Newbery Medalist Meg Medina and NBA star Jayson Tatum are out with children's books

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

Newbery Medalist Meg Medina remembers her childhood babysitter perfectly. Medina called her Señora Mimí–and now, the author is celebrating caregivers of all kinds in her new children's book. No More Señora Mimí, illustrated by Brittany Cicchese, tells the story of a little girl whose relationship with her babysitter changes after the girl's grandmother moves in. Then, NBA champion Jayson Tatum is also out with a new kids' book. Baby Dunks-a-Lot, co-authored by Sam Apple and illustrated by Parker-Nia Gordon, is about a baby basketball star. In today's episode, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe introduces a conversation between Medina and Cicchese about illustrating culturally specific references, like Cuban crackers, and representing subtle changes in a children's story. Then, Here & Now's Scott Tong chats with Tatum about the NBA player's relationship with his son and the upcoming Celtics season.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. My kid is about one and a half now,
0:06.7	and we've been reading the same three or so books multiple times a day. So yeah, I'm in the market
0:12.3	to introduce some new books into the rotation. In a bit, NBA great Jason Tatum of the Boston Celtics
0:18.3	talks about his book, about, of course, a baby who can dunk.
0:22.6	But first, NPR producer Samantha Balban has an excellent series titled Picture This,
0:27.3	where she gets an author and an illustrator for kids' book together, and they just talk about
0:31.2	their process.
0:32.4	Today, you get to hear from author Meg Medina and illustrator Brittany Chickasie about their
0:36.4	book, No More Signora
0:37.7	Mimi. It's a kid's book that's something of an ode to child care workers. After the break,
0:43.8	NPR's Aisha Roscoe sets up the plot, and then Megan Brittany take it from there. A lot of short
0:49.4	daily news podcasts focus on just one story. But right now, you probably need more. On Up First from NPR, we bring
0:57.1	you three of the world's top headlines every day in under 15 minutes because no one's story can
1:03.7	capture all that's happening in this big, crazy world of ours on any given morning. Listen now to the
1:09.9	Up First podcast from NPR.
1:13.1	No more Signora Mimi is about a little girl named Anna and her babysitter.
1:18.5	Signora Mimi lives upstairs in apartment 4C. Every day, Mommy drops me off on her way to work.
1:27.0	Senora Mimi has a two-tooth baby named Nelson and a no-tooth dog named Banchu
1:32.6	who likes buttered crackers as much as I do.
1:36.4	No More Signora Mimi is a new children's book from Newberry medalist Meg Medina.
1:42.3	It's inspired like many of her books by her life and her own
1:46.7	Signora Mimi, who I remember just so well. She was sort of heavyset and she had dyed red hair
	...

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