Episode #120: Chop Suey! Cancel Culture, Intuitive Eating, Spanish-language books and Picture Book Recommendations!
Welcome to another Book Friends Forever Chop Suey episode! In these episodes, random “odds n’ ends” topics are covered. Grace and Alvina talk about cancel culture, discuss their experience with intuitive eating, Grace shares her experience trying to translate Where The Mountain Meets the Moon into Spanish, and Alison Morris shares picture book recommendations.
“How have you been?”
Grace has been busy turning a storage room in their house into a “sound room” for podcasts and zooming. It’s been a bit awkward using her studio and an ironing board set-up this entire time! Time to move on to bigger and better work spaces. Alvina has been going back to the office for work a couple of times a week, she celebrated her birthday, and is now preparing to head out to California to visit her family. (There will be a two-week break from this podcast!)
Chop Suey Topics!
Cancel Culture: First, the book friends define and talk about the history of cancel culture. Then they discuss how it plays into their own life and work and how it should be called “accountability culture”. Can you truly end someone’s career through cancel culture? Alvina talks about The MTV’s Real World recent reunion drama over some race comments, and Grace mentions Lin Manuel Miranda and the backlash on his movie In The Heights because it was too color washed. She acknowledges the importance of the masses being able to express disapproval but the problem is when that is being abused. Sometimes it just goes to far. They mention this article, “Did Twitter break YA?” and ableist language.
Intuitive Eating: Grace learned about it on NPR’s Life Kit podcast. This is letting go of the idea of good food and bad food. You should eat when you’re hungry. It is basically against dieting. You eat exactly what you crave. Grace and Alvina share their experiences with this style of eating.
Spanish-language books: Grace shares her rocky experience so far with trying to do a “One School, One Book” with Where the Mountain Meets the Moon at her daughter’s school. The school requested that some of the books be in Spanish in order to include the Spanish-speaking families. She found herself in a tough spot.
Picture Book Recommendations by Alison Morris:
Alison Morris is a nationally recognized children's book buyer with an infectious enthusiasm for reading and 20 years' experience matching books to readers. As the Senior Director of Title Selection for nonprofit First Book, she oversees the curation of children’s and young adult books on the First Book Marketplace, hand-selecting a diverse range of titles that speak to and address the needs of kids in underserved communities, with a keen eye to inclusion, authenticity, and kid-appeal. She previously served as Senior Editor at Scholastic Book Clubs, Children's Book Buyer for Wellesley Booksmith and The Dartmouth Bookstore, and was the founding blogger of the ShelfTalker children’s book blog for Publishers Weekly. She'll be joining us from her home near Washington, DC where she spends LOTS of time discussing books with her husband, illustrator and graphic novelist Gareth Hinds.
“What are you grateful for?”
Grace is grateful for popcorn form their friends Loretta and John! You can find it here: https://ewhobbs.com/
Alvina is grateful for the vaccine again!
If you’re a Book Friends Forever Podcast Patreon member, please send your own grateful! They’ll be read on this podcast.
*If you’re a patron, don’t forget to check out this week’s Random Questions feed! Grace Lin and Rajani LaRocca answer, “You’re In The Circus, Would You Rather Be The Person With Their Head Inside The Lion’s Mouths Or Get Shot Out Of? Click here to listen! If you’re not a patron already, join today!
Thank you for tuning in! Thank you to Hachette Audio, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, and Alex at Pacyworks Studio for producing and editing this podcast. Be sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and tell a friend about us. (Use the hashtag #bookfriendsforever.)
You can find Alvina @Planetalvina on Twitter and TikTok and @Alvinaling on Instagram
You can find Grace @Pacylin on Twitter and Instagram and @gracelinauthor on TikTok and @authorgracelin on Facebook
