← The Book Case
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- [00:02]
Commercial Narrator
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- [00:33]
Audience Member / Interjection
Ho, ho, ho.
- [00:34]
Kate
Book nerds. How else am I supposed to introduce this very special edition of the bookcase on Christmas Day? If you're joining us on Christmas Day, do, do, do, be welcome. We're so happy that you shared your holiday with us. If you're listening to us after, that's okay too, you know, but, you know, I'm the Kate part and I'll introduce my counterpart, who is, well, Charlie Gibson.
- [01:00]
Charlie Gibson
The statute of limitations I don't runs out on Merry Christmas, but you can start, you know, getting into the Happy New Year business if you want statute of limitations on that never runs out. We have a really interesting show for you today, and we do hope that you get to listen to it because Christmas season is busy. But we have two very special guests who called us and said we want to be on the podcast, or their people did. They are royalty in the city of Oakland, California, and in San Francisco, it is Stephen Curry, the great basketball player, and his wife Aisha. And they have done something pretty special.
- [01:38]
Kate
Yeah, they have. You know, I also have to say, just before we get into the special things that they've done, I think I maybe know. And again, this has to do with my being a book nerd. I don't hate athletics or anything, but I know, like, three professional athletes, period. One of them is LeBron James. One of them is Travis Kelce because he can't stay out of People magazine. And one of them is the great Steph Curry. So the fact that we got this call was just amazing. But they are hardcore literacy advocates in Oakland. And when they called us, they said we would love to talk about some of the work we're doing in the community. And I was like, that would be amazing. And then they told us the date that they. That they could have us and sit down with us and talk to us. And I was like, I can't make that. This is so exciting. This is such an exciting. But I can't make that because I had a Christmas performance to attend. I had Christmas carols to listen to, songs about snow and Christmas cookies and all that fun stuff. So in this case, you got to do the fun stuff.
- [02:37]
Charlie Gibson
You got to go, I got to go out, spend the morning with Stephen Curry and his wife Aisha. And they were very nice. They brought their two kids, their two girls. And so because Kate wouldn't come because she. She stomped her feet and said, I'm not coming, we got Spencer Christian to join us. Spencer, of course, longtime pal of mine from Good Morning America. I think we worked together 12 or 13 years on good Morning America, and Spencer now works for KGO out in San Francisco. So he came to join us in Oakland and. And he was starstruck, just as I am with Stephen Curry. But we did talk about books, and they have a foundation, a really important foundation, I think, which is called Eat, Learn, Play. Three words that are absolutely critical to young people as they develop. And they have been giving. Well, this year, they gave four books to every single student in elementary school in the city of Oakland, California. Every single elementary school student. That's a lot of books, as we say when we talk to them.
- [03:40]
Kate
But what an amazing way to give back. What an amazing. Would that I had that. That's just an amazing things to do with resources because, you know, as we have talked about, one of the keys to literacy and getting kids to love reading and getting them off their screens and knowing how amazing books are is having books in the home. And not everybody has those resources. And as Aish Puri says in the interview so eloquently, libraries aren't as easy to get to as they used to be. And libraries have been, you know, but we love libraries. Don't get me wrong. But. But it's, it's, it's tough for kids. So the idea that they gave four books, like not just one book, but four books to each of the elementary kids in Oakland. What an amazing legacy to leave behind.
- [04:24]
Charlie Gibson
And there are 47 elementary schools in the city of Oakland, California. 47. Every kid in 47 different schools, and they pick their own books. They call it Christmas with the Currys. And what a nice thing to do. And they joined us, or we joined them at one of the schools in Oakland. So here's our conversation.
- [04:45]
Kathy Jacobs
Foreign.
- [04:49]
Charlie Gibson
It's good to have both of you with us. Stefan, I will tell you, this is the only interview you'll do for a long time that's not about basketball.
- [04:55]
Stephen Curry
I love it.
- [04:55]
Charlie Gibson
So explain the pick and roll to me. How did Eat, Learn and Play decide? Because there's lots of different ways that you can be philanthropic these days. How did you decide to focus on. On reading?
