Children Aren’t Boats: Kim Brooks, Julissa Arce & Franny Billingsley

December 8th, 2019

 The pleasures of reading are often introduced at a young age, and on this episode of Open Stacks, we revisit young adulthood and the child in the 21st century, in Kim Brooks’ Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear and Julissa Arce’s Someone Like Me: How One Undocumented Girl Fought for Her American Dream. Plus Children’s Book Specialist Franny Billingsley and Colin sit down with 2019’s best picture books.


Go in the stacks on this episode with Kim Brooks, author of Small Animals: Parenthood in the Age of Fear, with an ear toward the books about parenting, childhood, and society that brought up her own "non-parenting book." Find a list of books discussed below. 


Bypassing this week's Front Table, Colin made his way to our sister store, 57th Street Books, to talk with author and Children’s Bookselling Specialist Franny Billingsley about their respective top three favorite picture books published this year. 

When not singing, Franny and Colin are typically reading picture books at story time each Wednesday and Saturday morning at 57th Street Books. Read up on all our children's programming in A Young Person's Guide to 57th Street Books!


In June of this year, social justice advocate and national bestselling author Julissa Arce came to 57th Street Books to discuss, Someone Like Me, a book for young readers about growing up undocumented in Texas. She was joined in conversation by José Olivarez, the award winning poet behind Citizen Illegal.  


What's your favorite children's book? Write to us with that or any other comments or questions at podcast@semcoop.com.

Below, you can find all the books we featured in this episode. Explore our Front Table no matter where you are by subscribing to our weekly email newsletter and by checking out semcoop.com/blog. If you haven't already, check out our Co-op Notable Books of 2019 and Holiday Gift Guide.