Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Legere.
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
where we discuss books, give makers space ideas,
and give some tips and tricks for working with
our youngest learners in the library setting.
Today we are going to be sharing two books that
we felt would be good reads during Hispanic Heritage
Month. Hispanic Heritage Month starts in the
middle of September and goes through the middle
of October and so it's an important time for
us to recognize that we have some amazing authors
and illustrators with Hispanic heritage and we
can share those with our students because many
of our students also have Hispanic heritage in
their families. And so being able to highlight
the wonderful works of these authors and illustrators
and sharing those with students and letting them
see themselves in those authors and illustrators
and in the stories is such a powerful thing to
be able to do for our students. Our first book
today that we'll be discussing is a classic.
It is Mango, Abuela, and Me. It was written by
Meg Medina. It is illustrated by Angela Dominguez.
And it was published by Candlewick Press in 2015.
This book received many, many awards and ended
up on quite a few lists. So the awards that it
received included the ALSC Notable Children's
Book for 2016, International Latino Book Award
for 2016, it was the second place winner, Skipping
Stones Honor Awards Multicultural and International
Honor for 2016, the Pura Belpré Award, Author
and Illustrator Honors for 2016, the CCBC Choice
Selection for 2020. I'm sorry, I think that's
2016. This book was also on 10 state lists, including
lists for Connecticut, Illinois, North Dakota,
Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
So multiple, multiple awards for this wonderful
book. The author, Meg Medina, is an award -winning
award -winning author and New York Times best
-selling author of picture books, middle grade
and young adult fiction books. She was the 2023
-2024 National Ambassador of Young People's Literature.
And when Meg is not writing, she works on community
projects like supporting girls, Latino youth
and literacy. She lives in Virginia with her
family. Some of her other books include Evelyn
de Rey is Moving Away, which was illustrated
by Sonia Sanchez. Tia Issa Wants a Car, illustrated
by Claudio Munoz. No More Senora Mimi, illustrated
by Brittany, I'm gonna, this one's the one I'm
gonna mess up. I think it's Chiquise. Sounds
great. Good job, Brittany Chiquise. And then
she's also written the entire Mercy Suarez series
and many, many other books as well. And the illustrator
is Angela Dominguez. She was born in Mexico City
and grew up in North Texas. She now lives on
the East Coast. She is an author and illustrator
of children's books. She is a New York Times
bestseller. I feel like I should know how to
say that. That's a pretty big award. Anyway,
I know. Sorry. And a two -time Pura Belpré illustration
honoree. Some of her other books include Kaya
and the Bees written by Maribeth Bolts, the Lola
Levine series written by Monica Brown, Galapagos
Girl written by Marsha Diane Arnold. Quiero Ayudar,
Let Me Help by Alma Florada, Just Help, How to
Build a Better World by Sonia Sotomayor, and
Marda Big and Small by Jen Arena. I didn't know
there was a Just Help. I knew there was a Just
Ask, and now I need to look up a Just Help. okay
i love just ask i got distracted sorry okay no
that's it i'm i saw the same that's about the
same thing i was like oh i need to look at that
one because that sounds awesome too so i'm on
the same page with you yeah uh -huh just ask
is like one of my favorite books in the land
okay anyways moving on yes So the summary for
this book is that when a Spanish -speaking grandmother
or abuela moves into her young English -speaking
granddaughter in this case Mia, into her bedroom,
there is a difficult language barrier keeping
them from connecting with each other. Through
some hard work, both begin to learn each other's
language, and they begin to communicate about
their days. When Mia goes to a pet store, she
sees a parrot that reminds her of the feather
her grandmother had shown her, and so Mia and
her mom get the bird for the abuela. Mango the
parrot then begins to practice both Spanish and
English with Abuela and Mia. And everyone slowly
becomes better at communicating with each other
through hard practice. Mia and her Abuela also
begin to build a strong, loving relationship.
