WEBVTT
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Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Legere.
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And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
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where we discuss picture books, give ideas for
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makerspace incorporation activities, and we give
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tips and tricks for working with our youngest
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learners. Today, we have two great books to talk
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about with you. Today, the books that we chose
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to discuss, we were able to get copies from the
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authors at our recent visit to the Texas Library
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Association. And so these Picture books are newer
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picture books and they're wonderful and we're
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so excited to talk about them. The first one
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is Bear Suit Turtle Makes a Friend written and
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illustrated by Bob Shay. It is published by Abrams
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Books for Young Readers in 2025. This book has
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not won any particular awards just yet, but Bob
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Shay is kind of a legend and has gotten loads
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of awards in the past, including Publisher Weekly's
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best books list for 2021 for Shay Bob, Children's
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Favorites Award 2019 for Splash Crash Moo, Publisher
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Weekly's best books list for 2019 for Who Wet
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My Pants, Bob Shay is an award -winning author
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and illustrator of your favorite children's books.
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Bob has worked with Comedy Central. He's designed
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the Green Head PBS Kids logo, developed an on
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-air character for Playhouse Disney, worked with
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Nick Jr., and has appeared on Noggin and the
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Sunnyside Up Show, and worked on a super secret
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project. with really smart people at Google,
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and he is hilarious. Based on our interactions
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with him and seeing him interact with others
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at the Illustrator Sketch Off at TLA, he's got
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a great sense of humor. Yeah, he's pretty great.
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He's really funny. I haven't read this particular
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book by him, but everything that he's written
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or illustrated I think is just... hilarious,
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and it's wonderful for children. Some of the
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other books that Bob Shay has written include
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Who Wet My Pants, illustrated by Zachariah O
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'Hora, Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads, illustrated
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by Lane Smith, and Big Plans, illustrated by
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Lane Smith. And then some of the books that he
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has written and illustrated are Shay Bob, Ballet
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Cat, Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great, and Dinosaur
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Versus the Library. bear suit turtle makes a
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friend. This is the story of a turtle in a bear
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suit claiming to be a for real bear and he meets
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a turtle claiming to be a for real bear expert.
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The expert challenges the turtle in the bear
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suit to prove he is actually a bear by doing
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bear things like climbing trees and hibernating
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and it's pretty silly as the bear The turtle
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in the bear suit requires the bear expert to
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cover his eyes while he climbs the tree and then
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the bear suit turtle pretends to sleep for hibernating.
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In the end, the bear expert explains that other
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bear things include riding bikes and foraging
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for ice cream and playing pumpkin king. As the
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day progresses, the two get tired and hot and
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the question of swimming arises and both decide
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to tell each other the truth that they are not
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really what they claim, but they have discovered
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that they are now friends and can enjoy each
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other's company even when they're not who they
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originally claimed to be. This book, Bob Shay's
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books, are always funny. They're always amusing.
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This will definitely get the kids laughing. This
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is a very silly book that is engaging, and I
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really enjoyed the sweetness of this friendship
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that grows between the two characters. It reminds
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me a lot of how a lot of students interact with
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each other, trying to kind of one -up, like,
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I know this, I can do this, and... that's something
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that oftentimes becomes the basis for a friendship
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with the younger students. They kind of interact
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with each other. That's their first way of broaching
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that interaction and getting to know each other.
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And so this is really mirrored in the book. It's
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just a really great story about friendship. It's
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heartwarming and cute and, like I said, very
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funny. I strongly suggest this book. I think
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this is another Perfect Book by Bob Shay, five
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bookmarks, definitely. I think this is gonna
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become an instant classic for a lot of people.
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It's just so cute and fun. It's the classic kind
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of illustrations that Bob Shay is known for,
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kind of, I don't wanna use the word simplistic,
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but just very iconic illustrations. using lots
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of geometric shapes, lots of circles, lots of
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triangles, to just get that general outline or
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shape of the characters. And I think that's part
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of what makes it so endearing to the students
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is they're like, I can totally see what that
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is without it being incredibly detailed. I think
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this is going to be a great book that everyone
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is going to enjoy. as it, I'm sure, will continue
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to be, it'll get onto a bunch of different lists,
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and it'll get a bunch of different awards. I
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guarantee it. I think it's a great story. I'm
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sure it will. Like you said, everything Bob Shane
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touches turns to gold, really. And like I said,
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I haven't read this one yet, but I do love his
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art style. It always has that really bold colors,
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and I do think it's not... I might call it a
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little bit simple in the illustration style,
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but I think that's really great for Pre -K because
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the kids can see all the shapes that he uses
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to make the illustrations and it kind of makes
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it a little bit easier for the kids to imitate
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it themselves so they can kind of see themselves
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as authors and illustrators, which I think is
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really important for our kiddos. And it also
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like, it grabs their attention a little bit better,
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especially for younger kids or like our kids
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that may have difficulty seeing. We have a lot
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of visual, maybe not a lot, but we do have some
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visually impaired students that need those bold
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contrasting colors that he's kind of known for.
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So I kind of love that about his books and they're
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so, they're, I think the simplicity of them helps
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our kids grasp the concepts a little bit better.
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So. I have, like I said, not having read this
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particular one yet, I know I already love it.
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Dinosaur versus School is like one of my favorite
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ones to read with our incoming three and four
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year olds who have never been to school before.
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That's like a really great way to like ease them
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in. I usually pair that one at the beginning
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of the school year with another book that's a
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little bit... a little calmer I guess dinosaur
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versus school is just a really silly way to introduce
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school to our younger kids so yeah good choice
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I love it already and I will say that there is
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a youtube video where he explains how to draw
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bear suit turtle that's available so like you
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could if the kids because of the the art style
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and like we said some of those kids can use those
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shapes to help build soap Pairing this with that
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YouTube video where they can learn how to draw
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the bear suit turtle would be kind of a cool
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Activity that you could do. I also really love
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at the very end of the book It's a there for
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real bear facts and some of them are like obviously
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very real and then there's some others that are
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kind of silly an adult male black bear can weigh
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up to 600 pounds or 100 bear suit turtles If
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you see a grizzly bear, you should play dead.
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If you see a black bear, make yourself big and
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scary. Bears are apex predators, which means
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they aren't afraid of anything. Except spiders,
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because spiders are so gross. That's funny. He's
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just got a really good sense of humor and...
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Yeah. I love that... You can just kind of tell
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that he just really enjoys... his job and sharing
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that sense of humor With everybody that's around
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him, you know Which is just the cool? Absolutely
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attitude to have just being like hey I I know
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I'm goofy and funny and silly and I'm just gonna
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roll with it kind of you know Absolutely, yeah,
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all right So a makerspace activity for bear suit
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turtle makes a friend My idea this one's gonna
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cost a little bit of money, but I looked and
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Amazon has these pretty cheap you get 16 plastic
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turtles for about eight dollars and my idea is
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that You pull out the Legos and all of the kids
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Build a bear suit for a plastic turtle the plastic
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turtles are about two inches tall so the bear
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suit doesn't have to be huge but they can the
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kids can build their own little bear suit to
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put the turtle into and I thought that would
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be a fun little activity it's going to take a
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little bit more dexterity and maybe a little
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bit more planning but near the end of the year
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I think that's something that our pre -k students
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will be able to do and I like to challenge them
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because I've found that quite often if you give
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them a challenge, they will rise to the occasion.
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So I think this will be a fun activity to get
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them to be kind of creative and have to think
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a little bit more about how they use the Legos
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to make it so that the turtle will fit inside.
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Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. Something
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different. Yeah, and then once you buy the turtles,
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you can keep them. for years. So it's a upfront
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cost, but then you have them to use for other
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activities and things like that. So it's not
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too bad. No, it's not. You can reuse them for
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all the classes and everything. That's not, that's
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pretty cheap. I like it. That sounds like fun.
