 Good afternoon. Welcome to Finding Happiness in Hard Times. My name is Ken Birdness and I'm coming to you from Haleiva out at the North Shore. And today we have a joyful topic to talk about. Children's books and families reading together. And to do that, I've invited and have my good friend, Holly Braffett with us, who's the children's librarian out at the Wailua Public Library. Welcome to the show, Holly. Hi, Ken. Thanks for inviting me on today. I'm always happy to talk about books and the love of reading with other book lovers. It's a really exciting thing to talk about. Absolutely. You know, one of the things that we really stress on this show about finding happiness is being sure that you're happy in your job. And Holly, your job to me is, I can't think of a happier one right off end, then reading books and reading children's books. It certainly was a turning point in my life to be able to be able to read and to have the world of books open up to me. And here that happened to you. And then you were able to turn around and help other children do that as well. So maybe that's a good place to start at the beginning. How was it for you when you were young and growing up and how did you get turned on to books? And then later, as an adult, how did you get turned into turning kids on to books and reading? Well, like you, I was an only child. And when I was little, my mom, my mom was very young and she started reading to me from infancy. And by the time I was three, I could already read along with her. It never occurred to me that this was a thing that not everybody did. She read to me every night. We started with where the wild things are and in the night kitchen. And then when I was five and six, we read The Hobbit and Little House and the Prairie. And I grew up with books. My grandmother was also a librarian. So our family always had books in the house and I just sort of took it for granted. As I got older, I became more interested in art and I went to art school. I had a difficult time after art school landing a job. And I had a moment where I was speaking to my mother, who is now a teacher. And I said, I should have been a librarian like grandma. And she's like, why don't we both be librarians? And so we both went to grad school and we both got our library degrees. And now she's a school librarian out in Kata Ava. And I became the children's librarian. Her reading to me as a child naturally flowed into me reading to children in the library. I had her example on how to do the voices and how to read dynamically. And then all of the songs that I learned from her while she was a kindergarten to third grade teacher, it all fit very neatly into it. And I was able to share that with the children in the schools and communities that I worked in. One of the things that Holly and I were talking about is she's not only a librarian, but she's also a writer of children's books and illustrator of children's books and a storyteller. So you cover all the bases there. I was wondering, you know, what really came first? Did you start writing books first? Or was it beginning with children first in the library reading to them books and then you writing the books the other way around? How did that go? I started in art school. I was actually studying computer animation and I had big dreams about working for big animation companies. But I started taking illustration courses as electives and I discovered that that was what I really enjoyed doing. And my mother being a storyteller and a teacher, I asked her one semester to send me a story and I would try illustrating it as a project. And she sent me what would become our first book, which was No Slippers. And I illustrated that during my last year of university and then when I moved back to Hawaii after college, I pitched it to my editor and she picked it up right away. And since then I've been doing about one book a year. I've only written one of them. I wrote a potty book for my daughter and that was a learning experience. As a librarian I have always wondered why there were not more potty books because there's a very high need for them. But I've discovered how awkward it is doing research for those books. And I can see where a lot of people be very shy about actually illustrating them. But it turned out to be the most popular book of all the ones that I've done. Again, there's a big need. Parents need that support at home. So right now I'm working on two books. One has just been a side thing that I've done in addition to being a librarian. And we do book signings down at Barnes & Noble and sometimes I read my books at book events around the island. So I love being able to give back to the community and it's so important for children to find themselves represented in books. And we need more books about our local communities and our local kids. That's important too. Yeah, absolutely. You know, one of the things that I love and I spend a lot of time at the Wailewa Library. One of my favorite times is going in on Saturday mornings around 10 o'clock and that's storytelling time. So I tiptoe in and I see Holly with all these kids around her just hanging on her every word as she introduces these wonderful books to the kids. It is just a joyful experience just watching. Can you tell us a little bit about how you get into storytelling time and the joy that you get and the kids get out of that and how does that work? Why is it so popular? Oh goodness. Storytime is the most important thing that I do as a librarian and it's the scariest. I was so nervous the first time I had to go up in front of a group of kids and you've got to sing songs and do the little rhymes with them and the parents are all staring at you and it took a long time to get comfortable but you just got to fake it and go in there with a good attitude and if you're having fun the kids will have fun. So I always pick books that I like. I've got to read them to myself first and if I find them delightful the kids will usually find them delightful and if I mess them up if you're reading to a group of kids and you say the words all backwards and you just laugh about it the kids will all laugh too and they're all having a good