- [05:12]
Stephen Curry
The kind of through line for Eat, Learn Play's origin story was we had a life of service and Tried to find ways to be the most impactful. And, you know, being in Oakland when I got drafted here in 09, and me and Aisha starting our family out here, and we call it our adoptive home, it's where we kind of grew up as adults coming into parenthood. He understood all the things in organizations that we worked with throughout the years. Coming together with a very specific and clear goal on impacting the next generation of kids in this beautiful city where there's so much talent and opportunity is kind of hit or miss depending on your surroundings. And for us, Eat, Learn, Play as the three pillars that can establish a healthy and happy childhood for kids, it made sense. And we knew that we could authentically show up and provide the proper support and resources for kids that deserve it. Literacy being a big part of it because it is the key that unlocks a kid's potential to achieve their best self through the school system. But even beyond and confidence and the ability to be curious and understand the world.
- [06:26]
Interviewer / Host
Did any of your ideas about literacy come from your own early childhood experiences with reading? With literacy?
- [06:32]
Aisha Curry
Absolutely. I feel like I was one of the students that did not struggle in that department, but I was surrounded by students that did. And I think even more so than our. Our own childhoods, we've seen it with our children. And so not one of our kids learns the same way. And so especially I'd say over the pandemic is when we really realized, oh, we have to unlock this literacy pillar within Learn with our foundation, because reading is tough and the teachers can't do it alone, and the kids certainly can't do it alone.
- [07:11]
Charlie Gibson
So you got Eat, Learn, Play into the idea of disseminating books to kids. By the way, Eat, Learn, Play. Do you have them in the right order?
- [07:20]
Aisha Curry
Yes, I think so.
- [07:21]
Charlie Gibson
Yes.
- [07:22]
Aisha Curry
If you don't have a quality nutrition, your brain is not able to function and you're not able to learn. But if you're not in your books, then we're not going to let you outside to go and have a good time.
- [07:34]
Charlie Gibson
We've done a number of podcasts on the subject of getting kids to read, getting them away from screens and into books, and the kids that you're working with, if you expose them to books pretty good when they're young, when they get to middle school, when they start to grow up, the numbers fall off so precipitously. Do you have any metric to show that the foundation has really had an impact in kids as they progress in age?
- [08:02]
Stephen Curry
We started with the idea of what the research showed that if a kid is behind reading proficiency by third grade, the indicators on their ability to get to high school completion, they go way, way down. And so then the amount of kids that are behind third grade reading level, especially throughout the Oakland Unified School District, from the minority communities especially, it's alarming. And so you try to take those, that starting point, I guess, of awareness and then what's a tangible way to really try to create an impact now? And then hopefully over the course of time, we see those graduation rates climb and we're right in that wheelhouse of seeing dramatic change with the kids that we've been able to impact through our tutoring programs that have been available through pretty much all of Oakland Unified School District middle schools to starting with kids that were almost two grade levels behind and seeing dramatic increases in their, in their literacy within months. And then you understand what that means for a kid's confidence. There's people looking out for me to understand that this isn't, it's not my fault. As long as I have the ability to kind of, you know, put the time in, you know, have that one on one interaction with the two of us equipped to, Aisha's point, understand how I see the world, how I learn how my brain works and meet them where they are, I feel like we're going to continue to see hopefully those literacy rates increase and then eventually the rollover for high school completion in this district hopefully continue as well.
- [09:37]
Interviewer / Host
I would imagine there's a real turning point when you see a kid discover the joy of reading.
- [09:42]
Stephen Curry
Absolutely.
- [09:42]
Aisha Curry
Yes. Yes. That's actually been a big thing for us. And you mentioned the middle school readers and how do you keep them locked in, into that joy of reading and speaking to the heads of school and the principals and the teachers that we've worked with within the school district. What's really been important for the kids and has fostered a joy and love of reading is them being able to pick out books for themselves and then also making sure that we have like, culturally relevant and appropriate books for them. So the kids being able to see themselves in the stories and throughout the pages of the book.
