Was This Good or Were We 13?

It isn’t spooky season without a good ghost story! Listen to Joanna and Kevin discuss the book that gave eight-year-old Joanna nightmares: Wait Till Helen Comes (1986) by Mary Downing Hahn. Experience a ghost story written specifically for kids and learn what Hahn has to say about guilt, grief, and death.  To get in touch, you can follow us on Instagram @orwerewe13pod. You can also email us at orw...

Have you ever read The Cruel Prince by Holly Black and wondered where it all started? You’ve come to the right episode. Join Joanna and Kevin in reading The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DeTerlizzi and Holly Black. Listen as we gush about the beautiful illustrations in these books, how this series is weirdly connected to tabletop RPG games, and why Joanna thinks faeries should be kind of creepy. ...

The spooky season has started ya’ll! And Joanna and Kevin are celebrating in spooktacular fashion! This means double the number of episodes in October, all centered on books with  spooky vibes.! Starting on the tame side, we have one of Joanna’s favorite books from childhood: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (1959). Learn about how this book ages well (and how it does NOT), t...

Kevin gets to put on his (recovering) film bro hat for this episode! Today is a special compare and contrast session where Joanna and Kevin talk about the differences between the Howl’s Moving Castle book vs movie. Learn about Studio Ghibli’s backstory and the creation of “Howl’s Moving Castle”, how the story was adapted to have a strong anti-war message (or does it?), and just how hot Howl is whe...

Did you know that Howl’s Moving Castle was a book? Because Kevin sure didn’t! Joanna and Kevin are starting season two with a bang with fantasy classic Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (1986). Learn about its use and subversion of fairytale tropes, and how it’s probably one of the funniest children’s books ever written. Also, if you think Howl in the movie was chaotic, you haven’t seen an...

“Dig it up, oh, oh, dig it…” In our season finale Joanna and Kevin revisit a classic for the ages, Louis Sachar’s Holes (1998). Get ready for nostalgia, child cruelty, and Joanna complaining about how no one will do group Halloween costumes with her.  To get in touch, email us at orwerewe13@gmail.com with any comments or episode suggestions! This podcast was edited and produced by Martha Morton an...

This week Joanna and Kevin are finishing up their discussion of Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Hear about how the second half of the book is wildly different from the first half, where the series is going next, and how Kevin really just wants more Po in his life. To get in touch, email us at orwerewe13@gmail.com with any comments or episode suggestions! This podcast was edited and produced by Marth...

“Katsa: The Baddest Bitch That Ever Lived” is a better title for this book. Joanna and Kevin read Kristin Cashore’s Graceling (2008) and learn what is a Grace, why every high fantasy has seven kingdoms, and just how hot Prince Po is.  To get in touch, email us at orwerewe13@gmail.com with any comments or episode suggestions! This podcast was edited and produced by Martha Morton and the music is co...

In a special minisode, Kevin tells Joanna the origin of how Eragon (2002) came to be. Learn all about Christopher Paolini, the wild ride of getting this book published, and Kevin’s personal history with Eragon (and its much maligned movie adaptation). To get in touch, email us at orwerewe13@gmail.com with any comments or episode suggestions! This podcast was edited and produced by Martha Morton an...

Bad science has finally arrived! This week Joanna and Kevin read James Patterson’s Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment (2005) and discuss just what would 2% bird DNA do to a person, how many times can you have the same plot before it gets boring, and should James Patterson be allowed to write YA novels.   To get in touch, email us at orwerewe13@gmail.com with any comments or episode suggestions! Th...

Jerry Spinelli was truly a man of many stories. In what is probably just the beginning of reading his backlog, Joanna and Kevin explore Wringer (1997). A boy’s coming-of-age story that involves a surprising amount of pigeons, this is surely a blast from the past.  To get in touch, email us at orwerewe13@gmail.com with any comments or episode suggestions! This podcast was edited and produced by Mar...

A true oldie is being read in this episode! Join Joanna and Kevin in reading The Boxcar Children (1942) by Gertrude Chandler Warner, and learn about some good-old New Englander self-reliance and just how much Kevin likes descriptions of food.  To get in touch, email us at orwerewe13@gmail.com with any comments or episode suggestions! This podcast was edited and produced by Martha Morton and the mu...

Join Joanna and Kevin to finish up Along for the Ride (2009) by Sarah Dessen. Hear about just how many morals you can fit into one story and what Kevin has learned about the female experience. To get in touch, email us at orwerewe13@gmail.com with any comments or episode suggestions! This podcast was edited and produced by Martha Morton and the music is composed by Sawyer Harrington-Verb.

Potentially the most millennial girl author that ever millennialed, Joanna introduces Kevin to a favorite author from her teen years with Along for the Ride (2009) by Sarah Dessen. Hear about just how not-subtle themes can be and how Kevin pictured the male lead as Jojo from Horton Hears a Who for the entire novel.  To get in touch, email us at orwerewe13@gmail.com with any comments or episode sug...

A favorite of classrooms and book-banners alike, today Joanna and Kevin revisit Lois Lowry’s The Giver (1993). Join as we read what Joanna has coined “baby’s first dystopia” and how this affected children’s and YA literature for ever more.  To get in touch, email us at orwerewe13@gmail.com with any comments or episode suggestions! This podcast was edited and produced by Martha Morton and the music...

“Corpus Bones! I utterly loathe my life.” Joanna and Kevin are time-traveling back to 13th-century England to read Catherine, Called Birdy (1994) by Karen Cushman. Join us as we learn about girlhood in the Medieval Period, the weird and wacky lives of the saints, and just how much of a history nerd Joanna is.  To get in touch, email us at orwerewe13@gmail.com with any comments or episode suggestio...

Ever noticed a psychedelic pug on a book cover and wondered what that was about? Well we're here to tell you with our first episode, where Joanna and Kevin talk about the 2002 British children's novel Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng! Get ready for Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket levels of child cruelty, as well as side quests involving everything from Broadway shows to jewe...

Meet hosts Joanna and Kevin to learn about what inspired them to make this podcast.

Joanna and Kevin are two friends with a mission: to reread the books of their youth to see if they actually hold up.