Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Legere.
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
where we share books, give makerspace ideas and
tips and tricks for working with our youngest
learners in the library setting. This week we
are going to be sharing some books that cover
digital citizenship. So digital citizenship month
is October. And so we decided that coming up
with some books and some lessons that hit on
digital citizenship for pre -k would be beneficial
because it is something that even our pre -k
students need to be practicing and learning about
because technology is everywhere and so many
of these kids end up with technological devices
in their hands quite frequently. So teaching
some of those skills is important and So we've
got some good books that hit on different topics
that go along with that. The first book that
we will be discussing today is called Troll Stinks.
It was published by Anderson Press USA in 2016.
The author is Gian Willis and the illustrator
is Tony Ross. There were no awards or lists that
this book ended up on. but it's still a great
book. The author, Jan Willis, has worked at an
ad agency. She spent her early career writing
commercials and children's books at the same
time. After getting married and having children,
she began to focus more on writing children's
books and began to see success in her spare time.
She also gardens, and I strongly suggest that
if anyone is really interested, check out her
website. her website is very interesting. And
her about me is kind of chaotic. It's a lot of
photos of her through life like her as a child,
her in like college, her doing her jobs, like
pictures of her kids and stuff. And she has all
of these like quippy little comments under every
picture like after giving birth to her first
child, she has a picture of her son in a Batman
costume and she's like, I gave birth to Batman
and like random comments like that throughout.
So it's very like, it's very worth it because
I think that gives you a very clear understanding
of the author herself because of the way it's
written and the way it's set up. It's very interesting.
So. That's neat. I'll have to check that out.
Yeah, it was, it was interesting to see and It
was a little chaotic, but it was very, very cool.
So definitely worth it. Yeah. Some other books
that she has written include Susan Laughs, which
was also illustrated by Tony Ross, Dr. Zarbel's
Book of Earthlets, illustrated by Tony Ross,
The Bear That Had Nothing to Wear, illustrated
by Brian Fitzgerald, Tadpole's Promise, illustrated
by Tony Ross, The Monster Bed, illustrated by
Susan Varley. Hashtag Goldilocks, a hashtag cautionary
tale, illustrated by Tony Ross. The Boy Who Thought
He Was a Teddy Bear, illustrated by Susan Varley.
Who's in the Lou? Illustrated by Tony Ross. Delilah
Dee at the Library, illustrated by Rosie Reeve.
Bottoms Up, illustrated by Adam Stoehr. Slug
Needs a Hug, illustrated by Tony Ross, Chicken
Clicking, illustrated by Tony Ross, Misery Moo,
illustrated by Tony Ross, and many, many more.
The author, Tony Ross, is a British author and
illustrator. He has illustrated over 2 ,000 books.
He was the British choice for the Hans Christian
Andersen Award in 2004. He has won awards in
Holland, Japan, Germany, the United States, France,
and the UK. That's impressive. Over 2 ,000 books.
Wow. It's crazy. Like when I was looking at all
the books, it was a lot. Like you wouldn't think
that's possible to do that many. Books that Tony
Ross has written and illustrated are I don't
want to wash my hand. I don't want to go to the
hospital. I want my potty. I want to do it myself.
I want two birthdays. I want a bunny. I want
a friend. I want my dinner. I want my dad. I
want my tooth. I want my dummy. I want my mom.
I want snow. I want a party. I didn't do it.
I want a boyfriend. I feel sick. And I want a
bedtime story. Some books that he's illustrated
are the Horrid Henry series written by Francesca
Simon. Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch by Trinka
Hanks Noble. And the Amber Brown series written
by Paula Danzinger and of course many many more
as he has illustrated over 2 ,000 books. Yes.
And so for this book the story is of it's when
a mischievous billy goat finds a phone in the
fields. He decides to keep it for himself. He
and his friend begin making prank phone calls.
when they discover that inside the phone is Troll's
phone number, the two billy goats, think back
about the other time that there were three billy
goats and a troll, and so they decide to start
sending very mean messages and plan to show that
troll that they won't take any of the perceived
bullying of billy goats. When the billy goats
arrive at the troll's cave, Inside they find
a small crying troll who doesn't understand why
they have been receiving such nasty messages
The billy goats realize that they've hurt the
poor trolls feelings and they feel bad about
it and so This is in a fun and entertaining story
in my opinion It's a it's told in rhyme, which
is always a fun thing to do. I will say that
being that the author and illustrator are both
British, the rhyme scheme can get challenging
when you're trying to read it because there's
one scene, there's one couplet where it's scarf
and laugh are supposed to rhyme. But that's rough.
It's it's it's the British pronunciations that
yeah. So that's like that was the one thing there.
