Frolic Podcast of the Week: The SSR Podcast Shares 3 Tween Books Worth Revisiting!

[Note from Frolic: We are so excited to bring you this new series: Frolic Podcast of the Week! Each week, we’ll ask one of our great podcasters to share a bit about themselves. Up first, we have Alli from The SSR Podcast! She’s sharing three tween books worth revisiting.]

Hi everyone! It’s nice to “meet” you! My name is Alli Hoff Kosik and I’m the creator, producer, and host of The SSR Podcast. On every new episode (out Tuesdays on your favorite podcatchers!), you can find me chatting with an awesome guest about a book from our middle or high school days. We take a look at these titles from a contemporary perspective, consider if they hold up or disappoint us, and have a lot of fun, too.

Here are a few tween books I’d highly recommend coming back to… for better or worse.

**1. Anything Nancy Drew (Episode 112 + Episode 5):**

Yes, there’s a healthy dose of nostalgia at the core of this series, but coming back to the world of Nancy Drew in 2020 might also surprise you! As much as Nancy was a trailblazer for girls in fiction and as large as she looms as a hero for many of our own feminist icons, these books are shockingly conservative for our modern sensibilities. Check these out for the perfect combo of warm, fuzzy feelings and food for thought.

**2. Forever by Judy Blume (Episode 75):**

Better known to many as the infamous “Judy Blume sex book,” Forever broke some serious ground when it was first published in 1975. All these years later, it still basically holds up as a sex-positive, frank primer for teens learning about the basics — emotional, physical, logistical, and otherwise — of consensual physical intimacy.

3. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (Episode 39):

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t fully appreciate the gravity and significance of this book when I read it as a tween myself. Coming back to it again for the podcast gave me the opportunity to really take it in and understand the precision and rawness with which the author portrays the mental health impacts of assault and trauma. Given the more frequent conversations we have about mental health in 2020, this is more resonant than ever.

Be sure to check out the SSR Podcast wherever you listen!