WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 All right. 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Hit OK. 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:21.000 Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for being here today. We are Province 5 and 4 Creation Care Network. Today is December 9th, 2024. I am Jeanette Eton. I am the convener for Province 5 Creation Care Network. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:25.000 Today we have with us, we have Martha Meyer. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:28.000 Who is the founder of the annual Blueberry Award. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:34.000 She will be showcasing the year's best climate and nature books for 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:36.000 Kids 3 to 10. 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:42.000 She is the former green team leader at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Evanston 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:46.000 And she is… 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:53.000 Also, she represents, I'm sorry, St. Luke's at our city, at the city's interfaith 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:57.000 action subcommittee on Climate and Climate Justice. 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:00.000 She has also 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.000 certificate of 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:08.000 what is it? Certificate in contemplation and creation care uh deep green faith 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:13.000 And she studied under our own Jerry Cappell. There you go. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:21.000 And she is both a healing minister and a Eucharistic assistant at St. Luke's and works on the formation committee. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:27.000 She helps to create eco-friendly programming. We are so fortunate to have her with us today. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:29.000 Jerry is going to pray us in. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:33.000 And then we are going to let Martha take off. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:39.000 Same format that we've done in the past. She's going to give a presentation. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:45.000 And everyone can ask questions. So write them down, put them in the chat or we can talk 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.000 to the 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:54.000 we can talk to her directly afterwards. In the meantime, everybody introduce yourself in the chat. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:58.000 Tell us your name and where you're from. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:00.000 Jerry, let's pray. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:08.000 Yeah, everybody. Let's bring ourselves into the space or allow ourselves to be brought by the Holy Spirit into this space sitting inside all that 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.000 All the business and chatter in our heads. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:17.000 In the moments that have brought us here. 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:18.000 The Lord be with you. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:19.000 So with you. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:20.000 And also with you. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:23.000 Let us seek the grace of God. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:28.000 Matter of God, you call us to labor with you, intending the earth. 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:32.000 Where are we left love open our hearts to the world. 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:35.000 Where we waste. Give us discipline to conserve. 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:42.000 Where do we neglect? Awaken our minds and wills to insight and care. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.000 And we pray especially now 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:50.000 folks in Lahaina, Hawaii who are still struggling mightily against 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:52.000 greed and justice avoidance. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:56.000 neglect and the fire that has devastated. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:58.000 So much there. 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:02.000 For others caught up in other forms of greed 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:04.000 of devastation. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:07.000 consequences not their own. 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:11.000 We pray grace upon them. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:13.000 your mercy upon them. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:16.000 May we all do what is ours to do. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:21.000 where we are and in the moment we have. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:27.000 May we with all your creatures honor and serve you in all things, for you live and reign with Christ, Redeemer of all. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:30.000 and with your Holy Spirit, one God. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.000 Now, and forever. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:39.000 Amen. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:43.000 Okay. Thank you, Jerry. That was beautiful. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:44.000 So… 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:45.000 Eric, did you have announcements? 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:55.000 I could. Why don't we run, though, since we're recording and this is the tape, let's all try to see if I can reserve a minute in the end for that. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:56.000 That might work better than that might work better 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:01.000 Yeah, I have one as well. So if we can do that at the end. So Martha 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:02.000 you're on. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:07.000 Yes. Great. Let me start sharing my screen. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:12.000 Which now needs to be changed. Oh, here we go. And then slideshow. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:15.000 There we go. All right. 00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:18.000 Let me get to the front 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:28.000 All right. I am a graduate of Deep Green Faith. And at the same time, I was also pursuing um 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:30.000 a personal legacy project. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:35.000 And that is that I felt that the American Library Association had not 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:40.000 created a necessary award for the best nature and climate book 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:42.000 Because… 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:46.000 I think it should have been founded in 1973 when we 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:50.000 had the chance to change how we think about the world around us. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:54.000 But the pandemic gave us courage 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:00.000 to go ahead and be cheeky and found a literary award out of one library. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:14.000 So, and I'm in Evanston, Illinois, and I'm taking advantage of Evanston's resources here to help me with this award. But the idea is to help parents 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:20.000 teachers and also creation care teams and children's formation teams to 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:37.000 have the resources available to inspire a love of nature in children and action for the planet. And we're focusing mostly on children ages three to 10, though we do have a board book list and we do have a list for adults and a list for educators. 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:42.000 That's what we're mostly focusing on. So it's called the Blueberry Award. It comes out every year in March. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:48.000 of the year, so March of 2025 will be our 2024 announcement. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:50.000 So we don't have… 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:57.000 all the 2024 books yet for you because we're scrambling trying to do the last reading we can to get ready. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:02.000 But let's talk. And this is, I'm pulling this 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:09.000 from Deep Green Faith, of course. What do we hope to share with kids? 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:17.000 about the earth from the place of our understanding of God. And number one is we are nature not 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:19.000 a separate part of it. 00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:23.000 And that should be actually, yeah. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:28.000 That's misspelled. Anyway, nature is our kin, not our resource. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:33.000 We are still praying in our church occasionally for nature as our resource and 00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:41.000 We hope that we raise up children that understand better that nature is our kin, our brothers and sisters. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:43.000 Created by god 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:52.000 not a resource for us to utilize and manipulate. The book of nature is equal to the book of scripture 00:06:52.000 --> 00:07:03.000 Through viewing, understanding, touching, being part of nature, we learn as much about God as we do from the book of scripture. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:06.000 And nature can be a great source of God's peace 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:08.000 healing and restoration. 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:14.000 So how can the Blueberry Award help share these really important elements that we want to share with our children 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:24.000 There are 35 books in the Blueberry Award. We have everything from nonfiction, fiction, graphics, poetry. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.000 About 35 books total. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:37.000 One winner, 24 honor books, 10 changemaker books, and all the information about the award is at this one website, www.epl.org slash blueberry. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:41.000 We've got the lists we've been creating 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:45.000 flyers of the lists, even spine labels for your book if you have an interest. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:59.000 We have two sets of criteria. We have a number of people in the library that have been on the national ALA awards like the Legacy Award, the Caldecott Award, the Newberry Award. And in fact, the Newberry Award is the reason why we call it the Blueberry Award. 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:00.000 Okay. Okay. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:09.000 So obviously we want excellence in children's literature in the writing, in the art, in the photography, in how they work together. 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:13.000 But we also are looking for books specifically that share nature 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:20.000 nature intersections and sometimes climate peril with kids in developmentally appropriate but truthful ways. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:28.000 Obviously, we would like to have all the books reflect the diversity of the people in our world, their gifts, abilities. 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:30.000 and differences. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.000 As well as in the scientists that are previewed in some of these books. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:40.000 We have to make sure that the book is grounded in real science. We have a 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:49.000 a biologist, a zoologist on the committee this year. Other years we've had marine science people and neurobiologists. 00:08:49.000 --> 00:09:01.000 And we want the books to incite kids to action that makes a real difference if they're going to incite kids to action, that it should be something that makes a real difference. 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:10.000 The city of Evanston also has a climate action and resilience plan. And so books that support elements of that are always welcome. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:20.000 But we have another set of criteria that I think are more important for us to talk about here today. And that is that it is really easy 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:27.000 to get this wrong. This is one reason why I think it's important to have this award. 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:31.000 It is really simple to write a climate book that's 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:33.000 hurts children more than it helps them. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:41.000 And very many like really well-known authors are not necessarily aware of the psychology 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:47.000 behind climate anxiety and how to mitigate it or reverse it. 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:53.000 The most important thing to understand is that anxiety is the enemy of collective action. 00:09:53.000 --> 00:10:01.000 I'm sure that has made sense to you in all kinds of ways. So many people have told me, oh, I can't go to that program because it's a downer and I'm trying to watch my mental health. 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:17.000 But collective action is the enemy of anxiety. So if you can move forward in a collective way, then anxiety falls away. It doesn't solve, but it is not primary. 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:23.000 So our anti-anxiety criteria for the blueberry. And so then this is criteria I hope you would use in terms of 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:27.000 sharing books with kids and also, in fact, with adults. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:33.000 Love of nature first and climate action second, because you only save what you love. 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:38.000 You recommend group or team action and not going it alone. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:52.000 There must be, if there's going to be practical suggestions, they must mitigate the actual problem that is being shared in the book. 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:58.000 already engaged. We never, ever should say to children, it's all up to you and your generation to solve this problem. 00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:03.000 And you would be surprised at how many authors put that in their notes. 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:11.000 We have to cut all those books. And then the very important followed child development guidelines about what kind of information kids can handle at which age. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:19.000 significant global understanding of climate change information should not be shared with kids under eight years of age. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:23.000 And a lot of this information comes from the professor emeritus of 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:28.000 at University of Colorado Boulder. Her name is 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:32.000 Louise Chowla. She's the scientific advisor 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:43.000 for the children in nature network and she also did a presentation at Brookfield Zoo via Zoom in 2023, which I attended and learned a lot, though I've read some of her writings now. 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:48.000 So let me give you just an example here. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:53.000 This is the 2023 blueberry winner. It is called How to Bird. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:59.000 It is a brilliant, gentle, warm pep talk for kids of all ages and abilities to begin birding. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:04.000 The photos are by the author who's a working teacher in New York City and they 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:06.000 or pictures of kids that she teaches. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:12.000 And wonderfully in this book, people with different abilities and um and uh 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:18.000 and ways of relating to the world, those things are regarded as birding superpowers. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:25.000 The whole book is an invitation to adore God's creatures. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:31.000 So the value that's being shared here is nature is kin and watching God's birds and 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:40.000 seeing and fly brings joy and community and what others may define as a challenge may be a superpower while birding. This is a great book for opening a session. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:48.000 of nature contemplation for kids or adults. And it's great for reading before any walk outside with young children. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:53.000 So how can the Blueberry Award help youth formation? 00:12:53.000 --> 00:13:01.000 I have some examples from Evanston, Illinois. I'm sure you could think of other ones, but this is just things that have actually taken place. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:16.000 We did a summer creation care story time and STEM event once a month in the summer this past summer at St. Luke's. And the books were around a theme like water or planting and then we came up with a 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:21.000 what's the word stem mean? I probably should tell you that's science, technology, engineering, mathematics. 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:36.000 So we came up with a little project for kids like they were doing some planting or they were testing what floated and what didn't float on water. And this was a way to engage kids in God's creation directly in a hands-on way. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:42.000 So we did this for a summer Creation Care event for parents and 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:44.000 Parents, families, and kids. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:48.000 And then we also have like a gathering time before 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:57.000 our children's formation Sunday School proper offerings. And during that gathering time, we have used blueberry books to begin the conversation. Sometimes we read a book 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:02.000 about a butterfly or sometimes we read a book about a 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:13.000 praying mantis. A bookshelf for and then we wonder about it. A bookshelf for kids to browse during the church service. Okay, so St. Mark's Episcopal 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:23.000 has a whole bookshelf in the sanctuary for kids to pull books to look at while they're in the service if they're prone to 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:34.000 being frustrated and they're also allowed to borrow them. And so they make sure that all those books are books that have been recommended by the Blueberry. And so they're all about God's creation and creation care. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:45.000 First United Methodist Church of Evanston did a vacation Bible school around creatures of God and used blueberry books to assist in that. 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:48.000 They had a story time here at the library. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:53.000 We also at St. Luke's have an intergenerational book club for kids, parents, and grandparents. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:59.000 And recently we read Otter by Catherine Applegate. This is a um 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:05.000 This is a book in verse, so it's very quick and easy to read for adults and kids. 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:12.000 And yet it brings up a lot of issues about animals and how to help them. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:20.000 Another thing I would love to do, which I have not done, is a presentation for kids, for adults, parents about how to talk about climate change with kids. 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:33.000 That's in the proposal stages. So here's another book that you might want to know about. It's called All of Me as Nature, Exploring the Five Senses Outside. This is for very young children. You see it goes down to two and a half. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:44.000 And it essentially goes through what nature contemplation is, except it's told in a somewhat more secular way, though the woman who wrote it wrote it out of a heart for 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:50.000 for creation care. And it really explains that that 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:55.000 wonderful practice that some of us have heard of as Shirin roku 00:15:55.000 --> 00:16:02.000 or forest bathing or nature contemplation. And it's for really young children. So it's a great introduction, but you could 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:06.000 It could be used for slightly older. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:14.000 This is Ashley Jefferson, the author writing about how it came out of her love of nature and her love of play. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:20.000 And then here's another book. This is for ages eight through 12, very different age range. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:27.000 It's called Drawn to Change the World, 16 Youth Climate Activists and 16 Artists. 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:36.000 And it's the origin stories for superheroes, except the superheroes are folk 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:44.000 that are across the world of every race and continent working on climate action. 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:48.000 So it's a, oh, sorry about that. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:52.000 You can see it's got the classic comics um look 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:56.000 And it shares the value we are nature, we are not separate from it. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:02.000 And it asked the question, how might you be drawn by the book of nature and God's spirit to change the world? 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:06.000 It's a great book for intergenerational book clubs. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:11.000 Or just kids in the three to seventh grade range. 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:18.000 Pretty easy to read in one or two sittings, very short. That's what's so great about graphics. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:23.000 Then here's the other winner of the 2023 Blueberry Award. 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:31.000 It's a bilingual book. And don't be afraid of that word manomen in the title, the gift of menomen. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:34.000 It simply means wild rice. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:35.000 Delicious. 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.000 And while this is actually a very bad translation because the rice is 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:48.000 In addition to naturally occurring, it is also sown by native peoples, and it is not in any way related to what we know of as rice. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:52.000 So Minoman is a better word for it, and that's why they don't. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:54.000 translated as translated as 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:57.000 wild rice. 00:17:57.000 --> 00:17:59.000 And… 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:03.000 This is written by a professor of written by a professor 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:09.000 at University of Guelph in Canada, but she's Anishinaabe, as is the illustrator. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:16.000 And what's so cool about this is it explains how nature is kin. Minomen is supported in its growth by humans. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:20.000 By moose who break up the overgrown stands of rice. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:30.000 The large fish who die and then the nutrients support the soil and eagles who eat muskrats who are eating the tender young shoots. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:33.000 But Manoman then in turn feeds humans. 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:41.000 And it is a perfect food for migratory waterfowl because it matures just before their flight south and it contains lots of protein. 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:50.000 Then, of course, it does support the wild muskrat. It also creates important habitat for native fishes, young waterfowl, supports insects. 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:55.000 that support bats and birds and the juvenile fish and waterfowl and insects that feed 00:18:55.000 --> 00:19:01.000 large birds. So it's really a keystone species. It means spirit berry 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:05.000 a gorgeous thing to share with children. 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:07.000 Another… 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:14.000 books that you may want to share with your older kids that says like third through, well, first through fifth maybe 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:20.000 First through fourth is called Stand as Tall as the Trees, How an Amazonian Community Protected the Rainforest. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:27.000 It's written by the indigenous Ecuadorian activists as well as an American who's bilingual. 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:32.000 And I found this to be a, I'm sorry about how touchy this is. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:39.000 I found this to be a really compelling image. The Quechua led 00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:43.000 By Patricia Walinga successfully sued the country of Ecuador 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:50.000 took them to court for stealing their forest land for oil drilling. And the book describes the indigenous speech 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:53.000 Spirits in the forest, the Amazonsanga 00:19:53.000 --> 00:20:01.000 who mourn the loss of the trees and the animals. And we believe it is God who mourns each nature loss. 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:09.000 But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without him knowing because he loves all his creatures and we are 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:12.000 his children and we are all each other's kin. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:18.000 So a lovely book, despite its indigenous beliefs, I think a lovely, lovely book to share. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:25.000 Let's see if we've got so many wonderful books to share but um 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:28.000 Let's jump on here. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:33.000 Here's a beautiful book called Cicada Symphony 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:36.000 this is something that you will probably, at least in province 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:44.000 five, remember, the double emergence we had this summer. This book was published in advance of that. We gave it the award in advance of that. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:50.000 And it explains cicadas to children. There are more than 3,800 species of cicadas. 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:58.000 And it talks all about the life cycle and it gets kids ready for the double brood emergence if you know for those 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:01.000 Gorgeous pictures of gorgeous pictures of 00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:06.000 of cicadas. 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:12.000 The book of nature is equal to the book of scripture. What is God telling us about God's self in 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:14.000 the cicada. 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:21.000 So cicadas speak loudly to us about God's infinite abundance, about God's crazy love for variety and difference. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:24.000 And about God's trickster way of doing things. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:28.000 Those 13 and 17 year emergencies 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:34.000 They are designed to overwhelm the predators and provide way more 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:36.000 quantity than any 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:42.000 predator that can eat. And so then they some of them will live. It's just like um 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:48.000 It's like a master for acorns. So that's a lovely message. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:54.000 to share with children about something that was a part of their world. And finally. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:22:02.000 A little dose of nature outdoor fun to help happiness bloom. This is an amazing book because it puts in the hands of children in the 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:07.000 elementary school range, exactly how scientifically 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:16.000 God's nature helps us to regulate our emotions and to gain some calm, relaxation, and 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:20.000 And happiness, in fact. 00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:23.000 Sorry about this again. I'm having a little trouble. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:26.000 Moving this. Okay. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:38.000 as deep green faith shared with me and of course all of us know intuitively, our well-being and our ability to de-stress is supported 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:44.000 By nature, fresh air, and the world's creatures. But exactly how does that happen so this 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:47.000 book introduces kids to nature's five key ingredients. 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:51.000 which can provide both cognitive and emotional benefits. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:53.000 And… 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:58.000 They also provide 25 beautiful activities. One of them is making a nature mandala 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:04.000 It's certainly something that I did on my nature contemplation time. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:07.000 And it would be a great Sunday school activity. 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:12.000 And also an activity for adults. 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:17.000 So nature can be a source of God's peace, healing, and renewal. The kids are not all right. 