A Quilt of Stars & Godzilla Dreams: Stitching Space, Grief, and Hope
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
Release Date: 07/16/2026
Into The Woods And Off To Bed
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this heartwarming episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed welcomes back Dr. Dale Atkins to celebrate her new picture book, Dear Deer, a nature-centered story inspired by a true and powerful experience. During a quiet walk in a wildlife sanctuary, Dr. Atkins discovered a distressed fawn trapped in rising water while its mother watched anxiously from the shore. With the help of two local kids, she spent over two hours working to guide the fawn to safety. That real-life rescue, and the deep eye-to-eye connection she felt with the doe, became the emotional core of Dear Deer. Jed and Dr. Atkins...
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A Quilt of Stars & Godzilla Dreams: Stitching Space, Grief, and Hope
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this inspiring episode of Reading With Your Kids, we blast off from a tiny Minnesota town all the way to the International Space Station—and then settle into the balcony of a creaky old movie theater. First, Jed chats with astronaut Dr. Karen Nyberg and her co-author Anne McCallum about their beautiful picture book A Quilt of Stars: Astronaut Karen Nyberg Stitches a Dream. Karen shares how her childhood love of sewing and her dream of space travel came together when she actually sewed in space, using Velcro, Ziploc bags, and a makeshift sewing nook on the ISS. She describes the powerful...
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Can Dads Really Have Postnatal Depression?
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this powerful episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed welcomes Dr. Christopher Choukalas, author of Even the Darkest Night: A Memoir of Paternal Postnatal Depression. Dr. Chris shares how what began as a simple journaling practice during a traumatic postpartum period—twins born at full term alongside his wife’s life‑threatening postpartum hemorrhage—became a memoir to help other fathers feel less alone. An anesthesiologist and ICU doctor during the height of COVID, Dr. Chris describes the emotional dissonance of holding his healthy babies while knowing, in clinical detail, just how...
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Bad Thingamajigs & Big Feelings: Growing Empathy Through Story
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
On this episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed welcomes two fantastic creators who help families see the world—and their walks around the block—a little differently. First, Jed chats with Matt Van Rensburg, author of the Reading With Your Kids Certified Great Read “How to Sell the World: The Stonehearted Story of Greyson Grimm.” Matt explains the unforgettable premise: Greyson is the caretaker of the world, tasked with eating invisible “bad thingamajigs” that appear whenever people are unkind. His work keeps the world in balance, but each bite slowly turns his heart to stone. Matt...
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Reading Our Way to Hope: Two Middle Grade Novels that Heal and Inspire
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this heartwarming episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed welcomes two middle grade authors whose stories are perfect for sparking big family conversations. First, singer-songwriter and author Tia McGraff joins us from the shores of Lake Erie to celebrate her new novel In Your Dreams, Jake, part of the Jake the Road Dog series. Tia shares how her rescue dog Jake, once just a day away from being euthanized, became a beloved “road dog” traveling to festivals, bookstores, and schools—and eventually inspired a middle grade story told through his eyes. She and Jed talk about the joy of live...
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Reading Our Way Through Friendships, Differences and Farewells
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this heartwarming episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed welcomes back second-grade teacher and picture book author Andrew Hackett to celebrate his new book, In This Classroom, and later sits down with Susan Cain and her son Eli Cain to talk about their tender picture book, Lucky and Norman: Saying Goodbye Is Bittersweet. Andrew shares how he juggles teaching, parenting, and writing—squeezing in drafts on soccer sidelines and early mornings—and why he actually loves revision more than drafting. He describes In This Classroom as his “manifesto” for what a classroom community can and...
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Everything You Need To Know About Life You Can Learn from A Dog
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed welcomes three fantastic guests who each showcase a different way stories can shape our lives. First, Bruce Littlefield joins from his farm in upstate New York to celebrate his picture book “Everything You Need to Know About Life You Can Learn from a Dog.” Bruce shares how his usually optimistic outlook was shaken by a rough morning—bad news, a broken porch—and how his dog Felix, joyfully unfazed, inspired him to rethink who the real “lifestyle expert” in the house was. Drawing on years of watching dogs in New York City and at home,...
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Are We Schoolifying Childhood? Why Reading, Relationships & Resilience Matter Most
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this powerful episode, Jed welcomes Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the OECD, to explore what truly helps kids thrive. Andreas shares global insights from major international studies, revealing that parents reading with and to their children is one of the strongest predictors of a child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. He warns that for many families, screens are replacing shared reading time—and that heavy tech use in early childhood often correlates with worse outcomes, especially for disadvantaged kids, while reading together strongly boosts...
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Motocross, Monet, and Messy Masterpieces
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed welcomes two creators whose work celebrates courage, creativity, and the many ways kids can be themselves. First, Jed chats with Rebecca Caprera about her new middle grade novel in verse, Eva to the Max. The story follows 12-year-old motocross phenom Eva “Eva Knievel” as she chases her dream of qualifying for the national championships. Along the way, Eva navigates family tension with a worried mom, a supportive dad who was paralyzed in a racing accident, and an overachieving older brother whose shadow feels hard to escape. Rebecca also...
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Growing Readers Through Bugs, Birds, and Beautiful Words
Reading With Your Kids Podcast
In this heartfelt episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed Doherty welcomes Heidi E. Y. Stemple, author of Lydia Loves Bugs, and later Jezebel Rivera, author of Mommy, Where’s My Dad? Most of the conversation centers on Heidi, her work, and her remarkable family legacy. Heidi shares how Lydia Loves Bugs began on her screened-in porch during the early, anxious days of the pandemic, when she wanted to write something purely fun and comforting. Lydia is a bug-loving kid whose mom studies bugs, while her dad and brother are decidedly not bug fans—an intentional celebration of family differences...
info_outlineIn this inspiring episode of Reading With Your Kids, we blast off from a tiny Minnesota town all the way to the International Space Station—and then settle into the balcony of a creaky old movie theater.
First, Jed chats with astronaut Dr. Karen Nyberg and her co-author Anne McCallum about their beautiful picture book A Quilt of Stars: Astronaut Karen Nyberg Stitches a Dream. Karen shares how her childhood love of sewing and her dream of space travel came together when she actually sewed in space, using Velcro, Ziploc bags, and a makeshift sewing nook on the ISS. She describes the powerful “overview effect” of seeing Earth without borders and how that perspective shaped both her life and this book. Anne talks about discovering Karen’s story, the global quilt project that collected over 2400 star-themed blocks from more than 30 countries, and how this book can spark family conversations about dreams, perseverance, and our shared humanity.
Then we head from orbit to the projection booth with author Brad Barkley, who introduces his YA novel The Real Life of Zara Keig. Zara is a 16-year-old still grieving her mother’s death, hiding out as a projectionist in a rundown theater that only shows old black-and-white monster movies. As she navigates first love, loss, and a distant dad, the book gently explores grief, mental health, and figuring out who you are—for both teens and parents. Jed and Brad highlight how co-reading this novel can open honest, heartfelt conversations in families.