Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Leshear.
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
where we review books, include makerspace connections,
and we give tips and tricks for working with
our youngest readers. Today, we are going to
share two books that work really well with this
month of April. April is school library month.
The American Association of School Librarians
celebrates April as School Librarians and School
Library Month to encourage the community to understand
the essential role that strong school libraries
play in transforming learning. And so this week
we're going to have two books that are library
focused, the first of which is a book called
Ronin the Librarian. This was published in 2020
by Roaring Book Press. The authors, because there's
two of them, Tara Lube and Becky Caddy. And the
illustrator is Victoria Moderna. This book, Ronan
the Librarian, was on the Junior Library Guild
selection for 2020 list. It won the or it was
on the list for the Grand Canyon Reader Award
2022 in Arizona, the Treasure State Award 2022
for grades K through three in Montana, and the
South Carolina Picture Book Award for 2022 -2023
for grades K through two. Becky Caddy has always
had a flair for the dramatic and loves all things
entertainment, especially character -driven narratives.
Becky was a casting producer for reality TV shows
like NBC's America's Got Talent and ABC's Extreme
Makeover and E's The Simple Life in Los Angeles.
She has a drama degree from the University of
Georgia. Go dogs! And she is currently a creative
recruiter residing in Chicago, Illinois. She
can be found going to the theater, eating too
much sushi, and spoiling her nephews. She is
a member of the SCBWI Illinois, which stands
for the Society of Children's Book Writers and
Illustrators. And Tara is her sister. Tara is
self -described as a picture book nerd. In her
previous life, she owned a kid's toys and bookstore
in Atlanta, which was a catalyst for her for
writing her own books. Her background is in retail
buying and wholesale distribution. She's a graduate
of the University of Dayton. So go flyers. Tara
loves Star Wars and submersive picture books.
She has three children and a husband and they
live in Fort Mill, South Carolina. and she is
also an active member of the SCBWI for the Carolinas.
Alright, so if the author's other books are I
Am Famous, which is illustrated by Joanne Lou
Vrythoff, I'm sorry if I pronounced it strangely.
That's close, I think it's close. I Used to Be
Famous, also illustrated by Joanne Lou Vrythoff,
Operation Photo Bomb, illustrated by Matthew
Rivera, and Sharknado, illustrated by Daniel
Duncan. The illustrator for this book, Victoria
Maderna, is an illustrator from Rosario, Argentina,
but she works mainly in children's books and
comics. She currently lives in rural France with
her husband, Frederico. She creates illustrations
using and I checked to see how this was pronounced
it's goo -ash yes that's how you say it ash okay
yes it's a type of paint made from pigments bound
in water soluble gum like watercolor but with
the addition of a white pigment in order to make
it opaque see i was doing some research for this
because i was interested um And she also occasionally
includes coloring digitally, but she's always
willing to try new things. She is fond of funny
and whimsical stories, painting animals, particularly
if she gets to make them wear fancy clothes and
hats. She enjoys painting trees and nature and
things of fantasy and fairy tale style where
she can let her imagination run wild. She is
formally trained in graphic design so also is
pretty into typography and lettering as well
And she loves it when projects let her flex those
muscles and so the book summary Ronan was a barbarian
known for invading raiding and trading after
This when he's also known for finding the best
treasures Ronan ends up pillaging a chest of
books and scrolls with great disappointment.
Being so disappointed, he tries to trade with
other barbarians, but barbarians don't read.
He tries to search for other uses. He can use
it as kindling or for origami or even as toilet
paper. But as he He is trying to figure out what
to do. He gets sucked in by one of the pictures
in the book and begins to read first a sentence
then a paragraph and so on and so on. He becomes
so obsessed with the stories that he's extremely
distracted from his rating tasks and his friends.
He begins to start rating specifically for books
when he finishes those books. He needs more so
he keeps rating for more and more of this new
treasure. He collects so many books that he decides
he needs somewhere to house them. He builds a
library. He sets up a grand opening for the library,
but all of the other barbarians have reasons
why they don't read. His last -ditch attempt
is to read a story in the town square to get
attention, but it seems to be a miserable failure
until he goes back to the library and finds the
doors busted in and barbarians inside reading.
