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Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Lichier. And this is Librarians of Little's,

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a podcast where we share books, makerspace activities, and tips and tricks for helping

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librarians with our youngest learners in the library. With March approaching, we are going

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to be looking at some St. Patrick's Day books today. The first of which is How to Trap a

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Leprechaun published by Skypony Press in 2017. The author is Sue Fleece and the illustrator

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is Emma Randall. So Sue Fleece has been on the ALSC Notable Children's Books of 2024

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for her Socata Symphony book, the District of Columbia Capital Choice list of 2021, and

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the Cooperative Children's Book Center list of 2021 for Flash and Gleam, Light in Our

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World. And she's also been on the Junior Library Guild Selection 2023 list for Kid Scientist

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Insect Experts in the Rainforest. Sue Fleece has been writing for much of her life as a

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child. It was poems and as a teen, she wrote about unrequited love. And in college, she

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wrote for the college newspaper, trying to solve people's problems. She was a publicist

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for Penguin's Adult Paperback Division. She has also been a copywriter, marketing communications

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manager and director of marketing. She began writing children's books when her first child

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became two, and she was inspired to write a story. She also does in person and virtual

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school visits. Some of her other books include Octopus Acrobats, illustrated by Gareth Lucas,

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Socata Symphony, illustrated by Gareth Lucas, Rumble and Roar, Sound Around the World, illustrated

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by Koa Lee, Flash and Gleam, Light in Our World, illustrated by Koa Lee, Sadie Sprocket,

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Build a Rocket, illustrated by Annabelle Tempest. The illustrator, Emma Randall, lives in a small

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village on the outskirts of Bristol with her husband, son, and twin daughters. Not a lot

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of information about Emma Randall, but some other books that she has worked on. She illustrated

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a version of Over the River and Through the Woods. She also illustrated a version of the

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Twelve Days of Christmas. She's the author and illustrator of A Book of Love and Our

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Easter Adventure. And the book that we're talking about today, How to Trap a Leprechaun, the

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summary is that it's the day before St. Patrick's Day, and there are children planning to catch

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a leprechaun in hopes of having a wish granted. But leprechauns are tricky, so the children

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build a trap with box gold covered rocks and more, with the hopes of catching that tricky

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leprechaun. In the end, they are unable to do so, but the leprechaun leaves them a note

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wishing the children a good St. Patrick's Day. This is, I think it's a cute story. There's

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not, like, it doesn't go super deep, but there's a rhyme scheme to it. There's some really bright

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and pretty pictures. I think that this type of book where it's like trying to catch a

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mythical creature is something that a lot of our students at that age are prone to enjoy,

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and I think they're kind of engaging because the kids are wondering what's going to happen

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next and what kind of crazy traps the kids are going to build. So I found it to be a

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fun story that I think a lot of students will enjoy. I think that, I don't know, I felt

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like it was kind of short. There's not a ton to the story itself, but it would be a good

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story for a read aloud to see what the kids think and, like, see what the kids' guess

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will happen next as you're reading through the story.

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Yeah, I agree. I really, as far as a book to read in the library, I thought this was

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a really cute story. The pictures are bright and engaging. I always love rhyming books

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because it is a little bit more engaging, especially for younger kids because they can

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kind of hone in on that cadence, even if they're not really comprehending all of the words.

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They still, like, that rhyming always kind of pulls kids in a little bit better. If I

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was reading this to a class, I kind of love it because it does kind of lend itself to

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some creativity at the end there because the kids can build their own leper contracts

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and you can kind of lead it into a fun St. Patrick's Day lesson in general. If I was

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going to just read this at home, like with my kids, I maybe don't love it quite so much.

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I really like this one more for the activities that it lends itself to rather than the enjoyment

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of the actual story itself, if that makes sense.

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So I think if I was reading it, I would give it like a 4 out of 5 for like a classroom

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reading, just because of those fun activities and the fun things that you can do with it

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afterward when you're kind of thinking about what you can do to be kind of creative with

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it. But yeah, as far as like, if I'm reading it at home just for funsies with my kids,

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I think I would give it maybe a 3 out of 5. It's still fun. It's still cute, but it's

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not like earth shattering or anything. It's fine.

