May 7, 2024 • 48 mins
In this episode, Torrey Maldonado chats with Jennifer about children's literature, his work and the magic of teaching middle school! They discuss the power of children's literature and how it can shape readers' hearts and help them navigate the world. Torrey shares his own experience as a reader and how he found storytelling through cinema and comics. He also talks about his teaching background and how he writes books for the students he teaches. Torrey's books are known for being short yet rich and robust, challenging the myth that shorter books lack depth. They discuss the impact of Torrey's books on students and how they inspire and engage reluctant readers. The conversation also touches on the importance of representation in books and the need for young readers to see themselves as both characters and creators in the stories they read. In this conversation, Torrey shares the impact his mother had on his love for reading and writing, and how she continues to inspire him. He reflects on his first reading and the emotional moment when his mother realized he was living her dream. Torrey shares his upcoming projects and the themes of his future books. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the power of empathy and the importance of connecting and understanding one another through literature.
Show notes and other information related to this episode (including a discount code from Bookelicious) can be found here.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:01 The Power of Children's Literature
07:31 Middle School Students at a Crossroads
09:51 The Impact of Torrey's Books on Students
13:07 The Attainable Richness of Torrey's Books
16:06 Recognition and Validation
21:42 Representation and Seeing Yourself in Books
22:39 Representation in Books
27:29 Torrey's First Reading
30:17 The Legacy of Torrey's Mother
32:53 What's Next for Torrey Maldonado
34:17 Review of 'Relit'
45:00 The Power of Empathy
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
When I was growing up.
Um I don't know if it was intentional but it was definitely structural that the,
the bookshelves in school and also in,
in the libraries,
they were whitewashed.
And I didn't see um myself,
I didn't see my community uh on the pages and I turned all away from um storytelling on the page,
(00:25):
but I never turned away from the captivating power of story that exists.
And I found it like the other people in my community turned away from books,
found it.
I found it through cinema.
I found it through movies and TV,
shows and graphic novels.
(00:53):
Hi,
everyone.
And welcome to the Reader's heart,
a podcast of conversations with authors and illustrators about children's literature as a vehicle for empathy and joy in a dark world.
The reader's heart is rooted in the belief that our world needs the magic of children's literature now more than ever.
So let's get started this week.
My guest is Tori Maldonado.
(01:15):
Tori was born and raised in Brooklyn growing up in the Red Hook housing projects.
He has been a teacher for the New York City Public school system now for nearly 30 years.
Even though he looks like he's about 11 years old and his fast paced compelling stories which include what Lane Tight and most recently hands are inspired by his students experiences.
(01:39):
Now,
full disclosure.
While I typically try to keep these episodes to around 30 minutes,
my conversation with Tori is going to break the 45 minute mark because as Tori says,
several times during our conversation,
when something is fun,
you just don't want to stop.
And y'all,
I did not want my conversation with Tori Maldonado to stop.
(01:59):
So thank you for sticking around for this super sized episode.
You will not be disappointed.
And as always,
don't forget to stick around until the end of the episode.
For more information,
including a discount code from our friends at Book Alicious.
Hi Toy.
Thank you so much for joining me today and thank you for having me.
I'm so excited to have you as part of the reader's heart.
(02:23):
You know,
I'm like your number one fan and there's a lot of competition for that position.
It touches my reader's heart and my um author's heart.
And I have to say that the road flows two ways because I'm one of your biggest fans too.
You know,
when I started this podcast,
you were at the top of the list of people that I wanted to chat with.
So I'm so excited that we finally were able to make this happen.
(02:47):
Uh People who've been listening to this podcast know that I always started the same way and I'm not going to change for this episode either.
I want to start by talking a little bit about your reader's heart.
I'm really fascinated by the way that books,
but children's literature,
I think in particular has the capacity to really shape our heart and help us figure out how we want to walk through the world,
(03:11):
you know,
like what kind of people we want to be.
And so I love to start these conversations by thinking about our own reader's heart.
So if you wouldn't mind just starting us off that way,
tell us about your reader's heart,
who you are as a reader.
Oh,
thank you for asking.
Um If we could visualize my reader's heart.
Um We would see a multimedia amusement park.
(03:33):
Um They would be um cinematic writing because when I was growing up,
um I don't know if it was intentional,
but it was definitely structural that the,
the bookshelves in school and also in,
in the libraries,
they were whitewashed and I didn't see um myself,
(03:54):
I didn't see my community uh on the pages and I turned all away from um storytelling on the page,
but I never turned away from the captivating power of story that exists.
And I found it like the other people in my community turned away from books,
(04:14):
found it.
I found it through cinema,
I found it through movies and TV shows and graphic novels.
So I right from um my heart and in my heart,
it makes young readers say,
oh,
this should be a movie.
This,
this book should be a graphic novel.
So you would find,
um in my heart,
you know,
uh areas of this wonderland where there's just great storytelling happening cinematically.
(04:41):
Um But then you would also find a ro a roller coaster experience for all readers because I,
I've learned this through my almost 30 years of teaching that no one wants to quit.
What's fun.
So I write roller coaster fiction.
Um I write roller coaster narrative where it's fast,
it's fun.
(05:02):
And then when the reader gets off,
the reader just wants to get right back on.
And that happens a lot here.
A lot of readers say I read your book three times,
four times and now I'm reading your next book for the second time.
Um inside that heart of reader's heart of mind,
you would also find comics because um you know,
(05:23):
people can't see but when you look at me,
um I'm like 400 years old,
right?
I'm young.
I'm like 700.
Ok.
So you,
that's so funny.
Go on and,
and I have to say that um I grew up in a time that you could identify with,
I grew up in a time where we had TV guides.
(05:45):
So that's the first book that I remember actually holding in my hand and flipping through cover to cover.
I also remember holding in my hand the on Sunday newspaper because when I was growing up in the Sunday newspaper,
that's when we got to see comics,
the comic section.
So I would flip through the comic section.
So I grew up on comic books.
(06:06):
So in my reader's heart,
you would find an area just dedicated to comics and also superheroes.
Um You find comics and superheroes referenced from cover to cover in all of my books.
And one of the main reasons why was because the village that I grew up in taught me that things that I did on a daily basis,
(06:28):
things that all of us do on a daily basis are quite super heroic.
And so as a teacher and as an author,
I want kids to see that they're also super heroic every day in multiple ways.
Oh,
I love that so much.
I now I feel like we need a theme park called like Tory's Reader's Heart or something like that.
(06:51):
So we can all visit.
I want to be there,
although we can do it with your books a little bit.
And when you were talking,
I couldn't help but think about,
I've heard you say before,
how you in part write books for the students you teach um for our listeners who may not realize this,
(07:11):
you are a public school teacher.
Can you share just a little bit however much you feel comfortable about what you teach?
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Um,
I teach now,
eighth grade social studies.
Uh,
and I meet educators across the country and also,
um,
fans of my writing across the country and a lot of them immediately assume that I'm an el,
(07:37):
a literacy teacher and hats off to el,
a teachers across the world.
Um,
however,
I think I'm my mama's son because my mom was a history buff and we would walk,
uh,
around and she would point out buildings and tell me about the history and,
you know,
they say the fruit doesn't fall far from the root.
(08:00):
Um I'm very much a historian and,
and I have to say that I,
I put that into all of my books because people often read my books and say,
oh my God,
this is of tour through New York City and through Brooklyn that even Brooklynites and New York City,
oh,
never experienced before.
(08:21):
Um,
the Brooklyn public Library that had a 125th birthday and they chose 125 books that were represented candles and each book was quintessentially Brooklyn and they picked my book,
What Lane as one of the 125 books.
So,
and I've been teaching for close to 30 years.
(08:42):
I got my start by working with K through five schools,
also middle schools and high schools because I was a conflict resolution specialist and staff developer.
So I worked with all of these schools across the five boroughs of New York City.
And it was through that,
that I,
I had this Dorothy the Wizard of Oz experience.
(09:04):
There's no place like home.
I had circled back and said,
you know,
I'm gonna use my teaching degree to do this every day.
I don't want to be a staff developer.
Kudos are staff developers.
I want to be a teacher.
I want to be interacting with young people on a daily basis and be a part of that transformative change that we need to see.
I love that.
(09:25):
You know,
I taught middle school for 17 years in some capacity either as I was an eighth grade el a teacher.
So we could have been on the same teen toy.
Can you imagine what those kids would have?
That would have been something,
right?
And Rita's heart being a wonderland,
we would have created this.
I use the part of reading that would have drawn the the world to it.
(09:49):
Uh There's still time we may still make it happen,
right?
But I mean,
I was a middle school librarian for a lot of years too and aren't they the best age ever?
Isn't middle school the greatest,
they're the best age.
Um Recently I got to sit across from our National Ambassador for Young People's Literature,
(10:10):
Meg Medina.
And um she was talking to me about my books and she was saying,
you know,
it captures the age of four graders,
fifth graders of middle school students so beautifully and specifically the how young people at that age are at a crossroads.
