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Alison Green Myers:
I’ll get started here with a quick welcome and hello from the Highlights Foundation. I’m sending you all wishes for safety and peace tonight, and always I’m Alison Green Myers, for those of you I haven’t met, I’m the program director here at the Highlights Foundation and I’m excited for a summer Gather with the friends we have gathered here with me tonight. From the Highlights Foundation is our executive director, George Brown. Hi, George! And I see several Highlights Foundation team members in the participation panel as well.

A couple of notes for you as our gathered guests at a webinar. We cannot see your video or hear your audio during the session; we can see the QA Feature. The chat right now is only turned on for our hosts and panelists, but in just a moment I’ll be opening that up for everyone. We’ll also be recording tonight’s session, and we’ll make sure that you get a copy of the recording and a copy of all of the great links we put in the chat tonight. If we mentioned book titles, I’ll put those into the chat as well, and we’ll share them in that recording, too. We would really love for you to add questions that you have to the Q and a feature. It’s so easy for us to find the questions then, and when we get to the end of the special conversation we’ll open up to the questions that you have. You may have heard me say this before, but it’s very worth saying again in these spaces—in the Q&A feature on a Zoom Webinar, or if we’re together at the Highlights Foundation in person, we ask for your respectful engagement. We ask that you join us tonight with no hate, no harm, and no harassment of any kind. I’ll place a link once we get started to our community standards in the chat for those of you who are just getting to know us, or for those of you who would like to read our full commitment . And we bring this commitment to all of our programs and partnerships for a safe and inclusive environment.

I’ll say that tonight’s Gather–we haven’t had a Gather for a few weeks, and and I love them. I love bringing these great conversations together with amazing authors. And I would say, tonight’s conversation is a small part of a much larger initiative which feels perfectly fitting when we’re talking about climate change. When we’re talk about talking about the title that we have tonight is amplifying Black voices for social justice, racial equity, and caring for our planet. And when we think about it, we all play this part, right, in amplifying Black voices for social justice and for caring for this planet that we love, and we’re a part of. If you don’t know this already—if you didn’t see it in some of the announcements, this Gather and many other pieces are connected to a partnership with Knology to amplify black storytellers in STEM BlackRep4Kids. It’s a collaboration with the National Science Foundation. It’s a funded project that is led by Knology in collaboration with us here at the Highlights Foundation for programs just like this, the National Black Child Development Institute and the Association of Children’s Museums. This special project brings together Black researchers and practitioners from a variety of fields. I love this. It’s climate scientists, developmental psychologists, informal learning and children’s media, which is us here, storytellers, to collaboratively develop methods and strategies for creating children’s climate media that helps Black families and their children discuss, prepare for and respond to a multitude of environmental threats.

Wow! Big! We’re very grateful to be a very small part of this great big initiative. And I offer my gratitude tonight to our authors that we have gathered here: Pamela Courtney and Crystal Allen and Andrea Loney. They’ll be sharing with us personal experiences. They’ll be sharing with us stories from talking to kids and stories that they’re writing for kids. They’ll give us some craft techniques. I love that the three storytellers we have here work so hard to center kids in all that they do. They’re great teachers. They’re great presenters, and they’re great storytellers. So we’ll learn an awful lot.

One of the things that we talked about just briefly was thinking about climate change and thinking about the idea of offering both the honesty, the hope, and the hope for kids. I think our kids are a part of these structures that we’ve put in place, which often may make them feel powerless at times. But here we are trying to craft power for them, because they’ll be the ones that are leading our planet and making meaningful change. And so we’re really excited for the conversation tonight. At the end, I’ll come back on with some questions that our audience might have. We do want to say there is some audio that you’ll hear tonight, and you in your home, on whatever kind of device you are on, have the power to turn the audio up or turn the audio down when it plays. I know we sometimes get messages about the audio, being able to hear it, but just know that we have it on the loudest feature, and you’ll be able to control that when you get when you hear it. So to begin, I’ll welcome our our guide tonight, which is Pamela Courtney. So thank you for being with us, Pam, and I’ll turn things over to you.

Pam Courtney:
Thank you. Thank you, Alison, and thank you. Highlights, for creating this opportunity to be part of such an immensely important conversation. And good evening to all of you. We’re so glad that you took time out to come and hang out with us and be a part of this topic, and while I’m thanking everybody. I want to thank my dear panelists, my friends, Crystal Allen, Andrea Loney. Thank you, ladies, I am so grateful to be a part of this with them; I get a chance to hang out with them. I get a chance to discuss this important topic, and you know, let’s just jump in it. So as you all know, we’re here to discuss climate change; we are here to especially discuss how do we bring this subject to children; writing about climate change, inspiring, meaningful change for our future.

