Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm 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 are going to continue discussing books.
that have to do with monsters or Halloween themes
because as this episode is published it will
be in October and we're getting closer to that
spooky time of the year. We've got two really
great books this week and the first one is titled...
Monster Trouble. It is written by Lane Fredrickson
and illustrated by Michael Robertson. It was
published by Union Square Kids in 2015. This
book was on one list. It was on the Florida Award
winners for 2015. And so we'll get into the author's
background. Lane Fredrickson is a veteran of
the United States Air Force and holds degrees
in both psychology and English. She has a website,
rhymeweaver .com, and it is full of image -based
tutorials on poetry and writing. She lives in
Florida with a volleyball player and a basketball
player. also known as her children, also with
her husband and a small Yorkie named Holly. And
her website's really cool because she talks a
lot about her first attempts at writing a book.
She wanted to do a book in verse, a book in rhyme,
and she had a lot of pushback for that because
apparently that's not something that a lot of
publishers are interested in unless you're like...
really really good at. You have to find like
the perfect rhyme scheme and stuff like that
and basically if you read some of what she says
that doesn't exist. So she gives some very cool
tutorials on how to write in rhyme to make kind
of the poetry kind of stuff and it's it was pretty
cool to look through what she has on her website.
Her one other book that she has published that
I was able to find was called watch your tongue
Cecily Beasley illustrated by John Davis and
For the illustrator history our illustrator Michael
Robertson was born and raised in northern Ohio.
Michael graduated from Bowling Green State University
with a degree in painting. He spent 10 years
as a toy designer and character developer before
trying his hand at illustration. His work has
appeared on many children's products, greeting
cards, books, toys, and magazines and has received
multiple recognitions from the Society of Illustrators.
An avid collector of mid -century art and design
since the 80s, Michael's vast array of influences
include many modern masters such as Calder and
Miro, as well as illustrators like Jim Flora,
Alice and Martin Previnson, and Mary Blair. Michael
lives in a spacious industrial warehouse loft
in downtown Cleveland, where he enjoys painting.
cooking, and listening to the extensive collection
of vintage soul, jazz, and Brazilian music he
has acquired over the years. Another book that
he's published is my very favorite book in the
whole wide world, which is written by Malcolm
Mitchell. Malcolm Mitchell has another really
good book that I love to read, The Magician's
Hat. I was making all sorts of connections while
I was reading about authors and illustrators,
which was fun. Yeah, that was really good too.
And so the summary for this book is that there
is a little girl who is not afraid of anything.
She's into scary movies and monsters and werewolves
and all the things. But every night when she's
trying to get ready for bed, the neighborhood
monsters try to come in and scare her. Since
she's not afraid, it's really just more annoying
and it keeps her from getting to sleep. As she
continues to miss out on sleep, she decides she
needs to do something to deal with her monster
problem. She gets a book about monster traps.
She tries setting up different traps. Each trap
fails for one reason or another. Like at one
point she makes a small monster trap, but the
big monsters show up first, things like that.
And in the end, being so utterly exhausted, she
finally falls asleep before the monsters make
it to her room one night and when a monster tries
to scare her she reaches out to grab it and cuddle
it and ends up kissing it like one of her stuffed
animals and all of the monsters freak out this
is when she finally realizes what monsters hate
most is kisses and so from that point forward
she no longer has any monster troubles because
any monster that comes around she knows how to
deal with it. And so this book, I love reading
this book with my students because it is so much
fun. It is a book in rhyme. So there's some rhyme
scheme to it, which is fun because the kids like
that predictability and the tempo that that gives
it. The illustrations are awesome. The monsters
are goofy and silly looking. The attempts at
different traps that are being made are really
pretty clever and fun and the kids love to look
at all the different parts, all the different
designs. And in the end, the students just love
the silliness of how she solves her problem.
