Unabridged Podcast

Welcome to Unabridged, the podcast where teachers take on books! Every week, Sara, Jen and Ashley (shown left to right in the photo) talk books, share recommendations, and celebrate all things bookish. On our blog (see our posts below!) we share bookish faves, pub day shout-outs, show notes, and book reviews each week.

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8 Amazing Books to Read by AAPI Authors (Plus 2 Picture Books!)

Mar 29
4 min

8 Amazing Books to Read by AAPI Authors (Plus 2 Picture Books!)

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Our hearts are heavy as we consider the victims of the horrific shootings in Atlanta last week and the ongoing racist assaults on the AAPI community. Be sure to check out the movement to # StandUpforAAPI on Bookstagram. Today we celebrate a few of our favorite books from AAPI authors. Adult Picks Helen Hoang's The Bride Test - I've shared my love of this romance novel many times including when I talked about it as one of my f

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Meeting the Challenge: Celebrating Author Imprints

Mar 22
4 min

Meeting the Challenge: Celebrating Author Imprints

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) This year, for the Unabridged Podcast Reading Challenge (find out more here!), we are celebrating author imprints. On Wednesday, we're releasing an episode all about Rick Riordan Presents, but I wanted to spotlight some other imprints you may want to check out. Do you have favorite author imprints? Let us know @unabridgedpod! Rick Riordan Presents Description from the website: "Rick Riordan Presents is one small branch of the Disney-Hyperion P

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11 Books that Support Advocacy and Education on Human Trafficking

Nov 30, 2020
2 min

11 Books that Support Advocacy and Education on Human Trafficking

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) It is the eve of the first of December, which means for me, the eve of Dressember, an organization I have been advocating for for several years. My friend RuthAnn is the person who inspired my involvement. I am a part of her Dressember team. We were lucky enough to have her as a guest on the podcast last November. (Listen to the episode here.) In it, RuthAnn discusses Dressember, advocacy, and some of the books on this list. In addition, thi

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Pub Day Shout-Outs! for November 10, 2020 featuring Baer, Collins, Namey, and Schmidt

Nov 10, 2020
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! for November 10, 2020 featuring Baer, Collins, Namey, and Schmidt

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Here are four books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Manda Collins's A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem Description from Publisher: "England, 1865: Newspaper columnist Lady Katherine Bascomb finds herself the subject of speculation when her latest article leads to an arrest in the murders plaguing London. The English believe women ought not to write about such vulgar things as crime, and a particularly attractive detective inspe

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Graphic Novel Roundup

Oct 26, 2020
4 min

Graphic Novel Roundup

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) This year has been a great one for me to dive into some wonderful graphic novels, graphic memoirs, and comic books. I read differently with these, using a different type of interpretation than when I'm looking solely at text. My boys, who are 10 and 13, love graphic novels, and I can always count on them to pass on the ones they love. Here are some recommendations from my reading this year: Molly Knox Ostertag's The Witch Boy trilogy (The Witc

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Great Early Chapter Books for Kids featuring Female Protagonists

Sep 28, 2020
3 min

Great Early Chapter Books for Kids featuring Female Protagonists

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) My girls are three and six, and my six year old has recently developed a significant interest in reading chapter books. However, my three year old only wants to join us if there are pictures, so I'm always on the lookout for excellent early chapter books with frequent pictures. Here are a few we've found and loved so far. Debbie Dadey's Mermaid Tales series - This is by far my children's first love when it comes to chapter bo

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5 Books to Inspire Girls (and Boys!)

Sep 7, 2020
6 min

5 Books to Inspire Girls (and Boys!)

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) As a mother to a daughter, I am really interested in finding books that promote strong females. Luckily, there are more and more books being published to meet just this need. Here are some of my (and my daughter's!) favorites: Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women by Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli From the publisher: "The New York Times bestselling Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls is a children's book p

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Grit in Kid Lit -- Picture Books that Encourage Resilience

Aug 10, 2020
4 min

Grit in Kid Lit -- Picture Books that Encourage Resilience

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) As we find our way through this challenging time in our world, I've been thinking a lot about how books can help us and our kids as we navigate hard times. In this compilation, I share a few favorite authors, including Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, and Peter H. Reynolds, but I also pull in some authors who are new to me, including Troy Cummings and Ashley Franklin. I also include picture books by Chelsea Clinton, Juan

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130: Great Books for the Classroom by Black Authors

Jun 17, 2020
39 min

130: Great Books for the Classroom by Black Authors

In this Unabridged Podcast discussion, we recommend some books by Black authors that we think would be a great fit in the classroom. We talk about recommendations for Kid Lit, Middle Grade, and YA Lit, and we touch on books by several of our favorite authors, including Jacqueline Woodson, Kwame Alexander, and Ibi Zoboi. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Anna Solomon’s The Book of V Jen - Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Sa

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Middle-Grade Books We Love by Black Authors

Jun 15, 2020
2 min

Middle-Grade Books We Love by Black Authors

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) We at Unabridged stand with the Black Lives Matter movement. There are SO many books that we love by Black authors, and we look forward to lifting up those amazing books. Today we are talking about some of our favorite middle-grade authors and books that we think would be amazing in any classroom. This is definitely not a complete list, but this features some of our favorite authors for middle-grade lit, including Jason Reynolds, Sharon M. D

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Bonus: Re-release of Jason Reynolds Highlight with LONG WAY DOWN, GHOST, and WHEN I WAS THE GREATEST

