On Friday, the Santa Monica Public Library Pico Branch at Virginia Avenue Park will welcome author Meg Medina starting at 4pm, with the author introducing her platform ¡Cuéntame! Let’s Talk Books to Santa Monica. The tour, which has gone nationwide and includes a week-long visit to California, is a Spanish-English bilingual effort that encourages youth to connect with each other while talking about books. An additional event will take place Saturday at 1pm at the Santa Monica Public Library Main Branch, a "human library" event which platforms first-person stories and experiences of hardship, marginalization, bias and prejudice.
In addition to her time as an author, Medina was recently bestowed with the title of National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress, a job that she says is like being a "book friend" to children nationwide. Medina has been touring the country visiting communities to talk to kids about their books and reading life, as well as creating a video series where kids can meet with some of their favorite authors. Writing books for youth herself, she said she was always interested in storytelling for kids and young adults.
"I love children’s books just from an art perspective [and] from a story perspective," Medina said. "I feel like children’s books are like all of our origin story … it’s the first way that we sort of learn about ourselves and the world as we’re unlocking the world of print and information … I just felt like [it was] a very natural thing for me to do."
She added that no one genre or adjective defines what a "children’s book" is, but that the most important thing is that the "book feels honest" in some way, not sugarcoating any topics because children can "smell a rat."
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"[Kids are] very good at deciding when a book is heavy on the morals or trying to lead them to some sort of conclusion, so I think … as far as genre, should it be exciting? Should it be quiet? Should it be mysterious? I think all of the above, because we have readers who come to reading with those interests and from all angles," Medina said.
The "Let’s Talk Books" tour is centered around capturing that wide range of interests, wanting to reconnect children to literature that makes them feel connected to life experience. Medina brings books for appropriate age groups that captured her attention, but also asks for kids to bring their own recommendations with few limits. She noted that if a child wants to talk about a manga comic book, or a horror novel, that’s no problem.
During the sessions, Medina brings children on stage for a "one-minute book talk," a "human commercial" for the book talking about why someone should read it, pivoting into a conversation about their reading habits and connections to literature.
"We get very far away from the joy of reading [with] the measurement of reading, the assessment of reading, the rigor of reading … this tour is about reconnecting to [joy]," she added.
Saying that Santa Monica made a "really strong application" on why the city should be a stop on her tour, Medina said she is "delighted" to come to a "beautiful" and "varied" state like California. She calls her position an "immense honor," being part of the conversation of what kids are feeling and what they’re reading, particularly coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I think the most impactful thing for me as I’ve gone from place to place [is] just being given these beautiful welcomes by the community," Medina said. "It’s always been so touching, and the kids are fantastic and funny and open. And it just makes a lot of hard work feel very worthwhile."
