 Welcome to Pitcher This. I am Chenda. I'm working from home today. My name is Chenda, and I'm from the Berry King County Library. And we're both working for the Long Beach Public Library in Long Beach, California. And May, we're excited to announce is Asian American Pacific Islander Month. So we're going to kick off with books and events, but for Pitcher This, we have lots of Pitcher books to share. Pitcher This is our monthly conversation airing the first Wednesday of every month. Denea, what do you have to share this month? Okay, well, I have four books that I want to share for Asian American and Pacific Islander Month. My first book is Ho'unani Pula Warrior by Heather Gale. And this book is based on the documentary of a place in the middle by filmmaking, Steve Hammer, Joe Wilson, and the help of Tina Lemoana, Kwe Kong, Wong, Kali. The story is about a young girl named Ho'unani who doesn't see herself as a walking, which means girl in Hawaiian or kind or boy. In Hawaiian culture, for those who embrace feminine and masculine traits are called monkeys. And in the front, in the beginning of the story, you actually can read there's an excerpt in the beginning that tells you about the role of the monkey in their society and how they're really looked highly upon or very valued. So in this story, Ho'unani wants to audition for the high school kind, which is a traditional Pula chant. And these are mostly done, these chants are mostly done by males. And so she wanted to go and try out for it. And there was, and with that, you have to audition three times with this to be able to see if you can be part of the group. And she went through all three, and she was exciting and she was nervous to do this because she was a whole new girl. But she felt it inside her that this is something that she wants to do, her parents supported her. But her sister wasn't really sure about, like, she just wasn't sure why her sister wants to do a lot of stuff more of a kind stuff. But Ho'unani was like, I like she likes to do both. And she wanted her to do it like that. So at the audition, you can see that they're all boys. There's no girls that are trying out for except for Ho'unani. So the great thing is she kept going, she persevered and she was strong, sure and steady. And she ended up being the leader for the performance. So on that day, she was nervous, but she kept going. And as you can read through the book, you can see that, like, all the wonderful things that she had to do to get to it. And this is them at the performance. And she is right there. She's right in the way and she's leading the group. And she, and throughout the story, you hear this, you see this, you go strong, sure and steady. That's what she was. And even though her sister was kind of hesitant about her doing all these, she was actually the best supporter at the end. I thought this was a beautiful story that's part of Hawaiian culture. And I hope that you all check this one out. It's very beautiful book. Okay, I'm going to move on to my next one. And the next one is a big little cake for a little star. And this is written by Grace Lynn. This is a little bit older. This was back in 2018, but I wanted to share this one because it's such a cute story. This is a little star. And you can see her, she's a big mooncake. Well, in this story, you can see a mother, her mother, and little star baking a mooncake. And one night when they were able to, they baked the cake and the mom wanted to lay out the big mooncake out until the night sky too cold. And your mother told her, don't eat it. We have to save it because it's so big and we want to, you know, you don't want to eat it all, but the little listen. I don't know. She fell asleep. And she was hungry. And she took, she tiptoed and she ended up going to the really big mooncake. And she took a little nibble. And then she went back to sleep. She's not back. What do you think happened? Let's see. If you kept going back and eating, this is a really big mooncake. So, it's really cute because in this book, you get to see how she really enjoys this mooncake and how the mooncake tastes. So at the end, it's really cute because the mother goes and she wants to go look for the mooncake and there's no mooncake to unsound except for a little crumb. So at the end, you have to find out what happened to little moon, the little star, and the mom, when the mom finds out that she ate all of the mooncake. So our next one is, I have drawn together. This is but written by Moonly. And he is a writer and also a first generation Vietnamese American. And also that he has an illustrator, my favorite, Dan Phan Phat, who helped illustrate this book. This book was published in 2019, but I wanted to showcase this for AAAPI. This is a somewhat wordless picture book about a grandson and his grandfather, who I guess you can see that trying to communicate was not really, it is not the easiest thing to do because language and their life, they like different things, but they still really love to be with each other. So, but never fear. But grandpa notices his grandson drawing, and this is something great happened. They come together without the use of words, but by immersing themselves in their drawings together. So Dan Santa did a wonderful job creating the illustrations to help tell this story. So you have to read it to find out how they were able to communicate, and really the illustrations in this book are just beautiful. So that's my letter one and my last one for me. And then I'll move it on to the agenda. This is, and