This is Librarians of Littles, a podcast hosted by Patrick Adams and Caroline Legere
My name is Patrick Adams. I am a Librarian in a Texas school. Currently I'm in an elementary school that serves pre-K through fifth grade.
This is my second year at that campus. Prior to that I was a pre-K campus librarian for seven years working with those pre-K students.
And prior to that I taught elementary third grade and fourth grade for seven years also.
And my name is Caroline Legere. I have only taught pre-K. This is my, I've taught general education pre-K and special education.
This is my fifth year as a librarian on a campus that only serves pre-K students.
Welcome to episode one of Librarians of Littles. I'm Patrick Adams.
And I'm Caroline Legere.
And today we're going to introduce a couple books that we think would be useful to have at your disposal in a library working with small children, a kinder first grade level.
And we're going to start with the book, 100 Mighty Dragons, all named Broccoli, written by David LaRochelle, I think, and illustrated by Leanne Cho.
So this book, when I was looking at it, it's been on a ton of different lists.
It's been in the Smithsonian Magazine. It was on the 10 Best Children's Books of 2023.
It was a school library journal book. It was Fuse number eight best math book of the year in 2023.
It was on the Texas 2x2 list. It was a 2025 Bill Martin Jr. Picture Book Award nominee.
It was a 2024 read aloud Indiana Ageless List book.
It was on Amazon Best Book of the Month selection in April of 2023. So it's been on a ton of lists. It's been very popular.
And for good reason as we, as when I read it, I was like, this is really great.
The author is David LaRochelle. He was born in Minnesota.
He grew up in Minnesota, also graduated from St. Olaf College in 1983.
He wanted to be a cartoonist or an illustrator for a homework cards when that didn't work out.
He became an elementary school teacher, like so many of us do.
And then a friend convinced him that he should submit a story that he had written to a local publisher.
And his first book was published in 1988. It was called A Christmas Guest.
He's the recipient of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award, the Sid Fleishman Humor Award, and multiple Children's Choice Awards,
and a four-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award. So he does so many wonderful books and has been acclaimed for most of them.
And he still goes around the Midwest and around the world to do book talks and do visits in classrooms with students, which is super cool,
because he gets to share his books, his writing, and his illustrating with the students.
Some of David LaRochelle's other books include The Best Pet of All, which was illustrated by Hanako Wakayama,
how Martha saved her parents from green beans, illustrated by Mark Fearing, See the Cat, The Three Stories About a Dog,
illustrated by Mike Honokda.
And that series, I didn't realize that he did those because he's got the See the Cat, Three Stories About a Dog, he also has the See the Dog,
Three Stories About a Cat, and my students love those books.
Monster and Son, illustrated by Joey Chow. It's a Tiger, illustrated by Jeremy Tankard.
The Haunted Hamburger, illustrated by Paul Meisel, and How to Apologize, illustrated by Mike Honoknata.
The illustrator is Leancho. She grew up in Taiwan in New Zealand and attended Central Saint Martins in London and spent a year working on a foundation in arts and design degree.
She went to the School of Visual Arts BFA Illustration Program, where she graduated in 2019.
She is both an author and an illustrator, and she currently lives in Brooklyn.
Some of the other books that she's done are La Lawni of the Distant Sea by Erin and Trotta Kelly.
The oboe goes boom boom boom by Colleen A.F. Venable. It began with Lemonade by Gideon Sterve.
A Hundred Thousand Welcomes by Mary Lee Donovan. Dare to be Daring by Kelsey Lynn Wallace and O. Olive.
So, summary of the book. In this story, a group of 100 dragons live at the top of a high mountain near a cave, and are all named broccoli for un-given reasons.
Slowly, the dragons leave the mountain for various reasons, including big gusts of wind, random magical wizards, choices to pursue their dreams.
And as the dwindling number of dragons continues, there becomes one lone dragon left.
That dragon goes into the cave after winter and passes and spring arrives.
That lone dragon named broccoli leaves the cave near the top of that mountain and comes out with 100 new baby dragons.
And each of those baby dragons has a very unique name of their own.
So, I thought this was a really cute story. The kids love dragons, so having any kind of book that has dragons in it is always an entertaining thing for our younger students.
It was super cute. The illustrations in it are amazing. Leancho does a great job of having these cute, bright illustrations that show exactly what's happening in the story.
It's kind of silly and odd, like at one point some of the dragons leave to join the Green Bay Packers and play football.
The wizard changes one dragon into a pink fluffy poodle.
You know, there's all sorts of random silly things that are happening, which will keep the students' attention.
