. I couldn't wait to tell you that. So, yes, we're your pre-k through 12. We will be very soon with this process. And that's what's so awesome is the process is the same at every grade level. The difference is the layers of complexity that we add into it, right? And that's what makes it so powerful as well.00:29:17 Molly RauhWell and you can tell, you know, I'm, I teach high school, but I still know your work, love your work. You know, it's something that I've you know, obviously I go to CCIRA, and I take a lot of of different strategies from a lot of different grade levels and adapt them. But it's so nice when somebody has also done that work for me and I can go. Oh, I can do that so much better, like you guys are brilliant in ways that I'm not.00:29:40 Whitney La RoccaWell, when we encourage that to, we encourage you, you know, to start with the lessons we created. But once you have a sense of how this process goes, go into the books that you love and find sentences, you know that you love or invite your students to find sentences and in move, continue with the process on your own as well. So we don't believe in scripted teaching at all. And so we want this. That's why it's really a process. Yes, we have lessons to support the process. But that's the process that makes it so powerful. And I always, when I signed books, I always sign it with "The power is in the process," because that's really what it is. And you have to trust that process as well. When you think about transfer, right? I so agree with that.00:30:26 Molly RauhSo that gets me to think thinking about 00:30:29 Molly Rauhthat creative process, because you said, when you got started, you know, you had kind of looked at some of Jeff's work, and you created some lessons. And that, you know, just sort of over the years has snowballed into this fantastic, impressive, awesome career. I'm so like, I'm jealous of all you've accomplished, and that you got to graduate.00:30:49 Whitney La RoccaIt's so exciting. It's been really fun. My mom the other day actually said, you know he's really giving you this gradual release of responsibility, and that's exactly it. That's what it was. My mom's a former teachers as well - it's the language, right? She's retired now, but she's like a you know, he just he took you under his wing, and he slowly released you a little bit more to go out and do this work. And and that's what it is. And it's the same thing with the process as well. It's a gradual release.00:31:18 Molly RauhYeah. But thinking back to the beginning of your process as a learner in, in creating this, could you tell us a little bit about those first couple initial lessons, and then maybe what hasn't changed or evolved, or what you've learned, kind of as you've grown? TAnd you know, tell us about your learning process.00:31:36 Whitney La RoccaSure, my gosh, there's so much. So when I first created just the lessons on my own, where I was taking his work from Everyday Editing and Mechanically Inclined and just trying to think at, you know, at an elementary - lower elementary level, what this could look like, you know, we interpret things so differently. And so when I was doing the notice, I actually made three days of noticing where we were noticing three different texts all around the same skill. And and then the compare contrast, we use those, but still, you know, continue to compare contrast. And and the he came in, I remember when he came and did, you know, some PD around this work with us, and I had kind of an aha moment. And I was like, oh, my goodness, you know, my lessons I'm trying to do too much, much like this, you know, it's it doesn't need to be that much. I'm kind of overdoing that notice, you know that we need to get we need to get past that, and really into the work that the students are actually doing, because that's where the power is. And so I, that's kind of what got us started. He also talked about the focus phrase, which I, that was something new that wasn't in Everyday Editing. And so he was definitely kind of growing and doing some work around this as well. And so I took one of my first grade lessons, and I revised it after that PD. Yeah, I went back, and I revised it, and I added in a focus phrase, and I took out some of the other things and completely revised it to match more of what he shared in the PD when I had a better understanding rights. And and that's the power behind hearing the actual authors. Like you learn, you're like, oh, that's what that meant. And so I sent him the lesson, he and I had talked, you know, at the PD and everything. So he kind of knew my name at least because I was, he came to my school. So so I was kind of in charge of making sure he got lunch, right? The important things. And so I sent him a lesson and said, hey, you know, after this PD, I really have been thinking more about some of these lessons I've created. Can you take a look at this first grade lesson and give me feedback? I've added a focus phrase. I've kind of changed some things up. Let me know what you're thinking here. I'm because I really just wanted his feedback on this. You know, I'm I am I on the right track? And that lesson is actually what he emailed me back and said, I really want to talk to you, what's your number? And that's where that got into wow. You know, you and I are on the same page here. This is, you know, I can really take your