So, I don't know how helpful it was for you to
come to my campus, because, I don't know, I didn't
feel like I did a whole lot, but did you find
it useful to be there for the whole day like
that? Um, yeah, I think so. Just seeing, it's
pretty, it is pretty similar to what I normally
do. So if nothing else, it was kind of validating
that I'm not doing the worst job ever, you know?
Okay. And it was just, you know, like having,
like being able to see the way your library is
set up because it is different from mine. So
I know I saw it at the beginning of the year
before I had started. But I was so inundated
with new information right then and there was
so much going on that I didn't really I saw it
and I understood it but I didn't really like
think about how I wasn't ready to process how
it could like really Impact me and like process
what would happen if I? Tried to do something
new because I didn't know what I had and how
it would work for me right now I Just wasn't
ready for any of that. So it was good to see
it again Just the setup on its own, you know
like yeah, so I think I do want to Fix the Dewey
maybe not fix I'm ready to ditch the Dewey the
kids don't get it Honestly gives me a headache
shelving with Dewey like With all the I don't
know. I just hate it It's kind of it's I guess
it's not the worst. It's Could be a worse system.
It's something But I don't know. It was good
to see it in action and like how the kids use
it and everything. So yeah, it was good. Good.
Yeah. Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline
Legere. And this is Librarians of Littles, a
podcast where we discuss books, share makerspace
ideas, and give tips and tricks for working with
our youngest readers in the library setting.
Today, we have two books that fit the theme of
rhyming or poetry as April is National Poetry
Month. And so the first of those books is called
Bros. It is written by Carol Boston Weatherford,
illustrated by Reggie Brown, published by Candlewick
Press in 2024. This book is on one state list.
Actually, yeah, the one state list is the, am
I self in? Books 2024 or the myself in books
2024, which is the Michigan state list and it
was also a junior Library Guild selection for
2024. The author Carol Boston Weatherford is
the daughter of a printer and was practically
born with ink in her blood. She began writing
at the age of six and soon after saw her poems
in print. Her 80 plus books have garnered two
NAACP Image Awards and 18 American Library Association
Youth Media Awards, including a Newbery Honor,
Coretta Scott King Award, and four Caldecott
Honors. Her career achievements have been recognized
with the North Carolina Award for Literature.
the non -fiction award from the Children's Book
Guild, and induction into the North Carolina
Literary Hall of Fame. She is a retired English
professor and lives in Maryland. And so she's
got a ton, a ton of books. in her bio it said
80 plus i found at least 67 of them we're not
going to read all of them a few of them include
unspeakable the tulsa race massacre which was
illustrated by floyd cooper voice of freedom
fannie lou hamer the spirit of the civil rights
movement illustrated by equa holmes and i hope
i'm pronouncing that correctly Freedom in Congo
Square, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie. Schomburg,
The Man Who Built a Library, illustrated by Eric
Velazquez. Box. Henry Brown Mails Himself to
Freedom, illustrated by Michelle Wood. How Do
You Spell Unfair? Magnolia Cox and the National
Spelling Bee, illustrated by Frank Morrison.
R -E -S -P -E -C -T. Aretha Franklin the queen
of soul illustrated by Frank Morrison and as
we said many many more Yeah, she's got a lot
going on. That's pretty impressive. Yes Love
it. Yeah, and like so many of her books are about
like black inspiring black individuals and their
their challenges and so it's you get an amazing
story you get a history lesson it's just yeah
it's amazing yeah that's great well the illustrator
of this book is reggie brown and he is a proud
black and filipino children's book author and
illustrator who loves bringing stories about
black children and families to life one picture
book at a time his illustrations act like a paintbrush
adding splashes of color, warmth, vibrancy, and
authenticity to every page. When he is not in
his studio creating, you'll find him lost in
worlds of fantasy, superheroes, and science fiction,
dreaming up new ideas in case he ever gets to
illustrate a lightsaber -wielding alien. He has
had the privilege of collaborating with wonderful
publishers such as Random House, Harper Collins,
and Candlewick. books, and he is honored to be
a New York Times best -selling illustrator for
the book, Who Are Your People? His work also
appears in the chapter book series, The Magnificent
Makers, Sant in the City, and Taco Fall to New
Heights. In 2022, he was thrilled that Hey You,
written by Dapo Adiello, won the children's book
illustrated book award at the British Book Awards
and in 2023 he was grateful to receive the established
artist award from the California Arts Council.
Most importantly he shares his life with his
beautiful wife Demi who tolerates his quirks
and helps him grow every day. Yes and he's got
a bunch of books as well including As we said,
the Magnificent Makers series, which are all
written by Theann Griffith. Little Big Man by
Varian Johnson. Santa in the City by Tiffany
D. Jackson. Who Are You People by Bakari Sellers.
Taco Fall to New Heights by Taco Fall and Justin
Haynes. Melodies of the Weary Blues by Langston
Hughes, Frank Morrison, and Brianna Mukodori.
Yuchendu and Kicks by Van G. Garrett, See Marcus
Grow by Marcus Bridgewater, and The Snowman Code
by Simon Stevenson. And so now we get to the
summary of the book. This is a super cute, super
simple book. It is the story of a group of five
friends that go through their day playing, imagining,
reading, and just being best friends. They're
best bros. And so it is a rhyming book. So it
has the friends doing things in a rhyming sequence.
It is, I would say it's a great story for young
readers that are learning. about rhyming because
it makes the story a little bit more predictable
because it is just it's simple simple sentences
like two word sentences and so on any given two
page spread it's about four words on most of
them at most so a lot of picture little text
but a cute story that shows camaraderie and friendship
and just the the fun of being young children
And so I think that this is a great story that
allows for the students to be able to to see
themselves in this kind of a story because they're
young children that just want to play and have
fun. The rhyming builds that predictability to
the story so that as they're looking at the pictures
they can make some guesses as to what the words
are saying even if they can't read them. And
so it's just a it's a sweet, simple story that's
very, very lovable. The colorful illustrations
are amazing and will definitely keep any reader's
attention. So strongly suggest this one. I loved
it. It was very cute. So I'd say, yeah, it's
like a 4 .5 out of 5 bookmarks because it's really
good. I enjoyed it a lot. It was really good.
I love that there's only like four -ish words
per page. I think that's really excellent for
our youngest learners who are really learning
about phonemic awareness and how like you know
just changing one sound in a word can like does
change the entire word and the meaning of it
and because those vibrant illustrations are you
know taking center taking center stage there,
like it really helps the kids think about what
the word is. They can see what that word means
when they're like looking at the picture. And
that's really, really great for just developing
that phonemic awareness in general. I loved it.
It was a really great book. Yes. It's nice, simple,
but simple doesn't mean easy and simple isn't
it's like not talking down to the kids or anything
like that. It was great. It was a good one. Yes.
yeah choice yeah because i mean yeah it like
simple sometimes simple is really good you know
you don't have to you don't have to have all
the bells and whistles for it to be a good thing
and this has actually more than it appears from
the outside because there's a lot going on in
that story but it's it's very accessible to our
young readers so that's very good yeah it was
great And so as a makerspace activity for this,
I think it would just be fun to have the kids
think about what they like to do with their friends
and have them build that out of Legos. Let them
show you something that they like to do with
their friends. What are things that they enjoy?
And so a lot of times you'll get a lot of really
fun differences in what the kids enjoy doing
when they're not at school. Like let them build
something out of Legos to show what they like
to do. Not only will that be a fun thing for
the kids to do, but it'll be a fun way for you
to get to learn a little bit more about the students
in the library. Because, you know, some kids,
you might not know that they're really into playing
with toy dinosaurs until they build one out of
Legos or something like that, you know? Or maybe
there's that one kid that's really into basketball.
And we don't always get to see all that in the
library, so... letting them show you what they
enjoy doing with their friends outside of the
library would be pretty cool yeah and it's good
for them too to have something a little more
broad like that that's just like anything that
you like doing because sometimes they get reliant
on the prompts and don't really know what to
do when they're allowed to do whatever they want
because they're always like told what to do they
don't get a chance to really um choose for themselves
too often like even in their regular play they're
on screens all the time so they're not even really
getting to choose then not really they're just
doing whatever the screen says to do you know
yeah and even when they're not even when they're
not on a screen like a lot of these kids their
day is so regimented for them. Like you get home
from school, you've got this much time, but then
we're going to basketball practice and then we
got gymnastics and we get like, their days are
so full and so regimented and they're told what
to do so often that giving them some free choice
can be, can be fun. Yeah. And very enlightening.
So it's good for him. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Which
brings us to our library of littles. maker space
spotlight for this week. And I was trying to
think of some other things that I love to use
in the library that gets a lot of kids excited.
And connects is something that my students when
I pull the connects out, they really enjoy it.
So for those not familiar connects is a building
system. that consists of interlocking plastic
rods, connectors, blocks, gears, wheels, and
other components, which can be assembled to form
a wide variety of models, machines, and architectural
structures. While Kinects is designed for children
between the ages of five and 12, a bigger version
of KidKinects is aimed at children that are five
and younger. And so I have in my library the
Kid Connects and some of the regular Connects
versions. What I didn't realize is that the Connects
was created by a guy named Joel Glickman and
was first introduced in America in 1992. Since
then, they have been purchased in 2018 by Basic
Fun, which is a Florida based company. And so
Basic Fun actually has like a whole bunch of
stuff on their website. including like videos
of like how to become an expert connects user.
They have like downloads for instructions and
for to build different things. So it's pretty
cool that they've got a bunch of that stuff available
for educators, like, and anyone else that's interested,
you can download instructions on how to build
different sets. And connects in general are reasonably
priced, especially if you start with like the
the kid friendly ones the kid connects the sets
start at like 20 to 25 dollars depending on how
many pieces are in the set and they go up from
there so you can definitely spend a lot of money
on these but there uh there's a reasonable like
entry price of between 25 and 30 dollars for
a set of i don't 25 pieces and then you can kind
of build from there and go from there and let
the kids build using the instruction cards that
come with them or they can start building their
own things. It allows for a lot of creativity.
I love to give my kids really broad topics when
I put the connects out. So they have some wiggle
room in how they build and what they build out
of the connects. I will say that when you get
to the bigger, like the original connect sets
that include the gears and the the motors and
that kind of stuff there's definitely a lot more
pre -teaching that needs to go into it so that
they can achieve their goals but when you start
with the kid connects like the kids figured out
pretty quick on their own they might ask for
a little assistance popping pieces in to interlock
at first just to kind of see how it works but
most of it they figure it out pretty quick on
their own how they can get the pieces connected
and make them do what they want to do it's a
lot of fun to see the kids just kind of go at
these and and be creative it's a pretty cool
tool and like i said for the cost it's really
something that is reasonable to have in any library
makerspace i did not know there were kid connects
yes Hmm. I'm going to have to look into that.
Yeah. I have connects in my library. Now I'm
wondering what I've got. Yeah. They're just like,
they've already been unboxed and everything.
So I don't really know for sure, but I bet I
have the regular ones. Probably the kid connects
are bigger. So like they're like, think like
Duplo, like the mega blocks compared to Legos.