Winifred is able to... solve the problem in a
unique way, and the kids just think it's the
most gross and silliest way to deal with those
monsters. And so I love this book. I think it's
a five out of five. I think that any pre -K kinder
student that hears the story will be very engaged.
They will be laughing and just having a really
good time with the story. Yeah, this was the
first time that I'd gotten to read this one and
Even though it was published a minute ago. That's
okay. It was really cute though I really liked
that it was still like Halloween esque and monster
based but it was definitely not scary monsters
a lot of our kids can be a little bit anxious
this time of year and It was very Almost comforting,
I think, to know that the monsters were most
afraid of, you know, kisses and snuggles and
things like that. So it was just I think this
one would actually soothe a lot of kids fears
of nothing else. I think it's great. I loved
it. Agreed. Five out of five. Absolutely. I also
love that the main character was a little African
American girl just to add some diversity to it
and to have some of our students see themselves
in that story in a different way. Giving those
opportunities is also just makes it that much
better. I loved it. So yeah, definitely wonderful
story. Highly recommend using it this time of
year. For a makerspace activity. In the previous
episode that we talked about monster books, my
suggestion was to have the students create their
own monsters, design them, and one of the ways
that they could do that was with Legos. I thought
it'd be really cool that if you were able to
kind of keep some of those monster designs out
of Legos, using those this week to have the students
build using like Kiva planks, like wooden planks,
they could build a monster trap. Think kind of
like mouse trap kind of where like you set one
thing off and it makes dominoes fall to make
something else happen kind of thing to try and
trap or encircle the Lego monster that was made
the week before. I think that would be a lot
of fun. It would be a very challenging thing
for our students to do, but it would make those
brains really have to work to think about cause
and effect and to have that planning piece involved
to make it so that the monster is trapped in
the end. I love that. I love the the group work
that that would involve and like lots of cooperation
such especially for our younger ones because
that's not something that I think very many of
them would be able to do independently. So it's
just another it's a super creative way to get
the kids involved and to have you know a bit
of social and emotional learning there with their
that cooperation piece great suggestion that
sounds fun you know they a lot of these kids
are new to learning how to uh to work together
and so yeah any way that we can get them to where
they have to interact with each other and can't
just go off solo and do the thing is always a
good good practice so All right. And so that
brings us to our library of littles management
tip for this week. And so prior to starting recording,
we were discussing our book checkout processes
for this year and how they've kind of adapted
a little bit with the students that we have this
year on our campuses. Previously in prior years
for kindergarten and then for pre -K a little
bit. I would often have the students, kind of
as a whole group, kind of go over to the picture
books to look for books together. And then once
everybody found their book, we'd get them all
checked out and then move on to whatever was
next on our list of things to do. But this year,
I am finding that for multiple reasons, our students,
that would not be the best approach. And so this
year, I'm doing it a little bit differently.
I have four makerspace tables that we use in
the library. And so after any given book or activity
that we've read, we go over their different makerspace
challenges that they can choose from. So for
a lot of books, I have more than one makerspace
activity. And so I try to connect them to the
books that we're reading. So there'll be like
four different activities. We'll talk about them.
And then I have the students go from the carpet
to those tables and begin working. From there,
what I tend to do is I've been pulling like five
or six kids at a time. And as I was explaining
to you, Caroline, the way I do that, how I pick
who's going when is I use my seating chart to
help me with that so that I make sure that I
hit all the students that need to get books and
everything. And so I'll pull my seating chart
over and I will call those five or six students.
