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.

Want to get more involved? Check out our 2022 reading challenge, join our buddy reads on Instagram, or sign up on Patreon!

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Jan 25, 2021
7 min

Five of Ashley's Favorite Reads from 2020 (Part 2)

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) I was lucky to read so many amazing books this year! Consequently, I had a really hard time with coming up with my list for this post. It's a good problem to have, I suppose, but I'm realizing that it's really tough for me to pick out "winners" for the year when it comes to reading. Like Jen, I tried to pick books that represented the range of the kinds of reading I have done this year, and that is part of what I considered w

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Jan 8, 2021
1 min

Teaching Tidbits 8: New Year, New Goals

In this episode of Teaching Tidbits, Jen talks about her goals for the new year, including using literature in the classroom that includes a variety of voices and experiences and looking at grading in terms of compliance vs. skill. #shownotes #ownvoices #teachingtidbits #teachers #teaching #jensteachingtidbits (A note to our readers: click on the hashtags above to see our other blog posts with the same hashtag.) Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured B

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Jan 6, 2021
9 min

159: Adib Khorram's DARIUS THE GREAT IS NOT OKAY - January Book Club

In the first book club discussion of 2021, we are thrilled to discuss Adib Khorram's Darius the Great Is Not Okay. This brilliant young adult lit book addresses so many important topics including family heritage, bullying, friendship, family dynamics, managing depression, and so many other issues with nuance and humor. If you're interested in discussing this one, it's also our Unabridged Podcast Buddy Read this month! We'll be talking about it on January 11th and 25th on Inst

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Jan 5, 2021
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! for January 5, 2021, featuring Bruchac, Harris, and Bryant

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Joseph Bruchac's Peacemaker Description from Publisher: "A twelve-year-old Iroquois boy rethinks his calling after witnessing the arrival of a mystical figure with a message of peace in this historical novel based on the creation of the Iroquois Confederacy. "Twelve-year-old Okwaho's life has suddenly changed. While out hunting with his best friend, his friend is

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Jan 4, 2021
4 min

6 Great YA and Middle Grade Lit Book Picks Addressing Mental Health and Bullying

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) In this month's book club pick Darius the Great Is Not Okay (which is also our buddy read—DM us on Instagram if you'd like to join those chats! There's still time!), Adib Khorram discusses living with depression as a teenager in a meaningful and focused way. I wanted to share some other amazing young adult lit books (as well a middle grade lit pick) that address mental health and bullying (another important topic in Darius th

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Dec 18, 2020
4 min

Sofía Segovia's THE MURMUR OF BEES - A Beautiful, Whimsical Story about the Power of Love

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Wow. This one will definitely be one of my top reads of the year. I chose this, Sofia Segovia's The Murmur of Bees, as my book in translation pick for the Modern Mrs. Darcy challenge, which is the reading challenge I participated in this past year. Segovia is a Mexican author writing in Spanish, and her work was translated by Simon Bruni. (Check out our reading challenge episodes from the beginning of 2020 where we shared our

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Dec 15, 2020
5 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! December 15, 2020 Special Edition

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) As we move toward the holidays and the end of the year, there are not many books coming out this week. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to highlight a few of my favorites that I've read so far from our pub day shout-outs! Fredrik Backman's Anxious People Description from Publisher: "Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bur

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Dec 1, 2020
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! for December 1, 2020, featuring Pinguicha, Joseph, and O'Leary and Coker Burks

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Diana Pinguicha's A Curse of Roses Description from Publisher: "With just one touch, bread turns into roses. With just one bite, cheese turns into lilies. There’s a famine plaguing the land, and Princess Yzabel is wasting food simply by trying to eat. Before she can even swallow, her magic–her curse–has turned her meal into a bouquet. She’s on the verge of starving, which only r

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Nov 23, 2020
5 min

9 Books Considering Culture: Coming of Age as Children of Immigrants

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) In this bookish fave, I wanted to share some of my favorite middle grade and young adult lit recommendations that comment on the experience of children of immigrants. While each story is unique and their life experiences are all quite different, these books have common threads, such as an examination of the different facets that create identity and an exploration of the periodic tension between the parents' native culture and

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Nov 20, 2020
1 min

Teaching Tidbits 5: Literature Circles

In this Unabridged Episode, Jen talks about teaching with literature circles. She defines literature circles, talks about ways to choose books for them, and offers ideas about how to implement them in the classroom, including different options for lit circles roles for students. If you have questions about literature circles or ideas to share, let us know on social media @unabridgedpod. #shownotes #ownvoices #teachingtidbits #teachers #teaching #jensteachingtidbits (A note t