lower elementary experience and mix it with mine, Upper Elementary and secondary experience. And we could do something here. So as I'm think of those early lessons in that early learning, that's for me. It was just going back and trying it again. It's that revision that we do as writers, right? And then when he and I sat down to actually work Kirk, you know, I was kind of nervous three getting honestly, I was like, oh, my gosh damn good, right lessons with him. And we sat side by side at his table. But Jeff is just so open and and wanting to learn as well. I mean, he's been doing this work for ever, but he's still open and wanting to learn more and wanting to learn from others. So he really was asking, you know, what do you think about this? And what lessons do you have? Maybe we can mix some of these together. And so I just kind of learned even more about how you just have to write. You just have to get it out. So, you know, don't don't worry about if it's right or wrong, just get it out, get it out there. And because then you can revise then that's definitely something I have learned. I will say, as that gradual release of responsibility as I took on Patterns of Wonder, really took the lead on that. I sat with a blank screen for a really long time, and I had a really hard -it was all in my brain, and the editor would call and say, "how we doing? Haven't seen anything yet." I'm like, it's all right here in my brain. It's percolating. And he's like, well, percolate that onto paper, please. And so once I got going, though, I was really able to continue that work. And as we, Jeff and I are kind of working on something else like I'm not sure if I can really say what else is coming. But there may be something else coming soon. And it's amazing how much easier it is now for me, right? I just sit on, and I just go to town on these lessons on we're working on around revision. So just a hint, and I'm able to I'm much more confident in what I'm doing now, and that gradual release of responsibility, adds confidence, right? I've had him when I've needed him. And as he let me go a little bit more, I grew with more and more confidence. And now I feel really strong about what I do. 00:36:21 Molly RauhI love that your own process connected to, you know, again, that writing process. And I also just love that you were bold enough to like, maybe like, I just need to be braver and be like, hey, here's this cool lesson I created based off from your work. What do you think? The thing like? The mentors? Because you gained this awesome mentor because you were just brave enough to send a lesson and say, hey, I could use some feedback.00:36:48 Whitney La RoccaBut really, that's all I'm working for. I never dreamed that this would happen like I, of course, it was in my dreams. But I never, when I sent that was like thinking it what happened? Right? I really was just looking for feedback. So when he said, I need to talk to you, I was like, uh oh, I thought it was going to be terrible like he didn't want to put it in writing, right? It's. So then, when I talk to him, he's like, you know, I really think we need to do some work together. And I was like, wait, what? Hold up, what? And that's when he went into, you know, well, it's going to be Jeff Anderson with Whitney La Rocca and made a point that my name was going to be very small. And I said, I didn't care just the fact that I would get to work with him and learn more from him. I really saw this as a way for me to learn more. And I mean, I have definitely learned more, way beyond what I had expected back then. And like, I think, it was 2014 or 15 or something, when all of this started between he and I. So.00:37:45 Molly RauhWell, I'm thinking, even just the feedback on the lesson, forget publishing. But just like, learning from someone like Jeff or any other, you know, educational- that's a theme we have on this podcast is educational heroes. And...00:37:58 Whitney La RoccaYes, I encourage everyone to ask for feedback. Don't be afraid to do that, whether it's from someone in your school or someone outside of your school, and it don't be afraid to just reach out and say, Hey, can I have some feedback on this? Because that's how we grow. And, you know, we are. We're as smart as the people in the room. Umm, right? And if we're not asking for feedback, if we're not seeking other opinions and and, you know, working towards this growth, we're not helping our children. Right? So It ultimately, it's about our students. And if we seek feedback, then we're also putting that good model out there as we encourage our students to do the same, 00:38:44 Molly RauhAbsolutely. And that, you know, I guess my brain is very much into like connecting to some of our old podcasts today. One of our recent ones was with our Early Career Network, liaison or whatever. we call her role, and we were talking a lot about just those conversations and the learning we can get from collaborating with some of the newer educators, because they've had, some of those...One, they've got some new learning that maybe we've missed out on. Two, they have a lot of of those techniques are fresh in their mind, you know, things that we know, but maybe we've forgotten to do as we get, you know, into sort of the daily patterns of our work. And so it can be so refreshing to sit down and collaborate with someone who's just sort of in a