July 15, 2025 • 22 mins
Some authors really can do it all! On this episode, Nicole, Drew, Killian, and Amanda discuss authors who not only write for one age group, but two (or more)! From personal favorites to widely known names, the Distracted Librarians consider what it takes to successfully write across age ranges and who gets to decide what age the book is for anyways.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
- [Nicole] Hey there!
Welcome to The DistractedLibrarians podcast.
We're your friendly neighborhood bookworms
with a penchant forall things pop culture.
- [Drew] Picture thisas our digital campfire
where we dive into our latest obsessions,
analyze our favorite distractions,
and rediscover the joy of reading.
- [Killian] Whetheryou're a media enthusiast,
(00:20):
a book lover, or just need abreak from the daily grind,
you've come to the right spot.
- [Amanda] So, kick back, relax,
and get delightfully distracted with us.
- [Nicole] Hey everybody.
On this episode of Distracted Librarians,
we are going to talk aboutauthors who write for all ages.
- [Killian] Or at least multiple ages.
(00:41):
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] Multiple ages, yeah.
So, like, that just means
an author that writes for children, teen,
or adults in some capacity,at least two of those, right?
- [Amanda] Yep.
- [Nicole] Alright, so I imagine
that this might be difficultfor an author to do.
I don't know, just thinking about like
in terms of like howto switch your content,
(01:03):
and the way your voice is,and that kind of thing.
Yeah.
But I think that there are some authors
that are really successful at it.
- [Drew] Yeah, that's thepart that I'm always stuck on
when we talk about these authors is
how hard it must be to switch between,
(01:23):
you know, what is agedevelopmentally appropriate?
Not just in terms of content,
but in terms of language,in terms of story structure.
- [Killian] It's interesting you say that
because one of the authors
that I did wanna talk about for this,
I did not consciously know that,
like, I didn't go into theadult book that I was reading
(01:45):
being like, I've read this author before
as a children's author.
But I was reading it andI'm sitting here going,
why is this writing so familiar?
And that was when I read"The Warm Hands of Ghosts."
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] By Katherine Arden.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah.
- [Killian] Because I hadread her children's horror
that I'm blanking onthe name of right now.
- [Nicole] "Small Spaces," yeah.
- [Killian] Thank you.
(02:06):
Like, ah!
And obviously, thecontent is very different.
The events of the story's very different.
The just setting in general,completely different.
But the writing felt very much the same.
- [Nicole] Familiar, yeah.
- [Killian] And it wasn'tuntil I had that feeling of
(02:30):
why does this feel so familiar,
that I was like, okay,what else has she written?
I got on Goodreads and I'm looking,
and, oh, the only otherthing I've read by her
was "Small Spaces."
And like, that's it.
Like, that was it.(Drew laughs)
It felt so similar.
So I think sometimesmaybe it really just is.
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Killian] The content.
(02:50):
- [Nicole] Sure, sure.
Yeah, I think Katherine Arden,
who is the author thatKillian's talking about,
I think she does a really good job
writing across the ages, as you say.
'Cause she also has another series,
"The Bear and the Nightingale."
(03:10):
It's kind of like a Russianfairytale sort of romance story,
which those books arereally, really good too.
- [Killian] Okay.
- [Nicole] There's always thismagical element to her work
that I think lends itself really nicely
to different age groups.
There's always a spooky bit, you know?
(03:32):
In "Small Spaces" andall four of those books
are incredibly creepy and wonderful.
So yeah, I'm glad that she wrote,
is writing books all acrossthe board there, for sure.
Yeah.
All right, well, I havea couple I authors here.
(03:53):
Can we talk about Suzanne Collins?
- [Drew] Please?- [Amanda] Sure.
- [Nicole] Okay, becauseI read Hunger Games
and did not know she hadwritten children's books.
- [Amanda] I've only readso Hunger Games by her.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Killian] Same.
- [Nicole] Oh really, okay.
- [Killian] I know of"Gregor the Overlander"
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] I read the firstbook of Gregor way back when.
(04:14):
- [Nicole] Yeah, and I mean clearly,
Gregor was written first, I'm assuming.
Yeah, those books are really good.
They're like solid.
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] And I always recommend them.
I just don't think, oddly,it seems like nobody,
I don't think anyonerealizes that's her, right?
Like, it's just very strange, but.
(04:36):
- [Drew] Yeah, "The HungerGames" fame never really
spread to her other works.
- [Nicole] Right.
Yeah, because, well, I mean,
I guess if you're writing for teen,
then it's hard to go back.
It's not like teenagers are like,
well, I really wanna reada kid's book right now.
So, yeah.
- [Drew] I still would've expected it to,
in the like, parents coming up,
like my kid wants to read "Hunger Games."
(04:57):
My kid is like eight or nine.
- [Nicole] Oh yeah.
- [Drew] And then-- [Nicole] Not old enough.
- [Drew] Get suggested, you know,
she has a middle grade series too.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] But is the topic of that book,
is it something that youwould recommend to someone
looking for something like "Hunger Games?"
- [Drew] No.
- [Killian] And that's the thing is
I think when people usuallycome to us looking for,
you know, my kid wantsto read "Hunger Games,"
(05:17):
I don't think they're ready for it.
- [Drew] You wouldn't.
- [Killian] We're goinginto kids' dystopia not-
- [Nicole] Exactly.- [Drew] That's fair, yeah.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know I have recommendedGregor many times.
