112 – Interview with Angela Pham Krans

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Angela Pham Krans is the author of Finding Papa, a beautiful and touching tale about Mai, a little girl whose father has to say goodbye for a while when he leaves to find a new and better home for the family. Eventually Mai and her mother make a dangerous and daring journey by boat to rejoin Papa in their new home in America.

This story, which is beautifully illustrated by Thi Bui, is based on Angela’s experience as one of the many Vietnamese people who fled their homeland in the wake of the Vietnam War. In our conversation, we discuss the effect that Finding Papa has on readers of different ages, why Angela chose to focus the plot on one family rather than the larger historical and political context, and where she got the inspiration to give the main character a pet chicken.

Finding Papa has recently been placed on the American Library Association’s 2024 Notable Books list. Angela has also recently published Words Between Us, a charming story about how an English speaking grandson learns to communicate with his Vietnamese speaking Grandmother. You can learn more about Angela and her work at angelakrans.com and follow her on Instagram at angela.pham.krans.

Activity: The Geography of the Boat People

While younger kids will be able to appreciate Finding Papa for its moving story about family reunification, older children can use this book as a starting point for exploring how the Boat People left Vietnam and made new homes all over the world.

Have students locate Vietnam on a map. Ideally, provide an outline map of the world that they can draw on. Have students research the different routes that refugees took out of Vietnam during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Try to discover which countries most of them traveled to and in what numbers, as well as estimates of how many of the Boat People did not survive their journeys. If it’s difficult to know exact numbers, try find out why. Students can label the map with differently colored arrows labeled to show how many people went from Vietnam to each new country.

Activity: The History of the Boat People

There were many reasons that people decided to leave Vietnam during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Students can research the history of this country during this period and present a written report or give a presentation about the reasons people chose to leave, and what drew them to the new countries they arrived in.

Activity: Mai’s Mother Keeps a Journal

Finding Papa focuses on Mai, a very young girl, who is taken on a dangerous but hopeful journey to a new home. But what must her mother have been feeling? Students can write journal entries from the point of view of Mai’s mother. Entries might include describing the decision for Papa to go ahead of the family to prepare the new home, the first night without Papa, a night on the boat after the storm, the first night after being rescued, or any other part of the story. Encourage students to imagine what it would feel like to be a young woman with a toddler on such a journey, and to express these emotions in the journal entries.

111 – Percy Jackson and the Olympians Episode Three

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Here’s my review of Episode Three of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, “We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium,” which is based on chapters 9 through 11 of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Find out how many Snapes I awarded the episode based on how faithful it was to the source material, and find out what I thought of the major changes to the character of Medusa.In the novel, Medusa is a straight up monster who attacks Percy and his friends. Percy kills her in complete self-defense and there is nothing really symapthetic about the character. The show makes Medusa much more complex and interesting, but the problem is that that’s not what the plot of the story needs her to be.

Activity: Devotion or Rejection?

Parents and teachers can discuss Medusa’s choices and viewpoints, exploring ideas that John Milton covered in Paradise Lost. Medusa rejects the idea that the Greek gods deserve eternal, unquestioning devotion, even when they don’t play by fair rules, fail to return love, and can be unfathomably cruel when it suits them. Ask students what they think of Medusa’s point of view, and if they think it’s better to fear the gods in hopes of pleasing them, or to reject them and live a life free from both their help and their harm.

110 – Percy Jackson and the Olympians Episode Two

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I’m back to compare the new TV adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians to with its literary source. Episode 2 of the new TV series adapts chapters five through eight of The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Percy is settling in to life at Hogwarts I MEAN CAMP HALF BLOOD, but he has to deal with bullies, new classes, and trying to figure out just who his dad is.

Listen and find out how many Snapes I awarded this episode. As I mentioned in my first review, whenever I take a look at an onscreen adaptation, I will award it from one to five Snapes based on how faithful it is to the children’s book it’s based on. I chose Snapes as I’ve always felt that Alan Rickman’s portrayal of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films has held up as an excellent example of how to translate a character from page to screen in a way that is faithful to the literary original and still leave room for the writer, director and actor to interpret the character in their own way.

109 – I Survived Some Bad Historical Fiction

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The I Survived historical fiction series by Lauren Tarshis is popular, influential, and . . . completely full of errors and distortions of people, places, and events from the past. This year the show will give special attention to works of historical fiction for children, and we’re beginning with an example of what authors should not do when fictionalizing the past.

Well written historical fiction can bring the past to life, making history easier to understand and more exciting to study. But works in the I Survived series suffer from skimpy historical research, incorrect depictions of societies in the past, and perpetuating misunderstandings about key events. I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic is the first book in the series and, unfortunately, provides many examples of just plain bad history.

Distortions or falsehoods in the book include an incorrectly rosy view of the social class system of 1912, a false depiction of the Titanic’s crew as violent and unprofessional, an incorrect description of the Titanic’s collision with the iceberg, a misunderstanding of how the lifeboats on board were actually used, and unfortunately so much more.

