Hazel & Katniss & Harry & Starr

The wait is over! We're back for 2020 with a brand new full length episode that delves deep into Brenna's childhood love: Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (1908). This is easily the most popular Canadian YA text of all time, especially when we're considering its adaptations, including the 1985 miniseries and Moira Walley-Beckett's recently cancelled CBC/Netflix co-production, Anne with an E (2017-2019).

Join Brenna and Joe for a SUPER sized episode as we discuss the timelessness of this text, why it continues to resonate with audiences worldwide, and how Montgomery's own dark history informs the book series. Plus: all of the brilliant Marillas, the perfect chemistry between Megan Follows and Jonathan Crombie in the '85 miniseries and where Anne with an E both succeeds and completely fails its source material. And we debut a new BINGO superboard!

Extra Reading: Hoy, Helen. "Too Heedless and Impulsive’: Re-reading Anne of Green Gables through a Clinical Approach" in Anne's World: A New Century of Anne of Green Gables (Eds: Gammel and Lefebvre). University of Toronto Press, 2010.

Want to connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Have something longer or a minisode suggestion? Send us an email at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

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Jan 2020 is now firmly underway, so it's time to update those library hold lists! Brenna and Joe have poured over the month and selected their top 3 picks, along with a few honourable mentions, to start the year off strong. 

Joe

1.  Deep and Darkest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore
2. We Used To Be Friends by Amy Spalding
3. You Too? Edited by Judith Gurtler

Plus: Spellhacker by M.K. England,Tweet Cute by Emma Lord and Freeform's Party of Five reboot

Brenna

1. The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson
2. Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles
3. The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper

Plus:  What I Carry by Jennifer Longo and Rogue Princess by B.R. Meyers

Want to connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Have something longer to say or a minisode idea? Send us an email to [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our second minisode wrapping up 2019, we're going all in on binge mode!

It's the holidays, so hopefully you have a little more free time on your hands. Brenna and Joe walk through the films, TV and books that they plan to binge over the break, in addition to teasing a few TV shows that will drop in and around the New Year.

Wanna connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Have something longer to say or a minisode topic? Send us an email at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brenna and Joe are wrapping 2019 with a double dose of minisodes! 

First up: a look back on the year that was, including books that Brenna finally caught up on, our favourite serious, not-so-serious and least successful episodes (sorry CC - we did you wrong with Ghost World!). Also, the two biggest news stories that we think encapsulate YA at this moment, including Heartprint, an Indigenous Imprint from Harper Collins and a biased think piece about censorship and OWN voices from Refinery29.

Wanna connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Have something longer to say or a minisode topic? Send us an email at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the final regular...er...full length episode of the year, Brenna and Joe embrace the festivities of the season with a trip to Starbucks and a dip into 2008's Let It Snow, the trio of novellas by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle. We're also checking out the 2019 adaptation by Luke Snellin, which coincidentally stars every teen actor under contract on a Netflix series.

Up for discussion: which of the three novellas does Brenna *strongly* dislike and what makes it far less successful than the other two (A: Addie & Starbucks)? A debate whether this is the most slight book we've ever covered and why the film fails in its ambition to be a YA Love, Actually.  Also: the laughable snow, the logistics of animal adoption and a serious discussion on ableism.  

STARBUCKS. 

In homework: Brenna asks for some holiday cheer in the form of reviews, while Joe circles back around to explain why Greta Gerwig's 2019 adaptation of Little Women  may be the best interpretation yet.

Wanna connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Have something longer to say or a minisode suggestion? Send us an email to [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the eve of a brand new interpretation by Greta Gerwig, Brenna and Joe travel back 151 years to discuss Louisa May Alcott's defining American text Little Women, as well as Gillian Armstrong's 1994 adaptation and the excruciating 2018 modern take by Clare Niederpreum.

Comparisons to Jane Austen abound as we try and identify the source of the text's popularity, which prospers in the first half and fumbles the second half by betraying its lead protagonist, Jo March. Up for discussion: May Alcott's erasure of the Civil War, how the heat between Winona Ryder's Jo and Christian Bale's Laurie actually harms the '94 adaptation and why someone needed to tell Sarah Davenport to stop yelling in the '18 version. 

