It was on July 1, 2015 that a new podcast was released into the audiosphere.
It was called Book Club for Kids.
Hi, I'm Kitty Felde, the host and producer of the show.
Book Club for Kids began as a monthly segment on my public radio talk show Talk of the City, and later it moved to cable TV as the Book Club of the Air for Young Adults.
And finally, when the technology changed and podcasts became a thing, the show became a podcast. Well, we'll tell you more about it as we approach Book Club for Kids' 10th anniversary.
Now, when I was a teenager, we'd listen every week to a local radio stations countdown of the top ten songs of the week.
So to start the celebration of ten years as a podcast, we thought we would start by airing our 10 most popular episodes, starting with number 10.
So give a listen to a discussion of Alan Gratz's novel, Refugee.
It's the Book Club for Kids.
It's the Book Club for Kids.
It's the Book Club for Kids.
It's the Book Club for Kids Podcast. Hi, I'm Kitty Felde.
Our book this week is Refugee, the tale of three kids trying to escape from three different countries, including Cuba.
Castro's face was everywhere in Cuba, on billboards, on taxis, in picture frames on schoolroom walls, painted on the side of buildings.
Underneath this painting are the words, fight against the impossible and win.
That's our celebrity reader, actress Amy Solano. Writer Alan Gratt says he kept coming back to the idea that refugees fleeing conflict or danger is one that repeats itself throughout history.
Part of the theme is that we keep doing the same thing over and over and over again.
Tomorrow is always going to be the same if we don't change what we're doing right now.
Our trio of readers from Washington Latin Public Charter School in Washington, DC, put themselves in the shoes of those brave refugees.
I think I'd be, like, really scared to leave my country, but I think that if it came down to it, I would step up.
I hope so, at least. This is the Book Club for Kids, the show where kids talk about books.
We'll tell you how you can be on the show a little later on, but first let's meet our readers.
Hi, my name is Danielle.
Hi, my name is Sebastian.
Hi, my name is Micaela and we're all in eighth grade in Washington Latin Public Charter School, which is in Washington DC.
So the book is called Refugee, and it's about these three characters.
Yosef, Isabel and Mahmud and they all have to move from their homes for three different reasons.
Yosef is because he's a Jew in the 1930s in Germany with Hitler.
Mahmud has to leave because he lives in Syria and his apartment gets blown up and Isabel has to leave because her father gets into like a squabble with a police officer.
One thing that like they all have in common is the Refugees and like Joseph gets on a boat because his father has they have 14 days to leave the country because his father gets let out from concentration camp and Joseph gets on him and his family get on a boat.
That's going to Cuba But they can't really go to Cuba because Cuba can't welcome in any more refugees Isabel is having trouble because she has to take a boat that someone made so she just takes that from Cuba to Miami which is a really long struggle while she has her pregnant mother in the boat with them.
And Mahmoud, he was traveling by car at first. Then they walked and then they had to catch a boat to Syria all while trying to get to Germany, what I think is really cool though that at the end the stories connect together.
Yeah, let's talk about that because I thought that was interesting.
I thought how are they gonna how can you sustain three separate stories throughout the whole book?
What did you think about the way the author sort of tied it all Well at first I was really confused because there were just three stories and it was weird to have to switch and like remember what happened with the last story, but then at the end when they all tie together I just thought it made the book really interesting because the way that like all of them in the end connected to one another just made it even more interesting.
Was this like anything else you've read before?
Either in structure or in topic?
I've never read a book that had three characters in three different times, but I have read a book with two separate main characters and you had to switch back and forth.
Is that an effective way of storytelling for you?
I don't really know.
It was interesting, but I like it when it's just one main character.
It's easier for me to keep in my head.
I thought it was pretty cool because it focused on more than one refugee.
When we think of refugee you think of like people in Afghanistan and Pakistan trying to get into Turkey but in this story there's actually refugee coming from Cuba and Germany because of similar reasons but it all connects the real world which I thought was pretty cool.
I really liked the different time zones because usually having two different characters really it confuses me, let alone three different characters.
It was a little bit overwhelming, but the time zone thing was the most interesting to me because Mahmud's story was pretty recent, it was in 2017, but then Joseph's story was pretty far away from today.
So I thought that it was just interesting to read about, although usually I don't read books like that.
