I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Lashier. And this is Librarians of Little's, a podcast
where we go over some books for young learners pre-K, Kinder first grade. And we give some
tips and tricks for how to work with our youngest learners in the library setting. This week,
we are introducing some books from African American authors and illustrators since we
are recording in February. It's Black History Month. And we have so many amazing African
American authors and illustrators that provide some amazing literature that we can celebrate
at any age. Our first book today is the book You Matter. It is written and illustrated
by Christian Robinson. It's published by Anthenim Books for Young Readers. It was published
in 2020. The author and illustrator of this book is Christian Robinson. And he received
a Coretta Scott King Illustrator honor and called to honor for Last Stop on Market Street,
which also won the Newberry Award. It won the 2014 Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award
for Reign, authored by Linda Ashman, and was awarded the Coretta Scott King Illustrator
honor for Josephine in 2015 and has appeared on multiple Bank Street children book committee
lists. And Christian Robinson was born in Los Angeles. He grew up in a one bedroom apartment
with his brother, two cousins, aunt, and grandmother. Drawing was a way for him to be creative
and make a space for himself. He was able to graduate from the California Institute
of the Arts and went on to work for both Sesame Workshop and Pixar Animation. He's worked
in conjunction with Target to create the Christian Robinson for Target collection released in
2021, which includes over 70 items for babies and kids. Some of his other books include
Josephine, which was written by Patricia Ruby Powell, Harlem's Little Blackbird by
Renee Watson, The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade by Justin Roberts, Last Stop on Market
Street by Matt DeLapenia, Leo, A Ghost Story by Mack Barnett, School's First Dave School
by Adam Rex, Just in Case You Want to Fly by Julie Fugliano, Nina by Tracy N. Todd,
and another, which is written and illustrated by Christian Robinson.
So this is a really sweet book. You Matter is a book that teaches that everyone is important
and connected no matter the apparent differences. The book looks at different perspectives and
evokes respect and empathy for others. I really enjoyed this story. I think it's a simple
text, but it has a really powerful message. He uses his unique art style to make some
really engaging illustrations for the students to pay attention to. He's got this cool way
of zooming in or zooming out to show different perspectives. And he's just got this really
heartwarming message that no matter what happens, no matter what you do, you matter, and we
need to kind of keep that message alive.
Yeah, I really loved this one. Actually, I know we're not at the rating part yet, but
I'm going to go ahead and rate it a five out of five. It was just really heartwarming and
it was simplistic enough for kids to really understand it all, but then there were certain
parts that kind of matching with the text, with the illustration, it goes a little bit
deeper with like, there was one part that says, even if you're really gassy, you matter.
And it's kind of, for adults, it's kind of meant to be funny because you're gassy, of
course, but the illustration on that page was a picture of the sun. So it's like you
could go deeper and have that conversation about like, well, the sun is a big ball of
gas. Did you know that? And like, and have those kinds of conversations with the kids
as well.
When I was researching this book in particular, I found a really great YouTube reading by
PBS Kids. They produced it in 2020. And it's Christian Robinson initially like introducing
the book and telling readers why he wanted to write this book. And it was just, if there
was any message that he could impart on every reader in the world, it would be that you
matter. And that was a really important message for him to share with everybody. And it was
in 2020 when he was sharing that. So I thought that was especially impactful. But after his
reading, he also has a very short interview. And it's like the whole entire video is less
than 10 minutes long. So even younger readers who can't sit for a terribly long amount of
time could still sit and listen and kind of hear him tell the story and kind of explain
why he has some of the pictures, the way he has them. He can share his message on everybody,
how why everybody matters. And then you can kind of hear some of his inspiration. So that
was a really cool one. And I did put that in the notes at the bottom of you want to
check that out too. Awesome. So yeah, we'll include that link in our show notes. So when
people go to look at the podcast, that'll be a link that they can go through and follow.
That's awesome. Because yeah, this is just it's such a nice book with a good message
that just everybody can just use that pad on the back to that, you know, that, hey,
it's okay, you're important, we're happy that you're here kind of message. You know, everybody
has a bad day. And so this kind of is just that positive message that anyone can appreciate.
