Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Legere.
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
where we discuss books, give makerspace activities,
and give some tips and tricks for working with
our youngest learners in the library setting.
This week we are going to be sharing two books
that come from the Texas 2x2 Awards List. So
the Texas 2x2 Awards List is a list created by
the Texas Library Association every year. It
is a list of 20 books that are perfect for children
between the ages of two and second grade. And
so this week we're going to be discussing two
books from that list. The first book is called
We Are Definitely Human. This book was published
by Penguin Random House in 2024 and the author
is ex -fang. This book is on quite a few lists.
It is on the Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award
list for 2025. The Libby Books Award Picture
Book Finalist for 2025 The Charlotte Zolotow
Award Commended for 2025 CCBC Selection 2025
Junior Library Guild Selection Read Aloud Selection
2025 ALSC Notable Children's Book Commended 2025
And the Publisher Weekly's Best Picture Book
Selection 2024 Our author, X -Fang, was born
in Taiwan and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. She
moved around between Philadelphia and Brooklyn
before settling down with her family in Maine.
And there honestly wasn't a ton of information
about her on her website. That's about all the
information that they give. On the Penguin Random
House website, they did say that she also sometimes
goes by Samantha. I just thought it was interesting
that to go from Taiwan to Atlanta, Georgia, I
would bet that that's a culture shock in itself.
Oh, absolutely. So that was just interesting
to me. And then to go from Atlanta, Georgia to
Philadelphia and Brooklyn is its own change also.
It's just kind of interesting. The author's other
books, this is actually her third book. She's
got two others, Broken and Dim Sum Palace. And
so the summary for this book. When some odd visitors
arrive at Mr. Lee's farm with a broken car, Mr.
Lee does what nice humans do. He helps them.
He allows them to sleep in their home, in his
home. He takes them to the store. for the materials
to fix their ride and he helps them meet other
kind humans and I thought this was such an amazing
story. I love the message behind this story of
just be kind. Clearly throughout the story Mr.
Lee is not convinced that these visitors are
human even though they insist that they definitely
are human. Their odd behaviors and interactions
are comical But he continues even though he doesn't
think they're human to be kind and help and offer
what he can to assist them and as They go into
town to the store and they meet other humans
those humans choose to help and be kind and like
the entire community comes together to help them
fix their vehicle and they dance and they share
food and it's just such a sweet and wholesome
story. The illustrations are amazing. I love
the character designs of the definitely human
characters. And it's just such a sweet story
with an amazing message, you know, just Above
all else just be kind and it's just That's the
kind of message that we need right now and need
to remind people of right now so much in our
society so It just it brought such a smile to
my face reading this story. I think that students
Will definitely be able to relate to the story
and find it funny the like I said the the story
itself is it wonderfully engaging but the illustrations
are fantastic uh i and it's just it's just a
wonderful all -around story i say five out of
five bookmarks absolutely yeah it's it's just
perfect it's so wonderful and it just it just
made me feel so good reading the story Yeah,
I really liked this one. This was the first time
I got to read this book and it was very sweet
It was very clever and it was just it. I loved
it. It was the author did an excellent job of
helping you connect with those characters and
really care about everybody and Like you said
it had a wonderful message of just always be
kind It's okay if somebody's a little bit different.
Just be kind. It's okay if they you know want
to go do this or whatever just be kind that's
all you got to do it's not that hard we can do
hard we can do that we can be kind because that's
that's what decent people do it was very sweet
i left it a lot yes it like this is another banger
from the texas two by two list it's just so wonderful
and with i and i have to be honest like i read
this and now i want to go and read the author's
other two books because I'm like if this is what
they can do as an author and Illustrator to to
portray such a wonderful story. I want to go
and read the other two To see to see what else
they've done with these books. And so I yes,
I just Just wonderful. So I love it. It was really
good. Yeah as far as a makerspace activity Go
in simple actually honestly one thing that I
would love to do with this is challenge the the
students To see how many acts of kindness they
could do Between the time they leave the library
to the time they get back to the library the
following week and just kind of have them like
have and talk to the teacher about it so that
they can like Keep track like do just like a
tally chart or something where they can Find
out how many acts of kindness they can do in
a week's time because I think that would be really
nice to go along with this activity With this
book is just to kind of like keep track of how
many kind things can you do as a class? In just
a week and just see what they can come up with
but for like an actual activity in the library
for To relate to this book go simple with it
give some kind of building materials legos blocks
Whatever and have the students build their own
spaceships for the definitely human characters.
Since clearly, they are not actually from Europe,
like it mentions in the book, as they fly off
in their vehicle, have the kids build their own
spaceships, it would be kind of cool to see what
the students get to what they come up with and
how they can be creative about making those things.
