Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Legere.
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
where we discuss picture books, give ideas for
makerspace incorporation activities, and we give
tips and tricks for working with our youngest
learners. Today, we have two great books to talk
about with you. Today, the books that we chose
to discuss, we were able to get copies from the
authors at our recent visit to the Texas Library
Association. And so these Picture books are newer
picture books and they're wonderful and we're
so excited to talk about them. The first one
is Bear Suit Turtle Makes a Friend written and
illustrated by Bob Shay. It is published by Abrams
Books for Young Readers in 2025. This book has
not won any particular awards just yet, but Bob
Shay is kind of a legend and has gotten loads
of awards in the past, including Publisher Weekly's
best books list for 2021 for Shay Bob, Children's
Favorites Award 2019 for Splash Crash Moo, Publisher
Weekly's best books list for 2019 for Who Wet
My Pants, Bob Shay is an award -winning author
and illustrator of your favorite children's books.
Bob has worked with Comedy Central. He's designed
the Green Head PBS Kids logo, developed an on
-air character for Playhouse Disney, worked with
Nick Jr., and has appeared on Noggin and the
Sunnyside Up Show, and worked on a super secret
project. with really smart people at Google,
and he is hilarious. Based on our interactions
with him and seeing him interact with others
at the Illustrator Sketch Off at TLA, he's got
a great sense of humor. Yeah, he's pretty great.
He's really funny. I haven't read this particular
book by him, but everything that he's written
or illustrated I think is just... hilarious,
and it's wonderful for children. Some of the
other books that Bob Shay has written include
Who Wet My Pants, illustrated by Zachariah O
'Hora, Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads, illustrated
by Lane Smith, and Big Plans, illustrated by
Lane Smith. And then some of the books that he
has written and illustrated are Shay Bob, Ballet
Cat, Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great, and Dinosaur
Versus the Library. bear suit turtle makes a
friend. This is the story of a turtle in a bear
suit claiming to be a for real bear and he meets
a turtle claiming to be a for real bear expert.
The expert challenges the turtle in the bear
suit to prove he is actually a bear by doing
bear things like climbing trees and hibernating
and it's pretty silly as the bear The turtle
in the bear suit requires the bear expert to
cover his eyes while he climbs the tree and then
the bear suit turtle pretends to sleep for hibernating.
In the end, the bear expert explains that other
bear things include riding bikes and foraging
for ice cream and playing pumpkin king. As the
day progresses, the two get tired and hot and
the question of swimming arises and both decide
to tell each other the truth that they are not
really what they claim, but they have discovered
that they are now friends and can enjoy each
other's company even when they're not who they
originally claimed to be. This book, Bob Shay's
books, are always funny. They're always amusing.
This will definitely get the kids laughing. This
is a very silly book that is engaging, and I
really enjoyed the sweetness of this friendship
that grows between the two characters. It reminds
me a lot of how a lot of students interact with
each other, trying to kind of one -up, like,
I know this, I can do this, and... that's something
that oftentimes becomes the basis for a friendship
with the younger students. They kind of interact
with each other. That's their first way of broaching
that interaction and getting to know each other.
And so this is really mirrored in the book. It's
just a really great story about friendship. It's
heartwarming and cute and, like I said, very
funny. I strongly suggest this book. I think
this is another Perfect Book by Bob Shay, five
bookmarks, definitely. I think this is gonna
become an instant classic for a lot of people.
It's just so cute and fun. It's the classic kind
of illustrations that Bob Shay is known for,
kind of, I don't wanna use the word simplistic,
but just very iconic illustrations. using lots
of geometric shapes, lots of circles, lots of
triangles, to just get that general outline or
shape of the characters. And I think that's part
of what makes it so endearing to the students
is they're like, I can totally see what that
is without it being incredibly detailed. I think
this is going to be a great book that everyone
is going to enjoy. as it, I'm sure, will continue
to be, it'll get onto a bunch of different lists,
and it'll get a bunch of different awards. I
guarantee it. I think it's a great story. I'm
sure it will. Like you said, everything Bob Shane
touches turns to gold, really. And like I said,
I haven't read this one yet, but I do love his
art style. It always has that really bold colors,
and I do think it's not... I might call it a
little bit simple in the illustration style,
but I think that's really great for Pre -K because
the kids can see all the shapes that he uses
to make the illustrations and it kind of makes
it a little bit easier for the kids to imitate
it themselves so they can kind of see themselves
as authors and illustrators, which I think is
really important for our kiddos. And it also
like, it grabs their attention a little bit better,
especially for younger kids or like our kids
that may have difficulty seeing. We have a lot
of visual, maybe not a lot, but we do have some
visually impaired students that need those bold
contrasting colors that he's kind of known for.
So I kind of love that about his books and they're
so, they're, I think the simplicity of them helps
our kids grasp the concepts a little bit better.
So. I have, like I said, not having read this
particular one yet, I know I already love it.
Dinosaur versus School is like one of my favorite
ones to read with our incoming three and four
year olds who have never been to school before.
That's like a really great way to like ease them
in. I usually pair that one at the beginning
of the school year with another book that's a
little bit... a little calmer I guess dinosaur
versus school is just a really silly way to introduce
school to our younger kids so yeah good choice
I love it already and I will say that there is
a youtube video where he explains how to draw
bear suit turtle that's available so like you
could if the kids because of the the art style
and like we said some of those kids can use those
shapes to help build soap Pairing this with that
YouTube video where they can learn how to draw
the bear suit turtle would be kind of a cool
Activity that you could do. I also really love
at the very end of the book It's a there for
real bear facts and some of them are like obviously
very real and then there's some others that are
kind of silly an adult male black bear can weigh
up to 600 pounds or 100 bear suit turtles If
you see a grizzly bear, you should play dead.
If you see a black bear, make yourself big and
scary. Bears are apex predators, which means
they aren't afraid of anything. Except spiders,
because spiders are so gross. That's funny. He's
just got a really good sense of humor and...
Yeah. I love that... You can just kind of tell
that he just really enjoys... his job and sharing
that sense of humor With everybody that's around
him, you know Which is just the cool? Absolutely
attitude to have just being like hey I I know
I'm goofy and funny and silly and I'm just gonna
roll with it kind of you know Absolutely, yeah,
all right So a makerspace activity for bear suit
turtle makes a friend My idea this one's gonna
cost a little bit of money, but I looked and
Amazon has these pretty cheap you get 16 plastic
turtles for about eight dollars and my idea is
that You pull out the Legos and all of the kids
Build a bear suit for a plastic turtle the plastic
turtles are about two inches tall so the bear
suit doesn't have to be huge but they can the
kids can build their own little bear suit to
put the turtle into and I thought that would
be a fun little activity it's going to take a
little bit more dexterity and maybe a little
bit more planning but near the end of the year
I think that's something that our pre -k students
will be able to do and I like to challenge them
because I've found that quite often if you give
them a challenge, they will rise to the occasion.
So I think this will be a fun activity to get
them to be kind of creative and have to think
a little bit more about how they use the Legos
to make it so that the turtle will fit inside.
Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. Something
different. Yeah, and then once you buy the turtles,
you can keep them. for years. So it's a upfront
cost, but then you have them to use for other
activities and things like that. So it's not
too bad. No, it's not. You can reuse them for
all the classes and everything. That's not, that's
pretty cheap. I like it. That sounds like fun.
We're going to move forward with our Library
of Littles management tips. So this coming week
you've got an author's visit So why don't you
tell us a little bit about that what you've had
to do kind of? To get that going like the setup
process how you decided on the author if you
know anything about like what the presentation
is gonna look like as far as For pre -k that
kind of stuff. What do you know? Yeah So I have
the privilege of having Tammy Sauer come to both
of my libraries next week. I'm so excited. It
came about because, well, honestly, both of my
libraries are closing, which is actually quite
sad. So we had a little bit of extra money that
we needed to spend kind of quickly. And Tammy
Sauer came to a couple of the other libraries
in my district just a month or two ago, actually,
pretty recently. And so... emailed her and asked
if she had any availability for the rest of the
school year to find her information. I just went
to her website and she has a tab called school
visits and I just went there and quite a few
authors and illustrators actually have this where
there's just a form that you can fill out on
their website and you just enter in your information
and just has a few questions on it like how many
kids and how many presentations and things like
that that you would want to have for them and
where you're located general information questions
like that and she emailed me back within like
two or three hours she's been kind of amazing
with communication and she said that she had
availability for this coming week so i got the
paperwork started with on our end with the district
and fortunately she was we were able to push
everything through and she's going to come and
visit us with she's coming to two of my schools
she's going to do well i only have two schools
but she's coming to both of them she was only
available for a day and a half so she's going
to start with a half day afternoon presentation
this coming week on Wednesday and what we did
for that one since it's a half day and she can
only do two presentations that school is fortunately
a little bit smaller and we only have about 250
students so what we did is we're going to alter
our special schedule so that everybody in the
school gets a 30 minute specials in the morning
And then in the afternoon, we're going to have
a presentation from 1 .45 to 2 .15. And then
we have a 15 minute break, and then we'll have
another presentation from 2 .30 to 3. And Tammy
Sauer has, I think most authors and illustrators
who regularly do school visits do this anyway.
