by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Akwaeke Emezi's The Death of Viveh Oji Description from Publisher: "One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suff

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

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

In this episode, we are revisiting our love for audiobooks! Some favorites include Fredrick Backman’s Beartown, Michelle Obama’s Becoming​, and Lydia Kang’s A Beautiful Poison. Each of us has evolved as an audiobook listener, and we talk about that process, the types of books that work best for us on audio, how we're stretching ourselves . . . and Sara's deep, deep love for puppy dog kisses (no sarcasm there at all!). What are some of your new favorite audiobooks? Visit us on

In this Unabridged podcast episode, we focus on our field trip to the Virginia Festival of the Book, held in Charlottesville, VA, from March 20-24. We offer our impressions of four sessions, including a dream conversation between Jason Reynolds and Laurie Halse Anderson and a serendipitous afternoon when we got to see the April Book Club Book authors Beth Macy (with Chris McGreal) and Jarrett Krosoczka in back-to-back sessions. You can find out more information about the annu

-Alternate Titles- The Middle Drawer OR Complications of Friendship OR I like to do athletic things OR I AM athletic **We're having a giveaway of SEVEN (yes, seven!) Jason Reynolds books from Wednesday, August 15, through Wednesday, August 22.  Check Instagram (@unabridgedpod) and Facebook (facebook.com/unabridgedpod) for details and to enter.** We tried to go very light on the spoilers in this #unabridgedhighlights episode, but a few minor spoilers were hard to avoid as we r