Visit to the Library

Visit to the Library

[Music]

Kristin: Hello, everyone. We are back with children's librarian, Blythe. Hello, Blythe. Thank you for having us.

Blythe Summers: Absolutely. Thanks for coming. Hi.

Dawn: Well, we're so glad to be here talking to you today because we've been talking about challenging behaviors, just the few children in the classroom that have some really tough ones. And so, we wanted to highlight some things to counteract that has some resiliency and persistence type books that can help children focus on what you can do afterwards and strategies to do to calm down and tell us the highlights and individual strengths.

Blythe: Absolutely. So the books I've got here are about perseverance, resiliency, and individuality.

Dawn: Perfect.

Blythe: This first one is called "The Most Magnificent Thing." This is about a little girl who, in fact, wants to invent the most magnificent thing.

Dawn: I think of that as a STEM book.

Blythe: It is a STEM book, yes. And things go wrong. Dawn: OK. Oh, she's angry.

Blythe: She gets angry, she gets frustrated, things aren't going her way. But what I really love about this book is that it shows how she calms down, regroups, and starts her planning over again. And in the end, we've got a magnificent invention that she's created. So, I love that. I love the persistence.

Kristin: Yeah, she keeps trying. I love that kind of message. Great. Okay.

Blythe: This is "Bounce Back," a great book about resiliency. It's not as much a story as it is a straightforward look at some strategies for kids to bounce back when things don't go their way.

Dawn: Well, and then once you've figured out what the new replacement behavior is, what to do, then this is a way to kind of reinforce that. These are other things I can do. I know how to recover. I can bounce back.

Kristin: I can bounce back. Great.

Blythe: And this is "Pete the Cat." Kristin: We love "Pete the Cat."

Blythe: Everybody loves "Pete the Cat." I particularly love his attitude, and that's what's so great about this book. Pete keeps stepping in something and turning his shoes different colors. But does Pete cry? Goodness no. He kept walking along and singing his song. "Everything's cool," he says.

Kristin: Everything's cool. Oh, yeah.

Blythe: And that's his attitude through the whole book. It's OK when things change or when things go wrong.

Dawn: And you embrace the new.

Kristin: Yeah, that's right. My red shoes are just fine.

Blythe: That's fine. Yes, and this is "Hoot and Peep." Hoot's little sister Peep just isn't going to hoo-hoo in the proper way. She's got her own ideas about what sound she wants to make. "Schweepty-Peep."

Kristin: Oh, little Peep. [Laughter]

Blythe: This book looks at how we can make space for everyone to be themselves.

Kristin: That's great, that individuality piece, right? It's okay if I'm a little bit different. I want to say it a little bit different.

Blythe: Absolutely, we've all got space, we've got space for everyone to be themselves. Kristin: Great.

Blythe: And finally, we've got some resources for adults. This is "Socially Strong, Emotionally Secure: 50 Activities to Promote Resiliency in Young Children." There's other books like this. Every book that you check out from the library does not have to be for the kids. We've got resources for early childhood educators as well on all sorts of subjects.

Dawn: I did not even think about that.

Kristin: Right. Exactly. I might not think about that as I'm going to my library that there really is something for me as an educator, as a teacher. What else is hiding in your library? [Laughter] What other collections do you have that people might not know about?

Blythe: Right, so we've got music CDs, of course. Kristin: Those look great, all right.

Blythe: Yeah and that's going to be here in the library. We've got these kits where we've got a book and a CD paired together. The CD is going to read the story aloud to kids. Speaking of stories that we read aloud to kids, we also have BookFlix and TumbleBooks on our website. And those are streaming services. You get to see the pictures advance as a voice narrates the story for the children.

Kristin: Those are great. I've seen those. They're really engaging.

Blythe: You can access those anywhere you've got some internet access. It's great. And finally, at the Seattle Public Library, we're lucky enough to have this collection called the "Begin with Books" kits, so the bags that we've got here. And you might just want to investigate and see what's in there.

Blythe: It's a story time in a bag. Dawn: Story time in a bag?

Kristin: Anyone could just check the whole bag out, ready to go. Blythe: Absolutely, yes.

Kristin: Different topics?

Blythe: They're on a variety of different topics geared to preschoolers and also some that are geared to toddlers. They're going to have five books on a particular subject plus an activity guide, a resource guide for the adults, and a music CD as well.

Kristin: Oh, my gosh.

Blythe: Yes.

Dawn: What a fantastic resource.

Blythe: Yeah, this particular one is self-esteem but we've got all kinds of different topics.

Kristin: All kinds of different topics. That's amazing. So Blythe, before we wrap up, what is kind of a big question that people ask you or what else can a librarian do? Lots of things, we know. [Laughter]

Blythe: Yes, I know, people tend to think of us just about books but there's a lot of different services and things that we might be able to provide for you. One thing that I really encourage early childhood educators to find out is if their local library has a book mobile and if the book mobile is able to visit in their neighborhood or their site. It's always worth an ask, worth a question.

Kristin: Book mobile, love it.

Blythe: Yes, and if maybe you're lucky enough to have a library within walking distance or travel distance of your site and you can bring the kids to a program at the library. Ask about story time. Do you have story time? Would it be a good fit if I brought my kids to your story time?

You can also ask a librarian, "Are you willing to come to my site and deliver story time for us?" Blythe: We love to get out of the building. It's always worth asking if we can come visit.

Kristin: You travel.

Blythe: We travel. We love to, yes, absolutely. Kristin: That's really great.

Blythe: Absolutely. We've got a whole system in place with the Seattle Public Library to answer book recommendations for people. Of course, you can come into the library and talk to a librarian in person. You can call us, you can email us. And one of the easiest things to do is to go to our website and find the "Ask Us" button and you can ask us a question. You can ask us a question about anything, but if it's related to children, it's going to go to children subject specialists working downtown at our library to answer those questions. We love to answer questions about when there's a tricky situation and you need a specific book. We'll see if there's one for the need that you have. We also are happy to help with topic selections. You're focusing on a certain subject and you need some book suggestions, we're happy to provide that.

Dawn: I imagine that's just going to save some time, right? Like, I would love a book list from a librarian who's so knowledgeable and well-resourced. Like, that's the book list I want.

Kristin: Yes, exactly.

Blythe: We're here for you. It's our job and so I always encourage people to meet their children's librarian, introduce yourself, and get that relationship going, because we're here for you.

Kristin: That's amazing.

Dawn: We just want to say it has been invaluable for us to learn what a fantastic community resource librarians are and everything we've learned from everything else that you can offer over the course of our season here, the book recommendations, all the other resources. It's just a really important, invaluable community resource and we really thank you for your time.

Blythe: Oh, well, thank you so much. It's been a real treat to be able to share all these books. It's one of my favorite things to do. Thank you so much, Blythe.

[Music]