Killian and I do like asubscription book box,
and I'm always throwingGregor in somewhere
just because I think it's,
(05:39):
I appreciate the supernaturalaspect of that one.
Of course, duh.(group laughs)
I say this all the time, right?
But the whole story is really great.
And there's a bunch of books.
So like kids that really enjoy series
and wanna like really puttheir teeth in something
that's gonna take a while,
it's a really good series for that.
And then maybe they'll get older,
(05:59):
and then they'll realize "HungerGames" is the same person,
and then they'll putthose two things together
'cause I didn't.
(group laughs)
Yeah.
Okay, anybody else have an author that-
- [Amanda] So John Green.
- [Nicole] Oh.
- [Amanda] "Fault in Our Stars."
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Amanda] Which is a YA book.
(06:19):
And so he wrote "Anthropocene Reviewed,"
which is a series of essaysabout issues in society,
environmental issues.
And then now he's coming out with,
I think it may havejust come out this month
or maybe next month,
"Everything is Tuberculosis."
(06:41):
- [Nicole] I've heard about those.
- [Amanda] I'm reallyexcited to read those books.
I know he has a podcast,
so I think it's very easy forhim to then package, you know,
translate the podcast content to essays.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Amanda] But he's a reallyeasy person to read, or easy.
(07:02):
His writing is very easy to read.
So I mean, it's "Fault in ourStars" was wildly popular.
I still would recommend it to someone.
It's made into a movie.
I enjoyed the movie as well.
So that's one example.
And it's sort of interesting
'cause instead of writing novelsfor adults, he did essays.
(07:25):
So that's a bit of a twist.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah.
No, I think that's cool.
- [Amanda] But I thinkhe's a really smart person
that makes different connectionsfrom different topics,
and yeah, it's sort ofout of the box type of way
to write across ages.
- [Drew] Nice.
Yeah, one of my favoritesis Talia Hibbert.
(07:47):
She is a black romance author
and writes for both adult and teen.
- [Amanda] Cool!- [Nicole] Oh, okay.
Nice.
- [Drew] One of her earlyones that I really liked was
"Get A Life, Chloe Brown"
and just the entire trilogythat's written there.
And then two, three yearsafter the fact reading those,
found her teen one when itshowed up on our shelves one day.
(08:10):
That one is "HighlySuspicious and Unfairly Cute."
And it's teen, I think summer camp romance
and equally adorable.
And a little bit like what you were saying
where you can tell theauthor's tone the entire time
(08:30):
and their writing style,
where the books feelvery similar except for
where the physicality of the romance goes.
- [Nicole] Well, that'swhat I was gonna say.
So like, you have aperson who writes romance.
So is it just spicier for the adults?
Like-- [Drew] Yes.
- [Nicole] And thenalso the, the characters
are just younger in the teen.
(08:52):
- [Drew] More or less.
I feel like she did the whole like
summer camp aspect of it toget them away from the parents.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] And then they canbe more their own people.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] And then she's justwriting about, you know,
two characters falling for each other,
same as anything else.
- [Amanda] Sure, sure.
What a good business model though.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
(09:12):
Oh yeah.
- [Amanda] Get 'em as children, and then-
- [Nicole] They'll read itas they're an adult, yeah.
- [Amanda] Graduate them, yeah.
- [Nicole] Absolutely.
- [Killian] Okay, so along the same lines.
(Drew laughs)
You knew I was gonna do this.
- [Drew] Sure did.
- [Killian] You walked into it.
Ashley Herring Blake,
who I've talked abouton the podcast before,
someday I might shut up about her.
Who knows?
It's not gonna be today.(group laughs)
But has written middle grade.
(09:35):
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] Exploring queeridentity in middle grade.
I have not actually read them.
I have recommended them,
but I haven't actually read them yet.
I need to.
It's on the list.
It's a long list.
But has written those middlegrade queer coming of age
and adult queer romance.
(09:57):
Content is going to bevery different here.
- [Nicole] Sure, sure.
- [Killian] But still similar,some similar themes in there.
And I, it's interesting to me, like,
the YA to Adult, that makes sense.
That's a logical.
The middle grade to adult,
I'm like, do you haveYA that's in the middle?
- [Nicole] Yeah.
(10:17):
- [Killian] Or do we just?
I would love to know.
- [Nicole] Well, and-
- [Killian] If we've just skipped over YA.
- [Nicole] It's-- [Killian] Why?
- [Nicole] I think it's importantmaybe to kind of throw in
the conversation about like what,
who decides what, if a bookis written for children,
or teens, or adults.
Because I feel like sometimespublishers are just like,
(10:39):
well, the character is 10 years old,
therefore it's a children's book.
I don't necessarily agreewith that every single time.
Sometimes the contentis a little bit above
what a typical 10-year-oldmay actually be reading.
And I'm talking about likethe "Golden Compass" series
where the main character is a child.
(11:00):
But there are some topics there that are
very, very much teen or adult topic.
Not that, you know,there's sex, or violence,
or any of those things,
but I mean, we're talkingabout some philosophical things
that a 10-year-old is not gonna get.
- [Drew] Right.
- [Nicole] So, I don't know,I just wanna mention that too
is that sometimes where a book is placed,
(11:24):
it may not actually be where it belongs
because the person reading it may not
be able to really fully understand
the big picture of that story.
