by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Mark Oshiro's The Insiders (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Description from Publisher: "Three kids who don’t belong. A room that shouldn’t exist. A year that will change everything. Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead and Meg Medina, this debut middle grade novel from award-winning author Mark Oshiro is a hopeful and heartfelt coming-of-age story for anyone who’s ever felt like they didn’

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) On Wednesday, we'll be sharing authors who write either for multiple age groups, genres, or both. We discussed several of our favorite authors on the episode. Here are some other authors who we love who write broadly! Jason Reynolds: It is no secret that here at the podcast, we adore Jason Reynolds. He has a myriad of books written for both upper elementary/middle grade readers and young adult readers. Some of our favorites include The Track

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) After I became a mom, I was always looking for books to pique my kids' interests. As they got older and were moving on to early chapter books, I realized I had two reluctant readers on my hands. What I love about series books for reluctant readers is that once a child loves one book in a series, it is easy for him/her/them to find their next read--the next book in the series! Here are some of the series that my kids have enjoyed over the yea

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 -

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),

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

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

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

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