by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachinigtheapolcalypse) Kacen Callender's King and the Dragonflies This book, Kacen Callender's King and the Dragonflies (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), captivated my attention from the second I started it, and I was so compelled to find out what was going to happen. I listened to this one on audio, and the narration by Ron Butler was outstanding. This was a strong five-star read for me, and as I write this, I'm regretting not including it on my list

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) I absolutely loved this beautiful collection of short stories, Once Upon an Eid (Libro.fm | Bookshop.org), edited by S. K. Ali (author of Saints and Misfits) and Aisha Saeed (author of Amal Unbound, a podcast favorite!). I listened to this one on audio, and the narration was outstanding! This collection is a gorgeous middle-grade work, and it conveys a wide array of different experiences, all of which center on Muslims celeb

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Anne Ursu's The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Description from Publisher: "If no one notices Marya Lupu, is likely because of her brother, Luka. And that’s because of what everyone knows: that Luka is destined to become a sorcerer. "The Lupus might be from a small village far from the capital city of Illyria, but that doesn’t matter. Every young boy

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Jasmine Warga's Other Words for Home (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Friends, I absolutely LOVED this brilliant middle-grade novel in verse. I had seen recommendations from several bookish friends (including multiple Unabridged Ambassadors!) who read this and had great things to say about it, and I was eager to try it out. (Also, I seem to be on a middle-grade kick here! I haven't really read that many middle-grade books this year, b

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 Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) B. B. Alston's Amari and the Night Brothers I absolutely loved this brilliant book, B. B. Alston's Amari and the Night Brothers (Amazon | Bookshop.org), so much! It was fast-paced and compelling with excellent world building and an outstanding protagonist. I loved Amari right from the start, and I found her motivation, her desire to find her older brother Quinton who had disappeared, to be powerful and authentic. When the boo

In this Unabridged episode, Jen, Sara, and Ashley share book recommendations for book picks that surprised us and brought unexpected joy. Our recommendations, including Rebecca Stead’s The List of Things that Will Not Change (Amazon | Bookshop.org), Patrik Svensson’s The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World (Amazon | Bookshop.org), and Tiffany Haddish’s The Last Black Unicorn (Amazon | Bookshop.org), are very different

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) On Wednesday, we'll be sharing book recommendations for books we've read that surprised us in the best possible ways and turned out to be more than we expected. In keeping with my recent bookish fave posts featuring YA lit and middle-grade recommendations, I wanted to hone in on a few young adult lit and middle-grade books that also brought me unexpected joy because they were more than I anticipated when I started them. B. B.

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Today is such an epic book release day that I'm afraid I can't limit myself to highlighting only three books. So, be sure to scroll to the end to check out the books I can't help shouting out. Bethany C. Morrow's So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Description from Publisher: "Four young Black sisters come of age during the American Civil War in So Many Beginnings, a warm and powerful YA remix of the classic novel

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! David Levithan and Jennifer Niven's Take Me With You When You Go (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Description from Publisher: "Subject: You. Missing. "Ezra Ahern wakes up one day to find his older sister, Bea, gone. No note, no sign, nothing but an email address hidden somewhere only he would find it. Ezra never expected to be left behind with their abusive stepfather and their neglectfu

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) This Wednesday, we share our thoughts about our August Book Club pick, Balli Kaur Jaswal's Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows. (You can join our discussion on Instagram on August 30th if you'd like to talk about that one! Just DM us or email us!) That book had so many amazing threads woven together, but one of them that really resonated with me was the way that generational and cultural differences can be overcome. One of the

In this Unabridged Podcast episode, we talk all things graphic! We share a graphic novel, a graphic memoir, and a graphic nonfiction pick, all of which would work well for the Unabridged Reading Challenge 2021. Listen in to hear what we have to say about our picks including Roz Chast’s Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?, Gene Luen Yang’s Dragon Hoops, and Jerry Craft’s Class Act. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Rebecca Stead’s The List of Things that Will Not Change (Amaz

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Danielle Henderson's The Ugly Cry Description from Publisher: "'If you fight that motherf**ker and you don’t win, you’re going to come home and fight me.' Not the advice you’d normally expect from your grandmother—but Danielle Henderson would be the first to tell you her childhood was anything but conventional. "Abandoned at ten years old by a mother who chose her drug-addicted,

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) We loved sharing some recent favorite middle-grade recommendations in episode 178, and Jen shared some great historical fiction middle-grade picks in her bookish fave last week. This past Wednesday's episode focused on the screen adaptation of Jennifer Matthieu's Moxie, which has a strong message supporting feminism and the empowerment of young womxn. A fun discovery that was shared in our buddy read group related to that boo

In this Unabridged episode, we have several amazing middle-grade book recommendations for you all. We share about Jewell Parker Rhodes’s Ghost Boys, Alex Gino’s George, and Dusti Bowling’s Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus as our featured recommendations, and then we each mention a couple of other personal favorites from our recent middle-grade reads. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Talia Hibbert’s Act Your Age, Eve Brown (Bookshop.org | Amazon) Jen - Maggie O’Farrell’s

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Alison Bechdel's The Secret to Superhuman Strength Description from Publisher: "From the author of Fun Home, a profoundly affecting graphic memoir of Bechdel's lifelong love affair with exercise, set against a hilarious chronicle of fitness fads in our times. "Comics and cultural superstar Alison Bechdel delivers a deeply layered story of her fascination, from childhood to adultho

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Here at Unabridged, we haven't had too many book reviews on Upper Elementary/Middle Grade lit, so I wanted to take a minute to talk about one of my all time favorites. In fact, I loved this one so much, I bought a copy for each of the kids in my son's classroom when he was in 5th grade. (Don't worry--Scholastic ran a deal, and each copy was only $1. I love a bargain!) One of my all time favorite middle grade novels is Three Times Lucky by Sh

In this Unabridged podcast episode, we share some retellings of classics that we've enjoyed reading. We share our picks including Hena Khan’s More to the Story, Patricia Park’s Re Jane, Rachel Hawkins’s The Wife Upstairs. These recommendations are perfect for the retellings category on our Unabridged Reading Challenge for 2021! Bookish Check-in Ashley - Aiden Thomas’s Lost in the Never Woods (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Jen - Liz Moore’s Long Bright River (Amazon | Bookshop.org) S

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Denny S. Bryce's Wild Women and the Blues Description from Publisher: "In a stirring and impeccably researched novel of Jazz-age Chicago in all its vibrant life, two stories intertwine nearly a hundred years apart, as a chorus girl and a film student deal with loss, forgiveness, and love... in all its joy, sadness, and imperfections. “'Why would I talk to you abo