Jun 13, 2020
32 min

Bonus: Re-release of Jason Reynolds Highlight with LONG WAY DOWN, GHOST, and WHEN I WAS THE GREATEST

In this bonus episode, we wanted to share a re-release of an episode highlighting three novels by Jason Reynolds, one of our favorite Black authors for young people and for the classroom. We feel his body of work has applications across many age levels and grades. You can check out his body of work here. We tried to go very light on the spoilers in this episode, but a few minor spoilers were hard to avoid as we revealed what we loved about these books. Timeline Introduction a

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123 - How to Help Young People Keep Reading when School Is Out

Apr 29, 2020
42 min

123 - How to Help Young People Keep Reading when School Is Out

This week, we're talking about all of the things that work for us and that have worked for our students to keep the reading momentum going! We talk about favorite authors like Jason Reynolds, Jacqueline Woodson, and Mo Willems, and we share about awesome audio options like Lavar Burton's weekly reading opportunities. To get full access to all of the resources we curated, be sure to sign up for our newsletter where you'll be able to download our guide! Bookish Check In Sara -

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12 Amazing Picture Books for Tumultuous Times

Apr 20, 2020
2 min

12 Amazing Picture Books for Tumultuous Times

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) As we navigate these unprecedented times, I've been thinking a lot about how to help the young people in our lives to cope with all of the changes and uncertainty swirling around them. As I always do when struggling or trying out something new, I find myself turning to books. If you're looking to pick out some books, some of my favorite kid lit authors include Peter H. Reynolds, Susan Verde, and Jo Witek (all pictured above),

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Jason Reynolds's WHEN I WAS THE GREATEST- Pardon Me While I Fangirl--Sara's Review

Apr 10, 2020
3 min

Jason Reynolds's WHEN I WAS THE GREATEST- Pardon Me While I Fangirl--Sara's Review

I am SO excited to write today, because I have an amazing book to talk to you about for the young people in your life! Full disclaimer, I LOVE Jason Reynolds. If you aren't familiar with Reynolds, he has a pretty prolific array of quality middle/high school work that tackles hard topics in an accessible way. If you follow him on Twitter (@JasonReynolds83), you know he is a delight and such an advocate for children and reading. When I Was the Greatest follows Ali, a 15- year-o

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Picture Books to Enjoy During Black History Month (and Every Month!)

Feb 24, 2020
3 min

Picture Books to Enjoy During Black History Month (and Every Month!)

While I (Ashley) value the opportunity in February to celebrate Black history, I never want that celebration to be reductive -- Black history, culture, and experience should never be reduced to a single month or painted with a broad brush. However, I didn't want to miss an opportunity to shout out some of our favorite picture books in our house -- these books are ones that my daughters love and that we read often. Particular favorites of my girls (ages 3 and 5) include Barack

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113: Why Teach YA? - There's Nothing I Want More than for Kids to Love What We're Doing

Feb 19, 2020
2 min

113: Why Teach YA? - There's Nothing I Want More than for Kids to Love What We're Doing

In this episode, we focus on classroom teachers and talk directly about how and why we incorporated Young Adult literature into our classrooms. We talk about series we saw our students loving like Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, and Veronica Roth's Divergent, and we talk about seeing our students fall in love with books. From classics like S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders to A.S. King's Everybody Sees the Ants, we talk about using YA lit in our clas

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Welcome - Introduction and Overview

Jan 22, 2020
2 min

Welcome - Introduction and Overview

Just getting started with Unabridged Podcast? Welcome! We're Ashley, Jen, and Sara, and we are teachers and podcasters who are passionate about books. We have four kinds of posts here on our blog. On Mondays, we post about our Bookish Faves, on Tuesdays we do Pub Day Shout-outs, on Wednesdays our episodes drop, and on Fridays, we post book reviews. (Be on the lookout on Thursdays, too; we sometimes have an extra post then!) There are many ways to connect with us! In addition

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106: Unabridged Awards 2019 - Y'all Know I'm Indecisive

Jan 2, 2020
2 min

106: Unabridged Awards 2019 - Y'all Know I'm Indecisive

The hosts of Unabridged once again gathered to reflect on our year of reading and to choose some of our favorites. While Jen (as is typical) wanted to talk about all the books, Sara and Ashley did a much better job reining it in. Check out the episode to hear us talk about The Song of Achilles, Good Talk, and The Heart's Invisible Furies. We revisit favorites from the podcast and share some of our favorite books for kids. We'd love to know about your favorites of the year!

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Children’s Books that Adults Should Read

Dec 9, 2019
1 min

Children’s Books that Adults Should Read

Jacqueline Woodson's Harbor Me - I just finished reading this book with Jonathan (it was my second time through). I'm not sure what he thought, but (as he pointed out to Kirk) I cried at least twice and teared up more. He was disappointed in parts because there wasn't enough action, but I think it grabbed him eventually. We had some good, though difficult, discussions about Tamir Rice, about ICE, about how much we love our dogs, about drunk driving. And the writing! The sente

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Kwame Mbalia's TRISTAN STRONG PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE SKY -- Jen's Review

Nov 29, 2019
4 min

Kwame Mbalia's TRISTAN STRONG PUNCHES A HOLE IN THE SKY -- Jen's Review

Thanks to Partner NetGalley for the digital ARC of Kwame Mbalia’s Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky in exchange for an honest review. The book released Tuesday, October 15. Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky begins with Rick Riordan’s introduction asking “Can you imagine what it would be like if you could find a book that wove the whole brilliant, beautiful tapestry of West African and African American legend into one magical world?” (loc. 48). This, of course, i

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