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We're going to move forward with our Library
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of Littles management tips. So this coming week
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you've got an author's visit So why don't you
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tell us a little bit about that what you've had
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to do kind of? To get that going like the setup
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process how you decided on the author if you
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know anything about like what the presentation
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is gonna look like as far as For pre -k that
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kind of stuff. What do you know? Yeah So I have
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the privilege of having Tammy Sauer come to both
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of my libraries next week. I'm so excited. It
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came about because, well, honestly, both of my
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libraries are closing, which is actually quite
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sad. So we had a little bit of extra money that
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we needed to spend kind of quickly. And Tammy
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Sauer came to a couple of the other libraries
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in my district just a month or two ago, actually,
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pretty recently. And so... emailed her and asked
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if she had any availability for the rest of the
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school year to find her information. I just went
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to her website and she has a tab called school
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visits and I just went there and quite a few
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authors and illustrators actually have this where
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there's just a form that you can fill out on
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their website and you just enter in your information
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and just has a few questions on it like how many
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kids and how many presentations and things like
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that that you would want to have for them and
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where you're located general information questions
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like that and she emailed me back within like
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two or three hours she's been kind of amazing
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with communication and she said that she had
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availability for this coming week so i got the
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paperwork started with on our end with the district
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and fortunately she was we were able to push
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everything through and she's going to come and
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visit us with she's coming to two of my schools
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she's going to do well i only have two schools
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but she's coming to both of them she was only
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available for a day and a half so she's going
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to start with a half day afternoon presentation
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this coming week on Wednesday and what we did
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for that one since it's a half day and she can
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only do two presentations that school is fortunately
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a little bit smaller and we only have about 250
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students so what we did is we're going to alter
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our special schedule so that everybody in the
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school gets a 30 minute specials in the morning
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And then in the afternoon, we're going to have
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a presentation from 1 .45 to 2 .15. And then
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we have a 15 minute break, and then we'll have
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another presentation from 2 .30 to 3. And Tammy
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Sauer has, I think most authors and illustrators
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who regularly do school visits do this anyway.
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There's like a list of presentations that you
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can pick from. And one of them is a, one that's,
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She advertises this for kindergarten first, so
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that's the one that we went with, and it's just
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a 30 minute presentation about how books take
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you places. And coincidentally, leading up to
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this, I have throughout the school year to teach
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kids about authors and illustrators. There have
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been like four books, I think, so far this year
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where I think it started with on Dot Day. I read
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the kids The Dot and then we did Peter Reynolds
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virtual author author visit and I told them that's
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what it was I told them I used that terminology
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and told them we're going to do a virtual author
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visit and explained what that an author writes
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the words in the book illustrator draws the pictures
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Peter Reynolds did both for the dot and showed
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them a video with Peter Reynolds drawing dots
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and making his own little creation there and
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it was just like a quick little five -minute
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thing but it was just to help the kids connect
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that you know he's the one who created the book
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And this is this extension activity with it.
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And so when I was talking to the kids this last
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week about how an author is going to come and
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visit us, they were like, the one that writes
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the words? And they were like, yeah. And it was
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pretty exciting so far. I think they're really
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making that connection, even though our kids
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are a little younger. They're only three, four,
00:16:09.970 --> 00:16:12.529
and five. But I think quite a few of them really
00:16:12.529 --> 00:16:15.409
are understanding that the author is the person
00:16:15.409 --> 00:16:17.409
who writes the words. And they create the books.
00:16:17.549 --> 00:16:21.080
And they can be. authors too and all the things
00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:22.940
so I'm pretty excited that she's going to get
00:16:22.940 --> 00:16:25.519
to come and visit us. With my other school the
00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:29.860
way the scheduling is working for that is I'm
00:16:29.860 --> 00:16:33.759
combining since we have a full day for her at
00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:35.720
that school that school's a little bit bigger
00:16:35.720 --> 00:16:38.519
so I'm glad that we have a full day there we're
00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:43.399
going to have all the specials meet in the school
00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:47.080
cafeteria for the presentation for 30 minutes
00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:50.250
and then for the second 30 minutes of their regular
00:16:50.250 --> 00:16:52.909
specials time they're going to go to their the
00:16:52.909 --> 00:16:55.149
rest of their specials. We normally have one
00:16:55.149 --> 00:16:58.889
hour total in specials so they'll do 30 minutes
00:16:58.889 --> 00:17:02.269
in with our author visit all together with all
00:17:02.269 --> 00:17:05.049
the specials teachers and all the paras kind
00:17:05.049 --> 00:17:08.009
of supporting our students so that we can all
00:17:08.009 --> 00:17:10.450
you know that's a lot of kids like it'll be about
00:17:10.450 --> 00:17:13.369
60 -ish kids all together in the cafeteria at
00:17:13.369 --> 00:17:16.509
once. So we'll all be there to kind of help support
00:17:16.509 --> 00:17:19.190
and help kids focus and stay on task and such.
00:17:19.269 --> 00:17:22.390
And then we'll go to our regular specials after
00:17:22.390 --> 00:17:25.690
that so that it'll be 30 minutes of author visit,
00:17:25.849 --> 00:17:27.730
30 minutes of specials, and we'll kind of keep
00:17:27.730 --> 00:17:29.869
doing that for the rest of the day. So it'll
00:17:29.869 --> 00:17:34.710
be a total of four presentations at that school
00:17:34.710 --> 00:17:39.440
on Thursday. So yeah. That's kind of how that's
00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:41.880
going so far. Obviously I haven't done it yet
00:17:41.880 --> 00:17:44.200
so I'll keep you guys updated on how that goes
00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:46.740
but I'm very excited and I think the kids are
00:17:46.740 --> 00:17:50.480
too and I'm glad that I accidentally, well I
00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:52.940
guess I didn't accidentally, I'm glad I taught
00:17:52.940 --> 00:17:54.559
them what authors and illustrators were this
00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:57.599
year but we've been kind of building toward it
00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:00.599
I think unintentionally and I'm really excited
00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:03.799
that we get this culminating activity at the
00:18:03.799 --> 00:18:05.920
end of the year. That's awesome. That sounds
00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:09.160
really cool. and she's amazing so I think you're
00:18:09.160 --> 00:18:12.380
gonna really enjoy it. I was fortunate I got
00:18:12.380 --> 00:18:15.099
to see one of her presentations for some of the
00:18:15.099 --> 00:18:19.099
older kids when she was in your district prior
00:18:19.099 --> 00:18:24.299
to spring break and her energy level is amazing.
00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:28.700
Like she's super engaging, she's moving around
00:18:28.700 --> 00:18:32.160
and super expressive. I think you're gonna really
00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:34.960
enjoy her presentation. I'm looking forward to
00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:37.130
it. Yeah she seems like she's gonna be really
00:18:37.130 --> 00:18:39.650
engaging for pre -k, which not everybody can
00:18:39.650 --> 00:18:44.069
do. So yes, I'm excited about that. I'm so excited
00:18:44.069 --> 00:18:46.769
about it actually that the next book that we're
00:18:46.769 --> 00:18:48.589
going to talk about is one of hers. It's our
00:18:48.589 --> 00:18:52.009
newest one. So this is the book that one of the
00:18:52.009 --> 00:18:54.609
books that you are very kind actually and gave
00:18:54.609 --> 00:18:59.390
to me from our TLA visit. The next book we're
00:18:59.390 --> 00:19:02.029
going to talk about is Mary Had a Little Jam.
00:19:02.150 --> 00:19:06.210
It was published by Union Square Kids in 2025.
00:19:06.509 --> 00:19:09.630
the author is Tammy Sauer and the illustrator
00:19:09.630 --> 00:19:13.309
is Vanessa Brantley Newton. This particular book
00:19:13.309 --> 00:19:17.990
has not won any awards yet, but Tammy has won
00:19:17.990 --> 00:19:20.430
quite a few awards for some other books that
00:19:20.430 --> 00:19:24.299
we'll list a little bit later. Tammy Sauer grew
00:19:24.299 --> 00:19:27.720
up on a small farm outside of the tiny town of
00:19:27.720 --> 00:19:30.420
Victoria, Kansas. After high school, she graduated
00:19:30.420 --> 00:19:34.140
from Kansas State University with a BS in elementary
00:19:34.140 --> 00:19:36.420
education and she married her high school sweetheart.