And this is just such a heartwarming, wonderful
story. I really, really loved it. It's just a
beautiful story of that love between a grandparent
and their grandchild. And being able to find
that common ground to communicate. It's gonna
be, it's one of those books where the pictures
just show so much of the story. The story is
wonderfully written, but the illustrations just
add so much more to that story. It's beautiful.
You can see the feelings on the characters' faces,
the beautiful colors that are throughout the
story. It's just wonderful. The lesson, if this
is done with a pre -k class, it might end up
being a little bit longer story, but I think
that's okay. I will say... Personally, before
I do this, I always have to practice with I have
to find one of my Spanish speaking coworkers
and I have to practice all of the Spanish words
and phrases so that I don't stumble over them
miserably when I'm reading them story time because
I am I Barely passed Spanish in high school with
a C. So I need But that's just a personal note
for me, I know I need that and so I take the
time to make sure I say it a few times and practice
it so that it sounds correct. Cause otherwise
you will have those kids that speak Spanish and
I'll be like, what? Like they'll call me out
on it. But this is like, it's truly just a beautiful
story about this grandmother who is leaving her
home and leaving behind so many memories. And
so this little granddaughter finds this, gets
this bird for her to help her. feel more at home
and they they're able to learn each other's language
and it's just a really good story. I love it
a lot and I would strongly suggest using it during
the Hispanic Heritage Month. I think it's a great
story. The author and illustrator both having
the Hispanic background is I think it just works
to help the story feel authentic because you
know they use a lot of those oranges and reds
and greens in the pictures and just the vocabulary
that's used. It just, all around, it's just a
perfect story. I agree. Everything you said,
it's just really good. The colors are lovely.
It does kind of evoke kind of a tropical feel
with all the bright colors that they use. It
feels very South American with all the coloring
in there. I do love that they peppered in all
those Spanish phrases. And it just feels very
authentic. Like you said, I think probably because
the author and illustrator have that Hispanic
background, that helps so much. It's the best.
Yeah, I enjoyed it a lot. It's a great one. It's
a classic for a reason. Yes. So I would definitely
give this a five out of five bookmarks. I think
it's a great one to use at any age level. I'm
going to be using it with pre -K and with my
fifth grade students this year, just because
I think it's that great a story. Yeah. It was
really good. And so if we're going to do a makerspace
activity with this, this one I came up with,
I think it's more of a craft, but I think it
would be fun. And I think it, especially in pre
-K, this is a skill that we've mentioned before
that kids need. I think that if you wanted you
could give the students of like a printed page
that has a picture of a parrot on it or you could
just give them a blank page and have them do
this to make it. But taking construction paper,
colorful construction paper and having the students
tear that construction paper into pieces to make
kind of like a collage parrot using like those
Colors like from the book like the oranges and
reds and greens and have them tear apart the
paper I think with pre -k having a an outline
of a parrot would definitely help them to to
form the full picture But if you get to like
the older kids and you wanted to try this You
could just give them the blank sheet and be like
make a parrot with this And so this is a it would
be a fun way to just have them use either construction
paper or tissue paper, something like that, where
they can just add a little bit of glue to it,
put it on the paper and have that vibrant color
on the page. And this is also where I point out
that I love for this kind of activity, I love
taking a sponge in one of those plastic soap
dishes, and you pour it in the glue onto the
sponge, and then the kids can just take the paper
and touch it to the sponge and you don't have
glue everywhere. So that's always a good tip
to make sure that we're not making a giant mess
while we're doing projects like this, but I love
to be able to do that kind of thing. And like
we've mentioned before, a lot of these kids go
straight into like how to use scissors and how
to hold a pencil, but the tearing and pinching
with those pointer and thumb, that's a skill
that isn't being used as much. And so I think
giving the students some practice with that for
this activity. would be very beneficial and helpful
for them too. I agree with all the things you
said. I think that's a, that's a great activity
and I love using those fine motor skills and
I forgot about the, the glue trick and I still
think it's brilliant. Brilliant, I say. So I,
yeah, I think otherwise you get that one kid
that's going to be wearing the bottle of glue.
Uh huh. Uh huh. It's going to happen. It's true.