- [10:17]
Charlie Gibson
Aisha, what you just said is a really important. The first podcast we did was with Oprah and she said, I wasn't a reader until I could see myself in books. At the beginning, I was just taken with girls with dark hair. So the books that you give away, first of all, I heard some of them are written by Stephen Curry.
- [10:37]
Aisha Curry
That is true.
- [10:40]
Charlie Gibson
You make sure that the kids, the books that they're getting reflect them.
- [10:45]
Aisha Curry
Absolutely. And in previous years, that's what I love about Eat, Learn, Play in our community is we're constantly evolving as an organization. And so in previous years, we would give the kids boxes of books. This year they're getting to pick out their books and they're getting to choose what goes home with them. And I think that is just so special.
- [11:08]
Charlie Gibson
So if they don't choose the books written by Stephen Curry, you take it personally.
- [11:12]
Stephen Curry
I know I get some consumer feedback. Right. And go back and make the next edition perfect. No.
- [11:19]
Interviewer / Host
In the Eat, Learn, Play mission statement, I saw a reference to something called high dosage literacy tutoring.
- [11:26]
Stephen Curry
Yes.
- [11:27]
Interviewer / Host
That caught my attention. High dosage.
- [11:28]
Aisha Curry
Yes.
- [11:29]
Interviewer / Host
How does that work?
- [11:31]
Stephen Curry
That one on one interaction is the most important part of it because a kid feels like you're here for me. And I think the amplification of 15 minutes, 30 minutes of time as opposed to a group setting makes the world of difference and the consistency of that. And then obviously making sure that that's free of charge for, you know, any student that's eligible for it and making sure that again, we're meeting kids where there are in schools because we know that there's a lot of dynamics at play in a kid's life, whether on campus, at home, crazy schedules, a lot of family dynamics. We want to make sure that we make it as easy of access as possible.
- [12:06]
Charlie Gibson
Yeah. One of the important points is that there needs to be books in the home. You need to be exposed to them as early as possible. And a lot of families can't afford to do that. Libraries are a little bit out of. They're not as popular as they used to be when I was a kid. But do you have any idea you're doing this now in every single elementary school in Oakland. How many schools do you know?
- [12:30]
Stephen Curry
47 or so.
- [12:31]
Charlie Gibson
47, 49. And each one of them's giving four books. I'm doing the multiplication. You're up there in numbers. Do you have any idea how many books over the years that you've been doing this, you've given away?
- [12:41]
Aisha Curry
We actually have just surpassed over a million books. And so we're. And we're still moving along so grateful for our partners that have made that.
- [12:52]
Stephen Curry
Possible, even for this Christmas with the couriers is our 13th version and the focus on literacy is what it is. Rubrik organization came in, we partnered with them to help scale this. Even within this two week period that we've been doing our localized book fairs, we've given out 68,000 WoW books just in this little window and to the point of it not just being the volume of books, but the quality and the culture relevant and age appropriate selections and the interaction. Like I get to go and choose your own adventure for these kids. That means a lot.
- [13:25]
Charlie Gibson
Aisha. I know pro basketball players are pretty well paid, but he's, he's bought a, a million books for, for kids, our partners.
- [13:39]
Aisha Curry
Oh yeah, it's.
- [13:39]
Charlie Gibson
I'm just illusioned.
- [13:40]
Stephen Curry
I love it. I love it.
- [13:42]
Aisha Curry
I thought, but you mentioned, you know, that libraries aren't maybe what they used to be. We love libraries. But it's true because kids aren't able to walk around like they used to to get to the library. And so what's really cool is we have our Eat, Learn, Play bus that we have within the community and we're able to actually fill it with books and food as well and meet kids where they are. And so it's been a really cool addition to the Eat, Learn, Play family.
- [14:13]
Charlie Gibson
Now you have kids?
- [14:15]
Stephen Curry
Yes, I do.
- [14:16]
Charlie Gibson
Oldest being 13. 13, 13. And the need is to keep her reading. So what do you do?
- [14:25]
Aisha Curry
So she is ebbs and flows with the reading. And I noticed that me maybe not harping on it so hard is actually what brought her back to the books. And so I'd provide them, just leave them there and maybe not harp on her sitting down and reading them. And she found them on her own. And so that's been really cool to see.