00:19:37.059 --> 00:19:39.359
They had two children and later moved their family
00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:41.900
to Edmond, Oklahoma. Tammy was a teacher and
00:19:41.900 --> 00:19:44.799
later a librarian, a library media specialist
00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:47.819
before becoming a children's author. She has
00:19:47.819 --> 00:19:50.859
written over 30 children's books to date, with
00:19:50.859 --> 00:19:53.519
more currently in the works. she still lives
00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:57.339
in Edmund with her family. Some of the other
00:19:57.339 --> 00:20:02.500
books that she has written include Not Now Cow,
00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:06.400
which is on six different state lists, Wordy
00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:10.140
Birdy, which is on 12 lists, Mary Had a Little
00:20:10.140 --> 00:20:15.079
Glam, which appears on five lists, Your Alien,
00:20:16.500 --> 00:20:21.599
and Nugget and Fang. The Illustrator, Vanessa
00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:24.960
Brantley Newton grew up in Newark, New Jersey
00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:28.079
during the Civil Rights Movement. Reading Ezra
00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:31.059
Jack Keats' The Snowy Day was the first time
00:20:31.059 --> 00:20:33.519
that she saw an African -American character in
00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:36.599
a book. Seeing herself reflected in a children's
00:20:36.599 --> 00:20:40.619
book was a defining moment for her and has influenced
00:20:40.619 --> 00:20:44.599
her art as an adult. She strives to include characters
00:20:44.599 --> 00:20:48.259
of all ethnic backgrounds in an effort to recreate
00:20:48.259 --> 00:20:52.670
that moment for others. She has been given 29
00:20:52.670 --> 00:20:56.029
awards and honors over the years for her work
00:20:56.029 --> 00:20:59.650
as an illustrator and author. Some of her other
00:20:59.650 --> 00:21:03.069
books that she has written and illustrated are
00:21:03.069 --> 00:21:06.210
Shake It Off, Nesting Dolls, which is on one
00:21:06.210 --> 00:21:09.509
state list, Becoming Vanessa, which is on three
00:21:09.509 --> 00:21:13.990
state lists, Just Like Me, Grandma's Purse, Don't
00:21:13.990 --> 00:21:17.390
Let Auntie Mabel Bless the Table, and Let Freedom
00:21:17.390 --> 00:21:21.250
Sing. She has also illustrated 27 books for other
00:21:21.250 --> 00:21:24.819
authors so far. And with this particular book,
00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:28.640
Mary had a little jam. The summary is one day
00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:31.339
when playing her ukulele, Mary decides it would
00:21:31.339 --> 00:21:33.859
be more fun to start a band and play with others.
00:21:34.339 --> 00:21:36.900
She recruits other characters from classic nursery
00:21:36.900 --> 00:21:40.059
rhymes such as Jack and Jill and Bo Peep. Together
00:21:40.059 --> 00:21:42.640
they form a band called the Nursery Rhymers.
00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:45.480
Initially the sounds clash when everyone tries
00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:48.579
to play their own songs simultaneously, but eventually
00:21:48.579 --> 00:21:51.039
they come together and learn that with practice
00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:54.329
and unity they can save their performance. I
00:21:54.329 --> 00:21:56.750
thought this was a really cute story. It teaches
00:21:56.750 --> 00:22:00.049
perseverance and teamwork. The illustrations
00:22:00.049 --> 00:22:03.750
are really vibrant. This is the third book in
00:22:03.750 --> 00:22:05.910
a series. The first one is Mary Had a Little
00:22:05.910 --> 00:22:08.910
Glam, and then there's Mary Had a Little Plan.
00:22:09.630 --> 00:22:14.309
There's lots of, it has lots of nursery rhyme
00:22:14.309 --> 00:22:16.130
characters in it, so naturally there's a lot
00:22:16.130 --> 00:22:18.509
of rhyming words in it. I think this would be
00:22:18.509 --> 00:22:20.880
a really good one to play. to maybe read at the
00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:23.859
beginning of the school year. I do this, I usually
00:22:23.859 --> 00:22:28.220
do nursery rhymes -ish type things with three,
00:22:28.279 --> 00:22:30.480
fours and fives toward the beginning of the school
00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:32.119
year because it's something that's a little bit
00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:35.779
more familiar when we're kind of getting to learn
00:22:35.779 --> 00:22:38.180
our routines and procedures and such. I think
00:22:38.180 --> 00:22:40.980
that's a good way to kind of get our kids more
00:22:40.980 --> 00:22:44.559
used to school, I guess, because they're usually,
00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:47.480
they know some nursery rhymes and have some background
00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:50.009
knowledge with that. So it's a kind of a good
00:22:50.009 --> 00:22:53.730
way to expand their knowledge and kind of appreciate
00:22:53.730 --> 00:22:55.730
reading a little bit because just because you
00:22:55.730 --> 00:22:57.869
have that little bit of familiarity with there.
00:22:58.029 --> 00:23:00.470
But yeah, I really enjoyed this story. I love
00:23:00.470 --> 00:23:04.250
that it focused on teamwork and I love the illustrations
00:23:04.250 --> 00:23:09.710
and how bold they are. Yeah, I think and with
00:23:09.710 --> 00:23:13.609
our particular curriculum, we have six weeks
00:23:13.609 --> 00:23:17.430
of just learning about music. So for our curriculum,
00:23:17.710 --> 00:23:20.170
I think I would probably give this one a 5 out
00:23:20.170 --> 00:23:23.609
of 5 because I'm always looking for music books
00:23:23.609 --> 00:23:26.730
to support our pre -k curriculum. Outside of
00:23:26.730 --> 00:23:30.210
the curriculum, I think I might go with a, just
00:23:30.210 --> 00:23:32.130
like reading it at home or just reading it for
00:23:32.130 --> 00:23:35.049
funsies, probably a 4 out of 5. It's still cute
00:23:35.049 --> 00:23:38.769
and it's still good. It's not particularly, I
00:23:38.769 --> 00:23:41.670
think it just doesn't stand out like a ton as
00:23:41.670 --> 00:23:43.750
just a standalone story, but it does support
00:23:43.750 --> 00:23:48.420
our curriculum particularly well. So for If you
00:23:48.420 --> 00:23:50.000
have something that you need to tie it in with,
00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:52.960
like music -wise, nursery rhymes, I think I would
00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:55.319
give it a 5 out of 5. As a standalone, probably
00:23:55.319 --> 00:23:58.559
4 out of 5. I agree. I think it's, like you said,
00:23:58.660 --> 00:24:03.079
it's a very cute story. It's fun to see the different
00:24:03.079 --> 00:24:06.259
nursery rhyme characters being represented in
00:24:06.259 --> 00:24:09.900
the book. I think Vanessa Brantley -Newton does
00:24:09.900 --> 00:24:15.779
an amazing job of having a wide range of diverse
00:24:15.779 --> 00:24:20.240
characters represented in the book. It's really
00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:23.279
cool to see all the different skin tones that
00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:25.839
are used to represent the different characters.
00:24:26.359 --> 00:24:29.140
So I think you're right. I think it's a really
00:24:29.140 --> 00:24:31.519
great book, especially considering the pre -k
00:24:31.519 --> 00:24:34.460
curriculum and the use of the nursery rhymes,
00:24:34.599 --> 00:24:38.000
the rhyming words, the music incorporation. And
00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:42.289
it's a solid story. It's not one that... Like
00:24:42.289 --> 00:24:45.589
is gonna be something that Everyone's gonna be
00:24:45.589 --> 00:24:48.269
like, oh, yeah, I've read all of the Mary had
00:24:48.269 --> 00:24:52.950
books, but it's a solid book It's really enjoyable.
00:24:52.950 --> 00:24:57.089
I think a lot of the kids will get a lot of enjoyment
00:24:57.089 --> 00:25:00.349
out of it So yeah, I think definitely a good
00:25:00.349 --> 00:25:03.619
choice For the makerspace activity for this book,
00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:06.319
I thought it would be fun to make shakers and
00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:08.339
have the kids make their own instruments, which
00:25:08.339 --> 00:25:11.200
is pretty easy to do. I've done it a couple of
00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:14.440
times in the classroom. I have not done it in
00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:16.180
the library yet. That just occurred to me. I
00:25:16.180 --> 00:25:17.940
really should. But that's a pretty easy one to
00:25:17.940 --> 00:25:21.180
do. You just get the cheap paper plates that
00:25:21.180 --> 00:25:24.579
we all love for, you know, all the pre -k class.
00:25:25.240 --> 00:25:28.519
pre -k crafts those little white ones that are
00:25:28.519 --> 00:25:31.180
paper and just really flexible but you color
00:25:31.180 --> 00:25:35.279
on the bottom of it and the kids decorate it
00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:38.940
however they want and then you put some dry rice
00:25:38.940 --> 00:25:41.799
or beans or anything else that was I I do rice
00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:45.259
or beans because it's cheap really but you just
00:25:45.259 --> 00:25:48.819
get a very small like very small little handful
00:25:48.819 --> 00:25:52.170
in there maybe like a teaspoon is even fine and
00:25:52.170 --> 00:25:54.250
just put it on top and then you fold the plate
00:25:54.250 --> 00:25:57.529
in half like a taco and then staple along the
00:25:57.529 --> 00:26:00.950
edge. Then it's magic. You have your own little
00:26:00.950 --> 00:26:04.210
shaker and then it's a great time. It's a little
00:26:04.210 --> 00:26:05.869
noisy. Maybe that's why I haven't done it in
00:26:05.869 --> 00:26:07.569
the library yet. I did it in the classroom though.
00:26:07.670 --> 00:26:08.950
I don't know why I haven't done it in the library
00:26:08.950 --> 00:26:12.710
yet. But it's cheap, it's easy, and it's fast
00:26:12.710 --> 00:26:16.069
and you can kind of encourage the kids to draw
00:26:16.069 --> 00:26:19.289
a little bit more on their plate and be real
00:26:19.289 --> 00:26:21.329
creative with that. You could, I guess with this
00:26:21.329 --> 00:26:23.750
one, you could even like try and get them to
00:26:23.750 --> 00:26:25.950
draw some nursery rhyme characters or some things
00:26:25.950 --> 00:26:29.869
that that they see in the book as well. Yeah.
00:26:30.630 --> 00:26:33.789
I love that idea. I think the kids would really
00:26:33.789 --> 00:26:36.769
enjoy that because then they have their own musical
00:26:36.769 --> 00:26:40.240
instrument they can They all love to make noise.
00:26:40.259 --> 00:26:42.900
So having that shaker going I'm sure the teachers
00:26:42.900 --> 00:26:44.839
will love it when they come back from the library
00:26:44.839 --> 00:26:48.019
with the shakers, too That that's will be their
00:26:48.019 --> 00:26:55.599
favorite But no, that's a super cute idea and
00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:58.920
like you said cheap and Just the kids will really
00:26:58.920 --> 00:27:01.519
enjoy it. It'll be a lot of fun Yeah, that's
00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:05.519
almost no prep, too That's the best. I like low
00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:09.549
prep and a little bit more unique ideas. Those
00:27:09.549 --> 00:27:12.609
are the best. Alright, well thank you guys for
00:27:12.609 --> 00:27:15.309
joining us today on this episode of Librarians
00:27:15.309 --> 00:27:17.890
of Littles. We hope you found some fresh ideas
00:27:17.890 --> 00:27:20.789
for inspiring our young readers. Please be sure
00:27:20.789 --> 00:27:23.730
to subscribe and connect with us on social media.
00:27:24.450 --> 00:27:27.329
Thank you for listening to this episode of Librarians
00:27:27.329 --> 00:27:30.150
of Littles. We hope that you've enjoyed it. Check
00:27:30.150 --> 00:27:34.549
back each Wednesday for a new episode. Librarians
00:27:34.549 --> 00:27:37.329
of Littles is a podcast produced and hosted by
00:27:37.329 --> 00:27:40.970
Patrick Adams and Caroline Legere. Editor, Patrick
00:27:40.970 --> 00:27:44.769
Adams. Our theme song is performed by JD Adams.
00:27:45.210 --> 00:27:47.849
You can follow us on Instagram at Librarians
00:27:47.849 --> 00:27:52.990
of Littles. You can follow us on bluesky at littleslibrarian
00:27:52.990 --> 00:27:57.609
.bsky .social. And you can send us your emails
00:27:57.609 --> 00:28:02.009
at librarianoflittlespodatgmail .com.
00:00:20.650 --> 00:00:24.870
Hello, I'm Patrick Adams. And I'm Caroline Legere.
00:00:25.370 --> 00:00:28.649
And this is Librarians of Littles, a podcast
00:00:28.649 --> 00:00:34.039
where we discuss picture books, give ideas for
00:00:34.039 --> 00:00:37.299
makerspace incorporation activities, and we give
00:00:37.299 --> 00:00:40.880
tips and tricks for working with our youngest
00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:45.979
learners. Today, we have two great books to talk
00:00:45.979 --> 00:00:49.600
about with you. Today, the books that we chose
00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:54.240
to discuss, we were able to get copies from the
00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:57.600
authors at our recent visit to the Texas Library
00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:01.979
Association. And so these Picture books are newer
00:01:01.979 --> 00:01:06.060
picture books and they're wonderful and we're
00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:08.859
so excited to talk about them. The first one
00:01:08.859 --> 00:01:13.000
is Bear Suit Turtle Makes a Friend written and
00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:17.000
illustrated by Bob Shay. It is published by Abrams
00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:21.530
Books for Young Readers in 2025. This book has
00:01:21.530 --> 00:01:25.370
not won any particular awards just yet, but Bob
00:01:25.370 --> 00:01:29.129
Shay is kind of a legend and has gotten loads
00:01:29.129 --> 00:01:33.150
of awards in the past, including Publisher Weekly's
00:01:33.150 --> 00:01:37.530
best books list for 2021 for Shay Bob, Children's
00:01:37.530 --> 00:01:42.069
Favorites Award 2019 for Splash Crash Moo, Publisher
00:01:42.069 --> 00:01:45.829
Weekly's best books list for 2019 for Who Wet
00:01:45.829 --> 00:01:50.049
My Pants, Bob Shay is an award -winning author
00:01:50.049 --> 00:01:53.689
and illustrator of your favorite children's books.
00:01:54.370 --> 00:01:57.609
Bob has worked with Comedy Central. He's designed
00:01:57.609 --> 00:02:01.689
the Green Head PBS Kids logo, developed an on
00:02:01.689 --> 00:02:04.870
-air character for Playhouse Disney, worked with
00:02:04.870 --> 00:02:09.729
Nick Jr., and has appeared on Noggin and the
00:02:09.729 --> 00:02:13.569
Sunnyside Up Show, and worked on a super secret
00:02:13.569 --> 00:02:16.879
project. with really smart people at Google,
00:02:17.319 --> 00:02:24.240
and he is hilarious. Based on our interactions
00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:27.280
with him and seeing him interact with others
00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:31.719
at the Illustrator Sketch Off at TLA, he's got
00:02:31.719 --> 00:02:34.599
a great sense of humor. Yeah, he's pretty great.
00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:37.199
He's really funny. I haven't read this particular
00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:40.139
book by him, but everything that he's written
00:02:40.139 --> 00:02:43.189
or illustrated I think is just... hilarious,
00:02:43.710 --> 00:02:46.009
and it's wonderful for children. Some of the
00:02:46.009 --> 00:02:49.509
other books that Bob Shay has written include
00:02:49.509 --> 00:02:52.849
Who Wet My Pants, illustrated by Zachariah O
00:02:52.849 --> 00:02:56.150
'Hora, Kid Sheriff and the Terrible Toads, illustrated
00:02:56.150 --> 00:03:00.469
by Lane Smith, and Big Plans, illustrated by
00:03:00.469 --> 00:03:04.990
Lane Smith. And then some of the books that he
00:03:04.990 --> 00:03:09.689
has written and illustrated are Shay Bob, Ballet
00:03:09.689 --> 00:03:13.949
Cat, Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great, and Dinosaur
00:03:13.949 --> 00:03:19.990
Versus the Library. bear suit turtle makes a
00:03:19.990 --> 00:03:23.189
friend. This is the story of a turtle in a bear
00:03:23.189 --> 00:03:27.509
suit claiming to be a for real bear and he meets
00:03:27.509 --> 00:03:31.750
a turtle claiming to be a for real bear expert.
00:03:32.229 --> 00:03:35.449
The expert challenges the turtle in the bear
00:03:35.449 --> 00:03:38.289
suit to prove he is actually a bear by doing
00:03:38.289 --> 00:03:42.270
bear things like climbing trees and hibernating
00:03:42.270 --> 00:03:47.969
and it's pretty silly as the bear The turtle
00:03:47.969 --> 00:03:51.330
in the bear suit requires the bear expert to
00:03:51.330 --> 00:03:56.469
cover his eyes while he climbs the tree and then
00:03:56.469 --> 00:04:02.969
the bear suit turtle pretends to sleep for hibernating.
00:04:03.330 --> 00:04:10.889
In the end, the bear expert explains that other
00:04:10.889 --> 00:04:14.629
bear things include riding bikes and foraging
00:04:14.629 --> 00:04:18.610
for ice cream and playing pumpkin king. As the
00:04:18.610 --> 00:04:22.069
day progresses, the two get tired and hot and
00:04:22.069 --> 00:04:25.850
the question of swimming arises and both decide
00:04:25.850 --> 00:04:29.329
to tell each other the truth that they are not
00:04:29.329 --> 00:04:32.490
really what they claim, but they have discovered
00:04:32.490 --> 00:04:36.629
that they are now friends and can enjoy each
00:04:36.629 --> 00:04:40.810
other's company even when they're not who they
00:04:40.810 --> 00:04:44.490
originally claimed to be. This book, Bob Shay's
00:04:44.490 --> 00:04:47.009
books, are always funny. They're always amusing.
