Literary Safari

04/30/2024

Thanks to for including Story Seeds on your list of “Great Podcasts for Kids” in your latest issue along with so many other terrific shows. Our podcast activity book Imagination Lab makes a fun companion and is available in the UK on Amazon and other bolkdlettes as well as through our website (link in bio).

12/15/2023

Look what popped into our email today - The New York Times Best Gifts for Kids newsletter! We are super happy to see our very own Story Seeds Podcast activity book featured in the Best Gifts for 10 Year Olds list! 🎉🥰

Wirecutter experts spent hundreds of hours researching and testing toys, games and other gear to find the best gifts for children. Swipe to see what they have to say about our book.

It’s not too late to get a copy for that special imaginative child in your life 🎁

Use promo code IMAGINE20 at checkout at our website to get 20% off. Link in bio

09/30/2023

Hello friends. It's been a while! Today is International Podcast Day.

After a soft launch last month , we are thrilled to announce the release of Podcasting 101 for Educators, an online, self-paced course on podcasting. This course—which was inspired by virtual podcasting camps we ran in the summer of 2020—has been designed to empower educators to harness the transformative power of podcasting as a dynamic pedagogical tool, as well as provide homeschooling parents, teachers, and librarians with the building blocks of know-how for starting their own podcast.

In celebration of International Podcast Day, today Sept 30, please tag an educator and invite them to use the promocode FIRSTINLINE at checkout for 25% off through Oct 3rd. They can learn more and sign-up at www.storyseedspodcast.com/podcasting101

Course Curriculum

Module 1: Enter the Podverse
Module 2: The Wide World of Podcasts
Module 3: Baking a Great Podcast
Module 4: Choosing a Topic
Module 5: Planning a Podcast
Module 6: Recording and Editing a Podcast
Module 7: Editing a Podcast
Module 8: All about Sound Design
Module 9: Packaging a Podcast
Module 10: Releasing a Podcast

08/25/2023

Thanks to Twinkl and their team for featuring our podcast Story Seeds on their 8 Best Educational Podcasts for Homeschoolers 2023 - https://www.twinkl.com/l/1664rh

As a gift for homeschoolers, they are offering a month long Twinkl Ultimate account for FREE. Use the promo code
TWINKLHOMESCHOOL
from July 10 to September 10 to get full and unlimited access to over 1,000,000 teacher-made resources.

We thought that was a sweet back to school gift and wanted to pass it along.

03/16/2023

We are loving this illustration by Nolan Pelletier in this week’s issue of The New Yorker magazine. The accompanying piece is a short and beautiful essay by Jill Lepore about seed catalogues and spring gardening. What story seeds do you want to grow as we near the end of winter? A new one, an idea you jotted down in the past? Whatever it is, now is the time to start going through your inner seed catalogue!

09/30/2022

We are so honored to be featured by the University of Iowa’s Richard O. Jacobson’s Center for Comprehensive Literacy. Their mission is to promote comprehensive literacy of all learners by transforming literacy education. We are humbled at the recognition that they feel our show can play a part in this type of transformation, 🎉

Posted • Did you know that today is International Podcast Day? If you or your kids need a new podcast to listen to, The Story Seeds Podcast features kids with story ideas that have been matched with well-known and loved authors to collaborate and grow their “story seeds”. On their website, each podcast is paired with photos, illustrations, and a bonus Q&A with the author. Check it out!!

Storyseedspodcast.com

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

05/26/2022

Our hearts are heavy in the aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting that snatched away the light and drama of 19 children and 2 teachers yesterday. As you know, we believe deeply in the power of story to heal, to crack open space for difficult dialogue, and to look deeply. So today, we want to share some resources that our studio Literary Safari created back in 2019 for parents, educators, & students living in the shadow of school shootings.

We started by writing a 16-part Instagram style novella called which was inspired by research and news stories and explore the impact (and dystopian twists) of a lack of meaningful gun reform on our society. Then we created discussion guides to support parents and educators to use storytelling as a doorway to talk about these painful and difficult issues surrounding mass shootings in schools.
Finally, we invited over 70 authors , librarians, educators, and game designers to recommend books and games for young people growing up in the age of lockdown drills and mass shootings@amd created book and game lists.