different space and place in teaching, because like it improves my practice so much even, just, you know, looking over lessons of some of my newer colleagues, or I all the time. I'm like, hey, come look at this. Tell me what you think and getting feedback. And I think that goes for any level, you know, whether it's reaching out to you, or reaching out to Jeff for reaching out to the teacher, down the hall? I think sometimes we forget how much we can get from just a fresh set of eyes from our awesome colleagues who have strengths that aren't our strengths like, I don't know, I'm a very collaborative kind of person.00:40:12 Whitney La RoccaI am too. And I just think too, you know, the you know, I've been in this for a while now. So my former students, I remember being a coach, and we were hiring my former sutdents. My like former third graders were now becoming teachers at my school, and I just reached, just learning from them. I learned from them when they were kids in my third grade class, but I also learned from them when they were my colleague. It's just all about learning from others. And I think that's important that we learn from our younger teachers. But we also take time to learn from our students that are in our class as well, because they can teach us a lot too.00:40:45 Molly RauhI love that I, you know, one of my favorite questions to ask my students is just "What are other teachers doing that, I could bring to my classroom to make it better. And a lot of times, they're like, "No, nothing, miss, you're great." But every once in a while, they have, they remember something cool that another teachers done it. And I'm like "score!"00:41:04 Whitney La RoccaYeah, I want to know more about that.00:41:07 Molly RauhYeah, I was talking to one of my and I can't remember what he said. But he came to me. We did this we, co taught a lesson. So we mixed our two classes together and co-taught this lesson the last two days. And he he came to me afterwards and he said, okay, I have this really great feedback from this kid, and I wanted to tell you about it so that if I forget, you'll at least remember, oh, it was about visuals to go with. It was this big sort of geography thing. And they were learning about Imperialization and the countries that they were sort of trying to imperialize and grab. It was just like names written on note cards. And this kid would be said, it would be so cool if we had like a picture visuals to go with it. So, you know, we had a little more sense of what we were grabbing, and he's like, that was such good feedback, because he's like, of course, we could do that like that makes a lot of sense. And you know, it's little things. And, you know, that doesn't quite connect with your work of literacy. But like our kids, they have so much to share an offer. And sometimes the ideas don't come to them, and that's okay. But every once in a while, oh man, they have awesome feedback.00:42:14 Whitney La RoccaBut when we open our our classrooms to their feedback into these conversations, we're showing them that we trust them, right? And we're opening the doors. And and with that comes higher levels of engagement as well. And the best way to learn they have to be engaged first before they can really learn and retain anything. So when we have the trust of our students in that way, and they're, they feel open enough to share some of their thinking around this. We just invite more engagement.00:42:40 Molly RauhAbsolutely. Jessica, do you have questions to get us back on track? Because I have definitely derailed us a little bit.00:42:47 Jessica RickertNo, no questions. I think this has been great. And I just think that Patterns of Power resource is what teachers need, because I think teachers are always, have always been overwhelmed. And so it's nice for somebody else to do like the legwork of the structure. And like you said, then go off and do it. But it's nice to have something that's not a script, but it's here's where you can start, and then take off from there. So I think, and that's like, I'm excited for Molly too, because I think sometimes High School doesn't have of the resources like that. So I think that's a great resource. And I love that it's a resource, not a script, not a program, because we still want teachers to think too. And like you said, use your own books, your favorite books, because that's authentic. I mean, if you're just grabbing a book that the resource told you, it's like God, this is the worst book ever, you know, then then then it loses its authenticity. So I love that. And I love that you ground everything and what's best for students and how students learn and how we learn. I mean, that's how we read and write and learn about different things as well.00:43:57 Whitney La RoccaWell and I do want to say, with this Patterns of Power for high school, the co-author on that is Holly Durham. So she is, she's down here in Texas as well. She is a high school coordinator, language arts coordinator at high school level. So she really knows her stuff when it comes to high school. And to be honest, I get kind of get a little intimidated talking to her, because here I have goodbye little primary world, and that she's like using these words, I don't even know what they mean. So she definitely knows her stuff. But she Travis and Jeff co-wrote that one. So it's exciting that our family also