Episode 15: Life is a Movie Starring You: The Pesky Meddling Girls' Guide to Living Your Dreams by Jennifur Brandt

Sunshine and Self Help month kicks off with a groovy guide to life by the endlessly cool Jennifur Brandt (aka Jennifer Brandt Taylor). Were you a weirdo, nostalgic teen who admired both Riot Grrl culture and classic cinema? Do you love collage, paper dolls, and pissing off the patriarchy? Read along with us as we talk novelty stores, fashion tips from 2000, and the eternal appeal of Weetzie Bat.

Jennifer Brandt Taylor's website: The Librarian (also on Twitter and Instagram)

Pesky Meddling Girl Instagram

Life is a Movie Starring You: Out of print! Check your beloved local used bookstore, or some of these shops who can ship copies to you: Strand Bookstore, Montclair Book Center. Of course, there are used copies on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the like!

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Content Notes

Old Hollywood movies means Old Hollywood values! That means racism, sexism, and all sorts of -isms. Otherwise, a happy, kind, and supportive guide whose advice we endorse to this day!

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Show Notes

Celebrating Chalica

"MAMA IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!" Sure is, #princessringding -time to cuddle up with a good book (or our latest episode-link in the profile!)

19 Likes, 3 Comments - Go Your Own YA (@goyourownyapodcast) on Instagram: ""MAMA IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!" Sure is, #princessringding -time to cuddle up with a good book (or our..."

Foster Ring Ding loved this book! She found it delicious. Adopt her via Brooklyn FAT Cats!

Girl Power: Jennifur Brandt’s New Lifestyle Brand

‘Pesky Meddling Girls’: ’Zine touts pop culture

50 Things to Do in Baltimore

American Visionary Art Museum

Jeremiah's Vanishing New York: Tah-Poozie

End Comes for Love Saves the Day

Toy Tokyo

Vintage L.A.: Eats, Boutiques, Decor, Landmarks, Markets & More by Jennifer Brandt Taylor

Listen to Friends of the Podcast on Secrets of Story and Fuse 8 n' Kate!

Bob Baker Marionette Theatre

On March 9th, be a warrior. Watch the brand-new trailer for Disney's A Wrinkle in Time. Website and Mobile site: disney.com/wrinkleintime Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WrinkleinTimeMovie/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WrinkleinTime Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wrinkleintime/ Hashtag: #WrinkleinTime From visionary director Ava DuVernay comes Disney's "A Wrinkle in Time," an epic adventure based on Madeleine L'Engle's timeless classic which takes audiences across dimensions of time and space, examining the nature of darkness versus light and, ultimately, the triumph of love.

True Grease: The unvarnished story behind my favorite girl gang, the Pink Ladies.

Through the Labyrinth, and What Sarah Found There

Wise Children by Angela Carter

My Life (And Nobody Else's): A Personal and Private Fill-In-The-Blanks Record Book

The Late Great Me by Sandra Scoppetone

12 Deadly Cyns...and then Some

Amy Krouse Rosenthal

How to Live Life with Fantastic Aliveness: Remembering Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Dewdrops in the Garden playlist

Qoya

The Year That Skin Care Became a Coping Mechanism

Rachel Wilkerson Miller/ The REWM - "How to Spend Christmas Alone"

Shout out BSCC and Baby Bees!

You should be listening to Carey's Music!

Jennifer Brandt Taylor's House Tour

A Girl Like I by Anita Loos

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Readalikes

The Rookie Yearbooks by Tavi Gevinson and editors of Rookie

Queen of the Oddballs by Hillary Carlip

Current Reads

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

Under Her Spell by Bridget Essex

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2018)

Episode 14: The Betsy-Tacy Holiday Special

Happy Hols, Readers and Listeners! This episode is all about the classic Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace and their wonderful, homey Christmas chapters. We talk holiday memories, stories about childhood friendship, and just a little bit of terrible boys, creepy elves, and talking trains.

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Content Warnings

Forever YA goes into detail about the racial, class, and other issues which color these books, and what you, the modern reader, should need to know. Read here for Betsy and Tacy go Downtown, and here for Betsy and Joe.

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Show Notes

The Betsy-Tacy Society

Betsy-Tacy Convention 2018: August 3-5, Minneapolis, MN

The return of Maud Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy books.

"Isn't That Just like Tib?": Betsy and Tacy Confront the Other

The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

Lillian Russell and Mrs. Poppy via The Betsy-Tacy Encyclopedia, who also share A Very Mer-Ray Christmas describing happy scenes from Heaven to Betsy

Betsy-Tacy's Deep Valley: All things Maud Hart Lovelace, Betsy-Tacy and Deep Valley

Photo by Damien Walmsley

The Most Festive Things to Do in Milwaukee this Holiday Season

Ten Beloved German Christmas Traditions

A Smoke-Free Goodnight Moon

Christkindlmarket Chicago

Five Good Things from the Christmas Fair on Staten Island Catholic school Christmas Fairs, by Dinosaur Dracula

Italian Christmas Traditions: The Legend of La Befana

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Readalikes

The Wondrous World of Violet Barnaby by Jenny Lundquist

The Emily Byrd Starr series by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Current Reads

The Ghost of a Chance by Natalie Vivien

The Authentics by Abdi Nazemian

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017) 

Episode 13: A-Hygge: The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman by Louise Plummer

The month of dark becoming light and whitefish become lutefisk continues! Kate Bjorkman uses her Romance Writer's Handbook, with its three paragraph kisses and dashing heroes, to capture her winter romance. Along the way we get to experience the Bjorkman family Christmas, love in the time of broken glasses and six layers of fleece and wool, and the affectionate embrace of a nerdy, quirky family.