- [14:47]
Stephen Curry
And then our other two are the exact opposite, where you kind of have to, you know, push them in that direction, almost kind of put the book right in front of us at the.
- [14:55]
Charlie Gibson
Time.
- [14:57]
Stephen Curry
Create the quiet space and the dedicated time because it didn't come as naturally for both of them when it came to learning to read and their literacy journey. But also the idea that reading is fun. It's okay to spend 15, 30 minutes and lose yourself in the world of whatever you're reading. So it's kind of cool. To her point, we get to see all the different expressions in our home. And it informs a lot about kids.
- [15:21]
Charlie Gibson
That she, one of the experts that we talked to said that there are studies that show that people in this middle school, cohort in high school and even older check their phones every six minutes. Every six minutes. And the president of my college, not Davidson, the president of my college in a seminar raised that number with the kids and they said, oh, it's more than that. More than that. So what you're fighting is the electronic device. It's the phone. And I don't know how you fight it. What are you going to do, Mom?
- [15:53]
Stephen Curry
Oh, we'll start with our oldest.
- [15:56]
Aisha Curry
Well, yeah, we'll start with our oldest because that's where it's rearing its head the most. We're on the bandwagon of like, no social media until at least 16 years old. And so we've kept from that. She doesn't have an, like an actual smartphone yet. That'll probably change soon. She is going to high school next year. But social media accounts, that's how we just know no social media. So we've kind of kept away from that stuff. And then sometimes it just comes down to taking the devices away. And so we'll just have lock weeks where nobody's on. We try to lead by example somewhat.
- [16:42]
Charlie Gibson
So tell me about the sense of satisfaction that you get out of this. It is as good as beating the Knicks.
- [16:49]
Stephen Curry
It's a different type of rush, but it's to the point of hopefully. This first cohort of young elementary students who've been a part of this tutoring program and we see get to follow their journey throughout the years. That's gonna be the most gratifying part because you really get to see not just, you know, a kid's aha moment of learning how to read and catching up to their counterparts in class, but what does this lead to in terms of their curiosity and their ability to achieve great things down the road in their journey. So I'm excited about that part and knowing that we've had a huge part in that to start.
- [17:25]
Interviewer / Host
So not to downplay the importance of learning and reading, but how important is the element of play in the whole concept here?
- [17:32]
Stephen Curry
It's huge. I think just the idea of allowing a kid to be outside, have access to sports. What you learn when you're moving, when you're building a community out there on the playground, it goes a long way. Building self confidence, you know, the ability to be kind, to kind of become your best self. And I think the cool part is what we're doing with our playground and play space refurbishments around Oakland Unified School District and allowing kids to have say in and you know, what part of the play spaces they want to see and what's important to them. Not just the actual playground, the sport courts, the living gardens, all those things that can get kids get their hands and their feet dirty out there. So it's been awesome to feel a fresh energy of kids have something to look forward to when they go outside and say, oh, this is, you know, these are State of the art play spaces that are making a big difference.
- [18:26]
Charlie Gibson
So I usually decide to do this. Giving away books. And you picked the city of Oakland. Why the strong loyalty to this city?
- [18:33]
Stephen Curry
Why.
- [18:33]
Charlie Gibson
Why did you feel this is something that's of a scope and a scale that you can touch every kid here? Or. Or what?
- [18:40]
Aisha Curry
Why Oakland? Oakland has just historically been so good to us, and it's where we've always said this. It's where we became adults. It's where we started our lives and our families, and it's where we truly got to see how vibrant this town is and how much it has to offer. And I think we want to give people the platform to be able to share that with the world beyond and outside of Oakland.
- [19:08]
Charlie Gibson
So are all the books in English?
- [19:10]
Stephen Curry
No, there's multilingual offerings throughout our libraries. I understand, like you said, there's from an African American, black perspective, from Latinx perspective, there are. There's a lot of work to be done from the literacy perspective. And the idea that we can again meet kids where they are, that's a part of that mission as well. Spanish, English, hopefully other options as we go forward.