There's like a list of presentations that you
can pick from. And one of them is a, one that's,
She advertises this for kindergarten first, so
that's the one that we went with, and it's just
a 30 minute presentation about how books take
you places. And coincidentally, leading up to
this, I have throughout the school year to teach
kids about authors and illustrators. There have
been like four books, I think, so far this year
where I think it started with on Dot Day. I read
the kids The Dot and then we did Peter Reynolds
virtual author author visit and I told them that's
what it was I told them I used that terminology
and told them we're going to do a virtual author
visit and explained what that an author writes
the words in the book illustrator draws the pictures
Peter Reynolds did both for the dot and showed
them a video with Peter Reynolds drawing dots
and making his own little creation there and
it was just like a quick little five -minute
thing but it was just to help the kids connect
that you know he's the one who created the book
And this is this extension activity with it.
And so when I was talking to the kids this last
week about how an author is going to come and
visit us, they were like, the one that writes
the words? And they were like, yeah. And it was
pretty exciting so far. I think they're really
making that connection, even though our kids
are a little younger. They're only three, four,
and five. But I think quite a few of them really
are understanding that the author is the person
who writes the words. And they create the books.
And they can be. authors too and all the things
so I'm pretty excited that she's going to get
to come and visit us. With my other school the
way the scheduling is working for that is I'm
combining since we have a full day for her at
that school that school's a little bit bigger
so I'm glad that we have a full day there we're
going to have all the specials meet in the school
cafeteria for the presentation for 30 minutes
and then for the second 30 minutes of their regular
specials time they're going to go to their the
rest of their specials. We normally have one
hour total in specials so they'll do 30 minutes
in with our author visit all together with all
the specials teachers and all the paras kind
of supporting our students so that we can all
you know that's a lot of kids like it'll be about
60 -ish kids all together in the cafeteria at
once. So we'll all be there to kind of help support
and help kids focus and stay on task and such.
And then we'll go to our regular specials after
that so that it'll be 30 minutes of author visit,
30 minutes of specials, and we'll kind of keep
doing that for the rest of the day. So it'll
be a total of four presentations at that school
on Thursday. So yeah. That's kind of how that's
going so far. Obviously I haven't done it yet
so I'll keep you guys updated on how that goes
but I'm very excited and I think the kids are
too and I'm glad that I accidentally, well I
guess I didn't accidentally, I'm glad I taught
them what authors and illustrators were this
year but we've been kind of building toward it
I think unintentionally and I'm really excited
that we get this culminating activity at the
end of the year. That's awesome. That sounds
really cool. and she's amazing so I think you're
gonna really enjoy it. I was fortunate I got
to see one of her presentations for some of the
older kids when she was in your district prior
to spring break and her energy level is amazing.
Like she's super engaging, she's moving around
and super expressive. I think you're gonna really
enjoy her presentation. I'm looking forward to
it. Yeah she seems like she's gonna be really
engaging for pre -k, which not everybody can
do. So yes, I'm excited about that. I'm so excited
about it actually that the next book that we're
going to talk about is one of hers. It's our
newest one. So this is the book that one of the
books that you are very kind actually and gave
to me from our TLA visit. The next book we're
going to talk about is Mary Had a Little Jam.
It was published by Union Square Kids in 2025.
the author is Tammy Sauer and the illustrator
is Vanessa Brantley Newton. This particular book
has not won any awards yet, but Tammy has won
quite a few awards for some other books that
we'll list a little bit later. Tammy Sauer grew
up on a small farm outside of the tiny town of
Victoria, Kansas. After high school, she graduated
from Kansas State University with a BS in elementary
education and she married her high school sweetheart.
They had two children and later moved their family
to Edmond, Oklahoma. Tammy was a teacher and
later a librarian, a library media specialist
before becoming a children's author. She has
written over 30 children's books to date, with
more currently in the works. she still lives
in Edmund with her family. Some of the other
books that she has written include Not Now Cow,
which is on six different state lists, Wordy
Birdy, which is on 12 lists, Mary Had a Little
Glam, which appears on five lists, Your Alien,
and Nugget and Fang. The Illustrator, Vanessa
Brantley Newton grew up in Newark, New Jersey
during the Civil Rights Movement. Reading Ezra
Jack Keats' The Snowy Day was the first time
that she saw an African -American character in
a book. Seeing herself reflected in a children's
book was a defining moment for her and has influenced
her art as an adult. She strives to include characters
of all ethnic backgrounds in an effort to recreate
that moment for others. She has been given 29
awards and honors over the years for her work
as an illustrator and author. Some of her other
books that she has written and illustrated are
Shake It Off, Nesting Dolls, which is on one
state list, Becoming Vanessa, which is on three
state lists, Just Like Me, Grandma's Purse, Don't
Let Auntie Mabel Bless the Table, and Let Freedom
Sing. She has also illustrated 27 books for other
authors so far. And with this particular book,
Mary had a little jam. The summary is one day
when playing her ukulele, Mary decides it would
be more fun to start a band and play with others.
She recruits other characters from classic nursery
rhymes such as Jack and Jill and Bo Peep. Together
they form a band called the Nursery Rhymers.
Initially the sounds clash when everyone tries
to play their own songs simultaneously, but eventually
they come together and learn that with practice
and unity they can save their performance. I
thought this was a really cute story. It teaches
perseverance and teamwork. The illustrations
are really vibrant. This is the third book in
a series. The first one is Mary Had a Little
Glam, and then there's Mary Had a Little Plan.
There's lots of, it has lots of nursery rhyme
characters in it, so naturally there's a lot
of rhyming words in it. I think this would be
a really good one to play. to maybe read at the
beginning of the school year. I do this, I usually
do nursery rhymes -ish type things with three,
fours and fives toward the beginning of the school
year because it's something that's a little bit
more familiar when we're kind of getting to learn
our routines and procedures and such. I think
that's a good way to kind of get our kids more
used to school, I guess, because they're usually,
they know some nursery rhymes and have some background
knowledge with that. So it's a kind of a good
way to expand their knowledge and kind of appreciate
reading a little bit because just because you
have that little bit of familiarity with there.
But yeah, I really enjoyed this story. I love
that it focused on teamwork and I love the illustrations
and how bold they are. Yeah, I think and with
our particular curriculum, we have six weeks
of just learning about music. So for our curriculum,
I think I would probably give this one a 5 out
of 5 because I'm always looking for music books
to support our pre -k curriculum. Outside of
the curriculum, I think I might go with a, just
like reading it at home or just reading it for
funsies, probably a 4 out of 5. It's still cute
and it's still good. It's not particularly, I
think it just doesn't stand out like a ton as
just a standalone story, but it does support
our curriculum particularly well. So for If you
have something that you need to tie it in with,
like music -wise, nursery rhymes, I think I would
give it a 5 out of 5. As a standalone, probably
4 out of 5. I agree. I think it's, like you said,
it's a very cute story. It's fun to see the different
nursery rhyme characters being represented in
the book. I think Vanessa Brantley -Newton does
an amazing job of having a wide range of diverse
characters represented in the book. It's really
cool to see all the different skin tones that
are used to represent the different characters.
So I think you're right. I think it's a really
great book, especially considering the pre -k
curriculum and the use of the nursery rhymes,
the rhyming words, the music incorporation. And
it's a solid story. It's not one that... Like
is gonna be something that Everyone's gonna be
like, oh, yeah, I've read all of the Mary had
books, but it's a solid book It's really enjoyable.
I think a lot of the kids will get a lot of enjoyment
out of it So yeah, I think definitely a good
choice For the makerspace activity for this book,
I thought it would be fun to make shakers and
have the kids make their own instruments, which
is pretty easy to do. I've done it a couple of
times in the classroom. I have not done it in
the library yet. That just occurred to me. I
really should. But that's a pretty easy one to
do. You just get the cheap paper plates that
we all love for, you know, all the pre -k class.
pre -k crafts those little white ones that are
paper and just really flexible but you color
on the bottom of it and the kids decorate it
however they want and then you put some dry rice
or beans or anything else that was I I do rice
or beans because it's cheap really but you just
get a very small like very small little handful
in there maybe like a teaspoon is even fine and
just put it on top and then you fold the plate
in half like a taco and then staple along the
edge. Then it's magic. You have your own little
shaker and then it's a great time. It's a little
noisy. Maybe that's why I haven't done it in
the library yet. I did it in the classroom though.
I don't know why I haven't done it in the library
yet. But it's cheap, it's easy, and it's fast
and you can kind of encourage the kids to draw
a little bit more on their plate and be real
creative with that. You could, I guess with this
one, you could even like try and get them to
draw some nursery rhyme characters or some things
that that they see in the book as well. Yeah.
I love that idea. I think the kids would really
enjoy that because then they have their own musical
instrument they can They all love to make noise.
So having that shaker going I'm sure the teachers
will love it when they come back from the library
with the shakers, too That that's will be their
favorite But no, that's a super cute idea and
like you said cheap and Just the kids will really
enjoy it. It'll be a lot of fun Yeah, that's
almost no prep, too That's the best. I like low
prep and a little bit more unique ideas. Those
are the best. Alright, well thank you guys for
joining us today on this episode of Librarians
of Littles. We hope you found some fresh ideas
for inspiring our young readers. Please be sure
to subscribe and connect with us on social media.
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.
You can follow us on Instagram at Librarians
of Littles. You can follow us on bluesky at littleslibrarian
.bsky .social. And you can send us your emails
at librarianoflittlespodatgmail .com.