- [Amanda] Do you think it's-
- [Nicole] It happensa lot in kids' books.
- [Amanda] Oh yeah.
Do you think it's drivenmore by publishers
or by the author?
- [Nicole] I don't know.
Because I wonder ifPhilip Pullman was like,
(11:45):
yeah, I really wantthis to be a kids book.
You know what I mean?
- [Killian] Yeah, yeah.- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] I don't know if heactually had any say in that,
or if they were just like,
well, we're gonna slap a cute cover on it
and send it on its way.
You know what I mean?
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Killian] Well, I will say-
- [Nicole] And that's theone that's coming to mind,
but there are others too, you know?
- [Amanda] Right, or ifhe wrote it for adults,
and they're like,
well, if you're gonnahave talking polar bears,
(12:06):
then it has to be for kids.(Drew laughs)
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Amanda] So.
- [Killian] Well, "IronWidow" is marketed as YA.
It's put in the YA section.
Love the book.
Not.
Are there teens that willread this book and enjoy it?
Yes.
(12:26):
As you get into the sequel,
does it get into thingsthat are like very,
it's so politically complicated.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] The second book is
also just so different from the first one.
- [Nicole] Sure.
- [Killian] But eventhe author now is like,
this was put into YA becausethe publisher wanted it there
because they thought itwas more marketable there.
(12:48):
- [Nicole] Right.
- [Killian] And you know,if I'd had my say this,
would be in adult.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah.
- [Killian] And I thinkthat tends to happen a lot,
particularly in sci-fi fantasy,
particularly to non-male authors.
(13:08):
And I think a lot of the time
that's what tends to happen.
- [Nicole] Sure.
Yeah, I mean a lot of the romantasy,
like I feel like it'sgetting shoved into teen,
but some of that stuff like-
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] It's pretty racy.
I don't know if it really is teen,
but you know, I'm not theboss, so I don't know.
(Killian laughs)
- [Drew] And you also have the series
(13:29):
that sort of grow up with the readers.
- [Killian] Yeah.
- [Drew] So you're lookingat the Harry Potter books
where one and seven are marketedto very different groups.
- [Nicole] Sure.
- [Drew] Looking at-- [Killian] Princess Diaries.
- [Drew] Princess Diaries.
- [Nicole] Yeah, whereactually some of those books
are in our teen collectionbecause of the content.
And then, you know, families are like,
well, where's the rest of the books,
and we have to explain ourchoice for that too, so.
(13:52):
- [Drew] Yeah, and then, you know,
series like "A Court of Thorns and Roses"
where it starts teen, goes adults
where Sarah J. Maas overall,
you know, started in the YAspace with "Throne of Glass"
and is now very firmly in the adult space
with the "Crescent City" books.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] And you know,if you read all of her
12, 14 books at this point,
(14:14):
it sort of ages alongthat line the whole way.
- [Nicole] Sure.
Yeah, well, I just actually heard,
and this makes me incredibly happy,
'cause I was trying to think of authors
that I wish would do this more or at all.
And I had gotten,
(14:35):
I think my husband had sentme a link about Stephen King
doing a picture book with Maurice Sendak.
- [Drew] Really?
- [Amanda] So fun!
- [Nicole] For "Hansel and Gretel."
- [Amanda] Oh cool!- [Drew] Oh my god.
- [Nicole] Yeah, so I guessMaurice had done illustrations
for, I'm not 100% sure,
but there was a production,like a ballet production
(14:57):
or something of "Hansel and Gretel."
He did some illustrations for that,
and they're taking those
and then using StephenKing's voice over the top
to do this very famous fairytale.
So I am-- [Drew] That's awesome.
- [Nicole] Really excited about that
'cause that's all the things I love.
(Drew laughs)
- [Killian] Similar tothat, Leigh Bardugo,
(15:19):
one of my favorite cross age authors
who writes some great teen things,
also writes adult booksthat I've really enjoyed,
is coming out with a picture book.
(Nicole gasps)- [Nicole] Really?
- [Killian] Yes.
It's called "The Invisible Parade."
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] And it'sillustrated by John Picacio.
I think I may be pronouncingthe illustrator's name.
(15:39):
I'm not familiar with him,
but I saw that on her Instagram and went,
Leigh Bardugo picture book?
- [Nicole] Ooh, I love that.
- [Killian] Okay.
- [Nicole] I really love that, very cool.
- [Killian] So I'm very,very excited to see
what comes of that.
- [Nicole] Yeah, absolutely.
Well, do we have any otherauthors we wanna talk about?
- [Amanda] Well, I was gonnasay there's a couple authors
(16:00):
who wrote for adults,
but then there was achildren's version maybe.
- [Killian] Oh, I love that, yes.
- [Amanda] And that makes me really happy
to explore like an important topic
but at a different reading level,
or maybe not quite so dark or graphic.
One of the ones I love isYuval Harari wrote "Sapiens,"
(16:21):
a very thick book.
I feel like it was maybeseven to 800 pages.
Maybe that's just my memory.
But then he came out witha graphic novel version
for high schoolers.
- [Nicole] The graphicnovel version is lovely.
I haven't read the original one.
- [Amanda] It's excellent.
Yeah, I've actually read,well, I read the first one.
Didn't quite get through all of it.
- [Nicole] Okay, yeah.(Amanda laughs)
(16:41):
- [Amanda] It's like,
well, there's this graphic novel version,
and it is super well done,
explains the concepts really well,
and it just makes it morepalatable, all the information.