I think that his artwork is just so cool, the way he's able to kind of combine the collage
and painting style that he has, all of his books kind of have that similar style where
there's like a lot of angles and a lot of a lot of color that he uses. And so it's bright
and engaging. And even for such a minimal amount of text, the students will be engaged
by looking at all the things that are happening in the pictures. And then like you said, being
able to use some of those prompts that he uses to kind of go deeper and have a stronger
conversation with the kids. I think this is an excellent story. So yes, I would also give
this a five out of five bookmarks. I think this is an excellent read aloud. I think it's
a great story for readers that are just starting to read. I think that this is something that
would be beneficial in anybody's library classroom, school library, personal library, all of the
above. I agree. Really solid choice. Love this one. And then for our maker space tie-in,
I thought that it would be kind of cool to have the students kind of try and test out
that art style that Christian Robinson has by having the students make a collage. So
having things like magazine clippings, construction paper, glue, and I would either do personally
with pre-k. What I found is that if you have some of those plastic soap dishes, if you
put a glue, if you put a sponge in there and then pour a little bit of glue onto that
sponge, if you take the pieces of paper that the students want to glue and they place it
on the sponge, you don't get glue everywhere. They can just place it on the sponge. It'll
transfer just enough glue onto the paper for it to stick to something else. And then you
don't have wet glue everywhere. And I find that if they use glue sticks, it still ends
up everywhere because they use too much. So that's my tip or trick for you. That's an
easy way to do glue. But having that, some cut out pictures, having just some pieces
of magazines that they can kind of tear themselves, or if you trust them enough to use some safety
scissors, maybe attempt that, that might push that over the edge for me, though. I think
letting them tear would probably be the best choice. But have them make a collage of something
that is important to them, something that they care about, something that matters to
them. So it could be a person, it could be a possession, it could be a place, something
that matters to them. And they can also then go in with colored pencils or crayons or markers
and add to their collage in that way and kind of mimic his art style a little bit. And I
think that, like I said, if you can manage the mess with the glue, you'll probably end
up with some paper clippings and stuff like that on the floor and stuff, but that's nothing
that a vacuum doesn't pick up. So it would be too terribly messy. But I think the kids
would enjoy being able to have that artistic outlet and kind of try and mimic his style
a little.
I love that idea. And I have never heard that trick about the glue with the sponge and all
that. I'm going to try that. I'm very excited. Thank you.
I don't know where I heard it, but I tried it out and it really works well and it saves
so much headache and mess. So definitely worth a try.
I think I have the perfect sponges for it too. I'm very excited now.
Because if you find, you can find those little, the plastic soap dishes that kind of like
have a lid that close. So you just, most sponges will fit right in there. And so then just put
a little glue in it and it's good to go.
I love that. Good call.
And I agree about the scissors as well. That's really, and a good prerequisite skill for
using scissors is tearing paper anyway, because you can't use your whole hand or theoretically
shouldn't use your whole hand. Because if you use your whole hand, you're going to tear
like crumble up the whole paper and you can't use it for art. So like use, that's a good
way to teach kids to use just their pointer finger and their thumb to pinch and tear.
Scissors are good, really good prerequisite skills using that pincer grasp. So good call
there and not necessarily using scissors. I mean, you guys know your kids best if they're
ready for it and they've been taught that go for it, but it's a difficult skill to teach
in the library.
And it might be one of those things where it depends on the time of year that you introduce
this activity. Like if you're doing it at the beginning of the school year, definitely
not. But if you're closer to May, maybe if you think that they're ready, that might be
a possibility.
But worst case, just let them tear paper into strips and use it that way. And that would
work perfectly fine too.
True story. Yeah.
All right. So today for our library of littles management tip, we're going to be talking
about using visuals in the library. A lot of our younger learners that are like five
years old or younger or students with developmental delays have difficulty with auditory processing.
A lot of the time with our goal with, you know, sitting and attending to stories is really
to have the kids sit, not touching anybody quiet mouth and all the things. And that's
kind of a lot of commands. And it's a lot of auditory processing for them to have to
deal with.