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:20.000 The creation team care is exhausted. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:28.000 The parents are totally stressed out by balancing and you can learn from science what it is about God's creation that renews us. And they list a number of things. 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:34.000 fractals, nature sounds, phytonides, soil bacteria, and sunlight. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:40.000 My favorite is the soil bacteria. There's a little soil bacteria called M. Vecca. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:52.000 And if you disturb the soil, i.e. if you are gardening, those wonderful microbes will fly into the air. You breathe them in and they begin to make you feel better. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:24:03.000 It's amazing. This would be a great family program, a great parent program, a great all parish program in addition to supporting K through five kids in their emotional 00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:10.000 development. We also have a list called the baby blueberry of Great Nature board books every year. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:21.000 This is one of them. This is a beautiful, like the board book is used to good purpose because all the prints are recessed. So you can put your fingers in all of them. 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:24.000 And you can learn about making prints in the snow. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:29.000 And of course, we all make footpins in the snow, so we are all nature. 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:38.000 So there's also an adult reading list created by the Blueberry. This was last year's list and we did use in our church, we did use Lauren Groff's 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:49.000 The Vaster Wilds as a discussion book in our women's book group. But there's a number of other books in our list. A few of them are here. And then, of course, we've got some. 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:58.000 For this year that might be interesting, of course, many of you, I'm sure, have already read the tiny book, The Serviceberry that just came out. Robin Wall Kimmerer's new book. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:06.000 So fantastic. It's all about reimagining the economy based on the model of nature. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:09.000 But there's lots of other 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:14.000 cool recommendations that will be coming out in the 2024 adult reading list. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:20.000 But what can the blueberry be used for? Inspiring creation care story times? 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:30.000 opening up a STEM activity when you're collaborating with God, planting or looking for bugs or taking a nature walk or starting a compost pile or 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.000 Designing with natural elements like seeds and sticks and rocks. 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:42.000 It's a great thing that you can share with parents in your church to guide them to the best books so that children will love the earth. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:46.000 If you're doing Earth Day programming, it's a great handout. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:50.000 It can suggest story times. It's a great thing to share with partners. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:26:01.000 You can also, this is really simple. You take yard signs, you can buy them almost anywhere. And then you attach 00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:08.000 laminated copies of the book. You need to buy two copies of the book in order to create a book walk 00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:16.000 But then you put it outside and then people walk along and learn about nature while they're experiencing nature. 00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:23.000 Obviously, we've talked about graphic novel book clubs for kids or intergenerational experience. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:30.000 One of the great things about the blueberry is we worked very hard to make sure that the diversity 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.000 of God's people are reflected in. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:38.000 in the books. You can use the adult list for adult book clubs or study series. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:44.000 And of course, you can share the educator resources with your formation team. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:47.000 So how do you get all this good stuff? 00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:56.000 So this comes from Evanston Public Library, and at least right now that's where the Blueberry Award takes place. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:06.000 So you go to Evanston Public Library, www.epl.org slash blueberry, and all the lists will be there. What you won't see is anything from 2024 yet. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:12.000 Our announcement in 2024 is March 20th, 2025. 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:15.000 And so every March you can look for this list. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.000 So that you have about a month to buy the books before 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:21.000 Earth Day, if you want to use them in that capacity 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:29.000 So thank you so much for listening. And I'm open to questions right now. I went through a lot of things quickly. 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:39.000 I'm happy to go back and answer anything that you might have a question about. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:43.000 Can we stop our sharing? 00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:44.000 the screen share. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:45.000 Yes, of course I can do that. Let's 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:46.000 Thank you. 00:27:46.000 --> 00:27:49.000 See, let's… 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:50.000 Yes, now you can see Anne. 00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:52.000 And that way I can see hands of people who have questions. Yeah. 00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:54.000 Yeah. 00:27:54.000 --> 00:28:02.000 Yeah, you can raise your hand or you can write it in chat or you can raise your hand by the hand raising 00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:03.000 Susan. 00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:07.000 tool which is under something, something. What is that anymore? It's new. 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:08.000 React. Isn't it underreact? 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:09.000 Yeah, there's a little heart there. 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:16.000 Yeah, that'll hurt. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:21.000 I'll start with a couple here, actually. So this has been going on since 2021 is that 00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:22.000 Yes. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:25.000 Correct. So that's one, two, three years worth. 00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:26.000 Yeah. 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:29.000 So what's that story a little bit? 00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:31.000 So… 00:28:31.000 --> 00:28:36.000 How did the committee get put together? How did they choose who they chose? 00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:41.000 How much buzz did it get before they did to 22 and then the 23 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:42.000 What? 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:47.000 Yes. Okay. Yeah, we read in 2021 and our first announcement was in 2022. 00:28:47.000 --> 00:29:01.000 about the 2021 books. How did it come together? Well, the Emerson Public Library is really lucky. We have three people here at the library who have been on the National American Library Association Awards Committees. 00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:06.000 So they have been involved in a Caldecott award or a Newberry Award 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:12.000 Or there's one of us that shared the legacy committee, which used to be called the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:20.000 And there's someone now this year is 2025, they're going to be on the Cybert Award, which is the best informational books. 00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:23.000 So we have these people who have these people 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:29.000 determined for the nation the best children's books. 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:34.000 And so they're used to using that criteria. But then we had to supplement those people 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:35.000 We've got some council of the church. 00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:48.000 with scientists. And the lucky thing is, is that the people that I've gotten as scientists are usually second career people. So they used to be scientists and now they work in a library. 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:56.000 You'd be amazed that that's possible. And this year, the scientists we have is um 00:29:56.000 --> 00:29:59.000 a biologist and zoologist 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:08.000 Who is now a STEM librarian at Galesburg Public Library, which is a real far away in my book, but it's just the other side of Northern Illinois. 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:11.000 And she was at the Peoria Zoo. 00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:15.000 So she goes through each one of the books and is able to tell us 00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:21.000 You know, this is not accurate. This is not how butterflies work or whatever it is. 00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:30.000 And that's really, really significant because librarians don't naturally know that, nor do we necessarily know how to do all that research. I mean, we could try. We're good researchers. 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:37.000 And then on top of that, we have a wonderful ecology center that was, I think it was founded in 1973. 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:40.000 But it's still operative. 