FlexiLingo
The Magic of Middle Grade: Kids' Author Diana Harmon Asher in Conversation with Dr. Elisabeth Paige
Dr. Elisabeth Paige interviews middle grade author Diana Harmon Asher about her writing journey and books "Side Tracked," "Up Staged," and "Trouble Finds Evie Lefkowitz." Asher explains why she writes for ages 8–12 and recounts years of rejections before "Side Tracked" sold to Abrams, followed by her other novels. She discusses weaving Jewish culture and Yiddish into her work, drawing on her father’s role as a cantor for Evie’s story of grief and a mother dating, and adding a Japanese American character inspired by her books’ Japanese translations and recognition in a national student essay competition. Asher argues for dive...
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with children's authors and poets and illustrators, musicians of all types, and yoga and mindfulness
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Is this episode right for you?
B1 · Intermediate
Fine if you can follow simple news
- 88% of the words are B1 or easier.
- 146 words a minute: a natural pace.
- 70 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.
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The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.
harder words (B2+)
Mindful Happy Kids, created and narrated by Dr. Elizabeth Page, consists of interviews with children's authors and poets and illustrators, musicians of all types, and yoga and mindfulness practitioners. Dr. Page, who also reads from her own children's books on compassion, gratitude, mindfulness and yoga. The puppy and Dr. Page practice
meditations or pets under meditations, which are recorded as part of the video. Hello, Diane Harmon Asher. Thank you so much for doing this. Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me.
It's a pleasure to have you on the show. As I was telling you before we started, I was pleasantly surprised with the books. I read about them, and then when I dove into them,
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