Rereading Our Childhood

Nancy Hudgins joins us to talk about I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip, John Donavan's groundbreaking 1969 novel about a romance between two thirteen-year-old boys. Nancy is the author of Books Good Enough for You, a children's biography of legendary children's book editor Ursula Nordstrom, who edited I'll Get There. Mentioned on this episode: Nancy's childhood favorites: Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (an Ursula Nordstrom book) The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink The House of ...

On this episode, we reread Edward Eager’s 1957 book Magic by the Lake, the sequel to Half Magic, which we discussed during our first season. Mentioned on this episode: The Time Garden and Seven-Day Magic by Edward Eager Eager’s New York Times obituary By Pike and Dyke by G.A. Henty Deborah’s novels George Washington and the Magic Hat, John Adams and the Magic Bobblehead, and Thomas Jefferson and the Return of the Magic Hat The books of E. Nesbit Songs: “Paddlin...

On this episode, we discuss All-of-a-Kind Family, Sydney Taylor's 1951 classic about five sisters growing up on New York's Lower East Side. Over the course of a year, the girls experience joys (like celebrating Jewish holidays and the Fourth of July) and sorrows (like getting scarlet fever and, even worse, losing a library book), and spend a lot of time thinking about how to spend their allowance (one penny). Mentioned on this episode: Other books in the series: More All-of-a-Kind...

On this episode, we discuss Esther Forbes's Newbery Medal-winning 1943 novel Johnny Tremain, the story of an apprentice silversmith in Boston who gets caught up in the events leading up to the American Revolution. Mentioned on this episode: Other books by Esther Forbes: Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (1942), winner of the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for History. The General's Lady (1938) Miss Marvel (1935) Also mentioned: The 1957 Disney movie adaptation of Johnny Tremain (trailer here) ...

We were delighted to welcome our first guest, Judith Kalb, to talk about Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little Town on the Prairie (1941), the seventh book in the beloved Little House series. Judy is, in addition to being Deborah's sister, a literature scholar and a lifelong Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. Mentioned on this episode: Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography, by Laura Ingalls Wilder The Complete Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web by E.B. White Th...

On this episode, we read Susan Cooper's 1973 novel The Dark is Rising, which was a Newbery Honor Book. It's the story of Will, a British boy who discovers on his eleventh birthday that he's the last of the Old Ones, destined to fight against the forces of the Dark. It takes place over the period from the winter solstice to the 12th day of Christmas, so it's a great December read. (If the whole "British boy/eleventh birthday" thing sounds familiar, Cooper is considered by many to have influenc...

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 Pitch Other Rereading Our Childhood episodes: Rereading Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective You can find Deborah’s author interviews on her blog, Bo...

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 Pilgrim’s Progress and The Tempest. The Bronze Bow, Speare’s 1962 Newbery winner about a Jewish boy living at the time of ...