The Children's Book Podcast · Matthew C. Winner

Wanting to Communicate with Aron Nels Steinke

·39 min·3 clips

Aron Nels Steinke shares how his own childhood anxiety inspired the character Mira in Speechless.

Hope sits under the conversation. Matthew Winner starts from the way children's books let kids try out identity, feelings, and voice, then brings in Aron Nels Steinke to talk about Speechless. Mira can speak at home. At school, her voice disappears. The book follows her through middle school pressure, shifting friendships, and old hurts that have not quite gone away. Steinke ties Mira's story to a student he once taught, a second grader who talked with friends but shut down around him. That memory still stings a little. What first felt like dislike later looked more complicated: anxiety, authority, a school move, and how large adults can feel in a child's day. Winner listens like a teacher, and the episode keeps circling back to real classrooms. Some children cannot speak. Some cannot stop talking. Both can be carrying embarrassment that adults miss. The craft talk stays grounded. Anxiety is not treated like a lesson stapled onto a plot; it is part of how a character might help a reader feel seen. Steinke remembers a reader connecting with Mira without sharing her exact difficulty, because the real link was expression. That gives the episode its warmth. It closes on a small dare: try the unfamiliar thing, even if it is just a new food or a first conversation. It may go nowhere. It still might teach you something about yourself.

As heard by us

A steady conversation about anxiety, classroom silence, and helping children speak without shame.

The episode follows Speechless, a middle grade story about anxiety and self-expression, and keeps coming back to the same quiet problem: a child can seem fine at home and shut down at school.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a thoughtful author interview about a middle-grade story where a child's voice vanishes at school.

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