Search
- 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
8 views0 comments
- Nov 16, 2020
- 3 min
Books to Encourage Activism
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) As teachers, we often look to our students for inspiration: sometimes, their energy and enthusiasm for the world pushes us to be activists. But sometimes, we know, they need some inspiration, too. And that's where books can come in. Here are 9+ books we think are inspiring for young people. Mark Oshiro's Anger Is a Gift - In my post about this book, I said, "Mark Oshiro's Anger Is a Gift confronts activism and anger through the lens of Moss. M
9 views0 comments
- Oct 30, 2020
- 3 min
Claudia Rankine's JUST US: AN AMERICAN CONVERSATION - A Book I'll Re-Read
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Thanks to Partner NetGalley for the digital ARC of Claudia Rankine’s Just Us: An American Conversation in exchange for an honest review. The book is available for purchase. I will need to read Claudia Rankine’s Just Us again. I think it is brilliant and important and thoughtful, but I know that there’s more to absorb, more to contemplate. I read it too quickly this time, wrestled with the format of the e-book (I’m definitely going to buy it i
4 views0 comments
- Oct 9, 2020
- 2 min
Nic Stone's DEAR JUSTYCE - A Worthy Companion to the Brilliant DEAR MARTIN
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) I've shared my love for Nic Stone's Dear Martin all over the internet—I think it is such a powerful foundation for conversations with teenagers about police violence, racism, and justice. I'm sure it will be no surprise, then, that I was INCREDIBLY excited to see Nic Stone's announcement of a sequel, Dear Justyce. (No worries! This will be a spoiler-free review of book two.) Dear Martin's protagonist is Justyce McCallister, a Black teenager w
14 views0 comments
- Jun 19, 2020
- 3 min
Abi Daré's THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE - An Uplifting Story of Bravery and Determination
by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Abi Daré's debut novel, The Girl with the Louding Voice, captures your heart with the focus on Adunni, a young Nigerian teenager who loses her ability to go to school and becomes a child bride after her mother's untimely death. Despite her father's promise to her mother that Adunni will get to continue her education and will not become trapped in a life of hard work and misery, her father agrees to her marriage for a bride pr
37 views0 comments
- 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
32 views0 comments
- Jun 10, 2020
- 46 min
129: Re-release of Angie Thomas's THE HATE U GIVE Book Club Discussion
In light of the unjust loss of Black lives in America and of the Black Lives Matter movement, we wanted to share an episode from 2018 where, for our book club, we discussed one of our favorite YA literature books for the classroom, Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give. In the episode, we discuss the novel and share pairings including Gabrielle Union's We're Going to Need More Wine, Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil's The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes Aft
19 views0 comments
- Jun 3, 2020
- 2 min
128: A Message about Today's Episode
Today, we are sharing a message about our decision to postpone the regularly scheduled book club episode. Resources Mentioned Episode 41, about Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give Episode 45, about the film adaptation of The Hate U Give Note: We will be editing these two episodes and re-releasing them next week. #shownotes #yalit #socialissues #socialjustice (A note to our readers: click on the hashtags above to see our other blog posts with the same hashtag.) Interested in what e
13 views0 comments
- Jun 2, 2020
- 4 min
Pub Day Shout-Outs! June 2, 2020 featuring Bennett, Brown, and Johnson
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) As we struggle to learn more in response to the injustices we're seeing across the United States, we are highlighting three works by Black authors that are being published today. Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half Description from Publisher: "The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is di