Like it's that. So like, because the kids, the
fine motor skills are going to be a little bit.
less restrained. So yeah, the kid connects pieces
are bigger. They pop into place a little bit
easier. But yeah, it's a good starting point
for the kids because then you don't have to worry
about that part as much when you start to introduce
the regular connects to the kids because they
already get how those parts work. They're just
a little bit smaller. Then you can focus more
on the gears and the motors and that kind of
stuff when you introduce the bigger. the bigger
kid version. That's really cool. I'm going to
have to look into that. Also, I do love connects
and I have them in my library and I have a fourth
grade kid who come. No, he's third grade. Just
kidding. A third grade kid. He comes every Friday
and we don't always have school on Fridays because
holidays and stuff. But. for the last like two
months maybe that he's been coming he's been
building a robot with connects and it's gotten
his name is bob and bob lives on a shelf in the
library and he's like gotten really intricate
with it it's very cool like he wants to like
when he grows up he's like i'm going to build
this into this is my prototype i need pictures
of this so that i can build it when i'm a grown
up and like he like has like a mechanism where
like Bob's fingers can move and it's kind of
amazing. That's cool. Okay so now here's what
we need you to take some. I'll send you some
pictures of Bob. Yes we need you to send some
pictures so we can post Bob on our social media
and stuff because that's awesome. I mean it's
out of connect so it doesn't really look like
a a robot unless like he points like once he
points it out to you you're like oh my gosh i
can really tell that that's bob's you know that's
his head that's how his eyes move his eyes are
magnets that's how his eyes moves um but like
in his but his fingers do like work like fingers
they're cool that's awesome i love that and he's
different Yeah, he's definitely weird sight like
his head is definitely not the same size as like
it's not proportional at all because connects
but Right. It's still pretty cool from a third
grader. It's taken months and I'm surprised and
nobody else has destroyed it like when they come
in Anyway, yeah, I can next I love that you can
build robots apparently with when you're in third
grade Absolutely. That's honestly whether the
robot works or not, I'm like, the dedication
is wonderful. That's so cool. To see the kid
has found something that he's really passionate
about and just wants to work on is really amazing.
I love that. It kind of is. It's cool. Anyway,
that's the story of Bob. Very cool. Now I will
tell you the story of Pig the Pug. Yeah. All
right. So the other book that we're going to
talk about today, with rhyming is Pig the Pug
because I love it and I know most of us have
probably heard about Pig the Pug because it's
a pretty big one but I'm going for it anyway
because it's great. So Pig the Pug was published
in 2014 by Scholastic Press. The author and illustrator
is Aaron Blaby This one, I was kind of surprised.
It doesn't have like a ton of awards or anything,
but it's got a few. I just thought I would have
expected more from this book. Yeah. How popular
it is. But it got the Children's Book Council
of Australia Book of the Year for 2015, the Colorado
Children's Book Award for 2019, and the New York
three apples young readers book award for 2024
i don't know why it's for 2024 but there you
go i don't know that's pretty awesome yes it
was published like 10 years before that and i
like double checked the date like three times
because i was like what i don't know aaron blaby
is australian All of his books were published
there first. So I don't know if that maybe is
why since he's not American Why he did there
was a delay with getting him some American awards?
Yeah, that's my only guess I didn't realize he
was Australian Yeah, he's Australian for sure
But yeah, he's got a lot of books and everything,
but I think it took him a minute to get popular
in the US because of that. But he is a critically
acclaimed Australian author and illustrator and
two of his more popular book series, which are
The Bad Guys and Thelma the Uniquel. Actually,
Bad Guys has already been adapted into movies.
I think two of them, right? Are there two Bad
Guys movies now? I believe so. I think so, yes.
Yeah, because my kids... are all about like my
students are all about the bad guys and when
the first one came out they were excited but
i think yeah i think we're up to two now i think
so and Thelma the unicorn is another well it
says series and i guess it's technically a series
but there's only two books in it um that one
is being adapted right now okay into a netflix
movie okay so i don't know when that one comes
out but it'll be on netflix soon Cool. Yeah,
when I saw that I was like wait, I didn't realize
that one. So it's not out yet. That makes sense
We have to look for it. Yeah. Yeah, I did figure
out when that one's coming out and Aaron Blaby
I think did help produce and make the bad guys
movies too. So that's good because that's always
sad when the writer loses all the Credit for
it when it becomes a movie. So I'm glad he's
Helping out with making those movies. I haven't
seen it but my kids love him yeah so he's done
the bad guys series which is consists of 15 books
all together right now are we are we sure it's
only 15 that's what his website said but then
his website also said something about like bad
guys 2 movie is coming out and i was like you
like that's been out I could be wrong, but I
feel like I have book 19 on my shelf in the library
right now. Cause it's like that series is so
popular. I might be off, but 15 doesn't sound
like enough. His website might also not have
been updated as recently as it should have been.