time. One of the most important things about Storytime besides the fact that the children become lifelong readers and lifelong learners if you read to them you're also reading to the parents and showing them that it's okay to be silly it's okay to make the noises and the quacking and the mooing and if you sing the songs out of key it doesn't matter the kids just want you to read to them tell them stories sing with them and they don't care what your voice sounds like they just want to have that connection with you with the little kids we do a lot of shaky eggs and scarf songs during Storytime to keep them active because they can sit through a story but they really got to move their little bodies after each story so if we can get them up we do a little rhyme we can jump up and down and sit back down everybody get your hands in your lap and then we'll read the next book it's a great time because the rowdy your kids get used to it you see week to week they start figuring out what the other kids are doing and what's expected of them in the library and how to work in a group with other kids and they make friends with the other kids and the moms all make connections it's a really beautiful thing and it's so important and it's really one of the most rewarding parts of my job even though every week even 17 years into it I still get nervous when I sit down in front of all of those kids but then afterwards you get this little thrill and you're like that was great or if it was chaos oh my gosh that was out of control but it's always fun and that's just the little kids during the summer I do story time with the older children in the summer fun programs so all the kids that are stuck in daycare all day long we have them come up twice a week during the summer and we do special story times just with the older kids and the older kids like a totally different set of books than the little guys they want scary stories they want ghost stories and they want true stories so the books that I can read to the older kids especially since their parents earn all their staring at me I can get spooky and tell them the scary things and do little jump scares at them and we can make a lot of noise in the library we do these clapping songs and call and response songs and the whole library is shaking and I apologize to the patrons later afterwards thank you patrons I know that was really loud but the kids are so excited to make a lot of noise in the library makes them come back over and over again and it really makes me happy to see my little guys that I had in toddler time which was pre-pandemic we haven't been able to bring toddler time back yep I'm gonna and then the weekly story times for the you know the preschool and slightly older kids we lose them after that they stop coming right around third fourth grade they've got better things to do they've got their own books at the school library they don't want to come to story time anymore and we lose them until about you know sixth grade and then they start coming to me in the summer fund program and they remember why they loved being in the library when they were little when we start seeing them come in again more on their own after school and that makes me so happy I had I was thinking about things that bring me joy when we were talking about this subject and before the pandemic years ago I started telling scary true stories that had happened to me ghost stories and you know I didn't think much about it but the other day like last week I turned around and there was a teenager standing there and she said do you remember me? I was like I do I'm so sorry I don't remember your name but I remember you yes and she says well yeah about five six years ago I was in summer fund and I came up and you told spooky story and I told my friend she introduces her friend who's standing there awkwardly and I wanted you to tell her the story I loved the story so much that I told I wrote my own version of it for a class assignment and I wanted her to hear the original and I was so surprised at what I was doing and I told the story right on the spot and the kids you know gave little shivers and they said thanks and they ran away and I just like that realization that one story that I told years ago to this group of kids it's something struck one of them you know and she's been thinking about it and she's making it her own and she's bringing her friend to the library it was just so wonderful and it's that kind of thing that every time allows us to do to connect these kids and it's so rewarding wow well that brings back memories because I worked with kids too when I first came to Hawaii I was into amateur theater and did a number of productions in Hawaii for the first 10-15 years but then I got a job with Schilfield helping out with drug and alcohol therapy and prevention and the community came to the army where I was working at Schilfield Barracks and he had one of their people come out one of your people come out and talk to kids about substance abuse they don't do substance abuse and so they turned to me and it took one time out to the schools realizing that these kids are not going to listen to adults especially all adults so I started a puppetry program and for the next 15 years in Central Oahu where my focus is we took puppetry programs out to the schools the elementary schools and we did them in the library actually the cafeteria was what it was it was sort of double and so we did two shows we did a show for K through 2 K through 2 or 3 depending upon the school and then we did a show for 4 through 6 and I found exactly what you found you know kids older kids need different stories so I would come in and we would produce two puppet shows totally different for the K through 3 and so the 4 through 6 and that way a child who came into one of these shows at one of the elementary schools like say Sunset Beach Elementary up where I live they would never see the same show they would see a show, a different show because I had 4 shows for K through 3 and then 3 shows for 4 through 6 so I had 7 shows they would always see a different show and I ran into the same thing you did the older kids needed a different type of