Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Legere.
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
where we discuss books, makerspace activities,
and give tips and tricks for working with our
youngest readers in the library setting. Today
we have some more of our favorite books to share.
The first one being Llama Destroys the World.
This was published in 2019. And it was published
by Henry Holton Company. And it is written by
Jonathan Stutzman and illustrated by Heather
Fox. It has been on a couple state lists, including
Colorado's Children's Book Award for 2021, Indiana's
Young Hoosier Book Award for 2021 -2022, Nevada
Young Readers Award for 2022, Washington's Children's
Choice Picture Book for 2021, and then two from
Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Battle of the Books
2022 Elementary Division grades four through
six, and the Wisconsin Golden Archer Award for
2022. And so the author, Jonathan Stussman, is
a New York Times best -selling award -winning
author of books for kids. His books have been
translated in more than a dozen languages all
over the world, and he lives in a small town
in Pennsylvania with his wife and their French
bulldog Hugo. Some of his other books include
Bear is Bear, illustrated by Dan Santat, the
Tiny T -Rex series, which are illustrated by
Jay Fleck, The Mouse Who Carried a House on His
Back, Illustrated by Isabel Arsenault. Soon Your
Hands. Illustrated by Elizabeth Lilly. Santa
Baby. Illustrated by Heather Fox. Don't Feed
the Coos. Illustrated by Heather Fox. The Night
is for Darkness. Illustrated by Joseph Colfer.
Butts Are Everywhere. Illustrated by Heather
Fox. The Fitz and Cleo Series. Illustrated by
Heather Fox. And then the other two books in
this series, Llama unleashes the Alpacalypse
and Llama rocks the cradle of chaos, both illustrated
by Heather Fox. And the illustrator of this book
is Heather Fox, and she is an illustrator of
stories for children. She likes to explore the
use of color and shapes to create bright and
whimsical doodles. When she isn't creating, you
can probably find her enjoying a cup of coffee,
walking around town, or chasing down her dog,
Sir Hugo, who has stolen one of her socks. She
lives in Lititz. I think, Pennsylvania with her
husband and author, Jonathan Stutzman. Some of
her other books include DJ Funkyfoot, Butler
for Hire written by Tom Engelberger, Even Better
Than Sparkles, a story about best friends by
Linda Skier, Santa Baby written by Jonathan Stutzman,
Butts Are Everywhere written by Jonathan Stutzman,
Don't Feed the Coos, by Jonathan Stutzman and
all the other amazing books that we already listed
by Jonathan Stutzman. Yes. And I think it's kind
of cool that they're able to work together as
husband and wife like that and make books. That's
really cool. That is really cool. I love it.
Although like I fear like, I don't know that
they I'm sure they have a healthy relationship
and they're able to do that. But like I could
totally envision like so many issues coming up
with working on a book together with your spouse
like uh -huh I don't know I just hey apparently
they're good at it there they've made plenty
of them together so that's yeah cool but I and
they're great books too they are yeah yeah they
must be a good creative team yeah yeah it's it's
pretty cool that they're able to do that for
sure I don't think I would be that daring I don't
know. It's a lot of togetherness. Yeah. My wife
is actually, she's asked me before, she's like,
should I try and get a job at your school? And
I'm like, I don't. She's like, what do you mean?
I was like, that's a lot of togetherness. Like
we'd be at work together and at home together.
That's a lot of togetherness. So, I don't know.
It's not for everyone and that's okay. It's clearly
for them. So go team. Yes. They've been very
successful with it and I'm glad for them. So.
All right. So the summary for this book, when
Lama finds a pile of cakes and eats it all, he
starts a chain of events that lead to the destruction
of the world. He, it goes through, basically
the story goes through week and it starts by
explaining that on Friday the world will be destroyed
and then it starts with Monday when Lama finds
the cakes and eats them all on Tuesday it's time
for dancing and so because Lama will only dance
wearing his dancing pants he has to squeeze himself
into them because he's still full from the cakes
and when inevitably those pants rip It creates
a vibration into the universe, forming a black
hole that slowly, over the weeks, sucks up everything,
including llama. In the end, the entire universe
is just spilled back out on the other side of
the black hole, completely fine and exactly the
same as it was before. And the story ends with
llama finding a pile of pie. and looking longingly
at that. So it's a fun story. I really enjoy
it. I think that the illustrations are amazing.
