Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I am Caroline Legere.
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
where we discuss books, give makerspace ideas,
and give tips and tricks for working with our
youngest learners in the library setting. This
week we will be discussing two more of the Texas
2x2 list books. Texas 2x2 list books are a list
of books curated by the Texas Library Association
every year. It's a list of 20 books that are
excellent stories for students between the ages
of two. and second grade. And this week we have
two Texas 2x2 books to share. The first of which
is Adela's Mariachi Band. It is a Penguin Random
House book from 2024. The author is Denise Vega.
The illustrator is Erika Rodriguez Medina. And
this book is on a couple of lists. First, the
ALSC Notable Children's Book Commended List for
2025, and the Teacher Favorite Awards Grade K
-2 Selection for 2025, and the Texas 2x2 List
for 2025. Our author, Denise Vega, so a little
bit about her. When Denise Vega was in kindergarten,
her parents sent her to a special art class where
she learned that she liked art, but she eventually
found that she liked writing better. When she
was 12, she wrote and illustrated her first book,
entitled The Laziest Laziness of Peter Rabbit,
and she actually has a link to see some pictures
of it and stuff like that on her website. She
is a fiction and young adult mentor at Regis
University, MFA, in creative writing. And she
also facilitates an optional picture book writing
semester. She's an adjunct faculty for the professional
creative writing program at the University College
at University of Denver. And she's also on the
faculty at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop. writing
for children and young adults. Some of her other
books include If Your Monster Won't Go To Bed,
illustrated by Zachariah O 'Hara, Grandmother,
Have the Angels Come, illustrated by Erin Eiter
Kona, Fact of Life Number 31, Rock On, a story
of guitars, gigs, girls, and a brother, not necessarily
in that order. and Build a Burrito, a Counting
Book in English and Spanish, illustrated by David
Diaz. And the illustrator of this book is Erika
Rodriguez Medina, and she is a Mexican illustrator
and book publicist living in Canada. She enjoys
expressive characters, scribbly lines and grainy
textures in her illustrations. And some of her
other books include There Goes Patti McGee, The
Story of the First Women's National Skateboard
Champion by Tootie Nienel, The Tunnel by Sarah
Howden, Fighting Words by Leonardo Carranza,
Margot and the Moon Landing by A .C. Fitzpatrick,
48 Grasshopper Estates by Sarah DeWall, and I
Love My Body Because. by Shelly Anand and Nomi
Ellinson. And so this book, Adela is a young
girl whose family is in a mariachi band. Her
aunt shouts the los gritos and plays the violin.
Her father plays the trumpet. Her uncle plays
la vihuela and her mother and sisters twirl and
swirl their skirts with the music. Adela wants
to be in the mariachi band and with her family,
but she knows that she needs much more practice
with her dancing and with the instruments. In
the end, Adela finds her place in the band when
she realizes that she can be the one to shout
the los gritos and so she finally finds her place
and feels like part of the mariachi band herself.
I really enjoyed the story. I thought it was
super cute. It is such a sweet story of a young
child just wanting to kind of find their place
in their family. She wants to be good at all
of the instruments and she wants to be successful
right away, which is very relatable for the students.
They always want to be the best and pick it up
so quickly. A lot of kids kind of struggle when
they find out that there's work and practice
involved when learning new skills. And so there
can be some frustration there. And Adela kind
of shows us that she can, she's getting kind
of that frustration too. Fortunately for Adela,
you know, finding her place by... recognizing
some of her own strengths. It's just a very sweet
and relatable story, kind of heartwarming. The
illustrations are beautiful. I love how vibrant
they are. And then there's the mixing in of some
Spanish words to add that authenticity to the
story. I would definitely suggest if you're going
to read this out loud, practice saying all of
those Spanish words a couple times, read through,
find the correct pronunciations of them because
there are quite a few in there. But I just love
how it they slip in and the way they're used
it helps you to understand the meanings even
if you're not completely familiar with them but
I love that. And then what's really cool I thought
was awesome was at the end of the book there's
an author's note that explains a little bit more
about mariachi bands and the author's experiences
with them and so that's kind of cool so that
you can bring it back to that and give the kids
some more. like non -fiction kind of connection
to it as well. So I really enjoyed this story.
