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Do you ever find yourself consumed with the 'voice inside your head'?
How do you separate out what is helpful vs what is harmful?
When do you speak up to obtain the necessary tools and resources to come out of a difficult situation?
These are some of the topics discussed in the latest episode of the podcast!
Author John Schu stops by the podcast to discuss his latest book 'Louder Than Hunger' and he and Joe get into a deep conversation about how to navigate some of life's most difficult times growing up.
Also, because John is a librarian there are plenty of discussions around libraries, enjoy!
John Schu has made a career out of advocating for the people and things he cares about most: kids, books, and the people that connect them. He was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker for his dynamic interactions with students and his passionate adoption of new technologies as a means of connecting authors, illustrators, books, and readers. He is the children’s librarian for Bookelicious, a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University, and shares his love of reading with countless educators and students around the world. He served as the Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs for almost 6 years.
He is the author of This Is a School (Candlewick Press, 2022) illustrated by Veronica Miller Jamison, This Is a Story (Candlewick Press, 2023) illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Lauren Castillo, Louder Than Hunger (Candlewick, 2024) and The Gift of Story: Exploring the Affective Side of the Reading Life (Stenhouse, 2022). He is a contributor to The Creativity Project (Little, Brown, 2018), edited by Colby Sharp. John Schu lives in Naperville, Illinois.
Revered teacher, librarian, and story ambassador John Schu explores anorexia—and self-expression as an act of survival—in a wrenching and transformative novel-in-verse.
But another voice inside me says,
We need help.
We’re going to die.
Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears? A fictionalized account of the author’s experiences and emotions living in residential treatment facilities as a young teen with an eating disorder, Louder than Hunger is a triumph of raw honesty. With a deeply personal afterword for context, this much-anticipated verse novel is a powerful model for muffling the destructive voices inside, managing and articulating pain, and embracing self-acceptance, support, and love.
Make sure to check out the Dtalkspodcast.com website!
Thanks to Empire Toys for this episode of the podcast!
AND Thanks to Self Unbound for this episode of the podcast:
What would you do if your historic talent show performance was upstaged by GASP your crush!?
And further what would you do if your "crush" then started telling people he saved you because of your disability!?
This is the premise for the fantastic book 'Shiny Misfits' writen by Maysoon Zayid. Maysoon joins the podcast today to share the background on writing this particular book and emphasizes the continued importantance of representation in children's books.
Enjoy!
Maysoon Zayid is a comedian, actress, writer, and disability advocate. She is a graduate of Arizona State University and a Princeton Fellow. Maysoon is the co-founder/co-executive producer of the New York Arab American Comedy Festival and The Muslim Funny Fest. She was a full-time On Air Contributor to Countdown with Keith Olbermann and a columnist for The Daily Beast. She has appeared on 60 Minutes, CNN, ABC News, and Oprah Winfrey Networks. Maysoon had the most viewed TED Talk of 2014 and was thrilled to collaborate with Huda Beauty.
As a professional comedian, Maysoon has sold out top New York clubs and has toured extensively at home and abroad. She was a headliner on the Arabs Gone Wild Comedy Tour and The Together Live Tour. Maysoon appeared alongside Adam Sandler in You Don’t Mess With the Zohan and has written for Glamour magazine. She limped in New York Fashion Week and is a recurring character on General Hospital. She is the author of the best-selling memoir Find Another Dream and is collaborating with Scholastic on her debut comic book Shiny Misfits.
About 'Shiny Misfits'
A sparkling story about friendship, fame, and fighting to write your own narrative, SHINY MISFITS spotlights Bay Ann, a young Arab American Muslim girl with two tap shoes and a dream of the stage who, despite her awe-inspiring routine is reduced to her disability—cerebral palsy—after her wobble on stage goes viral. Bay Ann refuses to have her talent cast aside and teams up with her best friends to take her power back… while getting into a few capers along the way.
Make sure to check out the Dtalkspodcast.com website!
Thanks to Empire Toys for this episode of the podcast!
AND Thanks to Self Unbound for this episode of the podcast: