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 some tips and tricks for working with our
students in the library setting. This week we
have some of our favorite books to read that
we're going to discuss. We've got some really
fun books that are just a fun thing to read at
maybe any time in the year or maybe at specific
times, but they're just classic books that we
really enjoy sharing with students. The first
of which is Please Mr. Panda, published by Scholastic
in 2016, written and illustrated by Steve Antony.
This book has ended up on a couple lists. It's
gotten a couple awards. The first being the Children's
Favorite Award of 2016. It was on the Colorado
Children's Book Award for 2018, New York's Three
Apple Young Readers Book Award for the 24 -25
year, and the Ohio Buckeyes Children's Book Award
for 2016. and a little bit about our author illustrator
Steve Antony. Steve lives in Swindon with his
husband and two rescue cats, but grew up in New
Mexico, and he often talks at schools about his
experiences of living in the desert and regularly
visiting his public libraries for inspiration.
After taking redundancy from Swindon Call Center
in 2010, Steve pursued his long -held dream of
becoming an author and illustrator. He is red
-green colorblind and has campaigned alongside
colorblind awareness to raise awareness of the
condition in schools. In 2022, his 2022 colorblind
activity for schools was featured on BBC News.
which is pretty cool. Some of his other books
are The Queen's Hat, The Queen's Handbag, Unplugged,
Amazing, Betty Goes Bananas, Thank You Mr. Panda,
Good Night Mr. Panda, All Wait Mr. Panda, We
Love You Mr. Panda, Wash Your Hands Mr. Panda,
and Rainbow Asaurus. And so our summary for this
book, please, Mr. Panda, is that Mr. Panda is
looking to share his donuts. He runs into many
other animals, but those animals seem to be rude,
impatient, or just greedy. In the end, Mr. Panda
is able to find one animal that asks the correct
way for those donuts and shows that he has good
manners and is able to be polite. I love this
book. I love everything about it. The illustrations
of the animals are awesome. All of the animals
are different variations of black and white.
So there's like a skunk, an ostrich, a whale,
like all these different animals that are all
just black and white. And the donuts are like
the most colorful thing within the story, the
box of donuts that Mr. Panda has. And I love
the repetition that goes into the story as well.
Mr. Panda continues to ask, would you like a
donut? And then the animals answer in different
ways, showing they're impolite, rude, or just
playing greedy characters. And Mr. Panda responds
every time with, never mind, I'll find someone
else basically. And so like that, that repetition
for the students is always good. They know what's
coming next. It's a great story. It's a lot of
fun. And I love that in the end, Mr. Panda, not
only is he happy to find someone that can ask
the right way and show those good manners and
be polite, but he doesn't even like donuts. So
he's just trying to find someone to take those
donuts. He's happy to give them away to that.
I think it's a lemur that... is able to ask the
right way for those donuts. And so it's a great
conversation starter about using good manners.
I tend to use this book near the beginning of
the year when the students are in the library
and we talk about manners and talk about being
able to ask for things the correct way, being
able to use those good manners when we're talking
with our friends. It helps out a lot, like if
I read this book and then when we talk about
being at the makerspace tables and sharing and
being able to ask each other, can I please have
this and that kind of thing when they're trying
to share together. It's a nice conversation starter
that way. I just love this book. It becomes one
of those things that like, I get asked a lot,
like, where are the Mr. Panda books? What other
Mr. Panda books haven't I read that I can read?
My students really enjoy these stories because
they're not, they're not super There's usually
one or two sentences on a two page spread. It's
not a lot or overwhelming for the kids and so
it's a great set of books for our beginning readers
and they really enjoy them. Yeah, I love these
books too. All the things you just said. I love
how it is kind of it's simplistic without really
talking down to the kids and it's very easy for
them to really see. why it's so important to
be polite. It's just a great story. And I love
knowing that Steve Antony is colorblind. I had
no idea before doing this. That is super cool.
And it kind of adds a little something for me
as a reader reading it. I love those black and
white illustrations with just a little spot of
color throughout. And the colors still look really
great together and everything, even though he
is colorblind. a really fabulous story. And you're
right, the kids absolutely love them. They're
just really, really excellent books. I think
it is a great one to use at the beginning of
the school year, because it does, with that minimal
text that's on there, it's really... It hooks
them in pretty quickly with those great illustrations,
but then like they can stay engaged like the
whole time and it's over pretty quickly. So then
especially at the beginning when their attention
span is a little bit shorter and we're really
working on building up our stamina. kind of an
easy win for them to like finish a whole book
and stay engaged the whole time and really understand
the message in the story and all the things.
It's a big win for everybody. It's a really great
one. Absolutely. And yeah, but I didn't realize
that he was colorblind, but now looking back
at all of his books, so many of his books have
minimal color and so that makes a lot of sense
but it's really it's it's impressive that he's
able to do so much while having to work with
that that I don't know I don't know if disability
it is a disability it's just yeah it's not I've
counted as a disability I think like the fact
that he's able to overcome it and show like so
much through his illustrations while using minimal
colors is just really cool. It's really great
for sure. So as a makerspace activity, I like
to have my students use the Legos and their challenge
is to build a delicious donut. They get to build
and decorate that donut using Legos. And so it's
really fun to see how creative the students can
become. to make a circle out of Legos because
that's not the easiest thing to be able to do
and so they come up with different ways where
they can make that circle or square -ish shape
and then to decorate it with different Lego pieces
to make it colorful and it's just a lot of fun
to see what the kids come up with. They get to
be pretty creative with it and it ties in with
the book. with all of the colorful, delicious
donuts that he gives away. It is. That's a really
great one. I've done something similar with that
book with just I just give him a piece of paper
with just the outline of the donut on it and
have him just decorate with crayons at the beginning
of the end because it's at the beginning of the
year. That's usually an OK. Like later in the
school year, I think you can just tell them to
draw a donut and you can you can just model,
you know, drawing. a big circle and then a smaller
circle inside so that they can have do the whole
thing on their own but at the beginning of the
school year if this is how you're using it that's
another way you could do it but i love having
them do it with legos like you said that's that
is harder to do um because those are obviously
not round so that is a pretty big challenge for
him i like it is and there are those conversations
where we say you know like because a lot of kids
it's especially at pre -k level, I can't do it.
And that's when we get to have those conversations
where it is possible. We have to try. It's not
the easiest thing. If it was really easy, it
wouldn't be a challenge. I wouldn't spend the
time asking you to do it. I want you to have
to use that brain of yours. And a lot of the
kids, when they realize that it's not supposed
to be easy, it's supposed to be something that
you have to... Like try and maybe not get the
first time they put in a lot more effort and
I find that after those Conversations early in
the year when I give them challenges that are
hard later in the year They're like they're supposed
to be like this and go from there. You know,
it's a good way to introduce that That struggle
that is beneficial to them, you know And so that
brings us to our Library of Littles management
tip for this week. And we were discussing the
importance of building that relationship with
your PTA or PTO. If your campus is fortunate
enough to have them, there are campuses that
don't get those and it makes it a little bit
more challenging. But if you are fortunate to
have a campus where there is a PTA available,
making those relationships is super important
as a librarian for so many reasons. Personally,
my campus, we have an excellent PTA that is always
willing to help out. And so my PTA this year,
I have a book fair coming up and I have a bunch
of PTA members that are going to be helping in
the book fair helping me run the registers because
I also have classes coming into the library all
day long so I'm supposed to be teaching classes
and running the book fair at the same time so
those PTA members are going to help me out. our
PTA was able to help pay for a part of our author
visit with Tammy Sauer on my campus. So they
took care of some of that so that the camp like
our campus budget spent part of it. The PTA paid
for the rest of it. So we were able to offer
that awesome opportunity for our students. And
we have like so many wonderful opportunities
with our PTA where we can get them to assist
in different ways. I know I work with the PTA
around Christmas and around the holidays. And
I use some of my scholastic dollars to purchase
some books that I can give to PTA because they
work with our counselor to set up like some of
the angel tree gifts and stuff like that. So
I work with them to spend some of my scholastic
dollars that I make from the book fair to get
some books to... to donate to those kids as part
of the angel tree and things like that. So like
we have a pretty close relationship and I'm very
fortunate that the PTA is always willing to help
support me and so I try anyway I can to support
them because that relationship really is a two
-way street that ends up benefiting everybody.