- [19:32]
Charlie Gibson
This is really important, what you're doing. It really is important. And I congratulate the two of you. Thank you. A million books. That's a lot.
- [19:39]
Stephen Curry
That is. When you say it out loud, that's pretty crazy.
- [19:42]
Charlie Gibson
That's a big number. And congratulations.
- [19:45]
Aisha Curry
Thank you.
- [19:45]
Charlie Gibson
And it's nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. I should have mentioned that. It's the Fred T. Korematsu School in Oakland. That's where we joined them. And they have also reconditioned the playground, a beautiful little playground down in that school. All coming from their foundation, which, as I say, is eat, learn, play. I kept asking them if they had them in the right order, but. But you. You can choose the order that you want to put them in. Anyway, it was a pleasure to talk to them, and they have, I think, done a wonderful job in setting. In setting the foundation for young kids to then hopefully go on and read. As we've talked about, it's so critical to get them over that hump as they go from elementary school to middle school when they suddenly get fascinated by phones. But if you start them with a good foundation, that's important. And we do hope that this Christmas you gave a book to every single child on your. On your Christmas list, or maybe you.
- [20:45]
Kate
Were able to wrap up a library card, which is also wonderful, you know, I mean, and what an amazing trip. I'm so jealous of you. Not only did you get to sit with superstar Aisha Curry and her husband, Stephen Curry, but, you know, I got to listen to five songs in a row about snow, you know, while it was snowing outside. I mean, doesn't that just beat all? You know, I mean, who wants to miss that?
- [21:10]
Charlie Gibson
Anyway, we'll take a break, come back. We've got a bookstore for you and appropriately, a children's bookstore.
- [21:22]
Audience Member / Interjection
So good, so good, so good.
- [21:24]
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- [21:51]
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- [22:22]
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- [22:58]
Charlie Gibson
So it would only be appropriate, I think with Stefan and Aisha Curry with their work and getting books to children in Oakland. Let's go to the other coast. The bookstore is Turtle Books. It's in Brookline, Massachusetts. And it's Bruce and Kathy Jacobs.
- [23:15]
Kate
Turtle Books. Welcome to the bookcase. It is so good to have you guys on. So tell me first, where does the name come from?
- [23:23]
Stephen Curry
Oh, great.
- [23:24]
Kathy Jacobs
Do you want to tell the story?
- [23:26]
Audience Member / Interjection
I don't think we remember exactly. We were brainstorming, forming names, and I think it was something about coming out of the pandemic, people sort of coming back out of their shells. And we, we thought about wanting to slow people down, like slow down and read a book.
- [23:46]
Kathy Jacobs
And it is Be comfortable in your own shell, go at your own pace.
- [23:53]
Audience Member / Interjection
And keep moving forward.
- [23:54]
Kathy Jacobs
Keep moving forward.
- [23:57]
Charlie Gibson
I'm so pleased. This gives me an opportunity to tell you my favorite joke in the whole world. What did the snail say when riding on the back of a turtle?
- [24:09]
Kate
Whee. Oh, my goodness.
- [24:12]
Kathy Jacobs
That is so bad. That is so bad.
- [24:18]
Charlie Gibson
Tell me how it differs. When you have a children. Just a children's bookstore as opposed to a, to a general interest bookstore, it's.
- [24:28]
Kathy Jacobs
Not laid out in a way that gives the children space to run around. And we created like a, we pulled out, we purchased an old TV set and gutted it and created a, a puppet theater. And all the image, the photos on the wall and the posters, it's all very kid friendly. We're hoping to bring them in and make it a very welcoming place for.
- [24:50]
Audience Member / Interjection
Children so that they can really interact with the, with the books in a bit of a different way. Yeah, but we're going to have crafts. Like we have crafts projects they can do when they come in. And we have a youth advisory board who is, who's already met and they've been given us suggestions about what books to buy and what activities to run. And we really want them to have a voice in how this door evolves.
- [25:19]
Kate
Talk to me about the youth advisory board. How did that come to be and how did you recruit?