00:04:47.430 --> 00:04:50.910
This will definitely get the kids laughing. This
00:04:50.910 --> 00:04:54.910
is a very silly book that is engaging, and I
00:04:54.910 --> 00:04:57.290
really enjoyed the sweetness of this friendship
00:04:57.290 --> 00:05:00.089
that grows between the two characters. It reminds
00:05:00.089 --> 00:05:02.949
me a lot of how a lot of students interact with
00:05:02.949 --> 00:05:04.910
each other, trying to kind of one -up, like,
00:05:04.949 --> 00:05:09.689
I know this, I can do this, and... that's something
00:05:09.689 --> 00:05:11.829
that oftentimes becomes the basis for a friendship
00:05:11.829 --> 00:05:14.569
with the younger students. They kind of interact
00:05:14.569 --> 00:05:18.089
with each other. That's their first way of broaching
00:05:18.089 --> 00:05:21.850
that interaction and getting to know each other.
00:05:21.870 --> 00:05:25.589
And so this is really mirrored in the book. It's
00:05:25.589 --> 00:05:28.949
just a really great story about friendship. It's
00:05:28.949 --> 00:05:32.709
heartwarming and cute and, like I said, very
00:05:32.709 --> 00:05:37.050
funny. I strongly suggest this book. I think
00:05:37.050 --> 00:05:40.740
this is another Perfect Book by Bob Shay, five
00:05:40.740 --> 00:05:44.939
bookmarks, definitely. I think this is gonna
00:05:44.939 --> 00:05:47.740
become an instant classic for a lot of people.
00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:53.939
It's just so cute and fun. It's the classic kind
00:05:53.939 --> 00:05:57.779
of illustrations that Bob Shay is known for,
00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:01.180
kind of, I don't wanna use the word simplistic,
00:06:01.259 --> 00:06:08.050
but just very iconic illustrations. using lots
00:06:08.050 --> 00:06:11.870
of geometric shapes, lots of circles, lots of
00:06:11.870 --> 00:06:16.350
triangles, to just get that general outline or
00:06:16.350 --> 00:06:21.290
shape of the characters. And I think that's part
00:06:21.290 --> 00:06:23.769
of what makes it so endearing to the students
00:06:23.769 --> 00:06:26.329
is they're like, I can totally see what that
00:06:26.329 --> 00:06:30.050
is without it being incredibly detailed. I think
00:06:30.050 --> 00:06:32.850
this is going to be a great book that everyone
00:06:32.850 --> 00:06:37.569
is going to enjoy. as it, I'm sure, will continue
00:06:37.569 --> 00:06:40.930
to be, it'll get onto a bunch of different lists,
00:06:41.069 --> 00:06:43.889
and it'll get a bunch of different awards. I
00:06:43.889 --> 00:06:47.490
guarantee it. I think it's a great story. I'm
00:06:47.490 --> 00:06:50.449
sure it will. Like you said, everything Bob Shane
00:06:50.449 --> 00:06:53.790
touches turns to gold, really. And like I said,
00:06:53.790 --> 00:06:57.350
I haven't read this one yet, but I do love his
00:06:57.350 --> 00:07:01.250
art style. It always has that really bold colors,
00:07:01.250 --> 00:07:05.839
and I do think it's not... I might call it a
00:07:05.839 --> 00:07:07.959
little bit simple in the illustration style,
00:07:08.019 --> 00:07:11.180
but I think that's really great for Pre -K because
00:07:11.180 --> 00:07:15.319
the kids can see all the shapes that he uses
00:07:15.319 --> 00:07:18.639
to make the illustrations and it kind of makes
00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:20.399
it a little bit easier for the kids to imitate
00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:22.240
it themselves so they can kind of see themselves
00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:24.779
as authors and illustrators, which I think is
00:07:24.779 --> 00:07:27.420
really important for our kiddos. And it also
00:07:27.420 --> 00:07:30.019
like, it grabs their attention a little bit better,
00:07:30.180 --> 00:07:32.240
especially for younger kids or like our kids
00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:35.120
that may have difficulty seeing. We have a lot
00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:37.480
of visual, maybe not a lot, but we do have some
00:07:37.480 --> 00:07:41.160
visually impaired students that need those bold
00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:43.939
contrasting colors that he's kind of known for.
00:07:44.220 --> 00:07:46.720
So I kind of love that about his books and they're
00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:50.899
so, they're, I think the simplicity of them helps
00:07:50.899 --> 00:07:53.939
our kids grasp the concepts a little bit better.
00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:57.560
So. I have, like I said, not having read this
00:07:57.560 --> 00:08:00.279
particular one yet, I know I already love it.
00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:05.079
Dinosaur versus School is like one of my favorite
00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:08.480
ones to read with our incoming three and four
00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:10.379
year olds who have never been to school before.
00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:13.939
That's like a really great way to like ease them
00:08:13.939 --> 00:08:15.720
in. I usually pair that one at the beginning
00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:18.819
of the school year with another book that's a
00:08:18.819 --> 00:08:21.500
little bit... a little calmer I guess dinosaur
00:08:21.500 --> 00:08:24.980
versus school is just a really silly way to introduce
00:08:24.980 --> 00:08:29.180
school to our younger kids so yeah good choice
00:08:29.180 --> 00:08:32.559
I love it already and I will say that there is
00:08:32.559 --> 00:08:36.600
a youtube video where he explains how to draw
00:08:36.600 --> 00:08:39.539
bear suit turtle that's available so like you
00:08:39.539 --> 00:08:44.000
could if the kids because of the the art style
00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:47.080
and like we said some of those kids can use those
00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:50.379
shapes to help build soap Pairing this with that
00:08:50.379 --> 00:08:52.600
YouTube video where they can learn how to draw
00:08:52.600 --> 00:08:55.539
the bear suit turtle would be kind of a cool
00:08:55.539 --> 00:08:58.360
Activity that you could do. I also really love
00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:00.779
at the very end of the book It's a there for
00:09:00.779 --> 00:09:03.740
real bear facts and some of them are like obviously
00:09:03.740 --> 00:09:05.480
very real and then there's some others that are
00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:09.659
kind of silly an adult male black bear can weigh
00:09:09.659 --> 00:09:14.070
up to 600 pounds or 100 bear suit turtles If
00:09:14.070 --> 00:09:15.870
you see a grizzly bear, you should play dead.
00:09:15.950 --> 00:09:17.990
If you see a black bear, make yourself big and
00:09:17.990 --> 00:09:21.970
scary. Bears are apex predators, which means
00:09:21.970 --> 00:09:25.909
they aren't afraid of anything. Except spiders,
00:09:26.250 --> 00:09:31.570
because spiders are so gross. That's funny. He's
00:09:31.570 --> 00:09:35.769
just got a really good sense of humor and...
00:09:35.769 --> 00:09:39.509
Yeah. I love that... You can just kind of tell
00:09:39.509 --> 00:09:44.919
that he just really enjoys... his job and sharing
00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:49.019
that sense of humor With everybody that's around
00:09:49.019 --> 00:09:52.639
him, you know Which is just the cool? Absolutely
00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:55.860
attitude to have just being like hey I I know
00:09:55.860 --> 00:09:59.179
I'm goofy and funny and silly and I'm just gonna
00:09:59.179 --> 00:10:04.899
roll with it kind of you know Absolutely, yeah,
00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:09.120
all right So a makerspace activity for bear suit
00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:11.840
turtle makes a friend My idea this one's gonna
00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:13.879
cost a little bit of money, but I looked and
00:10:13.879 --> 00:10:18.620
Amazon has these pretty cheap you get 16 plastic
00:10:18.620 --> 00:10:24.200
turtles for about eight dollars and my idea is
00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:28.320
that You pull out the Legos and all of the kids
00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:33.659
Build a bear suit for a plastic turtle the plastic
00:10:33.659 --> 00:10:36.059
turtles are about two inches tall so the bear
00:10:36.059 --> 00:10:38.320
suit doesn't have to be huge but they can the
00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:41.500
kids can build their own little bear suit to
00:10:41.500 --> 00:10:44.200
put the turtle into and I thought that would
00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:47.120
be a fun little activity it's going to take a
00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:50.580
little bit more dexterity and maybe a little
00:10:50.580 --> 00:10:54.299
bit more planning but near the end of the year
00:10:54.299 --> 00:10:57.059
I think that's something that our pre -k students
00:10:57.059 --> 00:10:59.299
will be able to do and I like to challenge them
00:10:59.299 --> 00:11:02.110
because I've found that quite often if you give
00:11:02.110 --> 00:11:04.409
them a challenge, they will rise to the occasion.
00:11:04.490 --> 00:11:08.009
So I think this will be a fun activity to get
00:11:08.009 --> 00:11:11.409
them to be kind of creative and have to think
00:11:11.409 --> 00:11:13.769
a little bit more about how they use the Legos
00:11:13.769 --> 00:11:16.509
to make it so that the turtle will fit inside.
00:11:18.230 --> 00:11:20.710
Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. Something
00:11:20.710 --> 00:11:23.269
different. Yeah, and then once you buy the turtles,
00:11:23.470 --> 00:11:27.470
you can keep them. for years. So it's a upfront
00:11:27.470 --> 00:11:29.950
cost, but then you have them to use for other
00:11:29.950 --> 00:11:32.570
activities and things like that. So it's not
00:11:32.570 --> 00:11:36.009
too bad. No, it's not. You can reuse them for
00:11:36.009 --> 00:11:38.309
all the classes and everything. That's not, that's
00:11:38.309 --> 00:11:41.429
pretty cheap. I like it. That sounds like fun.
00:11:43.009 --> 00:11:47.309
We're going to move forward with our Library
00:11:47.309 --> 00:11:50.590
of Littles management tips. So this coming week
00:11:50.590 --> 00:11:54.049
you've got an author's visit So why don't you
00:11:54.049 --> 00:11:56.049
tell us a little bit about that what you've had
00:11:56.049 --> 00:11:59.610
to do kind of? To get that going like the setup
00:11:59.610 --> 00:12:03.370
process how you decided on the author if you
00:12:03.370 --> 00:12:06.590
know anything about like what the presentation
00:12:06.590 --> 00:12:10.009
is gonna look like as far as For pre -k that
00:12:10.009 --> 00:12:14.559
kind of stuff. What do you know? Yeah So I have
00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:18.080
the privilege of having Tammy Sauer come to both
00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:21.240
of my libraries next week. I'm so excited. It
00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:25.000
came about because, well, honestly, both of my
00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:26.620
libraries are closing, which is actually quite
00:12:26.620 --> 00:12:28.840
sad. So we had a little bit of extra money that
00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:32.240
we needed to spend kind of quickly. And Tammy
00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:34.799
Sauer came to a couple of the other libraries
00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:37.720
in my district just a month or two ago, actually,
00:12:37.820 --> 00:12:42.919
pretty recently. And so... emailed her and asked
00:12:42.919 --> 00:12:45.500
if she had any availability for the rest of the
00:12:45.500 --> 00:12:47.419
school year to find her information. I just went
00:12:47.419 --> 00:12:52.019
to her website and she has a tab called school
00:12:52.019 --> 00:12:55.779
visits and I just went there and quite a few
00:12:55.779 --> 00:12:58.080
authors and illustrators actually have this where
00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:00.179
there's just a form that you can fill out on
00:13:00.179 --> 00:13:03.299
their website and you just enter in your information
00:13:03.299 --> 00:13:06.240
and just has a few questions on it like how many
00:13:06.240 --> 00:13:09.740
kids and how many presentations and things like
00:13:09.740 --> 00:13:12.200
that that you would want to have for them and
00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:15.080
where you're located general information questions
00:13:15.080 --> 00:13:18.320
like that and she emailed me back within like
00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:21.039
two or three hours she's been kind of amazing
00:13:21.039 --> 00:13:25.139
with communication and she said that she had
00:13:25.139 --> 00:13:28.940
availability for this coming week so i got the
00:13:28.940 --> 00:13:32.279
paperwork started with on our end with the district
00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:35.299
and fortunately she was we were able to push
00:13:35.299 --> 00:13:36.799
everything through and she's going to come and
00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:40.240
visit us with she's coming to two of my schools
00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:42.539
she's going to do well i only have two schools
00:13:42.539 --> 00:13:45.019
but she's coming to both of them she was only
00:13:45.019 --> 00:13:48.139
available for a day and a half so she's going
00:13:48.139 --> 00:13:51.820
to start with a half day afternoon presentation
00:13:52.590 --> 00:13:56.210
this coming week on Wednesday and what we did
00:13:56.210 --> 00:13:58.690
for that one since it's a half day and she can
00:13:58.690 --> 00:14:01.870
only do two presentations that school is fortunately
00:14:01.870 --> 00:14:07.470
a little bit smaller and we only have about 250
00:14:07.470 --> 00:14:12.509
students so what we did is we're going to alter
00:14:12.509 --> 00:14:17.049
our special schedule so that everybody in the
00:14:17.049 --> 00:14:20.070
school gets a 30 minute specials in the morning
00:14:20.679 --> 00:14:24.480
And then in the afternoon, we're going to have
00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:29.740
a presentation from 1 .45 to 2 .15. And then
00:14:29.740 --> 00:14:31.580
we have a 15 minute break, and then we'll have
00:14:31.580 --> 00:14:37.840
another presentation from 2 .30 to 3. And Tammy
00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:41.100
Sauer has, I think most authors and illustrators
00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:43.500
who regularly do school visits do this anyway.
00:14:43.620 --> 00:14:45.519
There's like a list of presentations that you
00:14:45.519 --> 00:14:49.460
can pick from. And one of them is a, one that's,
00:14:49.480 --> 00:14:51.919
She advertises this for kindergarten first, so
00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:53.539
that's the one that we went with, and it's just
00:14:53.539 --> 00:14:57.139
a 30 minute presentation about how books take
00:14:57.139 --> 00:15:00.399
you places. And coincidentally, leading up to
00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:03.519
this, I have throughout the school year to teach
00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:06.340
kids about authors and illustrators. There have
00:15:06.340 --> 00:15:09.559
been like four books, I think, so far this year
00:15:09.559 --> 00:15:13.840
where I think it started with on Dot Day. I read
00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:18.919
the kids The Dot and then we did Peter Reynolds
00:15:20.449 --> 00:15:23.250
virtual author author visit and I told them that's
00:15:23.250 --> 00:15:25.330
what it was I told them I used that terminology
00:15:25.330 --> 00:15:26.950
and told them we're going to do a virtual author
00:15:26.950 --> 00:15:29.070
visit and explained what that an author writes
00:15:29.070 --> 00:15:32.129
the words in the book illustrator draws the pictures
00:15:32.129 --> 00:15:35.990
Peter Reynolds did both for the dot and showed
00:15:35.990 --> 00:15:39.129
them a video with Peter Reynolds drawing dots
00:15:39.129 --> 00:15:41.610
and making his own little creation there and
00:15:41.610 --> 00:15:43.250
it was just like a quick little five -minute
00:15:43.250 --> 00:15:45.970
thing but it was just to help the kids connect
00:15:45.970 --> 00:15:48.909
that you know he's the one who created the book
00:15:49.309 --> 00:15:51.730
And this is this extension activity with it.
00:15:52.210 --> 00:15:55.470
And so when I was talking to the kids this last
00:15:55.470 --> 00:15:58.129
week about how an author is going to come and
00:15:58.129 --> 00:15:59.610
visit us, they were like, the one that writes
00:15:59.610 --> 00:16:03.289
the words? And they were like, yeah. And it was
00:16:03.289 --> 00:16:05.710
pretty exciting so far. I think they're really
00:16:05.710 --> 00:16:07.330
making that connection, even though our kids
00:16:07.330 --> 00:16:09.970
are a little younger. They're only three, four,
00:16:09.970 --> 00:16:12.529
and five. But I think quite a few of them really
00:16:12.529 --> 00:16:15.409
are understanding that the author is the person
00:16:15.409 --> 00:16:17.409
who writes the words. And they create the books.