I don't know. I wonder if it wasn't. I think
you might be right. There was something else
that I saw that I was like, hold on buddy. That's
outdated. And I don't remember what it is now.
I think his website must be outdated. I was assuming
that would be the most up -to -date information.
Perhaps I was wrong. I don't know. Anyway, some
of his other books are the Pig the Pug series.
That one is ten books and that one's complete.
So for sure that one's got ten. Thelma the Unicorn
has two books and then he does have like another
15 or so books that are just like stand -alones
three of the more popular ones of those are don't
call me bear i need a hug and piranhas don't
eat bananas because they don't which all of those
are amazing as well like he yeah my his picture
book section like his books in my picture book
section are checked out like consistently. Like
you saw it this week I got like eight or nine
of the Pig the Pug books. Like I got new copies
because mine were so worn out and they're all
checked out. They're all checked out already.
It's like we were I was there we opened them
and put them on the shelves Wednesday. We were
only there Wednesday and Thursday and they're
all checked out. Like that's how popular these
books are. Like yeah. Have no problem believing
that that was one of the first things I'm new
to my library this year and that was one of the
first things I did this year was Get more pig
the pug because same the ones that I had were
really worn down. I Used scholastic dollars and
I got replacements for all of them because I
needed it badly And my kids are much happier
now With this one the original pig the pug the
summary is pig is a pug who is completely selfish
he constantly hoards all of his toys and refuses
to share and he takes everything away from trevor
the sweet little dachshund that he lives with
one day pig gathers all of his toys that he can
find into a single pile in front of a window
and disaster strikes when he stands on top of
it to gloat and he falls back and he learns a
valuable lesson about sharing with his friend
Trevor. My kids love these books so much, like
we were saying. Like they're all so funny. It's
got a lovely little cadence to it because it
is a rhyming book. It's a great introduction
to rhyming. I do have to explain to kids the
first time I read a Pig the Pug book that a pug
is... kind of dog and like we have to talk about
breeds for a minute and what different kinds
of dogs look like and so a pug is you know this
kind of a dog and I do have to show them some
pictures of some real pugs because it is a little
bit confusing that just because pig is another
kind of animal they don't get confused with Trevor
that one's fine but with just with the name pig
they do get confused no matter their age Like,
yeah, even even the big kids like forget sometimes,
I don't know. So we do have to do that. But after
that, like they just love this book. I do, too,
really. It's just wonderful. Yeah, they think
it's hilarious. And like they do. Sometimes they
get a little look of shock when Pig falls back
out of the window and they're like, he's dead.
And they're like, no. He'll be OK. Look. And
when you keep going, they're like, all right,
that's a little intense, but OK. Yes. But they
really, really do love it. They're so engaging.
The illustrations are perfect. They add to all
the silliness. I love all the exaggerated features
that Aaron Blaby does with all of his characters.
They're not too overdone. The background isn't
overwhelming and taking center stage or anything.
So you can really focus on the pictures and what
you're meant to focus on. They're just great.
They're so funny. My kids love these books so
much. Yeah, I completely agree. I love these
books. The kids love them. Like I said, all of
mine are checked out. They're always well loved
and well worn in. Reading these as read alouds
because there's so much fun and it's fun to be
able to see the kids reactions as you're going
through and so yeah this I Yes, definitely wonderful
book Perfect. So, yep It is a perfect book. I
think so. They're great and for a makerspace
activity there are actually some really good
resources on the Scholastic website for Pig the
Pug. There's like a couple of like ready made
activities that all you have to do is hit print.
