{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"It\u2019s Okay to Feel: Shannon Stocker on Boys, Big Emotions, and The Roach King of Raleigh","description":"In this powerful episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed welcomes back Shannon Stocker, author of the new YA novel The Roach King of Raleigh, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Shannon shares the deeply personal inspiration behind Quill, a high school sophomore who\u2019s juggling a painful mix of family addiction, financial hardship, sibling tension, and crushing loneliness. To help his struggling family, Quill starts breeding dubia roaches to feed his bearded dragon and sell to a local pet store \u2013 and those thousands of hidden insects become a vivid metaphor for the dark, buried things in our lives that eventually crawl into the light. Shannon and Jed talk about boys and big feelings, the pressure on teens to \u201ctough it out,\u201d and why it\u2019s not just okay, but essential, for boys to feel and express emotions. Shannon also opens up about her own family\u2019s journey with childhood illness, anxiety, and disability, and how those experiences shaped the book\u2019s themes of empathy, resilience, and representation (including a key character with Tourette syndrome). Parents and educators will love Shannon\u2019s ideas for co-reading with teens and using Quill\u2019s lies, secrets, and friendships as powerful conversation starters about honesty, mental health, and healing. In the final segment, Jed chats with Dr. Monika Schott, author of My Dad Built Me the Best and Wackiest Cubby Ever, a moving middle grade novel about a family navigating a parent\u2019s mental illness. Monika shares how her story is helping both kids and adults talk more openly\u2014and compassionately\u2014about mental health. ","author_name":"Reading With Your Kids Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/readingwithyourkids.libsyn.com\/site","html":"