Rereading Our Childhood

Nov 28 2024 35 ep. 35 mins 5
Rereading Our Childhood Podcast artwork

Revisiting the children's books that made us who we are today

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Rereading The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars

Nov 28 2024 30 mins  
On this episode, we reread Betsy Byars' The Summer of the Swans, which won the 1971 Newbery Medal. It's an evocative story of a 14-year-old girl who's preoccupied with her big feet and her puce sneakers until the disappearance of her younger brother, who has an intellectual disability, forces her to look beyond her own adolescent thoughts. Mentioned on the podcast:The 1970 Kirkus R

Rereading Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret Pitch by Donald J. Sobol

Nov 14 2024 27 mins  
On the second annual Encyclopedia Brown episode, Mary Grace and Deborah match wits with America’s most brilliant boy detective, and with each other, in solving the cases in the series’ second installment, Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret Pitch.Mentioned on the podcast:Goodreads reviews of Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret PitchOther Rereading Our Childh

Rereading The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

Oct 31 2024 32 mins  
On this episode, we reread Elizabeth Enright's 1941 novel The Saturdays, about four children who pool their allowances and set out on solo adventures in New York.Mentioned on the episode: Other books in the Melendy family series: The Four-Story Mistake (1942)Then There Were Five (1944)Spiderweb for Two (1951)Also by Elizabeth Enright:Thimble Summer (1938)Gone-Away Lake (1957)Return

Rereading The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Oct 17 2024 36 mins  
Mary Grace and Deborah discuss Elizabeth George Speare’s 1958 Newbery Medal winner The Witch of Blackbird Pond, about a girl, Kit, who’s struggling to fit in in a Puritan community in colonial Connecticut.Mentioned in this episode:The Crucible, Arthur Miller’s 1953 play about the Salem witch trials.Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.Kit’s childhood reading includes The Pilgr

Rereading The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill

Oct 03 2024 26 mins  
On this episode, Deborah (a cat person) rereads, and Mary Grace (not a cat person) reads, The Hotel Cat (1969), a late entry in Esther Averill’s long Cat Club series.Other books in the Cat Club series:The Cat Club (1944)Jenny Goes to Sea (1957)The Fire Cat (1960)Other podcast episodes:Rereading Harriet the Spy by Louise FitzhughRereading Ramona the Pest by Beverly ClearyRereading

Rereading M.C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton

Sep 19 2024 34 mins  
On this episode, Mary Grace and Deborah read Virginia Hamilton's 1974 novel M.C. Higgins the Great, about a teenaged boy in Appalachia whose life is turned upside down when two strangers come to town. Hamilton won the Newbery Medal for the book; she was the first African American to win the award. Mentioned on the episode: Also by Virginia Hamilton: Zeely (1967) The House of Dies D

Rereading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Sep 05 2024 46 mins  
On this episode, Deborah rereads, and Mary Grace reads, a book that needs no introduction: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, also known as The Wizard of Oz. They discuss weird sequels, the history of sunglasses, the monoculture, and, of course, the movie. Mentioned on the episode:Also by L. Frank Baum: The Tin Woodman of Oz (1918)Father Goose, His Book (1899)Other Rereading Our Childhood

Rereading Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken

Aug 22 2024 37 mins  
Mary Grace and Deborah commemorate the 100th anniversary of Joan Aiken’s birth by reading Black Hearts in Battersea, the second in her Wolves Chronicles series, featuring resourceful orphans and sinister plots in an alt-history version of nineteenth-century London.Mentioned on the episode:Other books by Aiken:The Wolves of Willoughby ChaseNightbirds on NantucketJane FairfaxAlso m

Rereading Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary

Aug 08 2024 41 mins  
Deborah and Mary Grace discuss Beverly Cleary's 1968 classic Ramona the Pest. This was the first book starring Ramona, who appeared in Cleary's earlier books as Beezus's annoying little sister before going on to become Cleary's most beloved character. Mentioned in this episode:Other books by Beverly Cleary:Ellen Tebbits (1951)Henry Huggins (1950)Henry and Beezus (1952)Mitch and Amy

Rereading The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel) by Ellen Raskin

Jul 25 2024 31 mins  
Mary Grace and Deborah discuss Ellen Raskin’s 1971 mystery romp, The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel), about a woman’s decades-long search for her husband, whom she married as a child. (It’s a long story.) The book is full of word games, puzzles, and creative illustrations by Raskin, who was also a graphic artist.Other books by Ellen Raskin:Nothing Ever Happens