story they needed things that were going to make them laugh and be surprised at but in both cases it was just a wonderful thing working with kids and your storytelling time certainly does that and it's just incredible and I know the feeling when somebody comes up to you after a long period of time and say that they remembered you know way back when it's like it's like thunderous applause that you're getting from the individual kid and it's a glorious thing let's move on to families one of the things that happened during COVID was we became sort of disconnected and with lockdown and everything difficult time was even more difficult and there was less togetherness between parents and kids we were in a time where the parents were working usually it was both parents need for money things like story time with parents and kids dinner time together and a lot of things just sort of disappeared and kids wound up looking at their iPhones and the parents had all their work to do can you tell us a little bit about how you're able to encourage parents and kids to set aside a time to come together even if they haven't been together officially at a certain projected time but how can we get them back together and operating and enjoying each other parents through children the pandemic was such a shock and really readjusted how everybody was living at the library we had to switch to virtual story times and I did recordings and we put them out on YouTube but it wasn't it definitely doesn't have the same reach as an in-person program one of the things we offered and once word cut it was like wildfire I was willing to put together just piles of books for people so once I told one parent somebody posted on Facebook if you call the library and tell them how old your kid is they'll just put together a stack of books and bring them to the door for you all day long we would get the phone ringing for people who wanted 30, 40, 50 books so people were still reading with their children during that time it was so much fun it felt like a treasure hunt running around the library and picking out all of my favorite books and making giant stacks of what this kid only likes like he really likes trucks and dinosaurs and cats so we're going to get a whole lot of books on that and some of the families I knew they came last week I got to get different books and the wild selection I would put together the parents said it was great there were things in there they would have never necessarily picked on their own and to have that service really help them keep in touch with their child and keep reading with them every night and now as we're getting back into the swing of things again I would really encourage parents put that time aside every night right before bedtime like plan for about half an hour 45 minutes into an hour if you can I know it's hard to read for that long sometimes but if you get into the routine your child will be so happy and expected every night and just keep reading to them like you should some parents they kind of have this idea that they're reading to their child until their child can read and then the child can read on their own and that's true make sure your child has books that they really love reading on their own but keep reading at night read to them until when they're 10, read them Harry Potter when they're 12, read them the Hobbit when they're 13 and 14 if they'll still put up with you read Lord of the Rings with them they can get more challenging and more interesting to you as a parent as they get older and it'll really give you that time that they're going to remember for the rest of their lives and they'll read to their children and they will continue to read on their own independently as adults and that's the real goal we want to have lifelong readers who think of books as friends and a thing that they can do to feel happier in their own lives don't be afraid to make the noises do all the voices and you don't have to do them well this is what I was saying you don't have to be an actor you just have to read with enthusiasm read with love and enjoy yourself pick books that you like to read and just keep at it with your child absolutely when you were talking about that earlier about that gap I'd like to go back to the gap I think talks to what you're talking about now when they're third or fourth grade and you sort of lose them for a while until they come back to the summer fund program later on one of the things that I always tried to encourage was because like Holly I'm an oldie child and so not having siblings but knowing a lot of my friends that had siblings one of the things I did to encourage especially when my friends had their kids was to have their kids once they sort of stopped listening to their parents read have the kids read to their parents and keep it the family time and it's joyful for the parents because their lessons that they passed on the joy of books and how to read helps back to them and keeps them together for that you know whatever amount of time that you've set aside for that I find that that is really helpful when you can have the older kids turn around and read to the younger kids or if you're only children turn around and read to the adults like I'm saying and the adults will love it because they'll see the fruits of their labors sort of you know and that's one of the things that I really emphasize is bringing families together and I think books are such a wonderful way to bring every member of the family together and bring them closer and have things to share not only in the moment but memories to share like you're talking about with your with your parents yeah I hadn't really thought about kids reading to other kids or kids reading to their parents too much since my point of view I'd always been you know reading to the kids I have three children myself and as an only child you know I didn't have any little siblings to read to and my mother worked a lot so I read to myself mostly so it just never occurred to me to ask them to do that but I think so long as you're not making it a chore you have to go read to your little brother you have to sit and read to me for an hour now that's going to make