But tonight’s conversation will focus on marginalized voices. Voices from poor communities, specifically amplifying Black voices; amplifying all of our voices and doing that through storytelling. So where our stories highlight, we want our stories want to ensure that our stories highlight the social justices, the social inequities, the environmental injustices, but not just bring light to it. But how can we also bring hope to these narratives as we write them? And as we share them with our our early learners and our young learners, our read-aloud audiences. So we’re here because basically we understand that stories do matter, right? Not only stories, but our stories really do matter. How do we center the Black child in our stories? How do we make them not just about the tough topics or the victims? But how do we inspire hope to the people who are reading that? So before we begin anything, I want to allow Crystal and, Andrea, would you start us off by,  just, you know, sharing a little? Sharing with the audience a little bit about your books, how you feel they might fit into this conversation and just sharing our “why” regarding this topic? Why we wanted to be a part of this, why we wanted to participate in this, in this conversation.

Crystal Allen: Sure

Pam Courtney: That’s Crystal. Yeah.

Crystal Allen: Thank you, Pam, for moderating for us tonight on this very important subject. My name is Crystal Allen. I write upper and Lower Middle grade contemporary fiction. I wanted to participate in this conversation for 2 reasons. One, I live in Texas, a state constantly struggling with climate change, issues that affect a large marginalized population in our State that I’m sure, needs more education about climate change. And the second reason is, I believe, solutions happen when a community becomes engaged and educated about a problem and I want to be a part of that solution. Pam.

Pam Courtney: Right on. I love it, and I do mean both the WRITE. And RIGHT. Well said so, Andrea, you want to share with us?

Andrea Loney: Yes, I’m Andrea Loney. I write from well now, from like board books to chapter, books and nonfiction and fictional picture books. I have a middle grade biography of Stacey, Abrams and this is a very important topic to me, if for no other reason. I remember being a little kid in the eighties, and they were talking about how we were destroying the ozone layer. And I was like man. By the time I grow up there’ll be no ozone layer, and this will just be awful. And then at some point they pulled back the chemicals. I guess they were using like fluorocarbons and everything, and it healed, and like—how excited I was as a kid to know that like things could be going wrong and a certain way. But you know people can make choices and can make changes, and, you know, can can make things happen. So I think that that’s really good. I’m also a a college professor at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. Most of my students are black, Latino and and Asian. And I teach them technology because I want to make sure that there’s enough people of color where the decisions are being made. And that’s also part of the reason why I write the kind of books I write about, whether it’s about Black Joy, whether it’s about kindness and animals, whether it’s about my I was telling Pam this— my Utopia stories as opposed to dystopia stories about little kids in the future, including Afro Latina children in the future, getting along and making things work. I do believe in a world that works for the majority of us, and I think by writing about it, it helps us all get there just a little bit faster.

Pam Courtney: Love it. I love love, love that, and the fact that you, the way that you center children and black children in that that your series. I just I absolutely love it. And everybody you wanna check that out alright. So speaking of children, why don’t we hear what the children have to say, Alison mentioned earlier that we have some audio. So let’s just—we’re gonna be shooting some questions out at the kids, and they’re gonna share what their thoughts are about climate change? Alright, Andrea.

Pam Courtney: are you ready with that.

Andrea Loney: Here we go. You may need to turn your audio up.

Audio Clip: Have you heard of the term climate change? Yes, no, yeah, yes, I have. What is climate change? Yeah. I wonder when it started? When did it become a concern? Now, scientists like figured out what the cause of it was? Climate change is a change in normal weather, in an area for an extended amount of time. Where did you learn about climate change, like of the Internet teachers, science class, and when I come home the news will have like news stories about climate change. What do you think causes climate change? I have no idea. Putting their plastic with their trash instead of separating it. The forest collects carbon dioxide. When that tree is cut down all the carbon dioxide that’s been inside that tree will be released, and that will cause other trees to die. Yeah, the landfill bringing all those, the gases that we have from like our cars, factories, factories. How dangerous do you think climate change is summers? We’re getting hotter. It’s getting a lot more humid, too. The air it just doesn’t smell as natural as it used to when I was little. It’s kind of a concern for the air quality because I have asthma, and so like if I breathe air that has all these chemicals in it, like there might be breathing problems and like chest pains and stuff like that. What do you think grownups could do to slow down climate change. I have no idea. Research. They could enforce laws like recycling laws, start committees. Adults can probably reduce their carbon footprint, reduce greenhouse gases or change to a different energy source, and, like reuse, recycle as long as they could start moving towards like climate, safe options like not using plastic as much like they could buy. What’s it called solar panels for their own home. Do you think children and teens should be included in the conversations about climate change. Yes, and my reason is so that as they get older they’ll know what’s happening outside, and they might be able to think of a solution or something. I think they really care because how the world is. Now we will inherit the planet after everybody else is gone. So, and like the decisions that we make now will probably affect us later. I think that they should, because there is a lot of smart kids out there with bright ideas that they could do like like you said like you said like going out and posting around the school, posting around like your neighborhood or your town, and just spreading awareness, you know, passing out flyers, and I don’t know like posting it up everywhere. So people know, and that people can actually know what’s happening to earth?