(10:32):
Young people at that age are figuring out a lot,
including who they wanna be,
you know,
questions of identity,
you know,
who are the,
who are their real friends,
what,
what are their interests and,
and they're moving into becoming teens and then from teens into adults.
So I write about the Crossroads and I had joked with her.
I said,
(10:53):
I write Robert Frost books.
Um I write books about,
you know,
the the road less traveled and hopefully young people will take that road less traveled,
which is in their heart,
in their reader's heart that will lead them to higher grounds of empathy and connection.
And then she told me,
she said,
um before you leave the Library of Congress,
(11:14):
I need you to sign something and she had me see the page that Robert Frost signed and then I got to sign my name too.
So that was a cool,
unbelievable.
Oh my gosh.
That just gives me chills.
What a magical experience.
Oh,
the listeners can't see my forearm hairs but my forearm hairs are standing on and well,
(11:40):
I mean,
I had the pleasure of knowing Meg for many years and she's such just a gold standard human,
you know,
gold standard writer,
but gold standard human too,
you know,
we should all aspire to be more like Meg Medina.
But I love that she recognizes that your books are really kind of love letters to kids at the,
(12:06):
that age.
And when I read your books,
I can't help but think about the kids.
You serve the kids.
I served one of the things I love about that age is those kids will tell you the truth about what they,
they will,
they will tell you the truth about things.
I,
I have to believe,
(12:28):
like your kids,
the kids you teach,
they've read your books,
haven't they?
I bet that some of them have,
right?
What do they say about your books?
Yeah,
they do.
Um read my books and you know who doesn't like awards?
And I've been fortunate that my books have um racked up awards.
But I have to give credit to um the village around me,
(12:48):
including my amazing editor Nancy Paulson because whenever I don't get an award and,
and I tell her,
you know,
of,
of how I of my fomo you know,
my fear of missing out.
Like,
will I ever get that award?
She always reminds me,
she says Tory,
you have to think about why,
remember you have to remember why you write,
(13:09):
you write from your heart to connect with young kids hearts,
to inspire action and,
and positive change and make them the,
the bring out the cool people that's inside of them.
So don't look to,
you know,
the awards,
look to those students right in front of you and what they're saying.
(13:31):
So I,
I'll tell you some things that my,
my students say I'm happy because avid readers and also what some people call reluctant readers.
Um converge on a common ground and fight argue over who's gonna get to read my book.
And it really fills my heart because,
(13:53):
you know,
um I wrote all my books and I write all my future works for the young kid that I um was,
but I also write it for kids who feel as though books are corny.
You know,
you said kids keep it real.
I've heard kids say throughout my 30 years of teaching this book is trash.
Why am I reading this book?
(14:14):
I wouldn't be reading this book if it wasn't required.
I've had high school students say that my book was the first book they read cover to cover and that,
that's not the exception.
There are a lot of kids who don't read even the books that are required.
So I just feel like I've won,
um,
(14:34):
a lifetime award from young people because they say things like your books need to be movies,
you know,
and then they,
they go to the next question.
If the book is going to become a movie,
can I be in the movie?
I laugh so much.
Probably because,
yeah,
(14:54):
exactly.
I mean,
I am picturing my own students saying that because I know that's exactly what they would say is you book me to see a movie and can I be in it?
I,
I owe quite a few kids who have promised roles.
I owe them some roles.
Well,
we won't name any names because I don't want you to get contractually obligated or anything like that.
(15:16):
But I do want to manifest.
You know,
if the executives at Netflix are listening to this,
come on,
y'all get on the Ball.
Tori's books need to be a series.
But um that being said,
one of the things I love about your books,
I mean,
there's so many things,
everything you've mentioned so far.
But I think one of the things I love about your books most is they feel they have,
(15:38):
they prove something that I've known to be true for a long time.
But that I sometimes don't think educators always recognize as being true.
And that is that a book can be both short and attainable and rich and robust at the same time,
just because a book feels like an attainable summit to a kid because it's only 100 and 50 100 and 60 pages,
(16:05):
whatever doesn't mean that it's not rich and robust and challenging and important in all of those things.
And I love the way your book sort of shatter that myth.
I really appreciate,
I really appreciate you saying that two people come to mind when you um talk about how my books shatter the myth that,
(16:27):
you know,
uh thinner books.
Um don't have the complexity that's found in thicker books.
One person is Matthew winner.
Matthew winner had me on his podcast and he,
he just,
he said he loves that.
I write micro chapters.
Um,
he says fourth graders,
they pick up my books and they look at the chapter length and immediately say,
(16:51):
oh,
I can read that and then they immediately continue to read until they find themselves at the end.
You,
you know this jingle because we're about the same age.
Remember the Pringles jingle.
Once you pop,
you can't stop.
Right?
I,
I try to write,
reading that pops and that you can't stop.
So,
um,
(17:11):
I,
I really thank Matthew for saying that,
but another person comes to mind is uh Betsy Burke from the school library journal.
She,
she um,
wrote something so powerful that I printed it out and I have it taped on the frame of my laptop and I often read it,
you know,
as a reminder that I am writing,
(17:32):
right?
Even though I'm writing micro chapters and I'm writing book that are under 100 and 50 pages.
Now,
you know,
Betsy Burke,
if you allow me to read what's on the frame of my laptop,
she says,
you know,
authors will often tell you that writing something short and sweet is 100 times more difficult than writing something long and languid.
And I have to agree,
(17:53):
it is tough to write short and sweet micro chapters.
And she says even so even though some authors just sort of excel in that area and Tory Maldonado could be considered a high,
low writer.
I have to say he's more than just that label.
Tory Taps into a kind of writing.
We've been in dire need of for a very long time and his voice,
(18:16):
his heaping amounts of heart,
especially in his latest book.
Hands is work you don't want to miss or put down.
So,
I love that.
So 100% true.
And I don't blame you for printing and keeping that because I imagine there are lots of days where you need motivation.
(18:37):
You need a reminder,
you know,
especially in the world that we live in now where it feels like we spend so much of our time on social media where it's just so easy to compare ourselves to other people and feel like,
you know,
what,
whatever route they're taking,
it's the right one.
It's the perfect one and that ours feels like the Struggle bus.
(19:00):
You need reminders that,
you know,
you're on the right track.
You call it the struggle bus.
I call it the pain train another.
Yeah.
You know,
and you know,
we we both our reader's heart are also educators,
hearts.
And I have to say that I've had the opportunity to do school visits across the country.
(19:25):
And there are so many schools that are amazing um weapons of mass,
amazing instruction.
And there are tons of schools that are weapons of mass destruction.
You know,
I grew up on the other side of the tracks.
I grew up in the rail projects.
You know,
young people immediately imagine it when I asked them,
(19:46):
have they played a Grand Theft auto game now?
Like,
yeah,
like then you could imagine the neighborhood I grew up in,
you know,
life magazine called it one of the 10 toughest neighborhoods in the country.
So,
take that and then add to that,
that,
you know,
the schools were giving me books where I didn't see anybody who looked like me.
I didn't believe that I could be a writer.
I've had teachers tell me,
(20:07):
you know,
that,
you know,
I'm not a writer or when I tried my,
my hand at poetry when I was in elementary and middle school and high school,
I've had teachers tell me,
you know,
this is not poetry and I have to,
it's gonna sound like I'm,
I'm bragging.
But I'm not,
I have to say that I feel so vindicated that Adam Gits,
(20:30):
you know,
the Newbery honor winning author.
He read hands my most recent book and said this is a poetic page turner.
I,
I felt as though,
wow,
all my life being told,
I'm not a poet and that the poetry that comes out of the black community in the form of hip hop narrative that it's not poetry.
I felt so vindicated by him,
(20:51):
you know,
and then also Nikki Grimes.
I've heard you say this before,
you know,
she's a kid lit,
big sister of mine.
I heard you say that when there was this surge of books in verse.
And then Nicki had said,
you know,
yeah,
a lot of these books of verse are actually poems.
They're just sentences right to that are broken up to look like poetry.
(21:16):
And hands is what Nikki would approve of because hands is poetry.
I just stretched it into sentences.
And so it feels great that,
you know,
Jacqueline Woodson has said it's poetic and Meg Medina said it's poetic.
And then Adam Gil said it's poetic and it just feels like that little kid in me who was told he's not a writer.
(21:39):
And that,
you know,
I'm,
I'm not a poet is like,
oh wow.
OK.
I actually am these things and I,
I wanna share another part of my reader's heart in that wonderland.
You would also have to find a section where young readers and young writers are just writing and,
(22:01):
and being praised for it because I believe that the magic that's in all of us creators and creatives is in young people.
And as an educator,
you know,
my goal is the same goal as a writer.
I want young people to discover that the,
the magic of storytelling is in their heart and we help to unleash that,
(22:27):
that's it.
I mean,
we talk a lot about how important it is for kids to be able to see their stories represented in the pages of a book.
And that is so critically important.
