In this episode of The Growing Readers Podcast, host Bianca Schulze sits down with award-winning author and illustrator Philip C. Stead to talk about A Potion, a Powder, a Little Bit of Magic: Or, Like Lightning in an Umbrella Storm, his uproarious debut middle grade novel from Neal Porter Books.

Best known as the Caldecott Medal–honored creator behind the Amos McGee books, Philip shares what it felt like to step into the novelist's chair and why middle grade has always been the genre closest to his heart. He traces his love of books like The Phantom Tollbooth, The Westing Game, and Roald Dahl, and pulls back the curtain on his writing process—200 words a day, carved in stone—and the feedback that led him to tell Bernadette's story out of order.

Whether you're a parent hunting for funny middle grade books for kids 9–12, an educator drawn to stories that trust young readers, or a writer curious about how a picture book creator builds his first novel, this episode is a celebration of heart, humor, and why every choice matters.

Read the transcript on The Children's Book Review (coming soon).

Highlights:

• From Picture Books to Middle Grade: Why Philip felt like an "imposter" stepping into the novelist's chair—and why middle grade has always been his first love as a reader
• The Books That Made Him a Reader: How Roald Dahl, Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, and Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game shaped his sense of what a book can do
• 200 Words a Day: Philip's deceptively simple writing practice and how he treated each word as if "carved in stone"
• The Out-of-Order Revelation: How one friend's honest feedback unlocked the book's unusual structure—and why he never looked back
• A Castle on 24 Goats: Where Bernadette, Adelbert the forgetful magician, and a Boat That Does Not Grant Wishes actually came from
• 24 Chapters, 24 Morals: Why Philip gave himself this arbitrary boundary, and the throwaway phrase that became his favorite of them all
• Heart Over Cleverness: The guiding principle that kept the book from feeling "cute but dead"
• The Influence Nobody Knows: The lesser-known Norton Juster book Philip discovered at 19 that became the most important influence of his career

Notable Quotes:

"A thing stored in the brain is never as important as a thing stored in the heart." — from A Potion, a Powder, a Little Bit of Magic

"Cleverness belongs mostly to the maker and really can't belong much to the person experiencing the art. But heart really can." — Philip C. Stead

"If you're a writer and you're listening to this, just figure out how you write and how you do it. How do you put one word in front of another, in front of another? And whatever that answer is, that's the right way to do it." — Philip C. Stead

Books Mentioned:

• A Potion, a Powder, a Little Bit of Magic: Or, Like Lightning in an Umbrella Storm by Philip C. Stead: Amazon or Bookshop.org
• A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead and Erin Stead: Amazon or Bookshop.org
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster: Amazon and Bookshop.org
• Alberic the Wise, and Other Journeys by Norton Juster: Amazon and Bookshop.org
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin: Amazon and Bookshop.org
• A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears by Jules Feiffer: Amazon and Bookshop.org
• Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig: Amazon and Bookshop.org
• Swimmy by Leo Lionni: Amazon and Bookshop.org
• The Twits by Roald Dahl: Amazon and Bookshop.org
• The Puppets of Spelhorst by Kate DiCamillo: Amazon and Bookshop.org

About Philip C. Stead: Award-winning author and illustrator of picture books, including the Caldecott Medal–winning A Sick Day for Amos McGee and A Home for Bird. A Potion, a Powder, a Little Bit of Magic is his debut middle grade novel. He lives and works in Michigan. Visit him here: https://www.numberfivebus.com/

Credits: Host: Bianca Schulze | Guest: Philip C. Stead | Audio Editor: Kelly Rink | Producer: Bianca Schulze

Episode Sponsor: https://www.rickwilliamsbooks.com/