- [Nicole] Some othergood examples of that are
"Born A Crime" by Trevor Noah.
There is his original version,
and then they did makea young reader's copy,
(17:04):
which is that I thinkthat's just wonderful
because his story really,I think it benefits
a great number of peoplein doing it that way.
It's important for younger kids
to be able to read about his experience.
The other one was "Braiding Sweetgrass."
- [Amanda] Oh, cool, I didn't know that.
- [Nicole] It also has two,
has a younger reader's version too.
(17:25):
- [Drew] So there's a wholeyounger reader's edition,
I don't wanna say movement,
but where it took a good50 books that were all
people of color, or women,or underrepresented groups,
and retooled all of their books.
- [Nicole] Oh, good.- [Drew] For that.
So "I am Malala" fit in that.
(17:46):
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] "Hidden Figures"by Margot Lee Shetterly
fell in that.
"Stamped," Jason Reynolds andIbram X Kendi fell in that.
- [Nicole] Yeah, okay.
Yeah, I mean I think it's wonderful.
- [Amanda] Yeah.- [Nicole] Yeah, for sure.
- [Killian] And "Stamped" in particular,
'cause Jason Reynoldswasn't involved in the
adult one, was he?
- [Drew] I don't think so.
(18:06):
I think he was added in for the-
- [Killian] Brought in forthe young readers edition.
And I think that's so smart to bring in,
like if the original version
is written by someone who maybe
hasn't written as much for that
or like to bring in anothervoice to bounce it off.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] So as you'rechanging the material-
- [Nicole] Sure.
- [Killian] For the age range,
there's a little bit more eyes on it.
(18:26):
- [Nicole] And JasonReynolds is perfect for that.
- [Killian] Exactly.
- [Nicole] Because he haswritten books that are
for young adults and for children.
And I think, he in particular,
his writing can be very muchin that sort of gray area
between the two.
- [Killian] Yeah.
- [Nicole] Because it has the topic
and the way that thecharacters are portrayed
(18:48):
are important for awider age group I think.
- [Amanda] For sure.- [Killian] Yeah.
"All American Boys" is one that I-
- [Nicole] I love that book.
- [Killian] I love that book.
It's very powerful.
It is very much on the edge in between,
and it's one of those,it depends on the kid.
(19:10):
- [Nicole] It does, it really does.
- [Killian] It's so gonnadepend on the kid on if-
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] Should you read that
while you're a little bit younger,
or should you wait tillyou're a little bit older?
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] Is that one thatwe have shelved in youth?
- [Killian] Yes.- [Nicole] Yeah.
He also did "Ain't Burned All The Bright,"
which was a po, not a poetry.
Well, it's considered to be-
- [Killian] Shelved in poetry.
- [Nicole] It's written in verse, yeah.
(19:31):
And so Jason Reynolds had written a poem,
and then he had a friend
who did all of the illustrations for it.
So it's almost like flippingthrough someone's journal.
- [Killian] Yeah, it's very cool.
- [Nicole] And it talks very specifically
about what it's like to be aperson of color during COVID
and being isolated.
And I think it's reallypowerful and really wonderful.
(19:56):
- [Killian] Absolutely.
- [Nicole] But again, could be teen
or could be in the kids section too.
So Jason Reynolds is great for crossover.
- [Killian] Yeah.- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] Yeah, and thenyou have the mainstays,
the James Pattersons of the world,
the John Grishams of the world,
the Anthony Horowitzs of the world,
where they just write foreveryone all the time.
(20:18):
- [Nicole] I'm just gonnasay like, are they real?
- [Amanda] Right, are they writing it?
Exactly.(group laughs)
- [Nicole] Are these real people?
I don't know.
- [Drew] At least publishedunder their names.
- [Amanda] Yeah, yes.- [Nicole] Right, right.
- [Killian] Ghost writing happens.
- [Nicole] Yes, yes.
All right, well,hopefully you're listening
and you have found some authors
that you'd be interested in checking out.
(20:40):
Sometimes, I don't know.
I'm glad that I work in the youth area
because I'm able to read the kids versions
of some of these books writtenby authors that I might know.
But you know, they havegood stuff for kids
and great stuff for theolder groups as well.
It's interesting to see how
they might change their style a little bit
(21:01):
from group to group,
- [Killian] But it's kind of nice
to also be able to be like,
okay, I liked this author as a kid,
but they've written for,you know, older ages,
and I can grow up with their writing too.
- [Nicole] Or be ableto recommend something
for your own children.
- [Killian] Exactly.
- [Nicole] You know, asyou know, as they grow too.
Yeah.
All right, well thank you for listening,
and we'll see you next time.
Thank you for joining us for this episode
(21:23):
of Distracted Librarians.
- [Drew] Many thanks to BCTVfor their support in recording,
editing and releasing this podcast,
and to the friends of the library
for sponsoring closedcaptioning on every episode.
- [Killian] If you have any questions
or suggestions, feelfree to reach out to us
at Distracted@btpl.org.
- [Amanda] Until then,keep those pages turning
(21:44):
and those screens lighting up.
We'll catch you in the next episode.
- [Emily] The views and opinions expressed
in the Distracted Librarians podcast
do not necessarily reflectthose of Bloomfield Township,
Bloomfield Township Public Library,
Bloomfield Community Television,
the Birmingham Area Cable Board,
or its producers or production staff.
