Celebrating Pride Month With Leah Johnson and Molly Knox Ostertag

Scholastic Reads

In this episode, we celebrate Pride Month with new queer romances by award-winning YA authors Leah Johnson (Rise to the Sun) and Molly Knox Ostertag (The Girl From the Sea).

Leah’s best-selling debut novel, You Should See Me in a Crown, is a 2021 Stonewall Honor Book and was the inaugural YA pick for Reese’s Book Club. Leah dedicates Rise to the Sun “to the Black girls who have been told they’re too much and to the ones who don’t believe they’re enough.”

Molly describes The Girl From the Sea, a graphic novel about first love, as “absolutely the most self-indulgent book I've ever done, [with] a lot of delicious wish fulfillment.” It debuted on the Amazon YA bestseller list. Molly’s 2017 graphic novel, The Witch Boy, is being adapted into a feature film by Netflix.

Rise to the Sun and The Girl From the Sea are both included in Shondaland’s Summer 2021 Reading List.

Resources:

• Leah Johnson writes things: Learn more about this Midwestern author, essayist, and pop culture whiz.
  
• Molly Knox Ostertag: Delve into Molly’s comics, art, & animation.
• Read With Pride: Check out these essential LGBTQIA+ titles for young readers.

Special Thanks:

• Producer: Bridget Benjamin
• Associate producer: Constance Gibbs
• Sound engineer: Daniel Jordan
• Music composer: Lucas Elliot Eberl

Coming Soon:

• Diving Into Summer Reading
• Inside the Music Biz with Tami Charles