Hello Fellow Kids

We're back for the spooky season! This Halloween, Mara and Josh discuss Madeline McGrane's graphic novel The Accursed Vampire. Listen in to see how it stacks up. Also discussed: Jurassic Park, Alex Jones, Chloe Grace Moretz, CoinStar machines, Pingu, and genderfluid frogs. Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram.

An update on the future of the podcast and a short review of Jason Reynolds's novel Miles Morales: Spider-Man. Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram.

Mara and Josh visit the imagination of Kelly Barnhill for a second time with her latest novel, The Ogress and the Orphans! How does it stack up to The Girl Who Drank the Moon? Will they successfully figure out who is narrating the story this time? Tune in and find out! Also discussed: Rage Against the Machine, Angela Anaconda, goats, the Twilight Zone, food drives, and Lemony Snicket. Next month we will be on hiatus, and will return with a new episode in May! Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram.

Mara and Josh return to B. B. Alston's imaginative world with the sequel to Amari and the Night Brothers. How does this book hold up to the lofty standards of the first? Tune in to find out! Also discussed: Colleen Hoover, Mortal Kombat, prison phone calls, Children of Blood and Bone, Animal Crossing, and leftist YouTube. Next month we will be reading The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill. Next month we will be discussing Amari and the Great Game by B. B. Alston. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram.

Happy New Year! This episode is totally on time! To kick off 2023, Mara and Josh begin a new series, featuring a group of quirky siblings and the people surrounding them. Are the Vanderbeekers a suitable replacement for the Penderwicks? Let's find out. Also discussed: Arrested Development, It's a Wonderful Life, squatter's rights, the Daily Bugle, New England, and Burger King. Next month we will be discussing Amari and the Great Game by B. B. Alston. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

This month we take a break from book discussions to offer a collection of outtakes from previous episodes! These segments were recorded for various episodes throughout 2022, but have never before been released. Straight from the cutting room floor, it's The Clips Show! Also discussed: Chirp, Long Lankin, Dark Waters, The Night Gardener, Empty Smiles, and Hooky. Next month we will be discussing The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

In another new move to prove just how hip and current they are, Mara and Josh tackle a popular webcomic series! Specifically, the print release of Miriam Bonastre Tur's Hooky. Follow them as they read 400 pages of comics in a way different from how it was originally intended! Also discussed: Colonel Sanders, Gundam Wing, iyashikei, Elizabeth II, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and r/catsstandingup. Next month we will be doing a special end-of-the-year episode, and will return to book discussions in January with The Vanderbeekers of 141st St by Karina Yan Glaser. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experi

This month, Mara and Josh apparently fall into a mirror world where Long Lankin doesn't exist. Instead, there is only Jonathan Auxier's The Night Gardener, a story that is superficially similar but vastly different in end result. Take a trip to the other side! Also discussed: Wings of Fire, Henry Sellick, flip books, Bohemian Rhapsody, anti-anxiety medication, and either Amy Adams, Naomi Watts, or Nicole Kidman. Next month we will be reading Hooky by Miriam Bonastre Tur. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

The time has come to confront the smiling man once and for all. Will Coco, Ollie, and Brian succeed in returning to a normal life filled with therapy? Only one way to find out! Join Mara and Josh as they finish the Small Spaces quartet with Katherine Arden's Empty Smiles. Also discussed: Labyrinth, Looney Tunes, Marlon Brando, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Spore, and Stranger Things. Next month we will be reading The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

Mara and Josh are experiencing a very different August--specifically, August 1958 in rural England. They're reading Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough, and if you want to know how much it spooked them, you'll just have to listen and find out! Also discussed: Terry Pratchett, Gilmore Girls, the Babadook, council houses, Javier Botet, and historical terms for psychiatric facilities. Next month we will be reading Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

Mara and Josh take a look at an iconic and ugly time in America's history: the American Revolution. Specifically, they read Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, which follows a young enslaved girl named Isabel. Tune in and hear their thoughts! Content warning: miserable things happening to a Black girl for 300 pages. Also discussed: Elon Musk, Johnny Tremain, strawberry milk, Boy Scouts, Roman numerals, and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Next month we will be reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