And so just giving them that opportunity to be
creative and and make something cool like a spaceship.
Yeah, love it. That would be a lot of fun for
them. That was a good one. All right. Well, today
for our Library of Littles management tip, we
are going to talk about bookmarks, kind of. So
for the last couple of years with my pre -K classes,
the way we did our specials rotation is the kids
would come to library and then for about 30 minutes
and then they would go straight to P .E. So the
kids didn't get to when they came to library
and they would check out books they didn't get
to go straight back to their classrooms to drop
off said books which made it really challenging
especially for our pre -k kids which is obviously
all I had because none of them maybe not none
of them but very few of them could remember with
accurately which books they checked out themselves
so when they checked out books it created a big
problem of like where like where do we put them
they're not going back to their classroom because
their teacher still has their planning time going
on so I have to leave this pile over here for
the to drop off with the teacher later but we
don't know which book goes with which kid so
what I did was we created bookmarks for each
student. And the way I did it was I asked the
paraprofessional to we cut out, I cut out for
them just strips of construction paper. And I
just made it, you could color coordinate it by
like each class. I've done it that way. I did
it just like random for each. where it was just
very colorful. So the kids got to pick their
colors or whatever works best for you is what
you could do. Personally, I liked it where I
had like one color for each class. So it was
a little bit more identifiable, which bookmark
went with each. What went with each teacher,
but I had the para bright with black Sharpie
at the top of it, the students name. and we laminated
it and when they were checking out books I would
just slide that student's bookmark inside the
book so that it was kind of labeled for them.
So then at the end of book checkout I had this
you know the stack of 20 books and each one of
them has the bookmark in it with the child's
name on it so that when I dropped it off this
teacher knows which one goes in which backpack.
And when they were putting it in they could just
pull out the bookmark and hand it back to me
later like later that day so then I just kept
track of the bookmarks and that really Works
really well for me to and the teachers So that
that we knew which book went with each student
and nothing ever got lost I don't think we ever
had any mix -ups with it or anything I did have
the paras create those for me as we got new students
because we did have a highly transient population
lots of new students frequently and then lots
of kids would you know go to work from other
countries so they would be gone for like a month
at a time randomly to go visit their native countries
but you could also do it with if you didn't have
a para doing that you could also just have the
students write their own names on it because
that's that's one of the things that they're
meant to be learning anyway is writing their
own names so you could like that could be one
of your first lessons of the year is Making your
own bookmarks and just cut out those strips for
them the construction paper strips that are you
know shaped like bookmarks and you could Ask
the kids to write like give them all a black
marker So that they can write their name on there
and like obviously they're learning how to do
that. So they would need help a little bit with
that, but you've got to do a lesson anyway. I
would just turn it into a whole lesson. And then
they could color with crayon and decorate it
however they want to. And then you just laminate
it and then you have your bookmarks ready to
go after that. And that's a fun kind of way to
have the kids take ownership of that. They would
probably identify their own bookmarks a little
bit better after that, too, if they decorated
themselves. And it's still a pretty easy way
to. Kind of keep track of something like that.
So that's clearly labeled for when you have to
check out books if your students don't go straight
back to the classroom or And they can't put it
away right away It really helped me a lot and
I like my teachers I got really good feedback
from it for my teachers too because it was pretty
easy for them to keep track of as well I love
that idea. That sounds like a great way for you
to be able to keep track of the books and you
know get to know the kids' names a little bit
better and just kind of, yeah, I love the whole
idea. Wonderful. Thanks. Alrighty, well the next
Texas 2x2 book that we're going to talk about
today is called The Spice Box. It's published
by Alfred A. Knopf Books in 2024. The author
is Meera Sriram and the illustrator is Sandhya
Prabhat. This book is on the Texas 2x2 list for
2025. And it is an Asian Pacific American Librarians
Association best of the best book list selection
for 2024. That was a long title, but I got through
it. That was great. Good job. Thank you. And
for our author history, Meera Sriram was born
in South India. She originally got a master's
degree in electrical engineering with no intention
of ever being a children's author. However, after
moving to America and becoming a mother herself,
she saw that there was a significant lack of
books reflecting her own children's life experiences
and culture. She then became a children's writer
specializing in diverse books for kids. She currently
lives in Berkeley, California with her family.
And some of her other books include A Garden
in My Hands, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat,
Our World India, illustrated by Neethi, Dumpling
Day, illustrated by Ines de Antuanano. I'm not
sure I butchered that, but... I tried. You did?
Between two worlds. Between two worlds, the art
and life of Amrita Ishrigul, a gift for Amma,
market day in India, illustrated by Mariana Kabasa,
and wrote and illustrated the yellow suitcase.
