Librarian and Reading Rainbow host Mychal Threets stopped by The Daily Show to discuss his new children’s book.
I’m So Happy You’re Here: A Celebration of Library Joy, illustrated by Lorraine Nam and published last month by Random House, takes young readers on a library tour, with Threets introducing various books and services offered there. A critic for Kirkus wrote, “In this well-considered tale, library joy is simple, and library joy is real.”
Daily Show correspondent Michael Kosta asked Threets why it was important for him to write this book.
“I always tell people, ‘I’m so happy you’re here at the library,’ because the library is a place for everybody,” he said. “For autistic people, for dyslexic people, [people with] ADHD, people who are having a hard time, people who are LGBTQIA+, people who are anxious, people who are panicking, people just like myself but also people who are so happy, so joyful to find out that there is something for everybody at the library.”
Kosta said that he teaches his own kids about the importance of his books but wants them to be even more devoted readers. “I really want to supercharge it. I really want them to be bad motherfuckers when it comes to literacy. What else can I do?”
“Just keep going,” Threets responded. “I think it’s something special that Lorraine did with the illustrations to show people…that the library really is for everybody, by having a kid in a wheelchair on the cover, having a kid who’s blind reading a book in Braille.…We have to listen to the library kids and let them shine through. There are so many stories out there.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