I love the way Llama is depicted and the colors
that are included, the subtle jokes that are
happening throughout the illustrations with the
Llama trying to dance and like when they're researching
the the black hole and his friend the pig has
that sign that's for science and little things
like that make me smile. The kids love it because
we get to talk about the fact that the dancing
pants make his butt look groovy and so that's
always laugh inducing. It's just a really fun
story that it's just goofy and silly but it keeps
the kids' attention. It allows for them to Just
enjoy being silly. And in the end, there's no
negative repercussions. Like it all just, everything
just falls back into place like normal. And so
it's just a fun story that I think a lot of the
kids will enjoy. And the entire series is really
great. I think that I generally read this one
and then I let the other kids decide if they
want to check out the other books. But there,
after I read this book with my students, for
the rest of the year kids are asking where the
llama books are on the shelf so they can read
the rest of those stories. It's a lot of fun
and I really enjoy it. Yeah this one was really
good. I had it in my old library and all the
things you said like the kids really loved it.
I love all the bright colors in there. It's very
attention -grabbing. It's bright but it's not
the illustrations aren't too busy so it's not
too overwhelming. So if that's great too, so
even if a kid has limited language, they're still
really engaged with it. Even if they don't really
understand, you know, that a giant black hole
is sucking everything up into it and, you know,
destroying the universe, like they still get
into it because of those fabulous illustrations.
It's just, it's great. And the kids who do understand
it think it's hilarious. So it's, it's a wonderful
book. I didn't realize I don't have it in my
current library. So I Went and hurried up and
I put it on a list so I can get it as soon as
I can But it's it's a wonderful book. It really
is. It's so funny. It's entertaining for everybody.
It's just great Because there is some of like
that that adult humor like when the llama is
dancing he starts like with a jig and then a
tango and then he's like cha -cha is real smooth
and like Those little bits of humor that the
kids are going to be like, yeah, that makes sense.
But the adults are like, ah, I see what you did
there. And so it is. It's a lot of fun. And so
I would definitely give it a five out of five.
Absolutely get it. If you don't have it in your
library, get it for the library, for sure. Yeah.
And so for Makerspace activities, I was struggling
because I couldn't narrow it down to just one.
I thought of two things that I would do. I would
give the kids probably the choice. I love using
magnet tiles for a lot of things. And so I would
allow the kids to make cakes out of magnet tiles
because the story starts with Lama eating all
of the cakes. And even in those pictures, the
cakes are different shapes and sizes. There's
slices of cakes, there's full cakes, there's
cupcakes. And so allowing the kids to use the
magnet tiles to build the cakes that a llama
would eat would be kind of fun to see what they
came up with. And so giving them that free reign
to kind of take that and interpret it how they
choose so that they could come up with some cakes
would be fun. I also think that having the kids
use the Legos to make a llama and they can have
them make the llama from their favorite part
of the story. So they could be making the llama
when he's doing the science experiments or they
could make a llama that's wearing the dancing
pants or they could make the llama when he's
floating in the blackness of space or whatever.
Plenty of different options that go along with
that as well, but giving them some of that choice
to create and use different materials for different
things. So that would be what I would do. Let's
give them a couple different choices and let
them do that. Yeah, those are great activities.
Lots of creativity there. Love it. Yeah, sounds
good. For our library of littles management tip
today, we're going to be talking about parent
outreach. In my last library i was fortunate
enough to have one day i was mostly in the specials
rotation. But i did have one day a week that
i was able to use for like in any way i need
to for any kind of library programming and one
of the things i did was a partner with the parent
liaison at our campus. Again, I know not every
campus has one, but I was fortunate enough to
have one. And she and I worked together to invite
all of the parents of our future students into
the library. And I did a short little 30 minute
or so lesson. And what I did with that was I
just recycled whatever I was doing in my class
that week. So it wasn't really any extra work
for me. because my campus had all three, four
and five year olds. So really, if it was appropriate
for them, it was probably appropriate for somebody
who was about to begin school there because they
were all so close in age. But the we invited
the parents to come in with the children who
would be attending school there soon. And I absolutely
loved doing it because we were able to kind of
we did a short little mini lesson. It got the
kids kind of comfortable with school and made
it so that when they did start school, the following
year, they were already more comfortable with
it because they'd already been in the school.
