Not long ago Betsy ran across an article in the Deseret News that was called "How a breakup led to winning a Newbery Honor for this Utah author". It's all about Newbery Honor winning writer Christian McKay Heidicker (who created Scary Stories for Young Foxes and this year's Thieves of Weirdwood by "William Shivering"). In the course of the article it mentions that Mr. Heidicker has been and continues to be a huge fan of The Spooky Old Tree by Stan and Jan Berenstain. And, naturally, since Betsy always tries to find spooky classics for Kate during the month of October, this sounded like a perfect opportunity to invite Christian to the podcast. If you'd like to hear the true origin story of Scary Stories for Young Foxes, this podcast is a must-listen. As for Kate, she has her own take on things. "She's letting her kids go out in the middle of the night . . . to die?!?"

Show Notes:

Here are Kate's freaky deaky ghosts, visible on my Instagram page. They are quite . . . the thing: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGOF3JCn71Q/

Be sure to also check out the Berenstain Bears parallel universe theory. Would we make this stuff up? https://www.vice.com/en/article/mvx7v8/the-berensteain-bears-conspiracy-theory-that-has-convinced-the-internet-there-are-parallel-universes

Even Kate had to admit that this was better than The Berenstain Bears and the Bully. Listen to the episode on that book here: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2017/09/04/new-fuse-8-n-kate-episode-the-berenstain-bears-and-the-bully-by-stan-and-jan-berenstain/

You absolutely must check out the cassette recording for this book, available to listen to anytime. The theremin alone is worth the price of admission: https://retroreincarnations.bandcamp.com/album/the-spooky-old-tree

You can find the Berenstain Bears podcast Deep In Bear Country here: https://berenstainbearcast.org/

Kate's suggestion was VERY funny. I enjoyed it heartily. I agree with her that I wouldn't necessarily show it to younger kids but the older ones would find it a stitch. This is Gavin discovering that Star Wars takes places long long ago in a galaxy far far away: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAFOqgMB2tY

For the complete Show Notes please visit: http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2020/10/12/fuse-8-n-kate-special-guest-christian-mckay-heidicker-and-the-spooky-old-tree-by-the-berenstains/