Messages of Hope: April 2025

Here at the Children’s Book Podcast, where we are purveyors of hope and in community with those cultivating hope for children of all ages. In this new miniseries of indefinite length, I invite my friends from the kidlit community to share what is giving them hope today. 

No matter where you are. No matter what’s going on around you. No matter what is pulling your attention or competing for space in your mind. May these next few minutes offer you rest, peace, and hope.

Hope Ep. 4 - April 5, 2025

Padma Venkatraman (Safe Harbor) shares what is giving her hope today: the nature of hope itself. Even when we’re in dire circumstances, it’s something that keeps us going..

Listen along:

Transcript:

Padma: I think that what gives me hope these days is the nature of hope itself, if that makes any sense.

And in my latest novel, the Safe Harbor, there is a poem, because it's a novel in verse, that is in the voice, as the whole novel is, of this little girl Geeta, who has been brought to America by her mom and doesn't control the fact that she's in America. She cannot control so many things, but she cannot control the fact that her parents are going through a divorce, etc, etc, and yet she continues to hope.

And I think that's wonderful thing about hope is that even when we're in dire circumstances, it is something that keeps us going. And as Geeta says in one of the poems, "I guess hope is a cork that never stops bobbing on the waves of life's ocean."

And that makes me so excited and so happy just that human beings are so resilient. And I think that human beings have this kind of light inside them that no matter what happens to us, we hold on to hope and that keeps us afloat.

For a full transcript, episode takeaways, quotes, and more, visit https://deepcast.fm/episode/what-gives-padma-venkatraman-hope

Be well. Read on. And don’t lose hope.