Rereading Our Childhood

We celebrated our 50th episode by talking about our favorite picture books and discussing our favorite memories from the two and a half years we've been doing the podcast. 

Mentioned on this episode:

Deborah's favorites: 

Curious George Takes a Job by H.A. Rey

The House on East 88th Street by Bernard Waber

Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik

Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban

What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry

Mary Grace's favorites:

Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton

The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson 

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

Also mentioned:

Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats 

The U.S. Postal Service's The Snowy Day stamps

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein 

New York Times articles about The Giving Tree (here and here)

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak 

Danny Dunn: Into the Volcano (forthcoming) 

Other episodes mentioned: 

Rereading Stuart Little by E.B. White

Rereading Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin

Rereading Little Town on the Prairie, with Judith Kalb

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com and Mary Grace at My Life 100 Years Ago.

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

Podcast website at rereadingourchildhood.com     

Writer and scholar Jean Freedman joins us to talk about Noel Streatfeild’s 1944 book Theater Shoes (originally published in the UK as Curtain Up), the story of three children who attend a theatrical school. We discuss London during World War II and welcome the (offstage) reappearance of the three sisters in Streatfeild’s beloved Ballet Shoes (1936).

Mentioned on this episode:

Other books by Jean Freedman: Whistling in the Dark: Memory and Culture in Wartime London and Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love, and Politics

Books by Noel Streatfeild: Circus Shoes, Dancing Shoes, Tennis Shoes, Skating Shoes

A website on Streatfeild that includes a detailed discussion on Theater Shoes/Curtain Up

Recommended by Jean: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett; Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare, and Dress Rehearsal by Monica Stirling; fairy tales by Oscar Wilde

Recommended by Deborah: The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright; Half Magic by Edward Eager

Recommended by Mary Grace: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Other episode: Rereading Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com, Mary Grace at My Life 100 Years Ago, and Jean at jeanfreedman.com.

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

Podcast website at rereadingourchildhood.com     

For this episode, we reread E.B. White’s 1952 classic Charlotte’s Web. 

Also by White: Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan, The Elements of Style, Is Sex Necessary?, Essays of E.B. White, Letters of E.B. White, "Death of a Pig"

Blog post on Henry Fussy

New Yorker article on Garth Williams

The Story of Charlotte’s Web, Michael Sims

Eudora Welty’s New York Times review

Recommended: Anne of Green Gables, Caddie Woodlawn (Mary Grace); Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan, Misty of Chincoteague, The Cricket in Times Square (Deborah)

Adaptations: 1973 movie, 2006 movie, 2025 miniseries

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com and Mary Grace at My Life 100 Years Ago.

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

Podcast website at rereadingourchildhood.com     

For our third annual Encyclopedia Brown episode, we matched wits with each other and with Encyclopedia in trying to crack the cases in Encyclopedia Brown Finds the Clues, which was published in 1966. We included the relevant clues in our discussion, so you can solve along with us. We discussed the origins of Bugs Meany's hat and solved the mystery of what state Idaville is in. Also, Mary Grace mispronounced "divining rod" about 15 times. 

Mentioned on this episode:

Other Encyclopedia Brown books:

Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective

Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret Pitch

Other Rereading Our Childhood episodes:

Rereading Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

Rereading Henry Reed, Inc. by Keith Robertson

Also mentioned:

Goodreads review of Encyclopedia Brown Finds the Clues by Chance Hansen

Reddit thread on what state Encyclopedia lives in

"Donald Sobol and the Case of the Elusive Mystery Writer," interview with Donald Sobol by Elizabeth Weinstein, Oberlin Alumni Magazine, Fall 2011

Clip from a 2024 episode of Futurama featuring Wikipedia Brown

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com and Mary Grace’s adventures in the 1920s at My Life 100 Years Ago. 

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

Podcast website at rereadingourchildhood.com     

For this episode, we reread Louise Fitzhugh's 1965 novel The Long Secret, the sequel to Harriet the Spy. We discussed the mystery of who is leaving notes for residents of Water Mill and Fitzhugh's fascinating but tragic life.

Mentioned on this episode:

Other books by Fitzhugh: 

Suzuki Bean by Sandra Scoppettone, illustrated by Fitzhugh (1961)

Harriet the Spy (1964)

Nobody's Family is Going to Change (1974)

Sport (1980)

Also mentioned:

Sometimes You Have to Lie: The Life and Times of Louise Fitzhugh, Renegade Author of Harriet the Spy, by Leslie Brody

Deborah's interview with Leslie Brody

The Tap Dance Kid, the musical based on Nobody's Family is Going to Change (highlights here)

Gloria Vanderbilt's New York Times review of Harriet the Spy

Goodreads reviews of The Long Secret

Recommended by Deborah: Freaky Friday and A Billion for Boris by Mary Rodgers; Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

Recommended by Mary Grace: Magic by the Lake by Edward Eager, The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars, All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

Previous episode:

Rereading Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com and Mary Grace at My Life 100 Years Ago. 

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

Podcast website at rereadingourchildhood.com     

On this episode, syndicated columnist Jamie Stiehm joins us to reread Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel Little Women, which was published in two parts in 1868 and 1869.