00:16:17.549 --> 00:16:21.080
And they can be. authors too and all the things
00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:22.940
so I'm pretty excited that she's going to get
00:16:22.940 --> 00:16:25.519
to come and visit us. With my other school the
00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:29.860
way the scheduling is working for that is I'm
00:16:29.860 --> 00:16:33.759
combining since we have a full day for her at
00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:35.720
that school that school's a little bit bigger
00:16:35.720 --> 00:16:38.519
so I'm glad that we have a full day there we're
00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:43.399
going to have all the specials meet in the school
00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:47.080
cafeteria for the presentation for 30 minutes
00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:50.250
and then for the second 30 minutes of their regular
00:16:50.250 --> 00:16:52.909
specials time they're going to go to their the
00:16:52.909 --> 00:16:55.149
rest of their specials. We normally have one
00:16:55.149 --> 00:16:58.889
hour total in specials so they'll do 30 minutes
00:16:58.889 --> 00:17:02.269
in with our author visit all together with all
00:17:02.269 --> 00:17:05.049
the specials teachers and all the paras kind
00:17:05.049 --> 00:17:08.009
of supporting our students so that we can all
00:17:08.009 --> 00:17:10.450
you know that's a lot of kids like it'll be about
00:17:10.450 --> 00:17:13.369
60 -ish kids all together in the cafeteria at
00:17:13.369 --> 00:17:16.509
once. So we'll all be there to kind of help support
00:17:16.509 --> 00:17:19.190
and help kids focus and stay on task and such.
00:17:19.269 --> 00:17:22.390
And then we'll go to our regular specials after
00:17:22.390 --> 00:17:25.690
that so that it'll be 30 minutes of author visit,
00:17:25.849 --> 00:17:27.730
30 minutes of specials, and we'll kind of keep
00:17:27.730 --> 00:17:29.869
doing that for the rest of the day. So it'll
00:17:29.869 --> 00:17:34.710
be a total of four presentations at that school
00:17:34.710 --> 00:17:39.440
on Thursday. So yeah. That's kind of how that's
00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:41.880
going so far. Obviously I haven't done it yet
00:17:41.880 --> 00:17:44.200
so I'll keep you guys updated on how that goes
00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:46.740
but I'm very excited and I think the kids are
00:17:46.740 --> 00:17:50.480
too and I'm glad that I accidentally, well I
00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:52.940
guess I didn't accidentally, I'm glad I taught
00:17:52.940 --> 00:17:54.559
them what authors and illustrators were this
00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:57.599
year but we've been kind of building toward it
00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:00.599
I think unintentionally and I'm really excited
00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:03.799
that we get this culminating activity at the
00:18:03.799 --> 00:18:05.920
end of the year. That's awesome. That sounds
00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:09.160
really cool. and she's amazing so I think you're
00:18:09.160 --> 00:18:12.380
gonna really enjoy it. I was fortunate I got
00:18:12.380 --> 00:18:15.099
to see one of her presentations for some of the
00:18:15.099 --> 00:18:19.099
older kids when she was in your district prior
00:18:19.099 --> 00:18:24.299
to spring break and her energy level is amazing.
00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:28.700
Like she's super engaging, she's moving around
00:18:28.700 --> 00:18:32.160
and super expressive. I think you're gonna really
00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:34.960
enjoy her presentation. I'm looking forward to
00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:37.130
it. Yeah she seems like she's gonna be really
00:18:37.130 --> 00:18:39.650
engaging for pre -k, which not everybody can
00:18:39.650 --> 00:18:44.069
do. So yes, I'm excited about that. I'm so excited
00:18:44.069 --> 00:18:46.769
about it actually that the next book that we're
00:18:46.769 --> 00:18:48.589
going to talk about is one of hers. It's our
00:18:48.589 --> 00:18:52.009
newest one. So this is the book that one of the
00:18:52.009 --> 00:18:54.609
books that you are very kind actually and gave
00:18:54.609 --> 00:18:59.390
to me from our TLA visit. The next book we're
00:18:59.390 --> 00:19:02.029
going to talk about is Mary Had a Little Jam.
00:19:02.150 --> 00:19:06.210
It was published by Union Square Kids in 2025.
00:19:06.509 --> 00:19:09.630
the author is Tammy Sauer and the illustrator
00:19:09.630 --> 00:19:13.309
is Vanessa Brantley Newton. This particular book
00:19:13.309 --> 00:19:17.990
has not won any awards yet, but Tammy has won
00:19:17.990 --> 00:19:20.430
quite a few awards for some other books that
00:19:20.430 --> 00:19:24.299
we'll list a little bit later. Tammy Sauer grew
00:19:24.299 --> 00:19:27.720
up on a small farm outside of the tiny town of
00:19:27.720 --> 00:19:30.420
Victoria, Kansas. After high school, she graduated
00:19:30.420 --> 00:19:34.140
from Kansas State University with a BS in elementary
00:19:34.140 --> 00:19:36.420
education and she married her high school sweetheart.
00:19:37.059 --> 00:19:39.359
They had two children and later moved their family
00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:41.900
to Edmond, Oklahoma. Tammy was a teacher and
00:19:41.900 --> 00:19:44.799
later a librarian, a library media specialist
00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:47.819
before becoming a children's author. She has
00:19:47.819 --> 00:19:50.859
written over 30 children's books to date, with
00:19:50.859 --> 00:19:53.519
more currently in the works. she still lives
00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:57.339
in Edmund with her family. Some of the other
00:19:57.339 --> 00:20:02.500
books that she has written include Not Now Cow,
00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:06.400
which is on six different state lists, Wordy
00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:10.140
Birdy, which is on 12 lists, Mary Had a Little
00:20:10.140 --> 00:20:15.079
Glam, which appears on five lists, Your Alien,
00:20:16.500 --> 00:20:21.599
and Nugget and Fang. The Illustrator, Vanessa
00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:24.960
Brantley Newton grew up in Newark, New Jersey
00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:28.079
during the Civil Rights Movement. Reading Ezra
00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:31.059
Jack Keats' The Snowy Day was the first time
00:20:31.059 --> 00:20:33.519
that she saw an African -American character in
00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:36.599
a book. Seeing herself reflected in a children's
00:20:36.599 --> 00:20:40.619
book was a defining moment for her and has influenced
00:20:40.619 --> 00:20:44.599
her art as an adult. She strives to include characters
00:20:44.599 --> 00:20:48.259
of all ethnic backgrounds in an effort to recreate
00:20:48.259 --> 00:20:52.670
that moment for others. She has been given 29
00:20:52.670 --> 00:20:56.029
awards and honors over the years for her work
00:20:56.029 --> 00:20:59.650
as an illustrator and author. Some of her other
00:20:59.650 --> 00:21:03.069
books that she has written and illustrated are
00:21:03.069 --> 00:21:06.210
Shake It Off, Nesting Dolls, which is on one
00:21:06.210 --> 00:21:09.509
state list, Becoming Vanessa, which is on three
00:21:09.509 --> 00:21:13.990
state lists, Just Like Me, Grandma's Purse, Don't
00:21:13.990 --> 00:21:17.390
Let Auntie Mabel Bless the Table, and Let Freedom
00:21:17.390 --> 00:21:21.250
Sing. She has also illustrated 27 books for other
00:21:21.250 --> 00:21:24.819
authors so far. And with this particular book,
00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:28.640
Mary had a little jam. The summary is one day
00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:31.339
when playing her ukulele, Mary decides it would
00:21:31.339 --> 00:21:33.859
be more fun to start a band and play with others.
00:21:34.339 --> 00:21:36.900
She recruits other characters from classic nursery
00:21:36.900 --> 00:21:40.059
rhymes such as Jack and Jill and Bo Peep. Together
00:21:40.059 --> 00:21:42.640
they form a band called the Nursery Rhymers.
00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:45.480
Initially the sounds clash when everyone tries
00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:48.579
to play their own songs simultaneously, but eventually
00:21:48.579 --> 00:21:51.039
they come together and learn that with practice
00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:54.329
and unity they can save their performance. I
00:21:54.329 --> 00:21:56.750
thought this was a really cute story. It teaches
00:21:56.750 --> 00:22:00.049
perseverance and teamwork. The illustrations
00:22:00.049 --> 00:22:03.750
are really vibrant. This is the third book in
00:22:03.750 --> 00:22:05.910
a series. The first one is Mary Had a Little
00:22:05.910 --> 00:22:08.910
Glam, and then there's Mary Had a Little Plan.
