Curl Up With A Good Book 📚
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Season 2: Episode 2 Description
In today’s episode: 📣 Get ready for National Literacy Month and September 6th National Read A Book Day! 📚 Hear our picks for upcoming fall releases to add to your reading list. 📖 Hear listener Clio's book recommendation, Narwhal: Peanut Butter and Jelly by Ben Clanton.📓 And correspondent Ryan Nerz hangs out with author Lisa Papdemetriou! 💯
🗓️ Plan for these book release dates:
Born Behind Bars by Padma Venkatraman, September 7
How To Win A Slime War by Mae Respicio, September 14
A Soft Place To Land by Janae Marks, September 14
A Bird Will Soar by Alison Green Myers, October 19
Miosotis Flores Never Forgets by Hilda Eunice Burgos, October 26
Sources for the episode:
https://www.dw.com/en/why-the-little-prince-is-still-one-of-the-worlds-favorite-books/a-43266487
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TRANSCRIPT:
Bethany Van Delft 0:04
Calling all bookworms! Are you a bookworm? Well, this one's for you. I'm Bethany Van Delft, it's Saturday, September 4th, and this is no ordinary episode of The Ten News. This is The Ten News gets extra.
Various Voices 0:23
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Bethany Van Delft 0:30
If you love getting lost in a good book, you are in luck. September is National Literacy Month and September 6th is National Read A Book Day. Excellent! In case you're wondering what book to pick up next, here are some upcoming releases hitting shelves this fall that we cannot wait to get our hands-on. Number one, Born Behind Bars by Padma Venkatraman. Set in Chennai, India, Born Behind Bars tells the story of Kabir, a boy who is born in jail where his mother is serving a sentence for a crime she did not commit. When he's unexpectedly released from prison, Kabir must navigate an outside world he has never known. Number two, How To Win A Slime war by May Respicio. Alex Manalo joins the soccer team at his new school in San Francisco, but only because his dad wants him to. Alex would rather spend this time making slime. Pretty soon Alex finds himself competing with another student at school to see who can sell more slime, all while trying to help his family save their Filipino market. Number three, A Soft Place To Land by Janae Marks. 12-year-old Joi Taylor and her family are forced to leave their house and move into a smaller apartment after her dad loses his job. To make things worse, her parents are fighting a lot and they can no longer afford her piano lessons. In her new building, Joy finds a secret hideout and a new friendship that helps her rethink the meaning of home. Number four, A Bird Will Soar by Alison Green Myers, follows the story of Axel a bird-loving boy who sets out to repair a local eagle's nest after a tornado rips through his town. With his mother keeping secrets and his father back home after his most recent disappearance, Axel must also find a way to heal his own home and family. Number five, Miosotis Flores Never Forgets by Hilda Eunice Burgos, the main character, Miosotis, tries to raise her grades so that her parents will let her adopt a new dog. But that's not the only thing on her mind. Her older sister is acting strangely out of her upcoming wedding, which leaves Miosotis with some tough choices to make. So any good reading options. Check out the book’s release dates in The Ten News show notes.
Bethany Van Delft 3:22
What better way to celebrate National Read A Book day than hanging out with a cool author? Correspondent Ryan Nerz sat down with writer and grammar lover Lisa Papadimitriou.
Ryan Nerz 3:38
Do you ever find yourself reading a book and wondering how the author came up with this? Yeah, me too. So, I did us both a favor and reached out to Lisa Papadimitriou, an author who has literally written more books than she can count.
Lisa Papadimitriou 3:54
I have written and published over 20 books, but I actually wrote a lot more under what's called a pseudonym. And, that is like, a pen name is a false name.
Ryan Nerz 4:08
Lisa writes mainly middle-grade fiction, which means she makes her stories up, and they're written for kids aged 8 to 12. In other words, her audience is basically you. And I'm gonna guess some of you out there might be interested in one day writing your own books. Your first question might be, how do I start?
Lisa Papadimitriou 4:26
I always start with a character and then I just need to come up with a problem for them. And once you have the problem, it's kind of, if it's a big enough problem, it's pretty easy to see where it will go.
Ryan Nerz 4:40
Interesting. I'm intrigued, do go on.
Lisa Papadimitriou 4:44
If you start with a character, say a Sasquatch, and okay, you have a Sasquatch, that's not necessarily going anywhere. But, what if the Sasquatch has a problem? He could want to make friends with a little dog and the dog is scared of him. Okay, that's one kind of story
Ryan Nerz 5:00
Hmmm, right. I'm not quite sold on this story yet.
Lisa Papadimitriou 5:05
He could be accused of committing a crime that he didn't commit.
Ryan Nerz 5:09
Okay, getting closer.