So it's if it's available it's so important to
be able to have that relationship. It's true
on my last campus. We did not have a PTA and
there was just a lot at my campus that I ended
up Organizing like all by myself with and I did
have a little bit of help from my teacher I shouldn't
say a little bit I did have help from my teachers
But my teachers are all are just as overwhelmed
as I am and just as overworked and we're all
exhausted and so asking them to do Extra I know
I know there's members of the team everybody
has things going on their lives And I know there's
members of the PPTA who have a lot going on too,
but it's just a different kind of relationship
because they're not Working at the school all
the live long day like we as teachers and librarians
are so like asking them For help is just a little
bit different than asking like my fellow teammates
and teachers that I work with, you know, so like
I feel like having that PTA, you can get a lot
more support and a lot different kinds of support
than you can from your other staff members. But
it's been like kind of everything about having
a PTA this year has been kind of incredible.
And I feel like the teachers around me just have
gotten grown accustomed to it and. kind of take
it for granted a little bit. I know they appreciate
them. I do. I can see that they do, but I also
can tell that they've had a PTA for a hot minute.
It's kind of incredible having that PTA. They
organized a fabulous trunk retreat at our campus
this week for our kids. I haven't, I'm still
working on building that relationship with the
current PTA just because I... am new to my campus
and have only been there a couple of months as
of right now. But they have already offered to
come and help with book fair and I'm really looking
forward to finding out what else we can do together
and I know next year I'm sure that will once
I really know the traditions and um what's kind
of expected at my campus and the culture a little
bit better i'm sure i'll be able to figure out
how else they can help me um and what i can do
for them as well um but it is kind of incredible
having them yeah yes um yeah it's just It's so
nice to have people that you know are there helping
to support you in the background and even It's
nice that they can just come in and do the thing
and then go back and do whatever they need to
do in their own lives They just have that opportunity
to come in and help out. It becomes really helpful
I know my campus is really utilizing our PTA
this year since we live in the state of Texas
and the Senate bills are passing where we have
to have books scanned and Lists made and all
that said I have we have PTA parents coming in
to the library frequently to get computers and
scanners so they can go into classrooms and help
those classroom teachers and so like I've been
working with our front office staff to organize
that and everything and it's that it's all those
PTA parents and even if they're not like board
members and stuff They're part of the PTA and
they want to come in and help and so that's the
power of the PTA is they can get those helping
hands and it's just Yeah, it becomes an amazing
workforce that can help you accomplish so many
things. It's awesome. It's worth it for sure.
Absolutely. Well, the next book that we're going
to talk about today is Mother Bruce. It was published
by Disney Hyperion in 2015 and the author and
illustrator is Ryan T. Higgins. This book has
won several awards. It's gotten the Anna Dudney
Read Together Award, the Teacher Favorites Award,
Ezra Jack Keats Award. It's a junior library
guild selection, and it got the E .B. White Read
Aloud Award. It's on a total of 30 state lists.
I will not read all of them to you, but a few
of them are the Texas 2x2 for 2016, California
Young Reader Medal for 2018, Iowa Goldfinch Award
2018, Illinois Monarch Award in 2018, and the
Minnesota Star of the North Picture Book Award
in 2017. And Ryan T. Higgins was greatly influenced
by Calvin and Hobbes comics as a child. Initially,
he wanted to become a comic writer. However,
after reading Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the
Bus, he became intrigued by early readers and
decided to try his hand at the genre. He currently
lives in Maine with his wife and three children.
And some of his other books. He has the entire
Mother Bruce book series, which is 19 books in
total. I'm now gonna have to go back and see
if I have all 19 of them in my library collection.
Yeah, I think I've only got like eight. Yeah,
I think I might be into double digits, but I
don't think I have all 19. I'm gonna have to
go back and make sure I get those. Yeah. The
Penelope Rex book series, which is four books
in total, including the We Don't Eat Our Classmates.
