Category Archives: Podcast

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

(You can listen to this episode here.)

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, 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 The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

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(We’ve been publishing episodes regularly but have gotten behind on the website, so we’re catching up. This episode was published on October 17. It was our Halloween episode but, with its colonial American setting, it makes a good Thanksgiving episode as well. You can listen to it here.)

In this episode, 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, which was a commentary on McCarthyism.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Kit’s cousin Mercy has Beth-like qualities.

Kit’s childhood reading includes The Pilgrim’s Progress and The Tempest.

The Bronze Bow, Speare’s 1962 Newbery Medal winner about a Jewish boy living at the time of Christ who converts to Christianity.

Calico Captive, Speare’s first novel, published in 1957, based on a real-life story about a girl who was captured by Native Americans in 1794 and taken to Canada.

The Sign of the Beaver, Speare’s 1983 Newbery Honor book about a boy struggling to live on his own in eighteenth-century Maine.

Calico Bush, Rachel Lyman Field’s 1931 novel about a French girl who works as an indentured servant in colonial Maine.

Speare’s 1989 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award citation.

Commentary on thestorygraph.com by a contributor using the name books_n_pickles who talks about the “love hexagon” in the book.

Goodreads reviews of The Witch of Blackbird Pond.

Recommended for fans of The Witch of Blackbird Pond: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Deborah), Nightbirds on Nantucket by Joan Aiken (Mary Grace).

Other episodes mentioned:

Rereading Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken

Rereading Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

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

You can find Deborah’s author interviews on her blog, Bo oks 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 The Hotel Cat by Esther Averill

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(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 Nordstrom, edited 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 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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(You can listen to this episode here.)

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 episodes:

Rereading Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken

Rereading Half Magic by Edward Eager

Also mentioned:

The Wizard of Oz, the movie. You can see the original trailer, which is fascinating (though blurry), with lots of talk about the book, here.

The Wiz, the adaptation starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. You can see the trailer here.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire.

Recommended for fans of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:

Mary Grace: Half Magic and other books by Edward Eager.

Deborah: Other books in the Oz series, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander.

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

You can find Deborah’s author interviews on her blog, Bo oks 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 Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary

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(You can listen to this episode here.)

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 (1967)

Dear Mr. Henshaw (1983, winner of the 1984 Newbery Medal)

Other Rereading Our Childhood episodes:

Rereading “B” is for Betsy

Rereading A Wrinkle in Time

Rereading Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

Rereading Pippi Longstocking

Rereading Anne of Green Gables

Adaptations of the Ramona books:

Ramona and Beezus, 2010 movie

Ramona, 1988-89 Canadian TV series

Also mentioned:

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton (1939)

“Stereotypes in Beverly Cleary’s HENRY HUGGINS” on the blog American Indians in Children’s Literature, February 24, 2023

Beverly Cleary’s New York Times obituary, March 27, 2021

Madeleine L’Engle’s Austin Family series

Deborah Kalb’s The President and Me series

Recommended for Ramona fans: Anne of Green Gables (Mary Grace), The Mouse and the Motorcycle and other books by Cleary (Deborah)

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

You can find Deborah’s author interviews on her blog, Bo oks 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 Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry

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(You can listen to this episode here.)

Mary Grace and Deborah discuss Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry’s classic 1947 novel about Misty and her mother Phantom, wild ponies from the island of Assateague, and Paul and Maureen, a brother and sister from the neighboring island of Chincoteague who long to own them.

Other books by Henry:

Stormy, Misty’s Foal (1963)

Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1945), a Newbery Honor Book

King of the Wind (1948), winner of the 1949 Newbery Medal

Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague (1949)

Misty’s Twilight (1992)

Also mentioned on the podcast:

The life of Thomas Downing, the proprietor of the famous 19th-century restaurant Downing’s Oyster House, is discussed in “Going Deep into Oyster Country,” New York Times, December 3, 2021. Downing, who was African American, grew up in the Chincoteague community.

Recommended for fans of Misty of Chincoteague:

Mary Grace: Homecoming (1981) and Dicey’s Song (1982) by Cynthia Voight. These stories and later books in the series tell the story of Dicey and her siblings, who make their way to their grandmother’s home on Maryland’s Eastern Shore after their mother abandons them at a shopping mall in Connecticut. Dicey’s Song won the 1983 Newbery Medal.

Deborah: Stormy, Misty’s Foal (1963) and Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague (1949) by Marguerite Henry (1963). Misty appears in both books.

An obituary of Maureen Beebe, the real-life model for Maureen in the story, appeared in delmarvanow.com in May 2019.

You can learn more about the real-life Misty in “The True Story of Misty of Chincoteague, the Pony Who Stared Down a Devastating Nor’Easter,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 16, 2018. According to this story, the account in Misty of Chincoteague of the original Chincoteague ponies escaping to the island from a shipwreck is just a legend; more likely, they had been owned by 17th-century settlers.

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

You can find Deborah’s author interviews on her blog, Bo oks 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 The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

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(You can listen to this episode here.)

Mary Grace and Deborah discuss The Book of Three (1964), the first book in Lloyd Alexander’s five-book series The Chronicles of Prydain. Loosely based on Welsh mythology, the book chronicles the adventures of Taran, assistant pig-keeper to the oracular pig Hen Wen; Eilonwy, a strong-minded princess; and an entertaining cast of travel companions.

Other books in the series:

The Black Cauldron (1965), a Newbery Honor Book

The Castle of Llyr (1966)

Tara n Wanderer (1967)

The High King (1968), winner of the 1969 Newbery Medal

Other books by Lloyd Alexander:

Time Cat (1963). (Deborah discussed Time Cat on a blog post on her favorite children’s books featuring time travel.)

