Things are a little different this week. On this special quarantine episode of our podcast, Story Seeds creator, Sandhya Nankani, sits in for our regular host Betsy Bird to facilitate a virtual field trip between creative rockstar Amalia (age 12) and New York Times best-selling author, Tracey Baptiste. Listen along to their video chat collaboration as Tracey helps Amalia grow a story seed about an athletic girl named Joy and her magical relationship with the oak tree in her backyard. Then, sit back for story-time as Tracey reads aloud "Joy's Challenge," the original story she wrote, inspired by their conversation. Like most people who have had to shelter in place or socially distance this spring to stop the spread of COVID-19, Amalia and Tracey, though homebound, show us that creativity can continue to bloom, even while in quarantine—and that collaboration can be successful, whether it is in-person or virtually!
This week’s quarantine edition of Story Seeds brings together two super imaginative Jersey girls: Tracey Baptiste (New York Times bestselling author of MINECRAFT: THE CRASH, as well as the creepy Caribbean series THE JUMBIES) and Amalia Tsampalis (age 12).
Tracey helps Amalia grow this story idea:
An athletic 12 year old girl loves to climb trees. Maybe this tree she loves to climb is in her backyard. It's really tall and there's not a lot of branches left. The personality of the tree is old and wise, and it's purposely losing its branches because it wants to create a challenge for the girl.
Follow this adventure as Story Seeds creator Sandhya Nankani sits in for Betsy Bird to host Tracey and Amalia’s virtual collaboration via video chat where:
The episode concludes with this week’s story time (20:25) where Tracey reads the story she grew from Amalia’s story seed: Joy’s Challenge.
Books and media mentioned in this episode: THE JUMBIES by Tracey Baptiste and THE MAGIC TREEHOUSE series by Mary Pope Osborne.
Calls to Action
Bonus Episode: Betsy Bird is back next week to interview Tracey so do tune in to hear them chat about writing and staying creative in quarantine.
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!
Hey Listeners! Looking for ways to support our show? Well, now you can! Visit our recently launched glow.fm page where you can support The Story Seeds Podcast on a recurring or one-time basis. Your donation - large or small - will help us create more episodes of the show and give us the ability to provide opportunities for more kids from around the world to participate in Story Seeds.
This episode is also available on YouTube. Subscribe here.
Show credits
This episode was produced and hosted by Sandhya Nankani. Co-producers are Anjali Sakhrani and Kayla Fedeson. Sound mixing, design, and score is by Ania Grezsik and Matt Boynton of Ultraviolet Audio. 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