Listen On: Book Extravaganza!
Curated by: Rion Nakaya of The Kid Should See This.
Playlist runtime: 1 hours, 57 minutes (117 minutes)
Fierce Girls
Episode: “P.L.Travers: The girl who dreamt up Mary Poppins”
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Radio Public
Length: 17 minutes
Though Mary Poppins is a beloved children's movie, the woman who wrote the original book, P.L. Travers, wasn't thrilled with Walt Disney's vision for it. In this episode of Fierce Girls, stories about strong Australian women, we learn about this serious author and how she used her imagination and her personal vision to craft and protect her classic story of children in emotional need. A valuable telling on how her childhood sadness was transformed into a creative outlet, and how she staunchly stood for what she believed in.
Brains On!
Episode: “Books: How they're made and how your brain reads them”
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Radio Public
Length: 33 minutes
Who invented paper? How is paper bound into books? And how do writers write the books we love? This fascinating Brains On! summarizes the history of printing, and explains how reading uses almost all of our brains, including how we feel emotions and how we create images in our minds when we read.
Buttons & Figs
Episode: “We're Going on an Onomatopoeia Hunt”
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Radio Public
Length: 16 minutes
Splash splosh! Squelch squirch! What is an onomatopoeia? In this excellent episode from Buttons & Figs, Michael Rosen's award-winning classic "Going on a Bear Hunt" helps us search for onomatopoeias, words that represent sounds. What might sound a bit like 'nonsense' becomes yet another wonderfully useful way to get children excited about literature.
Every Little Thing
Episode: “How Old is Winnie the Pooh?”
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Radio Public
Length: 27 minutes
A delight for Winnie the Pooh fans and investigative minds alike, this Every Little Thing episode challenges our own ideas and perceptions. Flora Lichtman introduces a professional age-guesser, a bear biologist, and a Winnie the Pooh historian to figure out Winnie the Pooh's age. Is he very young, middle aged, or quite old? Sweet and delightful... and perhaps a bit heart-wrenching for adults in the end.
Bedtime History
Episode: “J.K. Rowling”
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Radio Public
Length: 10 minutes
The Harry Potter book series has been translated into 74 languages and has sold over 500 million copies worldwide. How did this beloved character and his heroic friends come to life? This episode of Bedtime History introduces us to British novelist and philanthropist Joanne Rowling, aka J.K. Rowling, and recounts the personal challenges that helped her imagine and create her magical world.
Alice in Wonderland - StoryNory
Episode: “Alice, Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit-Hole”
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Radio Public
Length: 14 minutes
Travel down the rabbit hole with Alice and a familiar cast of characters in this lovely reading of Alice in Wonderland's first chapter. This episode is the first in a series of chapters recorded by StoryNory in 2007, a wonderful audio introduction to this classic tale.
Video Extras:
With annotations that explain each step of the process, The Art of Making a Book captures how metal type is set, inked, and printed before pages are folded, cut, and sewn into sturdy bindings. A beautiful and calming documentary short for all ages.
What would it be like to live in the library, browsing the books at night after everyone has left? In this animated true story from StoryCorps, Ronald Clark reminisces about what it was like to live in an apartment inside a branch of the New York Public Library, a perk of his father's caretaking duties.
When a Toronto bookshop closes for the evening, the books take their opportunity to play. Watch them magically rearrange themselves, dancing across tables and shelves, in this ambitious 2012 stop motion animation by Sean Ohlenkamp.
Filmmakers add ambient sounds to scenes in a movie to create a more real and rich experience for movie-goers. The fascinating process is called 'foley' and it takes lots of practice and imagination. Go behind-the-scenes with award-winning foley artists Sue Harding and Pete Burgis as they create sounds for a short film.
