🎧 The Reader's Heart Podcast | Guest: Rex Ogle

Jennifer LaGarde
7 hours ago
4 min read

Promotional graphic for The Reader’s Heart with Jennifer LaGarde, Season 3, Episode 5, featuring guest Rex Ogle. The design includes a circular portrait of Rex Ogle smiling outdoors, the covers of Absent and When We Ride, and an illustration of a child in a yellow shirt. The podcast title appears prominently across the center, with the guest’s name in a yellow banner at the top.

This is Rex Ogle's second visit to The Reader's Heart. If you listened to our first conversation, then you know that my not-so-secret goal for that episode was to convince Rex that he and I were destined to be friends. Well... I'm happy to report that not only was that mission accomplished, but I think you can really hear our growing friendship in this episode.

Rex and I laugh a lot during this conversation, but it's the moments when we dive into tougher topics that I continue to think about. I've said many times that I want episodes of The Reader's Heart to feel like "two friends chatting," and while I'd like to think I accomplish that goal more often than not, the most special conversations are the ones where I forget, if only for a moment, that we're recording at all. Instead, at least for me, it feels like two friends meeting over coffee (or something spicier), talking about books, big ideas, and the ways stories connect us.

I hope this conversation leaves you feeling like you were invited to pull up a chair and join us.

ABOUT THIS WEEK'S GUESTS

**Alt text:** Cover of *When We Ride* by Rex Ogle. Two teenage boys are shown above the headlights of a car, looking in different directions with determined expressions. Bold white lettering spells out the title across the center, while vivid orange, blue, and green brushstrokes create a sense of movement and energy.

Rex Ogle is an award-winning author of books for young readers whose work explores resilience, identity, family, and the many ways young people find hope in difficult circumstances. Best known for Free Lunch, Rex has also written acclaimed books including Four Eyes and Pizza Face. His books have received numerous honors and have earned a devoted readership for their honesty, emotional depth, and unwavering respect for young people.

In addition to writing under his own name, Rex also publishes graphic novels under the pen name Rey Terciero. His adaptations of classic literature, including Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy and Rise of the Knight, introduce beloved stories to a new generation of readers through fresh, contemporary retellings. Whether writing memoir, realistic fiction, verse novels, or graphic novels, Rex's stories invite readers to see themselves, and one another, with greater empathy and compassion.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Click here for the transcript for this week's episode!

EDUCATOR ACTIVITY

One of my goals for this season of The Reader's Heart is to create resources that help readers continue thinking about the ideas explored in each episode. Whenever possible, I'll be creating student activities inspired by my conversations with authors and illustrators and sharing them here as a free resource for educators. While The Reader's Heart is a podcast for adults, the books we talk about are written for kids. My hope is that these activities will serve as a bridge between the two. I'm excited to share the activity for When We Ride because it was inspired by two specific aspects of my conversation with Rex Ogle:

Our discussion about the ways poverty shapes the choices available to Benny and Lawson, and why understanding someone's circumstances is different from excusing every decision they make.
Our conversation about the importance of looking beyond first impressions and recognizing that people, like the characters we read about, are always more than one thing.

In this resource, students begin by exploring the visible and invisible parts of Benny's and Lawson's identities before comparing how the boys' shared experiences and different circumstances influence the paths they take. Along the way, they'll take a short brain break with emoji rebus puzzles before choosing from three reflection questions that encourage them to think more deeply about empathy, identity, and the relationship between understanding someone's story and judging their choices. Whether used in a classroom, library, book club, or at home, I hope this free activity encourages thoughtful conversations for readers.

Three-page educator activity for When We Ride. Page 1 invites students to explore visible and invisible aspects of identity by completing identity maps for Benny and Lawson. Page 2 includes a Venn diagram comparing the two characters and three emoji puzzles designed as brain breaks. Page 3 provides reflection prompts encouraging students to analyze character choices, changing perspectives, empathy, and themes from the novel.

To make these activities as useful as possible, I've created them as Canva templates. That means you can make your own copy, adapt them for your learners, and customize them to fit your classroom, library, or book club needs.

That said, although this should go without saying, while I very much hope you'll use these resources with the readers you serve, you are not allowed to sell them. Please feel free to share them (with credit), but I absolutely do not want to find them on Teachers Pay Teachers, y'all.

👉 Download the When We Ride Educator Activity

RESOURCES & LINKS

Please enjoy a special discount of 20% off the titles mentioned in this episode (or others of your choice) by visiting Bookelicious and using the code JENNIFERLAGARDE. Note: I do not make any money from these sales, but I am delighted that you get to save some!