📚 A library is an oasis. ✨ In this episode of The Storyteller’s Shelf Podcast, we sit down with Michael Hardrick, Executive Director of Forest Hill Library, ⁨@foresthilllibrarydistrict107⁩ , explore how libraries shape children’s lives, and how authors, illustrators, and educators can collaborate.

Michael, who was recently honored as the Small Community Libraries Round Table’s 2025 Librarian of the Year, explains the nitty-gritty detail to our Storytellers.

So grab your pencils and let’s learn how small libraries actually work and…

✅ How librarians decide which books make the shelves

✅ What book bans & Senate bills mean for teachers, parents, and librarians

✅ Why and how parents still guide children’s reading journeys

✅ Planning author visits, storytimes, and school outreach for self-published & indie authors JOIN THE FAMILY:

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Authors, and Publishers have a great title that needs to be seen and heard? Check out our BB Notable and submit before October 5!

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“When children see themselves in books, it validates them…and they want to explore.” – Farida Ladipo-Ajayi

🇳🇬 Imagine being a child who seldom has a book at home, never steps inside a library, and rarely finds a story that reflects your life, culture, or dreams.

➡️ Without these opportunities, entire generations risk losing not only literacy skills, but also the self-belief to imagine a bigger future.

📚 In Nigeria, countless children in underserved areas grow up surrounded by barriers to literacy.

Without stories that reflect them, many never discover the joy, curiosity, and confidence that books can spark.

💡 But change is possible — and it’s happening NOW.

Meet Farida Ladipo-Ajayi, founder of The Bookworm Café in Lagos, a grassroots literacy movement transforming reading culture for Nigerian children.

From running book clubs that make reading irresistibly fun 🎲📖 to championing African authors so kids see themselves in the stories they read ✍🏾🌍, Farida is proving that today’s readers are tomorrow’s leaders.

🎧 Listen to this inspiring episode of The Storyteller’s Shelf Podcast and discover how one woman’s mission is changing lives, one book at a time @thebookwormcafe8428

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Selling SEL: Tying Social Emotional Learning into Writing & Marketing | with author, speaker, and book reviewer, Meredith Davis

📚 POV: You're a kidlit author struggling with ZERO 0️⃣ SALES. 🥹 Figuring out why your book isn’t moving can feel like climbing Mount Everest. But here’s one shortcut that can boost you: tapping into Social Emotional Learning (SEL).

💥When done right, SEL takes your story from just another book on the shelf to a powerful teaching tool for kids of all ages. And no, we’re not talking about outdated, didactic storytelling or heavy-handed moral lessons. That’s old-school. 📖 We’re talking a gentle weave of pillars like self-awareness and self-management.

💪 According to @CASEL and other experts, SEL is IN and it’s here to stay. Librarians, teachers, and parents are looking for it…so scoop up this opportunity to serve!

LEARN HOW WITH US:✅ Meet Meredith Davis, award-winning author of THE MINOR MIRACLE and HER OWN TWO FEET, and founder and president of SCBWI Austin.

Meredith reveals how she weaves SEL into her middle-grade fiction without being preachy, showing that empathy is the real superpower in children's literature.

Come to class and take notes on:

• How to pitch SEL-infused stories to publishers

• Why emotional intelligence matters more than ever in today’s market

• How diversity and connection are reshaping the children’s book landscape

🎥 Watch now:

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