- [Nicole] Hey there!
Welcome to The DistractedLibrarians podcast.
We're your friendly neighborhood bookworms
with a penchant forall things pop culture.
- [Drew] Picture thisas our digital campfire
where we dive into our latest obsessions,
analyze our favorite distractions,
and rediscover the joy of reading.
- [Killian] Whetheryou're a media enthusiast,
(00:20):
a book lover, or just need abreak from the daily grind,
you've come to the right spot.
- [Amanda] So, kick back, relax,
and get delightfully distracted with us.
- [Nicole] Hey everybody.
On this episode of Distracted Librarians,
we are going to talk aboutauthors who write for all ages.
- [Killian] Or at least multiple ages.
(00:41):
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] Multiple ages, yeah.
So, like, that just means
an author that writes for children, teen,
or adults in some capacity,at least two of those, right?
- [Amanda] Yep.
- [Nicole] Alright, so I imagine
that this might be difficultfor an author to do.
I don't know, just thinking about like
in terms of like howto switch your content,
(01:03):
and the way your voice is,and that kind of thing.
Yeah.
But I think that there are some authors
that are really successful at it.
- [Drew] Yeah, that's thepart that I'm always stuck on
when we talk about these authors is
how hard it must be to switch between,
(01:23):
you know, what is agedevelopmentally appropriate?
Not just in terms of content,
but in terms of language,in terms of story structure.
- [Killian] It's interesting you say that
because one of the authors
that I did wanna talk about for this,
I did not consciously know that,
like, I didn't go into theadult book that I was reading
(01:45):
being like, I've read this author before
as a children's author.
But I was reading it andI'm sitting here going,
why is this writing so familiar?
And that was when I read"The Warm Hands of Ghosts."
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] By Katherine Arden.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah.
- [Killian] Because I hadread her children's horror
that I'm blanking onthe name of right now.
- [Nicole] "Small Spaces," yeah.
- [Killian] Thank you.
(02:06):
Like, ah!
And obviously, thecontent is very different.
The events of the story's very different.
The just setting in general,completely different.
But the writing felt very much the same.
- [Nicole] Familiar, yeah.
- [Killian] And it wasn'tuntil I had that feeling of
(02:30):
why does this feel so familiar,
that I was like, okay,what else has she written?
I got on Goodreads and I'm looking,
and, oh, the only otherthing I've read by her
was "Small Spaces."
And like, that's it.
Like, that was it.(Drew laughs)
It felt so similar.
So I think sometimesmaybe it really just is.
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Killian] The content.
(02:50):
- [Nicole] Sure, sure.
Yeah, I think Katherine Arden,
who is the author thatKillian's talking about,
I think she does a really good job
writing across the ages, as you say.
'Cause she also has another series,
"The Bear and the Nightingale."
(03:10):
It's kind of like a Russianfairytale sort of romance story,
which those books arereally, really good too.
- [Killian] Okay.
- [Nicole] There's always thismagical element to her work
that I think lends itself really nicely
to different age groups.
There's always a spooky bit, you know?
(03:32):
In "Small Spaces" andall four of those books
are incredibly creepy and wonderful.
So yeah, I'm glad that she wrote,
is writing books all acrossthe board there, for sure.
Yeah.
All right, well, I havea couple I authors here.
(03:53):
Can we talk about Suzanne Collins?
- [Drew] Please?- [Amanda] Sure.
- [Nicole] Okay, becauseI read Hunger Games
and did not know she hadwritten children's books.
- [Amanda] I've only readso Hunger Games by her.
- [Nicole] Okay.- [Killian] Same.
- [Nicole] Oh really, okay.
- [Killian] I know of"Gregor the Overlander"
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] I read the firstbook of Gregor way back when.
(04:14):
- [Nicole] Yeah, and I mean clearly,
Gregor was written first, I'm assuming.
Yeah, those books are really good.
They're like solid.
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] And I always recommend them.
I just don't think, oddly,it seems like nobody,
I don't think anyonerealizes that's her, right?
Like, it's just very strange, but.
(04:36):
- [Drew] Yeah, "The HungerGames" fame never really
spread to her other works.
- [Nicole] Right.
Yeah, because, well, I mean,
I guess if you're writing for teen,
then it's hard to go back.
It's not like teenagers are like,
well, I really wanna reada kid's book right now.
So, yeah.
- [Drew] I still would've expected it to,
in the like, parents coming up,
like my kid wants to read "Hunger Games."
(04:57):
My kid is like eight or nine.
- [Nicole] Oh yeah.
- [Drew] And then-- [Nicole] Not old enough.
- [Drew] Get suggested, you know,
she has a middle grade series too.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] But is the topic of that book,
is it something that youwould recommend to someone
looking for something like "Hunger Games?"
- [Drew] No.
- [Killian] And that's the thing is
I think when people usuallycome to us looking for,
you know, my kid wantsto read "Hunger Games,"
(05:17):
I don't think they're ready for it.
- [Drew] You wouldn't.
- [Killian] We're goinginto kids' dystopia not-
- [Nicole] Exactly.- [Drew] That's fair, yeah.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know I have recommendedGregor many times.
Killian and I do like asubscription book box,
and I'm always throwingGregor in somewhere
just because I think it's,
(05:39):
I appreciate the supernaturalaspect of that one.
Of course, duh.(group laughs)
I say this all the time, right?