- [25:24]
Audience Member / Interjection
I think we just, we really wanted them to have a voice in the town. Like I. This is such a difficult time for kids to be growing up and we want to hear as much as possible about what their experience is and what is going to be helpful. You know, how we can be a safe space for them, you know, a safe, creative space for them. And we can't do that without their input. We're raising a 12 year old and we have three grown children and it just feels like a very different time to be raising kids. There's so many distractions. And he's actually a good reader. He loves to read. And we still read even though he's 12. We read to him every night, but it's not the same as before. Phones and the Internet.
- [26:12]
Charlie Gibson
So to handle a children's bookstore, do you have to be a kid at heart?
- [26:18]
Kathy Jacobs
Yeah, I think that's probably true. Yeah, I would agree with that. And we love like when we, when the books come, when we order the books and we open the, the books, it's like, it's like Christmas morning because you just, and you pull out the books, you go, oh, I love that book.
- [26:33]
Audience Member / Interjection
It's like, like, yeah, meeting up with old friends, you know?
- [26:38]
Kathy Jacobs
Yeah. I love just children's books. And I think we're not alone. A lot of our customers come in and they relive their childhood through looking at these old. These books that they grew up with.
- [26:49]
Charlie Gibson
You have a wide age range of customers, but when a kid comes up and hands you a specific book, which book makes you smile the most? That that child is reading a book that you just love?
- [27:03]
Kathy Jacobs
That's a good question. I think for me, it's when they pick a book that I don't know, that they didn't pick just the obvious, like Charlotte's Web. They picked up some other book that they either knew or they heard about. And I don't know, it makes me feel good that they're, like, thoughtful about the books that they're selecting.
- [27:27]
Charlie Gibson
Kathy, what would you say? What? Inside. What makes you smile when a kid comes up or a parent comes up and hands you a book and says, this is what we want to buy?
- [27:36]
Audience Member / Interjection
That's a really good question. I'll tell you, I've fallen in love with these books by Christian Robinson. He's an illustrator. He did a book with Amanda Gorman, who was the poet laureate at Biden's inauguration, and it's called.
- [27:54]
Kate
What was the name of the book?
- [27:55]
Audience Member / Interjection
Something Someday.
- [27:57]
Kate
We did that book. We talked to him. We talked to her and to him. He's wonderful. He does that fantastic collage art.
- [28:06]
Audience Member / Interjection
He's done. He's done, like, the Last Stop on Market Street. He's done.
- [28:10]
Kathy Jacobs
What's the one Milo?
- [28:12]
Audience Member / Interjection
Milo imagines the world. His books are spectacular. And he actually gave us permission to put. His character is, like, central on our wall mural. So I sort of feel like our store has been built around this message of hope and change, you know, change and hope. And that's sort of central to all his books. And so I love. I always. I actually always sort of am happy to see people buying his books because they're a little. They're almost a little political, but in a very gentle, kid friendly kind of way about. About. About change and about hope. Yeah.
- [28:58]
Charlie Gibson
So you've obviously had other careers in your lives.
- [29:01]
Audience Member / Interjection
Yeah.
- [29:01]
Charlie Gibson
What caused you to decide to do this?
- [29:05]
Audience Member / Interjection
Bruce was doing some volunteer work at a preschool, and he was reading to kids, and he was having a blast doing that. And I started Art Barn Community Theater in Brookline, which was. That was. That just turned. That was 26 years ago. It had its 25th anniversary last year. And there was. When we were at the celebration for the anniversary, I think that sort of got him thinking he wanted to sort of do something meaningful in the community, you know, something that would be useful. And so between the two experiences, we sort of landed on doing the children's bookstore.
- [29:48]
Kate
Also.
- [29:48]
Audience Member / Interjection
We missed the. You know, we've always missed the bookstore. There was one right across the street that we loved and had been open for over 40 years. So it closed a couple of years ago, and it's been a real loss in the community.
- [30:02]
Charlie Gibson
Who first came up with the idea.
- [30:06]
Audience Member / Interjection
Me or Bruce? I don't know. I think it was sort of. I don't know. I think it was just like a conversation. I don't even know whose idea it was. We'd probably bounced it back and forth a few times. And then I left my job, and he was sort of retired. And we just thought, oh, well, maybe.