I really enjoyed this story a lot. It's silly,
it's fun. When I've read this to my students
in the past, they've really enjoyed it. I'm going
to read it this coming week with my kids, so
we'll find out how this group enjoys it. But
I've really enjoyed it because the characters
are just kind of comical and fun. I feel like
it's relatable to a lot of students who are just
like, I don't like to read, I don't want to do
it until they find that one book that finally
really speaks to them. they become voracious
readers. But yeah, it has so much good humor.
Like there's a goat throughout the entire book
that's just like eating paper the entire time.
There's a running joke of using the books as
toilet paper. The illustrations are bright and
colorful. The characters are exactly how you
would imagine these big hulking barbarians to
be. And it's just so engaging for the students.
I really enjoyed it. I think that this book I
think this is a five out of five bookmarks book.
I think it's really great. Yeah, this was the
first time I've had the pleasure of reading this
book and it was really funny. It was really cute.
It was kind of a different spin on it. I really
like that it was like kind of taking the big
burly barbarians and making them readers. I think
it really helps kids relate to it and helps maybe
are more reluctant readers who don't really think
of themselves as readers view themselves as such
because then they can kind of see oh these you
know big guys are over here that you know they
never read and then they learn to love it maybe
I can too yeah it was really cute really funny
different spin on it I enjoyed it yeah it was
really cool and good pick well done thank you
and I I really do like the pictures at all of
it because it's got like that those warm colors
and just, you know, they they're very engaging
pictures. And I like that, like there's one picture
that has the bulletin board of all of the the
rules for the the library and it has like definitely
check out books make sure that like swords are
terrible bookmarks and like different things
like that and there's even like uh do not let
this goat in the library but like it's just the
little running jokes throughout the whole thing
just make it amusing and when you stop and read
all that stuff the kids are like they crack up
and laugh and love it so it's a really good book
it was it was really cute As far as a makerspace
activity to connect. So I, this one's more of
a craft than an activity, but I think it would
be fun to do using sentence strips and cardstock
and some taper staples, coloring pencils, crayons,
markers, that kind of stuff. Using the sentence
strips make a headband for the students. And
then using the cardstock, you can either print
or freehand out. I would probably Draw one and
then make a bunch of copies on card stock but
draw some get some horns and so cut out some
pre -cut horns you can once you've got the Sentence
strip to the right size for the kids heads you
can add those horns to the sentence strips to
make a barbarian helmet for the students and
then give them the time to decorate their helmet,
add some color to it, that kind of thing, because
all the barbarians throughout the book are wearing
these giant horned helmets, and so the kids can
become barbarians themselves with those horned
helmets. I think that would just be a fun little
craft to do. You could also have them if you
wanted. If some of your kids need that time to
be more tactile and building, you could have
them build their own fortresses using Building
materials like blocks or Legos or something like
that that could be they could have barbarians
try and raid their fortress that they built out
of the Legos I love that idea and I like I really
like having the kids make their own helmets like
that kids love To dress up and play pretend to
do all the acting out kinds of things So I think
that would be a really engaging way to kind of
bring the story to life. I love it. Absolutely.
Yeah I think it'd be a lot of fun and you know
the the thing that would be the hardest would
making sure that all the horns are cut out but
most of us when the pre -k classes come a teacher
or a para will come in with them so you could
just hand them a stack and be like hey cut these
out while i'm reading kind of thing and wouldn't
be so bad yeah so that would help a lot and that
would be like really simple design and so that
it would be yeah it wouldn't be too hard to put
a couple together and just cut them Yeah. It
wouldn't be too time consuming per se for like
a single class. The whole school would be rough.
So yeah, that would be a great way to kind of
get that done quickly for everybody that doesn't
overburden you. Yeah. All right. So I think that's
a really good story and a really great way to
introduce kind of library month, you know? Yeah.
Agreed. All right. So This week for a library
of littles management tip. We're going to talk
a little bit about book fairs. So the big thing
about book fairs is that book fairs have been
in the spotlight a lot for a couple of reasons.
One of the main things is that. Especially. When
you're looking at the pre K students, a lot of
these students come to our schools. They qualify
to come to our schools because. Money is something
that their families struggle with for whatever
reason that might be. And so having a book fair
can a lot of times be something that's kind of
questionable to bring up as far as equity goes.
And so I'm going to explain how I work my book
fairs and explain how the library is set up so
that we have some ideas of how to balance it
out. Because I think that everyone should have
the opportunity To be able to buy some books
and a book fair is a great way to do that, especially
in areas where we have book deserts. A lot of
a lot, especially in like we're in the state
of Texas. There are a lot of places where there
are book deserts. We're fortunate enough to live
in an area where books are relatively accessible,
but that's not always the case. So book fairs
can be a way to help with that. The way I set
my library up. I'm fortunate that in my library
right now I have a lot of floor space. And so.
I'm able and all of my shelves are on wheels
which makes it a whole lot more easy to move
stuff around and if you have shelves that are
permanently in place in your building or aren't
on wheels and it would take forever to move them
and stuff that makes it a lot more challenging
but if you've got the shelves on wheels that
makes it a whole lot easier to move stuff around.
So what I generally do is I will move all of
my picture books a little bit closer to my fiction
section. I'll move our, we get rid of the makerspace
tables that we have that week. Those are put
away and actually usually the tables themselves
are used for displays for the book fair. And
so I'll move all of my shelves so that all of
my shelves stay accessible the entire time we
have our book fair going. I know that's not something
that everyone can do, but that's something that
I try to do because I want to make sure that
my students can still check out a library book,
even if they can't purchase a book from our book
fair. And so I'll set up my book fair in one
portion of the library. I also have like big
tables at the back of my library. That's where
like the staff comes when they have faculty meetings
and stuff like that. I leave those there so that
when I'm seeing my other classes, my first and
first through fifth grade classes, they go to
those back tables and we do different activities
in the library that week. But as far as pre -k
goes, we set up the book fair. We have our picture
book shelves moved. We have, depending on if
it's in the fall, we have our picture book cart
or our pre -k cart of books. If they haven't
started checking out off the shelves yet, that's
still available. But the students can come into
the library. I have a very long talk with the
students about what a book fair is and how it
works. And we have a discussion about the fact
that a book fair is basically a store in our
library. And if you go to the store, you can't
just take something and walk out. And all the
students generally have that concept down. And
so we explain that to leave with something from
the book fair, you have to have money to pay
for it and you have to have the right amount
of money to pay for it and that kind of thing
and so we have a conversation about the fact
that When they come in the first time because
I try to have them come in twice that week Some
people have their schedule that way so it works
a little better Usually I only see my class classes
once a week So we try to set it up so they come
in early in the week and then come back for a
lesson later in the week But during that time
the first time they come in we have this conversation
we talk about it And then I explained to them
that they're gonna get to look at the book fair
they're going to get to pick like one or two
books for us to put on a list so that they can
take home and show their adults and we have a
whole conversation about the fact that their
adults get to decide whether they spend the money
on books or not and that we're not going to get
upset we have a whole conversation about the
fact that sometimes adults have to say no and
that's an acceptable answer and we have to be
able to listen to it and understand that so We
have this whole conversation where we explain
if the adults say no, not this time, it's not
a time for you to throw a fit and cry and whine
and complain until you get your way. Because
sometimes adults have to make important choices.
Sometimes they don't have the money available
to make these other purchases. But we can say,
well, maybe next time. And so I have all the
kids repeat back to me, well, maybe next time.