I love that throughout the story, there's also
lots of like sounds of the music and of the instruments
and things like that. So you get to be kind of
silly and make a lot of noises throughout the
book to keep the kids engaged. I think this was
a really great story. I definitely give it like,
I think four and a half to five star, five bookmarks
for sure. Like definitely it's solid story, really
enjoyable. Think a lot of kids would enjoy it
and be able to really relate to it, too Yeah,
really great. I agree. This one was really cute.
This was the first time I'd read it and I really
appreciated how the simplicity of it the both
the text and the illustrations were Simple but
in a really good way where it was just it was
short and sweet and to the point which is super
important when you're reading books to our youngest
learners. And then, like you said, those illustrations
were just so vibrant. And really, I felt it did
a great job kind of encapsulating Mexican culture.
It was very sweet. I loved it. It was a good
one. It was really good. I'm glad that the Texas
2x2 group decided to add this one to the list
because it really is a great story. And I think
a lot of students will enjoy it. So I think so
too. There's, they did a really great job with
their diversity this year on this list. And this
is another good book for that. For sure. So if
we're going to read this story in the library,
adding in a maker space activity. Now we've done
this before, but this is like a solid, easy.
kind of, you probably have most of the supplies
available to you. So this would work really well.
Um, just making some paper plate tambourines
to make some music, you know, take those paper
plates, which are pretty easily, if you don't
already have them, they're cheap, they're, it's
a easy consumable supply to get pretty quickly.
Um, so some paper plates, some like dried beans
or beads or something that will make some noise
when being shaken. and you just take that paper
plate, fold it in half with some dried beans
or some beads in there, staple it closed, and
then let the kids kind of decorate it with markers,
crayons, colored pencils, whatever you want to
do. You could even, like, if you wanted to use
some, like, have them tear up some tissue paper
and kind of glue little pieces of tissue paper
on it, whatever you want, to decorate those little
tambourines so they can leave making some of
their own music as well. Uh, I think that the
kids, anytime they can make something that they
can take away with them is really great. And
then if you can add in the fact that that thing
makes some kind of noise is just. Just icing
on the cake. They love that. So, and it's the
best to get in the library where you can send
them away to their classrooms with it. Yep. Just
another added bonus added bonus for that. For
sure. Yeah, I know. But yeah, this is one of
my favorite activities to do in the library,
too. It's like you said, it's really, I love
that they get to create something on their own.
They get to keep it forever, which is kind of
a big deal for them and helps them be a little
bit more creative. And it's really a pretty cheap
way to give them that opportunity because a lot
of our kids, you just don't know what our kids
have at home and you don't know what they have
access to. So giving them anything like this
kind of helps for them to kind of keep them a
little bit more engaged and gives them something
tangible to bring home with them because they
may or may not ever get to experience instruments
or anything like that elsewhere. So good opportunity
for them. And then if you have a good relationship,
if you've got a music teacher on your campus
that you've got a good relationship with, you
can work with them and you could find like, I
know there are some YouTube videos and stuff
also, but you could find ways to have the kids
then use those shakers to make a beat or, you
know, kind of make some music and kind of extend
it even further, which is because like you said,
music education is so important and a lot of
kids might not get a lot of that personally my
campus our pre -k students don't go to art or
music oh no no they don't go they won't go to
art or music until their kindergarten year interesting
yeah they're specials on my campus they go to
me for library They go to our makerspace lab
teacher and they go to PE and those are the three
things that they go to. And that's, that's it.
So they don't get art or music until kindergarten.
So like a little bit of an early introduction
with that and being able to work with the art
or music teachers to kind of incorporate some
of that really just beneficial to the students.
If they're, if they're not getting that consistently,
being able to kind of bring it in in the library
and bring it in. with their collaboration so
that they get some of that experience can be
really beneficial because we all know that music
education, art education has lasting impacts
on a student's ability to learn and be successful
in other areas of academics as well. It sure
does. It's very important. So yeah, any way that
we can kind of incorporate those other... those
other areas is always nice. So I love being able
to make like musical instruments and stuff too.
