The SSR Podcast

New Reads November is back! The first title we’re discussing in this very special, very fun series is David Yoon’s YA debut Frankly in Love, which quickly became a bestseller when it was published in September 2019. In it, we meet high school senior Frank Li, who is experiencing the “normal” growing pains of your average American teen along with the unique challenges of being the child of Korean immigrants who moved to the U.S. to give him a better life. The book touches on everything from fake dating schemes and first love to challenging conversations about identity and the loss of a parent. Join Alli and guest Cara Meiselman for this discussion of identity, cultural education, and so much more.

Cara Meiselman is an obsessive reader and the co-programming lead for self-care community and newsletter Girls’ Night In. She helps run GNI Reads, the Girls’ Night In monthly book club with meet-ups in more than ten cities across the U.S. and Canada. Follow her on Instagram (@Caraizzle).

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Published in 2002, Gingerbread is the story of Cyd Charisse, a teen who makes her way from a posh New England boarding school to her home in San Francisco and then to the larger-than-life streets of New York City, where she hopes to bond with the biological father she’s idealized for over a decade. In the book, author Rachel Cohn explores the ideas of blended families, chosen families, unhealthy relationships, and tough choices. On Episode 69, Alli and her guest Kristina fangirl over Cohn’s writing, take a deep dive into the way the book portrays abortion, recap Cyd Charisse’s highly emotional journey through the novel, and so much more.

Kristina Forest is the author of the YA rom-com I Wanna Be Where You Are. Follow her on Twitter (@KristinaForest) and Instagram (@kristinaforest_).

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There’s nothing quite like a simple, solid friendship story to really bring you back to what it felt like to be a kid, and that’s exactly what you get in Judy Blume’s Just as Long as We’re Together. On Episode 68, author Caroline Moss joins Alli to discuss this title (which just so happens to be one of her childhood favorites!), as well as what it says to kid readers about friendship, family, weight, and body image. Is three really a crowd? Can you have more than one best friend? Is it cool for tweens to be totally self-absorbed? How should we talk to kids about emotional eating? It’s all covered in this episode!

Caroline Moss is a Brooklyn-based writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, New York magazine, Cosmopolitan, VICE, and more. She’s the co-author of Hey Ladies! and the author of the Work It, Girl series. Follow her on Twitter (@CarolineMoss).

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Dudes abound in the world of science fiction and fantasy, and author Anne McCaffrey was a true trailblazer… just like the protagonist in her 1976 YA novel Dragonsong. The book is a celebration of fighting the patriarchy and any other institution that keeps you from pursuing your passions and talents. On Episode 67, author Tui Sutherland joins Alli to discuss her lifelong passion for McCaffrey’s work and to break down all the reasons that main character Menolly is a total badass (in the best possible way).

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Alli and guest Jaime Elsey — who you may know better as bookstagram’s @absorbedinpages — are getting real on Episode 66 as they discuss the heartbreaking twenty-sixth book in Ann M. Martin’s beloved Baby-Sitters Club series, Claudia and the Sad Goodbye. Tune in to hear them compare Claudia’s experience with the loss of a loved one to their own, and to hear them discuss the amazing ways in which this book communicates truisms about death to young readers and normalizes the complicated feelings that come with the grief process. (Oh, and because it’s the Baby-Sitters Club, there’s also some arts and crafts in the mix.)

Jaime Elsey is the avid bookworm behind Absorbed in Pages, as well as a wife, mother, and attorney.

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October is here… and we’re kicking off the spookiest month of the year with Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, the first book in a series of the same name, published in 1981. Alli’s not the biggest fan of being scared, but in Episode 65, she learns to appreciate the history of these stories and the research that went into curating them. She and guest Gale Galligan talk about which of the scary stories are their favorites, consider how our definitions of scary change over time, and wonder why so many kids enjoy being scared in the first place!

Gale Galligan is the creator of the New York Times bestselling graphic novel adaptations of The Baby-Sitters Club, Dawn and the Impossible Three and Kristy’s Big Day. Learn more about her work on her website and follow her on Instagram (@robochai).

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Think you know all there is to know about the land of Oz? It’s more than just The Wonderful Wizard of Oz! In Episode 64, guest Heather Boaz joins to share a meaningful story from her own childhood, the third book in L. Frank Baum’s series, Ozma of Oz. Tune in to hear us discuss our favorite elements of the Oz world and the lessons this story has to teach about the dangers of judging based on appearance, underestimating those around us, and fearing the unknown.

Follow Heather on bookstagram (@mlleboaz.bibliophile).

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If you feel like every episode of The SSR Podcast is basically just a lovefest about whatever book we happen to be discussing (and you’re sick and tired of it!), then you should definitely check out Episode 63. Our feelings about Cynthia Voigt’s Homecoming are A LOT more complicated. Let’s just say it’s a love/hate thing.

On this episode, Alli and guest Kelly Jensen try to look at this 1981 novel from every spot on that love/hate spectrum. They also swap stories about their own middle and high school English classes and compare notes on the kinds of books they were reading in the nineties. There’s talk of birth order, mental health, religion, circus performers, and cold hot dogs — a little something for everyone!

Follow Kelly on Instagram (@heykellyjensen) and be sure to check out her work on Book Riot!

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Ever since its publication in 1960, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has been earning accolades and showing up on school required reading lists. In more recent years, the conversation around this book — more specifically, around what it has to say about race and racial injustice — has become more complicated. On Episode 62, Alli and guest Amy Jo Bunselmeyer take a good, hard look at this classic and try to make sense of the role it should play in our larger dialogues about important social issues.

Thanks to Amy Jo for guesting on this episode! You may know Amy Jo better as bookstagram’s @literaryjo. Check out the book reviews on her blog, as well!

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On Episode 61 of SSR, we’re taking to the Canadian wilderness — but unlike thirteen-year-old Brian in Gary Paulsen’s 1987 Newbery Honor-winning novel Hatchet, we’re not going alone. It’s a team effort to journey through the many conversations that come with this book! Tune in to hear us talk about the way Hatchet busted the “boy/girl book dichotomy” when we were kids, Paulsen’s presentation of trauma, and how shocked we were to realize as adults that we’d missed Brian’s suicide attempt when we read the book years ago. We also fangirl over Paulsen’s beautiful writing and chat about what makes certain children’s books stand up as classics, while others do not.

Follow author Sara Faring on Instagram (@sarafaring) and Twitter (@sarafaring).

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