They'd walked the halls, they'd seen the library
and they'd gotten to experience sitting for a
lesson with their parents in a comfortable setting
like that. So they were already like those kids
who did attend that they were way more comfortable
with school I don't recall any of them like having
a hard time Or having as hard a time as the other
kids like separating because they'd already Been
there before they knew they were in a safe place
and they were already at least somewhat comfortable
It wasn't completely brand new like it was for
everybody else and we also while the kids were
working on their kind of independent work part,
their makerspace activity. We would give the
parents tips on how to work with kids at home.
So we would, you know, let them know the benefits
of reading aloud to children and, you know, let
them know things that we as librarians already
know, you know, that the importance of reading,
reading consistently, it's okay to read the same
books over and over, even though it might drive
you crazy, the kids are still getting The same
wonderful benefits from it. That repeated story
tellings are actually you know a lot of time
more beneficial and it doesn't matter what you
read all that kind of great stuff like we were
able to let our parents know that so that they
could start working with their kids at home.
Kind of set them up for success a little early
on and it was it was absolutely fabulous right.
Right now I don't have time in my schedule because
I am in full specials rotation. I think I do
have a parent liaison on my campus, although
I have yet to meet her, so I need to seek her
out. But that is definitely something that I
would like to try implementing again soon. I
think even if I can get just like one, you know,
time a month, really. That's it doesn't take
a whole lot. I don't think to like start building
those connections and like educating the parents.
Like really, I think once a month is adequate.
Like even if I have to do it like after school
out, that's probably I don't think I'm going
to do it this year because this year I'm at a
brand new campus to me and I'm still learning
like all the things. But hopefully next year
or in the coming years, I'll be able to start
implementing something similar to that. I don't
know, because I loved it a lot. And I think the
parents and the kids did too. It was good for
everybody. Yeah, I can definitely see how that
would be super beneficial for other students
and the families for sure. It's just it comes
down to time for a lot of us. I know it is. I
think because I think you're right. I think that
that definitely helps. Some of those kids that
are coming in because then they've had some experience
coming into the library and sitting and listening
for a story and absolutely and then. Being able
to help with the education of the parents, to
help them to know it's okay to read, absolutely
wonderful. It just comes down to finding the
time. I would love to do it and I think you're
right. I think for my campus, since I'm still
in the rotation and I'm seeing kids all day long,
I think it would have to be an after school event.
But that might be worth doing like once a month
to have that, to be able to have some of those
conversations with those families and introduce
some of those concepts and to read with the kids
and start making those connections early can
be really beneficial for everybody involved.
That's part of why I, cause like I currently
give up two days a week. I give up my planning
period to see the pre -K kids. And it's for the
same reason, cause I want to start building those
connections and start building those routines
with those kids. So like if I can do that with
kids that are coming into pre -K even before
that, that can only Help, right? So I think you're
right. I think I need to work on that I think
that might be one of my goals for next year as
well to try and figure out a way to do that because
the benefits are so so massive and Definitely
worth it Yeah, it is you're right it is hard
to find time for all the things that we want
to do but Yeah, I think no more that I think
once a month I think is hopefully I'll be able
to find time to do it once a month. I don't know.
I do like this reasonable. Yeah doable. Yeah,
hopefully so. Well, the other book that we're
going to talk about today is the book that almost
rhymed. Not quite, but it almost did. It's published
by Dial Books for Young Readers in 2024, and
the author is Omar Abed and the illustrator is
Hatem Ali. And I very much hope I'm saying those
names correctly. This book is was Publish pretty
recently only last year and it's already won
several awards it is an ALSC notable children's
book it got the children's literature assembly
notable children's book in language arts award.
How was the big sentence there big award school
library journal best books of the year junior
library guild selection colorado children's book
award twenty twenty six district of columbia
three stars book award twenty twenty five. Iowa
Bridge to Reading Picture Book 2025 Kentucky
Blue Grass Award 2025 Maryland Black Eyed Susan
Book Award 2025 Michigan Myself in Books 2024
Minnesota Star of the North Picture Book Award
for 2026 Nebraska Golden Sour Award Oklahoma
Red Bud Read Aloud 2025 and Oregon Patricia Gallagher
Picture Book Award for 2025. And the author Omar
Abed, during his time studying computer engineering
in college, he discovered he had a passion for
spoken word poetry as a creative outlet, which
ultimately led him to writing picture books.
He initially self published so he could learn
more about the publishing process and the industry
in general. His next book is this one. The book
that almost rhymed and he was able to get it
traditionally published the following year he
and his sons and wife live in northern virginia.