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:46.000 Staff there that work with kids introducing nature to them all the time. They run camps. They have one-time programs 00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:52.000 family programs and they are used to working with nature and kids all the time. So they are like gold on our committee. 00:30:52.000 --> 00:31:04.000 Telling us what will work and what might not work and what's most attractive to parents and kids now in the nature realm and how to relate. And then, of course, we have our sustainability coordinators from 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:09.000 The city, I'm very lucky to seduce 00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:13.000 city's sustainability manager, she has a staff of three or four and she has like an impossible task of getting us 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:22.000 climate ready by 2030. But she's willing to take the time to read these books and to advise us. And she's caught all kinds of errors 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:29.000 In books, making sure that the ideas are actionable 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:34.000 And that they're actually going to make a difference and it's not greenwashing. 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:40.000 And the school district's sustainability coordinator is also willing to share her time and energy with us. 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.000 And so it is a collective of people that 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:47.000 that we called out. 00:31:47.000 --> 00:32:01.000 and keep pulling in to work on reading these books. It's an enormous effort. I mean, you have to read everything that's published about nature for three to 10 year olds and just trying to get our hands on everything is quite an activity but 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:10.000 Though one of the people on our committee, her name is Betsy Bird, she writes a very influential column for school library journals. So if you're a 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:22.000 a librarian and you're looking to buy children's materials, then you know Betsy Bird. She's the column you read to find out what new books are coming up. And so every publisher sends her 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:29.000 their whole stock because they want to be featured in her column because it's like it's an automatic, okay, now we've 00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:39.000 sold out in all the libraries in the United States. So we have access to the books before they're published, which enables us to look at the whole year, which is really great. 00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:53.000 So that's the group. That's who we called out and who we pulled together. And there's churn. I mean, there's people that have to leave. They go on to another library. They go on to a different career, and then we pull in new people. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:54.000 Nice. 00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:55.000 Very cool. Sounds like fun, actually. 00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:56.000 It's a blast. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:58.000 I see a Suzanne, yeah. 00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:00.000 Yes, yes, Susan. 00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:03.000 Yeah, I was… 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:11.000 It sounds great. Your church sounds wonderful. I wish we had that many kids. I don't know how many kids you've got, but 00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:13.000 What do you suggest for you 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:16.000 Small congregations that might have 00:33:16.000 --> 00:33:18.000 I don't know, two kids 00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:22.000 Or so I guess we can just… 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:23.000 try and read a book or something 00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:30.000 Well, that's why intergenerational programming is so lovely. You know, you can have children involved as well as 00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.000 adults and have it be a conversation at the children's level. 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:42.000 So that is one opportunity. I can tell you what I think the secret is to the explosion of children in our church. 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:44.000 And that is 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:51.000 that our pastor hired a part-time cook 00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:56.000 And has her cook for everybody on Thursday night. 00:33:56.000 --> 00:33:57.000 Oh. 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:01.000 So anyone in the church can go, but most particularly, it's the parents that go and 00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:03.000 that children have um 00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:08.000 have choir practice. And then the choirs all have choir practice on Thursday nights. 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:17.000 So nobody has to cook dinner. And that's a big draw. And it really changes the dynamic. 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:26.000 You know, because it's so hard. Okay, when do you do an evening program for kids? I mean, it has to be about 630, which means mom is under the gun or dad is under the gun. 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:41.000 to provide a full meal before they arrive at church, which means you've got to be eating at 530. And, you know, it's a trick. And so instead, what they do is they all bundle themselves up and they all come to church and then somebody else feeds them. 00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:49.000 So that has been really a helpful thing. But yes, if you have only a few children, I think to engage them in something 00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:54.000 fascinating about the natural world is not a bad way to go. 00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:57.000 So, um. 00:34:57.000 --> 00:35:02.000 Yeah, Susan, if I were a priest there, you know, I'd say he can either 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:08.000 say to the adults, you can either listen to my sermon or you can read one of these five books. I'm good with either one of those. 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:13.000 The books are probably better for you. There's probably what you should do. 00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:14.000 But… 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:15.000 Okay. 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.000 Because you're just going to reiterate what the books say anyway, right? 00:35:19.000 --> 00:35:21.000 There you go. Yeah. 00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:24.000 Thanks. 00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:28.000 It was great. 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:33.000 So I love that idea. You were talking about making the taking uh 00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:36.000 parts of the books and making the signs. 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:37.000 Yes. 00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:39.000 I mean, that immediately I would put it in there. 00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:41.000 Holy hikes for kids. 00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:43.000 Oh, absolutely. Oh, yes. 00:35:43.000 --> 00:35:44.000 And… 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:48.000 I mean, wouldn't that be great? And, you know, we do the gardens. And so that was one of the things I do the good news garden. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:49.000 Yes. 00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:55.000 And that was one of the things that we wanted to do at the camp was to put those signs 00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:56.000 Yes. 00:35:56.000 --> 00:36:02.000 At the camp and then put the QR code scan thing so that the kids could scan them on their phones. 00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:07.000 And have something to read and to look at. 00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:10.000 I absolutely love that idea. I am stealing that idea. I'm just letting you know. 00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:16.000 Oh, please. And you know what's interesting is the parks all would like to have um 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:20.000 a book walk in their locale. 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:30.000 That's certainly something that our parks have asked us for pretty regularly to the point where now they are investing in getting a permanent structure 00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:36.000 that allow you know instead of the garbage, the garage sale signs 00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:37.000 Yeah, I know what you're saying. So I'm going, I think… 00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:42.000 But the garage sale signs work really well. All you need to do is buy two copies of the book. 00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:44.000 cut it apart, laminate. 00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:53.000 And you're set. So yeah, and you know, you could do that in conjunction with your local park 00:36:53.000 --> 00:37:00.000 Or you could do it on, if you are lucky enough to have grounds on your own grounds. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:12.000 But you could also collaborate with the local library. They probably would be willing to work on this with you, or at least we are willing to work with you on it. So there's two more question askers, I think. 00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:13.000 Yeah, we have Jim. 00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:14.000 I don't know who was first. 00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:16.000 Who was first? 00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:17.000 Well, Sonia is first in line there. 00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:19.000 Sonia, go ahead. 00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:25.000 Yeah, could you speak more about, do you know any more about the um 00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:30.000 the church that did the creation care VBS. 00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:31.000 The Vacation Bible School. 