Stella by Starlight

By Hady Mawajdeh,

Published January 20, 2015 at 12:25 PM EST

Book cover to Sharon Draper's new book for young adults, Stella by Starlight.

Author Sharon Draper has been writing award-winning young adult fiction for years.

Her stories deal with issues like race, poverty and abuse, but Draper says she is just trying to give kids an "introduction to something they never knew they wanted,” and that thing is storytelling.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Draper about her new book, Stella by Starlight (Simon and Schuster/2014), and the tradition of storytelling.

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Hady Mawajdeh

Hady Mawajdeh is a native Texan, born and raised in San Antonio. He listened to Fresh Air growing up and fell in love with public radio. He earned his B.A. in Mass Communication at Texas State University and specialized in electronic media. He worked at NPR affiliate stations KUT and KUTX in Austin, Texas as an intern, producer, social media coordinator, and a late-night deejay.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

See stories by Frank Stasio