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Exactly. And that's what I was thinking. My rating was going to be about a 3.5 for it,

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which fits with yours. I think that I'm planning to use it this year with my students, and

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I think they're going to enjoy it. I think they'll have a good time with it, but I think

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part of that will be because we'll have some makerspace activities where they're trying

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to build traps and that kind of thing. And so the connections to it are going to be something

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that I think they're going to have more enjoyment from than just sitting and reading the book

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solely by itself. I think that the book is designed to lend itself to that, and I think

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that's a great feature to it. It's just not something I would sit down, like you said,

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and read with your own child and just be done with it, as just read it and done. You have

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to add in that other part of like, now build something or create something to get the full

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effect of the book. Which brings us to the makerspace activity for this book is building

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a leper contract. So there's a couple different ways you can do this. You could just give

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the kids some materials and say go and see what they come up with. I would maybe, especially

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with pre-k, I would be a little bit more controlling in honestly, I would give them

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a little direction and a little less freedom just because otherwise I don't know what

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would... so many things could happen. So instead, I would say having some construction paper,

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having some like, some crayons and markers. If you want to add glitter, that's a personal

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choice. I try to avoid that like the plague, but others are more willing to add that in.

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You can buy some of like, the decorative tape, some stuff like that. And I even, for my idea,

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I would even buy some of the corn pop cereal. And so the corn pop cereal would be like the

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gold. And so what I would have the kids do, I would also pre-cut a lot of schools, especially

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if you're at an elementary school, you will be able to find somewhere either a die cut

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or just a printable paper for when the students are doing geometry where they fold the paper

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to make a cube. If you use something like that, you can get them pre-cut, like especially

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if it's die cut, that would be really nice. But if not, you can cut out some to have the

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kids decorate and then you can fold it and tape it up so that it's a box and you can

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have it open and put a couple pieces of cereal in there. And that's your box with the gold

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to try and catch the leprechaun. And then you can have them decorate a paper or like a base

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to put the box on with maybe some rainbows or they can use some tape and different things

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to decorate to try and trap that leprechaun. So I think that would be a fun way to give

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the kids a little bit of creativity. They have some different things that they can do

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with it, but to narrow it down a little bit because if you just give them... Sometimes

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if you give them too many options, they'll either be so overwhelmed that they don't come

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up with anything or they might go kind of way overboard. There's two ends to it and

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a lot of kids will be one or the other. So kind of giving them a little bit of direction

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with what the supplies they have are.

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Yeah. I love that idea of using the corn pop cereal as your leprechaun gold. I wouldn't

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have thought of that myself. This great plan. I wonder too if you could like pair up some

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younger students and some older students with this and have like the younger kids just do

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the decorating and then the older kids could do the actual construction and building. That

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might be a little bit challenging to kind of pair them up together, but I wonder if

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there's a way to like just to near classes with your younger kids, you could just have

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them do decorations and then the older kids could slap on the decorations over there and

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you could while they're constructing or something like that.

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Yeah. That would be really cool, especially if you're on like an elementary campus and

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you've got like reading buddies or something like that where like the pre-k kids are working

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with like first or second grade kids and they're like reading buddies. You could read this

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book to the whole group and then have the pre-kers work with the older kids to do this.

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That would be a cool idea for an activity too.

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Yeah.

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I like that.

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This week for our Library of Little's management tip, I was thinking that we should discuss

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kind of how we manage makerspace in the libraries, how you control the chaos that can become

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makerspace. When you have multiple activities, you get somewhere between 15 and 25 kids in

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the library at once. Like how do you manage and get the kids to stay in one spot for any

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given time and not just be running around the library? So Caroline, what do you do to

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kind of control that and get the kids to be able to focus on the tasks at hand?

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Well, in my library, I have my big storytime rug and then I have actually both of my libraries

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have a total of five tables and all of those tables have a total of six chairs around them.

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So when the kids go to their maker, we do our story on the storytime rug, of course,

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and then when they go to their makerspace activities, there's an activity on every table. They're

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out in bins in the middle of the table, so it's pretty obvious where they're meant to

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go. And then the students go, what they pick their tables and if they have a seat, if there's

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an open chair, then they can sit down and start engaging in their activity. But if there's

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no chairs left, then they have to go pick somewhere else. That's a pretty quick and

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easy way for kids to see how many chairs are left. If there's any left and if they do have

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to go pick something else, they are allowed to get up and go to a different center whenever

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they're ready. They don't have to stay there the whole time. There are some kids that have

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a little bit of difficulty choosing a center, however, and they'll kind of flit around and

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go to table to table for maybe like 20 seconds or 30 seconds each. And in that case, if I've

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been watching and it's been like two minutes and they haven't selected anything, then I

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go over there and help them make a choice and tell them they have to engage in whatever

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center for two minutes and I'll set a visual timer for them so that they can see how long

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they have to stay there just so that they begin to engage in something because the purpose

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isn't for them to just wander around aimlessly. The purpose is for them to go choose something.

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It doesn't... I don't really... In the library, it doesn't really matter to me what it is.