said, continues to grow as we add more resources. And when we're thinking about this resource, it is a resource, right? So it's not a program, it's not a professional books. So it really can be used with any model that you're using, whether you are using balanced literacy and reading and writing workshop, or you are using a program this really, because it's a process, it really can feed into anything, any kind of model that you're using for a teaching writing. You can replace those worksheets with this process very easily. I have a several districts that I am working with that we are, we are doing that. So it is it is doable, and the teachers are excited because it's so much more engaging than those worksheets.00:45:20 Molly RauhAnd I just want to emphasize, you know, I think processes are so empowering to both teachers and our students. When we learn processes, you know, they give us, kind of a strategy that we can apply regularly. And when we teach our students processes, they now have a tool that they can apply to different problems, that they run into themselves. And so I love teaching processes, and I love that you guys have created some awesome resources with Patterns of power and Patterns of Wonder. And, you know, the whole collection of resources for so many people at every different level. So I hope teachers listening, you know, budget a little money aside and grab themselves a great resource.00:46:04 Whitney La RoccaResource. Yes, thank you. Well, I will say too with the process, they you actually go through the entire writing process in a very short, non-threatening way with this Patterns of Power process too, you know, you're immersed in this literature, you're immersed in skill. You turn around and do some brainstorming before drafting something together, you turn around and draft it again on your own. You celebrate that. And often in that celebration, there's revision that's done to that right there. You realize, oh, I want to add this, and you doing some revision that apply often goes into a lot of revision into the writing that you're doing during your writing block of time and ending with the editing conversation moves over to editing. So you're really taking it through the writing process, but it's in such a short digestible chunk that it's very non-threatening to students, again, that that allows them to feel good and confident about that work they're doing before going into these long essays, right, or whatever it is that they're writing.00:47:06 Molly RauhWell. And I love that you. You emphasized that it is a short process, because I think sometimes teachers go oh, writing is such a process. It's so hard to get, and it feels it feels so natural and engaging and short and sweet. And, you know, it's kind of a very snappy kind of thing to work through these these processes. And when you said earlier that you were a little intimidated by, you know, some of the high school stuff in the vocabulary, let me just tell you, like the some of the best instructional practices that I have as a teacher I learned from lower elementary presenters that I've gone to see, like, truly some of the best. And, you know, you talk again about some of those processes. Linda Hoyt is where...00:47:55 Whitney La RoccaI love Linda Hoyt.00:47:55 Molly RauhYeah, I saw her early in my career at a CCIRA conference, and she she blew my mind, because it was very much like what you talked about, where it was like, okay, let's observe this sentence. Let's mimic it a little bit. And we did so much writing. So, you know, in such a short sweet amount of time. And I was like, I can. I was teaching Middle School at the time. And I was like, I can totally take this back to my kids and man. I had such fun experiences using the strategies. And I still like it's still in my classroom today. And, you know, if you've ever looked at her Non-fiction Writing, everything is like three steps. There's nothing more than three steps. And I feel like the work that you guys have done is very similar in that it really is short and sweet. And, you know, empowering, because it's so easy to just take and use. I think that's something teachers really love and want to just be able to like, go into something and be like, okay, I can apply this like I can use this tomorrow because it's like it makes that much sense.00:48:58 Whitney La RoccaAnd the students do that to. They're like, oh, I can do this one sentence. I can do that, right? I can do that. It's that confidence piece. So.00:49:08 Molly RauhAlright. So my final question, okay, it that I pretty much throw at everyone is about educational Heroes.So who are some of you? I know it's a hard one - who are some of yours. Maybe, you know, just a couple. People that have really impacted you in awesome ways as an educator.00:49:29 Whitney La RoccaOkay. So of course, Jeff. You know, I've talked about him this whole time. So I'm going to start with him, but I'm not going to say a lot because I've done that this entire webinar. I will say Lucy Calkins has completely changed my view on teaching writing. And she actually came into my writing education as an early, I was an early teacher at the time. I had been only teaching a couple years when I was introduced to her work, and I actually got to go to New York for an Institute. And that Institute I walked away, saying, this is what I need to be doing. This makes sense and