The name of his self published book is you me
and a tree and he does have another book written
it's called debug this book and it does not have
a release date yet nor does it have like cover
art online or anything so i think it's. No, it's
gonna come out eventually. I have no idea when
but I Don't know if it's anything like this one.
It sounds like it'll be fun. Yeah, and since
he's a computer engineer like But it has a lot
to do with coding. It'll be looking forward to
it I'm gonna have to like remember that in a
year or two for now That sounds pretty cool for
sure. Yeah All right, and then the author we're
gonna go with Hatem Ali is an Egyptian -born
illustrator who has created many books for young
people that earned multiple starred reviews and
positions on the New York Times bestseller list.
He currently lives in New Brunswick, Canada with
his wife and son. Some of the other books that
he has illustrated include the Meet Yasmeen series
by Saadiya Farooqi. The Unicorn Rescue Society
series by Gidwitz with other contributing authors,
The Proudest Blue, The Kindest Red, and The Boldest
White by Etihaj Muhammad and S .K. Ali. Not So
Normal Norbert by James Patterson and Joey Green.
Egyptian Lullaby by Zeena Tliska. You Are a Star,
Jane Goodall by Dean Robbins and more. Yeah,
and he is Egyptian. So I'm fairly certain that
like a lot of his books are, he collaborates
with other writers, are they're diverse writers.
So I think that's, yeah, that's very cool. I
think both of them are actually, I think. I knew
I'd seen the name before and when I saw that
it was the Meet Yasmin series, I have so many
of those books in the library. I was like, that's
where I've seen the name before, for sure. Yeah.
Yeah, I know. He's done a lot. I just hadn't...
I still didn't recognize the name immediately
when I saw it, but then I started reading through
all the things. I was like, I got you. Got it
now. So yeah, he's done a lot of really great
work. So in this book, the book that almost rhymed,
a young boy attempts to write a rhyming story
when his little sister comes in to attempt to
help. His tale begins with a knight going on
a noble quest until his sister repeatedly interrupts
last minute and it takes the story in a completely
different direction. they begin going on their
noble quest and then eventually end up going
on their story takes them in all kinds of different
directions like an outer space they end up on
a pirate ship they're in the desert they end
up battling a fire breathing armadillo of course
the boy gets frustrated with all the constant
interruptions and he lists out all the interruptions
his sisters made And when he lists them all together,
he discovers, you know what, she actually is
rhyming. She's just not rhyming with my rhymes.
She's making her own rhymes. So once they figure
out that they are, in fact, both rhyming in their
own way, they're able to finish or rather begin
their story together. I really liked this one
a whole lot. It is a little frustrating. I think
the boy's frustration comes through a whole lot.
in the beginning when he's trying to create his
rhymes and you know he's like gonna go right
on it like you can tell like he's gonna go he's
on his quest and they're gonna go right on his
robles nobles you can tell it's supposed to be
steed and nope it's gonna be a rocket we're riding
on a rocket instead and he's like okay fine we'll
go on a rocket whatever and like he's trying
to be patient with her and actually he makes
it kind of a long way In the story before he
gets too frustrated and you know lists all the
things that are going wrong and. I just absolutely
love that you can like because you can kind of
tell where which words are supposed to rhyme
like when you're reading it with kids you can
definitely have the kids fill in. What word they
think is supposed to be there you could even
have them fill in you know what's. they think
should be in their other words that rhyme with
that as well. I love the creativity of it with
them going in all the different directions and
then when they do finally end up rhyming together
like that's so great too like it's just it's
it's a wonderful book. I loved it so much I think
this one's a five out of five for me it was really
cute very unique. Yeah I can't think of another
of another story quite like this one. Enjoyed
it a lot and I think with our youngest readers
they may not I think it would work with the Most
pre -k classes, especially toward the end of
the year. You would have to have some good Foundational
understanding of rhyming to like really get it
and that can be kind of a hard concept For some
of our younger kids. So that's gonna have to
be something that you would have to introduce
first I would not read this toward the beginning
of the year, definitely toward the end after
we have a good foundational understanding of
some of those phonological awareness skills.
