After months of rain, Southern California FINALLY had a weekend of sunshine. So we all paid a visit to the LA Maker Faire and City of Stem festival near downtown Los Angeles. We asked kids to tell us all about their favorite books. Some of these might become YOUR favorite book, too! The Cat in the Hat - Dr. Seuss The Couch Potato - Jory John Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney The Berenstain Bears - Jan Berenstain Spy School - Stuart Gibbs To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee Feeling Sorry for Celia - Jaclyn Moriarty The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett Calvin & Hobbs - Bill Watterson

How does a cover end up on a book? Writer Lisa Fipps is the author of Starfish, a middle grade novel in verse with a gorgeous, memorable cover. Lisa takes us behind the scenes of her experience with working with an editor and a cover designer. Lisa also talks about how her training as a journalist helped her write books for kids. Also, come join Book Club for Kids at the Los Angeles Maker Faire on Saturday, April 1, 2023. We'll be there taping interviews with kids for upcoming Book Club for Kids podcast episodes. Here's the info: Los Angeles Maker Faire Los Angeles State Historic Park (near Chinatown in downtown LA) 1245 N. Spring Street Los Angeles, CA 90012 FREE 9 AM - 5 PM  

How do you handle a bully? What do you do when someone body shames you? Our heroine turns to poetry in this week’s book Starfish by Lisa Fipps. Readers from Columbia Heights Educational Campus in Washington, DC offer their own insights on why people pick on each other and ask writer Lisa Fipps what she does to tackle writers block. Our celebrity reader is NPR favorite, comedienne Ophira Eisenberg. Kitty Felde is host.

You never know who will show up at a Maker Faire. This week, host Kitty Felde asks kids from Hawaii about their favorite books.

Looking for your next great read? These kids at the Orange County  Maker Faire have another shelf of suggestions! PS: it IS a Maker Faire, so host Kitty Felde talks to one young train enthusiast about his special invention. Book list at the Books We Love page of our website www.bookclubforkids.org.

What mysterious creatures haunt the Caribbean Islands? Writer Tracey Baptiste tells tales of things that go bump in the night in THE JUMBIES. Students from Cienega Elementary School in Los Angeles discuss the book with host Kitty Felde. Actress Tamika Katon-Donegal is celebrity reader.

Marie Arnold writes middle grade and YA fiction, as well as adult romances. She talks about juggling genres and her secret weapon Hold On Nancy with host Kitty Felde.

Moving is difficult, especially when you don't speak the language, you're being haunted by a witch, and your best friend is a rat. That's the starting point for Marie Arnold's middle grade novel The Year I Flew Away. Students from Jefferson Academy in Washington, D.C. discuss rodents and video games. Actor Barry Cutler is celebrity reader. Kitty Felde is host.

Before she wrote children's books, Lisa Graff worked as a nanny. What lessons from that experience did she bring to her work on the page? Lisa talks to host Kitty Felde.