Andrea Loney: Okay.

Pam Courtney: Wonderful wonderful! This was pretty eye opening right, Andrea, share your thoughts about. When you were listening to these audio recordings; what were you thinking about how much the kids knew or didn’t know.

Andrea Loney: You know, it’s interesting to me about how some again, some kids know they’ve got like they rattle off a list. And other kids, just they’re just trying to be kids. They’re trying to go outside and play. Here’s this grown up asking them these questions. But you know they’re noticing that it’s getting warmer, too. And one of the kids who didn’t really have a lot of things to add to this also added that he had just gotten over Covid, and how he was concerned about how climate change is affecting, you know, people’s health and and all of that. But really especially the last part. It made me so excited for the future to see just the plans that these kids have. Yeah, it’s it was really wonderful to work on.

Pam Courtney: It’s pretty inspiring, too, right? And but just the fact that some of them had their own special stories that they shared. One talked about the asthma, and, as you said, I think we weren’t able to put the clip in about the the child with the covid. But one child was like, you know, it doesn’t, the air doesn’t smell like it used to when I when I was a little kid. And I love hearing those personal stories. As a matter of fact, you know, I I thought it would be a good idea if each of us could share, like a personal story as it relates to how climate change, our environmental injustices, or those social inequities, how those social inequities due to climate change, how that has affected our personal stories. Crystal.

Crystal Allen: Well, I live in. I live very close to Houston. Actually about 25 miles from Galveston. We have had hurricanes before, but they’ve always come through Galveston, and there’s a lot of buildings in between the city where I live and Galveston, which has always slowed hurricanes down. Well, just last month a hurricane Beryl came through, and she didn’t come to Galveston. And. I don’t think anybody was expecting it, and my, the city that I live in. We took a direct hit. And it was something I’d never experienced before, and a fear hit me that I that I couldn’t control and the uncertainty of what was going on was debilitating. And I’ve watched my, the city I live in almost turned dystopian. I mean, grocery stores weren’t open, restaurants weren’t open, none of the street lights were working, people were hollering and screaming at each other. There. There were, there were crashes in the streets, and it was just the most awful thing that I’d ever seen.

Pam Courtney: Oh, wow!

Crystal Allen: I started thinking, Pam, about what was going on and how it’s always discussed the effects of it. But nobody really talks about the causes, because. it’s not just when the hurricanes happen. Pam. I’ve also been involved in disastrous times when we were told a hurricane was coming and everybody was doing their best to get out of town, and we were trying to get to San Antonio, which we thought would be out of the path of the hurricane. And it usually takes about 2 and a half hours to get to San Antonio. It took us 12 hours to get there, and people were on the sides of the road with no water. The police were blocking off the exits to the towns in between, where I live in San Antonio, and we couldn’t go to the restroom. We couldn’t get gas. We couldn’t do anything. It was just catastrophic.

Pam Courtney: Well.

Crystal Allen: And then there was no hurricane, so.

Pam Courtney: You know what it makes. It makes me think about the the impact, that lasting impact that it, that you, you know how it’s affecting you, but the most vulnerable of our vulnerable population. That lasting impact. It stays with them.

Crystal Allen: Yes.

Pam Courtney: It stays with them. I wonder. Do you? How do we create stories as writers? How do we create stories that tie in to the emotional state because after you deal with that, you still have to—the kids still have to go to school. They still have to interact with their with their friends. So how do we tie in the emotional state of the kids day to day lives after having been, after having gone through such a traumatic situation as that.

Crystal Allen: Well you’ve got when you’re thinking of children, and I’m I’m talking more on the on the level of elementary school children.. They are-they have 2 very important parts in their life, one is friends, and the other is family. When you begin to put them on a tilt with uncertainty and fear and hopelessness, with those 2 things, or or if you challenge that base of friends and family at all, those emotions are not just going to come. They’re going to stay. And so to me, as a children’s book author, we have to address those things that are that are that concerning them, which are friends and family, and what we can do to help keep them. So what can we do.

Pam Courtney: Right? Yes.

Crystal Allen: And so address those things that are important to them.

Pam Courtney: So Andrea. So what do you have? A personal story, that you know that where a disaster hit you or hit your community really hard, and and the effects the lasting effects from that event.

Andrea Loney: I feel like there is like snowpocalypse on the East coast sort of thing that I had never heard of before with the the superstorms out there that make me worry for my family. I am here in California. Yes, we felt the earthquake couldn’t miss it. And there’s fires out here that are just even if it’s not a fire in the city. The smoke from the outlying areas that are burning you know, lead to breathing issues, can aggravate asthma and in some cases, in some terrible cases, when they’re burning through communities, that is a sort of thing that can help contribute to the homelessness situation that we have. Any homes are burned, and there’s no place for people to go. So that is something that I find concerning. And another thing. And this is from the past. The space shuttle came down to Inglewood probably about 10 years ago. They like had the space shuttle going down Crenshaw Boulevard, to take to get it to the the Museum at the end, the California Science Museum. And it was really a wonderful thing to see, like, you know, to be in the neighborhood and see, like, you know, everybody just out there watching this big event. But in order for them to get the space shuttle, which is very huge, to go down the street. They had to cut down the trees and a lot of people were very upset about that part, because I have noticed from a young age in certain neighborhoods. There’s lots of trees, you know. It’s a little bit cooler. There’s a little bit of risk respite when you go under the tree, and you’re out in the sun in summer. And then in the cities there’s all this asphalt, and there aren’t. There aren’t always as many trees. And that can again, when we already have climate issues where things are getting hotter and hotter. That just seems to make things even worse.