I don't want to discount that in any way.
But I think it's equally,
if not more so in some ways important for kids to see their stories represented on the covers of books in the names of the creators who make those books,
(22:54):
the authors and illustrators to be able to see.
This is a path that I could take that.
Oh,
there are people who look like me who come from where I come from,
who aren't just in the pages of a book whose stories aren't just being told,
but who are the storytellers and who are the illustrators?
Because you can't,
(23:15):
you know,
what is it?
Jason Reynolds says you can't be it if you can't see it.
Yeah.
And you know,
I was at NCTE and I walked by um a booth and I just froze in my tracks in delight because the cover of my book type was there with all of these other books.
(23:37):
And I skied out.
I did a Kwame Alexander because I've seen him,
you know,
on videos,
run up to his uh your posters or run up to and just be like,
yo,
y all this,
it was me and I just did a Kwame,
I ran up to tight and I started taking pictures with it and this woman who was um part of that display and curating that display she comes up to me and she says to me,
(23:59):
um your book,
I had to have it up here.
And as a part of the collection because one,
it's authentic kids read it and they feel it's about their lives,
no matter where they're from,
you're writing about timeless universal themes.
But I want to show you a picture and this is another reason I had to have it in the display and she pulls out her cell phone and she shows me a picture of her son and she holds it up next to the cover of tight.
(24:24):
And she says,
don't they look alike?
He look,
he is the human personification,
embodiment of the boy who's on tight.
So yes.
And so she said,
I showed him this book,
I didn't even have to book talk it.
He just snatched the book because he said,
Mommy,
it looks like me.
So what you're saying it,
you know what Redeem Sims Bishop said about books being mirrors,
(24:48):
books,
being windows.
You know,
it's powerfully true that the front of the book has to have those mirror reflections that grip kids.
And I'm fortunate,
you know,
like a lot of authors to say that even though they see themselves on the cover,
when they flip through the pages,
they also see their friends and they see windows into other worlds.
(25:12):
So I'm glad that there's been a uni there's been a specificity to my books,
but a universality to the books too.
I think too often people are,
I don't know,
I,
I don't wanna call it fall asleep because I don't know their hearts.
But it,
I feel like sometimes people are default to humility when it comes to their own work and don't allow the joy and excitement of seeing something like their book on a display.
(25:39):
Like they,
I don't know,
shy away from expressing that for some reason because I don't know,
like they feel like they need to be humble.
I love that authentic joy.
And it makes me wonder like I,
I wanna know how your mom felt when she first held a book that you had written when you had that first copy to give to her.
(26:05):
Do you remember what she said?
Because I know your mom's a huge figure in your life.
Absolutely.
You know,
um,
when you talk about the,
your reader's heart,
you know,
um,
it's true that my,
my reader's heart would be an amusement park with all the things I described before.
Um,
but the park would probably be named after my mom.
(26:26):
And the reason is,
yeah.
Um,
my mother is the person who turned,
who turned me on to reading.
Um,
she's the one who lit the flame that I'm sustaining.
Um,
a lot of people look at me as an individual and say,
oh,
you have been able to do these things with books.
The truth is it takes a village to raise an author and to raise a storyteller.
(26:49):
And my mom was the number one champion in my village who rallied the village around my storytelling.
And um my mom,
I,
I love her because she was my mother.
She was my father.
She was my everything.
Um But at the same time I had to tell her,
(27:12):
I was like,
ma you need to cite your sources because she would make me um re recite these quotes.
So how I write,
you know,
I write,
uh it was through reciting that,
that I built my writing.
Um My mom would call me over and she'd say Tory repeat this after me.
Good better.
Best.
Never let it rest until your good gets better and you better gets best.
(27:34):
And so these quotes I would recite and I would internalize and some of the quotes she got me in trouble with because she called me over to,
to come here for a second.
I was like,
what's up,
ma?
And she says I want you to recite this.
I said,
OK,
good.
What is it?
And she said,
just recite it.
OK?
She said with great power comes great responsibility.
(27:55):
So I went to school and I had this teacher and his teacher was cool.
This teacher would go do this,
go around and she's all right,
everybody.
It's time for us to share something cool that we learned outside of school.
So I raised my hand and,
you know,
and since we're almost the same age,
I'll use the welcome back Carter reference of,
0000.
And I'm raising my hand and the teacher says yes,
(28:15):
Tori.
I said my mom came up with this quote with great power comes great responsibility.
Oh my God.
The students jumped on top of me.
They piled on me,
you know,
mushing me in the head,
smacked me in the back of my head.
You know,
calling me dumb because I didn't realize that that was a quote that comes from Uncle Ben to Spiderman,
(28:35):
right to Peter Parker.
And so,
but,
but I have to say my mom taught me,
she said,
with great power with great access comes the responsibility for you to give others access and empower others.
And so it's something that um I tried to do with my writing and I tried to make my mom proud.
(28:57):
And so I will never forget the first time.
Um I had a reading.
Uh I didn't tell her that my book was published.
I instead said,
I'm gonna take you someplace and she said,
all right,
let's go.
So I did this reading.
Um It was with Danette Vigilante and um Olla Bema Sola Perkovich.
(29:17):
And it was in Park Slow Barnes and Noble and it was standing room only,
you know,
I often joke with them that we had standing room only because it was them on the line up,
you know,
it wasn't me.
And my mom is sitting there and she's starting to piece things together.
She sees my face on the poster and then she sees the book and then she sees my name on the book.
(29:39):
And so tears are like streaming.
I,
I OK,
we get in the car and I'm about to drive her home and she grabs my hand and she's crying and she says,
so I just wanna tell you,
you know,
you,
you are living my dream.
And that's when I learned from my mother,
all these things that seem individualistic that I'm accomplishing is actually a part of it.
(30:04):
Continue my grandmother on my mom's side,
she had left Puerto Rico at the age of 14 to come to New York City and she had a hidden dream in her heart to be able to story tell in English.
And by the time my grandma passed away,
she was able to write one paragraph,
this op ed paragraph that my mom showed me.
(30:28):
My mom cut it out and she had it.
She kept it my.
So my grandma passed the love of story and planted that seed into my mom's Rita's heart.
And then my mom took the love of story and planted it into my heart.
And one of the ways she did it is in our housing projects.
My mom was the only mother in the only apartment in the whole housing projects who had a library.
(30:55):
It was such an anomaly that when my friends would come over,
they would stop and they would look and go.
What is that?
Even knowing that,
that they knew they were looking at a library.
And so,
you know,
um,
I'm kind of like a football player who the ball was passed from grandma to my mom and then my mom to me and I got it into the end zone.
Now,
(31:16):
you had said books,
you know,
my books are love letters to students and that's true.
Um My most recent book,
Hands is a love letter to my mom.
Um I wanted my mother to read this book and bef before she was able to read this book,
she died and it's fitting that she died on the day she died,
(31:38):
she died on National Spiderman Day.
Talk about that quote with great power comes great responsibility.
She swung away into,
you know,
her place in history on the National Spiderman Day.
So,
yeah,
my mother,
her name has to be there on the amusement park.
That is the my reader's heart.
(31:58):
I love that.
You shared all that.
I just kept thinking about how you use the analogy of the football player.
You know,
you took it into the end zone and I don't know a different analogy,
but I feel like you're nowhere near the end zone.
Tori I feel like you keep scoring but you are nowhere near the end of the game.
(32:21):
There's so much more that you're going to accomplish.
And there's so many other future writers and readers that your stories you're,
that are going,
you're gonna pass the ball on to them.
Thanks.
And it,
it sounds like you're saying,
the positive of what my mom told me.
(32:42):
Um Before my hands came out,
you're saying Tori,
you know,
you still got a lot more books than you.
And we'll talk more about the books that I have coming out,
you know,
later.
That's my next question.
So I can't wait.
Yeah,
I have to say though,
oh,
there was another time I'm in the car with my mom and she grabs my hand and she tells me,
(33:06):
Tori,
I don't want you to think I'm diminishing your accomplishments.
You know,
you've written three books and that,
that's amazing.
She said coming from where we're from,
you know,
um,
you know,
I'm the first person in my family to graduate high school.
I'm the first person in my family to graduate college.
You know,
the illiterate,
(33:26):
the,
the,
um,
high school dropout rate in the community I'm from is,
uh,
50 to 60% you know.
Um,
my mom was so proud of me,
but then she said,
she said I'm not taking anything away from all of that,
but I read somewhere that you're not a real author until you have five books out.
(33:47):
So she,
in her way,
she was telling me I'm not done.
She's like you better not stop now.
Well,
I think it's like 50 because I want you to just keep on going Tori forever.
We need whole shelves in libraries that are nothing but Tori Maldanado books just,
I want your cannon to be so big that these thin beautiful books take up Paul shelves.
(34:09):
Thank you.
And,
and,
and I have you on record saying that.
So I'm with this podcast.
This part is gonna be the part that I replay over and over and over again for motivation to get to that 50 book mark.
We're manifesting it right here.
Tori,
we're making it happen.
Well,
I want you to talk about the books that you've got coming out.
(34:29):
But before you do that,
I have a bone to pick with you and now you're in trouble,
I've set you up with all the love and praise and now I'm going to stick it to you.
You know,
you were lovely to make sure I got a copy of relit,
which is a story collection um of like retelling remixes of classic tales from a Latinx Latino Latina perspective.
(34:59):
And I'm not just saying this because you are my guest.
Your story in the book was my favorite.
And that's saying something because there's some really wonderful stories in that book that I got to tell you.
I'm really pretty grumpy about the ending of your story in that book.
I just have to,
I have to say like I was,
(35:20):
it was one of those things where I'm like,
what?
I turned the page.
I'm like,
wait,
what?
And I don't want any spoilers really.
But I would love for you to tell our listeners if you don't mind a little bit about that story because I feel like story collections are sometimes hard sells,
you know,
it takes us like they don't sell in the same way that uh a traditional novel or,
(35:45):
you know,
a graphic novel would.
So I wanna make sure our listeners understand how awesome this collection is.
And if you can tell us a little bit about your story,
hopefully that'll make him want to pick it up.
Absolutely.
Um You know,
being a teacher for close to 30 years,
I can tell you what a lot of educators would say that um a lot of today's young people don't feel that the classics are lit and Sandra Proudman wanted to make sure that they know that the classics are lit by creating an anthology called Relit.
(36:21):
So it's a relit of the classics and there's 16 different stories in there.
I chose to tell a story that um is inspired by real law.
Um You could hear the Brooklyn in my voice,
right?
I say lo and people are like you say law,
I'm talking about Lore Lord.
Um This is the,
(36:42):
this is where I travel around the world and people hear my voice say you sound like ll cool J I can hear the Brooklyn.
I can hear the,
the New York in your voice is Brooklyn Law and I love it.
I don't want to make this about me,
but my mom was from the Bronx and if your accent sounds like home to me,
(37:02):
I love it.
So,
and the story is also inspired by what happened in Cabrini Green in Chicago.
Um What happened in Cabrini Green in Chicago um was so impactful that for generations um There was law talked about and it developed into a movie called Candy Man.
(37:25):
So I wanted to,
right,
what happened to uh my Black and Puerto Rican family in the Red Hook projects.
But also what was happening in terms of classism and racism since the 19 thirties.
Now when I say classism and racism and young people hear that,
(37:45):
you know,
a lot of young brains will turn off and a lot of young readers hearts will turn off.
So I had to make sure that this was a riveting spooky creepy story that young and older would feel.
Well,
this is like stranger things.
This is like,
you know,
um it's something that I can't rewrite before going to bed.
(38:08):
So I wrote a story about a young boy who he is in class and he hears his um teacher talking about Greek myths,
heroes and monsters.
And teacher starts talking about the Minotaur and how every year,
you know,
there are boys and girls who go missing because the minotaur eats them and this little boy in the book says,
(38:33):
hold up,
wait a minute.
This hits too close to home because every year there's a certain number of young um people who go missing in my housing projects and the boy's best friend goes missing.
So this is a short story that raises the question,
how far would you go for a best friend?
(38:57):
And um it,
it I guess is so spooky that someone who actually grew up in Cabrini Green in Chicago,
his name is Mr Richardson.
And if anybody is on Instagram,
you can go to my Instagram page.
You can see I posted this Mr Richardson as a senior citizen who he read my story and relit and I'll read to you exactly.
(39:22):
Um what he said,
he ii I feel like this,
we talking about awards and awards coming from the people.
I feel like this is an award from the people.
Mr Richardson wrote Trespassers will be by Tory Maldonado was very scary and it hit too close to home.
(39:42):
I grew up in a neighborhood in Cabrini Green in Chicago where they did the same thing.
I can totally relate to this story.
I give it five stars.
Now,
I just wanted to say um you said no spoilers that the way it ends.
You,
you got a bone to pick with me.
I wanna tell cliffhanger dude,
(40:03):
cliffhanger,
I wanna tell you who's listening.
Um You might have a bone to pick with all of my books because all of my books are left on such strong cliffhangers that they rival the cliffhanger at the end of Spider verse across the Spider verse.
Um And I go to schools and young people say the same thing you said Jennifer,
(40:26):
they come up to me and they say,
um your book was fired,
your book was dope.
Uh Your book is lit.
Yeah,
I love,
but I gotta tell you,
I don't like how I'm not feeling.
I hate how you ended it.
And,
and the reason and the reason why I'm gonna tell you the reason why,
um I do that circles back to,
I write roller coaster narratives.
(40:47):
Um Anything that is fun,
people don't want to stop,
they don't wanna quit and it piques their interest to continue it and I'm in the writing world because I want young people to read writing that pops and they can't stop.
(41:07):
I don't want them to just be hooked to my books.
I want them to be hooked to books.
So there'll be more cliffhangers coming.
Well,
that's a perfect segue.
Tell me which rides we're about to go on.
I know that some things are top secret that Nancy Paulson will get mad at you if you share too much.
But what can you share about what's coming up next for Tori Maldonado?
(41:29):
What can we look forward to?
Absolutely.
Um I've had editors try to woo me away from Nancy Paulson and I tell them,
you know,
ain't nothing like the real thing,
baby.
I love Nancy.
And um I love Nancy too.
I mean,
why would you when you got the best?
Why would you go elsewhere?
Right.
Absolutely.
And you know,
(41:50):
when we're talking about that,
um I feel like we need to remake the song.
I love Candy.
I love Nancy,
boom,
boom,
boom,
boom,
boom.
So I'm currently working on um a middle grade book that is top secret.
I can't talk about that,
but I can talk about the things that um I do have coming up the Pike with um Nancy.
(42:11):
So in the fall of 2025 I have a picture book called uncle that's coming out and anyone who um has seen um the work of B Jackson will know that her work is out of this world.
(42:32):
And so she's illustrating uncle and then in the spring of 2026 I have another book that's being illustrated by Teresa Martinez and it's a picture book and it's called Just Right.
And um both of those books really speak to how the the bomb sons of family transcend,
(42:54):
who your blood related to.
You know,
we,
we say oftentimes it takes a village to raise a child.
This is these two books,
Uncle and just right really are about the village that is found in every community around the world.
And the love that helps um fill a young person's heart and helps um raise them to higher grounds of empathy and connection.
(43:19):
And um yeah,
those two books.
And then after that,
in the fall of 2026 I have another picture book um that is being illustrated by Reggie Brown and it's called Little Artist.
And that book there,
I kind of feel as though it's um it's a uh an addendum.
(43:40):
It,
it's a,
it's a connecting piece to hands because in hands,
we have this boy Trev who he's really skilled with his hands.
I often say that he's like,
you know,
another Jerry Kraft or he's another Gordon C James or Eric Velasquez,
you know,
or Frank Morrison.
He's this talented illustrator and um he's wrestling with the question of how to use his hands.
(44:05):
Does he continue to use his hands in an artistic way to create or does he let um the hate that he's feeling the anger and the desire for revenge that he's feeling interrupt how he creates?
Um So,
yeah,
this story,
little artist is a story about a,
a little boy who is me when I was a young boy.
(44:29):
My first step into the world of writing wasn't trying to capture the world with words,
it was trying to capture the world with pictures from my grandma and,
and just like what happened to my grandma,
there's a,
there's a twist,
there's a turn,
something happens to grandma and it's not too bad.
So don't you know,
tell anyone who's listening.
(44:50):
I get too scared.
Um Something happens to grandma and the boy has a decision to make.
Oh,
I am.
So again,
we're wrapping this up with chills again because for so many reasons.
But I think the thing I kept thinking about was how lucky I am to live in a world where kids are going to get to grow up with books from Tori Maldonado.
(45:15):
You'll have these picture books that families,
moms and grandmas and grandpas and uncles will share with young people.
And then they get to get a little bit older and start graduating into what?
Lane and Tight and Hands and all of the other books that you have coming out.
(45:36):
I may need to up that bar beyond 50 but we'll start with 50 for right now.
I love it.
Thank you.
Well,
let's manifest.
Thank you,
my friend.
I'm so grateful for the time you've given us today,
but mostly for the work you're doing in the world,
we really need you.
So thank you for doing it.
And I,
I thank you too because um there I've heard people throw the term empathy around and they're actually talking about sympathy,
(46:01):
you know,
um sympathy.
You could,
you could feel sympathy for a distant stranger,
but um empathy is something very different.
You know,
empathy inspires us to act and empathy.
Um It's like what Tupac said,
you know,
learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers.
You know,
I've listened to every single episode of yours on the Reader's heart and I have to say,
(46:23):
you,
you curate and you hand pick people who create kid lit that inspires action and connection.
And I just really am glad that you're helping improve this vehicle to inspire more people to relate to each other.
Identify with each other,
connect and understand each other.
(46:56):
That's it for this episode.
Thank you so much for tuning into the reader's heart.
More information about this conversation,
including ways to connect with Tory as well as a discount code for purchasing his books through book Alicious are available at Library girl.net.
This podcast was created written and recorded by me,
Jennifer Lagarde.
All rights reserved.
Our theme music was created by Comma media and it's available for free at Pixie Bay's royalty free Music Repository.
(47:21):
And the beautiful illustration for our show was created by Karina Lukin.
If you've enjoyed this podcast,
gosh,
I sure hope you'll leave us a five star review at wherever you listen to podcasts and don't forget to hit that subscribe button.
Believe it or not,
these small steps make a big difference in helping the reader's heart find its audience.
Thank you again for listening.
We'll see you next time and until then happy reading y'all
When I was growing up.
Um I don't know if it was intentional but it was definitely structural that the,
the bookshelves in school and also in,
in the libraries,
they were whitewashed.
And I didn't see um myself,
I didn't see my community uh on the pages and I turned all away from um storytelling on the page,
(00:25):
but I never turned away from the captivating power of story that exists.
And I found it like the other people in my community turned away from books,
found it.
I found it through cinema.
I found it through movies and TV,
shows and graphic novels.
(00:53):
Hi,
everyone.
And welcome to the Reader's heart,
a podcast of conversations with authors and illustrators about children's literature as a vehicle for empathy and joy in a dark world.
The reader's heart is rooted in the belief that our world needs the magic of children's literature now more than ever.
So let's get started this week.
My guest is Tori Maldonado.
(01:15):
Tori was born and raised in Brooklyn growing up in the Red Hook housing projects.
He has been a teacher for the New York City Public school system now for nearly 30 years.
Even though he looks like he's about 11 years old and his fast paced compelling stories which include what Lane Tight and most recently hands are inspired by his students experiences.
(01:39):
Now,
full disclosure.
While I typically try to keep these episodes to around 30 minutes,
my conversation with Tori is going to break the 45 minute mark because as Tori says,
several times during our conversation,
when something is fun,
you just don't want to stop.
And y'all,
I did not want my conversation with Tori Maldonado to stop.
(01:59):
So thank you for sticking around for this super sized episode.
You will not be disappointed.
And as always,
don't forget to stick around until the end of the episode.
For more information,
including a discount code from our friends at Book Alicious.
Hi Toy.
Thank you so much for joining me today and thank you for having me.
I'm so excited to have you as part of the reader's heart.
(02:23):
You know,
I'm like your number one fan and there's a lot of competition for that position.
It touches my reader's heart and my um author's heart.
And I have to say that the road flows two ways because I'm one of your biggest fans too.
You know,
when I started this podcast,
you were at the top of the list of people that I wanted to chat with.
So I'm so excited that we finally were able to make this happen.
(02:47):
Uh People who've been listening to this podcast know that I always started the same way and I'm not going to change for this episode either.
I want to start by talking a little bit about your reader's heart.
I'm really fascinated by the way that books,
but children's literature,
I think in particular has the capacity to really shape our heart and help us figure out how we want to walk through the world,
(03:11):
you know,
like what kind of people we want to be.
And so I love to start these conversations by thinking about our own reader's heart.
So if you wouldn't mind just starting us off that way,
tell us about your reader's heart,
who you are as a reader.
Oh,
thank you for asking.
Um If we could visualize my reader's heart.
Um We would see a multimedia amusement park.
(03:33):
Um They would be um cinematic writing because when I was growing up,
um I don't know if it was intentional,
but it was definitely structural that the,
the bookshelves in school and also in,
in the libraries,
they were whitewashed and I didn't see um myself,
(03:54):
I didn't see my community uh on the pages and I turned all away from um storytelling on the page,
but I never turned away from the captivating power of story that exists.
And I found it like the other people in my community turned away from books,
(04:14):
found it.
I found it through cinema,
I found it through movies and TV shows and graphic novels.
So I right from um my heart and in my heart,
it makes young readers say,
oh,
this should be a movie.
This,
this book should be a graphic novel.
So you would find,
um in my heart,
you know,
uh areas of this wonderland where there's just great storytelling happening cinematically.
(04:41):
Um But then you would also find a ro a roller coaster experience for all readers because I,
I've learned this through my almost 30 years of teaching that no one wants to quit.
What's fun.
So I write roller coaster fiction.
Um I write roller coaster narrative where it's fast,
it's fun.
(05:02):
And then when the reader gets off,
the reader just wants to get right back on.
And that happens a lot here.
A lot of readers say I read your book three times,
four times and now I'm reading your next book for the second time.
Um inside that heart of reader's heart of mind,
you would also find comics because um you know,
(05:23):
people can't see but when you look at me,
um I'm like 400 years old,
right?
I'm young.
I'm like 700.
Ok.
So you,
that's so funny.
Go on and,
and I have to say that um I grew up in a time that you could identify with,
I grew up in a time where we had TV guides.
(05:45):
So that's the first book that I remember actually holding in my hand and flipping through cover to cover.
I also remember holding in my hand the on Sunday newspaper because when I was growing up in the Sunday newspaper,
that's when we got to see comics,
the comic section.
So I would flip through the comic section.
So I grew up on comic books.
(06:06):
So in my reader's heart,
you would find an area just dedicated to comics and also superheroes.
Um You find comics and superheroes referenced from cover to cover in all of my books.
And one of the main reasons why was because the village that I grew up in taught me that things that I did on a daily basis,
(06:28):
things that all of us do on a daily basis are quite super heroic.
And so as a teacher and as an author,
I want kids to see that they're also super heroic every day in multiple ways.
Oh,
I love that so much.
I now I feel like we need a theme park called like Tory's Reader's Heart or something like that.
(06:51):
So we can all visit.
I want to be there,
although we can do it with your books a little bit.
And when you were talking,
I couldn't help but think about,
I've heard you say before,
how you in part write books for the students you teach um for our listeners who may not realize this,
(07:11):
you are a public school teacher.
Can you share just a little bit however much you feel comfortable about what you teach?
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Um,
I teach now,
eighth grade social studies.
Uh,
and I meet educators across the country and also,
um,
fans of my writing across the country and a lot of them immediately assume that I'm an el,
(07:37):
a literacy teacher and hats off to el,
a teachers across the world.
Um,
however,
I think I'm my mama's son because my mom was a history buff and we would walk,
uh,
around and she would point out buildings and tell me about the history and,
you know,
they say the fruit doesn't fall far from the root.
(08:00):
Um I'm very much a historian and,
and I have to say that I,
I put that into all of my books because people often read my books and say,
oh my God,
this is of tour through New York City and through Brooklyn that even Brooklynites and New York City,
oh,
never experienced before.
(08:21):
Um,
the Brooklyn public Library that had a 125th birthday and they chose 125 books that were represented candles and each book was quintessentially Brooklyn and they picked my book,
What Lane as one of the 125 books.
So,
and I've been teaching for close to 30 years.
(08:42):
I got my start by working with K through five schools,
also middle schools and high schools because I was a conflict resolution specialist and staff developer.
So I worked with all of these schools across the five boroughs of New York City.
And it was through that,
that I,
I had this Dorothy the Wizard of Oz experience.
(09:04):
There's no place like home.
I had circled back and said,
you know,
I'm gonna use my teaching degree to do this every day.
I don't want to be a staff developer.
Kudos are staff developers.
I want to be a teacher.
I want to be interacting with young people on a daily basis and be a part of that transformative change that we need to see.
I love that.
(09:25):
You know,
I taught middle school for 17 years in some capacity either as I was an eighth grade el a teacher.
So we could have been on the same teen toy.
Can you imagine what those kids would have?
That would have been something,
right?
And Rita's heart being a wonderland,
we would have created this.
I use the part of reading that would have drawn the the world to it.
(09:49):
Uh There's still time we may still make it happen,
right?
But I mean,
I was a middle school librarian for a lot of years too and aren't they the best age ever?
Isn't middle school the greatest,
they're the best age.
Um Recently I got to sit across from our National Ambassador for Young People's Literature,
(10:10):
Meg Medina.
And um she was talking to me about my books and she was saying,
you know,
it captures the age of four graders,
fifth graders of middle school students so beautifully and specifically the how young people at that age are at a crossroads.
(10:32):
Young people at that age are figuring out a lot,
including who they wanna be,
you know,
questions of identity,
you know,
who are the,
who are their real friends,
what,
what are their interests and,
and they're moving into becoming teens and then from teens into adults.
So I write about the Crossroads and I had joked with her.
I said,
(10:53):
I write Robert Frost books.
Um I write books about,
you know,
the the road less traveled and hopefully young people will take that road less traveled,
which is in their heart,
in their reader's heart that will lead them to higher grounds of empathy and connection.
And then she told me,
she said,
um before you leave the Library of Congress,
(11:14):
I need you to sign something and she had me see the page that Robert Frost signed and then I got to sign my name too.
So that was a cool,
unbelievable.
Oh my gosh.
That just gives me chills.
What a magical experience.
Oh,
the listeners can't see my forearm hairs but my forearm hairs are standing on and well,
(11:40):
I mean,
I had the pleasure of knowing Meg for many years and she's such just a gold standard human,
you know,
gold standard writer,
but gold standard human too,
you know,
we should all aspire to be more like Meg Medina.
But I love that she recognizes that your books are really kind of love letters to kids at the,
(12:06):
that age.
And when I read your books,
I can't help but think about the kids.
You serve the kids.
I served one of the things I love about that age is those kids will tell you the truth about what they,
they will,
they will tell you the truth about things.
I,
I have to believe,
(12:28):
like your kids,
the kids you teach,
they've read your books,
haven't they?
I bet that some of them have,
right?
What do they say about your books?
Yeah,
they do.
Um read my books and you know who doesn't like awards?
And I've been fortunate that my books have um racked up awards.
But I have to give credit to um the village around me,
(12:48):
including my amazing editor Nancy Paulson because whenever I don't get an award and,
and I tell her,
you know,
of,
of how I of my fomo you know,
my fear of missing out.
Like,
will I ever get that award?
She always reminds me,
she says Tory,
you have to think about why,
remember you have to remember why you write,
(13:09):
you write from your heart to connect with young kids hearts,
to inspire action and,
and positive change and make them the,
the bring out the cool people that's inside of them.
So don't look to,
you know,
the awards,
look to those students right in front of you and what they're saying.
(13:31):
So I,
I'll tell you some things that my,
my students say I'm happy because avid readers and also what some people call reluctant readers.
Um converge on a common ground and fight argue over who's gonna get to read my book.
And it really fills my heart because,
(13:53):
you know,
um I wrote all my books and I write all my future works for the young kid that I um was,
but I also write it for kids who feel as though books are corny.
You know,
you said kids keep it real.
I've heard kids say throughout my 30 years of teaching this book is trash.
Why am I reading this book?
(14:14):
I wouldn't be reading this book if it wasn't required.
I've had high school students say that my book was the first book they read cover to cover and that,
that's not the exception.
There are a lot of kids who don't read even the books that are required.
So I just feel like I've won,
um,
(14:34):
a lifetime award from young people because they say things like your books need to be movies,
you know,
and then they,
they go to the next question.
If the book is going to become a movie,
can I be in the movie?
I laugh so much.
Probably because,
yeah,
(14:54):
exactly.
I mean,
I am picturing my own students saying that because I know that's exactly what they would say is you book me to see a movie and can I be in it?
I,
I owe quite a few kids who have promised roles.
I owe them some roles.
Well,
we won't name any names because I don't want you to get contractually obligated or anything like that.
(15:16):
But I do want to manifest.
You know,
if the executives at Netflix are listening to this,
come on,
y'all get on the Ball.
Tori's books need to be a series.
But um that being said,
one of the things I love about your books,
I mean,
there's so many things,
everything you've mentioned so far.
But I think one of the things I love about your books most is they feel they have,
(15:38):
they prove something that I've known to be true for a long time.
But that I sometimes don't think educators always recognize as being true.
And that is that a book can be both short and attainable and rich and robust at the same time,
just because a book feels like an attainable summit to a kid because it's only 100 and 50 100 and 60 pages,
(16:05):
whatever doesn't mean that it's not rich and robust and challenging and important in all of those things.
And I love the way your book sort of shatter that myth.
I really appreciate,
I really appreciate you saying that two people come to mind when you um talk about how my books shatter the myth that,
(16:27):
you know,
uh thinner books.
Um don't have the complexity that's found in thicker books.
One person is Matthew winner.
Matthew winner had me on his podcast and he,
he just,
he said he loves that.
I write micro chapters.
Um,
he says fourth graders,
they pick up my books and they look at the chapter length and immediately say,
(16:51):
oh,
I can read that and then they immediately continue to read until they find themselves at the end.
You,
you know this jingle because we're about the same age.
Remember the Pringles jingle.
Once you pop,
you can't stop.
Right?
I,
I try to write,
reading that pops and that you can't stop.
So,
um,
(17:11):
I,
I really thank Matthew for saying that,
but another person comes to mind is uh Betsy Burke from the school library journal.
She,
she um,
wrote something so powerful that I printed it out and I have it taped on the frame of my laptop and I often read it,
you know,
as a reminder that I am writing,
(17:32):
right?
Even though I'm writing micro chapters and I'm writing book that are under 100 and 50 pages.
Now,
you know,
Betsy Burke,
if you allow me to read what's on the frame of my laptop,
she says,
you know,
authors will often tell you that writing something short and sweet is 100 times more difficult than writing something long and languid.
And I have to agree,
(17:53):
it is tough to write short and sweet micro chapters.
And she says even so even though some authors just sort of excel in that area and Tory Maldonado could be considered a high,
low writer.
I have to say he's more than just that label.
Tory Taps into a kind of writing.
We've been in dire need of for a very long time and his voice,
(18:16):
his heaping amounts of heart,
especially in his latest book.
Hands is work you don't want to miss or put down.
So,
I love that.
So 100% true.
And I don't blame you for printing and keeping that because I imagine there are lots of days where you need motivation.
(18:37):
You need a reminder,
you know,
especially in the world that we live in now where it feels like we spend so much of our time on social media where it's just so easy to compare ourselves to other people and feel like,
you know,
what,
whatever route they're taking,
it's the right one.
It's the perfect one and that ours feels like the Struggle bus.
(19:00):
You need reminders that,
you know,
you're on the right track.
You call it the struggle bus.
I call it the pain train another.
Yeah.
You know,
and you know,
we we both our reader's heart are also educators,
hearts.
And I have to say that I've had the opportunity to do school visits across the country.
(19:25):
And there are so many schools that are amazing um weapons of mass,
amazing instruction.
And there are tons of schools that are weapons of mass destruction.
You know,
I grew up on the other side of the tracks.
I grew up in the rail projects.
You know,
young people immediately imagine it when I asked them,
(19:46):
have they played a Grand Theft auto game now?
Like,
yeah,
like then you could imagine the neighborhood I grew up in,
you know,
life magazine called it one of the 10 toughest neighborhoods in the country.
So,
take that and then add to that,
that,
you know,
the schools were giving me books where I didn't see anybody who looked like me.
I didn't believe that I could be a writer.
I've had teachers tell me,
(20:07):
you know,
that,
you know,
I'm not a writer or when I tried my,
my hand at poetry when I was in elementary and middle school and high school,
I've had teachers tell me,
you know,
this is not poetry and I have to,
it's gonna sound like I'm,
I'm bragging.
But I'm not,
I have to say that I feel so vindicated that Adam Gits,
(20:30):
you know,
the Newbery honor winning author.
He read hands my most recent book and said this is a poetic page turner.
I,
I felt as though,
wow,
all my life being told,
I'm not a poet and that the poetry that comes out of the black community in the form of hip hop narrative that it's not poetry.
I felt so vindicated by him,
(20:51):
you know,
and then also Nikki Grimes.
I've heard you say this before,
you know,
she's a kid lit,
big sister of mine.
I heard you say that when there was this surge of books in verse.
And then Nicki had said,
you know,
yeah,
a lot of these books of verse are actually poems.
They're just sentences right to that are broken up to look like poetry.
(21:16):
And hands is what Nikki would approve of because hands is poetry.
I just stretched it into sentences.
And so it feels great that,
you know,
Jacqueline Woodson has said it's poetic and Meg Medina said it's poetic.
And then Adam Gil said it's poetic and it just feels like that little kid in me who was told he's not a writer.
(21:39):
And that,
you know,
I'm,
I'm not a poet is like,
oh wow.
OK.
I actually am these things and I,
I wanna share another part of my reader's heart in that wonderland.
You would also have to find a section where young readers and young writers are just writing and,
(22:01):
and being praised for it because I believe that the magic that's in all of us creators and creatives is in young people.
And as an educator,
you know,
my goal is the same goal as a writer.
I want young people to discover that the,
the magic of storytelling is in their heart and we help to unleash that,
(22:27):
that's it.
I mean,
we talk a lot about how important it is for kids to be able to see their stories represented in the pages of a book.
And that is so critically important.
I don't want to discount that in any way.
But I think it's equally,
if not more so in some ways important for kids to see their stories represented on the covers of books in the names of the creators who make those books,
(22:54):
the authors and illustrators to be able to see.
This is a path that I could take that.
Oh,
there are people who look like me who come from where I come from,
who aren't just in the pages of a book whose stories aren't just being told,
but who are the storytellers and who are the illustrators?
Because you can't,
(23:15):
you know,
what is it?
Jason Reynolds says you can't be it if you can't see it.
Yeah.
And you know,
I was at NCTE and I walked by um a booth and I just froze in my tracks in delight because the cover of my book type was there with all of these other books.
(23:37):
And I skied out.
I did a Kwame Alexander because I've seen him,
you know,
on videos,
run up to his uh your posters or run up to and just be like,
yo,
y all this,
it was me and I just did a Kwame,
I ran up to tight and I started taking pictures with it and this woman who was um part of that display and curating that display she comes up to me and she says to me,
(23:59):
um your book,
I had to have it up here.
And as a part of the collection because one,
it's authentic kids read it and they feel it's about their lives,
no matter where they're from,
you're writing about timeless universal themes.
But I want to show you a picture and this is another reason I had to have it in the display and she pulls out her cell phone and she shows me a picture of her son and she holds it up next to the cover of tight.
(24:24):
And she says,
don't they look alike?
He look,
he is the human personification,
embodiment of the boy who's on tight.
So yes.
And so she said,
I showed him this book,
I didn't even have to book talk it.
He just snatched the book because he said,
Mommy,
it looks like me.
So what you're saying it,
you know what Redeem Sims Bishop said about books being mirrors,
(24:48):
books,
being windows.
You know,
it's powerfully true that the front of the book has to have those mirror reflections that grip kids.
And I'm fortunate,
you know,
like a lot of authors to say that even though they see themselves on the cover,
when they flip through the pages,
they also see their friends and they see windows into other worlds.
(25:12):
So I'm glad that there's been a uni there's been a specificity to my books,
but a universality to the books too.
I think too often people are,
I don't know,
I,
I don't wanna call it fall asleep because I don't know their hearts.
But it,
I feel like sometimes people are default to humility when it comes to their own work and don't allow the joy and excitement of seeing something like their book on a display.
(25:39):
Like they,
I don't know,
shy away from expressing that for some reason because I don't know,
like they feel like they need to be humble.
I love that authentic joy.
And it makes me wonder like I,
I wanna know how your mom felt when she first held a book that you had written when you had that first copy to give to her.
(26:05):
Do you remember what she said?
Because I know your mom's a huge figure in your life.
Absolutely.
You know,
um,
when you talk about the,
your reader's heart,
you know,
um,
it's true that my,
my reader's heart would be an amusement park with all the things I described before.
Um,
but the park would probably be named after my mom.
(26:26):
And the reason is,
yeah.
Um,
my mother is the person who turned,
who turned me on to reading.
Um,
she's the one who lit the flame that I'm sustaining.
Um,
a lot of people look at me as an individual and say,
oh,
you have been able to do these things with books.
The truth is it takes a village to raise an author and to raise a storyteller.
(26:49):
And my mom was the number one champion in my village who rallied the village around my storytelling.
And um my mom,
I,
I love her because she was my mother.
She was my father.
She was my everything.
Um But at the same time I had to tell her,
(27:12):
I was like,
ma you need to cite your sources because she would make me um re recite these quotes.
So how I write,
you know,
I write,
uh it was through reciting that,
that I built my writing.
Um My mom would call me over and she'd say Tory repeat this after me.
Good better.
Best.
Never let it rest until your good gets better and you better gets best.
(27:34):
And so these quotes I would recite and I would internalize and some of the quotes she got me in trouble with because she called me over to,
to come here for a second.
I was like,
what's up,
ma?
And she says I want you to recite this.
I said,
OK,
good.
What is it?
And she said,
just recite it.
OK?
She said with great power comes great responsibility.
(27:55):
So I went to school and I had this teacher and his teacher was cool.
This teacher would go do this,
go around and she's all right,
everybody.
It's time for us to share something cool that we learned outside of school.
So I raised my hand and,
you know,
and since we're almost the same age,
I'll use the welcome back Carter reference of,
0000.
And I'm raising my hand and the teacher says yes,
(28:15):
Tori.
I said my mom came up with this quote with great power comes great responsibility.
Oh my God.
The students jumped on top of me.
They piled on me,
you know,
mushing me in the head,
smacked me in the back of my head.
You know,
calling me dumb because I didn't realize that that was a quote that comes from Uncle Ben to Spiderman,
(28:35):
right to Peter Parker.
And so,
but,
but I have to say my mom taught me,
she said,
with great power with great access comes the responsibility for you to give others access and empower others.
And so it's something that um I tried to do with my writing and I tried to make my mom proud.
(28:57):
And so I will never forget the first time.
Um I had a reading.
Uh I didn't tell her that my book was published.
I instead said,
I'm gonna take you someplace and she said,
all right,
let's go.
So I did this reading.
Um It was with Danette Vigilante and um Olla Bema Sola Perkovich.
(29:17):
And it was in Park Slow Barnes and Noble and it was standing room only,
you know,
I often joke with them that we had standing room only because it was them on the line up,
you know,
it wasn't me.
And my mom is sitting there and she's starting to piece things together.
She sees my face on the poster and then she sees the book and then she sees my name on the book.
(29:39):
And so tears are like streaming.
I,
I OK,
we get in the car and I'm about to drive her home and she grabs my hand and she's crying and she says,
so I just wanna tell you,
you know,
you,
you are living my dream.
And that's when I learned from my mother,
all these things that seem individualistic that I'm accomplishing is actually a part of it.
(30:04):
Continue my grandmother on my mom's side,
she had left Puerto Rico at the age of 14 to come to New York City and she had a hidden dream in her heart to be able to story tell in English.
And by the time my grandma passed away,
she was able to write one paragraph,
this op ed paragraph that my mom showed me.
(30:28):
My mom cut it out and she had it.
She kept it my.
So my grandma passed the love of story and planted that seed into my mom's Rita's heart.
And then my mom took the love of story and planted it into my heart.
And one of the ways she did it is in our housing projects.
My mom was the only mother in the only apartment in the whole housing projects who had a library.
(30:55):
It was such an anomaly that when my friends would come over,
they would stop and they would look and go.
What is that?
Even knowing that,
that they knew they were looking at a library.
And so,
you know,
um,
I'm kind of like a football player who the ball was passed from grandma to my mom and then my mom to me and I got it into the end zone.
Now,
(31:16):
you had said books,
you know,
my books are love letters to students and that's true.
Um My most recent book,
Hands is a love letter to my mom.
Um I wanted my mother to read this book and bef before she was able to read this book,
she died and it's fitting that she died on the day she died,
(31:38):
she died on National Spiderman Day.
Talk about that quote with great power comes great responsibility.
She swung away into,
you know,
her place in history on the National Spiderman Day.
So,
yeah,
my mother,
her name has to be there on the amusement park.
That is the my reader's heart.
(31:58):
I love that.
You shared all that.
I just kept thinking about how you use the analogy of the football player.
You know,
you took it into the end zone and I don't know a different analogy,
but I feel like you're nowhere near the end zone.
Tori I feel like you keep scoring but you are nowhere near the end of the game.
(32:21):
There's so much more that you're going to accomplish.
And there's so many other future writers and readers that your stories you're,
that are going,
you're gonna pass the ball on to them.
Thanks.
And it,
it sounds like you're saying,
the positive of what my mom told me.
(32:42):
Um Before my hands came out,
you're saying Tori,
you know,
you still got a lot more books than you.
And we'll talk more about the books that I have coming out,
you know,
later.
That's my next question.
So I can't wait.
Yeah,
I have to say though,
oh,
there was another time I'm in the car with my mom and she grabs my hand and she tells me,
(33:06):
Tori,
I don't want you to think I'm diminishing your accomplishments.
You know,
you've written three books and that,
that's amazing.
She said coming from where we're from,
you know,
um,
you know,
I'm the first person in my family to graduate high school.
I'm the first person in my family to graduate college.
You know,
the illiterate,
(33:26):
the,
the,
um,
high school dropout rate in the community I'm from is,
uh,
50 to 60% you know.
Um,
my mom was so proud of me,
but then she said,
she said I'm not taking anything away from all of that,
but I read somewhere that you're not a real author until you have five books out.
(33:47):
So she,
in her way,
she was telling me I'm not done.
She's like you better not stop now.
Well,
I think it's like 50 because I want you to just keep on going Tori forever.
We need whole shelves in libraries that are nothing but Tori Maldanado books just,
I want your cannon to be so big that these thin beautiful books take up Paul shelves.
(34:09):
Thank you.
And,
and,
and I have you on record saying that.
So I'm with this podcast.
This part is gonna be the part that I replay over and over and over again for motivation to get to that 50 book mark.
We're manifesting it right here.
Tori,
we're making it happen.
Well,
I want you to talk about the books that you've got coming out.
(34:29):
But before you do that,
I have a bone to pick with you and now you're in trouble,
I've set you up with all the love and praise and now I'm going to stick it to you.
You know,
you were lovely to make sure I got a copy of relit,
which is a story collection um of like retelling remixes of classic tales from a Latinx Latino Latina perspective.
(34:59):
And I'm not just saying this because you are my guest.
Your story in the book was my favorite.
And that's saying something because there's some really wonderful stories in that book that I got to tell you.
I'm really pretty grumpy about the ending of your story in that book.
I just have to,
I have to say like I was,
(35:20):
it was one of those things where I'm like,
what?
I turned the page.
