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PODCAST

Even the Trunchbull

A kidlit review podcast focusing on one picture book and one chapter book each week. Hosted by Nina and Matt.

arts books

All Episodes

58:18

Episode 51 - Rootin, Tootin, Flutin and Lootin (Three...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2025/11/20

To wrap up season eight, we've got another episode with a silly name. These books are about Vikings, although, as Matt points out, nobody really called themselves Vikings; it would be like calling yourself the Burglars.Three Little Vikings by Bethan Woollvin is a cute and funny story structured like a fairytale. Three times is the village practically knocked over. Three times do the little vikings warn their chieftain. Three times does he not listen, and finally, the kids take it into their own

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58:02

Episode 50 - Angry Boys (The Boy Who Kicked Pigs and...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2025/11/13

This episode is about little boys who live in cosy middle England at some point in the second half of the twentieth century and want to see the world burn.Both books were picked by our lovely guest Doug Deans, a playwright, actor and parent. The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, by Colin Baker and illustrated by David Roberts is a baffling, disgusting bit of snuff. It's naughty, it's irreverent, it vehemently resists moralising and it made us feel a little bit ill. You won't want to give this one to the young

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71:12

Episode 49 - All the world's a stage (Lights Up and...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2025/11/06

This week we're zooming in on a setting that's close to Matt's heart: the theatre. Actors and plays are often devices in children's stories, and often they're mocked, so here we are, giving them a whole episode.First up is the phenomenally ambitious Lights Up, by Lisette Auton. There's a touch of spooky in the air, the theatre is full of ghosts and the whole place is crawling with spiders. But they're nice spiders! Except when they're being used for evil. In typical Lisette Auton style, we have a

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48:44

Episode 48 - Jump scares from the 90s (Monster Blood...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2025/10/30

There are two things we always celebrate over here at Even The Trunchbull: back to school, and of course, Halloween. This is a nostalgic one for us! We are reading two spooky books that came out the year of our birth (1992).First up is Goosebumps #3: Monster Blood, by RL Stine. Matt remembers an abiding sense of loneliness reading this book as a 7 year old. Nina likens it to eating a packet of crisps. It's good fun! Long live useless parents and unlikeable protagonists in kidlit, say we. There's

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63:39

Episode 47 - Fat (Jax Freeman and the Phantom Shriek...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2025/10/23

It's the long-awaited episode about fat kids in kidlit. We could go on forever about all the negative representation of fatness in children's literature, but it has taken us years to find two books that depict bigger kids in a way that met our standards.First, we've got the fantastic Jax Freeman and the Phantom Shriek by Kwame Mbalia. This is an absolute doorstop of a book, and yet, so readable, so quick to read. We chat engaging narrators, playing with the tropes and breaking them when need be

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52:27

Episode 46 - 80s Girl Power (The Paper Bag Princess...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2025/09/10

Today we're looking at books written in the eighties and aiming to empower girls. First up, we have a listener request: The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko. So good it was endorsed by the National Organisation for women! We've had a couple of ideas for fanfiction already.Our chapter book is Alanna: The First Adventure by the inimitable Tamora Pierce. Lots of reading aloud from this brilliant book. We talk about the ways it's aged well (and the ways it hasn't so much). A

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58:41

Episode 45 - The New Girl (Super Goat Girl and Jummy...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2025/09/04

It's our annual back to school episode, and this year, we're reading books about being the new girl. First, we're accompanying Super Goat Girl for her first day in Miss Damsel's classroom. Noodle Boy and Laser Lass aren't sure whether bleating loudly and chomping properly count as superpowers. Miss Damsel says it'll all work out though. And we find out what three ingredients mix together to form a black hole. Then we're riding the bus with Jummy from Lagos to the River School. It's so exciting,

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59:30

Episode 44 - Squawkwels (Freedom Fire and A First...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2025/08/28

This week we're righting past wrongs and returning to a couple of authors we said we'd check back in with and never did. First up is Freedom Fire, from the Dactyl Hill Squad trilogy by Daniel Jose Older, which we started way back in 2020! Magdalys and the squad are flying South to rescue her brother Montez, and the stakes just keep getting higher. We loved this one very much, and we wish it was more readily available in the UK,Then we're having a little poetry break with Simon Mole's A First Book

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01:02:30

Episode 43 - The Writing On The Wall (Little Monster...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2025/08/21

This episode is all about scribbles on the wall, whether they be the work of a cheeky little monster, or a malicious scarling. The one person we're sure didn't do it is the child of the house!First it's a nostalgia trip for Nina as we dive into one of her childhood favourites: Little Monster Did It by Helen Cooper. And for afters we have Illuminations, by T Kingfisher. Is this directly inspired by The Magicians of Caprona, by Diana Wynne Jones? Does it deal appropriately with the implications of

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59:22

Episode 42 - Tower Blocks (Boy in the Tower and The...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2025/08/14

Welcome back! We're kicking back off with a real cracking double act: Boy In The Tower, by Polly Ho-Yen, and The Concrete Garden, by Bob Graham.This episode is all about confinement, loneliness, isolation, but it's also about community, togetherness and taking care of each other. Polly Ho-Yen's Ade is living in a high rise in London as the world crumbles around him (literally!). The children in Bob Graham's book are sheltering in place during lockdown, but still manage to turn their concrete

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02:37

We're back!