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So speaking of collaborating
with other teachers, our Library of Littles management
tip this week is about building relationships
with your campus teachers. A large part of our
job is working with students, but there's another
part of it, which is being able to collaborate
with your teachers that are on the campus. We
all have those teachers that have never actually
stepped in the library or only come into the
library because there's a faculty meeting happening
in there or something like that. We've got those
teachers that have never come in to talk to you
and ask what resources are available in the library
or to ask about helping a student with a certain,
looking for a certain kind of book, any of that
kind of stuff. Some teachers are going to naturally
come to you and ask for help and ask for input.
Others aren't. And so we can't just stay in our,
our caves and our libraries and hope that they
show up. We got to reach out to them and build
those relationships to get them to come into
the library. And anyway, we can do that to get
their foot in the door. Then we can kind of just
grab onto that and go from there. So like, there's
lots of different ways that you can do this.
One of the ways that I. find is very, very successful,
I'll say is when I have a book fair, personally,
when I have a book fair, especially when I do
like, because I, on my campus, we do a scholastic
book fair in the fall, and we do literati in
the spring, both have their benefits and their
detractions. But that's That's how my campus
does it. And it seems to work. But Scholastic
is really good because those Scholastic points,
you can build up those Scholastic points as you
sell books in your book fair. I love to do that
because what I do is then I use those Scholastic
points that I build up to give away books to
teachers. And so what I do is like, I have like
any given year, my campus is fortunate enough,
we do pretty well with our book fair that like
after last year's book fair, in keeping in mind
that I gave away, I wanna say 45 or 50 books
to teachers last fall. I still have, I have $4
,000 that Scholastic keeps sending me. Hey, you
have $4 ,000 Scholastic dollars to spend. So
what I do is during those book fairs, I will
come up with like trivia questions to have read
over the announcements. And I tell the teachers
the first X number of teachers that send me the
correct answer win a free book. Oh. And so what
that means, what that does is I get, you know,
I get eight or 10 teachers that send me the,
they send me an email. So there's a timestamp.
So the first eight or 10 or whatever, I decide
number of teachers that send me the correct answer
to whatever the trivia is. I let them know. you
need to come down to the library before the end
of the day, Friday, and you get a free book from
the book fair. And then they come in and they're
like, I guess I get a free book or whatever.
And then once they're in there, I tell them,
okay, first off, you got to pick a free book
from the book fair. I usually don't cap it at
a certain price level, because like I said, I've
got enough scholastic dollars I can spend on
that kind of thing. And so I kind of keep that
in mind throughout it. when I'm deciding how
many winners I have also to keep myself within
reasonable ranges. But then they come in, they
get they come down to the library, they come
in, they start getting that free book, and then
I can start talking to them. Once they're in
there, it's a lot easier to get them to listen
to me, you know, so like, once they step that
foot in that door, that's when I take my chance.
And I'm like, Hey, by the way, while you're in
here, I think third grade's about to start their
research projects. Let me show you what we have
in our non -fiction section that might be helpful
for you or, you know, like that kind of thing.
Kind of grab them in, pull them in that way.
I also, this year I'm going to start something
new. I'm going to do some potty training, which
is where I'm going to, every month I'm going
to put a flyer in the restrooms in all of the
adult staff restrooms with information about
Like some tech tips and some information about
different things that are happening in our library
so that they know what's going on also In the
library and so it's just kind of right there.
So when you're using the restroom It's right
there on the wall at eye level so that you end
up seeing it You know different things like that
just to get them to know what's going on and
to get their foot in the door once they're in
the library then I can do my job and show them
all the things but it's getting them to come
in, you know? So anything I can do to get them
in. And it can be hard. I also, I'll tell you,
another thing to go with book fairs is the week
before the book fair, like the Friday before
the book fair. Now Fridays at the end of the
day, people want to get out and I get that. What
I do is that Friday before the book fair starts
or that Monday, the first day of book fair depends.