I thought it was a really cute book and it's a great thing that it's introducing some math concepts, some addition and subtraction, because some of the dragons leave, but then some come back.
And so, taking away and adding those concepts, introducing those at an early age is always wonderful.
I really enjoyed the story.
When I was reading it, what struck me is that what stuck out the most, I guess, was the right illustrations and how unique, like you were saying, everything was as far as like why they were leaving and where all the dragons were going.
I love that it starts out with 100 dragons, because with Pre-K kindergarten and first grade, I feel like I always need another book that relates to 100 somehow for the 100th day of school, just because that's such a big math connection for all of our kiddos.
Here in Texas, we have the counter to 100 as one of the kindergarten teaks, so we always celebrate the 100th day with a big school-wide parade, and we're always looking for more fun things to relate to 100.
So I thought that was a really excellent connection for our kiddos.
A lot of the times, the stories that we end up using for them sometimes give me a dull, and this one was not. So, love that about this book. That was my favorite.
So if I were to give this a rating since we're librarians, I figured doing out of five bookmarks, because I was like, how are we going to do a rating system?
I'm not sure, but I feel like we should do a rating system of some kind. So out of five bookmarks, I would give this book a four, I think.
I wouldn't give it a full five, because there's not like, I don't know that this is like a life-changing, like, oh, this hits on like a really deep level.
That kind of like, you know, I think that it's a fun story that students will enjoy. It's a fun story to read out loud, and it's great. So I definitely think it's worth at least four bookmarks.
But I don't know that it reaches that five out of five, just because there's not a ton of depth to the story.
Like, I think that that's the one thing that might be lacking. It doesn't have like a deep, like other meaning that maybe can teach kids something else that other than just, hey, dragons, and we're adding and subtracting kind of thing.
What do you think?
And I agree. I think it's a really good one, especially for younger kids or maybe more immature kids who aren't as into reading that just needs something that's a quick attention-getting book that will grab their interest very quickly.
But I do agree that it doesn't really go super-duper deep into really anything. It's kind of a little shallow, and shallow reading can be fun.
Absolutely.
But I think this is, it's a really fun book. So, yeah, I agree.
And so if we're going to be using this in the library setting, if you are interested in taking this idea and adding it to maybe like a makerspace activity, one possible thing that you could do is have your students build their own dragons.
Using some kind of material like Legos would be an easy one to do. My suggestion for it would be to discuss with students the different characteristics that the dragons and the books have.
They all have wings. Most of them have horns and tails and that kind of thing.
So these would be things that the students could include in their dragon as they're building using the Legos.
And then as an extension, have the students, as they're building their dragon, they can count how many Legos it takes for them to create their dragon so that they're including that math and that one-to-one correspondence as they're going through to build their own dragon.
Yeah, I think that's a great idea. You could also, since it starts out with 100 dragons in the book, if you're doing it for like the 100th day or something, you could give them 100 Legos.
And see if they could build a single dragon out of the 100 Legos. Or see what kinds of dragons they could build out of the 100 Legos or something like that.
Absolutely, yeah.
I like that idea too. Yeah, just have like pre-bagged like 100 and just be like, here you go and just see what they can come up with. That would be very cool.
This part would be the Library of Little's Tips and Tricks segment, where we, as librarians of Little's, having plenty of experience working with pre-K and then working with the younger kids just in general, kind of in first grade,
we understand that sometimes working in a library with the younger students can be challenging. It's not the same as working with those third, fourth, and fifth grade students for sure,
because these learners are new. It's their first experience in the libraries, and so sometimes they just need a little extra help.
And as librarians, if you have not experienced working with those younger kids, sometimes you need a little extra help too. So this is where we give you some guidance, give you a tip or trick to try and help you to just kind of control the chaos.
So I know, Caroline, that you have some great management skills when you're working in the library, and I think that you would agree keeping consistent routines is definitely something that helps everybody involved, right?
Absolutely. Especially with our younger students, so many of them are learning school for the very first time, and they don't know what to expect out of school. They don't really know what to expect out of their lives in general just yet.
So having consistent routines really makes them feel more comfortable and more safe so they can begin learning. So if they don't feel safe, they won't learn.
Absolutely. So yeah, having a clear routine with clear expectations as to how to enter the library, right? Going over that with the students.
I know when my students come into the library, I explain to them that they should be coming in with calm bodies using their walking feet to find their spots either on the carpet if they have assigned spots or just a spot of their own to have on the carpet, you know.
