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 readers in the libraries. This week,
as this episode comes out in the middle of October,
some of you will already be planning for Veterans
Day, and so we decided we would pick some Veterans
Day and Veterans -themed books. to share so that
you can prepare the library for all of the fun
events that I'm sure will be taking place in
November. So our first book that we will be sharing
is titled Rolling Thunder. It is written by Kate
Messner and illustrated by Greg Ruth. It was
published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of
Scholastic Inc. in 2017. It did win two awards,
the first being the Teacher's Favorite Award
of 2018, and the second being the Notable Social
Studies Trade Books for Young People for 2018.
And then it was also on two state lists, the
Keystone to Reading Book Award for the 2018 -2019
primary list, which is from Pennsylvania, and
the Beehive Award 2019 Poetry for Grades K through
9. which is from Utah. Our author is Kate Messner.
She is curious and writes books to make kids
wonder. Her books are often selected for the
One School, One Book or One School, One Author
programs. And before becoming a full -time author,
Kate was a TV news reporter and an educator teaching
middle school for 15 years. And just based on
that, we can tell she's fearless because dealing
with middle school kids for 15 years is a challenge
in itself. It sure is. It takes a special kind
of person to be able to do that. Uh -huh. Good
for her. Yeah. Some of her other books include
Over and Under the Snow, Over and Under the Pond,
Over and Under the Wetlands, Over and Under the
Waves, Over and Under the Canyon, and Over and
Under the Coral Reef, all of which were illustrated
by Christopher Silas Neal. She's also written
Dr. Fauci, How a Boy from Brooklyn Became America's
Doctor, illustrated by Alexandra Bai. The Brilliant
Deep Rebuilding the World's Coral Reef, illustrated
by Matthew Forsyth. How to Write a Story and
How to Read a Story, both illustrated by Mark
Siegel. Sea Monster's First Day, illustrated
by Andy Rash. Sloth Wasn't Sleepy, illustrated
by Valentina Toro. The Scariest Kitten in the
World, illustrated by Mackenzie Haley. She also
has a bunch of chapter books and series including
History Smashers, Ranger in Time, Fergus and
Zeke, Wildlife Rescue, and Marty Maguire, and
then some other chapter books including Manhunt,
All the Answers, Hide and Seek, and many, many
more. She's written like over 80 books and so
she's very prolific. I do love her books, though.
They're always... I didn't know that she had
like series books like that. I didn't know about
those, but like those... over and under all the
Things books. I absolutely love all those for
pre -k. They're kind of amazing. They're some
of my favorites, really. Yeah, the History Smasher
books are really cool. A lot of my kids enjoy
those, and then Ranger in Time is an excellent
series. It's about a dog that time travels and
stuff, and so a lot of my kids enjoy that series,
too. Oh, that's fun! Yeah, so yeah, both of those
series, my kids love those. I bet I have those
in my library now, and I didn't know it. I'm
going to go look for those tomorrow. Yeah. The
illustrator is Greg Ruth, and he is the New York
Times bestselling author and has written since
1993. He has published work through the New York
Times, The Criterion Collection, NEON, A24, Lionsgate,
DC Comics, Fantagraphics books. Caliber Comics,
Dark Horse, HarperCollins, I'm Still Going, Macmillan,
Hyperion, Simon Schuster, Random House, Slate,
CNN, Penguin, and Tor. He has created two music
videos for Prince and Rob Thomas and has worked
on nearly a dozen children's books. That's a
lot. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Some of his other books
are... City of Orphans by, is that A -V, Avi?
I think it's Avi. Avi? I always pronounce it
Avi. Let's go with Avi. I like it. Red Kite,
Blue Kite by G. Lee Jiang, The Haunting of Charles
Dickens by Lewis Busby, The Pirate's Guide to
First Grade by James Preller, Our Enduring Spirit,
President Barack Obama's First Words to America
by Barack Obama and Coming Home and the Lost
Boy were both written and illustrated by Greg
Ruth. And like I definitely suggest that everybody
goes and checks out his website because he's
got like a lot of his artwork and stuff and it's
just amazing like his talent is incredible that
the imagery that he can he can use those different
mediums to make is just amazing. He's just a
really talented artist, and it's just awesome
to see what he's capable of. So he's got a lot
of that on display on his website. It's definitely
worth checking out. That's very cool. And then
as far as our book summary, this story is of
a boy who travels across the country to join
his father in a motorcycle ride through Washington
DC as part of a larger group. The boy and his
grandfather participate in the Rolling Thunder
Ride for Freedom on Memorial Day to remember
veterans. And the Rolling Thunder Ride for Freedom
is a motorcycle caravan that takes place every
year on Memorial Day to remember those veterans
that have taken part in keeping our country safe
and remembering those that haven't made it back.
My thoughts on this is that this first off, it's
a story that's in verse. And so I love that we
get to add those rhyme schemes in, I think that's
always something that keeps students attention.
And the illustrations are just breathtaking.
It's just so wonderful. And I just love the style
of the artwork. And I think it tells a very beautiful
story about remembering those that have served
for our country. And so I think that it will
definitely keep the students attention. Being
that it's in verse, there's not like a ton of
text on any given page. And so it allows for
plenty of space for the the illustrations to
kind of take the lead. And I think that this
will definitely keep our students engaged and
interested for the entire length of the story.
There's also opportunities to include some new
vocabulary because they do mention POWs and MIA
and also the Vietnam Memorial, all those kind
of things. So like in it, you can definitely
have some conversations about some of the other.
things that are mentioned throughout the story.
And I think this is just a great story where
a lot of kids can, can be able to kind of be
like, Oh yeah, like my grandfather has told me
about this or my grandfather did that. And so
they can make some real world connections with
that while also enjoying a beautiful story with
wonderful illustrations. So I definitely give
this one a five out of five. I agree. This one
was Absolutely wonderful. This is definitely
a five out of five for me, too. I loved all that
rhyming. Even if the kids don't really understand
all of the vocabulary in there and really understand
what's happening, that rhyme scheme will kind
of draw them in and keep their attention just
because of the rhythm of it is so lovely. And
just those illustrations really are very eye
catching, very engaging. And this can be a really
really difficult topic to cover with pre -k Just
because it's not something that they experience
in their everyday lives They that's not you know,
they may or may not have veterans in their family.
They may or may not have members of the military
that they can connect with so they May or may
not really understand all this and that's not
if they can't see it and touch it and feel it
it's it's just typically a hard concept and this
is one of those that's just a little bit harder
so this one kind of it just it's simple enough
that it really um makes it more accessible for
our pre -k kids so i loved it it was a great
choice so as far as a makerspace activity i so
i was trying to figure out what I think would
be the best thing to do with this activity. And
I really like the idea of having the kids kind
of like my first gut instinct was to have the
kids kind of draw pictures or make little cards
that we could send over to like the VA or something
like that. But I always am terrified to do that
with younger students because what tends to happen
and I don't know if it's that I don't get maybe
I just need to work on Clarifying the expectation
that might be on me but a lot of times what happens
is you these kids hear about the military they
hear about how these people have done things
for our country and Occasionally like the concept
of wars get brought up and so and that what ends
up happen is you get these pictures of people
like fighting in wars and stuff like that, which
I While Understanding that it's coming from a
four or five year old student it can be taken
with a grain of salt. It's also not something
that we necessarily, it's always kind of like
a sensitive topic that you don't want to open
up any, I don't want to say wounds, but any psychological
things that may come up with those kinds of images.
So I'm always fearful of just being like, make
a card to say thank you to our veterans kind
of thing. So I think what I would do for this
is, Since the stories about the child as participating
in the motorcycle parade convoy I would probably
have the Legos out and I would have the kids
build their own motorcycles, but while they're
building I Would be I would definitely make Like
out of poster board and that's what I think I'm
gonna do this year is we're gonna make like a
I'm gonna take a poster and make a giant card
that has like a thank you and have some pictures
of different soldiers and have the kids color
a little soldier that we can put into the giant
card that we can then send to the VA. And by
giving them a defined space of what to color
and what to do, we can avoid some of the other
issues that might arise if they were just told,
draw a picture for this kind of thing. That way
we can still send over a card to like our local
VA or something like that. But also give the
kids something physical to do when it's not their
turn to be working on the card. And so give them
that those other activities to do like building
a motorcycle out of Legos so that they can make
that connection with the story at the same time.
Yeah, I like that. I think that you're right
a lot of the time when you just Just blanket
trying to explain With the thank you notes like
we've I've tried to do that as well and that
that does tend to happen I think we did have
a teacher Successfully do individual notes, but
she had to do it a little bit differently where
she like Explained about veterans day and such
and she did do it in in conjunction with veterans
day and she explained about veterans day and
did all that but then she had to do like a whole
nother day or two with like just writing a thank
you note and that was the angle she had to go
at was like just say thank you you're just saying
thank you with something nice you would like
to get it's just thank you and nothing else and
then that she was able to do it that way. But
I think it goes back to like the accessibility
of the concept of the veteran. It's just not
a very accessible concept for our kids because
they don't understand like they're not quite
there. It's a good thing to talk about. I still
think we should talk about it. And it's important
to introduce, but it's just it's an abstract
concept. It's not in front of them. So it's just
hard. It's not easily accessible for them. So
I think that's why that can be hard. But I love
that, you know, the giant card with like having
a defined space and everything. That's a great
way to make that part more concrete and more
easier for them to understand. I like that a
lot. I do. I think that's a great idea. So I
think that's what I'm going to do this year with
my pre -K students because yeah, and I get like,
I like the idea of being able to take the time
to come at it at the angle of we're just saying
thank you. I think the problem is, is that in
the library setting, we don't have enough time
to do that. And that makes a lot of sense though,
that that would work. And I can see how that
would definitely work. It's just we're with our
time constraints. It worked in a classroom. I
don't think it would work in the library. For
sure. Yeah. And so I think that's it. Yeah. But
I do like that idea too. And maybe I can, maybe
we can come up with a way to have some of the,
like the kindergarten teachers work on that with
those students. So they can make their own cards
and then I can take those along with the pre
-k cards to, to drop off. Maybe we can do something
like that with the where they have a little bit
more time. They can have some of that time in
the classroom to work on that angle of it. I
like that idea. Yeah, yeah, because yeah, it
was just with the restraints that we have for
time and and the ability to work one on one with
the students. It just there's it doesn't work
as well in the library setting, but it is such
an important thing. And I do think that by starting
early. with the introduction, as the students
mature and get older, they've got a better foundation
for for understanding it for sure. And so it's
why it's so important to start introducing it
early, even if it is a more challenging concept.
I do. Yeah, I do agree that we should start early.
It's just a hard one. It's just a hard concept
for them. They'll get there, though. They will.
All right, so that leads us to our Library of
Littles management tip. Our management tip this
week is to check out a movie. The tip is to look
up the movie, The Librarian's Film. The website
is It is a film by director Kim A. Snyder. And
this is a movie that's near and dear to our heart
because we know some of the people that were
involved in the making of the film. The description
for the film goes like this. In Texas, the Kraus
List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQIA
plus stories, triggering sweeping book bans across
the US at an unprecedented rate. As tensions
escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated
school and library board meetings nationwide
to lay bare the underpinnings of extremism fueling
the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment,
threats and laws aimed at criminalizing their
work. The librarians rallying cry for freedom
to read is a chilling cautionary tale. And so
this is a book based on all of those. And I say
the the past book bannings that started in about
2020 and a little bit before then. And it's an
interesting film that highlights what librarians
have been dealing with for the last few years
and what we're still dealing with and the repercussions
of those choices and decisions that have been
made over the last few years. And it shows librarians
from across the country. There's a definite focus
on some of the librarians from Texas, but there
are librarians in other cities and states that
had to deal with these issues. And so this is
a very impactful film that just had its official
premiere in New York within the last couple of
weeks. They are doing tours around the country.
as the film is being released. So if you check
out that website, you might be able to find a
showing near you. And it's also there, I know
that they're working to find a place to release
it to a streaming service or two. And so they're
working on that. But it's definitely a film that's
worth checking out. Just to clarify, we don't
get any money for any of this. We're promoting
this because I think it's a very valuable and
informative documentary that might, if nothing
else, it'll make some librarians feel like they're
not alone because so many of us have had to deal
with these issues as of late or within the last
few years and so this is definitely something
worth checking out. I strongly suggest seeing
it. um find it in a theater near you or find
it when it comes out on dvd and blu -ray or when
it comes out to a streaming service it's it's
worth checking out watching seeing what we what
librarians have been through and some of the
challenges that we're still facing today yeah
i'm very much looking forward to seeing this
um we're gonna go see it next week and i'm very
Very interested in it. You and I both worked
at a district that was very heavily impacted
by all that mess and Fortunately, we're not as
impacted at the moment, but I know that could
change Like any day really that's just kind of
how it is in Texas where we are right now. That's
yeah Yeah, it's a kind of a day -by -day thing.
It's very stressful and Hopefully this will bring
light to some of the issues we've been facing
and We'll help the pendulum swing the other way
so that we can kind of get back to a place where
we were where there is more freedom to read.
Yes Yeah, so yeah, check out the film because
I think it's it's it's very I will say that I've
got to see it that was the last night of TLA
this spring they did a showing a screening of
it and so I was able to see it then and It's
really good. It's emotional. It's just real.
The librarians that are interviewed for it, you
can hear it just in their voices, the emotions
that they're going through as they were dealing
with all of these things coming at them and the
things that were being said to them and about
them and about the profession. So, I mean, it's
an emotional story, but it's an important one.
And so definitely check it out. It is. The next
book that we're going to talk about today is
called Hero Dad. So there is a hero dad, but
there's also a hero mom. They're very, very similar
books and they're very, very short. So usually
around Veterans Day, I do these, but I do like
both of them together because they're real quick
reads. Hero Dad was published by Marshall Cavendish
Children in 2010. The author is Melinda Harden
and the illustrator is Brian Langdow. It has
not gotten any awards. It's not on any lists
or anything. And I think these are only the only
books that Melinda Harden has. written. And for
her history, she grew up in Traverse City, Michigan.
She received her MS in mental health counseling
from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
And she currently lives in Pacific Grove, California
with her husband and two children. And like I
said, these are her only two books. So she's
just really passionate about this particular
subject and had this really excellent idea. And
now she's done doing other things, which is great.
And then the illustrator is Brian Langdow. He
loved drawing and writing from a young age. After
high school, he studied life drawing and painting
at the Art Students League of New York. He then
earned a BA in English from Rutgers College.
He wrote and illustrated his first published
book, The Dog Who Loved the Good Life in 2001.
He then illustrated many books, including Hero
Mom and Hero Dad. In 2012, he wrote and illustrated
another book, which made him realize he enjoys
writing more than he realized. Since then, he
has continued writing and illustrating many books,
primarily non -fiction books and leveled readers.
And he lives in New Jersey with his wife and
two kids. Some he has done so many other books
most of them are for the educational market So
in this book for both with both of these it's
narrated by a child and it's like it starts off
as like my dad is a hero and It begins with that
so it begins with the child just stating my dad
is a superhero and then it continues with him
just describing his father in superhero terms
where it's like he doesn't have x -ray vision,
but he does have night vision and it has him
with his like night goggles on and He can't fly
but sometimes he does and like the illustration
on that page is like him jumping out of an airplane
to go parachute down to wherever his mission
is going to take him and I really like this book
because each page is very very simple. It just
has like one or two sentences like that And it
describes all the soldiers and just really, I
feel like it's a little bit more accessible because
it is in superhero kind of terms that kids are
probably a little bit more familiar with. A lot
of that is kind of marketed to young children
anyway. They know about, you know, those are
classic superheroes a little bit more. So like
by comparing soldiers to them, I think it really
connects the dots a little bit better. It's very
developmentally appropriate. It doesn't have
guns or anything like that in there. So you don't
have to have those conversations. But it does
kind of show kids how soldiers... kind of work
and some of the things that they do to protect
our country in very simple terms. So even though
it hasn't won any awards or anything, it's just,
it's so simple. I think it's a really good introduction
to Veterans Day in general and just what a veteran
is. And I love that it's from the child's perspective
and that it's describing, you know, either a
mom or a dad, depending on which book you're
reading. I like doing them in conjunction with
each other because there's it's such a short
but they're both so short and I think it's important
that they can see that it could be like Anyone
in their family like you can't like yet. It is
the dad and it is the mom But then you can talk
about how it you know, it could be really any
adult It doesn't have to be just your mom or
your dad And you can kind of branch out from
there. So I just think it's a really good Easy,
simple introduction. The pictures are really
pretty engaging. They're very simplistic, but
realistic. Not too overwhelming. So the kids
can really see what's happening on the page and
connect with all of that. I think as far as like
teaching this particular concept, I would give
it a five out of five. Like if I'm just like
reading it at home just for fun. If I personally
had a veteran directly in my home, it would be
a five out of five. But since I personally don't,
I would give it just like if I was at home reading
with my child, I'd probably give it a four out
of five. It's still good. But for that connection
there, for the teaching, I think it's a five
out of five just because it is so easy for kids
to relate to, regardless of their particular
background. Agreed. I love both of these books.
They're really great and really great ways to
introduce the concept to the students in, like
you said, in a more relatable way. These are
the kind of books that like I have both of these
books in my campus library and My campus, we
always do a big Veterans Day celebration and
we have the parents that are veterans come in
and they get to do like a breakfast with their
students and then they go to the assembly and
we recognize them and all that kind of stuff.
And so usually the week before we do that. I
try to read these books, at least one of them
to the students, but if I can't find the time,
I send the book. Over to the the pre -k classes
so that they can read them because a lot of times
they that's Potentially one of the reasons why
our pre -k students are in pre -k is because
they have active duty military members and so
quite frequently their parents will be at that
Veterans Day celebration and like This is a nice
way to explain to the kids why well cuz you're
your parent is a hero and because this is all
the things that they do and so like that helps
the kids understand why their parent is in the
building wearing their work clothes and that
kind of thing too. And so this is just like I
love these books because it is a it's a really
good way to start the discussion with your students
that are younger so they have at least some kind
of entry -level understanding of what's what's
going on so absolutely love them. Yeah, I enjoy
it For the makerspace activity for this one I
usually have the kids draw a picture of their
hero and I'm not gonna lie. We do get some pictures
of some spider -man and things like that, but
for the most part after reading this book and
explaining that a hero isn't just spider -man
or Superman or Paw Patrol is a really popular
one right now, those characters, and that it
can be just a regular person who goes out and
protects our country and does great things to
protect our freedoms. I would say probably 75
% of the kids really do connect with it and end
up drawing something that's more I don't want
to say appropriate, but more in line with what
a hero like a real life hero could be. You know,
only about 25 % end up doing, you know, Spider
-Man or whatever. Right. So I'll take that if
you know, the majority end up after reading these
books, the majority do end up drawing those real
life heroes. So I'm you know, it's still Like
I said before several times like this concept
is a difficult one So as long as we can like
start introducing that start letting you know,
the kids know what what a veteran is like I think
that's really the important thing and typically
and in our campus in the past When we had all
pre -k we did have kids draw a picture of their
hero and then we had like a wall of heroes that
we displayed for Veterans Day and that stayed
up through the month of November and that was
really sweet to get to see what all the heroes
in our kids lives and like I said, a couple of
like, you know, chase from Paw Patrol or what
have you. But for the most part, they did a really
good job with like drawing real life heroes and
the people in their lives. So yeah, that was
our fun one. I like that idea a lot of having
them all displayed out in the hallway so everyone
can see them. That's a really cool idea. It was
really good and that the kids loved seeing their
work up there and pointing out who their hero
was And they really they connected with it really
well. I miss doing that. So I'll probably still
do something like that. I just probably won't
Hang it up this year, but yeah Yeah, it's still
a fun lesson to do you get a lot of windows in
your library You could put them up on the windows
of windows. This is true. I could I have not
used the windows like that yet. I should. Yeah.
Yeah. I like all my windows. It's fun. 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 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 Legere. Editor, Patrick
Adams. Our theme song is performed by JD Adams.
You can follow us on Instagram at Librarians
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