00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:33.000 Yeah. 00:37:33.000 --> 00:37:38.000 thing or did they kind of do their own curriculum or was it one of these that you 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:40.000 by the said or do you know anything about that? 00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:49.000 You know, I don't. I don't. I know I was called in to suggest books and I was called in to do a story time for them 00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:50.000 Okay. 00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:59.000 At one point we were out in a park, another time they came to the library. But it's the Methodist church, so I'm not exactly sure. They might have a 00:37:59.000 --> 00:38:02.000 God's Creation, Vacation Bible School program that would be easily listable 00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:03.000 Okay. 00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:08.000 But you could also string one together yourself from the from the 00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:14.000 Blueberry books, if you were of a mind to do that, depending on the amount of time you have. 00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:15.000 Yeah. Okay. 00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.000 So no, I don't know a Vacation Bible school offering 00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:30.000 And I probably should research that in terms of what's available. But you should share with a few people how you've used the blueberry list. Oh, green team leader from Florida. 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:36.000 Oh, mainly with my grandkids and um 00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:42.000 I feel like little Johnny Appleseed, I take the brochures and spread them everywhere and um 00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:51.000 talk to our Lella's on my, we're on the commission together. We put it in our newsletter and 00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:57.000 That kind of thing. But I'm more, Martha, you're always so 00:38:57.000 --> 00:39:03.000 enthusiastic and energetic. And so I'm more motivated to um 00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:06.000 to get out there and do some more. And I'm thinking i'm going to get on 00:39:06.000 --> 00:39:11.000 Amazon, I guess, unfortunately. But after this and after this 00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:12.000 want to order them all, of course. 00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:15.000 Oh, yeah, for sure. 00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:18.000 Jim, you were next i think 00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:25.000 So I'm part of a small congregation and it seems between my wife and I, we're on every committee. 00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:28.000 and uh 00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:30.000 That happens in larger congregations too, right? 00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:31.000 Yes, it does. 00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:36.000 But of the 80-20 stuff and all that, right? But the point of this question is 00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:41.000 It might be one thing that comes to my mind is that it may not be that creation 00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:49.000 care team that is actually working with the youth 00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:50.000 Right. 00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:52.000 It may be the youth coordinator doing that and they may not be as immersed in creation care 00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:59.000 frameworks as everyone else it would be to have a resource 00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:02.000 that you folks could be 00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:08.000 directed to that would kind of lightly put that framework without being, does that make sense? 00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:09.000 to have that as… 00:40:09.000 --> 00:40:19.000 Yes, yes. Well, yes, it's a matter of sharing gently the list and how helpful it might be and offering perhaps to 00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:27.000 to read to children from one of them or offering perhaps to help put together one of these programs. 00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:33.000 And I don't know any youth coordinators that don't want help. 00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:44.000 So if you say, I'm willing to help, but it needs to be something about nature because I'm a creation care person. I want to share that with kids. That's a great thing. 00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:49.000 I can tell you that the creation care, the youth 00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:53.000 minister or the youth manager at our 00:40:53.000 --> 00:40:58.000 church and there's only one of her. She used to be a librarian so um 00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:03.000 That's why it seems like maybe library heavy programming where we are but um 00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:14.000 you could certainly get you could certainly talk to your local children's librarian about tips about how to read to children and ideas about how to support your youth 00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:19.000 formation team. 00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:23.000 Does that help? 00:41:23.000 --> 00:41:24.000 Yeah. And George? 00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:25.000 George's hand is up. 00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.000 Now, the book walk is a good idea i was 00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:34.000 down in the arboretum here in Lexington and i started at the wrong end. 00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:40.000 But I said, wait a minute, this is a book that we read to the kids the and 00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:43.000 Many, many, many, many times 00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:44.000 Yes. 00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:45.000 And so for the first time 00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:48.000 I read it backwards. 00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:53.000 That's so cool. Yes, you know, librarians 00:41:53.000 --> 00:42:10.000 often don't think that that's the kind of book that they should put up as books about nature when you're actually in nature. It seems like a huge lost opportunity. And that's why we've worked with our parks people to do that because you know you can put up any book, but why not put a book that helps you understand what you're looking at? 00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:21.000 And yeah, we had quite a community gathering. The first year we did the blueberry, the book that won was called How to Find a Fox. 00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:26.000 And it's for very young children, but it has some of the most gorgeous photography I've ever seen. 00:42:26.000 --> 00:42:29.000 It's a Finnish photographer. His last name is Saranen. 00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:37.000 And he did the most incredible pictures of foxes. And we did a fox walk and there were plenty of adults that had a wonderful time. 00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:41.000 You know, going along and learning about 00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:51.000 when might be a good time to see a fox in action? And do we actually have foxes in Evanston? And yes, we do. 00:42:51.000 --> 00:42:59.000 you know, wow, why don't we see them more often? Well, they're very good at hiding. And it was a great, it was great fun. 00:42:59.000 --> 00:43:03.000 Go ahead, Sonia. 00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:08.000 So I don't know how much time we have. I don't want to, we can talk later but um 00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:16.000 So I don't understand the mechanics of like how the book walk works. So I got the signs and 00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:17.000 Yes. 00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:21.000 So it seems like that is, do you like blow it up bigger and then do you stop and 00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:22.000 No. Well, no. 00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:23.000 somebody read? I mean, how does that work? 00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:28.000 If it's a tiny book, you blow it up. But no, you just use the actual physical pages of the book. 00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:29.000 Okay. 00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:31.000 The reason you need two of them 00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:37.000 is that when you show the front of something then the 00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:39.000 Yes. 00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:40.000 Okay. 00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:41.000 the part of the story on the back is lost. So that's why you need two books. 00:43:41.000 --> 00:43:42.000 Yes. 00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:45.000 So you, you know, you'd pull the book apart and 00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:51.000 and then laminate them on something that will be about the same size as the yard sign. And then you 00:43:51.000 --> 00:43:52.000 Yeah. 00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:55.000 tape it to the yard sign. 00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:56.000 And you just walk through it. 00:43:56.000 --> 00:43:59.000 I mean, it's really, really low tech. The only thing you can't 00:43:59.000 --> 00:44:00.000 Okay. 00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.000 The only thing you cannot do is you cannot call it a story walk. 00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:08.000 And the reason why is some woman in Ohio, I think it is 00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:15.000 Maybe it's Pennsylvania has copyrighted that term and you have to ask her permission first. So just call it a book walk. 00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:16.000 Okay. And it doesn't. 00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:21.000 And you're fun. 00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:24.000 Yeah. 00:44:24.000 --> 00:44:25.000 Yeah. 00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:28.000 better like you know if you're due, let's say the Fox one, like you said, like I'm doing it in my neighborhood, let's say, or it doesn't have to correspond to what you see in your 00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:35.000 spit your spot and it's fine. 00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:36.000 Okay. 00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:40.000 Any book you want to share can be done this way. But like I said, I think nature makes more sense 00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:46.000 And yeah, it'd be great if it was about some phenomenon that you were seeing. 