many colors of heart shaped things. So in this book, his story is about heart shaped things who loves colors. And he has different color packets. So packets are turban on his head. So, so whatever mood or whatever occasion or feeling has his turban, or his packets always kind of tell the story. In the story, it's his mother finds another job in a snowy town across the country. He is usually in a very sunny, happy place that he loves and had to move. And then he wore, you can tell as time progressed, he was really sad because he had to move. And his turban or his packets turned to gray because he was sad. And then he turned, and he always were white because he wanted to become invisible because he was sad. And if you look at me, some of the people kind of noticed that he's sad. So one day, as he's walking, he notices a hat on the floor. And it looks like a frown. But then once he picks it up, it's a smile as he knew who it belonged to. And from that day forward, he made a friend of his own. And then after that, the colors came back. And everything seemed to be going well. And at the end, you know that he knew and the colors and everything came back to him and he was happy. So it just took time. And it was really, it's a really wonderful book about colors and learning about the turban. So he goes in the back and actually talks about the history of it. And one of the things I learned was that reading that turbans, your mind speaks that everyone is equal and important. There's more information on their value like that one. That is my last book. What about you, I know you have some books that you want to talk about. I do, but I love your, your selections, especially I can't wait to read about is it hot precinct. Especially that the author's note about Shikism. So that's something to understand the reason why that, you know, they were determined. And I love, I felt so touched by the drawn together book. You know, grandparents and parents of who come to the United States and don't speak English and then they have children in the United States. And at the same time, the, the barrier of the language barriers kind of like, I'm pretty, pretty wide because you don't, you don't speak, or you don't share the, your native language at home so hope everyone like still celebrate Asian Pacific Islander Month by actually speaking, maybe their native language or having games or even charades using your native language does a good way to celebrate that. But for my first two, it's just general picture books that I love to share. I love this one. I've been waiting for a long time to share this one so I'm not going to wait any longer. I'm the go awesome by Lisa H death lesson and illustrated by Robert Newpecker, Robert Newpecker, he is an awesome awesome illustrator, and this one is just a book about playing trains and automobiles but also using some supervative and comparative adjective to show the awesomeness of not just looking at something or passively viewing trains that are cool, but watching a train is very cool. And but conducting and writing on a train is even cooler because you're in it, but imagine conducting it being in control is, you know, going through the mountain is awesome. And it goes through all the different modes of transportation for a train excavator at construction site, a submarine, or even a monster truck race, or even boats and even riding the rockets. And it just keeps saying you know, being an observer, it's pretty good. Like boats are excellent. Watching a boat race is more race is more excellent. And being sail on a boat is most excellent, but happening a boat across the vast ocean. That is awesome. So it's really a wonderful book just on the move, and I love this last illustration, his campers are cool. Sleeping in a camper is totally cool, but traveling across the whole country with your family, which some of us hopefully get to do. Now that's awesome, and you can see that. And this illustration, and it's perfect with the writing. Everything is so active, and I love that this book. And don't forget if you're reading this book, you can go back and try to see all the little details. In the illustrations, because there's a couple of pages or that shows them a little doggy and you can't miss that. So it's a really wonderful full page illustration. And so I hope you give it a look it up and check it out. And the other one is a book written by an illustrated by two servers so it's really awesome and cool. It's a story of mindfulness and surfing so this is mob rides the waves of life story by Jamal yogis illustrated by Matthew Alan, and I love the illustration, plenty of mindful illustration and words that are just perfect. And it's, of course in watercolor pencil. I just love this kid. He's mop, and what you can tell people call him mop because well, it's obvious right look at his head. But he doesn't take that as an insult it's, it's part of his physical. You know, characteristic so I love to surf, and he loves it a lot lot lot. He loves everything about surfing in the morning. But then he has to go to school. And things are not always like surfing in real life right. So he got mad at somebody that he push, and he goes throughout the day in the week and it's just getting really rough. But then his mom said, you know what mop, you're a great surfer, but you can learn to surf life to surf life. That sounds hokey. Have you tried so mop gets it to try he can start by letting your breath go in and out like the tide. And breathing mindfully helps you notice the emotional