So yeah. Yeah. Great way to protect your library
and protect its books and still have fun and
do a fun little craft. Yeah, like it All right.
So this week for our library of littles managing
tip This is where I point out one of the cool
things that I enjoy doing every year with my
students. So This is something that I actually
do with I have my fourth and fifth graders helped
me out with it. But then all of the students
end up using this is I go to the store first
and I buy or get donated depending on the year,
the paint sticks from Home Depot. So I just get
like a bunch of paint sticks. I usually try and
get between like 80 and 100 of them. And then
the first couple weeks of school, during Makerspace
time after the students have done the lesson.
My older student, my fourth and fifth grade students,
I pull out the markers and I let them decorate
those paint sticks with school appropriate decorations.
I have a lot of them that choose to put like
our school mascot or some of the... student -wide
statements that we have, like our mission statement
or the campus values and that kind of thing on
them. They decorate the paint sticks or some
of them just choose to draw silly characters
and stuff like that, whatever. So they take the
time to decorate all those sticks. The reason
we take the time to decorate all those sticks
is those sticks become our shelf sticks, especially
used by our younger learners, pre -K, kindergarten,
first grade, second grade. Because specifically
in our picture book section, if you take a book
off that shelf, those shelves are so full of
books that the other books on the shelf quickly
close in on them and we've lost where that book
came from. And I always teach my students that
they should open up the book and look inside
before they decide if it's a good book for them.
And quite often they'll open it up and realize
it might not be. So trying to get the book back
on the shelf even close to the same place. can
become challenging. So I take those shelf sticks
and I teach the students how to use those. They
slide that shelf stick on the shelf next to the
book that they want to look at. And when they
take the book off the shelf, the stick stays
in that space on the shelf so that they can open
up the book and look inside and decide if it's
what they really want. If it's not, the stick
is already holding their spot for their book
to go back. So they'll slide the book right next
to the stick again. It's back on the shelf. They
take the stick out and are able to keep looking
for the book that will be. the best choice for
them. This process takes a lot of practice, it
takes a lot of work, but in the end it does really
help make sure that the shelves are not falling
apart. I don't have a ton of just random books
on the ends of shelves or on top of shelves because
the students know how to put them back correctly.
I usually start the process by having like one
of my book carts full of books. and having each
kid come up and practice using a shelf stick
on the book cart so they can pull a book off
and put it back using the stick and making sure
the stick stays on the shelf while they take
the book off and that kind of thing. But it's
something that the kids, this year, we started
a little late checking books out. And so my first
graders were like, where are the shelf sticks?
And I had to go and grab last year's because
we hadn't gotten them. new set decorated yet.
But they have come to be like, Nope, that's what
we use to make sure we get our books back where
they belong kind of thing. And so it's a fun
process. I like that my fourth and fifth graders
get to be creative. And then they're like a lot
of them, their younger siblings and stuff get
to see their work. But they also know that they're
helping the little kids with being able to keep
the library together and organize. And so it's
like, helping across grade levels with each other
and it's a really cool process that and at the
end of the year I do let the fifth graders especially
because it's their last year on campus but if
they want their shelf stick that they decorated
at the beginning of the year they can take that
with them at the end of the year because we're
gonna have new ones that we decorate the next
year anyway so it's a fun little thing that we
do the kids get to take some ownership over the
library and helping out and it's a great process
that I really I really, really look forward to
and my students as they get older, they know
that it's when they're in fourth and fifth grade,
they're the ones that get to decorate them. So
it's a cool process. Yeah, I love that they get
to take part in that. That's wonderful. I love
that idea a lot. I think I do have some shelf
markers that are just like there in my library,
but I like the idea of them making their own.
And the ones that I've got are hard plastic and
they're starting to like Bend a lot and they
might be done So yeah, I might do that soon,
too I do and like we had the librarian that was
at my campus before me used the hard plastic
ones and they're not bad They work. It's just
yeah, I like that these First off, I know I'm
only going to use them for about a year at a
time, so I don't have to worry about them bending
or breaking or anything like that. But yeah,
I just like that the kids get to be a part of
that process and take some ownership. It helps.
Yeah. Yeah, it does. I like it. Well, our other
book that we're going to talk about today is
called Abuelo the Sea and Me. It was published
by Roaring Brook Press in 2024. The author is
Ismay Williams and the illustrator is Tatiana
Gardel. This book is a Pura Belpré illustrator
honor. for 2024. It got the Librarian Favorites
Award in 2025, a Teacher Favorites Award in 2025,
and it's an ALSC Notable Children's Book for
2025. The author Ismay Williams is an award -winning
author who focuses on writing about multicultural
characters. She is a co -founder of the non -profit
Latinx Kids Book Festival. And she's also a pediatric
cardiologist and scientific researcher. She practiced
and taught at Columbia Medical University for
15 years, and she currently sees patients at
a children's hospital in the Bronx. She lives
in New York City with her husband and three daughters.
Yeah, looking at her website, like you see, like
all this stuff like she highlights, like I'm
an author and these are my books and I'm a writer,
writer, writer. And at the end, it's like. By
the way, I'm also a cardiologist. Wow. That's
impressive. That's cool. I don't know how she
finds time to read or to write books, too. But
I know. I mean, I know just like the way it was
written. It was kind of like a footnote. Like
you want me because I'm an author. OK. And she
like does school visits and stuff and like does
the author thing. Like she's like in it to win
it with writing books. Like that's awesome. By
the way, also taught at Columbia, no big deal.
Yeah, this tiny little hospital you may have
heard of before. I know. She's only written two
other books, but they're both a young adult novels.
One is called This Train is Being Held, and the
other is called Water in May. And when I was
reading the description for Water in May, it's
about a teenage girl who gets pregnant and her,
um, the fetus has congenital heart defects. And
I was like, Oh, she's a cardiologist. It's probably
really accurate. That's all. Okay. That's cool.
Uh huh. That's so cool. I love when authors can
take something that they know a lot about and
include it in the story just to give it that,
that sense of realism. That's really cool. So
yeah, that's awesome. Cool. Yeah, it is. All
right. And the illustrator is Tatiana Gardel.
She was born and raised in Brazil. She earned
a BFA in painting from Universidad Federal de
Rio de Janeiro and an art education license from
the Universidad Candido Mendes. She focuses on
painting at the start of her career. I'm sorry.
She focused on painting at the start of her career
and later began illustrating children's books.
She enjoys working with both traditional and
digital mediums with watercolors and colored
pencils being her favorite traditional tools
to use. And she currently lives in New York City.
Some of her other books include Painting the
Sky with Love by Mary E. Heck. Is it hack or
hate? I read it hack. Okay. And then, uh, Xavier's
voice by Ashley Franklin, the first day of peace
by shots. I'm sorry. By Todd Schuster with Maya.
I have no idea. Yeah. Yeah. I checked the spelling
on that a couple of times. Well done, okay And
this book goes through a year of a young girl's
life as she visits the sea at various times with
her abuelo and in her visits to the ocean with
her grandfather they her grandfather's like each
time they visit the sea he tells her about a
different memory he had. He immigrated from Havana
and he'll he kind of goes through and he's like
they're walking on the beach and he's like yeah
this is hot weather and if I was back home I
would be eating ice cream that tasted like and
he would and he insert they the author did a
great job of inserting Spanish words into the
text. I don't remember what they are off the
top of my head. I'm not gonna lie. But then like,
so he'll say, you know, I wish I was eating this
kind of ice cream in Cuba. And the little girl
will be like, oh, he's, he would like to eat
mango and coconut ice cream. And so it's like,
it's a kind of a subtle way to have the translation
made for you without overtly like talking down
to the audience. as you're reading it. So I really
liked that part, how it was kind of, it felt
kind of authentic with that, where it was the
translations are kind of being provided, but
not overtly, I guess, if that makes sense. Kind
of letting the reader figure it out and be explained
without being condescending. So that was kind
of nice. The illustrations are lovely. There's
definitely a reason this book got the Pura Belpre
for illustration. It's just very calming, very
simple illustrations, not too overwhelming. It
was just a really nice, heartwarming story. I
enjoyed getting to kind of hear all the different
experiences the little girls Abuelo had with
his time back in Havana versus his time in America.
The way it's written too, it sounds very much
like we know that the Author lives in New York.
So and just because there is like it does have
in the winter Like it has snow on the beach.
So I'm assuming this is supposed to be set maybe
in New York or something where There is off the
coast over there up north where there are You
do have snow on the beach up there but yeah,
it was a really nice kind of calming story, kind
of shared some nice experiences from other cultures.
And at the very end, on the very last page, it
does have a photograph of the author with her
grandparents and then the illustrator with her
grandparents as well. So that was kind of a nice
touch that it added, that it's kind of somewhat,
at least loosely, based on their own personal
life experiences. yeah it was a nice story i
liked it it was it was very sweet it was very
cute and i liked how it went through like the
entire year and like even by the end of it it
talks about how like her hand has gotten bigger
because she's grown and it fits her grandfather's
hand tightly and more secure like it was just
a cute sweet story and The illustrations, the
images are just so beautiful. They're just really
just warm and amazing. And I was just like, they're
kind of almost breathtaking because of how, how
beautiful it makes the skyline look. And like
they're little, little things in the clouds.
Like at one point the clouds are shaped like
dolphins and marlins, which is something that
the grandfather had mentioned in like the previous
season and stuff like that so like it was kind
of there were some cute little things throughout
the book that the students will notice and catch
on with too which was was really fun and when
i was when i was doing research for this book
i did find this book on youtube on kid lit Yes,
and it's it's the actual author reading the story.
I was gonna mention that next. I'm glad you said
that Yeah, I found that and I was like, that's
awesome. That's cool. Yeah, and she was all calming
when she read it to what it was like Yeah Yeah,
and she explained more a little bit about you
know, some of the things that you see in the
book and some of the imagery and such Yeah, that
was a really good Reading that she did on kid
lit TV. Yes Her website similarly has a lot of
excellent resources for teaching like a lot of
the time I feel like when maybe not a lot of
time there are times when I see some things that
some authors post online for teachers to use
in the classroom where I'm like I think you had
good intentions but this is just a coloring page
or this isn't necessarily developmentally appropriate
for what you're going for or like you know they'll
give you like five things and i'll be like i
would use this one maybe maybe. Her website had
like five really good quality. Like activities
that you could do. that went along with this
book that were I was kind of impressed with it.
Like all of them were like, I would I could see
using any of these in the classroom. And yeah,
and actually for the makerspace activity, I decided
on it was one of the things that was on her website,
which was draw a favorite memory with a family
member. And like on her website, it has. if you
use the worksheet that she has it has like a
blank spot at the uh at the top with a little
frame around it or whatever that's like draw
your memory here and then it has just like two
lines my memory is and then fill in the blank
like it was kind of perfect for pre -k it had
that like the perfect sentence stem and then
it had like one inch spot for the kids to write
like it was Like a decent amount of space, but
not too overwhelming. Like a lot of the time,
I feel like authors try and do that. And it's
like, uh, that's a little visually overwhelming
for me. I'm not going to give it to a pre -K
kid, but this one, I was like, I would do that.
Yeah. There was a lot of really good stuff. Yeah.
She had another one that was like, um, a five
senses activity of things that I can see at the
beach, things that I can smell at the beach,
things like, and it was just very. It was simple
enough that it wasn't overwhelming that I would
definitely use any of those in the classroom,
actually. So, highly recommend looking at her
website. I might actually do this a little bit
later in the year. Actually, maybe next week,
because next week is the real... I know we already
recorded our Grandparents' Day episode, but next
week is actually Grandparents' Day. That might
be a fun one to do with just drawing a favorite
memory with any family member and kind of making
it more inclusive that way. So that'd be a good
idea. Yeah. 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 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. You can
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You can follow us on BlueSky at littleslibrarian
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