Go Your Own YA

Happy new year readers and listeners! Tonight we visit a grand fall and winter-y read with spooky Ouija parties, nerd girls uniting against the patriarchy, astronomy in abundance and, of course, the worst boy. (There’s a really excellent New Year’s Eve party in this book!) What dangers lurk when the neighbor asks us to build a time machine? Should we really read our sister’s journal? In this episode, there are several thousand words about a slumber party. Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary: Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, WorldcatPamela Dean: Website, Twitter, PatreonThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2019)

Bras and Broomsticks: Goodreads, Worldcat, Indiebound, Author WebsiteSarah Mlynowski: Website, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Wattpad, FacebookContent NotesOur first (and sadly not last) appearance of the Unfortunate Transphobia Bear—it’s a couple lines, but a couple lines that would do well to be edited out in 2018. This is a book that gets REAL about relationships with step-parents, conflict between adults and kids, and kids seeing their parents as human for the first time. We appreciate it, good to know going in.Forward March is here! Love, loss, and the surprising aphrodisiacs of the band locker room. That’s what the Dulaney High marching band has in store for Meghan Riggins. Like her Gram, who’s been her biggest fan since that first trombone lesson, Meghan’s always loved making music. So marching band should be easy, right? Wrong. It’s hard enough staying upright during the halftime show, avoiding the worst of the upperclassmen, or remembering the difference between a cummerbund and a dickie. But then she falls for Jonah, an adorkable fellow trombone nerd who just happens to be her best friend’s brother. Meghan may need to rethink everything she knows about herself, in and out of band, with and without her family and friends, and in and out of love. Both witty and poignant, Forward March will have you laughing, swooning, and cheering from the stands.  Find Forward March by Carey Farrell at your favorite online bookseller! Source: BBC Two The very spookiest batPer our query in the podcast: Sarah Mlynowski has two sisters—she’s in between the two!—and Bras and Broomsticks takes a lot of inspiration from real life.Betsy Bird comes up a lot in this episode. She’s our hero.Wendy MassCynthia Rylant Read When the Letter Comes by Sarah Fox online for free! All the Halloween Episodes of Bob’s BurgersThe Infamous Vibrating Nimbus 2000 Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love by MaryRose WoodThe 11:11 Wish by Kim TomsicThe Holy Wild: A Heathen Bible for the Untamed Woman by Danielle DulskyWhat if This Were Enough? and How to Be a Person in the World by Heather Havrilesky Carey talked Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret on Unspoiled! Book ClubThanks Podscure for always shouting us out!This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2018)

We’re back, minus a few cup sizes! (The opposite of a lot of YA trajectories, but such is life.) Discussion Alice, I Think by Susan Juby was super fun, especially since Carey and Rie had radically different stances…that shifted over the course of the episode. Just like a good mood ring. Oh, Canada, my Canada, did we mention the fashion in this one? The small-town snark? Oh, and the moose? Wait, that’s book three. Alice, I Think: GoodreadsSusan Juby: WebsiteThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2018)

Happy 30th Episode everybody! Our scrappy little episode enters the decade of wine, Netflix, and cats/dogs with a Hometown Read from Host Rie. Take the Staten Island Ferry and actually disembark for a tale of two ungrateful teenagers and the sweetest old man in the world. We talk high school shenanigans, kids these days, and assigned reading while lamenting the fate of the Pigman. Oops. Unless you had it as assigned reading. The Pigman: GoodreadsPaul Zindel: WebsiteContent NotesOh boy. Terrible parents, elder abuse, grief, horrible 1960s zoos, casual and not-so-casual homophobia. Host Rie also rags on her hometown a bunch. It deserves it. Show Notes Tiger after getting mama back from the evil recording studio The Pigman's Legacy by Paul ZindelThe Pigman and Me by Paul ZindelCheaper by the Dozen and Belles on their Toes by Ernestine GilbrethLizabeth ZindelThe Vanderbilt TombTurn your cremains into a sparkly orb or a puppet but maybe not a pieRie's 8th grade curriculum: Zlata's Diary, Letters from Rivka, Behind Rebel Lines, Farewell to Manzanar Shelf Discovery by Lizzie SkurnickChemistry by C.L. LynchThe Salt Roads by Nalo HopkinsonA Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly WizenbergWe love you Podscure!  ReadalikesScarlet Epstein Hates it Here by Anna BreslawWe Won't Feel a Thing by J.C. LillisCurrent Reads  Sitting on Saturn by Joe BeineFinding Yvonne by Brandy ColbertThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2018)