But the whole story is really great.
And there's a bunch of books.
So like kids that really enjoy series
and wanna like really puttheir teeth in something
that's gonna take a while,
it's a really good series for that.
And then maybe they'll get older,
(05:59):
and then they'll realize "HungerGames" is the same person,
and then they'll putthose two things together
'cause I didn't.
(group laughs)
Yeah.
Okay, anybody else have an author that-
- [Amanda] So John Green.
- [Nicole] Oh.
- [Amanda] "Fault in Our Stars."
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Amanda] Which is a YA book.
(06:19):
And so he wrote "Anthropocene Reviewed,"
which is a series of essaysabout issues in society,
environmental issues.
And then now he's coming out with,
I think it may havejust come out this month
or maybe next month,
"Everything is Tuberculosis."
(06:41):
- [Nicole] I've heard about those.
- [Amanda] I'm reallyexcited to read those books.
I know he has a podcast,
so I think it's very easy forhim to then package, you know,
translate the podcast content to essays.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Amanda] But he's a reallyeasy person to read, or easy.
(07:02):
His writing is very easy to read.
So I mean, it's "Fault in ourStars" was wildly popular.
I still would recommend it to someone.
It's made into a movie.
I enjoyed the movie as well.
So that's one example.
And it's sort of interesting
'cause instead of writing novelsfor adults, he did essays.
(07:25):
So that's a bit of a twist.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah.
No, I think that's cool.
- [Amanda] But I thinkhe's a really smart person
that makes different connectionsfrom different topics,
and yeah, it's sort ofout of the box type of way
to write across ages.
- [Drew] Nice.
Yeah, one of my favoritesis Talia Hibbert.
(07:47):
She is a black romance author
and writes for both adult and teen.
- [Amanda] Cool!- [Nicole] Oh, okay.
Nice.
- [Drew] One of her earlyones that I really liked was
"Get A Life, Chloe Brown"
and just the entire trilogythat's written there.
And then two, three yearsafter the fact reading those,
found her teen one when itshowed up on our shelves one day.
(08:10):
That one is "HighlySuspicious and Unfairly Cute."
And it's teen, I think summer camp romance
and equally adorable.
And a little bit like what you were saying
where you can tell theauthor's tone the entire time
(08:30):
and their writing style,
where the books feelvery similar except for
where the physicality of the romance goes.
- [Nicole] Well, that'swhat I was gonna say.
So like, you have aperson who writes romance.
So is it just spicier for the adults?
Like-- [Drew] Yes.
- [Nicole] And thenalso the, the characters
are just younger in the teen.
(08:52):
- [Drew] More or less.
I feel like she did the whole like
summer camp aspect of it toget them away from the parents.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] And then they canbe more their own people.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] And then she's justwriting about, you know,
two characters falling for each other,
same as anything else.
- [Amanda] Sure, sure.
What a good business model though.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
(09:12):
Oh yeah.
- [Amanda] Get 'em as children, and then-
- [Nicole] They'll read itas they're an adult, yeah.
- [Amanda] Graduate them, yeah.
- [Nicole] Absolutely.
- [Killian] Okay, so along the same lines.
(Drew laughs)
You knew I was gonna do this.
- [Drew] Sure did.
- [Killian] You walked into it.
Ashley Herring Blake,
who I've talked abouton the podcast before,
someday I might shut up about her.
Who knows?
It's not gonna be today.(group laughs)
But has written middle grade.
(09:35):
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] Exploring queeridentity in middle grade.
I have not actually read them.
I have recommended them,
but I haven't actually read them yet.
I need to.
It's on the list.
It's a long list.
But has written those middlegrade queer coming of age
and adult queer romance.
(09:57):
Content is going to bevery different here.
- [Nicole] Sure, sure.
- [Killian] But still similar,some similar themes in there.
And I, it's interesting to me, like,
the YA to Adult, that makes sense.
That's a logical.
The middle grade to adult,
I'm like, do you haveYA that's in the middle?
- [Nicole] Yeah.
(10:17):
- [Killian] Or do we just?
I would love to know.
- [Nicole] Well, and-
- [Killian] If we've just skipped over YA.
- [Nicole] It's-- [Killian] Why?
- [Nicole] I think it's importantmaybe to kind of throw in
the conversation about like what,
who decides what, if a bookis written for children,
or teens, or adults.
Because I feel like sometimespublishers are just like,
(10:39):
well, the character is 10 years old,
therefore it's a children's book.
I don't necessarily agreewith that every single time.
Sometimes the contentis a little bit above
what a typical 10-year-oldmay actually be reading.
And I'm talking about likethe "Golden Compass" series
where the main character is a child.
(11:00):
But there are some topics there that are
very, very much teen or adult topic.
Not that, you know,there's sex, or violence,
or any of those things,
but I mean, we're talkingabout some philosophical things
that a 10-year-old is not gonna get.
- [Drew] Right.
- [Nicole] So, I don't know,I just wanna mention that too
is that sometimes where a book is placed,
(11:24):
it may not actually be where it belongs
because the person reading it may not
be able to really fully understand
the big picture of that story.
- [Amanda] Do you think it's-
- [Nicole] It happensa lot in kids' books.
- [Amanda] Oh yeah.
Do you think it's drivenmore by publishers
or by the author?
- [Nicole] I don't know.
Because I wonder ifPhilip Pullman was like,
(11:45):
yeah, I really wantthis to be a kids book.
