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If you’re curious about the new Anne of Green Gables book–Before Green Gables–then check out on this! The podcast includes interviews with author Budge Wilson (ohh! I wish I could have been there. But listening to the podcast is a close second), editor Helen Reeves from Penguin Books, who edited Before Green Gables , LM Montgomery’s granddaughter Kate Macdonald Butler, LM Montgomery expert Betsy Epperly, Adrienne Clarkson (the Governor-General of Canada, and a literacy advocate) and more.

The podcast is a wonderful celebration of Anne books; it’s such fun to listen to! It’s so well put together, like woven bits of each person’s story that makes a whole–from the editor who wanted the book written, to the granddaughter, to Budge Wilson, to Anne enthusiasts. I love how honest and forthright Budge Wilson is. The podcast flows beautifully, and has such interesting tidbits. I loved listening to it. If you like Anne, you’ll want to listen.

For those of you who love kidlit podcasts–and good ones–Swimming In Literary Soup has a new podcast out! Yay! This one addresses social anxiety, a topic near to my heart, since I’m shy, an introvert, and yes, I experience social anxiety. The books Andrea discusses related to social anxiety are Albert by Donna Jo Napoli, illustrated by Jim LaMarche; Camilla’s New Hairdo by Tricia Tusa; and Emily by Michael Bedard. Know someone shy or afraid to relate to others? Know someone who would rather watch from the sidelines than interact? These books might help.

So hop on over to Swimming In Literary Soup and check out her podcast! Crisp, clear sound; a pleasing voice; fun sound effects in the intro; and great info, it’s worth the listen. Andrea also provides a transcript of the podcast, which I think is a nice bonus.

There are some good children’s book discussion and review podcasts out there. (For those of you who don’t know, a podcast is either an audio or video recording that you can listen to or watch online, or download to your computer or MP3 player for viewing or listening to later. You do not need an iPod to listen to them; you can use the media player that comes with your computer, your own chosen media player, or any MP3 player.)

Some podcasts have a higher quality than others, both in audio quality and in content.

Here are a few podcasts that you might enjoy:

Horn Book Podcasts
Horn Book has monthly podcasts featuring interviews with children’s and teen fiction writers, children’s illustrators, and editors, as well as discussion on reviewing and publishing. The podcasts are intelligent and entertaining. I wish they had an archive, where you could see all past podcasts, but perhaps that will come.

Swimming in Literary Soup
These podcasts highlight picture books and children’s books by topic, and may introduce you to a new book you’d like to read. The audio quality is good and the content is interesting, if you love children’s books. This is one of my favorite children’s book podcast so far, but they haven’t updated their podcasts since May 11, 2007. Hopefully that will change, but meanwhile there are some interesting books to check out through their podcasts.

Fuse #8
Elizabeth at Fuse #8 podcasts about children’s book reviews, book news, and more. Elizabeth has a great voice, is funny, and knows a lot about children’s books. Her podcasts have just started, and it looks like they’ll be several times a month. You can read about her podcasts here or sign up for the rss feed here.

Children’s Book Radio
These podcasts include author interviews with children’s authors and illustrators. Older podcasts include reviews. The beginning of each podcast has a lot of advertising that you have to sit through, that I wish wasn’t there; it takes away from my listening enjoyment. Still, the content can be interesting, the podcasts come out regularly (click on “episodes” on the right panel to view and listen or download) and the audio quality is pretty good. Includes interviews with Jane Yolen, Wendy Orr, Marla Frazee, and more.

Just One More Book
Just One More Book might be the pioneer of kidlit podcasts; they’ve been around for a quite a while. Just One More Book has regular podcasts about “the children’s books we love and why we love ‘em, recorded in our favorite coffee shop.” You can tell they truly love children’s books, and that’s inspiring. They have book reviews, author interviews, and discussions about what works, what doesn’t, and why in particular children’s books. I find the cafe noise a bit distracting, and sometimes it feels like I’m listening in on a conversation instead of a polished show, but they review and discuss fantastic books, and their content is good. You may find books that you didn’t know about otherwise.

Book Bites For Kids
Book Bites for Kids from WritingforChildren.com has frequent interviews with children’s authors on what they write, why they write, how they got started, and more. Each show is 30 minutes. It looks like they started this August.

Sesame Street Podcasts
Okay, this one isn’t entirely book related, but I had to include it (I’m a Sesame Street fan). This week’s Sesame Street video podcast, What’s the Word On The Street, is about newspapers and reading them. It’s entertaining and funny, has skits about newspapers from favorite characters (such as Grover), includes Matt Lauer speaking about his “favorite thing to do with newspapers” and is polished and well put together. It has everything I love about Sesame Street. It also, I think, promotes an interest in reading, even if the focus is on newspapers.

What podcasts do you like to listen to? Do you know of any other children’s or teen book podcasts?

Check out Just One More Book. It's a podcast about the children's books Andrea and Mark love, and why they love them..recorded from their favorite coffee shop.