But like if I can get the book fair set up in
time, that Friday I'll have like chips and queso
and stuff like that out to get teachers to come
in and make their wish lists and if I can't get
it done that before so that it's ready for right
after school for teachers to come in I'll do
on that Monday the first week of book book fair
I'll bring in donuts and I just send out an email
and invite everybody to come in and make their
wish list and say hey by the way there's free
chips and Queso or the hey, there's donuts in
the library come down and make your wish list
and it gets them in it gets their foot in the
door so that I can then Jump right on and like
go into my spiel about all the stuff that I can
offer to help out with and that kind of thing
You know, um, cuz that's what it is. It's getting
them in once they get in and they realize what's
available You know what? I've had some I had
some teachers the first year that I was at my
current campus that were like I don't really
use a library much and I was like But look I
can do this this and this And once I did it,
they were like, wow, that worked really well.
And this past year they came back and they're
like, Hey, remember last year when you did, can
we do that again? Absolutely. Let's do it. You
know, like once they realize what's available
to them and that you can help them out, they're
going to keep coming back, but they got to know
what's there first. And so making those connections
and kind of getting them in anything you can
do to get them to do that, you know, Like I have
to do some presentations at the beginning of
the school year for like some of the technology
stuff And so I'm gonna try and make it I'm gonna
do some like breakout sessions with it where
it's like where they we're gonna do like a breakout
edu that I'm gonna make where they Learn some
of the stuff that they need to know about the
technology that we have on campus and that kind
of stuff, but in a fun way so that I can be like,
hey, did you enjoy that? We can, I can help you
make one of those for your kids on whatever topic
you're learning. And so like kind of showing
them and exposing them to some of the things
that we can, um, that we have access to and that
I can help them with. If they come to me, I can,
I'd be happy to help. And so kind of showing
them some of those things. Um, you know, I think
we're going to do a goose chase around the building
and I'm going to help the, my, my administrators.
Set up the goose chase which is just another
fun like scavenger hunting kind of thing, but
it's something that Would be a fun like icebreaker
kind of thing for the students the first week
of school yeah to get to know each other where
you can set up like Find someone else in the
classroom who's been out of state and stuff like
you know just random stuff, but like That's something
that my teachers. I don't know that many of them
know how to do it, but if they don't know many
do either Yeah, but I'd be happy to come and
help. So if I can expose them to that and help
my admin at the same time with some of that,
you know, we're going to have, you know, at the
beginning of the school year, we're going to
end up doing icebreakers and this and that. If
we can make it at least fun and entertaining
in the same, at the same time. And then if I
can also piggyback on that and be like, did you
like that? I can help you make one for your class,
like just to get them to come in. anything I
can do to bring them into the library. So, building
those relationships with the teachers is so important
because if no one's coming into the library,
you're not doing your job. And so, getting those
relationships with the teachers is just as important
as building the relationship with the students.
And so, finding different ways to do that. It's
absolutely it's it's definitely half the job
is working with the teachers to the teachers
are the ones with direct access to the kids all
the time and They're the ones who really know
the crew. I mean we know the curriculum too,
but they're the ones teaching it so they're the
ones that we really need to support and Yeah,
it's it's critical to build those relationships.
You're right In the past what I've done in the
library was the thing that I've had the most
success with, I guess, with getting more teachers
to come into the library a lot is putting out
a bowl of candy, which sounds so silly, but it's
true. Like putting, I always put a bowl of candy
or previously did in my other libraries. behind
the circulation desk and the teachers all know
where it is and they'll randomly come into the
library when they're it's they usually come in
when they're having a rough day or something
because and they just need their little fix of
chocolate but that always helps because they
know that um they they just they know where to
find that they know where to find me i feel like
food is a really big way to get people to come
to you in general. And like, it sounds like you
do similar things with like you to bring donuts
and queso and such during book fair week. But
that always just got them into the library and
because they had to like go in behind the circulation
desk and like find it like they kind of had to
walk around a little bit and kind of see what
was in. So that kind of helped me get them in
the door. And like you said that that was my
chance to kind of remind them of what everything
that I had to offer and because they also came
in when they were having a rough day that it
was usually when they were having some kind of
trouble in the classroom or they needed help
with the lesson. So then I could also talk to
them and be like, Hey, what's up? Why do you
need extra candy today? And they're like, well,
I was having trouble with this. And that's, that
was like kind of another opportunity to, for
me to be like, well, I could help you in this
way. If this is giving you a hard time, why don't
you try this? And that was a lot of the time
that did help with them, like building trust
and building that relationship just in general.