You know what I mean?
- [Killian] Yeah, yeah.- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] I don't know if heactually had any say in that,
or if they were just like,
well, we're gonna slap a cute cover on it
and send it on its way.
You know what I mean?
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Killian] Well, I will say-
- [Nicole] And that's theone that's coming to mind,
but there are others too, you know?
- [Amanda] Right, or ifhe wrote it for adults,
and they're like,
well, if you're gonnahave talking polar bears,
(12:06):
then it has to be for kids.(Drew laughs)
- [Nicole] Yeah.- [Amanda] So.
- [Killian] Well, "IronWidow" is marketed as YA.
It's put in the YA section.
Love the book.
Not.
Are there teens that willread this book and enjoy it?
Yes.
(12:26):
As you get into the sequel,
does it get into thingsthat are like very,
it's so politically complicated.
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] The second book is
also just so different from the first one.
- [Nicole] Sure.
- [Killian] But eventhe author now is like,
this was put into YA becausethe publisher wanted it there
because they thought itwas more marketable there.
(12:48):
- [Nicole] Right.
- [Killian] And you know,if I'd had my say this,
would be in adult.
- [Nicole] Yeah, yeah.
- [Killian] And I thinkthat tends to happen a lot,
particularly in sci-fi fantasy,
particularly to non-male authors.
(13:08):
And I think a lot of the time
that's what tends to happen.
- [Nicole] Sure.
Yeah, I mean a lot of the romantasy,
like I feel like it'sgetting shoved into teen,
but some of that stuff like-
- [Drew] Yeah.
- [Nicole] It's pretty racy.
I don't know if it really is teen,
but you know, I'm not theboss, so I don't know.
(Killian laughs)
- [Drew] And you also have the series
(13:29):
that sort of grow up with the readers.
- [Killian] Yeah.
- [Drew] So you're lookingat the Harry Potter books
where one and seven are marketedto very different groups.
- [Nicole] Sure.
- [Drew] Looking at-- [Killian] Princess Diaries.
- [Drew] Princess Diaries.
- [Nicole] Yeah, whereactually some of those books
are in our teen collectionbecause of the content.
And then, you know, families are like,
well, where's the rest of the books,
and we have to explain ourchoice for that too, so.
(13:52):
- [Drew] Yeah, and then, you know,
series like "A Court of Thorns and Roses"
where it starts teen, goes adults
where Sarah J. Maas overall,
you know, started in the YAspace with "Throne of Glass"
and is now very firmly in the adult space
with the "Crescent City" books.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] And you know,if you read all of her
12, 14 books at this point,
(14:14):
it sort of ages alongthat line the whole way.
- [Nicole] Sure.
Yeah, well, I just actually heard,
and this makes me incredibly happy,
'cause I was trying to think of authors
that I wish would do this more or at all.
And I had gotten,
(14:35):
I think my husband had sentme a link about Stephen King
doing a picture book with Maurice Sendak.
- [Drew] Really?
- [Amanda] So fun!
- [Nicole] For "Hansel and Gretel."
- [Amanda] Oh cool!- [Drew] Oh my god.
- [Nicole] Yeah, so I guessMaurice had done illustrations
for, I'm not 100% sure,
but there was a production,like a ballet production
(14:57):
or something of "Hansel and Gretel."
He did some illustrations for that,
and they're taking those
and then using StephenKing's voice over the top
to do this very famous fairytale.
So I am-- [Drew] That's awesome.
- [Nicole] Really excited about that
'cause that's all the things I love.
(Drew laughs)
- [Killian] Similar tothat, Leigh Bardugo,
(15:19):
one of my favorite cross age authors
who writes some great teen things,
also writes adult booksthat I've really enjoyed,
is coming out with a picture book.
(Nicole gasps)- [Nicole] Really?
- [Killian] Yes.
It's called "The Invisible Parade."
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Killian] And it'sillustrated by John Picacio.
I think I may be pronouncingthe illustrator's name.
(15:39):
I'm not familiar with him,
but I saw that on her Instagram and went,
Leigh Bardugo picture book?
- [Nicole] Ooh, I love that.
- [Killian] Okay.
- [Nicole] I really love that, very cool.
- [Killian] So I'm very,very excited to see
what comes of that.
- [Nicole] Yeah, absolutely.
Well, do we have any otherauthors we wanna talk about?
- [Amanda] Well, I was gonnasay there's a couple authors
(16:00):
who wrote for adults,
but then there was achildren's version maybe.
- [Killian] Oh, I love that, yes.
- [Amanda] And that makes me really happy
to explore like an important topic
but at a different reading level,
or maybe not quite so dark or graphic.
One of the ones I love isYuval Harari wrote "Sapiens,"
(16:21):
a very thick book.
I feel like it was maybeseven to 800 pages.
Maybe that's just my memory.
But then he came out witha graphic novel version
for high schoolers.
- [Nicole] The graphicnovel version is lovely.
I haven't read the original one.
- [Amanda] It's excellent.
Yeah, I've actually read,well, I read the first one.
Didn't quite get through all of it.
- [Nicole] Okay, yeah.(Amanda laughs)
(16:41):
- [Amanda] It's like,
well, there's this graphic novel version,
and it is super well done,
explains the concepts really well,
and it just makes it morepalatable, all the information.
- [Nicole] Some othergood examples of that are
"Born A Crime" by Trevor Noah.