just she is just such an. And I know she's keynoting at your [Conference]. I'm so excited, but she just is such a learner herself to that. She's constantly revising her thinking, and she's constantly researching and constantly getting out there into classrooms and schools and trying to see what is going on right here and now, but still grounded in what's best for kids and that engagement piece and keeping it authentic. What authentic reading and writing really is. So one of my very first books, professional books that I read front to back, like cover to cover and was Art of Teaching Writing and I, it's highlighted like crazy. It's still on my shelf now. But just reading that and then listening to her. And now, even when I teach, people, will say, you sound just like Lucy. And I'm like, well, she was like, she was my person that's who - I remember being at the institute on my birthday and I she was I was in her small group session. And and she had us writing, of course, she always has us writing, and she was going around and conferring. And she came up next to me. And she said, I want to talk to you about your writing -scoot over. This is so Lucy: just scoot over. I'll share your chair with you, and I was like, so I got to like touch butts with Lucy on my birthday. I mean how cool is that.One of my favorite memory. But anyway, I just I could listen to her all day. I she's just she just has so much to say, and she's so genuine in everything that she does and everything that she says. And she's thoughtful in how she speaks, and she speaks how she writes, right? So it definitely she's one of my heroes for sure. I also, you know, I could go on and on, but I am going to I know that we're short on time. So definitely Jeff. Definitely Lucy, but also my mom, my, like I said, she is a former teacher, former coach. Her name is Amy Daley, and I actually dedicated Patterns of Wonder to her. She was, as I was growing up, she she was a preschool director, and then she moved into being a kindergarten teacher. And then eventually a coach, and I just had learned, growing - as a child I learned so much from her. She, I remember the writing that we did together just as a child in the young authors, competitions, she was there to help me, and she never told me what to do. She constantly conferred with me, right? And made me think through everything that I was doing. And then I remember when I first started teaching, I learned so much from her. Just and that way, she's actually the one that got me thinking about Lucy Caulkins. She's the one that introduced me to that whole brilliance in my life, in my world. And and and we just every time that we talk, we still talk shop constantly. We just have so many of the same philosophies and views and feed off one another, even though she's fully retired now, but she's definitely an educational hero for me as well, and that there's so many more, but I'm just going to limit it to those three for now.00:53:16 Jessica RickertIt is so hard to limit, because we have you know, but I know that Molly and I are both envious of both of your experiences with Jeff and Lucy. That's pretty awesome. But I love that your mom has paved the way for you as well. That's pretty special. And I gotta tell you, I never thought I'd be excited about grammar instruction. And I am!00:53:37 Whitney La RoccaMe neither. I never thought I would either and and Jeff even says he never in a million years dreamed he would write a book on grammar, you know. And then like it becomes this empire, you know, later in his life so.00:53:50 Jessica RickertWell, and it's so needed, because it's not something that it's kind of the leftover thing that we don't really talk about. I mean, we talked about writing instruction, but grammars always an aside, but it's so important, and it does need to be integrated. So I love what you guys have done.00:54:06 Whitney La RoccaAnd when it is taught, it's so often taught in isolation and just doesn't make sense right, or it's, or it's a focus on correcting, rather than the the correctness that's already there. And so I'm glad that we have a resource that can support teachers to keep it authentic and also continued their practice of teaching writing in the genres as well.00:54:29 Jessica RickertAwesome. Well, we look forward to seeing you at CCIRA and Molly have something to say before we wrap up.00:54:37 Molly RauhNo, that's okay. I, you know me, I could talk all night.00:54:41 Jessica RickertYou got Molly jazzed too. You got a high school teacher jazzed about grammar instruction.00:54:47 Whitney La RoccaWell, that tends to be, usually High School teachers are very jazzed about grammar instruction.00:54:51 Molly RauhI was actually, okay, I'm gonna say what I was going to say. I was actually thinking, like, there's so many teachers that are passionate about a lot of things writing-wise. And grammar is not one of them. They don't feel as comfortable with that space. And so you guys have really empowered them with something that allows them to feel comfortable tackling grammar.00:55:13 Whitney La RoccaIt's okay to not know everything it's that's okay. That's okay. We support you in that. So yeah, it's great.00:55:22 Jessica RickertWell, we're very excited. And for all of our listeners, if you haven't signed up for Whitney's session, there's still time to get in, or you can change your session to go and