One of those refugees is trying to flee Cuba in a homemade raft. Let's hear a bit from that scene, read by our celebrity reader Amy Solano. Amy, by the way, stars in our other podcast, The Fina Mendoza Mysteries.
Isabel clung to the wooden bench she sat on, squeezed in between Ivan and her grandfather.
Their boat was barely big enough for seven people, and with Luis and his girlfriend, they were practically sitting on top of each other.
"'I think it's time we met the other person on board with us,' Isabel's grandfather said.
Isabel thought he might Luis's girlfriend but instead he pushed some of the sacks of food and jugs of water out of the way and pointed at the bottom of the boat.
Staring back up at them was the huge face of Fidel Castro.
Luis's girlfriend gasped and then suddenly exploded with laughter.
Soon all of them were laughing with her.
Isabel laughed so hard her stomach hurt.
Even grumpy Senor Castillo chuckled.
I needed something big and thick for the bottom of the boat, he said, and seeing as there were so many signs around with a presidente's head on them.
It was true. Castro's face was everywhere in Cuba, on billboards, on taxis, in picture frames, on school room walls, painted on the sides of buildings.
Underneath this painting were the words, Fight Against the Impossible and Win.
Well, Fidel is thick -headed," Luis said.
Isabel put her hands to her mouth, but couldn't help laughing again with everyone else.
You weren't allowed to say things like that in Cuba.
But they weren't in Cuba anymore, were they?
Do you know what the greatest achievements of the Cuban Revolution are?
Isabel's father asked.
Education, public health, and sports, they all said together.
It was a constant refrain in Castro's lengthy speeches.
And you know what the greatest failures are, he asked?
Breakfast, lunch and dinner, the adults answered back, as though they had heard that one many times before too.
Now you guys are eighth graders, so you probably are much more aware of current events and history than younger readers.
But how much of the specifics were you aware of before you read the book?
I was aware of Hitler and Nazi Germany and I was kind of aware of what was going on back then in Cuba.
The president, how it was like a dictator almost, and Afghanistan, like it's still happening so it's really relevant.
So I'm pretty sure everyone knew about that.
I knew that there was war in Syria.
I didn't really know much about what was happening in Cuba, but I did know that they once had a president that was a dictator.
and I didn't know about Hitler and Nazi Germany.
I knew a lot about Nazi Germany so that one a lot of details weren't very new.
Cuba, I'd like heard about but I had never researched and went super in -depth so that was pretty interesting and the one in Syria is like really relevant so we all kind of know what's going on but I don't think I knew that it was that bad like I didn't really think about how much it affected like all these people, like kids and stuff like that.
Well, we have characters, we're seeing these major world events through the eyes of these young people.
How did you relate to or was there a particular character that seemed more three -dimensional than any of the others?
I personally, I don't know what it was but I just really liked Isabel's character.
I thought that her story was the most interesting because even though she only took like one form of transportation, it was still really interesting to the point where her best friend's older brother was like a police officer so their boat got shot at when they were like trying to get in and run away because even though the dictator of Cuba said that you could leave they were like abandoners and then everything in her story I just enjoyed that one the most what about her as a character did she feel like a person you knew well her as a character I couldn't really like I can't really relate to any
of these people but she seemed really to me like the most realistic character like from the very beginning which like played her violin and she was like helping take care of that cat.
She just seemed really down to earth and just like a person that could be a real person and I could like almost imagine them.
There's two boys in the book Sebastian, did you relate to either of them more?
I can't really relate to them but I liked how both of them became leaders in their family like Yosef when his dad got out of the concentration camp was all insane and crazy and like very paranoid of everything.
Even though before Josef had his bar mitzvah, he still acted like a man and a leader in the family.
And Mamoud just never gave up, and he was determined to lead his family to Germany.
Do you think you'd have that kind of hutzpah if we can use that word, to have the strength and will to lead your family if you were in a similar situation?
I like to believe so, But I can't really be a hundred percent, but if it is life or death, I'll try my best. What about you?
Would you, would you be as brave as Isabel or any of these gentlemen?
I think I would try, but I don't think I could ever be as brave as them because it's like their country, and while they were reluctant to leave they had to while I would like, I can't leave anywhere because this is like where I know and I would like still rely on my parents for help.
I could help siblings, like how Isabel helped her best friend cause that was kind of her brother.