Pam Courtney: Yeah, yeah, so so how do we, how can storytellers present and educate this? It’s very complex. All of the complexities, all of the intersectionalities of environmental injustice or climate change itself. How do we storytellers educate on these complexities and in a way that centers the young child, but also that that brings Hope Crystal, can you? Can you? Actually, you know what, Andrea, I want you to you to answer that. How do we educate on the complex climate change, centering that that those kids, especially in those most vulnerable communities, and delivering hope.

Andrea Loney: Yeah, I think that the 1st thing from my point of view, the 1st thing is always understanding who the audience is. So it’s not just talking to young audiences about climate change. It’s like just imagining, like one specific kid and for some of my books. Iwrote a book about the Architect, Paul R. Williams. And that story involved things like redlining sundown towns, housing and equity, and and all of that. And when I went to a school in Inglewood, and I presented the book, and I asked the kids, so what kind of house would you like to live in when they grow when you grow up. There was this little boy, who just kind of looked at me like he had just disconnected from me, goes, does it always have to be a house? Why can’t it be an apartment? And I said, you are so right, I’m gonna go on my computer right now and change that question.

Pam Courtney: You know, I want to interrupt you, because you know what this reminded me of. It reminded me of a story that Crystal shared with me a few weeks ago about kids wanting—the this child is telling you, what about a you know? Does it have to be a house? Why not an apartment. Crystal shared a story where a child stood up and said, You know, I want stories I want to read, and stories that’s authentic to me. Crystal, can you share that story? I think someone else had. Another writer had shared that with you.

Crystal Allen: I’m I’m I’m pretty sure I know what you’re talking about. If you’re talking about Sarah Aronson.

Pam Courtney: Yeah. Yes.

Crystal Allen: Yeah. So, Sarah Aronson was visiting Texas, and we had lunch together, and she she told me about an author visit that she had gone to, and it was an all boys school, and she said Crystal, it went great. It was a great author visit, and I got into the Q. And a part, and the the boys were asking all kinds of wonderful questions and then this one boy said. Wait a minute. I wrote it down so I’ll get it right here. This one boy? Asked Sarah. Have you noticed hat a lot of the New Middle grade books seem to be written for grown-ups. They read like medicine. These are the novels that are being handed to me to read and I’m not enjoying them.

Pam Courtney: Wow!

Crystal Allen: So what I heard, Pam, from this boy is that he wants to read books where protagonists are imperfect, where the story is not didactic or the ending isn’t always a nice, neat little bow. I heard that he wants an opportunity to learn about the narrative and form his own opinion. What he is right.

Pam Courtney: I love that.

Crystal Allen: You know, we we cannot solve problems at the same level of thinking we were at when those problems were created. Yeah, a higher level of thinking, you know, a higher level of creating story where relatable with with with relatable, with relatable protagonists, with help from scientists, you know, and authors and illustrators. Children can form their own ideas. Sit at the table with us, or daggone it, start their own table.

Pam Courtney: Yeah. Yeah. So Andrea was talking about the little boy who said, You know, doesn’t have to be houses. Can it be apartments? Apartment complex. And I’m thinking, Andrea, of the different kinds of stories and the different kinds of communities that exist because we tend to think of when we when we start talking about especially black communities, we we tend to think of it. You know everybody as a monolith, and not thinking about the diversity that truly exists from household to household, even within the even within that household. So when we think about how diverse families are, it makes me wonder about how diverse should our storytelling be. So, Andrea? Let’s talk about story structure and and different kinds of story structures, different kinds of narratives that we can bring to this topic, and how do we make sure? How do we ensure that the information we share is accurate is up to date and and and just relatable to kids. Did I say too much? It was that that.

Andrea Loney: Oh, no, I don’t. I was like, Okay, well, I have. I have a few thoughts. I have a few thoughts on this. The first thought I have is I used to volunteer with an organization on Saturdays, in downtown LA Where we would read books to kids, and then we would read the book aloud to a bunch of kids, and then we would do arts and crafts with them and it was called free. I’m sorry it was called reading the kids, and the process of spending, of reading like hundreds and hundreds of books to kids who were not my students. We’re just all here to hear stories and noticing what made them want to lean forward and noticing what made them want to lean back. What they wanted to draw when we got to the craft part. Just all of that was the best education I have ever had in learning how to write for real kids, cause they were in front of me, giving me feedback on somebody else’s work.

Pam Courtney: Wow!

Andrea Loney: I would definitely I would definitely suggest that I have another suggestion. And I was going to say this might be a suggestion for somebody who is a like a person of color or you know somebody from a more marginalized population that I have found a lot of, especially as a teacher, as a writing teacher and as a mentor is that a lot of us have a certain amount of colonization in our storytelling inherently, because that’s what we learned in the fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties, that that sort of thing. And there is a fair amount of unlearning. I think that some of us need to do like. For example, I didn’t tell a lot of stories about certain parts of my life when I was younger, because I thought, oh, we’re not supposed to talk about that. We’re supposed to talk about this. I came from a family that had issues with airing dirty laundry, and if anybody in my family is in the chat right now, it’s okay. I’ll be good. But the point is the point is, I think that we are so, we’re so it’s so ingrained in us that there is a certain sort of thing that is literature, that stories are told in a certain way that there is a specific 3 act structure that’s based on, you know, going back to the Greeks and all. The point is, there are so many different ways to tell stories. There are so many little details that seem like an everyday thing to us that we wouldn’t think about. That could be something new to somebody else.

Pam Courtney: Right. Superheroes.

Andrea Loney: Superhero.

Pam Courtney: Heroes and graphic novels.

Andrea Loney: Yeah, it takes a lot of bravery, I think, in order to do this. But what happens is when a kid reads something like that they see themselves, they see, you know who they who they really are, and all of a sudden it kind of elevates how they feel about themselves, because if you can talk about this in public and make stories about it, and tell my real life. I do? What can I? And that’s how I feel. Like, we are purveying hope. Yeah, we create these stories. We create these worlds. We invite the kids to participate in them. We ask them what they, what kind of worlds that they would create. And there’s a saying you have to see it to be it. It’s true for kids, it’s true for adults. It’s really true for all of us. So and again, that’s why I like writing my Utopia story.

Pam Courtney: I love it. Yeah. And and I love like I said earlier, the way that you center this little Black girl. In this story is it’s it’s wonderful to see and it’s not like, oh, it’s about a Black girl. It’s it’s about a girl who is who was born Black in having these experiences. So Crystal, so Andrea talked about making sure that we you know, engage and log in with the kids to see what it is that they what they like. But we want to make sure that we get the accurate we want to make sure that the information we present to them is information that these kids can read about and be educated. What there’s a term called edutain, right? In the education industry. But so how Crystal can we collaborate with, with folks like those at Knology and BlackRep4Kids? How do we collaborate with them as writers.

Crystal Allen: I think as a as a children’s book author I always have a child at heart and for scientists they have what is going to be the best for our planet at heart. And I’m just talking about what we’re talking about tonight. So if we consider that there are things that we are paid for and then there are things we are made for. If we come to the table with the idea that I was made to be a children’s book author, I was made to be a scientist, then we can come together with our gifts, so when we collaborate like that, it’s pure and we’re able to think like children. And I think the biggest thing for both of us would be if we’re able to answer that question that people will ask and that is, how does this affect my ability to be me. What can. What are you going to teach me about climate change that is affecting my ability to be me. And I think scientists will be able to give us those facts. And we, as Children’s book authors, will be able to create an engaging story to answer those questions. We will be a community that will create; that’s how we’ll do it.

Pam Courtney: I I love that, you know, bringing the community always working in community. Everybody who knows me knows that I love that word. That’s one of my favorite words. And just, and getting the knowledge, the exchange of ideas, the exchange of information, scientists knowing how to present information in a developmentally appropriate way, you know, to have information ready available for those read aloud audiences, those audiences that are learning to read those audiences that are learning how to gather information in an equitable fact, factual friendly way, and then disseminating that information, all of those. So that so I love the fact that you’re saying that scientists are there. We can use them as our resources and they can use us as their resources, as we, as we learn to center our children. And, as Andrea said earlier there is some shift in mindset that does have to happen because we do have to see each other. We have to affirm the humanity in in one another and see each other as equal and in that way we can demand that these refineries are removed from the communities. Sewer plants are removed from the communities, but bring but bring everybody to the table. Have those stories be engaged so that kids are part of the decision making process in the stories. They are their own superheroes and that they are rallying, rallying with themselves and among themselves they are creating their own communities. I would love to see. I’m thinking of a whole book series, actually, for you know, for something like that. But, Crystal, I do want to ask you this, though. about how do we affirm the humanity in each other? What are the things that we need to to highlight in order to look each other in the eye and say, I see you and I need you to see me. What are those things that we can do to affirm each other. I know that we need to make. I mean just simple things like ensuring that we have safe water right.

