Children and Libraries is the vibrant, now fully-digital journal of ALSC and for years has been chock full of interesting best practices pieces, research into literacy and library initiatives, reflections on book awards, and interviews with authors and practitioners, but it’s also featured a fun little recurring segment called “Couples Who Collaborate” that offers a chance for librarians–in school or public settings–to talk about collaboration with their readers.
The Spring 2025 issue of CAL featured Jessixa and Aaron Bagley, known for their recent graphic novel Duel, published in 2023. Over the course of a three-and-a-half page interview with Mary-Kate Sableski, the couple recalls how they met, and how they began creating together, explores their collaborative writing process, details their goals behind creating inclusive stories, and of course, gives advice for collaborators.
Of course, giving this interview to readers who enjoyed Duel would delight them, but as a member of the CAL Editorial Advisory Board and a school librarian in an elementary school, I wanted to think more broadly about how I could make this fascinating interview accessible to my students. When Sableski asked them, “How do you see your books working to be inclusive of diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and identities?” I thought of the successful Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors lessons I do with every single grade level. For the older kids, those in 4th and 5th grade, I can use Jessixa’s answer as a jumping off point, and then point to this book itself as a window, mirror, or sliding glass door for my readers.
“When I was growing up, I did not see myself in books,” Jessixa says in the interview. “The only books that resonated with me were books where the animals were characters, because it was just about their experiences and their feelings. I could connect to that. I did not feel outside of that world. Now that we are making books with people in them, it is very natural for us to want to be sure that we are showing many different experiences, types of people, body sizes and ethnicities, because that is the world. That is not us trying to pretend a diverse world exists. These are kids’ actual experiences.”
What a thoughtful, accessible way to share this message and help kids connect with their actual experiences deserving to be represented on the page of all sorts of books!
Authors are living, breathing people, and interviews like these can help our reluctant or less-engaged readers feel more connected to a book. I love book trailer videos, especially with picture book authors and illustrators–the kids gasp seeing the real creator holding the book in their hands, and hearing from authors and illustrators in their own words can help reading and writing feel a realistic future for them. The Couples Who Collaborate series may be a must-read for librarians who love these books, but they also offer a chance to bring journalism and interviews into the library (chunking as needed!) to excite our readers.
Other featured couples in the collaboration series include Tony and Angela DiTerlizzi, Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey, John and Hayley Rocco, and many, many more. Browse the available, digitized CAL archive, which is available for all ALSC members. CAL editions older than 4 years are also publicly accessible, so you can connect your classroom teachers or adult librarian colleagues with these awesome resources as well.
How will you utilize Children and Libraries, one of the best perks of ALSC membership, in your library?
Aryssa Damron is the co-chair of the Children and Libraries Editorial Advisory Committee. She is a school librarian in the District of Columbia Public Schools system. She previously served on the Caldecott, Carnegie, and Alex Award committees and the ALSC Membership Committee.