And I find that that helps a lot because otherwise it's mass chaos and their kids are running around and trying to sit in the same spots and pushing each other and that kind of thing. So going over that expectation and following that same expectation every time really helps a lot.
When my students come into the library, I do also emphasize using walking feet. They all have a special, we have a special carpet that they get to sit on and it has a letter for every student to sit on so they know that they have to sit in their own space.
Their body cannot leave their letter. I don't really mind a face sit a little wonky and maybe put their legs out or whatever as long as they're still managing to stay on that letter so that their body is in their own space.
Absolutely. Yeah.
So that they can begin learning.
Yep. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of forcing everyone to sit crisscross applesauce. I do have some friends that sit, they call it mermaid style where their leg legs are to the side, as long as they're keeping their bodies to themselves and they're not being disruptive as I'm fine with however they choose to sit as long as it's not going to be harmful to them or someone else, you know.
And so the big thing is I do have I do remind my students so often that sitting like sitting so that you're on your knees and stuff I need them to be down because they're kids behind them and we forget about the fact that the kids behind you can't see through your head so getting them make sure that
they're down not on their knees. That's the biggest thing.
But as long as they're in their own space, yeah, I don't care how they sit as long as they're not being disruptive, which is, you know, sometimes we have to be able to let go of a little bit of that control.
Like if you're going to be the one that's forcing everyone to sit crisscross applesauce don't move kind of thing. You're going to be spending so much time arguing with the kids and getting them to do that then and not be able to get through anything else right.
Absolutely. Our next book that we are recommending today is called the knee. The author and illustrator is Corey doorbell.
This book also won a whole lot of awards it's on 14 state lists, including the Texas two by two.
It's an ALSC notable children's book for 2024. It's on the cooperative children's book center choices for 2024 and empathy lab read for empathy collection.
So Corey door fell got her BA in studio art from St Olaf College and her masters in illustration from Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
She's illustrated at least 17 books, including several that she's written herself, and she still lives in Minneapolis with her husband and her kids.
The other book that she's best known for is called the rabbit listened and it was published in 2019. That one also won a whole lot of awards was a New York Times best seller and was on 16 state lists.
Some of the other books that she has both written and illustrated are ready to soar the giving day, the welcome wagon, goodbye friend hello friend, wild baby, good dog, Maggie and Wendell imagine everything and little bunny food food, the real story.
And I have to say, like, I knew this author illustrator, but I didn't like it didn't click in my head who it was until I really looked at the illustrations because it's such a unique artistic style and like as soon as you see it you're like oh yeah I remember that art style from this book and that
I think so many of those books are just her art style is just so iconic. Like when you think of her the goodbye friend hello friend book and everything. It's just such a cool way for her to do her illustrations.
Amazing. And so I feel bad that I didn't like recognize the name when I first heard it but once I saw the first picture I was like oh I know exactly who this is because her illustrations are just so unique and so iconic for her style, which is really cool.
Actually did the same thing when I was reading it. Yeah. And then I also just feel like Corey Doefeld is I'm just so amazed by how emotionally in tune she is because I am not this emotionally mature and the way that she can show emotions in these books and like show you how the characters are
feeling and convey those thoughts in such a way is just amazing to me because like I don't know I don't think I'm that maybe I'm not that emotionally deep but she has a way of just with her pictures and with the stories that she tells is just so in tune emotionally it's it's just really cool.
I agree all of her books are very, very deep. They're all really good for teaching social and emotional skills. They're very simple and relatable.
Yeah, kids.
But on a very deep level. Yeah.
So this book the summary one morning a young boy Finn is in a horrible mood and refuses to leave his room or speak to anyone eventually his grandfather persuades him to go on a hike while outside his grandfather points out the root system supporting expansive trees in the forest the ocean
and the creatures lurking just beneath the waves the seed sprouting in the ground and all the other things going on just beneath the surface all around them.
Eventually, Finn realizes that even though it may seem as though his grandfather could never understand him, they are just the same beneath the surface.
When I got to the back cover of this book, I think that's where like the emotions hit me the most. Did you look at the very back cover of this book?
No, but that's adorable.
The inside of the quilt says to Finn Hart, Grandma, which makes me think that the emotions that Finn and his grandfather are feeling. It seems that it's probably due to the loss of grandma.
Yeah, I have two spokes now and now I might cry.
Yeah, I mean, like I once I got to that point, I like I was emotionally destroyed at that point because I was like, wow, that's really deep at that point.
That was amazing to me.
Like I said, the way that she can convey emotions and share a story through like the story itself, though, there's not a ton of words in it.