Crystal Allen: Yes, and well, let’s use that. Let let me use that because they’re actually rights. We, we have a right to clean air and to clean water right? And we haven’t. We have a right to have access to it right? And we have a right to be to voice our opinions about it, and and that those opinions be heard and that we believe that they’ve been heard. And all of this is our right, with no prejudice. Right? There should be nothing about age. There should be nothing about income status. All of these things are rights that we have, that we have Pam. And so yeah, as we as we create stories, what we have to remember is that as we, I guess, as we create our protagonist and even supporting characters. We have to create them as brave. Not this victim.
We have to. We have to do that because it is not just Black children who need to see themselves in stories. All children need to see Black children in these stories.

Pam Courtney: 100%.
Crystal Allen: They have agency and need to see them with their opinions, and need to see them with knowledge of the issues surrounding what’s going on, because, Pam, you and I are the windows and the mirrors that they’re looking into and out of right, so our jobs as creatives and scientists are to equip these children with armor, quality, and that’s how we let them see themselves is by, is by equipping them with what they need.

Pam Courtney: I love that cause, you know, Andrea, I look at our writing as a a bit of social activism. Right? I think all of us are comfortable with that idea of being activists and and bringing fair and equitable sharing the truth, sharing of information with with young audiences. And so I want to before we leave Andrea. I want you to talk a little bit about when we talk about collaboration. We have the scientists collaborating with with writers, and both of those collaborating with teachers. But how do we present our stories in a way that’s marketable? The publishing house? What do we say to them. How do we make inroads so that these qualities of affirmation are being shared? And are there anybody? Is there anybody that’s doing that actually.

Andrea Loney: Well, I believe that there are. There are a good amount of publishers who are definitely like right in this, you know, right in this lane. I do want to roll back and just say that in my heart I believe that like if the world is like a gigantic library, we all have a page or so to contribute and everybody has something to contribute, and that is why they say it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to raise a community because we need to hear from others. We need to hear from the wisdom of these people and the experience of those people. And you know, and all of that, I think that’s what really, really makes the difference, especially for the formidable challenges that grownups now but kids now, and kids who will become grownups have before them. That’s definitely one part of it. And but the thing that has been working for me, at least and the example I give is the Abby In Orbit Chapter Book Series. This is the one where she goes to the moon for a for a field trip. I work with the publisher, Albert Whitman & Company, with this and when we talked about the character and what the character would be like. I asked something that I was always afraid to ask, but I never asked before. I asked if cause they wanted a little like a little Black Anne of Green Gables in space kind of a thing like that’s like that’s my jam. But I asked, can she be Afro Latina, and from Panama, and I never see that out there. So I took the risk, and I asked and they said yes, and they were really thrilled about it, and they thought it was great. And then I was able to put characters from different places in the world, share their language. All that stuff ends up like in back matter. Also scientific back matter. One of the editors that I worked with on this series. She was a, she studied, she was an aerospace engineer and editor, book editor. So I basically got great information from scientists on how to do everything.

Pam Courtney: Wonderful. Yeah.

Andrea Loney: Yeah, because then we don’t. I don’t have to know everything if I can, you know, bring in somebody else. They know the science, but they don’t necessarily know how to present it to like, you know, like an 18 month old. Charlesbridge works with some of their book series. This is the Chicken Soup for Babies series, but they also have like storytelling, math, and other series, and what they do is they bring in artists. They bring in writers to write stories based on scientific, mathematical STEM concepts, sort of a thing, and in my case I met with scientists who understood specifically how to teach an 18 month old these mathematical concepts. And we went back and forth until we came up with a story that for me worked lyrically and emotionally. Because, again, if there’s no emotion. It’s not really a story. It’s just a bunch of facts.

Pam Courtney: I love that Charlesbridge. I love that Charles Bridge is doing that. I’m sorry I keep talking over, but I love that Charlesbridge is doing something like that, and I know that there are other houses that are participating and encouraging writers to to write on those levels. I I love.

Andrea Loney: But that. Yeah, collaboration is really wonderful, because then it means that everybody can focus on the thing that they’re best at. And then, when everything comes together, you’re getting everybody’s best. You’re not getting me being like, should I go get a Ph. D. So I can write this board book. No, someone else. You’re explaining to me, but needs to be in there, and I’m making it work in a way that is dramatic, and that a kid would want to read over and over again. So basically, yeah, I feel like. And again, this is me being about hope. But I feel like any problem that is created by humans can also be solved by humans. I say, this as a computer science teacher who’s always teaching people how to stop being hacked because the hackers are always upping their game. It goes back and forth. So that means that anything that we’re you know that these kids are coming up against we can. We might not be able to give them the specific answers on how to do XY, and Z. But we can show them how to tap into their creativity. Yeah, we can encourage them to be curious. We can show them what it means to do something when you’re afraid. But you do it anyway, and that’s what the bravery is. All of these. We’ve all had the same emotions. Human beings have had the same emotion, for, like what is it like? However many tens, hundreds, thousands of years. As long as there’s been people, there’s been emotional stories, and none of that really changes. And I find that by tapping into that emotion; that universal experience that we all have. You can tell all different kinds of stories and open up worlds that people have never seen or open up worlds that people have seen, but they never saw reflected. You know.

