Rereading Our Childhood

A few years ago, my longtime friend Mary Grace McGeehan and I started a podcast called Rereading Our Childhood. Most of the books we talk about are middle grade novels, although we throw in a picture book or YA novel from time to time. I thought I'd interview Mary Grace, the creative mind behind the podcast!

 

Q: Why did you decide to create Rereading Our Childhood?

 

A: The books I read as a child are an enormous part of who I am today. I've reread many of them over the years, and I thought it would be fun to do this in a more structured way, so I came up with the idea of a podcast.

 

You and I have been talking about children's books since not long after our own childhoods, so you were the first and only person I thought of as a cohost. I was so excited when you agreed to do it!

 

Q: Which book(s) did you most enjoy rereading?

 

A: Some children's books are better reads for adults than others. This doesn't necessarily mean that they're better children's books, just that they have layers that you don't pick up on as a child.

 

You can read Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy at any age and always find something new. For that episode, and also for our episode on Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, another great reread, I read about the lives of the authors and learned about how their difficult childhoods shaped their books and their unforgettable main characters.

 

I've also enjoyed reading books that you introduced me to that I’d missed as a child, like All-of-a-Kind Family, Little Town on the Prairie, and A Bear Called Paddington, which we talked about on our most recent episode. 

 

Q: Any that you didn’t particularly enjoy?

 

A: There’s a “can you really do that in a book?” innocence that children bring to reading that, sadly, you can’t return to as an adult. The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel) by Ellen Raskin is full of wordplay, preposterous situations, and plot twists that bowled me over as a kid but fell flat for me as an adult. Again, that doesn’t mean it’s not a great children’s book.

 

Q: Who have you met through the podcast?

 

A: We’ve heard from the children of two of the authors of books that we reread: Lizza Aiken, the daughter of Joan Aiken, who wrote the Wolves of Willoughby Chase series, and Hank Abrashkin, whose father, Raymond Abrashkin, was the coauthor, with Jay Williams, of the Danny Dunn science fiction series.

 

On our recent 50th episode, I talked about my e-mail correspondence with Hank, who told me about how his father created Danny's adventures while struggling with ALS. I loved the Danny Dunn books as a child, and corresponding with Hank has been one of the highlights of doing the podcast.

 

Q: Why do you think fans of middle grade literature should listen to Rereading Our Childhood?

 

A: For the sense of community, to start with. When I post a new episode on social media, people often comment that the book, whether it’s Little Women or Ballet Shoes or Stuart Little, was one of their own childhood favorites. As Anne of Green Gables would say, there’s nothing like finding a kindred spirit.

 

Also, we’re living in difficult times, and I know I’m not alone in struggling to find sources of positivity. In my rereading, I’ve encountered characters who stand up against oppression (The Witch of Blackbird Pond, A Wrinkle in Time) and welcome outsiders (A Bear Called Paddington).

 

Sometimes, though, all I want is an escape, and for that I can join Edward Eager’s characters on a magical adventure or relive the challenges of kindergarten with Ramona Quimby or match wits with boy detective Encyclopedia Brown.

 

I hope our listeners find the same pleasure we’ve found in reconnecting with our childhood favorites and our childhood selves.

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: You can find the podcast at rereadingourchildhood.buzzsprout.com. We’d love to hear from readers about their own childhood favorites at rereadingourchildhood.com. 

 

--Deborah Kalb