Mentioned on this episode:

Other books by Alcott: Little Men (1871), Eight Cousins (1874), Rose in Bloom (1876), Jo’s Boys (1886)

Also mentioned:

Peyton Thomas’s tweet saying Alcott was trans

Peyton Thomas’s New York Times guest column saying that Alcott was trans

Peyton Thomas’s podcast Jo’s Boys (on Apple and Spotify)

Film adaptations: Little Women (1933), with Katharine Hepburn (trailer here); Little Women (1949), with June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor (trailer here); Little Women (1994), with Wynona Ryder (trailer here); Little Women (2019), directed by Greta Gerwig (trailer here)

Recommended for fans of Little Women:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Jamie); My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, Men in Trouble by Sarah Payne Stuart, and Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (Mary Grace); Little House on the Prairie (Deborah)

Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why it Still Matters, by Anne Boyd Rioux (2018)

March by Geraldine Brooks (2006)

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com and Mary Grace’s adventures in the 1920s on her blog, My Life 100 Years Ago. You can find Jamie at jamiestiehm.com.

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

Podcast website at rereadingourchildhood.com     

On this episode, we reread Edward Eager’s 1957 book Magic by the Lake, the sequel to Half Magic, which we discussed during our first season. 

Mentioned on this episode:

The Time Garden and Seven-Day Magic by Edward Eager

Eager’s New York Times obituary

By Pike and Dyke by G.A. Henty

Deborah’s novels George Washington and the Magic Hat, John Adams and the Magic Bobblehead, and Thomas Jefferson and the Return of the Magic Hat

The books of E. Nesbit

 Songs: “Paddling Madeleine Home,” “Do Do Do What You Done Done Done Before,” “Yes! We Have No Bananas,” “Goodbye, John”

Recommended: The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright (Deborah); The Four-Story Mistake by Elizabeth Enright and The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh (Mary Grace)

Other episodes: Rereading Half Magic, Rereading Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers, Rereading Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, Rereading The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com and Mary Grace at My Life 100 Years Ago.

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

Podcast website at rereadingourchildhood.com     

On this episode, we reread Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers's beloved 1934 classic. We discuss the difference between the book and the movie version of the magical nanny, changes in the book to remove racist portrayals, and Travers's strange and interesting life. 

Mentioned on the episode:

Other books in the series:

Mary Poppins Comes Back (1935)

Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943)

Mary Poppins in the Park (1952)

Also mentioned: 

Kathryn Hughes' 2005 Guardian review of Mary Poppins She Wrote: A Biography of P.L. Travers.

A Goodreads review of Mary Poppins by Julie G that discusses racism in Mary Poppins. 

A post on Mary Poppins on the website "American Indians in Children's Literature" 

Travers's 1996 New York Times obituary (gift link)

The trailer for Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

 Alli Hoff Kosik's childhood rereading podcast, SSR, which recently signed off after seven years.

Recommended for fans of Mary Poppins: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Pippi Longstocking (Deborah), The Edward Eager magic books, Ballet Shoes, and Harriet the Spy (Mary Grace) 

Other episodes mentioned:

Rereading Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Rereading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com 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     

On this episode, we discuss All-of-a-Kind Family, Sydney Taylor's 1951 classic about five sisters growing up on New York's Lower East Side. Over the course of a year, the girls experience joys (like celebrating Jewish holidays and the Fourth of July) and sorrows (like getting scarlet fever and, even worse, losing a library book), and spend a lot of time thinking about how to spend their allowance (one penny). 

Mentioned on this episode: 

Other books in the series:

More All-of-a-Kind Family

All-of-a-Kind Family Uptown

All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown

Ella of All-of-a-Kind Family

Also mentioned: 

Peter and Polly in Winter by Rose Lucia (1914), Sarah's lost library book. 

From Sarah to Sydney by June Cummins, a biography of Sydney Taylor)

Jennifer Weiner's New York Times review of From Sarah to Sydney

One of a Kind: The Life of Sydney Taylor, a children's picture book biography by by Richard Michelson (read Deborah's interview with Michelson here)

Recommended for fans of All-of-a-Kind Family:

Deborah: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Mary Grace: The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright, Meet Me in St. Louis by Sally Benson, Seven-Day Magic by Edward Eager

Other Rereading Our Childhood episodes mentioned:

Rereading The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

Rereading Little Town on the Prairie, with Judith Kalb

Rereading Half Magic by Edward Eager

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com 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     

On this episode, we discuss The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene, the first installment in the Nancy Drew series, with writer Sara Fitzgerald.

Mentioned on this episode:

Other Nancy Drew books:

The Secret of Red Gate Farm

The Hidden Staircase

Other Stratemeyer Syndicate series:

The Bobbsey Twins

The Hardy Boys

The Rover Boys

Also mentioned:

The Silenced Muse by Sara Fitzgerald

Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly

Teen romances by Betty Cavanna

The CW Nancy Drew series (trailer here)

The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

A Goodreads review by a reader named Michelle

Ada Twist, Scientist, Rosie Revere, Engineer, and Sofia Valdez, Future Prez, by Andrea Beaty

Recommendations: 

Sara: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Cherry Ames, Camp Nurse by Helen Wells

Deborah: Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Mary Grace: The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com, Mary Grace at My Life 100 Years Ago, and Sara at sarafitzgerald.com.

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

Podcast website at rereadingourchildhood.com