Librarians can gain key insights from beloved authors and illustrators through this twice-monthly podcast

Familiarizing themselves with the authors and illustrators behind the books on their shelves empowers school librarians to excel in their roles. It can help them discover new titles to share with students, recommend stories that will resonate with particular readers, and build a stronger culture of reading in their schools. This is the goal behind The Reading Culture podcast, which features intimate conversations with children’s and YA authors every two weeks.

Created and hosted by Jordan Lloyd Bookey, co-founder of the reading motivation app Beanstack, that is used by schools and libraries worldwide, The Reading Culture podcast explores authors’ personal stories and their insights into motivating young people to read.

In each episode, Bookey speaks with diverse authors about their journeys as readers and storytellers, their perspectives on the cultural climate surrounding children’s and young adult literature, and the experiences that motivated them to read more themselves.

The podcast elevates authors and illustrators for youth and school librarians. Bookey’s goal? "Librarians select books with such intention and love. With the podcast, I aim to shine a light on the people crafting these unforgettable stories for kids."

Deep dives

Bookey started the podcast in the fall of 2022. In addition to featuring top-shelf talent, her aim was to dive deeper and unearth new stories and insights from these beloved children’s book creators.

“Usually, if librarians are fans of a particular author or illustrator, they already know the basics about that person,” she explains. "The conversations on the show unlock a deeper layer of understanding."

Each episode features certain “beats” that listeners can look forward to. For instance, in the middle of each episode, the interview subject will read aloud from a book that affected them deeply and then explain why it was important to them. These inspirational sources vary widely, from Kurt Vonnegut to Nikki Giovanni to Jorge Luis Borges. Kurt Vonnegut to Anne of Green Gables.

Each episode also features a themed reading list “challenge” of titles handpicked by the author to inspire readers of all ages, and it ends with a school librarian sharing a personal story or anecdote.

The Reading Culture podcast has a very high production value. Bookey sends each subject a microphone before the interview to ensure a high-quality recording. In producing the podcast, she chooses a key theme that emerged from the conversation and tells the author’s story through the lens of that theme.

In her conversation with Katherine Applegate, the celebrated author best known for the “Animorphs” series, Wishtree, and the Newbery Medal-winning The One and Only Ivan, Applegate discussed the unique bond that exists between children and animals. Bookey titled the episode “Natural Resources: Katherine Applegate on the Wisdom and Solace of Animals.”

Highly personal stories

In talking with authors and illustrators, what has stood out to Bookey the most is how personal their stories often are.

“The best interviews,” she says, “are the ones where the author makes themself more vulnerable. In those cases, when they open up and share with me, we end up with stories that enlighten our audience about the creator’s own story.”

In an episode from March 2024, titled “If Your Heart Breaks, it’s Working: Nicola Yoon on Love and Other Risky Behaviors,” Jamaican-American author Nicola Yoon revealed how she was rejected in a very awkward and heartbreaking way. In a May 2024 episode called “Summon the Tiger: Minh Le Blurs the Boundaries,” award-winning author Minh Le talked about lucid dreaming and described a dream in which he had a life-changing conversation with his grandmother.

“It was an enormously powerful and almost sacred moment—one that I was honored to be a part of,” Bookey says.

Bookey began her career as a seventh and eighth grade ELA teacher, where she met her husband, Felix. She went on to attend business school and became the head of K-12 outreach for Google before creating Beanstack with her husband. Beanstack takes a “no quizzes” approach to getting kids excited about reading, through goal setting, friendly competition, and positive recognition.

She sees The Reading Culture podcast as another way to build a stronger culture of reading among schools and communities.

“Many authors share that our conversation has been one of their favorite interviews. They really love going deeper, beyond the typical anecdotes and delving into their thoughts and their craft,” she says of her conversations with children’s book creators.

New episodes of The Reading Culture podcast drop every other Tuesday. You can tune in at www.thereadingculturepod.com or on your favorite podcast platform.

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