(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, I'm Steve Adubato.

Recently my colleague Jacqui Tricarico and I traveled with our team to do a series of interviews down at the 2024 New Jersey Education Association Convention Annual convention.

We talked to educators, educational administrators, authors, poets, people engaged in a whole range of activities, impacting our kids, impacting our schools in the world of education.

Here now are those conversations.

Jacqui, myself and some really interesting people in AC.

- Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We are here in Atlantic City for the New Jersey Education Association Annual Convention of Educators from all across the state.

We are honored to have Mychal Threets, who is a librarian, a literary ambassador, one of the keynote speakers here at the NJEA and the PBS resident librarian.

- Yes.

- First of all, as a part of the PBS family myself, you have to explain that.

What does that mean and how did that happen?

- Yeah, you know what, I love PBS.

I grew up on PBS as a PBS kid, a homeschool kid, a library kid, raised on Mr. Rogers, LeVar Burton, "Dragon Tales," Arthur Read.

So, having the social media partnership with PBS Kids means I get to have book recommendations, share library stories, and just see my name on PBS's Instagram, TikTok, Facebook.

So for me, a PBS kid, it's a dream come true that I never even knew was a dream.

So, it's so very special to be working with PBS.

It's one of the honors of my life that I never knew would ever, ever happen.

- That's awesome.

Mychal, talk to me about this.

Your healthy obsession, your passion for libraries comes from where?

- It comes from my mom, it comes from my grandparents.

My grandmother lived to be 90 years old, and she never had a library card when she was a kid.

She wasn't allowed to.

And then, there weren't libraries for her, but she always encouraged me to read.

All of my grandparents did.

I grew up with four grandparents, two great grandparents, and they all were like, "You're going to read, you're gonna read an hour every single day."

And that trickled down to my parents.

So, it all come from my grandparents, my parents, and then, just growing up in libraries.

I was homeschooled from kindergarten all the way to being a senior in high school.

So, I spent every single week at my local library, it's why I have a library card tattooed on me.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

You've got a library card tattooed on you?

- I do, yeah.

- And when did you do that?

- I did that when I was 23 years old, just because I love libraries so I want to immortalize it on me forever.

It's Arthur Read's library card.

So, I have Arthur Reed on my arm and in the whole library card.

- And he also, I don't know if our camera gets this, "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" is... - [Mychal] Yes.

- [Steve] Embroidered onto your sweater.

- [Mychal] Oh, yes.

- There's no tattoo there, right?

- I wish there was, not yet.

Maybe soon.

I would get his face tattooed.

Him and Bob Ross.

- Hold on.

I gotta understand this.

You're such an upbeat, positive person, but you came up with this expression called Library Joy.

Explain it.

- I don't know if I came up with it, but I am obsessed with Library Joy.

- Well, hold on, where did it even come?

Do we even know where it came from?

- I don't know.

I just started saying, all of a sudden.

I was making videos on social media about library kids, library grownups, about all the visits from library people.

And I just said library joy.

I get so much joy from libraries.

The library is for every single person.

We all belong in libraries.

I mean, libraries are more than just books now.

We have musical instruments, we have board games, video games, programs, homework help.

There's something for everybody.

And well, the library is a place where you can be just as you are.

It's a place where you've always belonged.

And that to me is library joy.

If it's falling in love with a manga book, a graphic novel, audio books, no matter who you are, the library is there for you.

And I will always love that my entire life.

- Connect libraries, library joy.

- Yeah.

- To quote unquote, mental health advocacy.

- You know what, I think they're directly, they're directly correlated.

Libraries and mental health go hand in hand because there are people who are mentally ill, people who are struggling, and they turn to the library.

The library's the last free space.

You don't, there's no obligations.

There's no expectations.

You don't even need a library card to go inside the library.

We want you to have a library card, but you don't have to.

And that's where the connection is, is you can be suffering, you can have anxiety, you can have depression, but then you can find your favorite books at the library.

You can fall in love with Beverly Cleary's character, with Junie B. Jones, with Amelia Bedelia, with "Chronicles of Narnia."

And you will become the best version of yourself just in that local free space, the library where you can be just as you are.

- Have you gotten any pushback, any resistance, pushback to your message, to the work you're doing?

Because I've heard through the grapevine that not everybody's on board.

- I wouldn't say not everybody's on board.

I think some people think I'm like, toxic positivity.

(Steve laughing) And to me, I think it just- - Wait, you just said toxic.

- Toxic positivity.