Lisa Papadimitriou 5:11
He could be captured and forced to attend sixth grade.
Ryan Nerz 5:16
Sold! I love it. I'd read that book.
Lisa Papadimitriou 5:19
So once you have the problem, it's much, much easier to think of a whole bunch of moments that could follow.
Ryan Nerz 5:26
Sounds so creative. But, Lisa explained that it takes real effort to plan your stories. In fact, she's even created her own website to help others with that. It's called Book Flow.
Lisa Papadimitriou 5:39
It's basically just a really nice, beautiful-looking thing that helps writers organize their thoughts, see the big picture and what they're doing, and also stay motivated.
Ryan Nerz 5:51
Wow. Okay, I guess creativity takes work. But the lazy part of me wanted to know, doesn't she ever just take ideas from her regular everyday life?
Lisa Papadimitriou 6:02
I will say that any scene in my book where someone spills an item of food on their clothes that is directly lifted from my real life because that happens like most days.
Ryan Nerz 6:13
But it's more than just spills. Lisa uses her life to help create entire plots. For example, She grew up in Texas, and her husband is Pakistani-American. So one of her books, a tale of highly unusual magic, is set half in Texas, and half in Pakistan. And then there's the book she's working on now.
Lisa Papadimitriou 6:33
It is based somewhat on my life about being in a kind of a blended family. It's about a girl who makes friends with a girl who wears a hijab, but also her parents are divorced and she, her dad's happily remarried, but she now kind of wants her mom to also, she feels like her mom deserves that too.
Ryan Nerz 6:51
So, Lisa incorporates details like her own parent’s divorce into the bigger themes of her books. But, she says good writing is also about the little things.
Lisa Papadimitriou 7:01
I like grammar, I think it's a game and so I always tell people like I do not believe in grammar police. I only believe in maximum sentences.
Ryan Nerz 7:11
Extra credit, if you've got the criminal justice joke in there. Lisa believes so deeply in maximizing sentences with good grammar, that she's created a character to help you out with that.
Lisa Papadimitriou 7:22
Hello, darlings. I am Iwanna Correctya, the Grammar diva. And today, we are going to be talking about buts, and, and’s, and all sorts of conjunctions and the commas will love them.
Ryan Nerz 7:39
Take it from Iwanna Correctya and Lisa, if you don't put commas in the right places, the result can be very confused readers. And that's not just important in writing, but in life as well.
Lisa Papadimitriou 7:51
My husband actually one time went on a trip to Las Vegas because someone didn't include a comma in an email.
Ryan Nerz 7:59
So, if you want to not send people on random trips, do your grammar homework. And if you want to be an author, you have just one assignment.
Lisa Papadimitriou 8:08
The most important thing you can do is read. Read as much as you can, read a whole variety of stuff, you know, graphic novels, poetry, you know, plays, novels, novellas.
Ryan Nerz 8:23
Isn't it great when your homework just means doing something you already love? So here it is your easiest assignment ever. Find a cozy spot, grab a book, and enjoy National Read A Book Day!
Bethany Van Delft 8:38
Thank you, Ryan and Lisa. And now I need to add A Tale Of Highly Unusual Magic to my reading list.
Clio 8:50
My name is Clio and I am seven years old. My book recommendation is Narwhal: Peanut Butter and Jelly by Ben Clanton. I really enjoyed this book because it is funny. This story talks about the friendship between a narwhal and a jellyfish that have silly adventures.
Bethany Van Delft 9:15
Up next, it's time for...
Various Voices 9:17
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 9:18
Trivia on The Ten. Looking to curl up with one of the most popular books of all time?Nope. I don't mean Harry Potter. I'm talking about Le Petit Prince, also known as The Little Prince in its English translation. The book is so popular, it's been translated a bunch of times and has entertained readers all over the world. How many different translations are there of the planet traveling Prince? Is it a) 50 different versions, b) 125 different versions or c) 300 different versions
Bethany Van Delft 10:07
Did you guess it? The answer is C! Le Petit Prince has been translated into 300 different languages and dialects. The book was originally published in 1943. And it's sold over 200 million copies all around the world. A globetrotter. Just like the Little Prince.
Bethany Van Delft 10:33
Time, time's up. Here's a quick message for the grown-ups. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is heading to the library and includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Andrew Hall, and Nathalie Alonso. Ryan Nerz, contributed to this episode, and special thanks to listener Clio for sharing their book recommendations. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle, and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News. And now here's my secret, a very simple secret. I want to go re-read the Little Prince! See you soon. In case you haven't read the Little Prince, here's a great quote from the book, "grown-ups never understand anything by themselves and it's tiresome for children to always be forever explaining things to them." You know you have to read it now.