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As long as they're engaging in something and it's meaningful and they know what the meaning

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is behind everything because we've already explained all of that as part of our story

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time lesson. But yeah, just for a few of those kids, they just need a little bit of help choosing

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at least for a few minutes and then after that timer goes off and they've sat for two

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minutes and they've started engaging. A lot of the time they do continue just playing

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wherever they are. They just need a little bit of inspiration to sit and stay in one

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spot but if they're done with it at that point, then they're allowed to get up and go elsewhere.

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Yeah, that's what I found also is that sometimes you just kind of... And when I was at the pre-K

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on the campus, that's one of the things that I did was I let the kids choose where they

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were going to go but I told them that they had to stay at the first table. I would set

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a timer for everybody. Everybody went to their first choice. They'd go sit down and for two

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minutes they had to stay there and be actively working. And I would set it... Once the timer

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went off, then I would let them know, okay, now if you would like to change to a different

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location, you can do that. But like you said, once they get going, most of them will stay

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and continue. But it's that getting started part that's really hard for some of them.

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And if they're told, okay, you have to stay here and work, it helps them. My library is

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similar. I use... My current library is similar. I use four tables and so, yeah, we have the

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materials that are in the middle and we've gone over the activities that they are doing.

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I also try to... Usually I have like a card stock instruction with like a picture of what

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they're trying to build or just to give them an idea kind of thing. So like if they're

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building a robot out of magnet tiles, I have a picture of a robot so they know they're

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trying to build a robot kind of thing. And yeah, the number of seats or I know at one

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point in the makerspace labs at your campuses, you guys used clips, the way the clips work,

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is that... The way we use them. Because we found that if you have to have every kid's

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name on a clip, it's a lot of clips. But if we color code the clips and color code the

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areas... The kids, when they enter the area, they take a clip and just pin it to like a

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clothesline clip and pin it to their shirt. And when there's no more clips, no one else

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can be in that area. And then when you're done in that area, you take the clip off and

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put it back on a card so that someone else can take the clip and be in that area kind

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of thing. So that was a nice way to manage when the students were in our makerspace labs.

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And so there's a lot of good different management styles. Giving the kids those visuals though

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of either there's no more clips or there's no more chairs so we can't stay at this station

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so that they can choose another spot is a really good way because that visual helps.

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If you're asking them to count or something like that, a lot of these friends are still

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struggling with that one-to-one correspondence. And also when you're counting kids that are

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moving around, that's a whole other challenge. So giving them a solid visual representation

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is definitely helpful to have them see, oh, there's enough people here, I need to find

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somewhere else to be. And maybe next time I can do that or maybe later in this time,

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I'll be able to move to that station.

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And I really do like the, like you were saying, the clips system is the one that we use in

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the specific makerspace lab on our campus. And I believe it's still in use today. The

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teachers are the ones that take the students to the makerspace lab. That one is a little

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bit different on our campus because it's not, that one's not in the library, although

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I do obviously do makerspace centers in the library as well. But I especially like that

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one for the makerspace lab because the lab is more of an open space. There's like no

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tables anywhere. Well, actually, I think there's one table for the creation station where the

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kids are kind of creating art and things like that. But because it's such an open concept

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and like the goal is for kids to build like really big structures and to kind of be a

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little bit more creative and maybe use more of their like gross motor skills in there

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because you're building like large structures because there's no tables or anything. That's

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an exceptionally good way to do it. There's just no, because there's no other way to really

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designate how many kids go to that center and how to tell when it's full. So that's

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really exceptional, exceptionally helpful when you have a big open space that you need

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to manage a little bit better.

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Yeah, I agree. And we will save some of our info about the makerspace labs for another

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episode. So little teaser for that. We'll talk about those makerspace labs in another

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episode. So if our listeners are interested in finding out more, they'll have to listen

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to more of our episodes.

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Yeah. All right. Our next book is Leprechaun versus Easter Bunny. It is published by Little

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Brown and Company in 2023. The author is Todd Tarpley, and the illustrator is Steph Leveris.

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This particular book hasn't won any awards, but it does have some positive professional

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reviews and got a star review from school library journal. Todd Tarpley grew up in Colorado

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and he currently lives in New York with his wife and two sons. He's written 17 picture

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books to date, including Leprechaun versus the Easter Bunny. Most of his books are written

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in rhymes. This one is written in rhyme as well. He's written seven of the Cat and the

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Hat informational books, as well as four books in the voice of the Lorax. His 2016 book,

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Beat Beat Go to Sleep, was an ALA notable book.

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And the illustrator, Stephanie Leveris grew up in New England. She graduated from the

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Rhode Island School of Design, specializing in illustration and character design for animation.

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She's been the character and prop designer for Lucasfilm's Young Jedi Adventures and

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Disney's Puppy Dog Pals. She has worked for other television clients such as Nick Jr.

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and Sesame Workshop. Some of her other books, she's illustrated over 50 children's books,

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including the little golden grumpy cat books.

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So the premise of this story is, as St. Patrick's Day nears, Leprechaun decides to bury his

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gold treasure in a patch of tulips. Unfortunately, he chooses the exact same spot that the Easter

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Bunny has chosen to hide his eggs. The Easter Bunny gets angry that his eggs have been disturbed

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and starts throwing eggs at the Leprechaun. To retaliate, the Leprechaun pushes the Easter

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Bunny into a patch of clover, and their shenanigans continue to escalate until they must join

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forces when Cupid appears in attempts to get ready for Valentine's Day by clearing the

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disputed patch of land. I liked this book because it was kind of an original take on

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some holidays. I think a lot of these holiday books can be a little bit repetitive and not

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necessarily as original, but I really liked that this, with this book, the author was

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really pulling in some different holiday characters. It kind of made it a little bit easier to

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tie it into, like, not just St. Patrick's Day, but just like spring in general. Really

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anytime, since you got Cupid showing up in there right after Valentine's Day, and it

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does say, like, in the book, it's like Valentine's Day already passed. So really, it could be

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anytime past Valentine's Day that you pull out this book. It really lends itself to,

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like, all of springtime. There's a lot of rhyming words to kind of help with story

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flow again. I liked how expressive the illustrations were, and there was a lot of, you know, slapstick

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humor up in there. So, yeah, I thought it was a cute book.

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Absolutely. I agree. When I was reading it, I wasn't sure, like, how the problem was going

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to be resolved, but the fact that basically the leprechaun and Easter Bunny decided to

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join forces against a common enemy was a cute way to get to a solution, and there's, like,

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that tentative... they kind of just come to an agreement at the end of the book. So that

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was a cute take. I wasn't sure how they were going to come to that conclusion, and so that

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was nice. I do agree with you that the pictures and just the expressiveness of the characters

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with that goofy humor will keep the students engaged, and I just... I like that, like you

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said, this is a very unique take that a lot of the holiday books... we were talking about

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the fact that there's not a ton of really quality St. Patrick's Day books. We've got

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lots of other books for lots of different holidays. St. Patrick's Day isn't one that,

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I guess, there is many stories that are just good stories, and I think this is just, like,

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a really fun story that kids will enjoy, and so yeah, I think this is a pretty good one.

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I like it a lot.

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So I was thinking for a fun makerspace activity for this book would be to make catapults. In

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the book there's a scene where the Easter Bunny starts catapulting his eggs toward the leprechaun,

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and then at the end, that's how they kind of get rid of Cupid as they catapult him away.

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So since there's multiple pages over there that have catapults, I thought it'd be fun

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to kind of make some catapults together, and you could either get plastic gold coins or

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apparently corn pops, that would be a fun thing, you know, catapult across the library

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too. I don't know if you'll want crumbs everywhere though. Or you could get Easter eggs and catapult

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them too, and try and see how far you could make your objects go.

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I like that idea, and I know, like, the kids would enjoy seeing everything go flying across

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the room, so that'll be a lot of fun for them. Yeah, and you wouldn't need a ton of materials

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for that, you know, some plastic spoons and some, like, rubber bands maybe, and some,

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like, the wooden popsicle stick kind of things, maybe. Could be probably enough to make the

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catapults, and then, yeah, like you said, some gold coins or Easter eggs or cereal. Maybe

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you could buy some lucky charms and send that flying across the room, right?

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Oh, that's a good idea too. That'd be fun. I like it.

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So yeah, that would be a lot of fun. I think that would be a really enjoyable time, and

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you could even, if you wanted to even extend it further, you could see who could make their

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catapult send the objects flying the farthest, so you could kind of measure, like, have a

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starting point and have the kids test their catapult and measure the distance that they

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send their objects.

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Oh, I like that. That's a great way to tie in some, yeah, some measurement and math in

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there.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, love it.

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Awesome.

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Thank you all for joining us today on this episode of Librarians of Littles, and we hope

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you found some fresh ideas for inspiring our young readers. Please be sure to subscribe

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and connect with us on social media.

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Thank you for listening to this episode of Librarians of Littles. We hope that you've

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enjoyed it. Check back each Wednesday for a new episode.

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Librarians of Littles is a podcast produced and hosted by Patrick Adams and Caroline Legere.

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Editor Patrick Adams. Our theme song is performed by JD Adams. You can follow us on Instagram

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at librariansoflittles. You can follow us on Blue Sky at littleslibrarian.bsky.social,

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and you can send us your emails at librarianoflittlespod.com.