- Define that, please.

- I can't, I think I don't, I don't think.

- As if we don't have enough positivity.

Really?

Seriously?

- I think it just that people are just like, it's too much joy.

But I think it just means that they're not ready for joy.

They're not ready for happiness.

And that's okay, because joy and happiness are gonna be there for them.

So, I think for me, I'm just trying to encourage them and say, yes, this is where we're at.

Maybe you're having a hard day.

Maybe you're not ready for joy on a Thursday or a Friday, but maybe next Monday, next Tuesday, it'll be there for you.

So, yeah, so, I've gotten some pushback.

Some people don't like what I do too much, but I think at some point they're gonna need what I'm talking about.

They're gonna need libraries.

- Well, let's do this.

There is some pushback, not so much against you.

- Sure.

- Or your message, but there are folks.

- Oh, yes.

- Millions of them who are very caught up in quote, the banning of books.

- Yes.

- You say what to that movement and those in that movement, because they believe there are books that are sending, that send the quote, wrong message to our children in libraries.

- I would say that literacy rates across the world are already plummeting.

We have so many kids who are not at third grade reading level, not at fourth grade reading level, fifth grade reading level, and so on.

So, banning books hurts literacy.

But look, the answer to literacy is Library Joy.

It's getting kids to love books, to love the practice of reading, of opening those pages, of putting on their headphones and listening to audio books every single day.

And when you're banning books, you're telling those reluctant readers, you don't need to read.

We don't want you to read.

That's all that they hear.

That's all that kids hear when we ban books.

So, if we fight for the right to read, if we say, "Yes, you deserve to read.

We want you to read, we want you to love reading."

That's how we're gonna get them to fall in love with books so that they get to all the reading levels and we see literacy rates skyrocket because they're loving books.

So, my answer to those banning books is, one, please just read the books.

So, many people who want books banned, they don't even read the books.

- But Mychal, along those lines, you do believe in quote unquote, age appropriate books and content.

- Absolutely.

Which is all, which is honestly is all books.

I mean, different- - What do you mean it's all books?

- I mean, there are books.

There are kids who are in kindergarten are ready to read books that are meant for seventh graders, because that's the way their brain works.

Their parents have been reading books with them all these years.

So, sometimes kindergartners are ready for seventh grade books.

Sometimes fourth graders only need fifth grade books.

So age appropriate books.

All these authors and illustrators are trying to do is just share a story.

There's no agenda from these authors and illustrators writing for kids.

They just wanna tell stories.

They wanna talk about imagination, about curiosity and discovery.

So any book made for kids is age appropriate.

There may be times where you're like, oh, this kindergartner is not ready for this second grade books.

Maybe the first grader isn't ready for Dog Man and Captain Underpants.

- All different.

- It's all different.

But all books are for different people.

They're all for everybody.

- What about our teachers here at this convention?

You have thousands and thousands of educators from across the state.

The connection between your work and the work of the teachers here at this convention, please.

- Oh, I love education.

My mom is a teacher.

She's been a high school teacher for the last 15, 16 years.

She homeschooled me for an additional 10-15 years.

So she's been a teacher for almost three decades.

So I love teachers.

I love education.

And libraries need teachers.

Libraries and teachers are my favorite people.

We work hand in hand.

We all support one another.

We're supporting literacy.

We're supporting the future of our kids.

Without teachers, there are no libraries, without libraries, there are no teachers.

Education, it is the best thing in the world.

We all have the right to the best education possible.

There's been so much, there's been so long where we didn't have education, where we weren't able to be our best educated selves.

And I will always fight for teachers, for library people.

And that's why I'm happy to be here today talking with you, supporting and amplifying teachers and educators and anyone who's fighting for the future of our kids.

- A very positive message from Mychal Threets, who's a librarian, literary ambassador, keynote speaker here at the NJEA Convention and also the PBS Resident Librarian.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Well done.

- Appreciate you.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Bergen New Bridge Medical Center.

NJ Best, New Jersey’s five-two-nine college savings plan.

Seton Hall University.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

PSE&G, And by Valley Bank.

Promotional support provided by NJBIZ.

And by New Jersey Monthly.

- (Inspirational Music) - (Narrator) Great drive fuels the leaders of tomorrow and today.

Great vision paves the way for a brighter future.

Great ambition goes places, moving onward and upward.

Great empathy finds strength in kindness and in each other, working together to create something bigger than they ever imagined.

Great minds can change the world and great minds start at Seton Hall.