Pam Courtney: Just be as creative. Just be as creative as the world will allow you to. Not a world will allow. But just be as creative as you can. I love it, love it, love it.

Andrea Loney: The truth like this, really like this is how it’s really been. And yeah, and just and there, it’s amazing to see what happens when people see themselves lovingly portrayed. It’s just it’s life changing. Wow! World changes.

Pam Courtney: Beautiful. That’s beautiful! That’s beautiful, Andrea. I this is such a robust conversation. I think we could probably talk forever.

Andrea Loney: Really good, we really could.

Pam Courtney: Because it’s it’s it’s so large, it’s so huge of a topic. And it affects everyone and focusing on one. It’s a lot. It’s a lot. But I’m so glad that we did this. I think you ladies were amazing, Alison, do we have? And I’m sure we have questions. Oh.

Andrea Loney: We got you, give me.

Alison Green Myers: So much you you’ve given us so much to think about. Then when we’re thinking, you know, we’re asking questions, too. So one thing that I’m gonna do is some crowd sourcing, because, you know, we have close to 100 people on the call tonight. And one of the main questions was about great book titles, and of course Andrea was holding up some book titles. We mentioned book titles throughout. If everybody put one book title in the chat. We’d walk away with 100 great books that are talking about, whether it’s a book to share with kids about the environment and climate change, or it’s a book for research. And all put in the chat, too. Knology has an excellent library, a resource library on their website that showcases a number of wonderful books. So we’ll crowd source the book question, and then we’ll put this chat. in the email that we send out with the recording and with the post, and and we’ll turn the 3 of you to kind of gathered some of the questions together to kind of loop some themes. One of the themes, Pam. I heard you say it, and I know it’s your teacher voice coming out to you. Use the phrase developmentally appropriate ways, and there are several questions that hit on things that are pedagogy and age, appropriateness and reading level. And so I wondered if the 3 of you might have some thoughts about what’s the difference? What does the story look like, or how is it approached? For very, a very young reader, or someone who’s on the lap of a reader who’s reading to them versus, you know, middle grade young adults. So when we’re talking about climate change and the environment, when we’re talking about these racial inequities. What does that look like in the stories that we’re putting out.

Andrea Loney: I think that the first thing is understanding. Again, understanding the audience, there’s certain things that a 6 year old is not a 6 year old might understand that an 18 month might not understand. But an 18 month old child understands the difference between hot and cold for example, so really just kind of like starting where they are and using adding in elements of the story from the world that they already inhabit because everything’s new to a kid. So being able to just kind of like, build on, build on that. The older they get, I feel like you can add more a bit more complexity, a bit more curiosity. It constantly amazes me how I present so many things to kids, information on economic inequity. And you know all kinds of things and kids are. They’re they want to know. They want to know. And they don’t necessarily feel bad about history because they weren’t necessarily there. But they want to know what happens, and I always feel like if you make it, if you make it age appropriate, and you speak from the heart to somebody else’s heart. It really does come through. And maybe there’s a political aspect of things, or what they call challenging subjects. But to me that’s mostly like politics that kids don’t have so much because there’s still it that things need to be fair level of things in life. So yeah, I just try to be upfront and try to find the metaphors and the examples of things that they can do to physically embody the information that’s being presented to them that makes them want to draw it, or write, or play it out, or reenact it, or something like that.

Pam Courtney: And you know what else. Andrea is. Just the how the picture and the words work as a marriage. I mean, just work together those when you’re holding that baby, or you’re holding that toddler that young or or a teacher is sitting in circle time. She’s holding up a book, and she asks these open, ended questions about well, talk about. Let’s talk about what you see in these pictures. Well, in your in your mind. Why do you think the illustrator chose to share this information this way, or listen to this language, this these words. How do you think the author chose to use these words for you, for you, you know, and talk directly to them, because we want them to know that these books, because we do pour our hearts out in these books just for them. So I think like how the language and how the illustrations work together is such a wonderful way for that young read aloud audience, and I know Crystal could probably, well, I.

Crystal Allen: I I had a conversation, Pam. I don’t know if you have the ability to put the conversation. The chat that I had with Christine Taylor Butler. Yes.

Pam Courtney: 100%.

Crystal Allen: But I I did. I had this amazing conversation with Christine Taylor Butler. She is a graduate of MIT. She’s a scientist and an engineer and a children’s book author. So we spoke a lot about science in children’s literature, and how she creates her books involving STEM related topics. Christine, she told me that scientists are always thinking about that question— what problem are we trying to solve? And children’s book authors are always thinking about?What problem is my character’s journey going to involve. And so as that in itself has a connection. And it’s basically going to be, on what level are we trying to create this story. So I invite everyone to listen to that chat that I had with Christine Taylor Butler [LINK HERE]. I think it’ll be enlightening for you. It definitely was for me.

