Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Legere.
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
where we share books, give makers space ideas,
and give tips and tricks for working with our
youngest learners in the library setting. This
week we will be sharing two books that come from
the Texas 2x2 list. The Texas 2x2 list is a list
created by the Texas Library Association every
year that includes 20 books that are great reads
for children between the ages of two and second
grade. The first book that we will be looking
at today is called Into the Goblin Market. It
is published by Penguin Random House in 2024.
The author is Vicki Van Sickle and the illustrator
is Jensine Ekwal. The lists that this book can
be found on in Canada, the Saskatchewan Young
Readers' Choice Shining Willow Award for 2025
for grades K through three. for the District
of Columbia Capital Choices List for 2025 for
ages 6 to 9, the Minnesota Comstock Book Award
List for 2025 grades 3 through 6, and the Texas
2x2 List for 2025. And for our author history,
Vicki Van Sickle grew up in Ontario and developed
a love of reading. theater, and stories of all
kinds. She studied drama at Queen's University
and then moved to Vancouver to complete her master's
in children's literature at the University of
British Columbia. She now lives in Toronto and
continues to write. And some of her other books
include The Winnowing, If I Had a Griffin, illustrated
by Cale Atkinson, and On a Mouse, illustrated
by Anna Paroli. The Lightning Circle, illustrated
by Laura K. Watson, Teddy Bear of the Year, illustrated
by Sydney Hansen, Summer Days, Starry Nights,
and How to Decorate a Christmas Tree, illustrated
by Miki Sato. And our illustrator, Jensine Ekwall,
is an American illustrator who currently lives
in New York. She lists multiple book publishers
as clients, along with many print news outlets,
including the New York Times and the Boston Globe.
And her other book that she's worked on is Almost
a Full Moon, written by Huxley Workman. And so
the summary of this book, There are two sisters
that are very different. We have Mina that wants
to explore and go on adventures while Millie
wishes to stay at home and enjoy what she has.
The sister interested in exploring, Mina, decides
to attend the Goblin Market after being warned
not to go and her sister Millie must then go
to the Goblin Market to find Millie. I'm sorry
to find Mina. As Millie sees familiar villains
from fairy tale stories, she gets away from each
with clever distractions. And as she tries to
leave after not finding her sister, she is forced
to take something with her. And the villains
and goblins believe this trap will keep her stuck
there forever. But she chooses to take the menacing
wolf home with her. ultimately tricking the goblins
and when she gets home with this wolf she finds
that it's actually her sister Mina transformed
and when she's transformed back into a girl she
has learned a valuable lesson from her adventure.
So I thought this was a really interesting story.
I thought it was a lot of fun and it was really
cool to see some of the fairy tale villains that
were kind of set into this story. But I would
say, in my personal opinion, this is probably
a little bit too old for our young preschool
students. There's a lot of challenging vocabulary.
The the plot is a little bit dark. And the illustrations,
while beautiful and amazing. are kind of monochromatic.
They're black and white. They're very little
color in them. They're beautiful and amazing,
but maybe not the most engaging, colorful pictures.
The story is told in verse, so there's some fun
rhythm to it, but the vocabulary's at a little
bit higher level. I think it's a great story,
and I think for probably third... Great second
grade, maybe third grade fourth grade. This is
a great book I think for pre -k students. This
is a little bit above their level I think it'd
be kind of hard for them to stay engaged in it
I think you'd have to introduce a lot of vocabulary
with it and I would bet that a lot of them probably
aren't as familiar with some of the villains
that are Put into the story as some of the older
students, which makes it so that those references
are kind of lost on them. In the book, they do
include Snow White's wicked stepmother offering
apples, the Pied Piper with his pipe playing
entrancing music, and the wicked witch from Wizard
of Oz with her poppies. And so I think some of
those references might go, will probably go over
our pre -k students heads. So I think this book,
while being a great book and like if I was saying
just overall book, I'd definitely give it like
a four out of five, but for being used with pre
-k students, I'm gonna say it's probably closer
to like a two out of five. I just think that
it's a little bit too old for... the younger
students. I think, like I said, it's a great
story, and I think it would be wonderful for
older students, but this is just not one that
I would use with Pre -K. Yeah, I agree completely.