00:22:09.630 --> 00:22:14.309
There's lots of, it has lots of nursery rhyme
00:22:14.309 --> 00:22:16.130
characters in it, so naturally there's a lot
00:22:16.130 --> 00:22:18.509
of rhyming words in it. I think this would be
00:22:18.509 --> 00:22:20.880
a really good one to play. to maybe read at the
00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:23.859
beginning of the school year. I do this, I usually
00:22:23.859 --> 00:22:28.220
do nursery rhymes -ish type things with three,
00:22:28.279 --> 00:22:30.480
fours and fives toward the beginning of the school
00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:32.119
year because it's something that's a little bit
00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:35.779
more familiar when we're kind of getting to learn
00:22:35.779 --> 00:22:38.180
our routines and procedures and such. I think
00:22:38.180 --> 00:22:40.980
that's a good way to kind of get our kids more
00:22:40.980 --> 00:22:44.559
used to school, I guess, because they're usually,
00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:47.480
they know some nursery rhymes and have some background
00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:50.009
knowledge with that. So it's a kind of a good
00:22:50.009 --> 00:22:53.730
way to expand their knowledge and kind of appreciate
00:22:53.730 --> 00:22:55.730
reading a little bit because just because you
00:22:55.730 --> 00:22:57.869
have that little bit of familiarity with there.
00:22:58.029 --> 00:23:00.470
But yeah, I really enjoyed this story. I love
00:23:00.470 --> 00:23:04.250
that it focused on teamwork and I love the illustrations
00:23:04.250 --> 00:23:09.710
and how bold they are. Yeah, I think and with
00:23:09.710 --> 00:23:13.609
our particular curriculum, we have six weeks
00:23:13.609 --> 00:23:17.430
of just learning about music. So for our curriculum,
00:23:17.710 --> 00:23:20.170
I think I would probably give this one a 5 out
00:23:20.170 --> 00:23:23.609
of 5 because I'm always looking for music books
00:23:23.609 --> 00:23:26.730
to support our pre -k curriculum. Outside of
00:23:26.730 --> 00:23:30.210
the curriculum, I think I might go with a, just
00:23:30.210 --> 00:23:32.130
like reading it at home or just reading it for
00:23:32.130 --> 00:23:35.049
funsies, probably a 4 out of 5. It's still cute
00:23:35.049 --> 00:23:38.769
and it's still good. It's not particularly, I
00:23:38.769 --> 00:23:41.670
think it just doesn't stand out like a ton as
00:23:41.670 --> 00:23:43.750
just a standalone story, but it does support
00:23:43.750 --> 00:23:48.420
our curriculum particularly well. So for If you
00:23:48.420 --> 00:23:50.000
have something that you need to tie it in with,
00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:52.960
like music -wise, nursery rhymes, I think I would
00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:55.319
give it a 5 out of 5. As a standalone, probably
00:23:55.319 --> 00:23:58.559
4 out of 5. I agree. I think it's, like you said,
00:23:58.660 --> 00:24:03.079
it's a very cute story. It's fun to see the different
00:24:03.079 --> 00:24:06.259
nursery rhyme characters being represented in
00:24:06.259 --> 00:24:09.900
the book. I think Vanessa Brantley -Newton does
00:24:09.900 --> 00:24:15.779
an amazing job of having a wide range of diverse
00:24:15.779 --> 00:24:20.240
characters represented in the book. It's really
00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:23.279
cool to see all the different skin tones that
00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:25.839
are used to represent the different characters.
00:24:26.359 --> 00:24:29.140
So I think you're right. I think it's a really
00:24:29.140 --> 00:24:31.519
great book, especially considering the pre -k
00:24:31.519 --> 00:24:34.460
curriculum and the use of the nursery rhymes,
00:24:34.599 --> 00:24:38.000
the rhyming words, the music incorporation. And
00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:42.289
it's a solid story. It's not one that... Like
00:24:42.289 --> 00:24:45.589
is gonna be something that Everyone's gonna be
00:24:45.589 --> 00:24:48.269
like, oh, yeah, I've read all of the Mary had
00:24:48.269 --> 00:24:52.950
books, but it's a solid book It's really enjoyable.
00:24:52.950 --> 00:24:57.089
I think a lot of the kids will get a lot of enjoyment
00:24:57.089 --> 00:25:00.349
out of it So yeah, I think definitely a good
00:25:00.349 --> 00:25:03.619
choice For the makerspace activity for this book,
00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:06.319
I thought it would be fun to make shakers and
00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:08.339
have the kids make their own instruments, which
00:25:08.339 --> 00:25:11.200
is pretty easy to do. I've done it a couple of
00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:14.440
times in the classroom. I have not done it in
00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:16.180
the library yet. That just occurred to me. I
00:25:16.180 --> 00:25:17.940
really should. But that's a pretty easy one to
00:25:17.940 --> 00:25:21.180
do. You just get the cheap paper plates that
00:25:21.180 --> 00:25:24.579
we all love for, you know, all the pre -k class.
00:25:25.240 --> 00:25:28.519
pre -k crafts those little white ones that are
00:25:28.519 --> 00:25:31.180
paper and just really flexible but you color
00:25:31.180 --> 00:25:35.279
on the bottom of it and the kids decorate it
00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:38.940
however they want and then you put some dry rice
00:25:38.940 --> 00:25:41.799
or beans or anything else that was I I do rice
00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:45.259
or beans because it's cheap really but you just
00:25:45.259 --> 00:25:48.819
get a very small like very small little handful
00:25:48.819 --> 00:25:52.170
in there maybe like a teaspoon is even fine and
00:25:52.170 --> 00:25:54.250
just put it on top and then you fold the plate
00:25:54.250 --> 00:25:57.529
in half like a taco and then staple along the
00:25:57.529 --> 00:26:00.950
edge. Then it's magic. You have your own little
00:26:00.950 --> 00:26:04.210
shaker and then it's a great time. It's a little
00:26:04.210 --> 00:26:05.869
noisy. Maybe that's why I haven't done it in
00:26:05.869 --> 00:26:07.569
the library yet. I did it in the classroom though.
00:26:07.670 --> 00:26:08.950
I don't know why I haven't done it in the library
00:26:08.950 --> 00:26:12.710
yet. But it's cheap, it's easy, and it's fast
00:26:12.710 --> 00:26:16.069
and you can kind of encourage the kids to draw
00:26:16.069 --> 00:26:19.289
a little bit more on their plate and be real
00:26:19.289 --> 00:26:21.329
creative with that. You could, I guess with this
00:26:21.329 --> 00:26:23.750
one, you could even like try and get them to
00:26:23.750 --> 00:26:25.950
draw some nursery rhyme characters or some things
00:26:25.950 --> 00:26:29.869
that that they see in the book as well. Yeah.
00:26:30.630 --> 00:26:33.789
I love that idea. I think the kids would really
00:26:33.789 --> 00:26:36.769
enjoy that because then they have their own musical
00:26:36.769 --> 00:26:40.240
instrument they can They all love to make noise.
00:26:40.259 --> 00:26:42.900
So having that shaker going I'm sure the teachers
00:26:42.900 --> 00:26:44.839
will love it when they come back from the library
00:26:44.839 --> 00:26:48.019
with the shakers, too That that's will be their
00:26:48.019 --> 00:26:55.599
favorite But no, that's a super cute idea and
00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:58.920
like you said cheap and Just the kids will really
00:26:58.920 --> 00:27:01.519
enjoy it. It'll be a lot of fun Yeah, that's
00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:05.519
almost no prep, too That's the best. I like low
00:27:05.519 --> 00:27:09.549
prep and a little bit more unique ideas. Those
00:27:09.549 --> 00:27:12.609
are the best. Alright, well thank you guys for
00:27:12.609 --> 00:27:15.309
joining us today on this episode of Librarians
00:27:15.309 --> 00:27:17.890
of Littles. We hope you found some fresh ideas
00:27:17.890 --> 00:27:20.789
for inspiring our young readers. Please be sure
00:27:20.789 --> 00:27:23.730
to subscribe and connect with us on social media.
00:27:24.450 --> 00:27:27.329
Thank you for listening to this episode of Librarians
00:27:27.329 --> 00:27:30.150
of Littles. We hope that you've enjoyed it. Check
00:27:30.150 --> 00:27:34.549
back each Wednesday for a new episode. Librarians
00:27:34.549 --> 00:27:37.329
of Littles is a podcast produced and hosted by
00:27:37.329 --> 00:27:40.970
Patrick Adams and Caroline Legere. Editor, Patrick
00:27:40.970 --> 00:27:44.769
Adams. Our theme song is performed by JD Adams.
00:27:45.210 --> 00:27:47.849
You can follow us on Instagram at Librarians
00:27:47.849 --> 00:27:52.990
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