And Let t he Credit Go (1955), Alexander’s first novel, based on his experience working in a bank

Janine is French (1960)

The Wizard in the Tree (1974)

Park Avenue Vet (1960)

Fifty Years in the Doghouse (1964)

The King’s Fountain (1971), illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats

Also mentioned on the episode:

A 2012 School Library Journal poll on the best children’s novels, with The Book of Three at #18 and The High King at #68

Sam, Banks, and Moonshine, the Caldecott Medal-winning picture book by Evaline Ness, who illustrated the covers for the original editions of the Prydain Chronicles

Trailer of the Disney movie The Black Cauldron, based on The Book of Three and The Black Cauldron

2010 Slate article on the movie The Black Cauldron

Recommended for fans of The Book of Three:

Deborah: A Wrinkle in Time (discussed on a previous episode), The Phantom Tollbooth (discussed on a previous episode)

Mary Grace: The Owl Service (discussed on a previous episode), The Dark is Rising series

Mary Grace found a fellow The Book of Three fan at The English Bookshop, a wonderful bookstore in Uppsala, Sweden.

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

You can find Deborah’s author interviews on her blog, Bo oks 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 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

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(You can listen to this episode here.)

Deborah and Mary Grace discuss Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery’s beloved tale of a strong-willed and imaginative orphan who goes to live with a pair of middle-aged siblings on Prince Edward Island.

Other books in the series:

Anne of Avonlea

Anne of the Island

Anne of Windy Poplars

Anne’s House of Dreams

Anne of Ingleside

The recently published book of stories Deborah mentions is The Blythes are Quoted.

Also mentioned on the episode:

Mary Grace read Anne of Green Gables during her year of reading as if she were living in 1918 and reviewed it here. It’s #37 on the list.

Anne is a prodigious reader. Here are some of the books and poems that she reads:

“Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight” by Rose Hartwick Thorpe

“The Lady of Shallot” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Mary Grace misquotes the poem, saying “The mirror crack’d from side to side/the DOOM has come upon me, cried/The Lady of Shallot,” instead of “the CURSE has come upon me,” repeating a misquotation by a character in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d.

Ben Hur by Lew Wallace

“Marmion” by Sir Walter Scott

Mary Grace mentions the attractive Word Cloud Classics edition of Anne of Green Gables, which she read in 2018. Alas, the print was too small this time around, so she read it on her Kindle.

You can see the original illustrations by William and Mary Claus, which neither Deborah nor Mary Grace are a fan of, in this scanned copy on HathiTrust.

“Suicide Secret of Anne of Green Gables Author,” The Guardian, September 23, 2008.

Trailer for Netflix series Anne With an E

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Recommended by Mary Grace for fans of Anne of Green Gables: Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

Recommended by Deborah for fans of Anne of Green Gables: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin, Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

“Bosom Friends: Lesbian Desire in L. M. Montgomery’s Anne Books,” Laura Robinson, Canadian Literature, Spring 2004

“A Visual History of Romantic Friendship,” The Marginalian

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

You can find Deborah’s author interviews on her blog, Bo oks 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 Stuart Little by E.B. White

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(You can listen to this episode here.)

On this episode, Deborah and Mary Grace reread Stuart Little, E.B. White’s 1945 classic about the adventures of a New York boy who looks exactly like a mouse. They discuss their early memories of reading Stuart Little (or having it read to them), Garth Williams’ wonderful illustrations, and pioneering children’s librarian Annie Carroll Moore’s vehement opposition to the book.

Mentioned on this episode:

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

Essays of E.B. White

Letters of E.B. White

“Death of a Pig,” essay by E.B. White, The Atlantic (paywall). (Mary Grace erroneously recalled that this essay was about the birth of a pig.)

“Celebrating Children’s Book Week–and a pioneering librarian,” Mary Grace’s post on her blog, mylife100yearsago.com, about Annie Carroll Moore

The Rabbits’ Wedding, the children’s book by Stuart Little editor Garth Williams that was banned from Alabama libraries because a black and a white rabbit get married

“The Lion and the Mouse: The Battle that Shaped Children’s Literature” by Jill Lapore, The New Yorker, July 14, 2008

Stuart Little, 1999 movie (trailer)

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

You can find Deborah’s author interviews on her blog, Bo oks 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 The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

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(You can listen to this episode here. Please note that it is not suitable for children due to discussion of violent incidents that take place in the book.)

On this episode, Mary Grace and Deborah discuss The Egypt Game, Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s 1967 Newbery Honor Book about a group of children in a California university town who create an elaborate game based on ancient Egypt.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Egypt Game: A Second Look, a 50-year retrospective published in The Horn Book in 2017

The 1967 Kirkus Review review of The Egypt Game

A 2011 post on the website Banned Reads Project where three teenagers give their perspectives on The Egypt Game

The ACLU’s list of The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000

The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

Other Rereading Our Childhood episodes:

Rereading Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

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

Rereading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Rereading Half Magic by Edward Eager

Rereading The Owl Service by Alan Garner

Our Favorite Children’s Books from 50 Years Ago

Other books by Zilpha Keatley Snyder:

The Gypsy Game, the 1997 sequel to The Egypt Game

The Headless Cupid (1971), a Newbery Honor Book

The Witches of Worm (1972), a Newbery Honor Book

The Changeling (1970)

Eyes in the Fishbowl (1968)

Black and Blue Magic (1966)

Season of Ponies (1964)

Recommended for fans of The Egypt Game:

Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, by E.L. Konigsberg (1967 Newbery Honor Book)

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (1967 Newbery Medal winner)

Magic or Not? by Edward Eager

The Well-Wishers by Edward Eager

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

You can find Debby’s author interviews on her blog, Bo oks 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.