Also: Brenna makes a very salient point about the depiction of armed forces in the modern version and how what is seen (or excluded) ties into readings of the political moment. Worth keeping in mind!

In homework: Brenna introduces the Lumberjanes graphic novel "The Shape of Friendship" while Joe teases the premiere of Sex Education S2 on Jan 17, 2020.

Want to connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Or send us an email or minisode suggestion to [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brenna and Joe are feeling a little "Under Pressure" so we're taking a mental health break with Ned Vizzini's 2006 novel It's Kind of a Funny Story and Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck's 2010 adaptation, starring Keir Gilchrist (Brenna's favourite!), as well as Zach Galifianakis and Emma Roberts.

Brenna struggles to grapple with the disconnect between the hopefulness of the book and the real life circumstances of Vizzini's passing as we discuss the way readings of a book change due to context. There's also discussion of how the film acts as both a faithful adaptation and simultaneously changes the fundamental purpose and tone of its source material by becoming a "wacky, feel good" film about mental health.

In homework: Brenna laments the cancellation of Anne with an E, which spirals into a conversation about the state of Canadian television and - more specifically - co-productions with Netflix.

Want to connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Have something longer or minisode ideas? Email us at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

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For the first time in ages, Brenna and Joe venture outside of North America and the UK to tackle a foreign text: German author Wolfgang Herrndorf's bestselling 2010 novel Tschick (published in English in 2014 as Why We Took The Car), as well as Fatih Akin's 2016 film adaptation (English title: Goodbye Berlin).

Brenna and Joe discover that this deceptively complicated road trip narrative is the anti-thesis of I Love You, Beth Cooper (see Book 1, Episode 28). Maik's journey of self-discovery addresses both class and race, as well as lessons about trusting strangers and not judging people by their appearances. There's also one of the worst YA fathers we've ever met, the film's completely abbreviated third act that still somehow works and a delightful musicality that we neglect to mention until halfway through BINGO.

In homework: Joe reads back mail on the Watership Down episode while Brenna praises the CBC's "100 young adult books that make you proud to be Canadian".

Want to connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

If you have something longer or minisode suggestions, email us at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brenna and Joe are joined by Heather Cyr to discuss the first book in Philip Pullman's  His Dark Materials trilogy: Northern Lights or, to North American audiences, The Golden Compass (1995). We're also chatting the failed 2007 $180 bloated children's film adaptation, as well as 2019's HBO/BBC One co-production, His Dark Materials.

Brenna and Joe have more interest in the complicated politics and religious tension than the text itself, so Heather steps in to round out our appreciation. Along the way we discuss CGI effects, Nicole Kidman vs Ruth Wilson and why the two minute fight scene between bears loses the film points.

In homework: Heather introduces The Girl of Ink and Stars & The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Brenna reluctantly chats about the recent Sarah Desson / Just Mercy Twitter controversy and Joe  talks up the announcement that Tamora Pierce’s expansive Tortall Universe series will be adapted for TV (thanks to TeaBooksAndChocolate's tweet!)

Wanna connect with the show? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote
• Heather: @heathcyr

Questions or comments for minisodes? Use [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

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One year ago, Brenna and Joe embarked on a grand podcasting adventure. This episode marks our birthday/anniversary and we can't think of a better way to celebrate than read the book that we bonded over back in university: Watership Down, the horribly traumatic story of a group of intrepid bunnies who embark on their own adventure to find a new home. 

Yes, folks, the time has finally come to discuss Richard Adams' 1972 classic YA tome and Martin Rosen's 1978 animated adaptation (along with brief mentions of the 90s TV show and the 2018 Netflix remake). Up for discussion: the various political systems represented in the text, arguments for its longevity and whether it is particularly "British". Also: criticism of its treatment of violence (that dog!), gender (ugh, the does) and race (UGH, that bird).

Plus: Brenna and Joe reminisce about the YA Lit course from nearly two decades ago that brought them together and Joe shares an unusual childhood connection to the text...or 42 of them.

In homework: we discuss a big format change that will take effect in the New Year!

Wanna connect us? Use #HKHSPod on Twitter:

• Brenna: @brennacgray
• Joe: @bstolemyremote

Have something longer? Email us at [email protected]. See you on the page and on the screen!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.