Oh, she wrote and illustrated the yellow suitcase,
my bad. All right, our illustrator is Sandhya
Prabhat and she's originally from Chennai, India.
She currently lives in the Bay Area in California.
She is both an animator and an illustrator, and
she holds an MFA degree in Animation and Digital
Arts from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Asia.
And she has a bachelor's degree in Literature
from Stella Maris College. And her website currently
lists a total of 27 books that she has illustrated,
including the Spice Box. Other books that she
has illustrated include I Am Brown, written by
Ashok Banker, A Garden in My Hands, written by
Meera Sriram, Large As Life, written by Johnny
Marks. Ani's Light written by Tanu Sri Singh
and Namaste is a greeting written by Suma Subramaniam.
Well done. All right for our book summary. When
Rishi's Patti, grandmother, comes to visit from
India Rishi asks his father if they can make
a potato curry to help welcome her. At first
he's too busy cleaning and getting the room ready
for Patti's visit so Rishi grabs the family box.
family spice box himself and thinks about all
the significance that the spice box holds for
the family. He remembers how he heard about his
potty and how she brought the spice box with
her. She traveled from a small village to India
to the big city to become a chef when women weren't
really allowed to do that at the time. Later
on Rishi's pati gifted the same spice box to
his father when he moved to America and he used
it anytime he felt homesick and needed to feel
closer to his family. Wanting to carry on the
family legacy and use the spice box himself,
Rishi grabs it intending to begin cooking on
his own, but then he drops the spice box breaking
it in two. So Rishi and his father clean up the
mess, fix the box, and then Rishi gets the chance
to work with his father to create a delicious
dish for the first time together. I love this
book a lot. It was really sweet. I love that
Rishi kind of thinks back on all the significance
that the spice box has for the family and how
it kind of connects three generations of them
and how it, you know, it kind of... When he reflects
on it he remembers how it you know began in India
and it kind of holds them to their roots It's
just something tangible that kind of holds them
all together. It was really sweet. I especially
loved the illustrations They were just so bright
so colorful really engaging and even for because
this one has I think it might be a little bit
more difficult. I said more harder, I did. It
has some harder concepts for younger learners
in that it talks a lot about India and just being
in another country in general, which is challenging
because that's something that like... If it's
not concrete and right in front of a four -year
-old, a lot of the times they can't really understand
it, but these illustrations are so bright and
engaging. It really brings life to it. And because
the spice box in particular is what kind of holds
the family together and this is what they're
kind of focusing on a little bit more. I think
it helps because you can kind of see it moving
from generation to generation and you can physically
see how it connects all of them together. So
I really loved that it kind of made it a little
bit more tangible and just made it a little bit
more relatable for our youngest learners. I would
give this one also a five out of five. It was
a really sweet story and I love that it in the
end it really just brought everybody in the book
that much closer together. The characters were
really engaging and you were really like wanting
all of them to connect. It was just really sweet.
I loved it. It was a great book. Agreed. Like
everything that you said, this was just such
a wonderful story. I loved it a lot. The illustrations
were amazing. I personally just love learning
about different cultures and reading books from
other cultures and kind of seeing the points
of view and learning about like the food and
all. And so like this hits all of those points
as well. I just I think this is a wonderful story.
I love that it's from somebody who has that experience.
It's not just like a white person writing a story
about a kid coming from another country. So that's
always wonderful to have people with their original
voice in the story. It makes it so much better
and so much more authentic. But it was just,
yeah, just a really great story. I loved it a
lot. I look forward to using this book this year.
read this one until you suggested it for this
and I love it. It's amazing and definitely gonna
become one that I read with the kids. It's just
so great. I loved it a lot. Yeah, it was a good
one for sure. Okay, for our makerspace activity
for this book, we were thinking that you could,
since there's such a heavy family focus, you
could just have the kids draw a picture of them
with their family. You could This one talks about
three different generations so you could really
talk about like extended family and Really think
about the different people that are in their
family Even the people who don't necessarily
live like in their house just talk more about
grandparents and aunts and uncles and things
like that You could also take it a step further
and if you want You could spend a little bit
of money, it doesn't have to be a lot, but you
could go to the dollar store and get some small
gift boxes and give everybody a small little
gift box and they could decorate the box and
have their own little, not necessarily a spice
box, but just their own little memory box or
something where they could keep their own. little
knickknacks that we know all the children love
to collect. And they could keep their own little
special things right there just for them. So,
yeah. Love those ideas. Whoever came up with
them is brilliant. Brilliant indeed. All right.
Well, thank you. Too giggly today. Okay. Thank
you all for joining us today on this episode
of Librarians of Littles. We hope you found some
fresh ideas for inspiring our youngest 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.
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