00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:48.000 I can tell you that i can tell you that 00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:49.000 No, I live. 00:44:49.000 --> 00:44:56.000 that's just not always the case. So I'm just, maybe I'm overthinking this, but I'm just, I'm very intrigued. 00:44:56.000 --> 00:44:57.000 Yeah. 00:44:57.000 --> 00:45:04.000 Yes. Yeah, well, you know, if you've got an area with some native plants, maybe one of the plant books, if you've got an area that has water feature, maybe something that's about something in water. 00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:05.000 Yeah. 00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:21.000 If you have particular typography and you can't think of anything, then I am more than happy to help 00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:22.000 Okay. 00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:28.000 share the library wealth. I could give you another book that maybe wasn't a blueberry but was a wonderful nature book that would share about mushrooms or share about, you know, whatever. 00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:29.000 Okay. 00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:31.000 And every year we have different ones. And so we have a broader range of things that we can suit, but yeah. 00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:36.000 Anyone else with questions or we're about 10 minutes to, I think. Is that right, Jerry? 00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:38.000 Yeah, we still got a little bit of time. 00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:42.000 Got other questions? 00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:47.000 I'm just hoping that this makes you all energized to go um 00:45:47.000 --> 00:45:50.000 Go talk to your formation people. 00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.000 or your pastor and say, oh, I have some great ideas let's 00:45:54.000 --> 00:45:55.000 Well, I'm still curious about 00:45:55.000 --> 00:45:56.000 No. 00:45:56.000 --> 00:46:00.000 the energy level of the idea, which I think is absolutely brilliant and timely. 00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:05.000 So has Newberry responded to you all in your existence? 00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:06.000 well i i 00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:07.000 Or NPR, have you got on NPR yet? 00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:10.000 We're getting there i am um um 00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:12.000 We'll put you there. 00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:27.000 I have everyone I present to, I always say, now bring this flyer that you get off the website and bring it to your local library and ask them to please stock the books of the blueberry. And if they want to be in touch with me, they are happy to be in touch with me. I will give them more. 00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:35.000 I'll give them logos, I'll give them whatever they need. They can get spine labels for their books so they can have little blueberries on the back of their books. 00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:37.000 But… 00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:52.000 In any case, all that is in that website. And so, yes, I'm working on trying to get the word out. We did a press preview for the first time last year. We did a party for the first time the year before that, a big announcement party. 00:46:52.000 --> 00:46:55.000 I finally hit the big time, though. 00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.000 Currently, right now, I am working on a 00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:04.000 They have asked me to do a guest column in American Libraries magazine. 00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:09.000 So I am hoping that it's in April, of course. 00:47:09.000 --> 00:47:22.000 So Earth Day months, Earth months. And so I'm hoping that that means more of your librarians will have heard of the blueberry after April. 00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:28.000 But the best time to tell them about the list is at the end of March when the list first comes out when they have about a month 00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:30.000 to then order books. 00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:36.000 if they haven't already ordered them. I mean, some of these are the books that we name are also well known in other ways. 00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:42.000 But for some of the books, they will not know them and they will need to order them and it gives them time to order them. 00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:51.000 But you could always share them like tomorrow if you want to go to your library. But yeah, I'm hoping. And then the other thing that we're hoping is. 00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:57.000 We've got some local press. We also do two national 00:47:57.000 --> 00:48:02.000 webinars like this one, but national. We do… 00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:10.000 We do Natural Start Alliance, which is all the parks department staff, all the nature center staff. 00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:17.000 For a school preschool teachers, preschool teachers that want to do nature 00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:25.000 as part most of their curriculum, they are all in an organization called Natural Start Alliance. And we do a webinar for them every year to announce 00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:32.000 the latest copies of the books because they will immediately put them to use. We also do a webinar called 00:48:32.000 --> 00:48:38.000 early childhood investigations webinars. This is for preschool teachers 00:48:38.000 --> 00:48:43.000 Mostly nationally, though they do have international folk as well and um 00:48:43.000 --> 00:48:50.000 They are just for preschool teachers, trainings for preschool teachers. And one of the things you can train them in is book selection. And so that would 00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:55.000 what we do in terms of the Blueberry Award. And so far we've done, I think, two years worth of 00:48:55.000 --> 00:49:00.000 announcements. So your local preschool teacher may possibly have heard about the blueberry 00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:07.000 So now with American Libraries Magazine, I'm hoping that means that more librarians will be aware 00:49:07.000 --> 00:49:14.000 And at some point, yes, I want American Library Association to call me up and say, okay, so how do we take over this award from you? That's my 00:49:14.000 --> 00:49:15.000 That's cool. 00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:33.000 You know, I don't know if it's going to happen now, but I'm 63. I'm hoping to work till 70. And maybe by that point, American Libraries Magazine will realize how American Library Association will realize how important it is because the future of libraries is nature smart. 00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:38.000 You go ahead and you tell your librarians that your children's librarians 00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:41.000 The future of libraries is nature smart 00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:45.000 And there's all kinds of people that are working on that. 00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:48.000 may not have heard it, but it's time they did. 00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:53.000 But also may be true of the future Sunday schools is nature smart. 00:49:53.000 --> 00:49:54.000 Yeah. 00:49:54.000 --> 00:49:57.000 And the other thing is interesting to listen to you. You think like a librarian. 00:49:57.000 --> 00:49:58.000 Yes. 00:49:58.000 --> 00:50:05.000 I'm thinking of parents. 00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:06.000 Yes. 00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:07.000 So to me, the power of the newberry list is not for librarians. It's the fact that parents look at it and it's posted on Amazon 00:50:07.000 --> 00:50:08.000 And it generates 00:50:08.000 --> 00:50:10.000 Yes. Sales. 00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:12.000 probably millions of dollars of sales. 00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:13.000 Yes, it does. 00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:19.000 An idea for you all might be able to create an Amazon list, which I think you actually can. 00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:20.000 Yes. 00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:22.000 Or a blueberry. 00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:23.000 And I wonder what that would do. 00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:30.000 Yes. And also, the other thing we need to do in addition to the Amazon list, the other thing we need to do is put the list up on Goodreads. 00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:33.000 Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. 00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:34.000 Yep. 00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:44.000 I don't know if any of you record reading on Goodreads, but that's a big resource. A lot of people use Goodreads. That's another one we should be in. Yes, there's many things to be done. The only problem is that at the library, we have the same problem that we all have at church. 00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:58.000 And that is that no paid staff and no budget. But we're working on it. We have a whole team of really enthusiastic people. So yes, that is absolutely, that's one of the things on my to-do list, Jerry. 00:50:58.000 --> 00:50:59.000 Gotta get on that. 00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:05.000 So Martha, how would we do this for Scholastic? I'm getting ready to go to a book fair. You know, I really don't like book fairs. 00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:06.000 Yes. 00:51:06.000 --> 00:51:10.000 But anyway, they're just overpriced. 00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:16.000 So we're getting ready to go to the book fair at the parent-teacher conferences. So how would we do 00:51:16.000 --> 00:51:20.000 How would we get these books through Scholastic? 