In this episode, you will find:

* On the nice list: A reading of the earliest Winnie-the-Pooh story, which turns 100 years old on Christmas Eve 2025
* On the naughty list: the worst film adaptations of children’s books this year
* A reading of my new translation of “Die Wichtelmänner,” usually translated in English as “The Elves and the Shoemaker.”

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This episode is taken from my Livestream about the history of Santa Claus. I will be having more Livestreams in the future, so be sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel and join in the fun.
YouTube: The Children’s Literature Podcast
You can also follow my storytelling channel, which just has stories, folktales, and poems with no commentary.
YouTube: Storytime with T.Q. Townsend
Learn the history of Good Old St. Nick, from the allegedly pugilistic Saint at the Council of Nicea to the modern day American folk figure that has been embraced worldwide! You’ll also get my ranking of the best portrayals of Santa on film.

 

This episode is excerpted from my first Livestream on YouTube, which was held on Friday, December 5. It was nice to chat with all those who came to participate, and I’ll be doing another Livestream on December 12 at 9 pm Greenwich Time to tell the history of Santa Claus.

Tune into this episode to learn all about Krampus, Santa’s scary sidekick, as well as hear my parody of “A Visit From St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore. At the very end I’ve also thrown in a silly heavy metal parody entitled “Krampusnacht is Coming . . . SO RUN!”


I look forward to speaking with more of you live in the future!
 

Friend of the show Ben Dixon is back to talk about his new novel Vengeance and Honour, a sword and sorcery adventure for older teens and up. Fans of Dungeons and Dragons, fantasy RPGs, and Choose Your Own Adventure stories will LOVE this book, as its full of action, adventure, friendship, and just enough immature jokes involving PG-rated nudity to make teens (and grownups) giggle.

Ben has been on the show before to talk about what he has learned from conventional publishing and independent publishing, and I first featured him on the show back when it was an audio-only podcast. You can enjoy previous episodes with Ben at these links:

 
Leicestershire Author Ben Dixon

This was a big episode for me to put together, as in I had to limit myself to the amount of time it takes to drink a pot of tea or else I would have talked about Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein FOREVER.
How does it compare to Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel? How many Snapes do I award this film for its faithfulness to the source material? And what does that have to do with whether or not the movie was good?

In this episode I mentioned how Victor is a Byronic character. Here’s my previous episode where Chloë and I discuss Byronic themes in Taylor Swift’s lyrics:

Chloë does a lot for the show, mostly behind the scenes. But a school of literal actual Lilliputians has banned kids from singing songs from Kpop Demon Hunters struck a nerve, and I thought she had some great ideas about grownups freaking out over a great story that only has good things to teach children.

There are two bits of book related silliness to cover this week. A tiny group of outspoken activists are trying to cancel J.K. Rowling — again. And the corporate juggernaut Studio Canal+ has succeeded in canceling the wild-eyed parody of Paddington Bear that was featured on the revived comedy show Spitting Image.

I recently saw a teacher blow his stack in public, and I couldn’t help but feel that if he wasn’t just a bully, maybe it was time for him to get a different job.

All British kids know the poem “Remember, Remember the Fifth of November” but where did it come from? And how has Bonfire Night evolved from its violent origins to a fun autumn event free of strife?

Please enjoy this Fireside reading of “The Raven.” As always, I have two versions — one with my commentary (and a roasted pumpkin!) as well as the poem on its own with no blah blah blah.