With their landmark fiftieth episode, Mara and Josh dive into a promising new series with Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston. How does this world of magical bureaucracy stack up to its competitors in the YA scene? Listen in and find out! Also discussed: Charles Dickens, The Good Place, Grumpy Old Men, Quinton Reviews, I Survived, and AARP. Next month we will be reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

Content warning: this book features sexual harassment of minors. Have you ever been to a cricket farm? Neither have Mara and Josh. But this month they check out a fictional one! Listen in and see what they think of this summertime story. Also discussed: Buddy Holy, chicken nuggets, Bernie Sanders, Jim Gaffigan, umpires, and Norton Antivirus. Next month we will be reading Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

Once again, Josh and Mara join Ollie, Coco, and Brian on their spooky adventures. This time, they're on a boat! What atrocities will these poor kids face this season at the hands of the smiling man? Also discussed: Myst, The House Bunny, motorcycle sidecars, the Blair Witch Project, numbers stations, and Hanson. Next month we will be reading Chirp by Kate Messner. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

Josh and Mara reflect on the first fifty(ish) books from the podcast with a single-elimination March Madness bracket! Where will your favorite book end up? Also discussed: Dungeons and Dragons, Riverdale, Wicked, the Great British Bake Off, and Billie Eilish. Next month we will be reading Dark Waters by Katherine Arden. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

It's time to return to the land of Orisha to see what's next for Zelie, Amari, and the rest in Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi. Will the sequel fulfill the promise of the first book, or will it let us all down? Listen to find out! Also discussed: Ellen Hopkins, Divergent, Michelangelo, Sam Wilson/Bucky Barnes fanfiction, "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down, and windmilling. Next month we will be conducting a March Madness bracket of all the books we've read for the podcast so far! Our April book will be Dark Waters by Katherine Arden. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

An anonymous listener suggested, so we listened! Mara and Josh take a look at The List of Things that Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead, a story of a girl navigating her father's remarriage to an absolute sweetheart of a man (seriously Jesse's incredible). Come with us! Also discussed: Rugrats, heads up seven up, Jim Gaffigan, Judge Judy, cake walks, Korn, and pasta. Next month we will be reading Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

As the days grow shorter, Mara and Josh bundle up for a trip to the illustrious and eccentric Winterhouse (by Ben Guterson)! It's a fanciful mystery set in a delightful locale, but does it live up to their expectations? Let's find out. Also discussed: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Dark Side of the Rainbow, the Addams Family, Yelp reviews, Home Alone, and 1930s gangster movies. Next month we will be reading The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

This episode shouldn't have happened, because we should have both read this book like twenty years ago... but we're finally reading Redwall by Brian Jacques! Does it hold up if you don't have childhood nostalgia for these rambunctious mice? Let's find out. Also discussed: John Cleese, Squid Game, diagramming sentences, the Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Rupi Kaur, and the Bubonic Plague. Next month we will be reading Winterhouse by Ben Guterson. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.

Mara and Josh take another trip down memory lane, recounting their top ten childhood creeps and chills that were more fun than traumatizing. Come join the fun, and let us know what gave you shivers as a kid! Also discussed: Looney Tunes, Lloyd Alexander, WandaVision, Morticia Addams, prohibition, and the Hayes Code. Next month we will be discussing our top ten childhood spoops, which is like last October's episode except focusing on the fun scares and not the traumatizing ones! After that, we will be checking out Redwall by Brian Jacques. Contact us at hfkpodcast@gmail.com or @hfkpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. We're also on GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/90379252-josh-mara Theme music composed by Ben Ash. Visit him at www.benash.com. Mixing and drums by Chaz Bommarito, guitar by Jakael Tristram. Note: This month's episode is being uploaded in WAV format instead of MP3 due to technical challenges. Please let us know if this affects your downloading or listening experience.