We hope these resources can be helpful at this time. They live at amd can be downloaded our website www.literary safari.com/studio.

We are grateful to the Mississippi Library Commission for sharing them earlier today. They said , "We highly recommend parents, educators, and/or students struggling with the tragedy check out the resources in this thread that include discussion guides, book lists, and empathy/SEL games."

04/21/2022

Posted • I had a wonderful time collaborating with my friend on a episode. Our story about Sally the wonder dog has been nominated for ! 🐶❤️

If you haven't already, you can vote for us at the link in my bio.

03/30/2022

It’s such an honor to share this post and have our book for sale at one of our all time favorite gift shops - the The Eric Carle Museum] !!! Are you a book seller? DM us for direct bulk orders. 🤗

Posted • The Eric Carle Museum] Our booksellers are having fun with the Story Seeds Podcast activity book! The Story Seeds podcast allows kids to get creative and collaborate with famous authors to grow their story ideas. The activity book features over 80 pages of episode inspired, screen-free prompts and projects inspired by interviews with authors like Jason Reynolds, Carlos Hernandez, Katherine Applegate, Aram Kim, and more!
Find this book and more activity books for creative kids in the .
Learn more about the podcast and start listening at .

03/30/2022

It's such an honor to have our podcast activity book be featured by one of our favorite children's museums.🤩 Imagination Lab is now available at incredible bookshop at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Northhampton, Mass !

Our booksellers are having fun with the Story Seeds Podcast activity book! The Story Seeds podcast allows kids to get creative and collaborate with famous authors to grow their story ideas. The activity book features 80+ pages of episode inspired, screen-free prompts and projects inspired by interviews with authors like Katherine Applegate, Chris Grabenstein, Rajani LaRocca, and more!

Find this book and more activity books for creative kids here: https://shop.carlemuseum.org/

Learn more about the podcast and start listening: https://www.storyseedspodcast.com/

01/19/2022

What an honor to have our podcast with our fabulous cover art by featured in magazine’s Jan 11 issue in their Time Off /Culture column. They spoke with our podcast host Betsy and our creator Sandhya . Read the piece below. 👇🏽

Have a great idea for a story? The Story Seeds Podcast pairs kids who have original ideas with professional authors. Together, they brainstorm and develop the idea. Then the author writes a story, which is read on the podcast.

Sandhya Nankani (top) created the podcast. She wants to highlight kids’ creativity. “When kids get to a certain age, there isn’t much space to imagine and create,” she told TFK. “I wanted to make a space . . . where collaboration and imagination can be centered.”

Betsy Bird hosts the podcast. She loves listening in on the teamwork between kids and authors. “This cross-generational collaboration is enticing,” Bird says. “Nothing helps you write better than actually interacting with kids.”

12/03/2021

Thanks to our friend and featured author for these kind words about our activity book
Imagination Lab: Experiments in Creativity! 🥰

Sale alert! 🔥 Our activity book is available worldwide through our website www.storyseedspodcast.com. Use the code SHOPSMALL now through Dec 8 to get 20% off our activity book [link in bio ].

Our book is also recommended by
but we gotta admit a stamp of approval from Chris Grabenstein, whose imagination wows us on a daily basis, means the world to us.

11/23/2021

Our creative rockstar Jocelyn, age 9, a student from San Marcos Unified School District not only came up with a wonderful story idea for Katherine Applegate to grow on Episode 11 of Story Seeds. She also illustrated the final tale showing the main character with her service dog Super Sally - “Two Brave Girls, One with Four Paws," complete with an image of her favorite stuffed animal Bunny Bunny who accompanies Jocelyn to every treatment at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego.

Listen to the full episode and download our companion activity kit at https://www.storyseedspodcast.com/podcast-episodes/nosethatknows

11/10/2021

Our Imagination Lab, recently featured in Wirecutter and Parents is back with a brand-new downloadable companion activity kit for Episode 11: The Nose Knows featuring Katherine Applegate and 9 year old creative rockstar Jocelyn.

Our printable mini-magazine "Find a New Point of View" features:
- A guided exercise on creating a sidekick character
- A prompt to write from an animal’s point of view
- A listening comprehension and creative arts activity based on the episode story “Two Brave Girls, One with Four Paws”
- A pourquoi tale from Ethiopia
- A nonfiction article on animal communication
- A very “smelly” science experiment
- A personal resilience-building activity

Scan the QR code on page 1 to launch listening and learning adventures that invite kids ages 6-12 to explore how different beings (both human and animal) perceive the world!!