Before Maureen Johnson was writing about supernatural serial killers in London, she was writing showtune-singing serial killers in...Amsterdam? Carey and Marie talk whimsical world-tripping adventures, slapstick comedy, terrible musicals and the boys that write them, and how, in fact, we would spend $1000 from a dead aunt. Does being an artist give you a license to be a butt? Find out within!Content NotesGrief, adults making bad decisions, teens making bad decisions, teens getting taken advantage of, sexual assault, internalized misogyny. In other words, 2005 YA in a book. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2018)

Are you out there? Can you hear us? We kick off our Hometown Series with Carey's Baltimore read, How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford. A boy, a girl, and a bond over weirdos calling into a radio show to laugh, live, and ride a magic carpet over Ocean City while surviving some very harsh truths about growing up. We discuss the strangeness of big cities and small fandoms, as well as solving the public transit problem in Baltimore (see: title).How to Say Goodbye in Robot: GoodreadsNatalie Standiford: Website (visit this, cause there's great background material on the book!)Content NotesMental illness, mistreatment of the disabled, parental death, emotional abuser (parent/child), shitty teenage boysShow NotesDaniel Pinkwater (he has a podcast too!)How to Say Goodbye in Robot 8tracks mixFifi the Kinetic Poodle Coast to Coast AMWFMUThe Cotton Candy Road Trip Everything Goes Book CafeThe Secret Tree by Natalie StandifordConfessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie StandifordThe Only Girl in School by Natalie StandifordThe Secret Apartment by Natalie FastWe collaborated with Fuse 8 n' Kate on Kay Thompson's Eloise, and it was super fun! Foster of the Podcast Sweet Pea who found a forever home last week! How Maryland's Enchanted Forest Got Its Own Storybook EndingLand of Make Believe Storybook LandGingerbread CastleSleep With Me Podcast Lizard People's call-in episode ReadalikesHow to Repair a Mechanical Heart by J.C. LillisRadio Silence by Alice OsemanCurrent Reads Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. ChoyThe Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds by Diane AckermanThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2018)

Somebody put a bra on the library dome! It's not a 90s comedy middle grade book; it's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart. Join us for chat about art as protest, why girls should treat girls with respect, and what YA character we think will head the CIA. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks: GoodreadsE. Lockhart: websiteContent NotesThis is a book that deals with internalized misogyny, textually, and gender essentialism. There's a lot of both. There are teen boys dressing femme as a joke, and a lot of humor circling around what genders have what configurations. It can be a heavy read. We would love to see a 10th anniversary edition with an intro from the author on how things have changed...and how they haven't.Show NotesTruly Devious by Maureen JohnsonShelf Discovery by Lizzie Skurnick (the Harriet the Spy essay is in this one!)We did an episode on The Boyfriend ListFrankie Landau-Banks on neglected positives and imaginary neglected positivesThe Code of the Woosters by P.G. WodehouseI Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith You can get your own light up basset hound! Readalikes Persons of Consequence by K.D. HumeShrill by Lindy WestCurrent Reads There's a Mystery There: The Primal Vision of Maurice Sendak by Jonathan CottThe Summer of Jordi Perez  by Amy SpaldingThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2018)