It's a really good book. I did read it a couple
of months ago, and I considered it for Pre -K,
and I chose not to read it with my classes just
because of pretty much of everything you listed.
I think sometimes with um books like this while
the the pictures are lovely and kind of do um
help move the story along for our younger students
i think some people um kind of uh forget what
content is actually developmentally appropriate
for our younger learners and this while it's
not like inappropriate content per se there's
nothing really wrong with it it's just a little
bit too advanced and a little bit um Kids aren't
gonna it's not relatable because it's got so
much. I mean a little bit with the sibling Relationship
there, but as far as the rest of it goes, there's
just so much background information they would
need For it to be a really fun and effective
Read aloud. I just yeah everything you said pretty
much. It's just not quite there for pre -k and
that's okay It's a good book. I wouldn't I just
wouldn't do it with younger than maybe second
grade Yeah, I agree and like I did a lot of research
on this book and I found that it's Like kind
of a response to an older poem by the same name
and so like it's really cool literary Text kind
of wise where like you can compare it to the
original poem You can do a lot of stuff with
even and that sounds like a really fun lesson
with older kids with older kids It'd be really
cool to do that. But like yeah for pre -k wise
this just I just it's not It's not there for
pre -k, which is fine. Not every book is meant
for every age group. This one is just their target
audience for it is just clearly a little bit
older. Um, and that's, that's totally reasonable.
I, I like the book and personally, it's one that
I enjoyed reading a lot. It, it's got that kind
of like darker mood set and like, I could totally
see this being a fun book to read with older
kids around like Halloween time. when you're
trying to do like those spooky stories, it'd
be really cool then. Just not for the younger
kids. So yeah, it's just like, like I said, it's
just not the target audience is not the younger
kids for this one. Yep. And that's okay. Yeah.
Now, if I were to do it with younger kids, kind
of connecting that makerspace activity to that
would be kind of challenging. But I think maybe
having the kids giving them some different materials
and having them kind of build a magical object
that they saw in the book that they that they
were interested in because like the The Wicked
Stepmother Offering out apples the kids could
build an apple or the Pied Piper making Music
with his pipe or even the Wicked Witch offering
out the poppies. So there's lots of different
magical objects in the story. So like having
the kids kind of pick one of those and being
able to build their own magical object maybe
out of building blocks or Legos, something like
that might be a fun activity to connect to it.
But again, I probably just wouldn't do this particular
book for Pre -K itself. But I could see, I could
see a lot of kids in like second or third grade
having a lot of fun kind of making one of those
magical objects out of Legos or out of building
blocks or something like that, magnet tile, something.
So I could see it being a lot of fun to do that.
Just, just not pretty good. Agreed. So this week
for our library of littles management tip. to
kind of go along with that last book, we're going
to talk a little bit about reflection after a
lesson. Sometimes our lessons we've got the best
plans, we know exactly what we want to have happen,
and sometimes they work perfectly and then other
times they fall flat. And so having some time
after a lesson, excuse me, to reflect is very
important because not every lesson goes exactly
how we plan. and so when I do my lessons I try
to take some time at the end of the day to go
back and think about all the different things
that I like kind of what my goal for the lesson
was how well I was able to execute the lesson
I think about any of the possible distractions
that were in the room or like if the schedule
shifted, kind of consider all of those things.
And I like to think about where I can improve
the lesson, whether the lesson was worth improving
in the first place, honestly, because sometimes
those lessons you do it and you're just like,
you know what, that was a disaster. It wasn't
just because of the outside. It things that impacted
the lesson. It just wasn't the best lesson. It
just didn't work I don't ever want to do that
one again, or maybe you're like that worked well,
but There I could change how I do this and maybe
do a different activity with it or Give better
instructions for the transition times, you know
just taking that time and it doesn't have to
be a long time I try to take I'm fortunate that
the way my schedule works, my last class of the
day and dismissal has there's about 15 minutes
in between the two. And so I can kind of just
take that time to go back and look at how the
lesson worked and kind of think about. what I
might want to change for the next day and the
good thing for me is that I do see two classes
I have two pre -k classes on my campus so I see
one class and then I see the next class the next
day so especially that first day taking that
time to reflect I can usually improve for the
second group which kind of stinks for that first
group because they're my they're my test subjects
for the week but you know it's not that they're
getting a a lesser lesson. It's just that I can
always improve. And so we all can. Yeah. Yeah.