Download your Imagination Lab activity kit at https://www.storyseedspodcast.com/imaginationlab/newpointofview

11/08/2021

Did you know? Newbery Award-winning author Katherine Applegate Katherine Applegate didn't always love to read as a child. In her words from our bonus interview episode of The Story Seeds Podcast:

"I confess this fully every time I do a school visit, I was not a reader and I am absolutely in the minority on this. I think you'll find most writers were reading Tolstoy in utero ...But I was … I was not one of those. I was one of those kids who just kind of didn't get the point. Now I happen to have a daughter who has dyslexia. And of course, in that case, writing is really a challenge. But that wasn't my particular issue. I just thought it was kind of pointless. And then I came across, you know what I call my best friend book "Charlotte's Web." And probably because it involved animals. And of course, because it's such a gorgeous and poignant story. It clicked with me and I thought, "Hey, you know, maybe there's something to this whole reading thing," but I think it's so important for young readers to realize that it's different for everybody. You don't have to love Charlotte's Web. Maybe it's a graphic novel. Maybe it's poetry. Maybe it's nonfiction, you know, everybody's different. And somewhere out there, there's a book that's just going to change the way you look at the world. Reading allows you for a brief moment or two to be a different person, and that is such a remarkable gift. Once you understand how much fun it is and the way to do that is keep experimenting because everybody is different."

We always create a bonus episode to pair with our Story Seeds collaborations because it gives us a chance to hear our host Elizabeth Bird ask thoughtful questions of our featured author and discover more about their creative and research process.

Check out our bonus episode at https://www.storyseedspodcast.com/podcast-episodes/nosethatknows, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts

This episode is sponsored by MacKids Books, publisher of Katherine Applegate's new best-selling book WILLODEEN

10/31/2021

Happy Halloween to our listeners! 🎃 we love this time of year, the stories and poems and songs that accompany it!

This porch in made us smile as we imagined all the different types of hollers that will be heard on this stoop 👻

As we go about our day today we will be tuning into the sounds of Halloween:
Cackles, screams, doorbells, candy wrappers ripping, footsteps, the Monster Mash, and of course spooktacular Halloween playlist!

https://app.kidslisten.org/playlist/Kids-Listen-Sweeps

10/29/2021

Tap to listen to an excerpt from the immersive storytime segment on the brand new episode of The Story Seeds Podcast sponsored by MacKids Books. "Two Brave Girls: One with Four Paws," is the brand new short story by Katherine Applegate which she grew from Jocelyn Strong true-life inspired story seed.

This heartwarming story is told from the point of view of Sally, a brave and spunky dog, who is determined to be there for his BFF Jocelyn when she is diagnosed with cancer. We love how Applegate took a complex topic like childhood cancer and crafted a story that has both empathy and humor while weaving in details from Jocelyn's life.

Listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts or at www.storyseedspodcast.com for behind the scenes pics, a link to our Imagination Lab activity kit, and fun facts about Katherine and Jocelyn.

10/28/2021

New Story Seeds Podcast episode alert! 🎗️🐶 🎧 "A Nose that Knows" featuring Jocelyn Strong and Katherine Applegate and hosted by the inimitable Elizabeth Bird dropped this morning.

This inspired collaboration took place starting Labor Day weekend when 9 year old Jocelyn virtually met up on a Sunday morning with her creative partner, Newbery Award-winning author Katherine Applegate, who was just kicking off her book tour for her newly published middle grade novel WILLODEEN. The story seed they grew was about a super (service) dog (in training) named Sally who helps a little girl with cancer (just like Jocelyn) feel better.

We are thrilled to have this special episode sponsored by MacKids Books out in the world. It celebrates deep listening, creative partnership, and empathic connections—and raises awareness about childhood cancer, which affects 1 in 43 children in the US every single day.

Listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts, on YouTube (storyseeds), or at our website www.storyseedspodcast.com

10/27/2021

Take in this delightful scene of the Show and Tell game that kicked off the virtual collab on The Story Seeds Podcast between
Katherine Applegate Katherine Applegateand 9 year old Jocelyn. In this clip, Katherine shares her favorite (a) stuffed animal (b) artwork and (c) pet. Our episode featuring their story will drop tomorrow and we'll share Jocelyn's show and tell here tomorrow as well.

Big thanks to MacKids Books for sponsoring this special episode of Story Seeds!

10/26/2021

Cute dog alert! We are so excited to introduce you to Sally, the five year old Australian Shepherd, who is the main character of the story seed on our new episode of Story Seeds which drops this Thursday 10/28. Isn't she just adorable?

Our new episode titled "A Nose that Knows" features Katherine Applegate collaboration with Jocelyn, age 9. The story they grew together was inspired by Jocelyn’s real-life experience with cancer and the role that her dog Sally has played in her family's life as a source of support and joy.

Here's the story that melted our hearts:

Two years ago, when Jocelyn first started showing symptoms of leukemia at age seven—even before she was diagnosed—Sally was unusually clingy and wouldn't leave her side.

"We truly believe that Sally knew each of us had cancer before we even did," says Jocelyn's mother, Tracy, who had had a similar experience the year before, when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. "Sally is Jocelyn’s super dog and has gotten Jocelyn through so much in her short 9 years of life. Sally is literally the best thing for our family because she has helped each of us get through the hardest moments in our lives.”

Jocelyn's story seed is "a dog named Sally helps a girl with cancer feel better." We can't wait for you to hear how this seed grew on our podcast.

10/11/2021

Giveaway Alert! 👇🏽 You may know Elizabeth Bird as children's librarian extraordinaire, School Library Journal blogger, and author of numerous anthologies and picture books. We know and love her as the host of our Story Seeds Podcast! Here’s your chance to win a personalized, signed copy of Betsy's brand new, debut middle grade novel!

LONG ROAD TO THE CIRCUS is the story of twelve-year-old Suzy Bowles and her ostrich riding adventures in Burr Oak, Michigan, sparked by legendary former circus queen Madame Marantette and her ostriches. With illustrations by Caldecott winning artist David Small, the book is inspired by the author and illustrator's real-life events and family history connections!

To enter, all you have to do is:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
1. Follow on Instagram
2. Like this post
3. Tag 2 friends who would be interested in entering this giveaway too!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Entry Terms: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
-- Open to residents of North America (US/Canada) only.
-- No giveaway accounts. No purchase necessary.
-- Accounts must be public on the day we select and announce the winner.
-- This giveaway is in no way endorsed, sponsored or affiliated with Instagram.
-- Contest ends Thursday, October 14 at 11:59PM.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

10/05/2021

October kicked off with a lovely Saturday pop up sale of our recommended activity book Imagination Lab at in Piermont, NY, one of our favorite coffee shops in one of the our favorite NYC area river towns!

Bunbury’s is a destination for bikers, coffee lovers, and bibliophiles and we are thrilled that our book is now available there alongside a number of beautiful children’s books published and written in the Hudson Valley, including some by owner/ author/ publisher Debra Pirsos.

We are excited for our book to find its way to more bookstores this season!

09/30/2021

On we are honored to have Newbery Award winning children’s author Katherine Applegate share why she chose to be part of our podcast Story Seeds.
As podcast creators and producers, it means the world 🌎 to us to have authors like her join us and our host on this audio experiment to unpack creativity.

Besides the fact that she thinks the premise of our podcast is “cool,” 😍 she is a huge fan of her creative collaborator, 9 year old Jocelyn , who is also a dog lover.

Thank you to both these creative rockstars and our sponsor MacKids Books for helping make the premise of our podcast a reality. Stay tuned for more on their collab and their episode which drops a month from now on 10/28.

09/24/2021

Today, on Pediatric Cancer Awareness Day, 9/24, we are honored and thrilled to share that Newbery award winning author Katherine Applegate Katherine Applegate is collaborating with Jocelyn this fall on a new episode of Story Seeds. Together, they are growing her story story seed about a dog 🐶 named Sally who helps a girl on her cancer journey. The story is inspired by Jocelyn's own experience and her dog Sally (pictured here).

Their collaboration will be captured on our podcast in a special episode sponsored by Macmillan Books MacKids Books which will drop a month from now on October 28. Stay tuned for previews of this incredible creative collab!

