Winner of the 2005 Newbery Award for Children’s Literature 

Joins Other Newbery Winners

In Tim Podell Productions’ Acclaimed Video Series

(Scarborough, NY, October 4, 2005) – Video producer Tim Podell, president of Tim Podell Productions, has another Newbery Award winner on his star-studded list of children’s book authors included in his acclaimed Good Conversation! series of video interviews.

The 2005 Newbery winner is Cynthia Kadohata, author of Kira-Kira whose reminiscences and ruminations on the art of writing for the younger set have been featured in the Podell series since 1992.

Good Conversation!  features at-home video interviews of top-selling critically-acclaimed authors of children’s books, most of whom are recipients of the prestigious Newbery, the Oscar of children’s literature for best book of the year.

The program features Cynthia at her home in Long Beach, CA. She discusses her own personal writing process; her thoughts on winning the Newbery Medal, and what she has planned for the future. She also reads from her Newbery winning book, Kira-Kira and introduces the viewer to her newly adopted son, Sammy.

Another Good Conversation!  author, Christopher Paul Curtis, was the year 2000’s Newbery winner for Bud, Not Buddy, which also earned him the Coretta Scott King Author Award. Curtis was the only author ever to win both top honors in the same year and the first African-American to win the Newberry medal since 1976.

Other authors whose tapes Podell has produced are Richard Peck, writer of the 2001 Newbery Award winning A Year Down Yonder;  Lynne Reid Banks, author of The Indian in the Cupboard; Betsy Byars, author of Newbery-winner Summer of the Swans; Louis Sachar, 1999 winner of the Newbery Award for his book Holes; Katherine Paterson, two-time Newbery-winning author of Bridge to Terebithia and Jacob Have I Loved; Karen Hesse, author of the 1998 Newbery-winner Out of the Dust; Newbery-winner Phyllis Reynolds, author of Shiloh.

Podell also has an up-to-the-minute website where one can browse author profiles and feature excerpted clips from author interviews: www.goodconversations.com.

Podell’s video interviews are designed for students who are reading the authors’ works.  Each tape is a one-on-one conversation produced and conducted by Podell in an at-home environment or taped on location in the author’s hometown.

“We go into the authors’ kitchens and dens and talk about their lives,” says Podell.  “It puts a face on the author and hopefully gives children the impetus to read the author’s work and perhaps to become writers themselves.” Although the Good Conversation!  series is designed primarily for children in grades 3-8, these tapes appeal to a broad range of interests and ages. Podell’s tapes are typically purchased by schools and libraries but are also bought by parents.

 “Children’s books are among the best written literature in the world,” says Podell. His video company is the nation’s leading source of video profiles of children’s book authors. “Adults accept a lot of schlock that kids won’t.”

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