Alison Green Myers: Thank you. Yes, great! And I love all the resources that are coming through right now. So many books in there as well. We probably have time again. I’m going to summarize one more question before we wrap things up tonight. I, this is, it ties back to the video that you played at the beginning. I hope we all go back and listen to that video again and hear those voices and the honesty that comes from it. What do you know about climate change? Nothing. When did you hear about it? When you were talking to me about it, and and more? And yet, if we had endless amounts of time to talk with the kids. They all have their connections to it. But some people asked about maybe some previews that we didn’t hear? Did kids bring up anything else? Did they bring up where climate or the environment is being spoken about in their community? Did they talk about the role of corporations. Are they aware of things, you know? They talked about trees and they talked about the the weather, you know. Did they talk about things kind of in their community, or or larger than that, like corporations or governments, or anything.

Pam Courtney: We had a few that were that I had and some of those I I didn’t send to to Andrea. But yeah, where they talked about how people in their own community, even people like, for instance, example, the mayor or their city councilman. They knew about that, and I thought that was interesting, and it didn’t. It reminded me of my story about how they put a store plant in our in our in one of the communities here. And it just. It was horrible for decades. But those kids that were live that lived in that community. They then came back and they became part of city council and council. Became mayors of the city, and are making changes to to fix that up. So when I heard that child say that I probably should have, but yeah, some of them did talk about. You know their local what do you call those people their local representatives participating in in this story, which I thought was really great and very interesting.

Andrea Loney: Yeah, they talked about you know, the polar ice caps. And there, there’s I mean, it was what was it like? 35 min worth of recordings that I was trying.

Pam Courtney: Sorry. Sorry.

Andrea Loney: No, no, it was wonderful, because I wanted to put everything in there, and we couldn’t even we couldn’t even fit. There were. There were children there who actually talked about about this from their point of view of their religions and how that informed what they you know, what was going on from their point of view. And yeah. And then there were some kids who were just like, you know, I don’t really know. And this isn’t. This is the thing that’s up there. It’s not a little thing down here for me so, but they were so cute, and that last one just oh, my gosh! Stole my heart!

Alison Green Myers: That’s great. You gave them a chance to talk and be curious. And I love that books do that, too. They they give kids a chance to open up and talk with us about what they’re thinking and what they’re seeing and feeling in the earth. I I just I thank the 3 of you so much. I thank you for for bringing so many ideas to us tonight. I do want to wrap up by sharing a few resources for continued learning. This is one of our free Gathers, but it’s it’s not the end of opportunities and things that we have here. There will be a number of links again that I’m sharing that other people have shared. And I just want to reiterate we’ll get all of this information out to to everyone. First, from Knology’s BlackRep4Kids. There is a survey that they are looking for people to participate in, that is specifically to authoring stem stories for climate risk preparedness. And I’m going to place that survey [LINK HERE]. You can read more about the survey itself.

You can also read more about Knology and upcoming events by visiting the websites there [LINK HERE]. 

Another thing that I feel compelled to mention is, some programs we have with our talented panelists.  They are involved both far and wide in teaching kids and adults. About topics like this.

Andrea will be one of our special guests at Successful School Visits, and Andrea has been a part of that faculty for a very long time. She, as she did tonight, does an amazing job of talking about how you center kids in the presentation aspect of bringing stories to kids. School visits are an excellent way to get kids talking and to to bring your stories to them. And so I’m excited. Andrea will be a part of an amazing faculty. It’s an amazing program. You actually get to do a virtual visit that we record. And then we talk to you about that recording. And this year we’re doing it back in classrooms. So you’re assigned a classroom that you get to be with kiddos. And Andrea has been with us when we did that in person before, and when we kind of sent you out on your own to do that, so we’re excited. I’ll drop that link in the chat as well [LINK HERE].

And then Pam and Crystal. We’re bringing them back together again. They’ll be with us, and they’ll be joined by Editor Eileen Robinson, in an upcoming. It’s one of our short courses that we call a mini. It really ties directly into tonight’s conversation. They’re talking about social and emotional themes in picture books and novels and their examples are pulling directly from climate change and social justice. It’s a 2 night course. It’s a it’s a 2 and a half hour commitment, but it is filled with writing exercises, book recommendations. I bet we’ll pull some book recommendations from our chat tonight. They’ll be talking about the market itself. There were questions about agents and editors and other publishing houses. That will be a part of it. We’re excited to have them back with us, and some of the resources that are on the page. For this course might also be of interest, and those resources are free at the link as well [LINK HERE].

So I’ll wrap things up quickly by saying, Thank you so much to everyone who came to join in tonight’s conversation. We hope that you’ll consider joining us again. I do want to say a big thank you to everyone at the Highlights Foundation who’s on the screen or at home, or working behind the scenes? The Highlights Foundation team does incredible work to make events like tonight possible, and so much more happen. Much gratitude, of course, to Pam and Crystal and Andrea for their time tonight, and for the way that they center children in story time and time again. To all of you, stay safe and good night. Thanks, everyone.