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the Book Friends Forever Podcast

Children's book publishing’s secrets are revealed as we listen in on fascinating, unguarded, insider discussion from two uniquely qualified best friends: award-winning author/illustrator Grace Lin, and one of NYC’s top editors, Alvina Ling. Go behind the scenes of kid lit and catch a glimpse of the lives of the best-selling author and editor, and the relationship between them.

Episode #176: Chop Suey: Crooked Door, Be Good or Goodish, and Guilty Pleasures

Episode #176: Chop Suey: Crooked Door, Be Good or Goodish, and Guilty Pleasures

Jess Justice
 

Welcome back to the Book Friends Forever episode! Grace and Alvina talk about the controversy surrounding the co-author of THE CROOKED DOOR, whether it's better to try to be good or just good-ish, and what their guilty pleasures are.

“How have you been?”

Grace is nursing a running injury! It has given her more time to be working on paintings for the Chinese Menu illustrations. It will have over 100 illustrations but only 8-12 of them will be full color paintings. The others will be computer illustrations and that is a new thing for Grace!

Alvina: She and Stephen went to the Highline trail in NYC , it’s one of her favorite spots in NYC.

Chop Suey!

Topic #1: The Crooked Door, tough publishing news surrounding the book and authorial misconduct. The publication has been cancelled.

Topic #2: Should we strive to be good or is it good enough to be good-ish/continue to strive to be better? Inspired by an episode on the podcast “How To Be a Better Human”. The episode is called How to let go of being a "good" person (with Dolly Chugh). The idea is to let go of the fact that you’re a good person. It is part of our identity. The podcast suggested letting go of that part of your identity.

Topic #3: What is a guilty pleasure exactly? What are your guilty pleasures? Based on The Creative Pep Talk episode that Grace listened to about thinking of your guilty pleasures and put into your art. Grace thinks hers may be shopping! Alvina thinks her guilty pleasure may be McGriddles from McDonalds and reality TV shows!

Book Reviews with Alison Morris!

Alison recommends what we COULD be reading. She starts off with a creepy read aloud. She recommends:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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.

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.)

If you’re a patron, don’t forget to check out this week’s Random Questions feed! Authors Andrea Wang and Grace Lin answer the random question What ridiculous thing has someone tricked you into doing or believing? Click here to listen! If you’re not a patron already, join today!

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