The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman: Goodreads

Louise Plummer: Blog

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Happy First Night of Hanukkah!

Here are the recommendations we made in this episode:

How to Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis: Goodreads

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli: Goodreads

Fearless by Shira Glassman: Goodreads, website

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Content Warnings

Side character death, casual 90s homophobia (fruit boots?!), assault of a male character by a female character, friendship aggression and slut-shaming. There's also a horrifying anecdote about baby mice.

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Show Notes

The true story of how Teen Vogue got mad, got woke, and began terrifying men like Donald Trump

How Sassy Changed my Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time by Kara Jesella and Marisa Meltzer

Want a modern take on The Romance Writer's Handbook? Try Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels by Gwen Hayes

Romancing the Duke by Tessa Dare

Courtney Milan

Beverly Jenkins

Is A Muppet Family Christmas the Best Holiday Special Ever? (Spoiler: Yes.)

Just as Long as We're Together and Here's the You, Rachel Robinson by Judy Blume

Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block

Code Words For Lesbianism In Classic Films

The Something Awful Christmas Albums

Photo by Marco Verch

Scandinavian Christmas Traditions

10 Nordic Christmas Traditions You Can Try at Home

17 Ideas for a Merry Scandinavian Christmas

The Year of Hygge, the Danish Obsession with Getting Cozy

Lagom: This Swedish Lifestyle Trend Will Help Balance Your Life

Announcing the Danziger Awards for Hilarious Kids Books

Readalikes

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Remember Me to Harold Square by Paula Danzinger

7 Days to a Brand New Me by Ellen Conford

Current Reads

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Anne of Windy Poplars by L.M.Montgomery

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017) 

Episode 12: Everything Terrible Happens at Christmas: Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

Happy Yule and Saturnalia! It's a Winter Wonderland at Go Your Own YA, where everything festively terrible happens to Gemma Doyle in Rebel Angels by Libba Bray. Carols, presents, wraiths and horrible fates in the classic about monstrous teen girls. We talk about Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the heroine's journey and folk horror Christmas traditions as we gear for a festive month of reads.

Rebel Angels: Goodreads

Beauty Queens: Goodreads

Libba Bray: Website

Content Warnings

Drug addiction in a family member, general Victorian racism,classism, and sexism, parental incest, blood and gore, suicide, and a whole lot of plot set in an asylum

Show Notes

Paradise Lost by John Milton at Project Gutenberg

Cassandra Clare scoops £1m for first adult novels

A Victorian [England] Christmas

Saturnalia: The December Festival of Joy and Merriment in Ancient Rome

The Winter Solstice - Yule Lore

Folk Horror Revival

Jólakötturinn, The Christmas Cat of Iceland

8 Legendary Monsters of Christmas

15 Fascinating Facts About The Wicker Man

Picnic at Hanging Rock

One Thing Leads to Another: An Interview with Libba Bray

Monstrous Bodies: Feminine Power in Young Adult Horror Fiction

Who are the Baby Bees? Listen to Baby-Sitters Club Club to find out

Actually it was Lizzie Skurnick that talked about friends of proximity in Are You There God? It's Me Margaret

Internet Anagram Server

From Bethlehem to Bedlam - England's First Mental Institution

Here's a playlist of the BBC's videos on Victorian Christmas How Tos!

Libba Bray blogs on depression

The Finishing School series by Gail Carriger

A Gemma sighting in Lair of Dreams! Thank you to allthesmallwords.tumblr.com for the photo

Readalikes

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves

Current Reads

Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World edited by Kelly Jensen

Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017) 

Episode 11: Brad The Impaler goes to STEM Camp: Cynthia Leitich Smith, Tantalize and Rain is Not my Indian Name

What do marauding vampires, teen restaurant impresarios, small town politics and grieving families have in common? Cynthia Leitich Smith, writer and scholar extraordinaire. Carey and Marie talk about the inescapable legacy of Twilight, Native American kidlit and YA, photography as a catalyst for self-exploration and expression, and really terrible men who dress like they did a walk of shame from a Hot Topic. 

Rain is Not My Indian Name: Goodreads

Tantalize: Goodreads

Cynthia Leitich Smith: Website

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Content Warnings

Rain is Not My Indian Name

Racism, small town prejudice, anti-Native prejudice, grief (long term and short term), girl on girl relational agression

Tantalize

Gore, physical violence, vampirism, sexualization of teenagers, drugging and forcibly turning a teenager into a vampire. Also the baby squirrel thing.

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Show Notes

Rain is Not My Indian Name readers' guide

Cynsations Blog: The Tantalize Series

11 Most Haunted Places in Austin

Austin Book Store: Book People

Nowadays, Cassidy can attend one of these programs: These Revolutionary Programs Are Helping Native American Kids Chase Careers In Science, Technology, And Engineering

A real life Aunt Georgia: Czarina Salido fighting to help young Native American girls discover STEM

10 STEM Summer Camps for Students of Color

Native Now: Contemporary Indian Stories: article by  by Cynthia Leitich Smith (contemporary to Rain is Not My Indian Name)

A real-life Sanguini's in Tokyo, Japan

Weekend Update: Pete Davidson on Staten Island

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Readalikes

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Current Reads

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

The Mindful Child by Susan K Greenland

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  (CC Marie Macula, Carey Farrell 2017)