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Nov 6, 2020
2 min

Hena Khan's AMINA'S VOICE - A Powerful Own Voices Middle Grade Read

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) I loved this beautiful story so very much. In Amina's Voice by Hena Khan (which would be appropriate for upper elementary students as well as middle or high), Amina is starting middle school. She has the struggles every kid that age has -- where does she fit in? how does she adjust as her friends change? -- but she also has struggles related to her specific experience as a Muslim Pakistani American child of immigrant parents

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Nov 4, 2020
8 min

150 - November Book Club - Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam's PUNCHING THE AIR

In this Book Club episode of the Unabridged podcast, Ashley, Jen, and Sara discuss Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam's Punching the Air. After our Bookish Check-in, we share our opinions about the book and some favorite quotations, and then each of us offers another book we think would pair well with this YA novel in verse. Finally, we end by sharing some new favorites we've discovered lately. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Akwaeke Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji Jen - Yaa Gyasi’s Transce

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Oct 28, 2020
12 min

149: Read-Aloud Book Recommendations for Parents and Teachers

In this Unabridged Podcast episode, we're discussing books for all levels that we believe would work really well for read aloud choices. We were thrilled to be joined by Holly Hicks, a third-grade teacher and Unabridged Ambassador who has experience choosing and sharing read-aloud picks with her third-grade students. We also share our own experiences with read-aloud picks both at home and in the classroom. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Kate Clayborn’s Love Lettering Jen - Marissa

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Oct 23, 2020
1 min

Teaching Tidbits 3: Using Picture Books in the Secondary Classroom

In this Unabridged Podcast episode, Sara shares tips for using picture books in the secondary classroom. She discusses the benefits of using picture books and her own teaching experiences. In addition, she recommends two books with which she has had success in her own classroom—David Shannon's A Bad Case of Stripes to teach theme and Jon Scieszka's The True Story of the Three Little Pigs to teach point of view. #shownotes #ownvoices #teachingtidbits #teachers #teaching #sara

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Oct 21, 2020
10 min

148: Our Speculative Fiction Recs with Virginia Soenksen, Author of the GENETICS CHRONICLES Series

In this Unabridged podcast episode, we're talking all things speculative fiction with Virginia Soenksen, author of The Titan Strain, The Osiris Contingency, and The Ragnarok Resolution. We talk with her about her amazing science fiction series, and then we all recommend books that we've loved within the speculative fiction realm. We wrap up our episode with some favorite museum recommendations in honor of Virginia's role as an art historian and an associate director of a muse

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Oct 13, 2020
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! for October 13, 2020 featuring Harrow, Favilli, and Roanhorse

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Alix Harrow's The Once and Future Witches Description from Publisher: "In the late 1800s, three sisters use witchcraft to change the course of history in a Hugo award-winning author's powerful novel of magic amid the suffragette movement. "In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witchi

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Oct 12, 2020
4 min

12 Books to Empower Young People of All Ages

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) With all of the tumult in our world right now, I'm thinking a lot about how we can encourage the young people in our lives to use their voices, to make wise choices, and to take action. Here are a few books for each age level that encourage young people to find their voices and to take action. Picture Books Chelsea Clinton's She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women who Changed History, illustrated by Alexandra Boiger - This i

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Oct 9, 2020
1 min

Teaching Tidbits 2: Technology during the Time of Virtual Teaching with Ashley

In this Unabridged Teaching Tidbits episode, Ashley talks about some tips for surviving the trials and tribulations of using technology during the era of virtual teaching. She builds off of what Jen shared in Teaching Tidbit #1 about her experience with virtual teaching so far (you can listen here if you missed Jen's episode!), and Ashley talks about a few things that have helped her navigate technology during this time. #shownotes #ownvoices #teachingtidbits #teachers #teac

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Oct 7, 2020
8 min

146: October Book Club - Tommy Orange's THERE THERE

In this Unabridged Podcast book club discussion, we talk about Tommy Orange's There There. We all discuss this masterpiece, and then we share our pairings, including Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, Akwaeke Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji, and Tanya Talaga’s Seven Fallen Feathers. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians Jen - Julie C. Dao’s Broken Wish (from NetGalley, out October 6) Sara - Lindy West’s Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objecti

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Sep 29, 2020
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! September 29, 2020 featuring Lu, Menez, and Igharo

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Marie Lu's Skyhunter Description from Publisher: "A broken world. "An overwhelming evil. "A team of warriors ready to strike back. "#1 New York Times-bestselling author Marie Lu is back with an adrenaline-laced novel about the lengths one warrior will go to fight for freedom and those she loves. "Talin is a Striker, a member of an elite fighting force that stan

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