I certainly hope I'd be as strong and as brave as these people, but I'm not really sure because kind of like Danielle said, I'm really bad with change, so I think I'd be like really scared to leave my country because it's probably where I've been my entire life, but I think that if it came down to it I would step up, hope so at least you guys got some questions for Alan Gratz why did you choose to write the book with three main characters in three separate times and put them all into the one book I had just planned on writing a book about the MS st. Louis to start with I had read about that I
thought nobody had done this for young adults I will write a book about the MS st. Louis so I was working on that trying to think of who my main character would be and what my story would be when my family and I we took a vacation down to Florida and one morning we got up we said, hey, let's go for a walk on the beach, and we found a raft, and it was homemade.
Nobody was on board, but it had not been there one day and the next day it was.
And my family and I, we're really stunned by it.
It made us think about all the stuff that we took for granted.
The food on our table, the roof over our heads, the freedom and safety that we enjoy as American citizens.
And me personally, I was like, why am I writing a book about refugees 75 years ago?
And we've got refugees right here, right now, a hundred yards away from where I was sleeping last night.
Why am I not telling that story.
So at the same time that all this was happening, all this was bouncing around in my head, I was also watching on the news images of the Syrian civil war and the Syrian refugee crisis.
And I was like, why am I not writing about that story?
These are all really important stories.
And then I realized, wait, why do I have to write three different books?
What if I wrote one book and I put all three stories in it?
And that became the story of refugee.
That's why the three kids.
But largely, once I came up with those three ideas and decided and I could join these families together, the reason I did it was part of the theme.
And part of the theme is that we keep doing the same thing over and over and over again.
Tomorrow manana is a constant theme and tomorrow is always going to be the same if we don't change what we're doing right now.
How did you like research these through people and find out that their stories like intertwined but just barely like, it was small, but it was meaningful.
So like how did you figure that out and research it the research was hard?
Because I had three different time periods three different parts of the world the ms. St. Louis was the easiest That's the oldest. There's been a lot written about it.
I could check out a lot of books from the library That's my usual way of doing research for world war two stuff, but then when I wrote about the Cuban refugees That was too harder because it happened in the 90s So it's it's it's gotten some books about it, but there's more interviews There are people who are still alive who have gone through this, who came to America as refugees on rafts.
So I listened to interviews and talked with people who had done that.
And then for the contemporary one, the one about Mahmoud and his story going from Syria to Germany, that's happening right now.
So I had to use contemporary reporting to try and figure out like what was happening in the world and following those stories.
The research was difficult and different for each one.
and then as for linking the stories, I knew I wanted to write three different stories, but I didn't know how they were gonna be linked and I felt like they needed to be.
I could've written a book with three different stories in it where you see the parallels and that would've been enough.
But I felt like for a novel, this should be something where it's one bigger story with three different families over time, but they are all linked.
And it wasn't until I came up with that connection that I knew I had a book and that's when I started writing the book.
Why does Joseph's story just end like a cliffhanger?
Not all the stories end well.
Not all refugee stories end well, and one of the hard truths about what I read about was that people are separated from their families, people get sick and hurt along the way, people die along the way.
And they don't always end up in a place of safety, and I wanted to show that.
And so with one of the characters with Joseph his story sort of ends and we don't find out what happened to him until somebody else's story fills in the blanks for us.
And that was a difficult choice to make but the things that he would have gone through after that he would have said he was essentially taken to concentration camps after that.
That's a whole other book on its own.
This book is full of tough topics and you guys actually talked about how adults try to shield kids from tough topics.
Do you think people would be concerned about this book?
For like certain ages, in elementary school, I don't think it's like they're and not ready to be here.
I'm not saying like don't tell them about it.
I'm just saying like you can read it but they have to be like mature enough and like understand that these things actually happen.
And it's not like something to joke around with.
Like this is the real world and you just have to accept it for what it is even though it's not okay.
I think people should know the book and read the book so they can know more about the past and the present events through kids' eyes and know what life could be like if you were them.
Why do you think it's important to see the world through kids eyes?
Because if kids are reading the book, they're just like, oh my life is great, but then they could see the hardships of other people's and other kids, especially lives, and say oh yeah, now I know that I am privileged.
Well I think that for kids and adults, but like kids in particular, it's really good and interesting that this book is written from kid's point of view Because that way if you let a young kid read it, I guess, then they can realize how bad the world is, but not just to adults, to kids as well.