But even if the kids don't really understand
rhyming just yet, I think there's so many twists
and turns with the boy's little sister telling
the story with her brother. I think they would
still really enjoy it and I loved that with the
illustrations it was still. There was still a
lot of detail on the page but it wasn't too overwhelming
but the illustrator. To kind of capitalize on
the fact that they're the kids are making up
the story as they go like it kind of has some
illustrations in the style of like Harold and
the purple crayon with. Like child -drawn illustrations
on top of the pictures if that makes sense So
you can tell that the kids are making up the
story because of the way that is that just kind
of kind of helps solidify that for the reader
So I think that also helps kind of grab their
attention and keep the kids focused It was just
a great book. I liked it a lot and I think it's
even better the second time you read it when
you're like As an adult, especially, I don't
know how much the kids, I think the kids would
still enjoy a second reading. But for me as an
adult, like going back through and knowing that
the little girl is in fact rhyming, like I was
like putting together the rhymes in my head for
like both him and her simultaneously. And that
was fun for me. As an adult, I think that would
be a fun one to retell because kids do benefit
a lot from, you know, telling. reading books
together more than once. So for me as an adult,
this one was a fun one to read through twice
and to kind of get those little details that
I missed the first time. It was just a fun book.
I enjoyed it a lot. Totally agree. I love this
book. I'm looking forward to sharing it with
my students. And like I was telling you, I think
even my older students will really enjoy it because
it's just a fun story. I was getting frustrated
with the boy at the beginning of the story, too,
with the rhymes not being completed. But it is
a sweet story. It's really great. I love that
everything for the boy story is in one color
of text on the page. And when his sister jumps
in, the text color changes so that you can see
the difference between theirs. And yeah, I love
that it's like the crayon markings over themselves
and over the pictures to make the story fit for
what is happening. And it's just a really cool
illustration style paired with a really great
story. So absolutely agree with you, five out
of five. I can't wait to read this with my students
and see their reactions too. I think for an activity
with this if I was in the classroom as a teacher
and I had more time I would probably read this
book like two days in a row and then the second
day I would do like a whole group activity where
I had kind of like the boy had in the story where
I would have like my four lines of text but then
have a blank space at the very end for a rhyming
word that the kids get to come up with and I
would like have you know at least five or six
of those lines like written out and I would do
like a whole group of shared writing I feel like
this book is too good of an opportunity for that
to not take advantage of some kind of a shared
writing situation with pre -k I think they would
really enjoy it they would you know they would
like to have their I think they would love to
have their work, you know, shown like that at
the front of the class. And then the kids can,
you know, independently if they choose to, they
could draw a little bit on there and kind of
do their own illustrations with it if they wanted
to. But I know most of us don't have time for
that in the library. I do think that would take
a couple of readings. before doing that just
to make sure that the kids like really understand
we're filling in these blanks like we saw in
this book and like to make those connections.
I think with pre -k especially that would take
a couple of days so I'm not sure I would do that
in the library but in the classroom I think that
would be a whole lot of fun. I mean I would just
love to take advantage of that. In the library
I think I would have the kids, I think I'm going
to actually probably in like February I'll read
this book. when they have worked on rhyming a
little bit more. But then I'll have them just
get a blank sheet of paper and make their own
story more or less and they can draw their own
picture and kind of come up with their own story
of any kind and then dictate it to me and then
I'll write out whatever it is that their story
is and we can kind of work on that together.
The kids that I've had in the past usually really
enjoy. um being creative like that and writing
their own stories even though they can't quite
write their right words and sentences independently
yet they can you know come up with their own
story and tell their own story it's just just
a matter of writing it down with them so yeah
i'm looking forward to doing that yeah it'll
be a lot of fun absolutely that does sound like
a lot of fun and I know that would allow a lot
of those kids to show their creativity, which
would be really interesting to see. Mm hmm. Yeah,
this is just such a good book for being creative
in general. I'm looking forward to the next book
that this guy comes out with. Yeah, that that
one sounds fun too. So yeah, we'll have to keep
our eyes out for that. We sure will. 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. Happy
reading! Thank you for listening to this episode
of Librarians of Littles. We hope that you've
enjoyed it. Check back each Wednesday for a new
episode. Librarians of Littles is a podcast produced
and hosted by Patrick Adams and Caroline Legier.
Editor, Patrick Adams. Our theme song is performed
by JD Adams. You can follow us on Instagram at
Librarians of Littles. You can follow us on BlueSky
at littleslibrarian .bsky .social. And you can
send us your emails at librarianoflittlespodatgmail
.com.