Monthly Archives: October 2024

Rereading The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill

(We’ve been publishing episodes regularly but have gotten behind on the website, so we’re playing catch-up. This episode was published on October 3. You can listen to it here,)

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. You can listen to this episode here.

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 Fitzhugh

Rereading Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary

Rereading Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers

Rereading Stuart Little by E.B. White

Also mentioned:

The Flophouse podcast, Episode #302 – Cats

Lost Ladies of Lit podcast, transcript of Episode 64, Much Better than CATS — Esther Averill’s Jenny and the Cat Club

Celebrating Children’s Book Week–and a Pioneering Librarian, on Mary Grace’s blog, My Life 100 Years Ago

Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstromedited by Leonard Marcus

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

Recommended for fans of The Hotel Cat: Stuart Little by E.B. White and Eloise by Kay Thompson (Mary Grace), other books in the Cat Club series (Deborah)

You can find Deborah’s author interviews on her blog, Books Q&A by Deborah Kalb, and Mary Grace’s adventures in the 1920s on her blog, My Life 100 Years Ago.

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

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

(You can listen to this episode here.)

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 Drear (1968) 

The Planet of Junior Brown (1971) 

Other Rereading Our Childhood episodes: 

Rereading Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E.L. Konigsburg 

Rereading The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder 

Rereading The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum 

Also mentioned: 

Children’s Books and their Creators, edited by Anita Silvey 

Goodreads reviews of M.C. Higgins the Great 

Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt 

Recommended for fans of M.C. Higgins, the Great: other books by Virginia Hamilton (Deborah), Where the Lilies Bloom by Vera and Bill Cleary (Mary Grace) 

The podcast is hosted by Buzzsprout at rereadingourchildhood.buzzsprout.com and is available on SpotifyApple Podcasts, and other platforms.

You can find Deborah’s author interviews on her blog, Books Q&A by Deborah Kalb, and Mary Grace’s adventures in the 1920s on her blog, My Life 100 Years Ago

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting. 

Podcast website at rereadingourchildhood.com