Barking up the Right Tree with Tracey Baptiste

Things are a little different this week. On this special quarantine episode of our podcast, Story Seeds creator, Sandhya Nankani, sits in for our regular host Betsy Bird to facilitate a virtual field trip between creative rockstar Amalia (age 12) and New York Times best-selling author, Tracey Baptiste. Listen along to their video chat collaboration as Tracey helps Amalia grow a story seed about an athletic girl named Joy and her magical relationship with the oak tree in her backyard. Then, sit back for story-time as Tracey reads aloud "Joy's Challenge," the original story she wrote, inspired by their conversation. Like most people who have had to shelter in place or socially distance this spring to stop the spread of COVID-19, Amalia and Tracey, though homebound, show us that creativity can continue to bloom, even while in quarantine—and that collaboration can be successful, whether it is in-person or virtually!

Om Podcasten

Our Webby Award-nominated show matches kids ages 6-12 and their story ideas with diverse, beloved children's authors. Each episode chronicles the magic that grows through author-child collaboration and features an immersive story time read aloud by the author. Bonus episodes feature author interviews with our host Betsy Bird! As a Common Sense Media Seal Selection, our show is recognized as a great choice for kids and families for its engaging stories, valuable content, and diverse voices, characters, and messages and has received an A+ for educational value. Our show has also been featured in Wired, Time for Kids, Parents, The New York Times, and CBC and wasThe Week Junior magazine's 2020 Podcast of the Year. Our theme song and music is composed and performed by Andrew VanWyngarden, the Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/musician and co-founder of MGMT. Our companion activity book "Imagination Lab: Experiments in Creativity" is a New York Times/Wirecutter "Best Gift for 10 Year Olds" pick. This podcast is a Literary Safari Production.