Because they might be thinking, oh yeah, but wars only for adults and stuff like that, so we don't have to worry about it yet.
No nightmares for any of you guys though.
I had to stop in the middle because I thought, oh gosh, I wanna go do something else and then come back.
When I started reading it, I was looking on page 74 and I just stopped reading it for a while because I was like, this is so sad that kids this age, like my age are going through this and that no one's really helping.
People are trying to help, but not really because they just don't know what to do and like how to help them.
I got like really sad.
I don't, I didn't cry, but it was really, it kinda hit when like they turned the boat back that was on from Cuba because I was like, wow, you know, like you could have helped all these people but instead you sent it back.
You could have saved all of them and said you sent them back knowing that they were probably going to die." Right now you know there's this debate going on because the United States has taken in so few Syrian refugees.
I mean any thoughts about that?
And where do you draw the line?
I mean that's the whole thing!
If the whole world's in chaos, right now many people in Venezuela are trying to come north.
Many people from flooded areas are trying to move to get away from climate change ills.
Where does your responsibility as a society, in a country, where do you draw that line?
I would say I would draw the line if like they make a peaceful protest and it turns ugly, like it gets violent and people are starting to hurt one another, I would draw the line there.
But if us as a country can do something to help them or work with other countries to help them, then I say we should.
I just feel like you should be allowing these people into our country and if you say the country's too crowded then try to help them like where they already are but these are people and I think that as a society like America should be trying to help them.
We always like to ask the hardest question last and that is what is your favorite book and why?
Okay, my favorite book is called Diary the Wimpy Kid the long haul.
I love it because I got it and the author signed it for me.
It wasn't a read aloud but he kind of introduced the book to me and I love the book because it was funny.
It was also through a kid's point of view and the kid had many siblings and I have siblings and so it was kind of really relatable.
Well, my favorite book right now it's honestly always changing is The Hate U Give just cuz it's oh my it's so good.
So I thought it was just like a really touching and meaningful book and the girl star in it she was like an amazing character.
I could relate to her in like so many ways cuz she had this problem of like being in Garden Heights which is like the place where she like lives and then going to this really like private really nice school and it's a really like a relevant topic about how her friend had gotten shot.
It's all happening right now and then all this police brutality stuff is going around And I just thought that it was a really good book and it came out at the right time because it brought awareness to the subject Okay, like Mikayla, I honestly love the Hate U Give but one of my all -time favorites.
Everyone hates it I don't know why is Twilight.
I don't know something about like the love triangle Like I normally hate love triangles, but in this book the way the author does it is so like nice Honestly, I love it because of the way it's written I've yet to find another book written like Twilight that I love.
What's your favorite, Amy Solano?
My favorite book is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll.
It is my favorite book because of how absurd it is.
It is nonsensical and humorous.
It's my favorite book because Alice is such a brave character.
She experiences abnormal events and still manages to keep her confidence.
What about you, Elengrads?
Got a favorite book?
I'll tell you he always changes, but I'll tell you my favorite author and he just walked by and gave me a hug It was Jason Reynolds.
Jason Reynolds is my favorite author working today.
I love his books I love everything he's doing he's the best thing to happen to kids books in a long time well And we should mention we've done as brave as you and we'll put a link to that on her website at book club for kids org and If you're a school librarian or a teacher you can get your students on the book club for kids podcast all you need is a smartphone.
Just send us an email to kitty at bookclubforkids .org and we will send you all the information.
That's kitty, k -i -t -t -y, at bookclubforkids .org.
Thanks this week to producer Ilse Setzial.
Jonathan Jenson composed our theme with additional music from Charles Neilman.
Emma Steinkelner designed our logo.
Thanks to writer Alan Graz and our celebrity reader Amy Solano. And thanks as well to our readers this week, Danielle, Sebastian, and Micaela, and their librarian, Serena Ham, at Washington Latin Public Charter School in Washington D .C.
We have a free newsletter for teachers, parents, and librarians full of free tips about how to turn kids into lifelong readers.
You can sign up at our website bookclubforkids .org.
And if you haven't yet sampled our new podcast, The Fina Mendoza Mysteries, do give it a listen and tell us what you think.
Can you guess which other episodes are on our top 10 list?
Well, keep checking in as we celebrate 10 years of podcasting on the Book Club for Kids.
You
