Transcript: Children Chatting With Kitty Felde

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Children Chatting Podcast: Discussion between Kitty Felde and the Children Chatting Kids

[Music intro]

LAUREN: Hello everyone! You are listening to a special episode of Children Chatting with Authors. Today we are going to be interviewed by host and executive producer of the Book Club for Kids podcast Kitty Felde.

KITTY: Hi I'm Kitty Felde. Today we head out to the valley, the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles where readers at the Studio City Branch of the L.A. Public Library have some terrific summer reading suggestions.

KITTY: Ok guys what is on your list?

HELENA: Hi my name is Helena, I'm in ninth grade and I am in Cleveland High School. it's in LA. One of my favorite books is called Thornhill. It is really cool. It's like a mystery thing; it's half pictures so it's there's a lot of art in it. And half, like made out of like diary entries. It's really cool and it follows this girl who's moving into a new town and she's kind of exploring it cuz it's kind of like rundown and weird, and she starts seeing these like weird figures and windows and stuff in this like burnt down building, next to her building, and she finds this diary and starts reading it. And so her story is completely told in pictures, so you kind of have to guess what's going on. it's really interesting but then you also get this whole other story from like, decades beforehand of from this old diary; it's really cool.

KITTY: And why do you like it?

HELENA: Because it's pretty creepy, and I don't always like creepy stuff, but I think this one is really interesting, and it's a mystery, so you don't really know what's gonna happen.

SEBASTIEN: My name is Sebastian. I'm going into eighth grade and I'm homeschooled. The homeschool group that I do activities with is FaCE-LA. These are three of my favorite books. So, the first one is Unwanteds it's about a group of kids who live in a place where they think they're in a giant desert, but they're actually part of islands, and they have to defeat the government that's controlling all the people on the island. And they go to a separate place on the island that has magic that is based in the arts. I like a lot of fantasy and adventure books, and that's it and I like how it's written—the characters. So there's also Keeper of the Lost City series. So it's about a girl who thinks she's a human...

GROUP SPEAKERS: Don't give it away!

SEBASTIAN: But this isn't really given it away! She discovers this in the first... in the first two chapters. Uhh, but turns out to be an elf. And she has to learn about that and goes into a separate world of lost cities and it is now going on to this 8th book I think? And the whole series is really good.

KITTY: And I should add it is one of our Book Club for Kids selection, so if you want to get a taste of it you can listen to the episode and we'll have a link at the website, which is bookclubforkids.org.

KITTY: Got another one?

SEBASTIEN: Septimus Heap series. It's not in medieval times; it's kind of in this other world where they're kind of set in medieval times. But then some stuff seems more modern and it's got magic, and they have to go on a bunch of different journeys, to defeat different things, and then there's a bunch of different side adventures that happen, and then there's a spin-off series, that's also pretty good.

KITTY: Again, why do you like this particular one? Because there's a bunch of, you know, going on a journey books, a bunch of fantasy books, why this particular series for you?

SEBASTIEN: I haven't really seen any books that are quite like this cuz, the kind of main kid, there's a...there's a few main kids. They are taught magic. I like the characters.

KITTY: Anyone in particular?

SEBASTIEN: All the characters are good, but I think my favorites are the two main ones? Well if I say who they are, then that would kind of be giving away some of the plot.

ZAREK: My name is Zarek, and I am going into seventh. My favorite book is Echo and the reason why it's my favorite book, is because there's just like, a very big time gap between them, but it all comes together in the very end.

KITTY: How would you categorize it; is it a fantasy?

ZAREK: It's more modern time, like, modern-ish, so yeah.

KASSI: My name is Kassi. I'm in ninth grade, and I go to school at LAHSA.

KITTY: Which is the LA County High School for the Performing Arts, yes?

KASSI: Yes.

KITTY: What are you, a dancer? A singer?

KASSI: Visual arts.

KITTY: And your favorite book?

KASSI: Um, I have a lot of favorite books, but, one is like the series, like, I have not read the third one yet—it's called Hollow Fields. it's like, like an American manga, I think. So it’s like this, like, girl tries to go to a boring school, but she goes there wrong school, and she's like “uh oh”, and like, she goes, like a school, it's a weird school, it's like steampunk and they, like learn a bunch of cool things, and then she's like, “my parents are dentists, I don't know what to do”. It's really cool. I like it because it's really interesting and I like all the drawing in it.

KITTY: Well, talk about the art since that's your specialty. I mean how does this compare to other graphic novels that are out there now?