- [30:23]
Kate
This would work in terms of meeting your expectations and your dreams. I don't know. 10 being. It's exactly. It's better than it is. Absolutely better than you thought.
- [30:33]
Audience Member / Interjection
It's Eden.
- [30:34]
Kate
And one being. What the hell did we just do with our lives? Where do you fall since you've opened?
- [30:39]
Audience Member / Interjection
Oh, no, it's definitely more than exceeded our expectations, especially because we've gotten so much community support. We also have, like, advisory board that helped us to set it up. These are adults, like teachers and librarians and people in the community that, as we were trying to sort of figure out whether to do this, they met with us and were very encouraging and ended up coming in to help Shell, you know, set up the books and put the whole store together. They were just amazing.
- [31:12]
Kate
How much did you use the youth Advisory council and your community boards for your curation philosophy?
- [31:17]
Audience Member / Interjection
Because I forgot to answer another question. You asked how we got our youth advisors.
- [31:23]
Kate
Yes.
- [31:24]
Audience Member / Interjection
So we just put up a sign when the store wasn't even open, we put up a little newsletter saying we were looking for kids who wanted to be on the youth advisory board. And we got these amazing emails from kids.
- [31:38]
Kathy Jacobs
That's true.
- [31:39]
Audience Member / Interjection
And then I started to correspond with them. I said, if you have ideas for books, send me your. Send me a list.
- [31:45]
Kathy Jacobs
That's true. And that did help. That did assist.
- [31:47]
Audience Member / Interjection
They sent us these incredible lists of books. They were terrific.
- [31:52]
Kathy Jacobs
Yeah.
- [31:53]
Kate
Oh, I love that.
- [31:53]
Audience Member / Interjection
Yeah.
- [31:54]
Charlie Gibson
Well, we wish you luck.
- [31:55]
Kathy Jacobs
Thank you. Thank you.
- [31:57]
Charlie Gibson
May you prosper. May you have 40 years. Well.
- [32:02]
Kate
And may you inspire your town to be part of the middle school reading solution and not the middle school reading crisis.
- [32:10]
Charlie Gibson
Yeah.
- [32:14]
Kate
Turtle Books, 224 Washington St. You know, I would encourage parents out there to seek out independent bookstores that sell to kids. I mean, first of all, people who work at bookstores are passionate about what they do. They are. They know books, they're backwards and forwards. They know they're not going to make a huge amount of money. They do it because they love it. And people who work at kids bookstores, oh my God, like they're kids literary snobs. Like, they really know what they're talking about. So take the time, find those stores and talk to the people who work at them, because those are the people who know children's literature inside and out.
- [32:49]
Charlie Gibson
And they know which books are appropriate for which ages, which is a super important part of it. So we'll bring you up to date, those who have labored on this podcast, even coming up to Christmas.
- [33:00]
Kate
Yeah, we wish them a merry Christmas, by the way, those lovely people. We wish them a merry Christmas as we wish you a merry Christmas, Christmas.
- [33:06]
Charlie Gibson
We are so grateful to all of them. We will do that. And then we have a coda from Aisha and from Stephen Curry and his. His is really nice.
- [33:16]
Kate
The book Case with Kate and Charlie Gibson is a production of ABC Audio and Good Morning America. It is edited by Tom Butler of TKO Productions. Our executive producer is Simone Swink. We want to make mention of Amanda McMaster, Sabrina Kohlberg, Arielle Chester at Good Morning America, and Josh Cohan from ABC Audio. Follow the bookcase wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to listen, rate and review. If you'd like to find any of the books mentioned in this episode, we have them linked in the episode description.
- [33:45]
Aisha Curry
One quote that I bring up all the time is people will forget what you say, People will forget what you do, but they won't forget how you make them feel.
- [33:54]
Stephen Curry
More and more people today, I guess, are finding ways to poke holes in everything and be the Debbie Downer in kind of every situation and looking to pull people down. But if you operate through a spirit of gratitude, not just for what you're able to do, but the people that you get to build memories with and do special things with, you obviously understand you don't do anything special in this world by yourself. So that spirit of gratitude for me is everything.