waves inside. And you know he tries it, and it feels like floating on board. So when you feel bad, just breathe in. Don't be scared. A stormy waves are natural. And it's, it's wonderful. So you, you see the notice that illustrated the author and illustrators detail. These are kind of like fear, anger, sadness, those are natural feelings. And like waste, you can just let it go through you. And then when you feel it happy feelings come, enjoy them, just like his mother. That's so wonderful. So enjoy that. But you know what, that thing still happen. And, you know, mop has to just learn to deal with it. Take a deep breath. Let it go a little bit. I felt my breathing in and out like the tides. I remembered angry waves are natural. But then, you know, he had, he saw a choice. So he still felt bad, but he knew bad won't last and take found ways to deal with his emotion. And all the way back to the beach. So mob rides to wave of life. It's really cool and awesome. And I can't wait the author does have another book coming out. It's mob rides, the wave of change and I can't wait to see to read and look at the details of that one is illustrated and it's totally awesome. Just like the two servers that wrote it and illustrated. So I can't wait for the next one. And then the nail, what do you have, but you want me to go on or go ahead and go on. Okay, so this is my, my favorite for the API sharing, because I love this author is came out a long while ago with the still stuck. The author's name is Shinsoki Yoshitaki. The boring book. And the, there must be more than that. It's a really great illustrated book on very kind of a dry sense of humor, but it's like every day things that he shows and he shares because the author obviously is a good observer of life. And he just shares like, you know, if you're, if you're bored, you might try to intelligently explore the ways that see that this seemingly stagnant state is actually a portal into a mind blowing experience and have more fun than anyone ever imagined. And so it's an encouraging kid, like if you're bored, well, why are you so bored and then using your mind to get out of your state. And I love this one. And but my favorite is the latest, there must be more than that. It's kind of like what we have now when we're like, we're stuck at home in the pandemic. Kids are learning virtually, you know, you guys have to watch this video. Hopefully you're enjoying picture this. But, you know, is the future going to be that way? Are we're going to run out of food because there are too many people. Will there be plagues and war and aliens invasion and toward the earth will be destroyed. By the time we grow up, things are going to be so terrible. No way, really. Until grandma put it in perspective. Don't worry. No one really knows what will happen in the future. Sure, there will be bad things, but there will be lots and lots of good things too. When they grow up, act like they can predict the future. Tell you what to do, anyway, but they're not always right. And so she goes along and grown ups often tell you to choose one of two things, right. This one or that one. But if neither of them seems right. There are many choices out there. Over here. Look, there are many different ways of looking at the future and the future where it's okay to spend the rest of the day in pajamas. Could you imagine? We can go out. I see some people going out into pajamas sometimes. What if every Saturday is Christmas or whatever holiday where you get the most presents. Or where you, can you just using your imagination. You can think of what, what if the future where someone does your homework for you. That'll be nice. Or if your future where your room has a zero gravity switch, we can just float up and about. And then her brother. That's pretty cool. And there you go. So you can start thinking of like, what can your future be? What if you have a spot in your dress, and then your mom lets you paint that spot all over your room and everywhere else. It's pretty cool. And I love the illustration. And if you're our, if you really love this illustrator author, you can check them out and like a video he has on NHK. And it's a great interview and you learn that he actually draw all these pictures in little index card because he never, he cannot draw in big pictures like this. So he has to take the illustration that he draws in little cards and then large head. And it turns out the author, even though he's a wonderful illustrator and gives, gives really funny text. He's not a good colorist. So he's not great in everything. So they have to have somebody that does the coloring separately. And I love this last illustration is like, Hi mom, what's for dinner. Huh, just leftover. We have some eggs. Do you want one boiled or fried? What? Oh, she's so mad. But there are more ways to make an egg than that. And then she has two and a half pages of just other ways you could have your eggs, except she can't decide. So I hope you get this author illustrator. I try to really wonderful book. You want to go on? Well, I have Mother's Day books. So do you have any other books that you want to talk about? No, my last two is Mother's Day too. Because May is also Mother's Day. Everyone has one. Yes, or more than one or one. Yes. So I picked two books or two authors actually for this. So, and this isn't actually a Mother's Day book, but this is a new book that we have in our picture book section and it's titled A Gift for Amma. It's a market day in India. So I thought this was really a fun book to