And so really it's a pretty big thought process of all the things that they have to do. So
a lot of the time, if you can just show them a picture of a kid sitting with their hands
in their lap in a quiet mouth, then giving them that visual is an easier way to kind
of help them understand what you want for them. If they don't understand the words that
you're saying, if they're they're learning English as a second language, maybe this is
a really good tip for them too, because they may not understand what you're saying. A lot
of our pre-K students, especially in Texas since ESL is a qualifier in Texas, a lot of
our kids may not know English yet. So by showing them a picture of what you want them to do,
it kind of helps them get set up for success. A lot of our assistants in our school have
something called a command ring and it has like, it's just a small binder ring that has
like a one inch by one inch has one inch by one inch cards on it. There's like maybe 10
cards in the whole thing. And it's a picture of like a kid sitting quietly, a kid just
sitting in a chair, a kid working at a desk, or a kid listening to a story and things like
that. So it's just like common commands that you might give a student, but it's just the
visual so you can just show the students what you're wanting them to do so that you won't
be partly saving your voice. But also it's just an easier way because there's a lot of
times where our kids will understand the visual before they understand the auditory. So absolutely,
I know that these work wonderfully to especially if you're having to, you know, if we have
a student that's being defiant also, you can kind of just continue to show them, Nope,
this is what we're looking for. Please do this kind of thing. And that always helps
also. And then yeah, like a lot of the kids, like you said, they're young, they either
developmentally can't understand or there's a language barrier there or anything like
that. And so using these visuals to help them understand so that they can be successful
is really important because we, we can't fault them if they don't understand what we're
asking them to do. And sometimes we can, it can be really frustrating when they're not
doing what we're wanting. But again, it's, it's not their fault if they truly don't comprehend
or don't understand what we're asking of them. So that visual to give them another way to
support them and show them what we're looking for so they can be successful can be a game
changer. Absolutely. And those key rings with the cards is just so nice because you most
of them have like most of those aids or teachers have them right on their, their badge or on
their belt so they can just pull them out immediately and kind of just show them what
they need so that the students have an idea of what we're actually asking them to do.
So our second book that we're going to be talking about today is called My Daddy is
a Cowboy. It is the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award winner for 2025. It was published for
Abrams Books for Young Readers on June 11th, 2024. The author is Stephanie Seals and the
illustrator is C. G. Esperanza. The author is Stephanie Seals. She was born in California
to Panamanian immigrants. She is a storyteller and a children's book expert. My Daddy is
a Cowboy is her debut picture book and has won numerous awards as a former teacher. She
loves to do author visits for schools and there's a Google form on her site to request
more information about an author visit. Other books, none yet because this is her debut
book, but she has said that she will continue writing diverse books that promote equality
and is interested in branching out into young adult fiction. Our illustrator is Charles
George Esperanza. He was born the second of six kids in the South Bronx. He went to the
Fashion Institute of Technology and graduated in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in illustration.
He is an author, illustrator and an artist and he continues to live in the South Bronx
drawing inspiration from the city for his art. His other books include Red, Yellow,
Blue and a dash of white two and Boogie Boogie y'all and with both of those he is both the
author and illustrator. In this book, a young girl and her father wake up before dawn for
some special time together. They go through the sleeping city to the ranch where her father
works. Together they ride horses as the rest of the world slowly wakes up. I really enjoyed
this book and the illustrations in it. The illustrations were beautiful. They really,
when I was reading about CG and Esperanza, I read a lot about how the Bronx inspires
his art and you can really tell in this book there's a lot of it that like a lot of the
pages are very bright and vivid, but not like overwhelmingly so like the background and a
lot of the pages will be like you'll have a bright red background and then just a single
picture of like the girl and her father. So it's like bright. It's got some bright neon
colors and it kind of has like a graffiti style art. So it's like it's bright and it's
engaging but I personally get overwhelmed sometimes with illustrations which I think
is why I harp on it so much when we're talking about these books and this one's not too overwhelming
for me. So I think it's a really great, I could see why it got the Caldecott honor as
I was reading it and I really liked the imagery when hearing some of the words that the author
used in this book. It was, it really flows like poetry. It's rather beautiful and I
really liked that it was a book about a girl and her father and it really focuses on family
connections. The author is Panamanian and when you're reading the book like it refers
to her, the little girl talks about her abuelita. So I love that it kind of has that diversity
in there. I think I even read that this one was maybe the first book, maybe I could be
wrong and I shouldn't be saying this out loud where I'm not certain of it, but I'm pretty
sure that this one is the first book, children's book like this published with a Panamanian
main character. It's either the first one or one of the first ones, but it's just highlighting
like a different culture. Yeah, I really liked that it was since it was talking about the
girl's family a lot that's very relatable for little kids. So yeah, it was rather beautiful.
