Why Kids Need Stories About Depression

Stories can change a kid’s life when they finally feel recognized on the page. From the NCRA conference in North Carolina, we sit down with middle grade author Bobbie Pyron to talk about why fiction isn’t “extra” in literacy work, it’s a direct path to empathy, compassion, and deeper reading engagement for young people. If you care about children’s literature, school libraries, or helping students connect with books again, this conversation lands right where the work gets real. 

Website: spotlight4success.com 

Transcript

Why Fiction Builds Empathy

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to American Book Company Spotlight for Success. I'm your host, Danielle Fantozzi, and today we are at the NCRA conference in North Carolina. And beside me, we have our special guest, Bobby Pyron. She is an author, and uh we're just gonna talk about what brings her to NCRA today. Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

So I heard you did a presentation this morning, right? Yes, I actually have done two presentations today, two panel discussions with other authors, other middle grade authors, talking about uh the importance of fiction uh in reading and making sense of the world, helping readers uh become more compassionate and empathetic.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Bobby is the author of her novel, Octopus Moon. So, Bobby, what inspired you to write this book?

Winning The ALA Schneider Award

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Well, I have struggled with depression since the time I was a child. And there, you know, at the time that I was dealing with this back in the 60s, no one talked about mental illness, and certainly not in children. And there weren't any books that had main characters that were struggling with depression. And so uh after I got a few books under my belt and got had several published, I decided that I wanted to write about that topic. Um, I wanted other kids who are dealing with this to feel seen is very important for me that they feel seen and understood.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

So, how was that writing and research process look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Well, you know, it's funny, the main research process for me was what a child therapist, what a child would experience in therapy with a therapist because I, you know, there weren't child therapists back when I was a kid. You know, I didn't find a therapist to help me with this until I was an adult. And so I needed to know what that looked like uh in that context. So that was a large part of the um the research for me.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Oh that's powerful. Um so I just heard your book won a award.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Yes, yes, it won the ALA Schneider Family Award, which is for books that depict uh characters with uh a disability, whether it's a physical disability or a mental disability, intellectual disability, uh in a you know, in a it depict it in a realistic uh literary way.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

So Congratulations. Yeah, excited.

Where To Buy And Support Indies

SPEAKER_00 2:59

I get to go to Chicago to ALA to accept the award and all that stuff. So it's it's I'm very honored and humbled. Amazing. Um where can we find your book? Um my books are sold in pretty much all the bookstores. Uh you can also find it on Amazon. A lot of public libraries carry my books, um, so they're pretty readily available. And I always encourage people to. My first choice is shop indie bookstores. Try to support your local independent bookstore.

Reading After The Pandemic

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Yeah. Is there anything else you'd like to share with the NCRA community before we close out?

SPEAKER_00 3:43

I'm just so excited that there is a reading association. I think since the pandemic, reading levels have taken a hit. And to see all these educators here and librarians that are so passionate about getting kids excited and about reading again has been really, really refreshing.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Thank you, Bobby, so much for joining us on our podcast today. Thank you, I appreciate it. And we hope you enjoy the rest of your conference.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Thank you.