have and Amma in South Indian languages means mother. So we follow a girl who wants to go to the market and to surprise her Amma with gifts. So she goes to the market and we are presented with such beautiful illustrations. And not only that, we have not the illustrations, but we have the colors again, which but then this is different because we have saffron orange. So they're very specific colors and it helps describe the beautiful things that she finds and she also makes like this pink page is the lotus pink or peacock green, which is actually shown in the background and have vermilion red. I have never heard about that. And also there's red hot peppers they spill over her face and she sneezes. So I thought this was a really great book and it really shows like the life in the market day in India. Also, we always love it when there's information on the back of the book that tells us about the story. So this actually is, at the end, the author explains that the market in the story is based on the Vada Palani and Mai Lapoor markets in the author's hometown Chennai in India. And these are things that she would probably find at the market. So there's like Jasmine motors, you'll see pigeons over there, terracotta, indigo. So there's colors and she also talks about different markets around the world. And you can't forget a picture with her mother. So this is the author and her mother. And it's a very beautiful book that's this one. And my last author is Amy Rosenbaum who has written actually many books about mothers and these are two that I wanted to show today. So the first one is that's me loving you, which is a very sweet book. And it's a story of a mother telling her child that she is that no matter where you go. She'll always be there wherever you are wherever you go. Always remember and always know. For example, that shimmering star that's me linking at you. So everything that you might see or you look at the mother's reminding her child that that's just her sending her love. And at the end, no matter what. So at the end that feeling you always having your heart that's me loving you, whether together or apart. It's a really sweet book if you guys want to read it together. And then this is really funny when I love it and spend time for money so it's a really it's opposite and I think we were talking about this how a parent to love this to the kids to put them to bed so in the middle of the night you have a young daughter putting her mother to bed and it's the same or is she's doing the routines that we would probably do if we were trying to put somebody to bed so it's time for bad money. As you can see the mommy's working hard. And she's like, the mom goes five more minutes. Okay, five more minutes but that's it. She gives her back tells her story, puts her to bed and don't forget like I'm thirsty so she wants some milk. So she finally puts her to bed. But at the end of the story which I thought was really cute because we can't forget about her dad. And there's almost daddy it's time for bed. So this is a really adorable book and as you can see, the parents are peeking in on her too. So she really this is a really cute book. And it's a book that you have to check out. And those are my books for Mother's Day. What about you? I love your choice. I do have a couple that is for this one is Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon. This is an AAPI appropriate by Kate Zhang and illustrated by Charlene Chow. It's a follow up to Amy Wu and the Perfect Bow, and it's a little bit of a mixture of kind of like Western and Eastern kind of like storybook about what's your perception and what's your cultural introduction to dragons. So during story time, the teacher Miss Mary reads Amy's class a book about dragons, and then they do they listen to the characteristic of a westernized dragon. And, you know, so the dragon are usually hoarders of treasures, they will fire they fight the night, and then she tells everyone to make their own dragons, but Amy has a different idea what a dragon should be because this is her story from her parents and her grandma. And so she draw a different dragon that does not look like her classmates dragon. They kind of make fun of her that maybe she's wrong, maybe her dragon it's not right. And she struggles with it until she goes home and grandma. Oh, why the sad face. So grandma tells her and her grandma gets a twinkle and twinkle in her eye. Come she says, let me tell you a story. Then she tells them about dragons that bring down the rain dragons that are wise and just and dragon that fly without wings very different. And then Amy remembers the dragon that costume that she has in the attic, and they bring it down. And then she has a wonderful idea with her parents and grandma's help. They created something of a mixture of the Western and Eastern dragon and shared with her classmates. So it's a really cute story just about what is the different cultural definition of certain creatures and what do you have to define when you the certain animals so a dragon in China story and mythology is very different. So there you go and then the author included also a dragon activity in the bath that you can do. And then she also explained the Eastern dragon is a symbol of good luck. It's not fearful and strength in many cultures. It's usually has a long thin body and no wings. It's very different and a different colors and can have wide range of magic powers depending on the story. And often they're very intelligent. Why a Western dragon is usually right