see Whitney, because she will have an awesome couple of sessions. And we're so excited to see you in person.00:55:40 Whitney La RoccaThank you. And one of my sessions is following Lucy. So if I'm not there, when you first get there attendees, it's because I'm talking to Lucy, I'll be there soon. Now I'm just teasing, I'm gonna probably have to sneak out of Lucy early to get over to my session, be ready for everyone to come in. However, I'm following her. So I feel like woo look at me. I follow Lucy. I'm honored to come to CCIRA. I have heard so many good things about this conference for years now. So the fact that I am actually get to come and present at it. I'm just incredibly honored, and I can't wait to get to Denver, even though it'll be cold. I can't wait to get there so.00:56:18 Jessica RickertGreat. Well, thank you so much for taking time to talk to us tonight. Well, thank you. Thank you for having me. I've enjoyed it.00:56:25 Molly RauhThank you Whitney. Thanks for listening to CCIRA Literacy Conversations podcast. To find out more about CCIRA, go to CCIRA.org. On CCIRA.org, you can join as a member, or find great resources like our professional development blog, which posts every Tuesday and has variety of guest writers on a awesome selection of topics. CCCIRA is a professional organization of educators and community members dedicated to the promotion and advancement of literacy. We also have a Twitter account @ColoradoReading. You can find us on Instagram at CCIRA_ColoradoReading. Or you can find us on Facebook, where we also have a members only group that we're trying to build. And our Facebook account is CCIRA Colorado Reading. We'd love to hear more from you. And again, if you're looking for new content, please send any questions or things you'd be interested in seeing from CCIRA to CCIRAVideo@gmailcom. Thanks for listening and have a great week.

Welcom back to the Fake Ass Book Club! This episode is dedicated to all the survivors of the pandemic out there and survivor of idiotic book bans Jerry Craft, author of the graphic novel "New Kid". Moni and Kat review former first lady Michelle Obama's autobiography "Becoming". It's a good one so sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. Cheers! P.S. We recorded remotely so please forgive the audio delay... we couldn't always hear each other. *Correction- Michelle's father Fraser C. Robinson III worked for the Chicago water purification plant thefabpodcast@gmail.com thefabpodast on Instagram The Fake Ass Book Club on YouTube Jerry Craft- https://jerrycraft.com/about/ South Side- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tQ6TRC6LHA

Jerry Craft's graphic novel New Kid has won multiple awards, made the New York Times Best Sellers List, and is beloved by children across the country.But this year, New Kid made headlines for a different reason when a Texas school district pulled the book from its shelves after a white parent complained that it promoted Critical Race Theory and Marxism.  Craft was surprised. The story is based on his own experiences as a young Black kid attending a mostly white private school in New York City. “I had to Google Critical Race Theory and try to find out how I was, how I was teaching it,” he tells Into America. New Kid was born in part because Craft felt that stories about Black kids tend to dwell on trauma instead of normal life. "I just wanted to have kids where the biggest dilemma in their life is if they wanted to play PlayStation or Xbox, or what movie they wanted to go see, you know, as opposed to always having the weight of the world,” he says. “Those are important stories, but I think we have to give kids things to aspire to and to dream."The school district reinstated New Kid after a review, but the ordeal raised old questions about what kind of books are challenged in schools, and who gets to decide what is appropriate for children. Host Trymaine Lee's 9-year-old daughter Nola read New Kid for her summer reading, and she loved it. Trymaine brings her on the show to talk about the book and representation in children's literature.“I mean, obviously, if you grow up in a world where you see yourself, that might tell you like, I can't do this, I'm not able to do this, or I'm not capable of this,” she tells her dad. “So I think that in general, just seeing people that look like you and representation as a whole is very important.”For a transcript, please visit https://www.msnbc.com/intoamerica. Please follow and share the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, all with the handle @intoamericapod. Thoughts? Feedback? Story ideas? Write to us at intoamerica@nbcuni.com.Further Reading and Listening: Author of 'Gender Queer,' one of most-banned books in U.S., addresses controversyCheck out Nola Lee on last year's holiday episode of Into America: Black Toys R Us

This week on Comics School is a special edition NCTE Roundtable with a discussion entitled TALES OF FUTURE PAST about speculative science fiction. Our roundtable on this episode includes... Jerry Craft (@JerryCraft) Dr. Damian Duffy John Jennings (@JIJennings) Maika Moulite (@maikamoulite) As always, you can find Mike on Twitter @mbdando

In this episode, I check out the graphic novel New Kid by Jerry Kraft. I'm also joined by my brother and my mom makes a guest appearance playing the role of a super annoying teacher (love you, Mom).

