Stories That Stretch The Imagination: Adventures in Learning with Newbery Honor winner Jasmine Warga

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Hippos named Fiona, whether robots feel afraid, stories as gateways for building empathy and compassion, broadening what is perceived as diverse literature, and creatively avoiding silos. We talk about all of that and more with Newbery Honor winner Jasmine Warga on today's episode of the Adventures in Learning podcast.

Jasmine Warga is The New York Times best selling author of middle grade novels Other Words for Home, The Shape of Thunder, and A Rover's Story. Other Words For Home earned multiple awards, including a John Newbery Honor, a Walter Honor for Young Readers, and a Charlotte Huck Honor. The Shape of Thunder was a School Library Journal and Bank Street best book of the year, a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Children's and YA Book Award, and has been named to several state award reading lists. A Rover's Story, her latest novel, was an instant New York Times bestseller, a Indie Next List and a Junior Library Guild selection, and was named a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly and The Washington Post. And I will say I laughed and cried all the way through this beautiful book, so run and grab it. She's also the author of young adult novel My Heart and Other Black Holes, which has been translated into over 20 different languages.

[03:00] What do baby hippos have to do with resilience?
[04:12] Resilience and A Rover's Story
[09:37] Storytelling and STEM Connections to A Rover's Story
[13:29] Diversity and Storytelling
[17:17] Do you remember the first story that you were told or that you read that really stuck with you?
[19:38] Did those family stories inform Other Words for Home?
[21:36] What were the books that influenced you growing up?
[30:53] Given all of the book banning challenges, what would you tell teachers and librarians who are in the trenches right now?

"But I think recognizing that by and large, the kids are with you. And I think by and large, most of the community is with you. And so just getting the kids the books they can the best that you can, and sort of, I think, trying to proceed with sort of radical empathy and kindness of sort of advocating for these books, but through the lens of why these books are so great."

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*Disclosure: I am a Bookshop.org. affiliate.