It's Okay to Feel: Shannon Stocker on Boys, Big Emotions, and The Roach King of Raleigh

In this powerful episode of Reading With Your Kids, Jed welcomes back Shannon Stocker, author of the new YA novel The Roach King of Raleigh, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Shannon shares the deeply personal inspiration behind Quill, a high school sophomore who's juggling a painful mix of family addiction, financial hardship, sibling tension, and crushing loneliness.

To help his struggling family, Quill starts breeding dubia roaches to feed his bearded dragon and sell to a local pet store – and those thousands of hidden insects become a vivid metaphor for the dark, buried things in our lives that eventually crawl into the light. Shannon and Jed talk about boys and big feelings, the pressure on teens to "tough it out," and why it's not just okay, but essential, for boys to feel and express emotions.

Shannon also opens up about her own family's journey with childhood illness, anxiety, and disability, and how those experiences shaped the book's themes of empathy, resilience, and representation (including a key character with Tourette syndrome). Parents and educators will love Shannon's ideas for co-reading with teens and using Quill's lies, secrets, and friendships as powerful conversation starters about honesty, mental health, and healing.

In the final segment, Jed chats with Dr. Monika Schott, author of My Dad Built Me the Best and Wackiest Cubby Ever, a moving middle grade novel about a family navigating a parent's mental illness. Monika shares how her story is helping both kids and adults talk more openly—and compassionately—about mental health.