Storytelling connects audiences. Quick and Dirty Tips tells stories through our fleet of expertly-hosted podcasts, improving lives with each new episode. Our partners at Macmillan Audio also promote powerful storytelling, feeding the connectivity between author and audience – intimately in your ears. Macmillan Audio creates meaningful audiobooks from your favorite printed texts. Our Audio offerings often hit on similar themes and tell stories in our respective mediums. If you like the Project Parenthood podcast, you are sure to love these related titles, brought to you by Macmillan Audio.Â
For younger readers (3-5 years old)
For the earliest listeners and most curious learners, the audiobooks below will teach social themes about identity, self-esteem, and friendship while keeping children entertained with special sound design and music.Â
The One and Only Sparkella
This program is read by Channing Tatum.
Leading actor, producer and director Channing Tatum’s audiobook debut, The One and Only Sparkella is a charming ode to self-esteem and the love between a father and daughter.
Ella is excited for her first day at a new school.
Glimmering pencil case? Check!
Shimmering backpack? Check!
Glittery ribbons in her hair? Check!
She can’t wait to meet the other kids and share her sparkly personality. But her first day doesn’t go quite as planned: Her new classmates don’t like her disco-ball shoes, her PB&J-with-sprinkles sandwich, or her rainbow-y unicorn painting.
Ella decides to try to be less sparkly at school the next day so the other kids won’t make fun of her. But with a little help from her dad, she soon learns the importance of just being herself, no matter what other people say.
A Macmillan Audio production from Feiwel & Friends
If you like learning about identity with Sparkella, you’re sure to enjoy this episode of the Project Parenthood podcast. Dr. Nanika Coor explains how to prioritize love and acceptance, in moments of connection and conflict. Your child’s sense of self-worth will be impacted by many things that you can’t control. However, you can control what you say and do. Listen in the player below.
What Are You?
This program contains original sound design.
From Christian Trimmer comes What Are You?, a brilliant, new early-listener audiobook brimming with warmth and playfulness that explores questions of race and identity.
When a puggle meets two new poodle friends, there is a question the poodles feel they must ask.
What are you?
What am I?
Yes, what are you?
I am a dog.
No, what are you?
So begins a conversation about family and identity, and about the things we’re good at… and why we’re good at them.
Brimming with warmth and playfulness, What Are You? is an exemplary audiobook for early listeners. Equally funny and thoughtful, it includes prompts to facilitate important first conversations about stereotypes and bias between child and adult.
A Macmillan Audio production from Roaring Brook Press.
How does a parent avoid passing down intergenerational patterns of body shaming? In this article, Dr. Nanika Coor responds to a parent who is struggling to support their child’s healthy body image.
Young readers (4-8 years old)
We think your 4-8 year old early readers will devour the following fun title.
I Eat Poop.
Here’s the rundown:
In the vein of Please Don’t Eat Me and We Don’t Eat Our Classmates, I Eat Poop. by Mark Pett is a heartwarming and hilarious picture book about friendship, fitting in, and accepting each other’s differences.
Emerging young listeners everywhere are eager to learn more about social themes and identity. In these audiobooks, children will learn about peer pressure, immigration, and diversity while enjoying humorous stories with special sound design.
This program features original sound design.
In the vein of Please Don’t Eat Me and We Don’t Eat Our Classmates, I Eat Poop. by Mark Pett is a heartwarming and hilarious audiobook about friendship, fitting in, and accepting each other’s differences.
Dougie has a secret: he’s not a ground beetle.
He’s a dung beetle, and he loves eating poop.
Dougie knows he should be proud. Dung beetles help process waste and do other extraordinary things! But Dougie also knows that if anyone at school saw his lunch, he’d be an outcast.
One day, the lunchroom bugs out over a classmate eating poop, and Dougie must make a choice. Can he stand up for his friend—and for his true self?
I Eat Poop. is packed with important social emotional learning themes and is great for classroom or at home discussion. Read I Eat Poop. for conversations about:
- – Bullying and being kind
- – Standing up for your friends and speaking up for your beliefs
- – Being proud of your culture and heritage
- – Embracing diversity and accepting and celebrating differences
The book also includes incredible, STEM-related facts about bugs.
A Macmillan Audio production from Roaring Brook Press.
Teaching our kids about ableism can be challenging. Dr. Nanika Coor at the Project Parenthood podcast helps with this episode. Listen in this player:
Bit older readers (5-8 years old)
As your kids grow, it’s not only their clothes and shoe sizes that change at lightning speed. It’s their reading and comprehension skills, too! We think these thought-provoking and fun books from the Young Zoologist series will satisfy your curious young reader. They will love learning about individual animals in the Young Zoologist series, where each audiobook is written by an expert in the field.Â
Giant Panda (Young Zoologist)
Learn more about Giant Panda (Young Zoologist):
This audiobook features music and special effects. Listen along and enjoy the fun that is Giant Panda (Young Zoologist).
Head to the mountains of China to study panda bears in this beautiful nonfiction field guide for kids.
You might know that pandas like to snack on bamboo, but there’s so much more to find out about this mysterious black-and-white bear! Turn the pages to discover where pandas like to spend their summers, and how cute they are as newly-born cubs.
Filled with simple science and plenty of animal facts, this book also explains how poaching and deforestation made pandas an endangered species—and what needs to be done to protect their habitats in the future.
Written by giant panda expert Vanessa Hull, Giant Panda (Young Zoologist) is part of an exciting new series of animal books from Neon Squid aiming to inspire the next generation of biologists and conservationists.
A Macmillan Audio production from Neon Squid.
Summertime means more quality time with your kids—and potentially more opportunities for kid shenanigans! In this episode, Dr. Nanika Coor shares parenting hacks for reducing family stress and setting yourself and the kids up for success. Listen in this player as you read on:
The Young Zoologist series is perfect for children who might be ready for short chapter books. Not to mention, these audiobooks will keep your reader hooked with the entertaining sound design of the audiobooks. The audiobooks from the Young Zoologist series all feature music and special effects to create an immersive experience for young listeners.
Humpback Whale (Young Zoologist)
A bit about Humpback Whale:Â
This audiobook features music and special effects. Listen along and enjoy the fun that is Young Zoologist:
Humpback Whale.
Head to the depths of the ocean to study humpback whales in this beautiful nonfiction field guide for kids.
You may know that humpback whales use whale song to communicate with each other, but there’s so much more to discover about these giants of the sea! In this book, acclaimed marine biologist Dr. Asha de Vos explains how humpbacks use special bubble nets to catch fish, and why their poo is so important!
Filled with simple science and plenty of animal facts, this book also explains how hunting made humpback whales an endangered species—and how conservation efforts have seen their numbers increase again.
Humpback Whale (Young Zoologist) is part of an exciting new series of animal books from Neon Squid aiming to inspire the next generation of biologists and conservationists.
A Macmillan Audio production from Neon Squid.
Do you have trouble with interpersonal relationships? Have you been told you’re a bit too harsh, critical, intense, or overbearing? This week, the Savvy Psychologist will help you focus on a communication skill designed to help you have more effective communication in your relationships. Listen to the episode in the audio player below.Â