09/23/2021

News ⚡️We are growing a new Story seed on our podcast this fall. Our story seed comes from a very special and brave 9 year old girl named Jocelyn whose idea is inspired by her own experience with childhood cancer and her mini Australian shepherd 🐶 named Sally. Stay tuned for our reveal of her author match right here tomorrow!

In Jocelyn’s own words: "I want to do a (story about a) super dog - that's Sally - and how she helps kids in the hospital feel better because this is what my Sally does for me--she makes me happy. So that's what I would do because … dogs make me very happy because they're family and everything to me —and my mom also says this is my sister!”

09/22/2021

Something super exciting is afoot. Drop your guess in the comments! 👇🏽 And stay tuned for the tea ☕️

09/17/2021

New bonus episode alert !! Priyanka and Riya are best friends. Morgan and Mercedes are daughter and mother. They are just four of the voices you will hear in our new bonus episode - a montage of eight short interviews created by kids ages 8-15 during the inaugural Story Seeds On Air Summer 2021 Podcasting Camp. Listen as campers interview their best friends and mothers on everything from cooking & dance to podcasting & entrepreneurship. We loved these so much that we wanted to create this episode so that everyone could hear these interviewas and hopefully kids will be inspired to interview someone they love too!

This special episode of The Story Seeds Podcast is produced by Claudia Haines and Ella Rose Frankel. Editing and sound design is by Alyssa Baptiste.

09/16/2021

Such good energy and lots of sharing and brainstorming with Preeti Vasudevan of Thresh Dance and Anu Sehgal of The Culture Tree today! Excited to see where our conversations and sharing as creatives, female founders, and South Asian women lead and what blooms 🪴

So amazing to finally meet two amazing women from NY based sister organization in the heart of NYC!

We are coming together to create some critical and groundbreaking platforms for our children…stay tuned.
preeti is the Founder of , which creates a provocative dialogue between Indian and western performing arts, connecting heritage cultures with contemporary lives.

Sandhya Nankani, Founder and , they are committed to helping children grow their ideas and imaginations to develop podcasting classes for children ages 8-14!

09/13/2021

We are super thrilled and honored to share that our activity book IMAGINATION LAB was recently added to 19 Best Gifts for 10 year olds alongside some of our favorites like Paint Chip Poetry from Intuos drawing tablet and architecture sets! Read full review 👇🏽

‘As kids get older, imagination is something that gets neglected ... At age 10, kids have hit a double-digit milestone, with their teen years just around the corner. Kids in this age group are growing into themselves and refining their interests, so giving a gift to a 10-year-old can be an opportunity to deepen those passions while also encouraging exploration. For the budding young writer and avid reader, Imagination Lab is an activity book with writing prompts and other activities to inspire curiosity, inventiveness, and storytelling’~ Wirecutter New York Times, The 19 Best Gifts for 10-Year-Olds

Our book is available wherever you buy books and on our website (link in bio) for birthdays, back to school collections, home schooling, or just as a gift for your favorite kiddo!

08/29/2021

Hi! I'm Ella, and I'm interning for Story Seeds this summer. I did of lot of writing and a little editing, but my favorite part was getting to watch the campers learn, grow, and smile. School doesn't usually make learning exciting, allow for following passions, or leave room for mistakes, and the fact that the Story Seeds camps did is why I loved helping with them so much.

—-
Another big thank you 👏🏽to our summer intern and camp concierge Ella Frankel. She is a rising sophomore at Northern Valley Regional High School - Demarest. This summer, she helped manage smooth communications with campers and their families with daily and weekly updates and rounding up camp resources. She also interacted with campers in our shared Padlet ,
giving them constructive feedback on their audio experiments and assignments. As a “near peer-mentor,” Ella meaningfully motivated and modeled participation in our virtual program, helping us create a Montessori style camp where kids 7-15 had space to learn together and from each other.

At our studio Literary Safari, we are also committed to mentoring students as they explore career pathways and build the 4C’s to 21st century skills -
communication, creativity, collaboration, and creativity. We love having HS interns and are grateful for the insight into young people we have the chance to gain along the way.

Please join us in wishing Ella a safe and successful new academic year where there is ample room for playful learning and space to experiment and learn through trial and error 🤗