I really enjoyed the story. Yes, this was an amazing story. The art in it was fantastic.
I love the color and the way it's used. The art style was just kind of breathtaking. I
really enjoyed it. And then the fact that the story was about a father and daughter kind
of finding that time in the busy world to take the time just to be together and enjoy
their company and to be able to enjoy kind of nature by interacting with the horses and
just kind of enjoying life together, just the two of them as their special time together.
It was really beautiful. And I hadn't read it before you suggested it, but this is going
to be one of my go to books because this is it's a it's a wonderful story and then to
couple the story with the art. It's just amazing. I think I might rate this one maybe a 4.5
out of five. Okay. I think that's I think that's fair. Is there what's the reason behind taking
off the the half point? I think it's a fair I think it's fair. I have an idea why I would
take off the half point. What is your reason for taking off the half point? I think while
I enjoyed the flowery language in it, I think it might be a little bit too much for our
younger readers. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing all the time. And there's a lot
of the time where I do read books that are where I know the language is a little bit
too complex for my students. But I also know that if it's a story that I enjoy enough,
if I'm having a good time reading it, they're going to be more engaged just because I'm
having a good time. So this is a book that I would pick to read more, I think, because
I really like the story. And I think it's a very touching story. Love the family connections
that are being made. And I do think that kids can relate to it. But I think with some of
that language, I think it's it is a little bit too too much, especially for our younger
learners. And honestly, that's what I was thinking also, there's some of the vocabulary
in it, if you want them to understand it a little better, you might need to preteach
or just as you come across the words kind of explain the meaning so that they they get
the full meaning of it. But yeah, I think I think it's an excellent story with wonderful
illustrations. I think a four point five is a is a reasonable rating for sure. Yeah. So
for our makerspace activity, you could build a ranch. There were several times in the book
that the girl refers back to the ranch and that's where all the horses live and such.
So for this one, we said you could really have any kind of preferred block or any block
that you have at your library. So Legos, Magnetiles, wood blocks or Kiva Planks or whatever
you've got on hand. And those farm animal counters that every school seems to have a
million of. But you could just use the blocks to build a ranch for all the different farm
animals and you can kind of tell the kids that yes, there was only horses in this particular
story. But really, it could be any of these farm animals that could live on this ranch.
So yeah, yeah. And I mean, so many of these kids love to to build and like farm animals
are always something that they're loving to play with. So I think this is a great idea
that would definitely be an engaging build for the students and get kind of giving them
a purpose like do we want the cows and the horses in the same portion of the ranch? Should
we build a fence to separate them? How much space are we going to give them? You can kind
of extend it for some of those kids that might need that extra. But then you can have the
kids that just just build a big circle and kind of put all the animals inside too. And
it's fun either way, right?
Thank you all for joining us today on this episode of librarians of littles. We hope
you found some fresh ideas for inspiring young readers. Please be sure to subscribe and connect
with us on social media. We hope you'll join us again next week. Happy reading.
Thank you for listening to this episode of librarians of littles. We hope that you enjoyed
it. Check back each Wednesday for a new episode.
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 blue sky at littleslibrary.bsky.social.
And you can send us your emails at librarianoflittlespod at gmail.com.
I'm not good at just talking. I don't know. I don't feel like I'm very well spoken.
Talking is hard, isn't it?