Ostensibly this is an episode about the excellent Brigid Lowry and her excellent book, Juicy Writing. In real life, this is an episode about fatalism, childhood writing dreams, and the end of the world. Wayfinders, hold us to that poetry prompt!Brigid Lowry: New Zealand Book Council , Interview at The StarfishJuicy Writing: Inspiration and Techniques for Young Writers  Guitar Highway RoseAbbacadabraNumber the Stars by Lois LowryThings You Either Hate or LoveJoanne HornimanStill Life With TeapotAnastasia KrupnickHarriet the SpyThe Betsy-Tacy SeriesStarring Sally J. Freedman as HerselfThe Magic Attic Club Natalie GoldbergJudy Blume's teaching a writing class!Our episode on Cassandra Golds' book, The Museum of Mary Child Readalikes Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words by Susan Goldsmith WooldridgeTurn Not Pale, Beloved Snail: A Book about Writing and Other Things by Jacqueline Jackson Current ReadsThe Thorn Necklace: Healing Through Writing and the Creative Process  by Francesca Lia BlockThe Creative Tarot: A Modern Guide to an Inspired Life by Jessa CrispinThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2018)  

Carey and Marie take a trip back to early-oughts NYC to explore identity, music, photography, and THAT ONE BEST FRIEND. In Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier, we meet Dimple, caught between identities, friends, passions, and the fact that her best friend is in love with the suitable boy her parents love. We discuss cultural appropriation, NYU, making art and how hard it was to pick just one quote. Not to mention, some greats oughts fashionContent Warning: childhood neglect, alcoholism (brief), general girl and cross-cultural tomfoolery, cultural appropriation, and Zara Thrusta, the queen of everything, is not well understood by the main characters and they're real awkward about that, so the trans femme character deserved better but the author acknowledged that laterShow Notes:From Upspeak To Vocal Fry: Are We 'Policing' Young Women's Voices? Born Confused: Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound, WorldCatBombay Blues: Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound, WorldCatthisisTanuja.com When We Were Twins: The Booktrack to Born ConfusedBombay Spleen: The Booktrack to Bombay BluesFor events like the DesiCreate conference, check out South Asia at NYU webpage and sign up for their announcementsBrown Girls Magazine is celebrating #BornConfused15 with a series of essays on readers' relationship with Born Confused--a wonderful series!  Readalikes: Carey: That Thing We Call a Heart by Sheba KarimMarie: When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya MenonThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017)   

Our very first episode! Carey and Marie, your hosts, jump feet first into a magical Chicago full of friendship, yarn, serendipity and queer subtext.   How much did we all love knitting? Is Chicago just that magical? And what are the parents of the Chicks with Sticks getting up to during the Sacred Sisterhood Sleepovers? All this and more in Episode 1. The Chicks with Sticks books are *sob sob* out of print, but you can check your local used bookstore or favorite used book website for copies--we love Better World Books!Content Warnings: Bella is the "exotic friend" a la Claudia Kishi, workaday girl-against-girl mysogyny/slut shaming, death of a family member and the grieving process (before events of first book)Show Notes:Elizabeth Lenhard's websiteHer latest work, Our Song --a romance about folk music camp and blacksmithing! -- can be found at Goodreads, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound and your local booksellerTour the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago onlineTrixie's Attic IRL? It's Hollywood Mirror in Boystown!Hot Chocolate ChicagoA RL Purlicue: Knit 1 ChicagoA RL Stockinette: NinaFiber Artists:Hirst, Don’t It?: Revealing the Invisible Labor of Female Fiber Artists in Twentieth Century ArtThe Great Divide: A Survey of Women in Art and Craft Stitching Resistance: Women, Creativity, and Fiber Arts by Marjorie AgosínLong overlooked, Indigenous women’s art takes centre stage in Melbourne exhibition  Name checked in the book: Knitting without Tears by E. Zimmerman, Stitch n'Bitch by Debbie Stoller Readalikes: To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny HanThe Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart LovelaceCurrent Reads: Knit One, Girl Two by Shira GlassmanEliza and Her Monsters by Francesca ZappiaThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017)