16 views0 comments
- May 29, 2020
- 3 min
Brit Bennett's THE VANISHING HALF - A Multi-Generational Story of Searching for Identity
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Thanks to partners NetGalley and Edelweiss for egalley copies of Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half in exchange for an honest review. The book releases Tuesday, June 2. Brit Bennett’s debut novel The Mothers was one of my favorite reads of 2017, so I was thrilled when I saw that she had written a new novel . . . but also nervous. Could The Vanishing Half possibly live up to Bennett’s amazing first novel? I’m happy to share that it absolutely do
24 views0 comments
- May 25, 2020
- 2 min
Building on the Classics: Middle-Grade Reads to Add to Your Shelves
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) We recently had the chance to chat with Jill Hames, director of the James L. Hamner Public Library and host of the Connections podcast. Our agenda? To think about classics--like Gary Paulsen's Hatchet, Wilson Rawls's Where the Red Fern Grows, Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, and Fred Gipson's Old Yeller--and develop a list of books that we could recommend to fans of these tried-and-true options. (For the record, we endorse the
20 views0 comments
- Apr 14, 2020
- 4 min
Pub Day Shout-Outs! April 14, 2020 - Moore, Jimenez, Jamieson
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Wes Moore's Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City Description from Publisher: "When Freddie Gray was arrested for possessing an 'illegal knife' in April 2015, he was, by eyewitness accounts that video evidence later confirmed, treated 'roughly' as police loaded him into a vehicle. By the end of his trip in the police van, Gray was in a coma from which he would never r
17 views3 comments
- Mar 13, 2020
- 7 min
Tournament of Books - Days 7 and 8 - Jen's Take
Today, we have reached the final round of the Sweet Sixteen of The Morning News Tournament of Books. (If you'd like to read a little more background on what I (Jen) am up to here, check out this post.) This is not, I have to admit, my favorite section of the bracket (*hides face in shame*), but I'm making a valiant effort to share my opinions here. Day 7 (March 17) - Trust Exercise v. Overthrow Susan Choi's Trust Exercise - I recently listened to a podcast in which the guest
16 views0 comments
- Mar 6, 2020
- 6 min
Tournament of Books - Days 5 and 6 - Jen's Take
Today, I (Jen) am discussing the third section of the Sweet Sixteen of The Morning News Tournament of Books. (If you'd like to read a little more background on what I'm up to here, check out this post.) I have some tough choices here, with THREE books that I really loved. And check out the end of the post, where I provide an update from the very first match-up of the competition Day 5 (March 13) - The Water Dancer v. Optic Nerve Ta-Nehisi Coates's The Water Dancer - ". . . me
20 views0 comments
- Feb 28, 2020
- 6 min
Tournament of Books - Days 3 and 4 - Jen's Take
All right, I (Jen) am back with the next two match-ups in the The Morning News Tournament of Books. (If you'd like to read a little more background on what I'm up to here, check out this post.) Today, I have, for me, the first TRULY difficult decision of the Tournament. Day 3 (March 11) - Lost Children Archive v. Mary Toft; or, the Rabbit Queen Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive - Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive in some ways defies description. On one level, i
22 views0 comments
- 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
19 views0 comments
- Feb 10, 2020
- 4 min
Best Reads of 2019--Sara's Picks
You are going to notice right away that my "Best of 2019" list isn't nearly as long as my counterparts. Honestly, 2019 was just not a great year of reading for me. I read a lot of books, but there just weren't a ton that really stood out to me. However, the ones that I did read, made a huge impact. I will say that I have read way more non-fiction this year than I have in other years AND OVER HALF (!) of the books on my list are non-fiction! My fingers are crossed for a more s
15 views0 comments
- Jan 27, 2020
- 5 min
Best Reads of 2019 - Ashley's Picks