It really, really brought him in a lot. So that's
what I found to be most helpful, which is kind
of interesting. I did it accidentally one year
where I just had too much Halloween candy at
my house. So I just put it out in the library
and I was like, whoa, I think I just tripled
all of my circulation among teachers. That's
amazing. Okay. We'll keep doing that. And bonus,
your kids aren't eating all of their Halloween
candy. So there you go. Uh huh. Yeah, it was
win -win for everyone. It was great. Your kids
might not see it that way, but everybody else
saw it that way. They were fine. Yeah. Love that.
That's excellent. Yeah. So yeah, food is definitely
a motivator for so many ways to get people in.
So yeah, anything you can do. Like there's so
many great ways to get the teachers in the door.
And I find that the sooner you get them in, the
closer to the beginning of the year, the more
likely they are to be coming back. Because if
you can't get them in until the spring, you've
already lost so much time. So the sooner you
can do that and build those relationships, the
better. That's true. Yeah. And I'll be starting
at a new campus this year, so I don't know what
I'll do. I'm sure I'll put out candy in six months
or so. I probably won't start it right away,
but I'm just gonna get to know everyone at first.
that's it that's the other thing is if you're
if you're at a new campus you you got to kind
of feel the vibes you know vibe check everything
and see see what's going on and see what needs
to be done too because especially at a campus
that it's not like a brand new campus it's just
a campus that's already been going and you're
stepping in if your predecessor has done a good
job you'll already have people coming in, and
so you just need to be able to maintain. That's
true. I did not have people coming into the library
when I started. Yeah. And so that's cool because
then you've already... The previous librarian
has already kind of set that up for you. You
just need to maintain at that point and get the
new people from the, like the new teachers on
campus or whatever to get in. And so that also
helps your, helps make your job a lot easier.
But once you build those relationships, it's
definitely there. And so if you, if you are fortunate
to have someone who already did a lot of the
leg work for you, even better. Yeah. Yeah. We'll
see how this year goes. Yeah, it's going to be
good. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be great.
I know. Okay, well the next book that we're gonna
talk today that was on the two by two list this
year is called Duck Goes Meow and it's published
by Kane Miller, which is a division of EDC Publishing
in 2023. But when I was looking up all the things
for this book, it looks like it was actually
originally published by Scholastic in New Zealand.
So I think it was originally published in New
Zealand and then this Publishers who brought
it to America I assume I'm not sure how to say
this author's last name. I'm gonna go with Juliet
Maciver Maciver, what do you think? Maciver?
I read it as Maciver, but I'm not sure. I like
Maciver. Let's do that. Okay, and the illustrator
is Carla Martel This is a CCBC choice book for
2025 and it's on the Texas 2x2 list. Our author
Juliet MacIver lives in New Zealand with her
husband and her four children. She's a former
English teacher and a yoga instructor and recently
acquired a master of arts in linguistics. She's
written quite a few books. She has over 25 picture
books published and three middle grade novels.