them anxious and unhappy and really self-conscious about getting words wrong but of course you know if you read to your child with love and enthusiasm they will naturally model that behavior and you'll turn around in the car and find that they're reading to their little brother or sister in the backseat and you didn't even have to ask them to if they want to read to you try to make time for that and say yeah let's hear it you know and try not put it away with whatever it is that you're working on if you can and give them that chance to have that time with you so long as it's a pleasure and the chat you know it's not being seen as a chore and work and something they have to do or they're going to get in trouble absolutely the whole family should read together as much as they enjoy you know that's a great point about the chore say you know I mean because you know even then most innocuous chore becomes a real pain in the acoly when the kid is thinking oh I got to do this you know and if I don't they're going to yell at me or I'm going to do it wrong and that's perfect yeah we have a lot of parents that come to the library that want something challenging for their child I'm like is this is this for fun this summer reading or fall break reading well they need to challenge themselves how they don't if they are reading books they love even if they're comic books Captain Underpants man even if you think it's silly what they're reading if they are sitting there reading a book and they're absorbed in it you are winning that child read and they will keep reading and when that's too easy for them they will naturally progress to the next thing they will only read things that are at the right level for them so be patient be supportive I love that you're reading it's so great and bring them to the library well said thank you for that Holly Holly we're sort of coming to the end of the show and one of the things that I usually ask people and I will ask you relates to the catastrophes that everybody's been going through in the world including us here in Hawaii with Maui Wildfires of course and I've asked Holly to sort of tell us a little bit about a couple books that she has that she might recommend to families that have gone through some really really difficult times and not had a chance to be together or lost some members or have lost you know grievous losses like Holmes and you know and that two books that might inspire hope and Holly's brought them along and let me turn it back to Holly to share those with you it was a great thing to think about because when children go through traumatic events they might not actually want to talk about it and definitely they don't want to read about it so it depends on the situation we do have books that deal with divorce and grief and you know if your child is ready to talk about it we have books to help but for a lot of times a work of fiction will help a child kind of get their head around those issues in a way when they see the character dealing with it and the situation they can relate to it and they'll internalize that so you don't have to hit them over the head with a book you know about grief but you can read them a gentle story that will help them process it so one of my favorite ones that I've read recently was the Beatrice Prophecy and this is by Kate Decamolo she wrote The Tale of Despero and her writing is beautiful the vocabulary is excellent so it's a great read aloud story for your child this is the story of a little girl who has a terrible thing happen to her but she can't remember what it was she wakes up one morning with a terrible fever she can't remember what happened and she's clutching the ears of a very mean goat she doesn't know the goat is a mean goat but she has made her way to the monks at the Chronicles of Sorrowing and there's this monk named Brother Edek in the Wandering Eye and he finds this child with this goat that everybody is afraid of named Anselica and he realizes immediately that there's something very special about this little girl and it doesn't take long to figure out that one of the things that is special about her she can read and this is a time when it is forbidden for anyone to know how to read except for the royalty and for the monks who are asked with writing down the Chronicles he realizes he needs to protect this child and as Beatrice starts to slowly remember who she is and the terrible things that happened to her she dives into a story she spills it out onto paper and she writes the story to help herself process what happened to her and when she realizes who she was she's going to retake her kingdom and she's going to find her mother and she's going to put things right and it's a very inspirational story it has a lot of hope in it even though all these terrible things happen to this little girl and she's running from something really awful she's going to make it right she's going to take a stand and she's going to go face the king it's a wonderful story when it's dealing with the difficult subjects with their kid second story is the skull and this one is much lighter story it's a dark and spooky ghost story for children who are feeling a little dark and spooky but it's again a child who is running from something and she has to face it and solve it and triumph it's a wonderful story horrific and it sounds like a great Halloween story which is coming up right on us so that's great and we're out of time so Holly let me thank you so much for coming and sharing your thoughts and ideas and your love of books and the love of working with children I really appreciate it thanks for having me it was delight and thanks to all the people who are tuned in as always we appreciate you being out there in the audience and all the people at Think Tech Hawaii including Ajay and Michael and Carol just in Haley of course we really appreciate all your help and support and in two weeks we hope you'll return because we've got a joyful and magical story about old cars and the love of vintage cars and classic cars and that should be a lot of fun if you're into automobiles and even if you're not I'm sure you'll enjoy it and thank you so much for coming in and Aloha