There is his original version,
and then they did makea young reader's copy,
(17:04):
which is that I thinkthat's just wonderful
because his story really,I think it benefits
a great number of peoplein doing it that way.
It's important for younger kids
to be able to read about his experience.
The other one was "Braiding Sweetgrass."
- [Amanda] Oh, cool, I didn't know that.
- [Nicole] It also has two,
has a younger reader's version too.
(17:25):
- [Drew] So there's a wholeyounger reader's edition,
I don't wanna say movement,
but where it took a good50 books that were all
people of color, or women,or underrepresented groups,
and retooled all of their books.
- [Nicole] Oh, good.- [Drew] For that.
So "I am Malala" fit in that.
(17:46):
- [Nicole] Okay.
- [Drew] "Hidden Figures"by Margot Lee Shetterly
fell in that.
"Stamped," Jason Reynolds andIbram X Kendi fell in that.
- [Nicole] Yeah, okay.
Yeah, I mean I think it's wonderful.
- [Amanda] Yeah.- [Nicole] Yeah, for sure.
- [Killian] And "Stamped" in particular,
'cause Jason Reynoldswasn't involved in the
adult one, was he?
- [Drew] I don't think so.
(18:06):
I think he was added in for the-
- [Killian] Brought in forthe young readers edition.
And I think that's so smart to bring in,
like if the original version
is written by someone who maybe
hasn't written as much for that
or like to bring in anothervoice to bounce it off.
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] So as you'rechanging the material-
- [Nicole] Sure.
- [Killian] For the age range,
there's a little bit more eyes on it.
(18:26):
- [Nicole] And JasonReynolds is perfect for that.
- [Killian] Exactly.
- [Nicole] Because he haswritten books that are
for young adults and for children.
And I think, he in particular,
his writing can be very muchin that sort of gray area
between the two.
- [Killian] Yeah.
- [Nicole] Because it has the topic
and the way that thecharacters are portrayed
(18:48):
are important for awider age group I think.
- [Amanda] For sure.- [Killian] Yeah.
"All American Boys" is one that I-
- [Nicole] I love that book.
- [Killian] I love that book.
It's very powerful.
It is very much on the edge in between,
and it's one of those,it depends on the kid.
(19:10):
- [Nicole] It does, it really does.
- [Killian] It's so gonnadepend on the kid on if-
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Killian] Should you read that
while you're a little bit younger,
or should you wait tillyou're a little bit older?
- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] Is that one thatwe have shelved in youth?
- [Killian] Yes.- [Nicole] Yeah.
He also did "Ain't Burned All The Bright,"
which was a po, not a poetry.
Well, it's considered to be-
- [Killian] Shelved in poetry.
- [Nicole] It's written in verse, yeah.
(19:31):
And so Jason Reynolds had written a poem,
and then he had a friend
who did all of the illustrations for it.
So it's almost like flippingthrough someone's journal.
- [Killian] Yeah, it's very cool.
- [Nicole] And it talks very specifically
about what it's like to be aperson of color during COVID
and being isolated.
And I think it's reallypowerful and really wonderful.
(19:56):
- [Killian] Absolutely.
- [Nicole] But again, could be teen
or could be in the kids section too.
So Jason Reynolds is great for crossover.
- [Killian] Yeah.- [Nicole] Yeah.
- [Drew] Yeah, and thenyou have the mainstays,
the James Pattersons of the world,
the John Grishams of the world,
the Anthony Horowitzs of the world,
where they just write foreveryone all the time.
(20:18):
- [Nicole] I'm just gonnasay like, are they real?
- [Amanda] Right, are they writing it?
Exactly.(group laughs)
- [Nicole] Are these real people?
I don't know.
- [Drew] At least publishedunder their names.
- [Amanda] Yeah, yes.- [Nicole] Right, right.
- [Killian] Ghost writing happens.
- [Nicole] Yes, yes.
All right, well,hopefully you're listening
and you have found some authors
that you'd be interested in checking out.
(20:40):
Sometimes, I don't know.
I'm glad that I work in the youth area
because I'm able to read the kids versions
of some of these books writtenby authors that I might know.
But you know, they havegood stuff for kids
and great stuff for theolder groups as well.
It's interesting to see how
they might change their style a little bit
(21:01):
from group to group,
- [Killian] But it's kind of nice
to also be able to be like,
okay, I liked this author as a kid,
but they've written for,you know, older ages,
and I can grow up with their writing too.
- [Nicole] Or be ableto recommend something
for your own children.
- [Killian] Exactly.
- [Nicole] You know, asyou know, as they grow too.
Yeah.
All right, well thank you for listening,
and we'll see you next time.
Thank you for joining us for this episode
(21:23):
of Distracted Librarians.
- [Drew] Many thanks to BCTVfor their support in recording,
editing and releasing this podcast,
and to the friends of the library
for sponsoring closedcaptioning on every episode.
- [Killian] If you have any questions
or suggestions, feelfree to reach out to us
at Distracted@btpl.org.
- [Amanda] Until then,keep those pages turning
(21:44):
and those screens lighting up.
We'll catch you in the next episode.
- [Emily] The views and opinions expressed
in the Distracted Librarians podcast
do not necessarily reflectthose of Bloomfield Township,
Bloomfield Township Public Library,
Bloomfield Community Television,
the Birmingham Area Cable Board,
or its producers or production staff.
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