The Norman book series, which is two books including
Norman Didn't Do It, Yes He Did, and Norman and
the Smell of Adventure. And the summary for this
book is Bruce is a grumpy bear who only likes
one thing, eggs. His favorite thing in the world
is to go into the forest, collect his eggs, cook
them into fancy recipes he finds on the internet.
And one day he returns home from his foraging
to find four goose eggs, or with four goose eggs,
when the fire goes out in his stove. The goslings
hatch from the eggs as Bruce is attempting to
restart the fire, and the goslings mistakenly
believe that he is their mother. Desperate to
get rid of them, Bruce tries to return them to
Mother Goose, but she has already flown south
for the winter when he fails to rid himself of
them. Bruce half -heartedly attempts to raise
the geese on his own. Eventually, the geese grow
up, but they won't leave their beloved mother,
Bruce, so they all migrate south for the winter
together. I love this one. I like Brian T. Higgins
a lot. He's kind of great. I love that there's,
I didn't know there were a whole 19 books in
it, or maybe I did and I forgot. I don't know,
but it's a very popular, series. Usually when
I read this book, like, kids will start noticing
that I have more of them and they start going
pretty darn fast. I love that it's kind of a
I love his illustration style where he does have
the text on the page but then he's got those
word bubbles in there that like really if you
want to read the word bubbles you can and you
can add to it but you really don't have to and
the story carries itself if you just read the
text. So with your younger audiences usually
I find personally that it's better to just read
the text and then the word bubbles kind of add
oh some jokes here and there for the older kids
and the adults really. So I like that it's kind
of naturally leveled more or less I guess when
you're reading them. I love the illustrations.
They're somewhat realistic but not too much.
It's not too overwhelming and kind of calming
-ish colors and they're just they're so funny.
I love these books. They're just great. I love
them. a whole lot and the kids do too they really
gravitate toward them in a big way they're really
excellent books 100 % agree i love these books
so much they're so much fun i love that bruce
is just that cynical like a bear that just doesn't
want to deal with it. There are too many days
where I identify that same way. I can see that!
that sense of humor, where it's a great story,
but it's and it's the kids love it, but it's
also a great story for the adults, because there's
that kind of like adult attitude and humor that
goes into it as well. And yeah, my students,
I don't, it's hard to keep these books on the
shelves, because my students once I read the
first one, they want to read all the other books
that we have on the shelves. And so they're checked
out quite frequently, and which is awesome. And
yeah, I like all of Ryan T. Higgins books are
so amazing. I enjoy every one of them. And I
try to share as many of them with my students
as I can. So love all of them. Yeah, they're
so good. I love that he's like, so cranky, but
then he always ends up doing the right thing.
Like it can be, that's another good conversation
to have. Like it can be hard to do the right
thing, but you can do hard things. Come on now.
You can do it kids. Like it's just great. It's
wonderful. For this book, for the makerspace
activity, I like tying it in with families a
little bit because he does, Bruce does end up
kind of forming a very non -traditional family
with his little goslings over there. So I like,
for the makerspace activity, I like doing just
a... having the kids draw a picture of their
family and who's in their family. I think this
is a nice way to kind of talk about families
a little bit. And because it's all animals in
the book, I feel like you can still talk about
like non -traditional families. And a lot of
people get up, we're living in Texas, a lot of
people. are more conservative and don't really
want us to talk about families like at all in
general. And this is kind of a nice safe way
to talk about like, you know, what Bruce has
a very different kind of a family. They're not
even the same kind of animal, but they're still,
you know, he's still mother Bruce. And you can
kind of get away with talking about different
kinds of families in a way that really no one
can get upset at because it's just. children's
story about animals there. So yeah, that's the
way I like to do it in Makerspace. Anyway, is
have the kids talk about their families too.
Draw the picture. That's awesome. And then the
kids can see a little bit, get to learn a little
bit more about each other too, which is always
cool to be able to share some of that. It's a
little bit of a less judgmental way. I guess
not judgmental, safer way to share for the kids
to share about their own families. Just in case.
I don't know. I don't know. Here in Texas, there's
a lot of people that don't like us to talk about
families in any way. But, mm -hmm. So, anyway.
Well, thank you all for joining us on this episode
of Librarians of Littles. 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 Legere. 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.