FVRL ReadRadio Podcast

Welcome to the first podcast in our FVRL ReadRadio Summer Reading Club playlist – especially for kids and teens! This year's SRC theme is Explore Our Universe! Cindy from Abbotsford Community Library shares two great space-themed kids' books: The Magic School Bus Rides Again: Satellite Space Mission by AnnMarie Anderson and Star Fighters: Alien Attack by Max Chase.

Lori from City of Langley Library talks up TumbleMath, a math-tastic online resource for kids in Grades K to 5. The site offers families a wide range of picture books to help kids learn different math functions with narration and animation. TumbleMath is available to FVRL customers until August 31, 2020. Find it at www.fvrl.ca in our Digital Content collection.

Are you looking for fun and educational resources to keep your kids entertained at home? In this episode of ReadRadio, Jessica and Afton explore two popular online resources. Kanopy Kids is the junior version of the popular Kanopy streaming service. It features movies, TV shows and animated stories that your kids will love. For those just learning to read, BookFlix offers animated versions of kids...

Are you looking for a few good books to comfort you in these challenging times? Cyndi from Abbotsford Community Library shares three titles to lift your mood: All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot, Winter Stolstice by Rosamunde Pilcher, and Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne.

Are you a fan of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels? If so, Leanna from Tsawwassen Library has some great read-alike suggestions for you! Check out The Drifter, a tense thriller in Nicolas Petrie’s Peter Ash series, and The Gray Man from Mark Greaney’s series about an enigmatic killer for hire.

What makes an outstanding audiobook? FVRL staffers Jessica and Sally argue that a great narrator will take your listening experience to the next level. In this episode of ReadRadio, we share three well-narrated audiobooks from FVRL's digital collection: State of Wonder by Ann Pratchett (narrated by Hope Davis), The Lost City of Monkey God by Douglas J. Preston (narrated by Bill Mumy) and Read, Whi...

Alexandra reviews No Exit, a thriller by author Taylor Adams. Trapped at a Colorado rest stop with four strangers during a snowstorm, Darby Thomas must figure out which of them kidnapped the girl locked in a crate in the van parked next to Darby's car.

Tara from Tsawwassen Library reviews A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. This best-selling novel tells the story of Russian aristocrat Count Alexander Rostov, who in 1922 is sentenced to spend the rest of his life under house arrest inside a luxury hotel.

Joann from Tsawwassen Library reviews the Trickster series by British Columbia Haisla author Eden Robinson. The first book in the series, Son of a Trickster, is a CBC Canada Reads 2020 title, while the sequel, Trickster Drift, is the winner of the 2019 BC Book Prize for fiction. Robinson's writing seamlessly weaves traditional Haisla folklore into the lives of her contemporary characters.

Sarah from Maple Ridge Public Library is a huge fan of Rainbow Rowell. The author, best known for her YA fiction, writes beautifully about the human experience and the challenges of growing up (or just being a grownup). In this episode of ReadRadio, Sarah shares four of her favourite Rowell novels: Fangirl, Carry On, Wayward Son and Attachments.

Leanna from Tsawwassen Library reviews some great CDs for the young music lovers in your life. Kids and parents alike will enjoy the catchy tunes of musical artists Molly Ledford and Billy Kelly, The Okee Dokee Brothers, Laura Veirs, and Ants Ants Ants.

January 27 is Family Literacy Day, and we're celebrating with a special podcast episode! Jessica from Maple Ridge Public Library explains why it's so important for parents to read aloud to their kids. As a resource, she recommends The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease.

Are you an entrepreneur trying to grow your small business? Your local library can help! In this episode of ReadRadio, Jessica from Maple Ridge Public Library will introduce you to several resources – both online and in print – to help you succeed. These include business databases, training and legal guides. Not sure where to start? Book some time with one of our FVRL librarians who can show you t...

Alexandra reviews The Winternight Trilogy by author Katherine Arden. This retelling of traditional folk tales takes place in the icy kingdoms of Northern Russia and includes magic, frost demons and house spirits. The three titles in the series are The Bear and the Nightingale, The Girl in the Tower, and The Winter of the Witch.

In this episode of ReadRadio, Sarah and Kerry share some of their favourite books for kids 2 to 4 years old. Each of these titles is toddler approved and available for loan from FVRL! These include From Head to Toe, A Squish and a Squeeze, I Got Two Dogs, The Book With No Pictures, Three Little Monkeys, Sweetest Kulu, How I Became a Pirate and Pirates Don't Change Diapers.

Looking for some light entertainment over the holiday season? Eunice recommends While You Were Sleeping, the 1995 rom-com starring Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman. Bullock stars as Lucy, a lonely transit worker who saves the life of a stranger she admires from afar, only to fall in love with his brother while the stranger is in a coma.

Leanna at Tsawwassen Library review Furiously Happy. In this New York Times #1 bestseller, author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.

In this episode of ReadRadio, Dana makes the BIG announcement you’ve all been waiting for: the 2019/2020 Reading Link Challenge book list! She introduces listeners to the main characters of each book, and the stories you’re about to fall in love with. Ready, set, read! The books are: 1. Front Desk by Kelly Yang, 2. Kenny & the Dragon by Tony DiTerlizzi, 3. Where's Burgess? by Laurie Elmquist, 4. L...

Chase doesn't remember falling off the roof. In fact, he doesn't remember anything! When he gets back to school, some kids treat him like a hero, while others are clearly afraid of him. From bestselling YA author Gordon Korman, Restart is the story of a kid with a messy past who has to figure out what it means to get a clean start.

Joann from Tsawwassen Library reviews News of the World, a western novel by author Paulette Jiles. A live news reader travelling the antebellum south is offered $50 to bring an orphan girl, who was kidnapped and raised by Kiowa raiders, back to her family in San Antonio.

"This is the light that dwells inside all the brilliant wonders of the world, including YOU!" In this episode of ReadRadio, Laurel from Mission Library reviews You Are Light, a children's board book by the Caldecott Honor-winning author-illustrator Aaron Becker. It's a great introduction to STEAM science concepts for the very young.

Laurel from Mission Library reviews the children's picture book, The Greedy Goat. A very greedy goat wreaks havoc in the barnyard in this entertaining cautionary tale from Petr Horáček.

In this episode, Joanna shares the debut novel of Vancouver author Sheena Kamal: The Lost Ones. With rainy Vancouver as the perfect backdrop to this dark suspense story, it follows Nora, a biracial product of the foster system and scarred by a past filled with pain and violence. She is contacted by the desperate adoptive parents of the child she gave up 15 years earlier, Bonnie, who has just run a...

In this episode Laurel shares a great middle grade read, "Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow," by Jessica Townsend. In this novel, a cursed child destined to die on her eleventh birthday is rescued and whisked away to a secret realm called Nevermoor and given the chance to compete for a place in a prestigious organization called the Wundrous Society.

In this episode of ReadRadio, Joann shares "End of the World Running Club" by Adrian J. Walker. This novel has a wonderfully fresh take on the usually zombie-filled postapocalyptic genre: Edgar Hill, a lazy, unhappy man, lives with his family in Edinburgh, Scotland, when an asteroid barrage strikes Earth, destroying modern civilization. Unprepared physically or mentally for the widespread death an...