And so kind of taking that time to reflect and
consider where what things worked, what things
need tweaking, whether it's just worth scrapping
and starting fresh the next day, because there
are some lessons where that's just the case where
you're just like, Nope, I missed the mark on
this. You know, like there there's some days
where I'm like, wow, that was a terrible lesson
that did not work at all I Need to pick a new
book pick a new activity pick everything start
fresh the next day It happens, you know, hey
it happens to the best of us. So um Taking that
time which in our incredibly busy schedules Sometimes
that's the first thing to go is that time where
we? sit and reflect. But it's, it's so valuable
to take the time to slow down and think about
it to decide whether it's worth doing again,
and whether it's one of those lessons that you
want to bring back the next year, you know, there
are quite a few of my lessons that I do every
year, because they're really good lessons that
fit well with our pre K students, my pre K students.
are only in pre -k one year so every year I have
a new group so I can reuse those lessons but
even those lessons as the years go on there's
sometimes where I just have to be like you know
what this isn't working the same it's not working
as well I need to pick a newer more up -to -date
book and like new activities and stuff so just
taking that time to reflect it's hard to stop
and sit down to do it. But it's so beneficial
to consider so that you're not because I mean,
I mean, it's supposedly the definition and the
definition of insanity is doing the same thing
and expecting different results, right? Like,
if it didn't work the first day, why would you
do it again the next day? Right? Like take the
time to reflect and say, like, where can I make
this better? What can I do to make it worth doing?
Or let's start fresh and start with something
different, you know? Yeah. It's important. I
agree. And there's times with me where I'm If
I have a book that I'm like on the fence about
that, like maybe it's like brand new or something
and I haven't read it before and I'm not really
sure how it's going to go. There have been times
where I'm like, since I'm on the fence anyway,
like I'll pull up the second book and I'll have
my backup right there just in case. So if I do
have to abandon ship and scrap the first one,
it's a real quick and easy transition to say,
you know what? It's been a couple minutes and
we're, we're trying this one and we are just
not engaging at all. And I can just tell that
it's just not going to happen with that one.
I'll just fall back on an old favorite so that
we can kind of keep things moving along, but
we can still get that student engagement in because
sometimes you just don't know how it's going
to go. So, you know, and that's it. Like there
are so many factors when trying to present a
lesson that could throw. the whole thing off.
Like I said, it could just be that the book just
doesn't hit the same with eat with that particular
group of kids. It could be that you had a fire
drill that day, which threw everybody's schedule
off. Or, you know, there's one kid that just
came in having a rough day. And that just has
set everybody else in the room off for the day.
There are so many outside factors that could
change. How a lesson hits and so taking the time
to kind of consider and reflect and decide whether
Whether what you can't adjust and whether it's
worth continuing It's just kind of an important
thing You know, yeah Yeah, yeah, it's true it's
a good reminder for all of us just be flexible
and You know do that self -reflection there.
Yeah All right, well, the next book we're going
to talk about today, also from the two by two
list, is called Pickle Words, Crunchy Punchy
Pickles in Poetry. It's published by Charles
Bridge in 2024. The author is April Pulley Sayer.
And the illustrator, I do not know how to say
her name. She's Chinese. It's I'm gonna go with
J. Jaylee? Sun? We'll go with that. Jaylee? I
don't. Okay. It's a solid attempt. I'm sorry
to her. Okay, but she did some beautiful illustrations
in this book. I love them. So there's that. All
right. This book has won a couple of awards on
the Texas two by two. It's on the District of
Columbia Capital Choice Book for ages birth to
five, and it's a junior Library Guild selection.
For our author history, April Polisseur was born
in 1966. She was named April because she was
born in the month of April. She was an award
winning children's book author and wrote over
65 books and photo illustrated 10 of them herself.