2019 was a great year for reading for me. Many of these books were not written in 2019, but they were new to me this past year, and they were phenomenal. From Michelle Obama's Becoming that I read in right at the beginning of the year to John Boyne's The Heart's Invisible Furies, which I read very close to the year's end, I definitely read some keepers this year that I will be recommending and revisiting for a long time to come. These were all five bookish hearts books for me
24 views0 comments
- 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
272 views0 comments
{"items":["60181316ac9f030017ccd9cb","5fc40b021eefad0017a98034","5fa71ed1446fc10017f4b442","5f99e762594a050017d4926e","5f10f5fdc5710e0017162f00","5eeb85bc05ee7f002d31b75d","5edd08e3fe8059001739e097","5edd08453931a200177f3751","5ed7c5c2661f3f0017acd8c7","5ed54103dea4730017b12f4c","5ed0150f7f2aaf00178979ff","5ec9626303e3d90017399015","5e8e7a2e323fb000179a711e","5e654722d77db200179ab943","5e5bff9c9c9d8d0034dda116","5e52c783b061cf0018754609","5e44994302a9b90017fef0fa","5e3af11fbae3b90017d570e9","5e2b2e8abab2d900178387a1","5de5696a9a9211002d86ff91"],"styles":{"galleryType":"Columns","groupSize":1,"showArrows":true,"cubeImages":true,"cubeType":"fill","cubeRatio":1.3333333333333333,"isVertical":true,"gallerySize":30,"collageAmount":0,"collageDensity":0,"groupTypes":"1","oneRow":false,"imageMargin":32,"galleryMargin":0,"scatter":0,"rotatingScatter":"","chooseBestGroup":true,"smartCrop":false,"hasThumbnails":false,"enableScroll":true,"isGrid":true,"isSlider":false,"isColumns":false,"isSlideshow":false,"cropOnlyFill":false,"fixedColumns":1,"enableInfiniteScroll":true,"isRTL":false,"minItemSize":50,"rotatingGroupTypes":"","rotatingCropRatios":"","columnWidths":"","gallerySliderImageRatio":1.7777777777777777,"numberOfImagesPerRow":1,"numberOfImagesPerCol":1,"groupsPerStrip":0,"borderRadius":0,"boxShadow":0,"gridStyle":1,"mobilePanorama":false,"placeGroupsLtr":true,"viewMode":"preview","thumbnailSpacings":4,"galleryThumbnailsAlignment":"bottom","isMasonry":false,"isAutoSlideshow":false,"slideshowLoop":false,"autoSlideshowInterval":4,"bottomInfoHeight":0,"titlePlacement":"SHOW_ON_THE_RIGHT","galleryTextAlign":"center","scrollSnap":false,"itemClick":"nothing","fullscreen":true,"videoPlay":"hover","scrollAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","slideAnimation":"SCROLL","scrollDirection":0,"scrollDuration":400,"overlayAnimation":"FADE_IN","arrowsPosition":0,"arrowsSize":23,"watermarkOpacity":40,"watermarkSize":40,"useWatermark":true,"watermarkDock":{"top":"auto","left":"auto","right":0,"bottom":0,"transform":"translate3d(0,0,0)"},"loadMoreAmount":"all","defaultShowInfoExpand":1,"allowLinkExpand":true,"expandInfoPosition":0,"allowFullscreenExpand":true,"fullscreenLoop":false,"galleryAlignExpand":"left","addToCartBorderWidth":1,"addToCartButtonText":"","slideshowInfoSize":200,"playButtonForAutoSlideShow":false,"allowSlideshowCounter":false,"hoveringBehaviour":"NEVER_SHOW","thumbnailSize":120,"magicLayoutSeed":1,"imageHoverAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imagePlacementAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","calculateTextBoxWidthMode":"PERCENT","textBoxHeight":0,"textBoxWidth":200,"textBoxWidthPercent":50,"textImageSpace":10,"textBoxBorderRadius":0,"textBoxBorderWidth":0,"loadMoreButtonText":"","loadMoreButtonBorderWidth":1,"loadMoreButtonBorderRadius":0,"imageInfoType":"ATTACHED_BACKGROUND","itemBorderWidth":1,"itemBorderRadius":0,"itemEnableShadow":false,"itemShadowBlur":20,"itemShadowDirection":135,"itemShadowSize":10,"imageLoadingMode":"BLUR","expandAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imageQuality":90,"usmToggle":false,"usm_a":0,"usm_r":0,"usm_t":0,"videoSound":false,"videoSpeed":"1","videoLoop":true,"jsonStyleParams":"","gallerySizeType":"px","gallerySizePx":940,"allowTitle":true,"allowContextMenu":true,"textsHorizontalPadding":-30,"itemBorderColor":{"themeName":"color_12","value":"rgba(237,237,236,1)"},"showVideoPlayButton":true,"galleryLayout":2,"targetItemSize":940,"selectedLayout":"2|bottom|1|fill|true|0|true","layoutsVersion":2,"selectedLayoutV2":2,"isSlideshowFont":false,"externalInfoHeight":0,"externalInfoWidth":0.5},"container":{"width":940,"galleryWidth":972,"galleryHeight":0,"scrollBase":0,"height":null}}