And I think that's what I would do with these
because it is about sharing. You could I like
to do it with rhyming. I like this particular
book with when I talk about rhyming in general,
because the cadence is so nice and it is so engaging.
but you can also do it at the beginning of the
year when you're talking about sharing in general
and It's just a really great Connection with
any kind of play really you could do just any
kind of play you wanted to with this one and
just Remind kids to share and then that's kind
of it for your microspace connection. You could
do that and go simple with it Or I mean, it's
still simple to go to the Scholastic site. There's
some great coloring pages if you just want to
do that. It's got a ready -made Pig the Pug mask
that is it says on there that you could do it
for Halloween but you could also instead of doing
it as a mask you could definitely make it into
a puppet and do a little Pig the Pug puppets
in your library so for retelling the story and
it's got some ready -made memory games that all
you would have to do is print it And that's really
it. Just turn them upside down and that's it.
Some really good stuff there. So yeah, either
a lesson about sharing and any kind of free play
where we share a lot or any of the fabulous resources
they've got for you on Scholastic. I didn't know
those were there. So I'll probably be doing that
in the next couple of weeks, actually. I always
forget that Scholastic does really have some
great resources available on their website. That's
a place where I, Don't go enough to look for
some of those things because they do have some
really fun and cool things that a lot of our
kids would enjoy doing Mm -hmm Yeah, me too.
I forget about there's just a lot of ready -made
stuff online if you have to sift sifting through
it is a trick, but Yes, that one is a good reliable
one though. So yeah, I get to remember them I
gotta remember the mask for next year because
I know like every year for the on halloween my
campus does the storybook character parade and
every year there's not a ton but there are always
some kids that don't come with a costume or anything
like that and remembering that the pig the pug
mask is there might be a good thing to be able
to be like hey teachers if one of your friends
Doesn't have a costume print this real quick.
That would be a Good thing to try and remember
for the next year. So they've got That as something
just in case That's a great idea because that
love that always happens, you know, so might
as well use something that's out there, you know,
yeah It does happen and then it's sad. That's
a great idea Yeah, probably do the same because
we do the same thing because at least that way
the kids don't feel like they're left out. It's
a cheap quick thing that we can just print it
and let them color it real quick and they're
good to go. A little bit of string and you're
fine. Well thank you all for joining us on this
episode of Librarians of Littles and we hope
you found some fresh ideas for inspiring our
youngest readers. Please be sure to subscribe
and connect with us on social media. Happy reading.
Thank you for listening to this episode of Librarians
of Littles. We hope that you've enjoyed it. Check
back each Wednesday for a new episode. Librarians
of Littles is a podcast produced and hosted by
Patrick Adams and Caroline Legier. Editor, Patrick
Adams. Our theme song is performed by JD Adams.
You can follow us on Instagram at Librarians
of Littles. You can follow us on BlueSky at littleslibrarian
.bsky .social. And you can send us your emails
at librarianoflittlespodatgmail .com. So I think
I cracked a rib yesterday or just bruised it
really well. Doing karate? Yeah, doing taekwondo.
We were sparring. Okay. Okay. Sorry. You alright?
Yeah. Really not? Are you gonna go to the doctor
or does it matter since they can't do anything
for that anyway? They won't do anything about
it, so we'll just leave it at that. Yeah. Sorry,
that's painful. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it just like
anytime I move just the right way, it's like,
oh, that's still there. It hurts. Yeah. Yeah.
So, you know, yeah, it'll be fine. It'll be fine.
We'll make it work. We'll survive. Yeah. Are
you a little bit sick too? I just have like a
cough that I'm trying to get rid of. And I think
it's the, just like the pollen that's been in
the air lately, you know? Yeah. You probably
can't do a big cough either since you're... No,
I can't. Yeah. That's making it worse. Yes.