Welcome back.  You are in for a treat because Ryan and Jigisha interview author and illustrator Jerry Craft.  His book, "New Kid" has won both the Newberry Medal and the Coretta Scott King award for 2020.  New Kid is also the first graphic novel to win the Newberry Medal.  Enjoy the interview.New Kid by Jerry CraftClass Act by Jerry CraftTwins by Varian JohnsonClap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo Octopus Stew by Eric ValasquezTristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame MbaliaBecoming Muhammed Ali by Kwame Alexander and James PattersonNewberry Medal websiteCoretta Scott King Award website

Mrs. van Kan and Mrs. Peel share the newly voted Virginia Readers' Choice Award (VRCA) winning book! They also discuss how the VRCA process works and the 10 titles nominated for this school year. These titles are listed below, along with their availability on Hoopla at the Prince William County Library. Episode Resource List: 2019 - 20 VRCA Middle School Award Winning Book: Restart by Gordon Korman 2020 - 2021 VRCA Nominees New Kid by Jerry Craft (available as an audiobook and eBook at the PWC Library) The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden (available as an audiobook and eBook at the PWC Library) It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (Adapted for Young Readers) by Trevor Noah The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart (available as an audiobook at the PWC Library) Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes Deep Water by Watt Key Breakout by Kate Messner Game Changer by Tommy Greenwald (available as an audiobook and eBook at the PWC Library) The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman Resist: 35 Profiles of Ordinary People Who Rose Up Against Tyranny and Injustice by Veronica Chambers

This week I'm excited to welcome Jerry Craft to the podcast to discuss his latest book, New Kid. Jerry Craft is an author and illustrator who has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels. His latest book, New Kid, is a middle grade graphic novel that has earned four starred reviews, … Continue reading Ep. 35: Jerry Craft, Author of New Kid →

Our guest today is author and illustrator Jerry Craft (@JerryCraft). He shares NEW KID, his new middle grade graphic novel about seventh grader Jordan Banks who loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in the prestigious Riverdale Academy Day School, where he is now one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worldsand not really fitting into either. Can he learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?During our conversation Jerry also shares his love of comics, art and how he co-founded the Schomburg Center's Annual Black Comic Book Festival. To learn more about NEW KID and its author and illustrator go to www.jerrycraft.net.Social MediaTwitter, Instagram and Facebook: @jerrycraftBio:JERRY CRAFT is an author and illustrator who has worked on numerous picture books, graphic novels, and middle grade novels. His newest book, New Kid, is a middle grade graphic novel that has earned four starred reviews, including one from Booklist Magazine that called it "Possibly one of the most important graphic novels of the year." Kirkus Reviews called it "An engrossing, humorous, and vitally important graphic novel that should be required reading in every middle school in America."Jerry's books have been Junior Library Guild selections, and he has won five African American Literary Awards. He is the creator of Mama's Boyz, an award-winning comic strip that was distributed by King Features Syndicate from 1995 - 2013. He is a co-founder and co-producer of the Schomburg's Annual Black Comic Book Festival which has drawn close to 50,000 fans since its inception in 2013. Jerry was born in Harlem and grew up in nearby Washington Heights. He is a graduate of The Fieldston School and received his B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts.