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. In
this episode, we are getting closer to Thanksgiving.
By the time this posts, it'll be the beginning
of November. And so we are going to explore two
books about being thankful and Thanksgiving.
And so we've got some really great books to discuss
this week. The first of which is The Great Thanksgiving
Escape, written by Mark Fearing. It was published
in 2020 by Candlewick Press. This book does not
have any awards and did not appear on any lists,
but it's still a really good story. Our author
history. Mark grew up in Minnesota, earned a
BFA from the University of Wisconsin. He continued
his studies at the Graduate School of Film at
UCLA in the MFA in Animation program. taking
additional classes at Art Center College of Design
in Pasadena and the Los Angeles Animation Institute.
He has worked as a manager at Walt Disney Television
Animation, the art director of Sony Online Entertainment,
and a creative director at Pearson Television.
Just to make this even stranger, he worked on
versions of game shows including Wheel of Fortune
Jeopardy and The Price is Right. He now spends
his time writing and drawing picture books and
graphic novels. His writing and illustrations
have been published by Penguin Books for Young
Readers, Candlewick Press, Hyperion, Chronicle
Books, Knopf, and a few others that he can't
think of at the moment. And he lives outside
of Portland, Oregon with his family. And some
of his other books are, he wrote and illustrated
Giant Pants, Dilly Dally Daisy, Castle Gesundheit,
and he has illustrated How Martha Saved Her Parents
from Green Beans by David La Rochelle, Three
Aliens and the Big Bad Robot by Margaret McNamara,
Great! Now we have Barbarians by Jason Carter
Eaton, Brandon and the Totally Troublesome Time
Machine by Seth Fishman, Chicken Storytime by
Sandy Asher, Middle School Bites series by Stephen
Banks and Glory on Ice, a vampire hockey story
by Maureen Fergus. And so the summary for this
book is that a boy and his family are visiting
his grandmother's home for Thanksgiving. And
when left in the kids' room with slobbering cousins
in diapers, Gavin and his similarly aged cousin
Rhonda try to escape the boring and get together.
I'm sorry, they try to escape the boring and...
Along the way, they find that their path is blocked
by perilous obstacles including vicious attack
dogs, which are actually just wiener dogs in
sweaters, the wall of butts, which are all the
adults standing around watching the football
game, and the dreaded hall of aunts where they
will surely be pinched and smothered. In the
end, the two cousins realize that they just need
to make their own fun. And so I love this story.
I think it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of tongue
in cheek kind of humor, but there's a lot of
like the kid humor that goes with it. It's super
creative. It's just a really fun story. I connect
to it personally because I remember all of those
Christmases and Thanksgivings of getting together
with the entire like. side of a family and all
the cousins being together and all the aunts
and uncles being in the house together and that
kind of thing. And so this brings back a lot
of memories for me personally, but it's a lot
of fun that it's really cute. The kids definitely
get into it because they're like, oh, what are
they going to get into next? And when you talk
about like the vicious dogs and they're just
like, but it's just like the dogs on its back
with its feet up in the air and it's wearing
a sweater and like It's just the funny reactions
that you get out of the kids for it. I think
it's a wonderful book. I love reading this every
year at Thanksgiving with my students because
it's just so much fun. I would definitely give
it a five out of five. Yeah, I love this one
to this one. I think relatable is definitely
the word for this one Especially for kids. I
think that's probably how most kids feel about
most family gatherings is just like it's long
and it's boring and You get to see your family,
but it's people you don't see all that often.
I don't know. Maybe that's how I felt about it.
About all those family gatherings as a child
as a super introverted person. I was like, really?
I have to. OK, OK, I can do that. OK. And I know
I'm supposed to like it all, but I really don't.
And I don't know. This was just a really I think
it was a refreshing, very childlike take on Thanksgiving,
I think, I think all the kids would love this
one. Really all the adults too. Yeah, it was
a good it was great. I loved it. Yeah. And like
it's Yeah, it's just so many fun things. And
like I love to stop at each of the obstacles
that the kids come across and kind of have those
conversations with my students because they can
all be like, oh, yeah, like, when they get to
the wall of butts, first off, hearing me say
butts makes all of them laugh. Which I'm right
there with them. I get it. But like, then I'm
like, but how many of you have seen your whole
family standing around watching the football
game on Thanksgiving? And they're like, yeah,
and I was like, and what would happen if you
tried to walk in front of that? And they're like,
Oh, no, no, you can't do that. Like MCC, this
is what they're dealing and relate to it. And
it's a lot of fun. And like, when we get to the
Hall of aunts, and I'm like, Okay, how many of
you have that one aunt that wants to pinch your
cheeks and give you kisses and you hate it, but
you know that it's going to happen. And most
of them will raise their hand, you know, like,
just relatable stuff. And like, between that
and just like, the illustrations just being so
on point, so colorful, and engaging. It's just
an all around great story. Yeah, it was really
good. Good call. Yes. And so, a makerspace activity
that I enjoy doing with this is we need some
kiva planks, just the wooden planks, and some
ping pong balls. And I get the kids to work in
groups of two or three, and they use the kiva
planks to build the walls to a maze. because
trying to escape the house is kind of like trying
to get through that maze. And so they use the
keep of planks to make the walls of a maze and
they set up their maze. And I explained to them
a maze needs to have an entrance and an exit
that are separate from each other. And like,
there's gonna be dead ends. There's gonna be
ways where if you go that way, it's not gonna
work. And so. They can start trying to build
that themselves and then they use the ping pong
ball as the person trying to get through the
maze so they can roll the ball through to see
how their maze works, test it out, make sure
that there is a way to get to the end on the
other side. It's a lot of fun and it promotes
teamwork and communication for sure with the
kids because being that they're younger, like
they've got an idea in their head, making an
idea that's functional. it's not gonna happen
on the first try. And so like having them have
to talk to each other and be like, why didn't
this work? What can we fix? And like, I spent
a lot of time jumping from group to group on
this, having that, like saying those words out
loud, okay, it didn't work. What can we change?
Because a lot of times, They know it didn't work,
but they don't know how to verbalize that there's
a problem And so like helping them by giving
them some of those phrases so that they can continue
to communicate with their team Instead of just
getting frustrated definitely helps, but it's
a it's a it's a lot of me moving around seeing
how they're doing and Monitoring but it's worth
it if the end results are pretty cool and they
feel really proud of themselves once they've
made one that works That sounds really cool.
Yeah, that's very unique. I love that Yeah, it's
a lot of fun. I think the kids really enjoy it
because they then I would like that Yeah, yeah,
and then once it's done and it works then like
we let them kind of look at other people's and
try out other people's Mesa's to see if they
can get to the end points and stuff like that
So that's a great extension activity. I love
that. That's cool So this week for our library
of littles management tip, we're actually going
to discuss our experiences and our thoughts,
because in the last episode that we recorded,
we mentioned the fact that the librarians film
is slowly rolling out across the country. And
we were able this past week to go and see the
film in Dallas. And afterwards, they did a Q
&A. And so I saw the film back at TLA. So this
is my second viewing of it. This was your first
viewing of it. It was. What do you what did you
think about it? Let us know. Oh, man. That was
so many feelings associated with it. It was so
the librarians film kind of follows librarians
throughout the country is, you know, all the
censorship. kind of crazy has slowly been expanding
in the country, right? And it really does an
excellent job of chronicling some of those librarians
experiences and it captures all of the crazy
really associated with it. I think seeing it
all condensed into one place was really exceptionally
impactful. Everything that we saw in the film,
I remember seeing news articles and hearing about
all the things and watching it all unfold on
social media at the time, because it all started
in the fall of 2021. I was following it all as
it was unfolding and it's still going on now.
It continues to this day. Like experiencing it
at the time. I kind of felt crazy a little bit
because it felt so dystopian It still does really
But it just felt really still does feel very
unreal and like why are people? Trying to censor
all these books. Why are we pulling, you know
books like Um, like Pinkalicious has been banned
now and somewhere in South Texas, like what,
what is happening? I don't understand. Like,
why are we trying to ban all these books? It
doesn't make any sense. And we're threatening
librarians. And like as a librarian myself, like
living through all that, it like, I would try
and explain to other people what's going on.
And I would either get like, I would either get
one of two reactions were like i felt crazy because
i'm trying to like i felt like i was peddling
conspiracy theories even though i'm not in like.
Like it just it felt like when i was talking
to people that they would be like. So like what
is it really happening i'm not sure i don't think
that's it can't it can't be as bad as what you're
saying but like no no it is like there's legit
death threats like. Happening on librarians like
there's people trying to get librarians arrested
and like seeing it all in one place compiled
like that was really really emotional was that
was the my biggest take away was like it was.
It was just so much more impactful seeing it
all in one place. Just like all at once. Like,
I don't know, lots of feelings watching that
movie. It was very validating as well, like getting
to see it all because like I said, I felt I have
been feeling crazy every time I talked about
it, every time I still talk about it. It's a
little bit like if. I'm talking to somebody about
it. That's like not that doesn't deal with books
Directly in their job or whatever even sometimes
when I talk to other teachers like they don't
understand the depths of that some of these crazy
people will kind of sink to to try and get librarians
arrested or like to harm like Librarians like
really like when they were doing the Q &A at
the theory and they were saying that part of
their budget is still like security for them
because they're still very much in danger because
they're speaking out about all this. So I don't
know, getting to see it all in one place was
just it was just very emotional, validating because
I'm less crazy now that it's out in the in the
world, I guess. And it also gave me a little
bit of hope at the end, because like if if this
story is being told, then I hope that more people
will see it and recognize it and that will kind
of spark change. And maybe we can go back the
other way and maybe realize that librarians are
not trying to indoctrinate children or groom
children or whatever people are saying. Oh, my
goodness. Anyway, yeah, it was it was wonderful.
I absolutely loved it. Yes. Exactly. Yeah, it
was, I mean, there were parts where you're laughing
because of how ridiculous it is. And then the
next scene you're in tears because you've been
dealing with the same thing. It's just, it was
really good to see all of it in one place. Because
like you said, yeah, like there've been so many
times where I'm like, this is happening and people
are like ah I don't know are you sure that's
it's to that extent kind of thing and like to
for them to have collected it all and chronicled
it the way they did it's it's validating to know
that we're not going insane and we're not making
this up it is really happening and it's not that
I would much rather a different way to get to
this but like It's nice to know that there's
some solidarity that we're not alone in this
there like like there's other people that have
been experiencing the same thing and Going through
the same things because it has been it's their
days when like you're feeling you feel so depressed
and so beaten down just trying to do a job that
at one point in time was held in such high regard
and now to be by some people to be considered
like enemy number one. To know that there are
other people out there doing this job and fighting
to make sure that these things are not getting
out of hand. And it's just, it was enlightening
and uplifting to know that we're not the only
ones dealing with this. We're not those islands.
Like there are other librarians out there doing
this work too. And so I think they did a really
good job of highlighting some of those amazing
librarians that are taking that stand and saying,
no, this is not okay. And so that's inspiring
as well. It's it's a lot. I definitely I've already
like this in the last week I've told so many
people like this is coming out You need to be
looking for it and you need to see what's happening
Because here in Texas we're still dealing with
some of these things like SB 13 Which is now
impacting the books that can be available in
classrooms and stuff like that. I'm helping teachers
decide whether the books can stay in their classroom
or not. And at this point, none of the books
that the teachers have are inappropriate. It's
just that we have to go through a process to
verify and validate them. And they're like, but
this is so ridiculous. Like, why would anyone
be upset with this book? And I just keep saying,
yeah, welcome to the last four years of my life.
This is like what we've been dealing with as
librarians. This is the kind of thing. And you're
right. If the people haven't dealt with books,
if that wasn't a big part of their lives, then
they don't realize all of this that's coming
out. So this is a really great book to spread
the awareness, or a great film to spread the
awareness of this about books because yeah, it's
happening. And I've already told a bunch of people,
hey, you need to see this. They did announce
that it's going to be... available for streaming
on PBS starting in February. So if our listeners
are interested in seeing it, but they've already
missed the showing in their area, or if they
can't make it to the showings in their area,
we'll be streaming on PBS in the spring, sometime
in February, that'll be out. You can check out
their website. the librariansfilm .com to see
if there is a showing that's going to be in your
area in the near future. Definitely worth checking
it out. They've said they've already won a bunch
of awards. For the Q &A, the director was supposed
to be there, but unfortunately wasn't able to
make it because they had to go to Paris because
it's being shown at a film festival there. It's
doing well. that it continues to spread the message
because it's important, for sure. And it was
I know like you and I loved it, obviously, for
a lot of reasons that we've already said. And
of course, we're going to be like naturally want
to watch a movie like that because it's about
our profession. But in my very biased opinion,
I think it was objectively a good movie. Like,
even if you're not a librarian, I still think
that pretty much anyone would just like genuinely
enjoy watching this movie. Like I think it was
genuinely good, even though I do have obviously
a big stake in it and it is going to make me
in particular more emotional. I think it was
just it was like you said, it was like it was
genuinely funny at parts and it was genuinely
like sad. Like it showed you the wide impact
that these are all happening. that it's having
all over the country. It was just an objectively
good movie in addition to being my job. It was
genuinely good, even if you're not a librarian.
So I do recommend it for everyone. Absolutely,
so definitely. take a look we'll have the link
to the film's website in the resources for this
episode also so that you can go and check out
if maybe hopefully you'll be able to see it at
one of the local showings if not check it out
on pbs this spring yeah it's really good highly
recommend yes all right so the other book that
we're going to talk about today for thanksgiving
i cheated a little bit It's not really a Thanksgiving
book, but it is about saying thank you. And it
does have a feast at the end. And I do actually
like to read this book a lot around Thanksgiving
because it is about being thankful, connecting
with your community and coming together with
a group of people to have a feast and just generally
be grateful for the things you have in your life.
So the other book that we're going to talk about
is Thank You Amu. It's published by Little Brown
and Company in 2018, and the author and illustrator
is Oge Mora. This book won quite a few awards.
It got the Anna Doudney Read Together Award,
Charlotte Zolotow Award. It's a junior library
guild selection. It got the Caldecott Honor,
Coretta Scott King New Talent Award, Ezra Jack
Keats Award, CCBC Choice. It's an ALSC Notable
Children's Book, Publisher Weekly Best Book,
and School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
Selection. It was on a few state lists as well.
It got the California CDE recommended for 2022,
Illinois Monarch Award in 2021, Indiana Read
Aloud Award for 2020, Kentucky Blue. Bluegrass
Award for 2020, Nebraska Golden Sour Award 2020,
New Mexico Land of Enchantment Roadrunner of
Reading List in 2020. So after that long list
for our author history, we've got Oge Mora is
a collage artist and storyteller. Her books have
won numerous awards that we just listed, and
she is a 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Lister. She
grew up in Columbus, Ohio and currently lives
in Providence, Rhode Island. She loves all things
colorful, patterned or collaged and enjoys creating
warm stories that celebrate people coming together.
And some of the other books that she has illustrated
include The Oldest Student by Rita Hubbard. I'm
from by Gary Gray. Everybody in the Red Brick
Building by Anne Winter and more or less by Alison
Hughes. And then she also wrote and illustrated
Saturday. And in this book, it's about this little
old lady named Amu and she's at home one day
and decides to make a big pot of thick red stew
for her nice evening meal. And while she's at
home waiting for her dinner to finish cooking.
The smell of her stew wafts out into the hallway
of her building and a little boy comes over to
ask what the delicious smell is. When he learns
it's the thick red stew, he asks to have a bowl.
So Amu naturally shares it. And then he goes
on his way. And then throughout the day, that
smell of that stew continues wafting throughout
the city. So various members of the community
continue stopping by. And every time they come,
Amu continues to share all of her stew with them.
And then by the end of the day... when it is
time for her to have her nice evening meal she
has nothing left for herself and she's alone
and sad and she limits the loss of her delicious
stew until she hears a knock at the door and
when she opens it she finds everyone from the
community has come together to bring her um some
kind of food and they all share a feast together
and the little boy from the very beginning writes
her a thank you note that says thank you Amu
on it. And like I said, like I know it's not
a traditional Thanksgiving book and there are
a lot of really great traditional Thanksgiving
books, but I really like this one because I do
love the collage illustrations in it. It's a
very unique, it's a nice way to kind of. talk
about that art form because there's not a ton
of books that are made like that. And you can
really, like, when you look at the illustrations,
like, you can very much tell it's collage, like,
okay, Maura has a lovely way of like, I don't
know if she just uses scraps or what, but like,
the patterns are really, really interesting.
And the different pieces of collage that she
uses, you can very much tell that it's all cut
up and put back together in that collage style.
So I really like looking at those illustrations.
It's very, very unique. Love that about them.
And then this one in particular, like she uses
a lot of really, really great vocabulary words.
It's like it's repetitive enough that the kids
can kind of figure out what all those bonus vocabulary
words are. Like, I don't remember the exact phrasing,
but it's like, Like every time somebody will
come up to her building, like they say almost
the same sentence, but they just change like
one word. So it'll be like the police officer
will come and say, what's that delicious smell?
And then the next person will say, what's that
decadent smell? And what's that delectable smell?
And they keep using like these, the same kind
of phrasing. So the kids can figure out that
they're still kind of using the same they can
kind of figure out what those bonus vocabulary
words are. And it's just like a whole lot of
them. So it's like it's simple enough for the
kids to understand. It's all about sharing and
coming together. And, you know, they all I love
that they all pay back more or less at the end.
And and I love that little boy writes a thank
you note. That's actually the. The lesson extension
that I usually do at the end is having kids write
their own. Thank you notes I just love this book.
I love it a lot. It has a really great novel
effect That novel effect app has a really great
soundscape that goes with it And this is one
that kids will after I read this one They'll
usually ask for it like a few weeks later because
they just love it so much It's not particularly
funny or anything, but I don't know something
about it like really hooks the kids in and brings
them together. And it has an explanation for
why Amu is named Amu. It's, I don't remember
which language it is. It's from an African language
and it means queen. So that's really cool too.
I don't know, I just love it. For me, it's one
of my favorite books that I read all year long.
It's a great one, even though it's not Thanksgiving
and I'm a cheater, but that's okay. No, I I do
love this book also it's amazing and I think
it fits for being thankful and you know that
sharing of community and of Food is that's the
idea behind Thanksgiving. So absolutely I think
While it might not be a Thanksgiving book, I
think it hits on all of those topics, absolutely.
I love the artwork in this. I was mesmerized.
Every time I look at this book, the artwork is
always captivating to me. I know the students
love it as well. And yeah, it's just a very sweet
and... and loving story. You're right. It's not
like super silly or funny, but it's got a lot
of heart to it for sure. And I think the kids
can recognize that and that's why they really
enjoy the story a lot. Yeah, absolutely. I love
this book, a five out of five for sure. Yeah,
it's a great one. And then I do usually at the
end of it, I usually encourage the kids to write
a thank you note or draw a thank you picture
and like think of somebody in their lives that
they're just thankful for and they're that they
really want to say thank you to and we talked
about you know how Amu felt like you know so
grateful that everybody came back to her at the
end and gave her that thank you note gave her
you know shared their feast with her so just
I just encourage those kids to write their own
thank you note and say thank you to the people
in their lives. And if they can't write enough
letters or know how to write those words just
yet, I can either have them dictate it to me
or just have them draw a picture and give it
to somebody that they love. So. Absolutely. I
love that too, because I agree that. making sure
that the kids know that it's important to say
that thank you, you know, like a lot of stuff
is done for us. And, you know, those two simple
words can have a great impact for sure. And so,
yeah, just saying thank you, making, like writing
a little card, drawing a little picture can have
a big impact on the people that we care about.
And so I love that idea. And it's a good extension
for Thanksgiving in general because I know that
there is a component of being grateful for everything
in our lives on Thanksgiving, but I think the
holidays kind of sweep it up sometimes, and we
get busy, and we forget about it. So this is
a good time to kind of connect with that and
share that with our kiddos. Absolutely. Yeah,
and this is a great book to do that with, and
I love that activity. Perfect. Yeah. Well, thank
you. Thank all of you for joining us today on
this episode of Librarians of Littles. We hope
you found some fresh ideas for inspiring our
young readers and 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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