But it is a rhyming story. It's cute. I like
that it takes kind of place after the original
three Billy Goats Gruff story and makes reference
to it, but then kind of twists takes that and
kind of twists it around a little bit. It. The
the two Billy Goats that are playing with the
phone. are acting goofy like kids do. So it's
very relatable. It's funny. The kids will find
it entertaining and engaging. That sense of humor
is really there. The pictures are fun and whimsical.
And I think the story has a really important
message that, you know, we don't always know
who we're speaking to online. And so we need
to be considerate and think about that before
we say anything because, you know, what we say
can have consequences. And so we have a, when
I teach this book, I make sure that we have a
whole discussion about, you know, you guys end
up on iPads or on phones or on video game devices
where you can communicate with others. We have
to be considerate of what we say because like
anything that we say, once it's out there, it's
really hard to take it back. And those, the impact
of the words that we have. Can be pretty strong.
And so it's a I think it's a really great story
to explain that When I do this book with my pre
-k students the week before I do read the original
Billy Goats gruff story so they have that that
like pre -knowledge beforehand because it does
make reference to the Billy Goats and the trolls
and that kind of thing and so that's something
that a lot of our kids I found a lot of our kids
don't know those those nursery rhymes and folk
tales as much. And so pre -teaching that before
using this book can be helpful in that aspect,
but I really enjoy the story. I think it's a
great one. And I think it has a really important
message to it that is something that even our
pre -K kids can grasp and understand that, you
know, you wouldn't like someone to say these
mean things to you in person. So. we shouldn't
be saying them online either that we, you know,
those keyboard warrior kind of that mentality
is not productive or helpful. And so keeping
that in mind is really good. And I think that
the kids, the way this is presented in the story,
I think the kids totally understand it and grasp
it. And it's, I think it's a really good book
to use for this concept. So I would definitely
give this a five out of five. I agree. I really
like this story too. It's a great way to kind
of reinforce just using kind words all the time,
whether you can see the person's face or not.
Just always be kind and considerate human and
just be mindful of others' feelings and kind
of build that empathy piece. It's a good book.
I really enjoyed it. I like it a lot and the
kids enjoy it too. Yeah. You're right. It's really
engaging. It really helps to have that pre -knowledge,
like you said, of, you know, reading the Three
Billy Goats Craft beforehand, because a lot of
our kids really don't know classic tales, like,
at all anymore. I don't know. I feel like I just
remember hearing them, like, at home and such
when I was a kid. I don't think that, like...
I think that's exactly it. I think that when
you and I were younger, the TV... and the technology
weren't something that we were just kind of sat
in front of and left alone. And so like, if we
were in front of the TV, it was with somebody
usually. And then a lot of times it was just
us in front with our families and sharing those
kinds of stories and reading books with those
stories and that kind of thing. And I don't think
that happens as frequently anymore. It doesn't.
It's a sad day. So yeah, that's just another
reason to share some of those classic stories
in the library as well. Yeah, absolutely. And
so yeah, it's something that they can benefit
from because those classic stories also have
some important lessons that need to be taught.
They do. Yeah. So as far as the makerspace activity
for this goes, I honestly most of the time when
I read this book, I don't end up having a ton
of time left over to do a makerspace activity
because we take the time to talk about like the
name calling and how the troll feels and that
kind of thing. And so we spend a lot of time
focusing on that. If we had time for a makerspace
activity, at the end of the book, the Billy goats
feel really bad and it talks about how they put
the phone away and then they play games to become
friends with the troll. And so if we were gonna
do something for a makerspace activity, I think
it would be fun to have the kids kind of brainstorming
a way to make a friend. Like what can they do
to reach out to somebody that they don't spend
time with normally to make like some kind of
game. to become friends with them to play a game
that they could learn to to be friendly with
someone that maybe that they're not interacting
with regularly. Because even in a classroom,
there's always there's always ends up being those
like clicks of kids that are well, we always
play together and those kids always play together.
So kind of if you could, like mix up those groups
a little bit and then have them come up with
a game that they could make to play together.
That would be kind of interesting and fun. Yeah.
