Scope Notes in Glorious Mono
Are you listening to the Brain Burps About Books podcast? Author/illustrator Katie Davis brings the children’s lit goods on a weekly basis with interviews, on-location reports, industry tips, and audio reviews from Jen Hubert Swan (of Reading Rants! fame) and Betsy Bird (of A Fuse #8 Production).
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Speaking of reviews, what with the aforementioned Bird tending to a new baby girl, I’ll be filling in for a bit. Little does Katie know that I have a “background” in radio, hosting a weekly show at my college radio station where my skills at repeating the station’s call letters (WTHS) and studio phone number (total calls received: eight) were unmatched.
My first audio review (for Jeanette Winter’s Jane Goodall bio The Watcher) is up in this week’s post. Click here to listen.
Filed under: Articles
About Travis Jonker
Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
SLJ Blog Network
Winnie-the-Pooh Celebration Week: Day 1 – The Complicated History of a Silly Old Bear
Rodeo Hawkins and the Daughters of Mayhem | Review
From Policy Ask to Public Voice: Five Layers of Writing to Advance School Library Policy
Rumor Has It: Kids Battle Online Misinformation in NOTHING TO SEE HERE, a guest post and cover reveal by Barbara Dee
Our 2026 Preview Episode!
ADVERTISEMENT
Loved the review, it was so weird that both of those books came out on the same day.
Wow! No, I didn’t know that, Travis! I’m so happy to have you on the show. I hate to tell you, but your first review was so good, you may have to stick around for awhile. I know Betsy will be very busy with her new baby Bird, so if I’m lucky, I hope you’ll start looking ahead at the coming year as a little busier, what with your podcasting duties! 😎
I agree. I just found out about the podcast from mrschu and I am trying really hard to catch up. Loved Kate Messner, she is so sweet.
Katie (and Travis), I tried to cheat and scroll ahead to listen to Travis first and found that I could do that, but it kept both files playing at the same time through one set of speakers. I couldn’t figure out how to stop just one. Eventually I had to close out the whole podcast and start over. I am listening at school (I am supposed to be cleaning my classroom–I have been here many hours but I keep finding things to look at on the internet, including Travis and you and criticisms/defenses of Eric Jensen and Brain Burps). It could be that my school hardware/software is not compatible, but if not, it would be nice to have the ability to speed up. I will check again at home on my iMac. Nice job, Travis. I can see why Katie wants to keep you around. Nice work on your podcast too, Katie. I enjoy them when I have the time and as soon as I finish my classroom, I will have a few extra moments so I better quit typing and start cleaning!
Although I like the juxtaposition of “criticisms/defenses of Eric Jensen and Brain Burps,” I do not mean to imply that I am looking for criticisms of Katie’s Brain Burps. I will be going to conference in which Eric Jensen is a featured speaker and I like to know what his supporters and critics have to say before listening to him (or any professional development speaker). Eric Jensen wrote Teaching With the Brain in Mind, which makes this pairing especially funny for one looking for any excuse to avoid cleaning a classroom. And now back to work!