So that they know if mom or dad or grandma, grandpa
or whoever their adult is says no. you can say
well maybe next time because we have a book fair
in the fall and we have a book fair in the spring
and then most of those students that are in our
pre -k programs will be on my campus the next
year it's when they're in kindergarten and first
grade and so we have book fairs every year so
even if they don't get anything this year there's
always that chance in the future that they could
get something then and so we have that conversation
and then the teachers and the paras help me we
set up some videos so that the kids can be dancing
on the carpet while we take smaller groups of
kids to look around and we write down a couple
books on a wish list and write down the price
and then we can send it home. The second time
they come into the book fair that week is when
I do an actual book lesson, which may or may
not be from a book from our book fair, just depends
on what's there. But then At the end of that,
while we're getting our wiggles out and dancing
and doing book check out from the actual library,
if anyone brought money, the teacher will pull
those kids aside and pull the books and then
we run the register at the very end so they get
their new books. But everybody gets to leave
with at least a library book on that day when
we're doing the book fair purchases. Everybody's
leaving with a library book from our Book cart
or from the shelves depending on what time of
year it is So that way I think that helps a lot
But it makes sure that everybody still ends up
with something that they can be reading if they
got something that they can take home and read
Rate if they bought something then they can keep
that and that's great, but it gives the kids
That opportunity without requiring it without
saying well, you didn't bring anything so you
get to leave with nothing We're still gonna check
out books that week the kids still get that It's
hectic. It's crazy. There's a lot going on at
once but It seems to work for me with the bigger
kids It's even more crazy if you can get volunteers
to help you that's always the best But I understand
that a lot of parents are busy working and stuff
like that So volunteers can be hard and challenging
to get it sometimes but if you can get volunteers
it does make it a little bit easier to run all
of it at once, but it's doable if you're on your
own. All right, that's some really good information.
Yeah, next year I'll be working in some elementary
campuses instead of my pre -K campuses that I
have now, so I'm looking forward to doing that.
I'm probably going to have to ask you for a little
bit of help again in the fall. I'll be happy
to help. Yeah. All right. Well, our next book
that we have today is called No Cats in the Library.
It is published by Simon & Schuster Books for
Young Readers. It was published on March 5th,
2024. The author and illustrator of this book
is Lauren Emmons. This book is on two lists.
One of them is The Mockingbird Books list from
2024. I had never heard of this one before. This
is a Texas book list that is specifically created
by Abilene ISD, and when I was looking through
there, there's some really good books on that
list. I'd never heard of it, but it was it was
kind of interesting going through. I found some
other good books that I'm gonna put on my next
order list. The other list that this book is
on is the Virginia Reader's Choice for Primary
Grades K -3 for 2025. Lauren Emmons, Grow Up,
Exploring Nature in Minnesota Since then, they've
lived all over the U .S., from California to
Wisconsin, and spent some time living in England
as well. In 2020, they won the World Illustration
Award in the site -specific category, and in
2021, they earned a master's degree in children's
book illustration from Anglia Ruskin University
in Cambridge, England. They currently live in
North Dakota with their spouse, their two cats,
and their dog. Some other books from this author
include their debut picture book as an illustrator.
It's Prac Fills the House by Donna L. Washington.
And then this is their debut book No Cats in
the Library as both the author and the illustrator.
So in this book, a stray cat named Clarice loves
books but doesn't understand how to read all
the dark squiggly lines that's everywhere in
them. One day she discovers a new place filled
with stories. It's her local library. At first
the Keeper of the Books removes her from the
library. Then she figures out that there's a
hole in the library and she can sneak in through
the book drop and she finds a young reader who
shares a story with her and slowly all those
dark squiggly lines begin to turn into words
and she learns how to read both the pictures
and the words in the book. The keeper of the
books does come and find Clarice in the library,
but upon seeing how much joy she brings to her
young patrons, she creates a cat read aloud story
time where all the young patrons can come and
read a book to the library cat. I really liked
this story. I thought it was a very calming one.
I really enjoyed all the colors of it. It's very
realistic illustrations, but not too overwhelming.
So the text is really very legible and it kind
of stands out. There's really muted colors. Kind
of makes for a very calming, kind of cozy vibe
through the whole thing. And I thought it was
pretty relatable for. our younger readers it
had certain things like it never refers to the
librarian as a librarian it's always the keeper
of the books and I liked how it referred to all
the dark squiggly lines in the books rather than
you know saying there's words that she can't
read and it does because it does when you start
to learn to read like you don't and you don't
understand what the what those squiggly lines
are yet that's what it looks like is squiggly
lines so I thought that was kind of a good way
for maybe our kids who haven't learned to read
yet to kind of understand they may not be the
only ones feeling like you know they don't know
what all those marks on the page mean yet and
that's okay it'll you know make sense to them
in time you can just really what i think when
you're reading it you can really tell that the
author truly enjoys libraries and you can just
feel the library love when you're reading this
book so I enjoyed it a lot. I think this would
actually be a really good one to pair with Ronan
the Librarian because, you know, Ronan the Librarian
was kind of a funny, it was still like a very
enjoyable read aloud, but in a different kind
of a way where that one was kind of more silly
and funny than this one's kind of, you know,
calming and cozy. So I think these ones actually
We didn't do it intentionally, but I think they
pair exceptionally well together because of that
different juxtaposition there. I agree. I agree.
This book was super cute. I really enjoyed it
a lot. And like you said, you can tell that the
author illustrator really enjoys libraries just
the way she depicts them as just these warm and
welcoming places for people to share ideas and
books. it was just a really beautiful book and
just a really cute story. And I agree. I think
like they counterbalance each other very well.
Like this is very heartwarming and cute and loving
story. And then like the ronin the librarian
is kind of a goofy like joking around kind of
that they both like show the importance and the
love of those books. And so yeah. Yeah, I think
I would also give this one a five out of five.
It was just Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think it's
it's kind of simple enough to the illustrations
are well done enough and engaging enough and
it's short enough to I think hold a kid's attention
for the duration of the read aloud and as a bonus
for the makerspace activity for this one at first
I was like thinking of like ways to get animals
involved with like the makerspace and then when
I was doing the research for the book though
I found some real Lauren Emmons has some great
educator resources that pair really nicely with
this book. There's a couple of just plain coloring
pages which are fine. So you can color in you
know Clarice the cat and color the keeper of
the books holding her. But then it also has a
couple of templates for bookmarks that you can
or you can and the the bookmarks are pictures
of the library shelves with Clarice like sitting
on top and like looking at the books. But the
spines are all empty. So her suggestion was to
color in the bookmark, however the child wants
to, but then you could track the books that you've
read by writing them in on the spine labels.
And I thought that was a really kind of fun way.
I was like, that is much better than anything
that I would have come up with. And it's, you
know, it's directly from the author. So it's
author approved. So yeah if you want to check
that out it's on her website which is laurenemmons
.com under the educator resources tab so yeah
i thought that was a really fun way to like see
extra artwork and kind of tie in more things
directly from the book and i really liked the
tracking your different your reading with it
too love that idea and then i was thinking about
this because i i saw that idea and i was like
that's really cool and based on some of our experiences
this week at the library conference. I was like,
if you could also find a way to incorporate getting
some cats that need to be adopted and do like
some cat therapy with the kids where the kids
can just like pet some cats and stuff, that would
be even cooler. That's a lot more work and a
lot more challenging to do, but that would be
super cool too. I think I'm sure there's a little
bit more logistics involved to that, especially
with pre -k kids, but yeah. still would be super
fun like it would be super fun i think that would
that might be fun for like an open house kind
of a thing yeah or like it's like an after -school
event kind of yeah yeah i feel like their grown
-ups would need to be present for that one i
think it would be fun to do but i think it might
need to be like a separate room with like clearly
labeled like cat room beware you might end up
taking an animal home Yeah. I would. That would
be my... I would be in danger of taking an animal
home for sure. But I just love that like that
the authors, so many more authors now are creating
some of these kind of resources and that's just
really cool that they are doing that to make
it so that even more and more educators can use...
their books and connect them to other things.
And yeah, like you said, those bookmarks where
the kids can keep track of all the books that
they're reading. Love that idea. Yeah. Yeah.
And that was her suggestion on her site. That
wasn't mine. So, but I just love that plan. And
there was also a YouTube video on her website
of her reading. They, she prefers the pronoun
they, I'm sorry. But they have a... a YouTube
video of them reading the book aloud and kind
of pointing out different features of the book
and kind of so you kind of notice how it is the
keeper of the books and little things like that.
So that's a really fun thing to incorporate into
your lesson as well if you'd like to do that.
Super cool. 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. Happy reading!
Thank you for listening to this episode of Librarians
of Littles. We hope that you've enjoyed it. Check
back each Wednesday for a new episode. Librarians
of Littles is a podcast produced and hosted by
Patrick Adams and Caroline Legere. Editor, Patrick
Adams. Our theme song is performed by JD Adams.
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