Yeah, I like that. That's a really great way
to get kids to socialize more and kind of reinforce
that. Making new friends and being kind to each
other and that teamwork. Peace. For sure. This
week for our library of littles management tip
we're going to be talking about behaviors and
communication with teachers in the library because
a lot of the time sometimes we're fortunate enough
to have our classroom teachers come into the
library with us and ideally we get to have those
teachers with us and they can kind of assist
with co -teaching and we can kind of they can
kind of help us facilitate a lesson because they
know their kids obviously much better than we
do and they kind of know their individual needs
and everything and they're the primary contact
for you know home communication and everything
but oftentimes we are you know we do end up in
the specials rotation, and we do end up having
to have situations where we're teaching on our
own. And that's totally fine, because we are
teachers as well, and that's totally part of
the job, perfectly acceptable. But when that
happens, if we have any significant behaviors
in the library, it can be difficult to communicate
that with the classroom teacher, and therefore
with the, you know. Parents at home as well because
just because of time constraints because usually
when kids are coming and going from the library
It's like lightning fast where the teacher like
it's maybe ten seconds of like hey, they were
good great moving on and That's all we really
get So to kind of help with communicating with
the teachers, like if you have any significant
behaviors in the library, we, on our campus,
we have a little form. It's a little half sheet
of paper that just says, you know, I had a rough
day in the library. I had to work on these things
for the student and, you know, just list the
student name, any specific incidences that happened.
in the library so that the teacher, when the
teachers come to pick up the kids, you can hand
it off to the teacher right away and it doesn't
take hardly any time at all and the teachers
can see all the information that they need. It's
documented, it's written down so that everybody,
you know, we're all on the same page and we know
what happened and then the teacher can, from
there, you know communicate with parents if that's
what needs to happen or you know likewise get
back with us about like you know maybe we had
this incident happen in the library but we don't
know that they've been making an additional combination
for the student or what have you and maybe it
was something that we needed to fix on our end
or something like that but you know we won't
know unless we communicate right but that communication
piece like I said can just be really tricky with
how little time we have with our colleagues.
So that's just a little thing to kind of you
know help out. It's just to have that little
form right there. We keep ours in the library
like right next to the door. It's in a little
folder right by the door so it's easy to grab
and you can just fill it out you know whenever
you've got the little time you have while the
students are in the library and just hand it
off right there so that we can get all on the
same page rather quickly. I love that. My campus,
it's very similar. We have five minutes in between
classes, but by the time I get the kids lined
up and starting to get out the door, the teachers
trying to take them where they need, yeah, so
trying to communicate with the teachers is challenging,
absolutely. On my campus, we have something similar.
We have their half sheets, but we have their
triplicate pages. And we use them for the whole
specials rotation. So at the top it just lists
like gym, library, fine arts, computer lab kind
of thing. And so we can circle which one we are
and then list like what was happening kind of
thing. And it's nice because I can keep one of
the. Pages the teacher can keep one and that
one of them can be sent home to the families
also Just so that everybody's on the same page
and it doesn't have to be necessarily a negative
behavior you can you can you can fill them out
for positive behaviors and things like that too,
which is nice to be able to To communicate how
the kids are doing in in the different specials
rotations. And so yeah Yeah, because we need
that communication piece Yes Agreed. The other
book that we're going to talk about today is
called The Couch Potato. It was published by
Harper and imprinted Harper Collins Publishers
in 2020. The author is Jory John and the illustrator
is Pete Oswald. And this book is part of the
food group series that includes like the bad
seed and the good egg and all that jazz. This
particular book has won a couple of awards. It's
gotten the Arkansas Diamond Primary Book Award
in 2022, the Colorado Children's Book Award in
2023, Iowa Goldfinch Award 2023, and Tennessee
Volunteer State Book Award in 2021. And for the
author history. Jory John is an award -winning
author. His books have repeatedly landed on the
New York Times best -selling list, and he has
won the E .B. White Read Aloud Honor twice. In
addition to writing children's books, he's written
for publications such as the New York Times,
The Guardian, the San Francisco Chronicle, Chronicle,
The Believer, BuzzFeed, and many more. And he
has written quite a few books. He's done all
nine of the food group series, one of which is
The Couch Potato. He wrote Giraffe Problems,
Cat Problems, and Penguin Problems, which were
all illustrated by Lane Smith. And he also did
the Terrible Two book series, which was written
with Mac Barnett. And of course, he has many,
many more books. He's really done quite a bit
over his career. Yes, and the illustrator Pete
Oswald is an illustrator and an animator and
animation production designer Some of his films
he's worked on include the Angry Birds movie
film franchise Madagascar to escape Africa cloudy
with a chance of meatballs one and two Hotel
Transylvania and paranormal and some of his other
books include he'd done all nine of the food
group series and he wrote in illustrated hike.
This book is the fourth installment of the food
group series. And in this book, a potato initially
lays about he's too lazy to do pretty much anything.
He just kind of lays there and has like all these
like just watches all kinds of screens and does
absolutely nothing, never leaves his house and
has everything automated for him. But one day
a power outage forces him out of the great outdoors
and he realizes how beautiful the outside world
is and how important it is to balance screen
time with time in the real world. And he starts
talking to his friends again and just kind of
comes to the realization that he needs to temper
his time in front of screens with time outside.
And I really like doing this book. I enjoy doing
this book around November usually. I do it with
around Thanksgiving -ish times because I kind
of temper it with around Thanksgiving. I usually
do something with just making healthy choices
in general. And that's kind of how I do this
book as well, just like everything in moderation,
right? Like it's okay to sit and watch TV. It's
okay to play on your tablet. It's okay to do
screens. There's nothing wrong with that. That
is part of the world we live in. And it's gonna
be there no matter what. You can't escape it.
It's part of our society now. That's just the
way life is. But it's also important. to go outside
and get exercise. And it's like imperative that
we make friends and socialize. And it's just
everything in balance. So I do this one with,
you know, making healthy food choices in general
and like just, just being healthy overall. And
with this one with pre -K, I tend to emphasize
that The importance of exercise in general and
just being outside being active putting down
the screens. It's okay to do it sometimes That's
a huge thing that I say with them because I know
a lot of the time our kids will go home and they'll
be like My teacher said I can never watch TV
again, and that's not accurate So I just really
emphasize that balance with our pre -k kids just
make sure that they know it's okay to do this
sometimes but you know not 100 % all the time
and definitely you know especially when we're
trying to sleep and you know at night there's
so many of our kids that just get stuck in front
of screens all day long and I don't know how
many kids will tell me like I was up all night
watching Netflix okay turn it off kid time for
balance Time to rest, time to get exercise, all
the things. Do things that don't involve screens
as well. They sure do know how to be on the screens,
but sometimes it's good to turn off the screens
as well. Just emphasize that. Moderation is the
moral of the story there. So since this book
kind of emphasizes moderation in general, I think
really any kind of makerspace activity would
work well with it, like literally anything, just
as long as you don't have screens involved with
your makerspace time for the day. Just emphasizing
that active play and using teamwork of some kind
with kids so that they can interact with each
other in general. I think it would be great if
you could, if it's possible to take kids outside
during that time, that would be lovely. But obviously
that's problematic. A lot of time in the library,
that can be difficult to do with how limited
our time constraints are. I'm not sure how practical
that would be for hardly anyone, but just any
kind of interaction in general, really, for any
makerspace time would be good, which is almost
everything we do as long as it's screen free.
So, yeah. I love that idea. That's really great.
And these books, I love the whole series of the
food group books. They're all wonderful. And
so like, yeah, just moderation and making good,
healthy choices. It's very important for a lot
of these kids. It is, and it's not something
that they are taught a whole lot at home. There's
way too much of just like sit and watch TV and
let the device to the babysitting for this upcoming
generation. It's a little, a little sad and a
little scary. Yeah. I think it's, it's interesting.
The number of kids, like it's one of two extremes
is what I tend to see. It's either the kids that
are sitting in front of screens all day long,
or the kids that have every moment of their day
planned out with different activities. And like
we need to remember that sometimes unstructured
like outside time or unstructured play can be
just as beneficial as the structured thing, sometimes
more so. And it's definitely better than just
putting the kid in front of a screen. So like,
you know, we need to find, we need to find that
happy medium of all of it. It's, it's about balance
for sure. Yay, moderation. Yes. Alright, 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. Happy reading! Thank you
for listening to this episode of Librarians of
Littles. We hope that you've enjoyed it. Check
back each Wednesday for a new episode. Librarians
of Littles is a podcast produced and hosted by
Patrick Adams and Caroline Legier. Editor, Patrick
Adams. Our theme song is performed by JD Adams.
You can follow us on Instagram at Librarians
of Littles. You can follow us on BlueSky at littleslibrarian
.bsky .social. And you can send us your emails
at librarianoflittlespodatgmail .com. So I had
a really hard time deciding which book I was
gonna put do with this one because there's also
Have you ever read the fabulous friend machine?
By Nick yeah, yeah, I really like using that
book too and just being like this is not we don't
share information online and that kind of thing
too because that's like so I usually do that
like the week after I do the other one because
It's important to know not to just share all
the information online, you know Important stuff.
So that's a really good one, too Yeah, and I
love that there are more and more books that
are focused on this for younger kids because
it's they it's not like these kids don't have
access to it so yeah I know it's kind of so many
of these kids tell me about how they sit and
play fortnight and stuff like that and I'm like
you're for like and those or play roblox and
those are the kind of games where like they can
They have chat functions. They can talk to people
and stuff, you know They do I know this week
in the library kids were playing as Legos and
they ended up using like the big Lego I don't
know, what do you call those? The little, the
giant blocks or whatever that's like your base?
It's a base. And they just like flipped them
up. Yeah, they flipped them up and they were
like, it's my tablet. And they just like played
on their tablets the whole time. And I was like,
okay, we can tell that you guys need some other
activities at home. Yeah, yeah.