AASL: Mychal Threets

Mychal Threets: Libraries where I was like, I'm I'm safe here. I don't feel all those things. I have friends in Encyclopedia Brown, in Junie B. Jones, in Amelia Bedelia, in Stanley Yelnats, in The Great Brain, and all these various characters. I think that's the beauty, that's the sanctuary, the sacredness of that physical space is it's the last third space.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: The library is a sanctuary, and today's guest, Michael Threatz, knows that to his core. Raised among the stacks, Michael is a librarian, a storyteller, a mental health advocate, and a joyful force both online and in the real world. And now he's also the host of the beloved show Reading Rainbow. In this episode, recorded live on stage at AASL, which just in case, that's American Association of School Librarians in Saint Louis, Michael talks about carrying forward LaVar Burton's legacy and keeping the spirit of reading Rainbow alive for a new generation of readers. You'll hear Michael talk about stepping into his own rainbow colored shoes, how he turned pain into purpose, and the day he chose to stay one more day, and everything that's happened since.

Plus, Michael shares about the power of library joy, the books that raised him, and the funny new cosplay that kids everywhere are embracing. My name is Jordan Lloyd Bookie, and this is a special episode of the reading culture, a show where we speak with diverse authors about ways to build a stronger culture of reading in our communities. We dive deep into their personal experiences and inspirations. This show is made possible by Beanstack, the leading solution for motivating people to read more. Learn more at beanstack.com, and make sure to check us out on Instagram the reading culture pod and subscribe to our newsletter for bonus content at the readingculturepod.com forward slash newsletter.

Alright. Let's head back to Saint Louis and everybody please give it up for the people's librarian, Michael Threatz.

Mychal Threets: Hi, Michael. Hello. Hello, everybody. I'm glad that it was not the Reading Rainbow theme song that we came out to. I've always been like, let's play let's play Golden Girls.

Let's play Selena. Let's play Golden Girls. Writers of Rohan.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: Okay. Oh, yeah. Alright. Next time. Michael, I'd I like to start conversations, as you know, with kind of, like, what I call a grounding, thinking about things that are a little bit bigger, and then we can get into the the details.

But in your most well, for me, it was most recent, although you said there were three that the another episode came out. But the most recent one that I watched was about purpose. I guess I wanna know what or who is guiding you in your life's purpose.

Mychal Threets: No. I I love the question of purpose. Yes. Purpose was the last episode. There are now three episodes out in this new season of Reading Rainbow.

I love Purple. I think the person who guides me most is my parents and my grandparents. I I recently made a post about episode number two about the segment where I'm making bee buffets with the library kids, where we're making sure that bees can have a place to land in our egg cartons with all the flowers and all the soil. And that segment is just so important to me because it is representative of my grandmother. My dad's mom passed away about a year ago and that thank you, and that and she's just the the greatest woman of all time.

I love all my my grandparents, but that grief is just very fresh in my mind. Mhmm. And I think that segment when I talk about purpose, my purpose is to live for her, to live for my grandparents. So that b segment is so special to me because her name is William Threes. To some, she went by Bill, but she often went by b, b Brown.

It's William Threes, she went by b Brown. I never actually heard my dad call her mom or even grandma. Grammy was always b Brown. And ever since she passed away, I've seen bees every single day. I saw bees today in people's phone cases, in their little pop sockets, and it just makes me happy every single time because it means she's with me.

So my purpose in life is just to keep on living her legacy, she's a person who came from Arkansas and she wasn't allowed to have a library card, she and my grandfather had to ride at the back of the bus, they had the dogs sicced on them, all those things. Literacy had no chance in their lives and now I'm a person who's on this very stage talking to a bunch of school librarians about books and libraries and literacy and reading Rainbow and So so much my purpose is really just to make her proud, to make my other grandparents proud, to make my parents proud, and I'm just so so proud that I'm alive to be able to do my very best to fulfill that purpose. And I know my my grandmother always told me, I'm proud of you no matter what. Okay.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: Best answer ever. I call that the grounding, and now we'll go to the butterfly in the sky. I know you told me you've known for a while, but you're the new host of Reading Rainbow, is pretty new for most of us in the room and very exciting news. And I don't know. Are you, like, you pinching yourself?

I wanna know about, like, the level of excitement and who you told first. You know? Who was who did you call or who's with you? Yeah. Like, what happened?

Mychal Threets: No. I'm so excited to be the host of Reading Rainbow. I think I've met so many people who were like, it must be a dream come true, it must be so cool, and I'm like, it is. It is so cool, but it was never a dream come true. I don't even honestly, I don't even think it's a subconscious dream come true.

It's never something that I thought would ever happen. It definitely is a pinch me moment every single morning. I wake up, I'm like, oh, I guess it's still happening. I'm still involved with this. So it already have three episodes in the air.

I think the first episode has been watched almost 500,000 times.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: Yeah.

Mychal Threets: Episode two has been almost seen 250,000 times, which to me means it just there's so many more kids who are being introduced to Reading Rainbow because it's been almost twenty years since it went off the air with LeVar Burton. So if you're 20, there's so many kids who don't know about this.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: That's right.

Mychal Threets: And they have a chance to be exposed to things. So to see these videos of people of kids watching Reading Rainbow saying, I wanna go to the library. I wanna go to the bookstore. I wanna borrow Tiny Troubles, Nelly's Purpose. