Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Legere.
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
where we discuss books, give makerspace ideas,
and give some tips and tricks for working with
our youngest learners in the library setting.
This week, we are sharing some books that come
from the Texas 2x2 list. The Texas 2x2 list is
a list that is compiled each year by the Texas
Library Association. The list contains 20 books
that are excellent books to enjoy for children
between the ages of two and second grade. And
so we have two books this week from our Texas
2x2 list, the first of which is called I'm Sorry
You Got Mad. It is published by Dial Books for
Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Random House
LLC. It was published in 2024. The author is
Kyle Lukoff and the illustrator is Julie Kwan.
This book actually has received quite a few awards.
It's on the ALSC Notable Children's Book List
for 2025. It has won the Junior Library Guild
Selection for 2024, the Notable Children's Book
in Language Arts Award for 2025, the School Library
Journal Best Books of the Year 2024, and Teacher
Favorites Award. 2025. It's also on multiple
state lists including capital choices ages birth
to five for 2025, which is from the District
of Columbia, the Georgia Children's Book Award
Picture Book for 2026 for grades K through four,
the Bill Martin Jr. Picture Book Award for 2026,
which is from Kansas. The Black Eyed Susan Book
Award for 2025 -2026, Picture Books for grades
K -3, which is Maryland. The Red Clover Award
for 2025 -2026, grades K -4, from Vermont. Washington's
Children's Choice Picture Book Award, 2026, grades
K -3. And of course, the Texas 2x2 list for 2025.
The Author. Kyle Lukoff writes books for children
and other people. From his website, it says,
before becoming a full -time writer, Kyle worked
at five bookstores in four libraries for three
schools as two genders through one intersection,
people and books. Some of his other books include
When Aidan Became a Brother, illustrated by Kehlani
Wanita. Just What to Do, illustrated by Hala
Taboob. Call Me Max, Max and the Talent Show,
and Max on the Farm, all three of which were
illustrated by Luciano Lozano. There's No Such
Thing as Vegetables, illustrated by Andrea Surumi.
Julie Kwan was an illustrator based in Queens,
New York. A graduate of Rhode Island School of
Design and Brown University, she has worked for
a variety of clients in books and animation.
In her free time, Julie can be found reading,
going on long walks, eating snacks, or taking
too many photos of her cat, Poto. Some of her
other books include The Fearless Flight of Hazel
Ying Lee by Julie Leon, Peter Lee's Notes from
the Field by Angela Ahn, Pedro and Daniel by
Federico Erebia, Waiting for Tomorrow by Susan
Yoon and Little Messy Marcy Sue by Sherry Foo.
And so the this book Jack's teacher says that
there are three parts to a real apology. You
need to say what you did. that you're sorry and
how he'll fix it. But Jack is struggling. He
did knock down Zoe's castle, but taking ownership
for his actions and truly apologizing are tough
things to do. And this story is told through
notes being passed between Jack, his teacher,
Miss Rice, and finally Zoe. And it shows the
progression from saying the words to actually
being and showing that you are truly sorry. And
so I thought this was an excellent story. I really
love this book a lot. I loved being able to see
the progression from, I'm sorry, you're upset
to the actual, I'm sorry that I did this. Here's
why I did it. I'd like to fix it and let me help
you to come to a solution. Like it was just done
so well in the story. You know, having that teacher
that had to step in sometimes be like, no, you're
getting there, but let's try this and add a little
bit more of this to it. It's just so realistic
because we have so many kids that that just want
to be like, well, I said, I'm sorry, aren't we
done? And we have so many kids that need to learn
that saying the words themselves is not just
a magical fix. We need to feel those words and
and rectify. the mistake that we've made, you
know, there's more to it than just saying, well,
I'm sorry. We have to understand kind of how
that makes someone else feel when we've done
something that we have to apologize for in the
first place. And what can we do to fix that problem?
And so I think this is a really great story to
use to teach kids. It's not just saying the words.
Saying the words is just a small portion of what
we really need to do to fix a situation and make
amends. And the way this is done in the story
is just I think it's really clever. I think that
that coupled with the beautiful illustrations
in the story, it just tells such a, it's a wonderful
story that I think a lot of kids probably need
to hear, you know, like I think too often. Maybe
some grownups too. Yes. I'm probably, absolutely.
Because I think too often that's it. We just,
that people think, well, I said, I'm sorry. And
you should just get over it. And that's not really.
not really how that works. And so I think this
did a really great job. And I think as far as
like a social, emotional book to be used in your
classroom as a, like counselors using this book
to be like, no, we need to, to learn this skill.
I think this is a great story. I think I'm, I
would give this one a five out of five because
it really was a very sweet story over something
that was really in the end, relatively innocuous.
He knocked over the girl's castle. and in the
end he does help her fix it, but like the way
you find out why he was feeling the way he was
feeling and why he took it out on Zoe in the
story where like he's he was frustrated because
some of the other kids said that he shouldn't
play with the girls kind of thing and like it
was just like a really good well thought out
story that is something that totally has real
world foundation and basis and I think a lot
of people would benefit from hearing the story.
I think it was really great. Yeah, absolutely.
I really liked it, too. I would also give it
a five out of five. I don't it. I love that it
was told entirely through notes with him attempting
to apologize over and over and over again. And
just like you said, just starting with just sorry.
Like running away pretty much. I mean, I know
it was a note so he didn't run away, but that's
what it felt like. Like, yeah, their writing
really reflected that it was just, that's very
much how a young child especially apologizes.
Sorry, run away. I'm done. Don't have to do it
again. No. So that's not what sorry means. Sorry
means I'm, I feel bad that this happened, but
also I'm going to help you solve the problem
I created. And it's OK. Like even if whatever
happened was truly an accident, we still have
a problem. We're still going to attempt to fix
the problem. But it was really good. I think
it would be best, like you said, as a counselor
lesson. I'm not sure. I don't know if I would
do it as like a whole group reading. Because
it's done entirely through notes. I think you
could still could do it I think you still could
actually at the beginning of the year, especially
when there's you're more Social and emotional
learning is a constant thing for everyone in
the world, no matter how old we are. But I think
we tend to emphasize it a little bit more toward
the beginning of the school year when we're kind
of establishing our routines and such. That's
probably where I would try and embed it. But
I think it would be exceptionally good as like
a counseling lesson, like you said. But it was
so good that like, when I was reading this one,
like my 11 year old like was peeking over my
shoulder and looking at all the things with me
and like she read it along with me and she was
like, hey, that That was a good book. That teaches
a really good message. That's a good one. And
I was like, okay, good. It is. It's just like,
I just love it. And I think that, like, I also
loved that, like, the pieces of paper that the
notes are on are in different states of crumpled.
And like, you can see, like, between that and
the words on the page, you can feel the emotions
that Jack is having and how he's frustrated about
the situation. And it just, there's so much going
on in the story. And like we said, it just teaches
some really important things to the students
that a lot of these kids don't know how to say
sorry correctly. And to teach them that is just
so important. So yeah, I love it. I think it's
a great one. I'm definitely gonna add it to my
to my rotation of books to like you said to start
the year and maybe even like especially when
Once you introduce like the makerspace stuff
I think that would be like a really great time
to use this book because so often like kids are
playing and there are legitimate accidents where
oh I bumped into you and I've messed up what
you were doing and like So this would be a great
thing to be like, okay, we just read this book,
this happened, so what should we do? And kind
of be able to work with the kids that way with
it. I think it could be a really great one. Yeah,
it almost works well just like as a standalone
social story. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I don't know,
social stories do a little more direct teaching
than this one, but it complements it really,
really nicely. I think, yeah. Yeah, actually.
See, I'm processing even as I'm saying it, but
I think that's how I might do it. I think I might
do, like, have my own social story, just like,
this is how we apologize, and then have this
book as the teaching piece. Yeah, well, because
I mean, even with this, where it's like, okay,
we need to have these three parts in our apology.
Yeah. And it's not just saying the words, but
feeling the feelings and solving the problem,
you know? So yeah, I think. Yeah. Excellent.
Excellent book. Yes, as far as a makerspace activity
since in our story the We had a castle that was
knocked down I thought using either building
blocks or a keep of planks or Legos and having
the kids work in pairs or in with partners to
To build their own castle and see kind of like
After you build the castle, you could talk about
also like some of the things that worked and
some of the things that you might've had problems
with. So you could have a whole conversation
about that afterwards, about like what worked
as working with your partners and what happened
if something knocked over and how did you guys
work together to come to a solution for it and
fix the problem, that kind of thing. So I think
having the kids build their own castles using
some kind of building materials, some blocks
or something would be a fun activity. It would
this book. Yeah. Yeah, that would be perfect.
So you're just really extending the story from
there. Yeah, it's a great one Before our library
of littles management tip or trick We can discuss
collecting books at the end of the year and Figuring
out when to be done with book checkout personally,
I give my kids three weeks before the end of
the school year is the last day of checkout and
then we have two solid weeks to get all of the
books back in and that allows me to send notifications
to parents and say hey this book is still check
out please look for it help us out because i
hate to cut off book checkout too early. I want
my kids to still be able to have access to as
many books for as long as possible. At the same
time, I know that at the end of the year, I'm
also responsible for doing inventory and all
of those other end of the year things to close
out the library. And so I have to find a clear
balance. And so I find that two to three weeks,
three to four weeks before the end of the school
year, having the last book check out, getting
books, reminding kids a couple of times to return
the books. Sending those notifications on the
last two weeks of school saying hey, this book
is still out. Can you look for it? Tends to work
out pretty well. I last year I had About I think
it was about a hundred and fifty books two weeks
before school was about to get out They were
still out. Oh dear which had me a little concerned
at first but I I actually did a couple things.
I put a countdown on the library door and of
how many books we still had checked out that
I changed every morning so the kids could see
the number dropping which was nice just overall
and my administrative team also during our morning
announcements would just mention hey we are down
to this many more books that are checked out
from our library let's keep bringing them in
so they can get checked in kind of thing just
as like a motivational like hey how close can
we get to zero kind of thing we didn't get to
zero but I'm pretty sure I only had 15 or 16
books. I think that didn't actually get returned
or taken care of in one way or another So when
you consider I have 715 kids on my campus, you
know having 15 or 16 of them that didn't show
back up I was pretty happy with that But like
being able to have that time to be like, okay,
we get two more weeks of school I need you to
be going home looking in your backpacks looking
under your beds looking in your closets for those
books Sending that little note home. So the parents
know what they need to help look for having that
countdown going so that kids can be working together
and be like, yeah, let's get this as close to
zero as we can. Because at the end of the day,
if it's really a book that's lost, the odds that
I'm going to be able to get any actual money
from the parents for the book is minimal at best.
So I don't hold that hope for that. Find and
I tell my kids up front. I said I explained to
them, you know, I would much rather You just
bring the book back than for us to have to worry
about trying to get your parents to pay for it
because yeah Whether I don't say it out loud
that I know that a lot of my students are in
financial situations where they can't afford
to pay for the book and I Totally get that and
I'm not gonna hold that against any student.
That's not their fault. That's not theirs They're
not in that situation because of anything that
they've done. So I'm not going to hold that against
them. The next year they're going to be able
to check out books again. But if I encourage
them to find it and say, you know, some of your
friends want to read this book too. Can you go
look for it so we can get it back on the shelf
so they can and kind of go at it from that attitude.
I find that a lot of kids will be like, yeah,
I'll go. I'll go look. I think I might know where
it is or I don't know where that is, but I'm
going to talk to my mom and dad and see if they
can help me find it. And that's all I really
want is it. put forth that effort to try and
find it. If I have to replace the book, then
I have to replace the book. That's part of what
my library budget is for, is to replace books
that are either damaged or lost. That's gonna
happen. I'm not in a fantasy world where I can
assume that every single book is always gonna
come back in perfect condition and just in general
come back at all. So, just encouraging the kids
to... try to help out their own friends by saying,
you know, you thought that was a really cool
book. I bet a couple of your friends would like
to read it, too. Can you go find it and bring
it back in? I find that works relatively well,
and a lot of my students are like, yeah, and
come back in, because I'll tell you that there
have been some books, last year especially, I
had a kid that had, he had checked out three
books in November. I hadn't seen him since November.