And the pictures just do so much of the heavy lifting to share the story. And it's just so amazing that she's able to share that much in just a picture book.
Yeah, I love the illustrations in it. They're very, there's a lot of colors in it, but it's all muted colors.
So you can kind of tell that that maybe Finn is grieving, it's kind of reflecting his emotional state where it's still colorful, but just very not quite dark, but just muted.
Yeah, muted is probably the best word for it.
But it's still very, the illustrations are still attention getting and colorful yet kind of subtle and just reflecting that mood.
It's that part is really good for younger kids who really need to see a lot of illustrations and colors to kind of draw their attention in.
I do think this one is probably as at least emotionally, probably it's excellent for any kind of counseling lesson, especially for grieving or empathy or anything like that.
With our younger kids, it's probably going to go over their heads a little bit and you're probably going to, you know, kinder pre K you're probably going to have to like really kind of explain it to them a little bit more and kind of get them to focus a little bit
and it doesn't, it doesn't have like a hook that really draws you in and it's not extra doesn't jump out as being super attention getting our younger kiddos, but especially for older ones and once you kind of emotions, it's going to really resonate with them.
For sure. And you know, just because the younger kids might not get all the deep meaning to it doesn't mean it's not a great story for them to they don't have to get all the meanings they can just they can just enjoy the fact that oh yeah there is a root system underneath the tree or there are fish under the water kind of thing and then those of them that need that that depth.
It's there for them also.
So all right, what would you rate this book.
I think it's a home music. I think if I'm wanting to teach that empathy piece. I'll probably give it a five out of five. If I'm just going for social and emotional, probably five out of five.
I'm going for like a pre K kind of a read aloud as far as since that's all I've taught is pre K I'll probably do four out of five I think I would have to draw their attention in a little bit more and kind of get the kids attention a little bit just because it is kind of a calmer book.
Those kids they kind of still need help focusing and being taught how to focus which is hard to teach. Yes. Yeah. So maybe overall I give it a 4.5.
Sounds good. Yeah, I think this is definitely one of those books that has that deeper story which I think is great for the picture books. So I'm definitely gets a little bit higher so 4.5 sounds like a really good rating for it 4.5 out of five bookmarks. Definitely.
Alright, and then if we want to use this in a pre K or an early childhood library and incorporate it into maker space. One possible way to do that is to have the students kind of show their feelings and easy way to do that would be to have paper and then coloring materials like crayons markers and colored pencils.
You could discuss with the students what kind of feelings they see in the story. Because there's a couple different characters that are showing some emotions throughout that and then once you've had that discussion, you can have make some pre made empty kind of people so you can probably find an outline
online somewhere of just kind of like an outline of a person or worst case bust out those gingerbread cookie cutters and trace that around so that you've got an empty person and then you give the students that empty person and they can draw their emotions their feelings using colors and shapes and things inside that space that they can talk to you about and kind of share those emotions and feelings that they're having.
I love that idea. I love that for showing feelings. I think that's great for kids who are a little bit more literal. You could also do like, like literally have a makerspace activity where you're looking for something that needs something else like you can have a sensory bin with feeling if you're feeling brave I suppose you could do sand or something
like my sensory bins I like to do something like dry rice or dry beans or something because as a pre K librarian, a lot of the kids do still eat things a lot. So having something I of course discourage all students from eating anything in the library, no matter what it is.
But there's always a risk of that happening in reality so I usually try and use dry rice or dry beans or something and then in a sensory bin anyhow, you could hide things underneath the beneath the dry rice or the dry beans so they could dig through there, try and find since in the story we do see some root systems and such underneath
and probably hide some little plants hiding underneath and see what they could find. You could even do like, maybe leaves with letters written on them so we could do some letter identification or something and try and find all the letters from A to Z or something like that on those leaves that are hiding beneath the beans or the rice in the sensory bin.
I love that idea, that sounds like a great way to get them to be able to physically move through the rice and find those things, I like that a lot.
So, I think those are two really great books that can be used in the library with students and I think that they would be well received by the students and the librarians. I think that is a great way for us to start our first podcast, right?
I think so. Great! See, that wasn't so bad. That's really good. Yeah.
Librarians of Littles is a podcast produced and hosted by Patrick Adams and Caroline Ligier. Editor Patrick Adams. Our theme song is performed by JD Adams. You can follow us on Instagram at librariansoflittles. You can follow us on blueskyatlittleslibrarian.bsky.social. And you can send us your emails at librarianoflittlespod at gmail.com.