Chalk + Ink: Episode 83; Celebrating Neurodiversity with Jen Malia

In this episode, Jen Malia and I talk about the importance of celebrating neurodiversity, identifying your audience, and writing on location.

Jen's three-dimensional characters made me feel as if I was interacting with them in person, and the fact that she writes on location made me feel as though I was at the natural history museum, too. The Infinity Rainbow Club chapter books should be in every classroom because they feature neurodiverse characters excelling in engaging activities.

Jen also recommends the following books that are either written by neurodiverse authors and/or feature neurodiverse characters:

Picture books:  Steve Asbell's Flap Your Hands and Kaz Windness's Bitsy Bat series.

Middle grade: Elana K. Arnold's BAT series, Alyson Gerber's Focused, and Planet Earth Is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos.

Young adult: Halli Gomez's List of 10.

For developing the craft of writing, Jen recommends the following books:

Cheryl Klein's The Magic Words and Ann Whitford Paul's Writing Picture Books.

Click here to read the transcript or click below to listen to the episode.

Happy reading, writing, and listening!