She was best known for writing nonfiction books
mostly to do with science concepts. She passed
away in 2021 from metastatic breast cancer at
age 55. Yeah, so for other books are she wrote
and photo illustrated full of fall. Best in Snow
and Raindrops Roll and she also won a Geisel
honor for Vulture View which was illustrated
by Steve Jenkins. Okay and our illustrator we're
gonna go with Jaylee Sun. Okay. Received her
bachelor's degree in oil painting and graphic
design from University in China, and her MFA
in illustration practice from the Maryland Institute
College of Art. She currently lives in Baltimore
and is now an illustrator and children's product
developer. And her other book would be Humpback
Whale, which is part of the Young Zoologist series,
written by Asha DeVox. All right, now this book
is really just a whole lot of simple poems that
are all dedicated to Pickles. Most of the poems
are written in a simple A, B, A, B kind of a
format. So I really like it for younger kids
a lot in that it's kind of the... Poems are simple,
but I think that's what makes it perfect for
our younger students. You know, there's obviously
a lot of different kinds of poetry and lots of
different ways that you can go about writing
poetry. But this one was like, I thought this
was a real good, solid introduction to poetry.
It was kind of that simple, predictable cadence.
Really made it easy, I thought, to talk to kids
about it to kind of introduce that concept. pictures
are really bright, very vivid. Obviously there's
a lot of greens in there since it's all dedicated
to pickles. But I just love that it was all kind
of a, since it was all about pickles, it was
also kind of different, but the same, if that
makes sense, as far as like kids, they all know
what a pickle is. They've seen a pickle, I hope,
by the time they're in pre -K. That's kind of
a common object. and they're all um it was all
kind of since it was oh my gosh i'm just fumbling
here i'm sorry but yeah i just loved um all the
poems were just really great and i loved at the
end where it had recipes for pickles and it kind
of talked to you about how you can make pickles
at home which would be a really great way if
if we could do that in the library That would
be kind of amazing if you could, I guess you
technically could make pickles in the library.
I'm not going to personally, but you could if
you really wanted to use some of the recipes
at the end of it since there's no real cooking
involved or anything in there. But yeah, I just
really enjoyed this one. I would say probably
a well for a nonfiction poetry book for for pre
-k. I might actually give it a five out of five.
I don't know how often I would want to do nonfiction
poetry with pre -k. But that's it was a really
good, solid book. I really enjoyed it a whole
lot. Yeah, I thought this was such a cool book.
I loved it. It's, like you said, it's just fun.
And it's very unique for a nonfiction book to
be actually nonfiction poetry. for such a young
audience is just really cool. Makes it very unique
and special. And I truly think that students
will be very engaged and be able to definitely
make a lot of connections because Pickles, like
you said, they're just so prevalent. And that's
something that most students have experience
with. Whether they enjoy Pickles or not, they've
tried them by that point. Most kids have. And
just, it's just something that's relatable. And
I think just really special because it is kind
of aimed at such a younger audience. It's pretty
cool. Yeah. Yeah. And like, as far as like poetry
goes with kids, like the younger ones, especially
like rhyming books in general, or a dime a dozen,
but because most of them are going to tell a
story, I think the kids are going to focus a
lot on the story with this one, like they're
straight up poems. So it's just a little bit
easier to kind of teach kids the concept of writing
a poem. So you could do lots of really fun rhyming
things with it, obviously. But yeah, just great
introduction to poetry. For a makerspace activity
with this one. I was thinking if I was going
to use it in my library I would just keep it
simple and just have kids Draw a picture of their
favorite food since most of our kids and pre
-k aren't writing independently just yet Yeah,
I think I would just keep it a draw picture of
whatever they like best We've talked about how
obviously the author's favorite food was probably
pickles And this was her Showing us all how much
she loves pickles and then the kids could draw
their own favorite food They could draw whatever
food makes them the happiest whatever they enjoy
the most and then with older kids obviously they
could just they could write their own poetry
about Whatever food that they loved whenever
they're developmentally ready for that one So
yeah, I Love that. That's a fun idea Thanks All
right, well Thank you all for joining us today
on this episode of Librarians of Littles and
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 Legier. Editor, Patrick
Adams. Our theme song is performed by JD Adams.
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