Bianca with Ellen Potter on Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree

The Children's Book Review: Growing Readers Podcast

Award-winning author Ellen Potter chats about her wonderful chapter book, Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree.

Get ready to laugh out loud as the story unfolds on how a girl raised by squirrels in Central Park attempts to make new human friends. Inspired by a friend raising a baby squirrel and her own life experiences, Ellen hopes readers will appreciate the value of finding one's own strengths no matter the community they find themselves in. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this fun-filled episode.

Ellen Potter is the author of more than twenty award-winning novels for children and young adults, including Olivia Kidney, Slob, the Big Foot and Little Foot series, the Piper Green and The Fairy Tree series, The Humming Room, Pish Posh, and The Kneebone Boy. Several of her books have been chosen by the New York Public Library for their Best 100 Books for Children list and have appeared on numerous state reading lists. Her nonfiction writing book, Spilling Ink, A Young Writer’s Handbook, coauthored with Anne Mazer, was also chosen by the New York Public Library as a Best 100 Books for Children. Ellen lives in upstate New York with her family.

Transcription:

You can read the transcription on ⁠The Children's Book Review.

Order a Copy:

Squirlish: The Girl in the Tree on Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Hither and Nigh on Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

The Golden Imaginarium on ⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Resources:

For more information about Ellen and her books, visit EllenPotter.com.

Discussion Topics:

Ellen Potter talks about:

• How she writes to delight kids and wants to transport them to another world through her stories.
• That writing for kids is more fun than writing for adults.
• Doing school visits to ignite a love of writing in children.
• How writing is challenging, but she has developed strategies to get past those rough spots and move through the writing process.
• The importance of revision and how her best writing has always come out in revision.
• Methods for overcoming writer's block.
• The inspiration behind Squirlish and how it came from a friend raising a baby squirrel.
• How her own life experiences, such as her son going off to college, influenced the story.
• Themes of fitting in and finding one's strengths in the first book and how they continue in the second book, which also touches on New York City history
• Appreciating the value of finding one's own strengths.

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