They'll get their shelf stick and they'll all
go over to the picture books. And before I call
them, honestly, I also pull out their library
cards that I've pre -made so that I have just
their five or six out because it makes it easier.
in afterwards so once the kids we go over we
all look for the books those five or six kids
have their books we come back over to the computer
and one at a time they have to find their library
card out of the five or six that are there we
scan their card we scan their book and then they
can go put their book back on their spot on the
carpet and they go back to the tables and continue
to to work on the challenge when i can then pull
the next group of five or six students over to
do the same thing i will say that this process
I don't know if it takes a lot more time. I think
that depending on your students, it can take
more time. If they're a little bit, if they struggle
more to make a decision with what the book is
kind of thing, it might slow the process down
a little bit. In the past, like having like the
big group go all at once, I could start checking
out. the first few kids while the last couple
kids are still looking for their book kind of
thing. And so it didn't feel like it was taking
as much time for me because I'd already started
the check out process or check. Yeah. So that
the kids could move on this. It definitely slows
me down as I'm like, okay, I need you to to get
that so that we can let the next group go. And
so I try not to like rush them, but I do remind
them that they need to be actively looking for
the books that they want so that we can continue
moving forward. But this is working out pretty
well for me right now. By January, I might be
able to let them just be like, okay, go and we'll
see if I choose to go to that. But right now,
this is the process that I'm using and it's working
well. Everybody's still getting their book. We're
getting them to like the other students, while
some are looking for their books are busy working
on the challenges and that kind of thing. And
so it's it's working out well for me at the moment.
Yeah, and I've been doing the same thing this
year, but mine was more accidental and not really
I didn't intend to do it that way at all. If
any of you guys are Destiny users, you know that
Destiny's been on the struggle list this year,
and I elected not to make library cards yet.
I know it's something I should have done, but
with how many problems the catalog has been having,
I just... I didn't do it. I had over... My computer
thought I have about 600 kids at my school and
my computer thought I had about 1200 and I did
not choose to go through and weed out the 600
students that aren't there. So instead of making
library cards like I probably should have done,
I just went through class lists and called kids
alphabetically. And kinder first and second grade
actually and that's kind of what we did where
we did our maker space stations pretty much exactly
like you described we didn't talk about that
beforehand we just came up with the same process
accidentally. For different reasons and but i've
been doing it with k one and two. Because it's
been a library card problem not necessarily a
I need to help you more problem But I have been
enjoying being able to help the kids more and
I feel like I do get more individual time which
each with each of the kids with Second grade
for sure. I call about five kids at a time Just
they are a little bit more independent and they
don't need quite as much help and I can help
Those kids who need it if there's five at a time
with kinder and first it's a little bit less
I call like maybe three or four at a time and
then but it's helping me get to know the kids
names a lot faster I do feel like I know at least
half the kids name like half the kids on site
now which I feel like is pretty impressive for
right now it's the end of September so I think
that's pretty good for a brand new campus where
I'm having to learn that many new humans because
it's all students and staff that I'm learning.
It's helping me learn names and it's helping
me to build better relationships with kids because
I have a little bit of one -on -one time, not
a lot, but some. And the kids seem to enjoy it
too. So when we do our checkout, I call them
over. They check out their books and then once
they have their book, when our kids are dismissed
from the library, I have number Velcro by the
door like... like you see in many classrooms
right where it's just like one through I think
I have 25 spots for the kids to stand because
our campus is really big on lining up in number
order so I have the number dots so the kids can
line up in number order so once they check out
their book they have the option to either go
sit in the reading corner which where we've got
a lot of you know cozy chairs and such to encourage
reading or they can put their book on their number
so that they have it like in the spot where they're
going to line up and we talk about like not stepping
on the books and like still putting it down gently
by the door but that kind of just marks it so
that everybody knows which one is their book
because especially with kindergarten I think
that's the biggest challenge with doing it. that
way is kids might get their books mixed up afterward.
But really like after showing them where to put
their book and they already like the teachers
have already taught them what their number is
because that's really big across our whole campus
from Kinder up through fifth grade. So they already
know where their spot is going to be in line.
So I really haven't lost like there hasn't been
too many book mix ups or anything as far as that
goes. That's been working really well for us.
So I don't know. I think Destiny is, I think
for me, finally fixed. And I don't know that
I'm going to change my process though. I will
like make library cards so that the kids can
be more independent. But I think I've been enjoying
checking out this way for younger kids. It's
been good. Yeah, it's been working really well.
And I do like that we get that time with those
kids on them. not necessarily one to one, but
in a smaller group setting so that I do get to
learn about them a little bit more. That is a
very big positive for sure. And yet, similar
to yours, my students just bring their books
back to their carpet spot. And then what I do
is at the end of class time, the last five minutes
is when I tell the kids that we stop and clean
up, they all end up back on the carpet. And then
that's where I can give any like last minute.
reminders or anything like that. And then they
take their books. And that's when they get to
the line with their books at that point. But
yeah, either way works really well. And because
I otherwise if I had them go straight to get
in line, I'd be like, forgetting to do like the
last minute like reminder kind of things like
a lot of times. since my schedule this year is
weird and I don't have a consistent day where
I see those groups like a lot of times I'm like
this is the next time I'm going to see you is
this day next week and that kind of thing and
so that's true I like to have those last minute
that last couple minutes where they are still
sitting on the carpet so that I can give them
those reminders and that kind of thing but either
way as long as they have a safe place to put
their book and can get back to their book before
they leave it works out and so Definitely keeping
this process going for a while still, yeah. Yeah,
I enjoy it. I will probably just keep doing it
all year like this. And I have noticed that I
know for younger kids anyway, now I know that
kid is gonna need a football book in a minute.
And I think I know a little bit about that with
our older kids. But like with our younger ones,
I super know their preferences and which ones
they're going to want to go for. And I think
I can make book recommendations a little bit
faster and better with them now because I have
taken the time to get to know. Well, it's not
necessarily taking the time, but I have developed
a system where I can get to know them naturally
a little bit better. Yeah. So highly recommend
for the youngers. Yeah. The next book that we're
going to talk about. It's another classic. It's
Creepy Carrots. It was published by Simon and
Schuster Books for Young Readers in 2012. The
author is Aaron Reynolds and the illustrator
is Peter Brown. This book won an Odyssey Honor
Award. I had to look it up and see what that
award is for. It's an audiobook winner. It got
the Caldecott Honor in 2013. It's an ALSC Notable
Children's Book in 2013 and a Junior Library
Guild selection. And it is on a total of 24 state
lists. So I won't list all of them, but a few
of them are the Arizona Grand Canyon Reading
Award, California Young Reader Medal, Colorado
Children's Book Award, Illinois Monarch Award,
and Texas Tube Lichu. And so now I'm gonna have
to find this book as an audio book and listen
to it to see. It's a good audio book. Yeah, I've
never I've never had it listened to it as an
audio book. But now I want to find out what it's
like as an audio book, because I've always just
read the physical book. So I've listened to it.
I don't remember why I listened to it on audio.
But I did listen to it on audio like five years
ago. And like, there's that one line with the
terrible charity breathing and it's got terrible
charity breathing like to my my book checkout
list from my library so that I can yeah I think
maybe my personal kids were into audiobooks at
the time and that's why I don't remember but
it's a really good audiobook and actually I played
it I think for a couple of classes and then I
couldn't do it anymore because it did scare some
of the kids too bad oh like and then I had to
be like too creepy yeah it was And I was like,
okay. I had to be like, y 'all, it's carrots.
With this one, honestly, I do get a kid every
now and then, even with me reading it, where
they're like, oh, and then I have to be like,
it's a carrot. It's a carrot. Would you like
to eat a carrot? We're all good. It's carrots.
Don't be scared of carrots. And then they go,
it's cool. All right, I won't be scared of carrots.
Anyhow, yeah, you should check out the audio
book. It's also got, if you've gotten Novel Effect
yet, that one has really, Good. Sound effects
for this one, too. For the author history, Aaron
Reynolds is a number one New York Times bestselling
author. He is passionate about creating books
and helping kids develop a love of reading. His
father was in the Air Force, so he moved frequently
as a child, but he now resides in Chicago with
his wife and two kids. He has written over 50
children's books, and a few of his titles include
the Creepy Tales series. This is one of them.
The others are Creepy Crayon and Creepy Pair
of Underwear. And they're also coming up with
Jasper Rabbit's Creepy Tales, which is also illustrated
by Peter Brown. And that one is for a little
bit older readers. I think that's like second
grade -ish. Some more books that he's written
are the Incredibly Dead Pets of Rex Dexter series
and Nerdy Birdy and Nerdy Birdy tweets illustrated
by Matt Davies. And then the illustrator is Peter
Brown. Peter grew up in New Jersey. As a child,
he loved to tell stories with pictures of whimsical
characters and settings from his imagination.
As he got older, he added words to his stories.
and he studied illustration at Art Center College
of Design where he took many courses on children's
books. After graduating, Peter moved to New York
to be closer to the publishing industry. He worked
on animated television shows while signing his
first book deal. Since then, Peter has written
and illustrated many books for children. He currently
lives in Maine with his wife and dog. And some
of his other books include The Curious Garden,
which is an amazing story. I love that one. Mr.
Tiger Goes Wild, Fred Gets Dressed, Children
Make Terrible Pets, You Will Be My Friend, Flight
of the Dodo, Chowder, The Wild Robot Series,
and he also illustrated the Creepy Tale series.
including the newest one, the Jasper Rabbit,
Creepy Tales, which I'm very much looking forward
to. Before you get started with the summary,
I just need to say that my students, like these
books are never on the shelves because they are
so popular. My kids love the entire series of
them. And they're always asking me where they
are. This is like the dog man of the picture
book section. They always want to know where
these books are. Same. I just ordered a second
copy of each of them from my library. So library.
Only one library this year. Yeah. Yeah, they're
great. And kids love them. They're fabulous.
And I really like this one in particular because
it is... Like it is kind of I mean, it's creepy
carrots. They're a little creepy, but They're
not like overtly scary because it's still carrots
but since it is I like I like this one in particular
because it is a Caldecott winner and the Illustrations
are so unique. I think it's a really great way
to Introduce the Caldecott usually with the Caldecott
like when I'm talking about the books with the
Caldecott, I'm like, okay, it's really, it's
really pretty pictures is what it is, right?
It's the one for the best illustrations. But
with this one, because it's so monochromatic
with only the different shades of orange in there
for your color, like the color scheme is so unique,
I think it's easier to point out to kids of why
this book in particular would win. a Caldecott
and why the illustrations are so like why I would
win a prize like that because it's not it's easier
to point out to the kids I guess it's just I
don't know usually it's just like the pictures
are pretty there you go but this one it resonates
with them more I guess with that Caldecott so
I like to use this one this time of year to also
to introduce that as well and that's when we
start talking about award winners is with this
book in particular so Anyway, the book summary
that I forgot to do is In this book Jasper Rabbit
is our main character and he loves to eat carrots
more than anything in the world They are his
absolute favorite food and he eats them all day
every day until that is they start following
him home. At first he thinks he's imagining things,
but the carrots get progressively creepier as
Jasper comes to realize that he's the only one
who knows that he's being followed. He finally
solves his creepy problem by building a wall
around the carrot patch and vowing to never go
inside again. But little does he know that all
the carrots inside are secretly celebrating because
they are finally able to stay in the carrot patch
in peace without fear of being eaten by Jasper
Rabbit. So I think we already said all the great
things about it. It's the Caldecott winner. Super
unique illustrations that or really, really resonate
with our kiddos. Yeah, it's still somewhat sca
- like, it is - creepy is a good word for it.
Like it's a little bit, little hints of scary
without being like super scary. Novel Effect,
the Novel Effect app has a fabulous soundscape
for it that I really like. It's one of my favorites
with this book. And yeah, all the kids love it.
it's just a fabulous book easily five out of
five it's one of my favorite books to read ever
agreed this is always such a hit i love introducing
it to the kindergartners and pre -k students
that have never heard it before and like it it's
just yeah instant classic for all of them they
love it because this thing is like most kids
like monsters are probably like there's like
a fine line and like monsters a lot for a lot
of kids, it's kind of too much. But the fact
that these are carrots, it's okay that they're
creepy. Like it's still on the side of like not
terrifying and not gonna be a thing that's gonna
become an issue for most of the students. But
a lot of the kids like that creepy and like the...
Like I can feel the hesitation and that like
almost scared, but not fully scared kind of situation.
And so like a lot of our younger kids enjoy these
books because they're not like, I'm going to
go home and have nightmares because of this,
but they can still get that feel of, oh, this
is creepy and I can enjoy that feeling. Yeah.
It's always just such a good book. And like the
kids are always asking for them. It's so good.
Love it. Yeah, and I'm really glad that they're
starting with I haven't read Jasper Rabbit's
creepy tales yet. No, not yet. I'm looking forward
to it. I've ordered that one as well. And I hope
it gets here soon. I have high high hopes. For
a makerspace activity with this one, it's almost
related, but not quite. It's a very Halloween
activity, though. I always like for the weeks
leading up to Halloween to write on pumpkins
with dry erase markers. It wipes off really easily
and really well. I usually get like pie pumpkins
that are like a dollar each or something and
I'll just get like five or six of them and I'll
get like five or six dry erase markers for kids
to write on and I'll talk about a jack -o' -lantern
and kind of introduce that vocabulary. because
it is a different word that we use this time
of year. But then, and I'll kind of write, I'll
use, you know, model writing on the pumpkin like,
and I'll start with it doing like a jack -o'
-lantern face and do like triangles for eyes
and things like that. But then I'll like, I wipe
it off and then show them that they could also
like practice writing their name on the pumpkin
or just practice. Writing anything really and
just or like maybe I feel like drawing a carrot
because we just read creepy carrots But it wipes
off really easily with a baby wipe a baby wipe
is does the best job you can just wipe it off
with Just a regular paper towel or something
though In in class, I usually wipe it off with
either just a regular dry erase eraser or a paper
towel but then after each class I wipe it down
like really good with a baby wipe and it comes
right off and it's like perfectly clean for the
next class but it's just a really good way to
encourage writing and I kind of add that as an
extra and I do that one for usually a couple
of weeks because it's so very popular and even
your most reluctant writers will usually go to
that one and attempt some kind of writing and
It's definitely one of the favorites throughout
the year. So, yeah. I really like that idea.
That's really cool and a unique way to practice
writing that I never really thought of, but that's
really cool. And then, like, if you really wanted,
you could take one or two of those pies and put
them into, like, a big jar. Have you seen, like,
where some of the librarians will show, like,
the pumpkin decaying over the school year? like
you could that's I haven't seen it but I heard
the librarian before me did it I heard all about
it at the beginning of the year so like if you
had the pumpkins already and you're using them
then you could put a couple of them in there
and let the kids kind of see how they change
every week when they come in as they're as they're
slowly going bad and rotting and stuff which
would be just kind of an extra little thing but
that's I love the idea of writing on the pumpkins
to show the like to give the kids that like they
can write and they can draw and things like that
and then just gets wiped off and the next group
can come in and do the same thing yeah they like
it a lot it's a lot of fun they do get kind of
wrinkly over the course of a whole week at the
end of the week they get kind of wrinkly because
they've been wet so much when you wipe them off
but it's still usable and it's not no kid has
ever like complained because it's wrinkly i don't
even think they know the difference I notice
because I've seen it happen throughout the week.
But that's the only thing, but it's not... I
still use it. It's still okay, I think. It's
not gross enough that I would throw it out. So,
yeah. Very cool. Well, thank you all for joining
us 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 follow us on Instagram at Librarians
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