{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Listen to the Girls: Chrystal D. Giles on Protecting and Empowering Kids","description":"In this powerful and heartfelt episode of Reading With Your Kids, we welcome Chrystal D. Giles to talk about her new middle grade novel, \u201cListen to the Girls.\u201d Chrystal introduces us to Calla, a seventh grader whose carefree start to summer is shaken when rumors surface about her favorite teacher\u2019s inappropriate behavior with students. The story follows Calla as she navigates confusion, fear, and uncertainty, learning how to sort through information, trust her feelings, and\u2014most importantly\u2014listen to the girls who are bravely speaking up. Chrystal shares the real-life inspirations behind the book, including disturbing cases in her own school district and her experiences as both a parent and a survivor of peer harassment. She talks about wanting to give kids language, signs, and emotional tools to recognize grooming, understand boundaries, and know they deserve to be believed. Chrystal also discusses how writing this story has made her more intentional as a parent, and how she balances tough topics with care, levity, and love. She even reveals that her next picture book, \u201cWe Are Joy,\u201d is a bright, uplifting counterbalance to the heaviness of \u201cListen to the Girls.\u201d In the final segment, we\u2019re joined by author Michelle S. Kennedy and illustrator Bonnie Bright to talk about their picture book \u201cCell Phone Itis,\u201d a fun, insightful look at kids\u2019 (and adults\u2019!) attachment to their phones. Bonnie shares the real-life moments that inspired the story and how the book opens up honest, sometimes humorous conversations in classrooms and families about screen time, safety, and being present in the real world. ","author_name":"Reading With Your Kids Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/readingwithyourkids.libsyn.com\/site","html":"