They were checked out that entire time. I kid
you not, the last day of school. The last day
of school. He brought all three of them back.
I think that might have been my daughter. You
know? Like, seriously, it happens. And all I
told him was, hey. Thank you so much. Someone
else next year is going to be able to read these
books. I appreciate it. And that was the end
of it. I explained to my kids up front, I don't
have the energy to hold a grudge or to be upset
if you lose a book. And honestly, that's not
my job. My job is to make sure that you're reading
the books and that you have access to them. My
job is not to punish you if you don't take care
of a book or if you don't bring the book back.
I have more important things to do, like making
sure that books are available. to everybody.
And so having that kind of attitude and just
kind of talking the kids through it and just
being like, hey, go home and look for it for
me, do your best. 99 % of the kids are gonna
be like, yeah, okay, I'll do that. And they're
gonna at least look, whether they find or not,
totally different situation, but they're gonna
try. And I feel like that in itself is a win
because they're putting forth that effort and
trying. And so, you know, as we get close to
the end of the school year, starting to plan
out when books are due back and what books at
this point in the year probably not coming back
or what books Came back damaged and need to be
replaced This is when I start looking at all
of that kind of stuff to start Prepping my list
for when I come back and can start purchasing
again in the fall With those lists of books that
did get lost or did get damaged throughout the
year so they can Fill in gaps in series and that
kind of stuff This is that time of year when
we start thinking about those things. Yeah. Well,
this year, mine's a little bit different because
all of my kids, I'm special. This year, being
with all threes, fours and fives, and we got
a new cataloging system that wasn't fully operational
at the beginning of the school year. So the kids
just brought their books to their classrooms
and kind of, we kind of spent all year. practicing
taking them to and from the library and just
learning that library books are meant to be borrowed
and hopefully that leaves good foundation for
the future when they move on to elementary school
and do get to take books home that the books
are meant to be borrowed and returned. But since
all the books are still on campus and I know
that none of them went home or anything and they're
not super lost they're just with teachers so
and not all the teachers. Remember to turn them
in on time and that's okay because I know they're
still on campus. It's all good. We'll get them
back whatever So my campuses have To return everything
two weeks before the last day of school that
still gives me a couple weeks to make sure that
everything's in And like I said since nothing
left campus. I'm not terribly worried about it.
We'll get it all I'll just go talk to the teacher
and Get it put back on the shelf quite soon.
So yeah yeah yeah but as we get close to the
end of the year that's the kind of stuff we need
to be thinking about so it is if you are sending
their home then you need to remind the kids if
it's just staying in the classroom you just need
to talk to the teachers and make sure that you
get it all back right yeah so yeah and you'll
be ready for the following year we sure will
it's gonna be a good one All right, our next
book that we're going to talk about today is
called Toad by Toad. It's published by Tundra
Books in 2024, and the author and illustrator
of this book is Jashar Awan. This book won the
Geisel Honor in 2025. It's an ALSC Notable Children's
Book 2025, Delaware Blue Hen Book Award, 2026,
Kentucky Blue Grass Award, 2026 for Preschool.
Missouri Building Block Picture Book Award 2025,
North Dakota Flickertail Children's Book Award
2025, and naturally, Texas 2x2 for 2025. Our
author, Jashar Awan, loved drawing and reading
as a child growing up outside of Washington D
.C. He was eventually able to grow his passion
into a career as a children's book author and
illustrator. His books have been selected for
multiple state lists and honors, such as the
ALA Notables and the Amazon Editor's Pick. He
currently lives in Ohio with his wife and son.
His very first book was published in 2020, so
he's a pretty recent author. He's written, I'm
Going to Build a Snowman. Strum and Drum, a merry
little quest. Only ants for Andy, and what a
lucky day. And in this book, Toad spends his
days helping others by towing them around when
they break down. When Toad's tow truck breaks
down himself, he struggles to fix it, and ultimately
he has to ask for help. I thought this book was
a lot of fun. It was really cute. The illustrations
had a lot of bold like geometric style still
kind of muted colors really still somewhat calming
yet attention -grabbing since it won the Geisel
you know it's already got kind of simplistic
text it had some really cute character names
in it like William Goat Gruff was driving his
kids around going to school and that was So there
were there were some really cute characters those
those ones in particular for a Geisel I was a
little bit surprised that there were some more
challenging words with the names in particular
but everything else was like really kind of simple
text kind of easy to read like you would expect
from a Geisel winner but I loved that it was
the message was you know just everybody Has to
help each other out, you know, I like that toad
was really working to help everybody else out.