Books in the I Survived series are fun to read and work well as adventure stories, but children should not be given them to read as reliable sources of information about history. In the future we’ll have more fun looking at good examples of historical fiction, but it’s helpful to parents and teachers to examine what to avoid when choosing works of historical fiction for children to read.

Activity: Hunting for Historical Errors

When reading any work of historical fiction, there will be times when the author has misrepresented past events, places, or people. This may have been done intentionally, as when several characters need to be condensed in order to streamline the storytelling. Sometimes this is because an author wrote the tale before new historical or scientific discoveries were made that shed new light on the past. And sometimes an author has been sloppy with research, careless with the facts, or simply indifferent to historical accuracy.

While reading a work of historical fiction, encourage your kids to make notes about people, places or events that interest them in the tale. Students can do research to find out if the fictional representation matches the historical reality.

108 – Percy Jackson and the Olympians Episode One

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Percy Jackson and the Olympians is the new TV adaptation of the beloved series by Rick Riordan. Find out what I thought of the first episode and how faithfully it interpreted the first four chapters of the original novel.

For a long time I’ve avoided talking about screen adaptations, but I’ve realized that some are too important to ignore because they have such a huge impact on the way that children’s literature is understood and remembered. So let’s dive in to the new Percy Jackson series which was . . . surprisingly good!

Have you seen the new Percy Jackson series? What do you think of it?

Audiobook – Dottie the Reindeer

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Here is a little stocking stuffer for the kids to listen to. I came up with this story in the last few weeks to entertain my youngest daughter, who often feels frustrated when she is told she is too little to do certain things. It’s about Dottie, the daughter of two very famous reindeer, who can’t wait to be big enough to pull Santa’s sleigh. But while she has to wait until she is a grownup, that doesn’t mean there isn’t some way for her to help on Christmas Eve!

Even when children are too little to do certain grown-up things, they are never too little to do something, and it’s important for adults to find ways for even the littlest among us to contribute.

Merry Christmas!

 

107 – Leicestershire Writers Christmas Party

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Join me and several of the Leicestershire Writers that were featured on the show this year for a nice little literary Christmas party. Each author has contributed a little something to this gift to you, the listeners.

Featured in this episode is

– Jonathan Emmett reading his poem “Yours Ungratefully”
– A warm greeting from Emily Owen
– Ben Dixon reading a passage from Neil Peel’s Rival that deals with a pleasantly rude Christmas card
– Anne Fine shares the seasonal words of John Updike, Laurie Lee, and T.S. Eliot
– And Tom “The Tale Teller” Phillips shares the wintry Norwegian tale “The Cat on the Dovrefjell”

I know I say it all the time, but really, thanks for listening!!

106 – The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

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The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson is one of the funniest books you’ll ever read. Although it’s in the context of a small Christian church putting on a nativity play with the unwanted participation of the six most badly behaved kids in town, readers of all backgrounds will recognize its portrayal of a tightly knit and sometimes narrow minded community being forced to live up to its principles.

If you’re going on a long car ride this holiday season and need something to entertain the whole family, see if your library has a downloadable audio book. You’ll all have a good laugh and do a surprising amount of thinking about the principles you live by, the stories that matter to you, and whether or not you’ve been taking them for granted.

105 – The Elves and the Shoemaker

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“The Elves and the Shoemaker” was recorded by the Brothers Grimm and first published in their original 1812 book of folktales. It’s a story that tells of elves who choose to help a craftsman who is down on his luck despite his honest, hardworking ways. Economic hardship is, unfortunately, timeless. But on the bright side, so are kindness and generosity.

“The Elves and the Shoemaker” paints an ideal picture of charitable endeavors, showing that even good, hardworking people con sometimes be down on their luck, and that those who are able to offer help ought to. Once the shoemaker is back on his feet, he is then able to be the one who shows generosity. The story presents an encouraging cycle of kindness, with a subtle reminder that the Christmas season is a good time to revive our commitment to caring for one another.

Activity: Show Generosity

Around Christmastime, lots of people try to think of ways that they can be a “Secret Santa.” Have your kids plan a way to do what they can to provide help to someone who needs it. There may be someone you know in your community who needs direct aid, or perhaps a local charity is in need of money or resources. The most important thing the children should remember is that their acts of kindness should be performed anonymously and with no expectation of recognition or reward. If appropriate, have students write a reflection on why people should perform anonymous good deeds for one another.

104 – Wonka Film Review

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This is a bonus episode I’ve slipped into the schedule as some listeners asked me to weigh in on the new film Wonka, which acts as a prequel to the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Find out what I thought of it and whether or not I think it’s worth taking my own kids to the theater.

If you see the movie, let me know what you thought of it. If you don’t, tell me why you decided to give it a miss.

I’ve also done up my review as a YouTube video: