Victoria Jamieson was always an introverted child, but a move across states in middle school pushed her further inward and made her grasp for familiarity. She quickly found comfort in the local library after her mother became the regular host of their summer reading program. While Victoria was an avid reader, burning through Ramona Quimby stories, she also found herself deeply interested in the Sunday comics in newspapers, and eventually comics such as Calvin and Hobbes. 

This lifelong interest in artwork and storytelling would inspire her own career as an author-illustrator. But as Victoria discovered an additional gap in the comic industry for middle-grade literature, she was influenced to take a shot at writing her own graphic novel.

Today, Victoria talks to us about why she loves illustrations in literature, authors that inspired her, and how a dream job rejection inspired her first book.

This episode's Beanstack featured librarian is John Henry Evans, a school librarian at Walter T. Helms Middle School at West Contra Costa Unified School District in California. Today, John Henry shares a moving story about a student, a book, and an unexpected post-it note.

As with all episodes, our author guest creates a unique reading challenge that is available on Beanstack and also at thereadingculturepod.com. Listen to the episode to learn more about Victoria’s challenge of looking through some new “little windows”.

Chapter 1 - Owner of the library (2:04)

Chapter 2 - Ramona and Beezus (6:57)

Chapter 3 - From Ramona to Rollergirl (11:01)

Chapter 4 - Astrid, The Likeable (15:07)

Chapter 5 - The allure of Lego manuals (18:06)

Chapter 6 - Omar’s Story (24:40)

Chapter 7 - Warm Welcomes (32:27)

Chapter 8 - Little Windows (36:33)

Chapter 9 - Beanstack Featured Librarian (37:45)


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