has four legs and like big leathery wings and claws. So unlike Eastern dragons, they often breathe fire. So their horns tend to be sharp and pointy and their claws look like lizards claws and they're greedy and living caves and love treasures. It's a little bit different, but that's what you can share on two different cultures, Eastern or Western, but they're all wonderful to share. So I hope you give this a try and my two final books is celebrating Mother's Day. This one I will share first. It's so wonderful. It's digital illustrations and it talks about this little girl that is getting ready to go to school and she looks at herself in the mirror. And some people have eyes like sapphire lagoons with lashes that lace like lace trim on ball gowns sweeping their cheeks as they twirl. Big eyes, long lashes, but not me. So she's looking at her friend who are very different. I have eyes that kiss in the corner and glow like warm tea just like mama. So happy Mother's Day. So it's wonderfully illustrated and she goes on to how she feels about having the same features as her mom. Not all of us look like our mom, but it's kind of nice to see them in books that look like us. And her mama is just have eyes that just like amas. So maybe her grandmother. Oh, and then her grandmother tells her and share her stories. And then guess what my amas never eyes, never age her eyes are just like maybe so she has a little sister, the Chinese word for like little little sister or younger sister maybe. We don't know her little sister's real name. Maybe. Maybe his eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea, blink against the window until I come home from school. Oh, there's her little sister modeling after her and they play. And then they play together. She totals after me gazing up at me like I am her best present. And there you go. Maybe as I that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea, or just like mine. And there she is. In the future, my eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea, or a revolution. And there you go you see her eyes so beautiful, kind of remind me of you. They are mama and name, mama and maybe they are me, and they are beautiful. So I hope you guys will take out pictures of your mommies and grandmommies and look at them and see do you guys have their eyes, or maybe it's a little different too. So this one I forgot to introduce is by Joanna Ho and illustrated by Deng Ho. There you go. It's beautiful. And this one is another one to celebrate mommies and what I like most by Mary Murphy illustrated by Zhu Sheng Ling. It's a beautiful picture. It's a picture book that has all the illustration that you can possibly love with a perfect little girl in the beginning that says, What I like most in the world is my and then she starts out with her window, and then she goes on to talk about her apricot jam that her mom makes her favorite shoes is my favorite one, because they're the shoes that glow you know I've seen these that they blink and they have little lights, and she's like them because, except for these shoes, they have lights that flash to show where I am going. I can walk and jump and run in them. My feet do a tiny bounce with every step. One day the shoes will wear out or my feet will grow too big for them. Right now they're what I like most in the world, except for she goes on to talk about the river that she loves most. The fries that she loves most in the book and her teddy bear. And of course, she even loves her pencil. And there's a picture of her being smaller than her teddy that she got and her mom. Except for you, you have been here since before I was born, you look after me. Mostly we have good times, even when we are upset with each other, we belong together. And even though you change and I change. I get hurt her mom facing up. What do you think they're fighting about. You think she doesn't want to wear a coat or keep leave her teddy bear at home. We don't know what you, what are you and your mommy fight about, but you are what I like the very, very most in the world. So sweet. And then at the beginning we see it's like spring, and then the summer, and like everything in the beginning to the end, everything changed but some things remain the same and what you like most in the world. So you guys will give this book review or read it and share it together. And what I suggest you can do is you can start out making maybe your own scrapbook, maybe a picture collage of what you like most in the world and why, and see how many you can come up with. You can put a picture like the illustrated it what you like most in the world and why and but except for what's the next one going to be. Do you like going for walks with mommy, maybe your cat, or maybe your dad, or who else, or what else do you like most in the world except. If you give this a try. Alrighty, we can't forget, besides Asian American Pacific Islander month and Mother's Day. We have a lot of activities and event to share. It's going to be in the month of May. So be sure to check out our library website lbpl.org or long beach.gov forward slash library. And also you can find us on Facebook and if you Google picture this on YouTube, you'll find as they're also If you're interested in any of the books that we have mentioned today, type in picture this 0421. 0521 on our library catalog search bar and the list of book will appear. So I hope you give that a try. So we'll see you next month. Thank you for joining us for picture this farewell and stay safe. And this is tender. Bye.