Even the Trunchbull ·

2025/08/10

Announcing series 7 of Even The Trunchbull! We're so excited to be back reading and chatting with you, so watch this space :-). What A Wonderful Day is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License by Shane Ivers of silvermansound.com

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53:58

Episode 41 - Money (Cash and Those Shoes) with...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2023/04/20

This month, our (belated - sorry!) show is all about MONEY. It's a bit of a different one. Our chapter book is non-fiction, and it's called Cash: How to earn it, save it, spend it, grow it, give it, by Rashmi Sirdeshpande. This book was chosen by our very special guest, the wonderful author Lisette Auton. The theme took us on a more freewheeling discussion than usual, about our own educations around money growing up, things we saved our pocket money for, and what Lisette did to make a little extra

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44:51

Episode 40 - Wishes (Knock Three Times and Wishes)

Even the Trunchbull ·

2023/03/03

This month we're reading Knock Three Times, by Cressida Cowell, and Wishes, by Muon Thi Van and Victo Ngai.Knock Three Times is the third book of a four part series, but anytime is a good time to jump on board thanks to Cressida Cowell's chatty and unnamed narrator. We praise David Tennant's performance of the audiobook very highly, but you'll want the paper book too, so you can look at the pictures. It's a silly adventure story, it's also surprisingly poignant about the difficult relationship

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40:55

Episode 39 - Titans, togas and thunderbolt gods!...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2023/02/02

It's finally here, it's our Greek myth episode! We kick it all off with Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, a titan of early 2000s kids' fantasy that we were a smidge too old for at the time that it came out. We referred to it too when we did our School Stories special if you want to hear more about that kind of stuff. We also compare it to City of the Plague God by Sarwat Chadda which we talked about on an episode of Fantasy Book Swap with Ali Baker. Then, we get to read a few

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31:57

Episode 38 - Whodunnit? (Insector Brunswick and the...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2023/01/12

To kick off this cold and dreary month we're reading detective fiction! First up is Inspector Brunswick: The Case of the Missing Eyebrow by Chris Lam Sam and Angela Keoghan. Brunswick and his faithful sidekick Nelson thought they were just going to the art gallery for a nice afternoon out, but crime is afoot! We talked about a few different pieces of performance art and protests in relation to the Missing Eyebrow: the toppling of the Colston statue the Banksy self-destruct painting the Just Stop Oil

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14:31

Concerning carrots #2: No Carrot Left Behind!

Even the Trunchbull ·

2022/12/22

It's our annual very serious episode doing a close read and serious criticism of the Kevin the Carrot Christmas picture book from Aldi. This year, the book is called, Kevin the Carrot: No Carrot Left Behind! It is an adaptation of the classic film (which Nina has never seen) Home Alone. We are absolutely delighted with this one. What a great, silly thing. Here's an article about the rush to buy Kevin memorabilia on the day it was released:

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31:55

Episode 37 - Frosty Frolicks (The Glowing Snowman and...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2022/12/08

Our stories this month are frosty and icy! Our picture book is The Glowing Snowman by Helen Goodbarton and Sophie Johnson-Hill. A snowman feels lonely and not special, until he accidentally swallows a firefly and becomes rather bright and interesting. But should he keep the firefly captive in his tummy? Or let it go? It's a great collaboration featuring drawings by lots of different children. For our chapter book, we've got rather a short, bite-sized time travel story: A Night at the Frost Fair,

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44:02

Episode 36 - Trauma (The Silver Sword and Chester Nez...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2022/11/05

content note: This episode features two books about experiences of war. The first is about a family of Polish refugees trying to reunify at the end of WW2, and the second is about a young Navajo boy sent to residential school and later drafted to create a code for the US Marines. Our books this month are both about experiences of people who lived through World War II, and the theme that connects them is Trauma. Our chapter book is a classic and favourite from Matt's childhood, The Silver Sword, by

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37:06

Episode 35 - Hubble Bubble Toil and Trouble, with...

Even the Trunchbull ·

2022/10/06

It's spooky season and we're reading about witches with our special guest and Matt's sister, Ruby! Ruby chose both our books this month: Winnie the Witch, by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul The Doomspell, by Cliff McNish Winnie and Ragwena represent opposite ends of the witch spectrum in terms of badness, but also in their attitude to colours. Nina, Matt and Ruby imagine a backstory for Winnie involving the Black Bull pub in Gateshead, discuss the differences (and similarities) between scifi and

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16:41

BONUS EPISODE - Nina’s fictional school

Even the Trunchbull ·

2022/09/17

As promised, we've got even more school chat for you! This was cut from our last episode which was all about boarding schools in kidlit. Matt decided to interview Nina about the book that she's writing, which features a school aboard an airship. This is that conversation, plus two little excerpts of Nina reading from her work in progress. It's a little bit different! If you're here for the book recommendations, not to worry, we'll be back with our regular programming on the first Thursday of

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