00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:21.000 Who do we write? Who do we call? 00:51:21.000 --> 00:51:22.000 Well, not all of 00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:29.000 Yeah, not all of them are available through Scholastic, but you could certainly share the list with 00:51:29.000 --> 00:51:36.000 the salesperson that's there or the library, your school librarian who usually runs these things 00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:43.000 And share the list with her and then she can share it with Scholastic as a request. 00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:49.000 And you can also tell your local 00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:58.000 school librarian or whoever it is that's running your book fair that um that you're try a local independent bookstore 00:51:58.000 --> 00:52:03.000 to do the book fair. And then you could have a much greater 00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:15.000 a say in what the books are that are being sold. So it would take some amount of revolution. But Scholastic has some of them. I mean, Scholastic is a publisher for some of the books that we select. 00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:16.000 Okay. 00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:21.000 So I can't tell you right off the bat which ones are with each which 00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:24.000 with each publisher, like I can't do that like this, but I could go back and 00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:27.000 Elizabeth. 00:52:27.000 --> 00:52:28.000 Hey. 00:52:28.000 --> 00:52:30.000 Yeah. All right. We're getting down to five minutes here. 00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:32.000 One more idea is… 00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:41.000 Martha, you know, this is central enough to creation care, the formation of Christians, the formation of children is probably our biggest hope for the future. 00:52:41.000 --> 00:52:42.000 Yes. 00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:46.000 a stupid baby boomers are certainly not doing it. 00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:47.000 We are. 00:52:47.000 --> 00:52:51.000 There might be a grant opportunity even from some of the sources 00:52:51.000 --> 00:52:54.000 Episcopal sources and others 00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:57.000 for getting a newberry list 00:52:57.000 --> 00:53:00.000 into camps 00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:02.000 Conference centers, churches churches 00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:08.000 bookstores, a blueberry list. What did I say? Newberry blueberry list 00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:10.000 Yeah. 00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:11.000 I was… 00:53:11.000 --> 00:53:13.000 Anyway, just for you're invisible, right? Invisibility is part of your problem. And I wonder if 00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:16.000 there's grant money to argue 00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:19.000 for helping solve that problem. 00:53:19.000 --> 00:53:20.000 That's cool. 00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:22.000 I was just thinking about that, Jerry. 00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:28.000 we have like a lot of random bookshelves with random books on them. And I think it would be really cool 00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:30.000 for those bookshelves to be filled with 00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:36.000 these types of books, as well as adult books because we have a lot of adult guests, but in the same vein because 00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:38.000 We're here surrounded by nature. 00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:41.000 And so I think it'd be really cool to incorporate that. 00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:42.000 Yeah. 00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:47.000 Yeah, and you know, some of these children books, children's books are so well written, so well illustrated 00:53:47.000 --> 00:53:53.000 that they give you a thumbnail ability to get into a topic much quicker than an adult book does. 00:53:53.000 --> 00:53:57.000 So if you want to read about cicadas, you can take home a tome that's 350 pages. 00:53:57.000 --> 00:54:09.000 And there's a whole lot of material in there that you're not that interested in. But if you go to the children's book, even though it's for somebody younger than you are, you pick up the most important facts. 00:54:09.000 --> 00:54:18.000 then you can share them and you feel like you're really supported. So adults can also make use of some of these children's books. 00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:27.000 But our books go up to 10 and up. So like for essentially what you would call middle school, I think we have middle school books on our list. 00:54:27.000 --> 00:54:29.000 And those are 00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:36.000 surely something that adults would make use of and as well as our adult list. Yeah, I would love to 00:54:36.000 --> 00:54:44.000 do a better job of getting into camps and conference centers of the Episcopal Church. That would be fabulous. I certainly would. 00:54:44.000 --> 00:54:47.000 Yeah, there's something to do. And others, Methodists and everybody else. 00:54:47.000 --> 00:54:57.000 Lila posted an announcement that I will share on a screen here with you all real quick. 00:54:57.000 --> 00:55:04.000 And so that's this Gulf Coast Creation Care conversation with Dr. Marcus Briggs Cloud. 00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:09.000 That is coming up really quite quickly, January 2nd, but there's a registration. 00:55:09.000 --> 00:55:10.000 I did register. 00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.000 for that online conversation. So I'm just kind of boosting her announcement there 00:55:14.000 --> 00:55:21.000 With that, as well as the upcoming webinar this week. 00:55:21.000 --> 00:55:23.000 with Dr. Robin Gottfried. 00:55:23.000 --> 00:55:26.000 In his book, The Audacious Great Singing School. 00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:35.000 adventure and reflecting on incarnation at Christmas time. So I just wanted to pull those two things out 00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:40.000 As announcements while we still had a minute. We got one more minute. Jeanette, did you have something you were going to do similar? 00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:46.000 I do. I do. I wanted to thank Martha so much for being here. 00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:53.000 This was just so energetic and I just feel so good. I don't know. Does anybody else feel like really uplifted just from hearing these? 00:55:53.000 --> 00:55:58.000 these books about these books. I love it. Thank you so much and please come back. 00:55:58.000 --> 00:56:03.000 Join us and I'm just so grateful for you. Thank you. 00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:14.000 My next announcement was our January 13, 2025 is Ellie Simpson and she is our fellow for eco justice. We have four of them. 00:56:14.000 --> 00:56:21.000 I didn't know that. She's going to come and they, I should say, they're going to run a panel have a panel 00:56:21.000 --> 00:56:23.000 And they're going to talk to us about what Fellows for Eco Justice do. 00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:33.000 what their projects are and what they've done, where they're going to and what they're going to continue to do and where they move on when they're finished. 00:56:33.000 --> 00:56:41.000 So there's a lot of information there I wasn't aware of. Really excited about having Ellie come and talk to us about that. 00:56:41.000 --> 00:56:43.000 The next thing I needed to ask was. 00:56:43.000 --> 00:56:46.000 Who is using our Facebook page? 00:56:46.000 --> 00:56:48.000 Does anybody raise your hand? 00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:52.000 Has anybody seen our Facebook page? 00:56:52.000 --> 00:56:53.000 Okay. 00:56:53.000 --> 00:56:55.000 I think so. 00:56:55.000 --> 00:57:03.000 We're just trying to… Yeah, I know, we're just trying to just kind of like see if it's a necessary thing or what we can do to boost it. 00:57:03.000 --> 00:57:09.000 Or anything like that. Any ideas, just give us a 00:57:09.000 --> 00:57:12.000 an email to shout us out. 00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:20.000 And always, always, always check on the website. Check on the Prop 5 website, Prov4 website. That's where all the great news is. 00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:32.000 It's where things are happening and we all spend a lot of time, not really, writing up little stories and blurbs to put into the newsletter. 00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:35.000 that you read. 00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:38.000 Anybody have any questions? 00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:45.000 Is that where the recording is? Because I want to, you know, make sure some of my kids people watch. Is it on? 00:57:45.000 --> 00:57:48.000 the province four and five website. 00:57:48.000 --> 00:57:49.000 Heather, you're in. 00:57:49.000 --> 00:57:54.000 Hi, it's on theprovince5.org slash creation. 00:57:54.000 --> 00:57:58.000 So if you look in the chat here, I'll bounce it down to the bottom again. 00:57:58.000 --> 00:57:59.000 Okay. 00:57:59.000 --> 00:58:03.000 So that's the web page for this network. Even though it says Province 5, it's the province four province five 00:58:03.000 --> 00:58:05.000 Oh. 00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:10.000 So province5.org slash creation, you'll find all 00:58:10.000 --> 00:58:11.000 Okay. 00:58:11.000 --> 00:58:15.000 the things. So for this one, there'll be a recording. I think there'll be a transcript 00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:22.000 And Martha's presentation is already linked there. 00:58:22.000 --> 00:58:24.000 And that was great. That was great. 00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:26.000 So… 00:58:26.000 --> 00:58:30.000 I think that was it. 00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:31.000 Anybody have any questions? 00:58:31.000 --> 00:58:33.000 Yeah, very good. Thanks, everyone. That was a 00:58:33.000 --> 00:58:38.000 That was fun. We'll be doing it again. Blessed Advent. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. What else? 00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:40.000 Yes. Yes. 00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:41.000 Hanukkah, Kwanzaa. 00:58:41.000 --> 00:58:46.000 Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa. 00:58:46.000 --> 00:58:49.000 Or anything else out there.