He was, you know, rushing out of the house so
fast that he kind of skipped breakfast and his
whole goal was just to help everyone. But then,
you know, asking for help himself was hard. And
I relate to that. It's hard to ask for help sometimes.
But then at the end, when he does finally ask
for help, it was his dad that comes with a bigger
tow truck to help him out. So that was kind of
a cute ending. I thought that he was kind of
skipping past that relationship there and because
at the beginning he like blew past his dad, didn't
want breakfast and then his dad ended up coming
to his rescue. I like that it was it was kind
of a nice kind of community building kind of
a piece. I think this would be a really good
one at the beginning of the year when you're
kind of learning about communities and what it
means to work together and be a community help
helper. I liked it a lot. I would give it a five
out of five. I think it was really sweet. Yes,
it was. I really enjoyed it. I loved it a lot.
I love the illustrations. There were a lot of
like sharp lines that kind of gave like a bold
outline to the cars and to the characters. It
was really cute story. I think that students
will really love it too, because it is just just
a sweet story about helping others and asking
for help. And like you said, we can all Understand
that sometimes that's hard to do and that's an
important lesson for kids. I think too because
It is hard to ask for help and sometimes you
get frustrated because you want to do it yourself,
but There are times when you that's just not
possible. You need someone else to give you a
hand and help you out and so Teaching them that
it's okay to ask for help if you've tried and
it it's not working It's all right to ask and
say hey, I can't get this done by myself. I need
a little extra It's true. It's sweet. And when
I was looking on Jashar Awan's website He's got
some free resources none that related to this
book in particular, but he had like Short YouTube
clips of him drawing some of his characters.
So I thought that would be a fun thing to like
If you read one of those books to the class and
then show one of those clips like you could encourage
the kids to write their own books I love doing
that personally like reading a specific book
that has kind of a some kind of a virtual component
like that where I can show like a recording of
the author illustrator drawing their own work
so that the kids can. Write their own stories
that's my favorite those are my favorite kind
of like that yeah yeah he's got to i think that
go with andy's. Only answer andy that's what
it was there were two videos where you could
draw characters from those and he does like his
his drawings are. Like you were saying they're
kind of simplistic lots of geometric lines so
they're kind of a little bit easier to imitate
so kids can be a little bit more successful kind
of that mo williams style. illustration. So that
was kind of a nice resource if anyone's interested
in that. And that was just on his personal website
on the freebies section there. I think if I was
using this in the classroom I would do this,
read this book at the beginning of the year when
we're studying communities. in general, because
I feel like that's always maybe that's just a
pre -k thing. I don't know if kindergarten or
first grade does that, but that's always something
that we kind of start with because this is usually
our kids like starting school is usually their
first real experience like out in the community.
I know they've been to the community, like obviously
they've left their homes before. Actually, that's
not true for some of ours. There are a few kids
that have literally never left the home. Because
they have challenging behaviors that the parents
don't know how to manage but for most of our
kids they've been out and about but they don't
really understand what a community is and Like
that's something that we kind of have to teach
them that you know The community is the group
of people that live around us and you know We
help each other and these are the places you
might see in your community and the school is
part of your community That's always a big teaching
piece at the beginning of the year. So think
I would embed this in the curriculum at the beginning
of the year with that and kind of build our own
communities with blocks and such. There's usually
with any kind of wooden block set there's usually
a few like painted blocks that kind of resemble
buildings and kids really like at the beginning
of the year to build their own little buildings
and go okay this is the grocery store this is
our school and this is my house and this is your
house and drive their little cars around it so
they can build their own little communities there.
Yeah, I love that. Thank you all 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. 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 Legier. Editor, Patrick
Adams. Our theme song is performed by JD Adams.
You can follow us on Instagram at Librarians
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