KASSI: Well I really like its style. It’s sort of more like Japanese-ish. Um I think, I think it's like the teachers, like, sort of like a steampunk. It looks really cool, and the way that they're drawn is really captivating.

KITTY: You want to write a graphic novel yourself?

KASSI: Um... yeah.

TOMAS: I'm Tomas and I'm in ninth grade at SCVI.

KITTY: Which is what?

TOMAS: Santa Clarita Valley International. Uhh, my favorite book is probably called The Uglies. Iit's this book that follows this girl, that's like in her mid-teen years. It's like science fiction, so these she starts out in like this dorm, and they live in these dorms, and then they become pretty. They get like a bunch of facial works and stuff, but that what they don't know is that when you become pretty, the government brainwashes you, so the government is like kind of controlling the society the entire time.

KITTY: Sounds very political.

TOMAS: Like, I guess.

KITTY: Why do you like it?

TOMAS:I'm not really sure, but when I read sometimes, it's really hard for me to read unless I really like the book, and it's just a book I could read really easily, so, I thought I liked it.

KITTY: Well, what makes a book readable? Is it cliffhangers? Is it language? Is it characters?

TOMAS: I guess it's a lot to do with character development, and I like reading like witty things, I guess.

JULIETTE: Hi my name is Juliette. I'm going into ninth grade and going to Van Nuys high.

KITTY: And your favorite book?

JULIETTE: Probably, The Hunger Games series. It's just really well-written. I'm on the third book right now, in the trilogy, and it's, it's really wonderfully written, and it has a great, just story, and overall world, in just stories, it's really, like, well thought out, and it's, it's really interesting to read, and I don't read a lot, but this book instantly captured my attention. I really like it.

KITTY: Well, I think every author in the world would like to know the secret. I mean what captured your imagination, to make you keep reading?

JULIETTE: Probably just the level of detail the author puts into the world and how, like fleshed out the actual world is. It makes you really feel like it's real.

BECKETT: My name is Beckett, and I am going into fourth grade at Wonderland Elementary. My favorite book is probably the My Weird School series.

KITTY: Why do you like it?

BECKETT: Um, I think that it's funny.

KITTY: What makes it funny? I mean, what makes a book funny, what makes you laugh out loud?

BECKETT: Some of the jokes that they put in there obviously, and the characters.

KITTY: Is it characters acting funny? Or is it just kind of an odd character that makes you laugh?

BECKETT: Um, probably characters acting funny, yeah.

DASH: My name is Dash, I'm going into sixth grade, and I'm going to Milliken. My favorite book probably is; My Side of the Mountain. It's like about this boy, and he decides that he doesn't want to live in the city anymore, so he decides to go to the forest, and live there. What I like about the book is probably how it's written. It describes the characters in an interesting way. Because, like most of the characters, since he's living alone, are animals. So it has to describe them in like a different way. So you can't really... it's not much describing as a human traits, more of animal traits. So I think that's pretty interesting.

KITTY: Is it because it's an adventure book, or because it has animals in it that you like it?

DASH: Well, it's not very action-packed, so I wouldn't say it's an adventure book. So I just like how simplistic it is at times. It's detailed, but simplistic at the same time,I guess you could say.

KITTY: Now you live in a busy city. Do you dream about living in a very remote area like that?

DASH: Probably not. I like living in the city. I just enjoy it more when there's more people around.

LEO: My name is Leo I'm going into sixth grade, and I don't really know where I'm going for middle school.

KITTY: I hope you're going somewhere!

LEO: I’m going somewhere. [laughs]. So my favorite book is called Spaced Out, and it's about this boy who lives in New York and it's like a war going on there, so yeah, so, he, he goes, he takes a trip, like a rocket ship, to the Moon, and he meets a bunch of people that, he, that he, he, just hangs out with, if like find a way to get back, because it's like, they're like running out of food, and they have to try to get back to the Earth.

KITTY: That sounds like a book that would make me nervous.

LEO: Yeah it kind of does make me nervous, because, there's...because I sometimes stop reading when...it...when stuff builds up. So sometimes I just stop reading, and then the next time I read, I see what happens in...there's a lot of cliffhangers, which, like sucks me into it.

KITTY: Yeah this...that whole thing about cliffhangers, about whether you really like them or not, and it seems like it's a love-hate relationship people have with them.

LEO: I mostly like them because they just make me want to read the book more cuz they’re just exciting.

[Music]

MILES: Thanks for listening to the Children Chatting With Authors Podcast.

[Music outro]