I'm like,
wait,
what?
And I don't want any spoilers really.
But I would love for you to tell our listeners if you don't mind a little bit about that story because I feel like story collections are sometimes hard sells,
you know,
it takes us like they don't sell in the same way that uh a traditional novel or,
(35:45):
you know,
a graphic novel would.
So I wanna make sure our listeners understand how awesome this collection is.
And if you can tell us a little bit about your story,
hopefully that'll make him want to pick it up.
Absolutely.
Um You know,
being a teacher for close to 30 years,
I can tell you what a lot of educators would say that um a lot of today's young people don't feel that the classics are lit and Sandra Proudman wanted to make sure that they know that the classics are lit by creating an anthology called Relit.
(36:21):
So it's a relit of the classics and there's 16 different stories in there.
I chose to tell a story that um is inspired by real law.
Um You could hear the Brooklyn in my voice,
right?
I say lo and people are like you say law,
I'm talking about Lore Lord.
Um This is the,
(36:42):
this is where I travel around the world and people hear my voice say you sound like ll cool J I can hear the Brooklyn.
I can hear the,
the New York in your voice is Brooklyn Law and I love it.
I don't want to make this about me,
but my mom was from the Bronx and if your accent sounds like home to me,
(37:02):
I love it.
So,
and the story is also inspired by what happened in Cabrini Green in Chicago.
Um What happened in Cabrini Green in Chicago um was so impactful that for generations um There was law talked about and it developed into a movie called Candy Man.
(37:25):
So I wanted to,
right,
what happened to uh my Black and Puerto Rican family in the Red Hook projects.
But also what was happening in terms of classism and racism since the 19 thirties.
Now when I say classism and racism and young people hear that,
(37:45):
you know,
a lot of young brains will turn off and a lot of young readers hearts will turn off.
So I had to make sure that this was a riveting spooky creepy story that young and older would feel.
Well,
this is like stranger things.
This is like,
you know,
um it's something that I can't rewrite before going to bed.
(38:08):
So I wrote a story about a young boy who he is in class and he hears his um teacher talking about Greek myths,
heroes and monsters.
And teacher starts talking about the Minotaur and how every year,
you know,
there are boys and girls who go missing because the minotaur eats them and this little boy in the book says,
(38:33):
hold up,
wait a minute.
This hits too close to home because every year there's a certain number of young um people who go missing in my housing projects and the boy's best friend goes missing.
So this is a short story that raises the question,
how far would you go for a best friend?
(38:57):
And um it,
it I guess is so spooky that someone who actually grew up in Cabrini Green in Chicago,
his name is Mr Richardson.
And if anybody is on Instagram,
you can go to my Instagram page.
You can see I posted this Mr Richardson as a senior citizen who he read my story and relit and I'll read to you exactly.
(39:22):
Um what he said,
he ii I feel like this,
we talking about awards and awards coming from the people.
I feel like this is an award from the people.
Mr Richardson wrote Trespassers will be by Tory Maldonado was very scary and it hit too close to home.
(39:42):
I grew up in a neighborhood in Cabrini Green in Chicago where they did the same thing.
I can totally relate to this story.
I give it five stars.
Now,
I just wanted to say um you said no spoilers that the way it ends.
You,
you got a bone to pick with me.
I wanna tell cliffhanger dude,
(40:03):
cliffhanger,
I wanna tell you who's listening.
Um You might have a bone to pick with all of my books because all of my books are left on such strong cliffhangers that they rival the cliffhanger at the end of Spider verse across the Spider verse.
Um And I go to schools and young people say the same thing you said Jennifer,
(40:26):
they come up to me and they say,
um your book was fired,
your book was dope.
Uh Your book is lit.
Yeah,
I love,
but I gotta tell you,
I don't like how I'm not feeling.
I hate how you ended it.
And,
and the reason and the reason why I'm gonna tell you the reason why,
um I do that circles back to,
I write roller coaster narratives.
(40:47):
Um Anything that is fun,
people don't want to stop,
they don't wanna quit and it piques their interest to continue it and I'm in the writing world because I want young people to read writing that pops and they can't stop.
(41:07):
I don't want them to just be hooked to my books.
I want them to be hooked to books.
So there'll be more cliffhangers coming.
Well,
that's a perfect segue.
Tell me which rides we're about to go on.
I know that some things are top secret that Nancy Paulson will get mad at you if you share too much.
But what can you share about what's coming up next for Tori Maldonado?
(41:29):
What can we look forward to?
Absolutely.
Um I've had editors try to woo me away from Nancy Paulson and I tell them,
you know,
ain't nothing like the real thing,
baby.
I love Nancy.
And um I love Nancy too.
I mean,
why would you when you got the best?
Why would you go elsewhere?
Right.
Absolutely.
And you know,
(41:50):
when we're talking about that,
um I feel like we need to remake the song.
I love Candy.
I love Nancy,
boom,
boom,
boom,
boom,
boom.
So I'm currently working on um a middle grade book that is top secret.
I can't talk about that,
but I can talk about the things that um I do have coming up the Pike with um Nancy.
(42:11):
So in the fall of 2025 I have a picture book called uncle that's coming out and anyone who um has seen um the work of B Jackson will know that her work is out of this world.
(42:32):
And so she's illustrating uncle and then in the spring of 2026 I have another book that's being illustrated by Teresa Martinez and it's a picture book and it's called Just Right.
And um both of those books really speak to how the the bomb sons of family transcend,
(42:54):
who your blood related to.
You know,
we,
we say oftentimes it takes a village to raise a child.
This is these two books,
Uncle and just right really are about the village that is found in every community around the world.
And the love that helps um fill a young person's heart and helps um raise them to higher grounds of empathy and connection.
(43:19):
And um yeah,
those two books.
And then after that,
in the fall of 2026 I have another picture book um that is being illustrated by Reggie Brown and it's called Little Artist.
And that book there,
I kind of feel as though it's um it's a uh an addendum.
(43:40):
It,
it's a,
it's a connecting piece to hands because in hands,
we have this boy Trev who he's really skilled with his hands.
I often say that he's like,
you know,
another Jerry Kraft or he's another Gordon C James or Eric Velasquez,
you know,
or Frank Morrison.
He's this talented illustrator and um he's wrestling with the question of how to use his hands.
(44:05):
Does he continue to use his hands in an artistic way to create or does he let um the hate that he's feeling the anger and the desire for revenge that he's feeling interrupt how he creates?
Um So,
yeah,
this story,
little artist is a story about a,
a little boy who is me when I was a young boy.
(44:29):
My first step into the world of writing wasn't trying to capture the world with words,
it was trying to capture the world with pictures from my grandma and,
and just like what happened to my grandma,
there's a,
there's a twist,
there's a turn,
something happens to grandma and it's not too bad.
So don't you know,
tell anyone who's listening.
(44:50):
I get too scared.
Um Something happens to grandma and the boy has a decision to make.
Oh,
I am.
So again,
we're wrapping this up with chills again because for so many reasons.
But I think the thing I kept thinking about was how lucky I am to live in a world where kids are going to get to grow up with books from Tori Maldonado.
(45:15):
You'll have these picture books that families,
moms and grandmas and grandpas and uncles will share with young people.
And then they get to get a little bit older and start graduating into what?
Lane and Tight and Hands and all of the other books that you have coming out.
(45:36):
I may need to up that bar beyond 50 but we'll start with 50 for right now.
I love it.
Thank you.
Well,
let's manifest.
Thank you,
my friend.
I'm so grateful for the time you've given us today,
but mostly for the work you're doing in the world,
we really need you.
So thank you for doing it.
And I,
I thank you too because um there I've heard people throw the term empathy around and they're actually talking about sympathy,
(46:01):
you know,
um sympathy.
You could,
you could feel sympathy for a distant stranger,
but um empathy is something very different.
You know,
empathy inspires us to act and empathy.
Um It's like what Tupac said,
you know,
learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers.
You know,
I've listened to every single episode of yours on the Reader's heart and I have to say,
(46:23):
you,
you curate and you hand pick people who create kid lit that inspires action and connection.
And I just really am glad that you're helping improve this vehicle to inspire more people to relate to each other.
Identify with each other,
connect and understand each other.
(46:56):
That's it for this episode.
Thank you so much for tuning into the reader's heart.
More information about this conversation,
including ways to connect with Tory as well as a discount code for purchasing his books through book Alicious are available at Library girl.net.
This podcast was created written and recorded by me,
Jennifer Lagarde.
All rights reserved.
Our theme music was created by Comma media and it's available for free at Pixie Bay's royalty free Music Repository.
(47:21):
And the beautiful illustration for our show was created by Karina Lukin.
If you've enjoyed this podcast,
gosh,
I sure hope you'll leave us a five star review at wherever you listen to podcasts and don't forget to hit that subscribe button.
Believe it or not,
these small steps make a big difference in helping the reader's heart find its audience.
Thank you again for listening.
We'll see you next time and until then happy reading y'all
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