On this week’s episode, Carlos Hernandez, author of Rick Riordan Presents' SAL AND GABI BREAK THE UNIVERSE (a Kirkus Best Book of 2019 and the 2020 Pura Belpré Author Award ) is matched with not one, but two creative rockstars: 10 year old twins Siri and Zarana! The twins, who love to write and paint, bring along twice the imagination to create a story seed about a magic paintbrush that makes whatever you paint, real! Maybe too real! Join host Betsy Bird as she follows Carlos and the twins to the Children’s Museum of the Arts in NYC where they collaborate on growing their story idea while making some 3D art of their own. Then sit back for storytime as Carlos narrates the story he wrote, inspired by their meeting: “Citaria’s Paintbrush.”
This week’s Story Seeds collaboration matches Carlos Hernandez (winner of the 2020 Pura Belpré Author Award and author of the Sal and Gabi series from Rick Riordan Presents) with 10 year old twins Siri and Zarana.
Carlos collaborates with Siri and Zarana to grow their story idea:
A girl who really loves to paint get a magic paintbrush from her kooky aunt on her 10th birthday. She uses it to paint the animals she loves, but it turns out that her imagination is opening up doorways to a locked, magical world that’s letting the animals from her paintings out into the real world.
Join an imagination-filled Story Seeds adventure with host Betsy Bird as Carlos and the twins take a field trip to the Children's Museum of the Arts NYC to:
The episode concludes with this week’s storytime (17:00) where Carlos reads the story he grew from Siri and Zarana’s story seed: Citaria’s Paintbrush.
Books and media mentioned in this episode: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe and Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe by Carlos Hernandez, A Wrinkle in Time by Margaret L'Engle, The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, and His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman.
Calls to Action
Bonus Episode: Check back next week to hear Betsy's interview with Carlos. You’ll get to hear more about his life as an author and a game designer.
Kids: Call The Story Seeds Hotline at 646-389-5153, email us at storyseeds@literarysafari.com, or visit our website to submit your story ideas. You can also join The Story Seeds Society, our kids listeners club.
Grownups: Visit www.storyseedspodcast.com for subscription links, to sign up for our newsletter, and to download our printable activity e-zines for your kids (or the kid in you!) that offer opportunities to read, write, and get creative alongside listening to each episode . You can also follow us on Instagram @storyseedspod, on Twitter @litsafarimedia, and on Facebook @literarysafari.
Get our Imagination Lab: Experiments in Creativity activity book! It pairs perfectly with the podcast and features tons of episode-inspired prompts and projects! Order your copy here!
This episode is also available on YouTube. Subscribe here.
Show credits
Produced and written by Sandhya Nankani, Anjali Sakhrani, and Kayla Fedeson. Scoring, mixing, and sound design by Ania Grzesik and Matt Boynton of Ultraviolet Audio. Field audio recorded by James Boo. Hosted by Betsy Bird. Music by Andrew VanWyngarden, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/musician and co-founder of MGMT.
The Story Seeds Podcast is a creation and production of Literary Safari www.literarysafari.com