A few of her published works are That's not a
hippopotamus, illustrated by Sarah Davis. The
grizzled grist does not exist, illustrated by
Sarah Davis. And how to be a cat, illustrated
by Carla Martel. And the illustrator Carla Martel
is a New Zealand designer and illustrator. Much
of her work is produced first with pen and ink
and is later manipulated digitally. In addition
to illustrating picture books, Carla creates
other designs for products such as wrapping paper
and greeting cards. Some of her other books that
she's she's illustrated nine of them. Some of
them include Tulip and Dog by Emma Wood, Why
Won't You Sleep by Adam Wallace, and Monster
School Rules by Rory H. Mather. And for our summary
today for this one a very confused duck begins
the story by saying meow Loads of other animals
in the story make their sounds appropriately
and despite hearing how all of the other animals
talk and Having the wise old yak tell the duck
that ducks are supposed to say quack Duck continues
to be confused and say meow The story ends with
the other animals learning exactly why Duck is
so confused as to what ducks are supposed to
say. I really liked this book for pre -K and
for toddler age. I loved that the illustrations
are like it says in the description there. Like
you could tell that it was done in ink and then
later. manipulated digitally. It was a lot of
very solid bright backgrounds like the page which
it just has like a blue page with like a black
and white cow on it. So I love that it was extremely
simple illustrations with those solid Colored
backgrounds that are really really great for
toddlers Especially that kind of that contrast
that we know our younger kids really need to
see because their eyes are still developing It
was just so it was so great for that So for toddlers,
especially I would absolutely Highly recommend.
I I don't know that it's published as a board
book, but I feel like it should be but it was
also little bit silly, so I think it's great
for pre -k and kinder as well. Yeah, I think
it was just an all -around really good book.
It had some really good humor that our older
kids, older being like four and five, are gonna
like really enjoy with the duck saying meow all
the time and everything and all the other animals
trying to explain what ducks are actually supposed
to say. It had some good rhyming words in it.
I thought it was a really good Especially for
younger kids a really good book this one I think
was it was I think it's an okay for like a library
read aloud for like pre -k or kinder It's a really
fast one. It would definitely be over in like
three minutes or less But I thought it's like
this one is one that I would want if I had a
toddler at home This one would be one that I
would purchase for my home for sure if I was
reading in that setting it would be a five out
of five like Really solid perfect book for toddlers
I think for pre -k or kinder in a library setting
or in a classroom setting when you're doing a
whole group read aloud Maybe a three and a half
or a four out of five But the Texas two -by -two
list is meant for ages two to I think eight up
through second grade. I think is what it's meant
to be so Like in that capacity. Yeah, it's a
solid choice for that. So I don't know. I enjoyed
it. It was a good one. Absolutely. Yeah, I like
this story. I thought it was really cute. Since
you have cats, this makes a lot more sense. I
do have cats! So this choice, book choice, is
well chosen. But I will also say one thing that
kind of jumped into my mind, because it is a
very cute little simple story, but it also kind
of jumped into my mind. At the end of the story,
we find out the reason that the duck is saying
now is because it's being raised by a cat and
so like for pre -k this might be a way to kind
of like if because you never know what your students
are going through but this could be a way like
to have a discussion about like adoption or something
also oh yeah a way to kind of segue into that
because this duck is acting uncharacteristic
by normal standards, but realistically it's acting
very much like it should being raised the way
it is. And so like it's being raised by a mother
cat. And so like you could kind of use that as
like a way to kind of broach the subject of adoption.
Cause maybe we know that sometimes some of our
students in pre -K settings are in foster homes
and foster care and that kind of thing. And so
adoption is not something that's completely uncommon.
in that setting and so sometimes to help explain
that situation you need to find some books and
so this might be one this might maybe not the
best one but it's not a bad one to kind of introduce
the topic of it um yeah so using it for something
like that would be another way that you could
go about using it that just jumped into my head
when um i read it at the end i enjoyed the end
of it and so i was like oh that would be kind
of a cool way to do that too so Very good book.
I did enjoy it a lot. Yeah, I didn't even think
about it in that capacity. I think you're right
I think that would be a really good Introduction
for younger kids for adoption. Love it. Good
one And I think for a makerspace activity usually
when I read a book like this that has a lot of
animals my favorite thing to do is to have them
is to throw out some of the farm animal manipulatives
and just have a whole lot of blocks and then
let them build structures and I mean really since
the duck does belong to a cat family and it you
could you know have them create their own little
animal families that are a little bit less traditional
and Yeah, and just have them go to town with
all that Yeah, that would be a good idea there'd
be a lot of fun for the kids too. Yeah, I think
so 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
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
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of Littles is a podcast produced and hosted by
Patrick Adams and Caroline Legere. Editor, Patrick
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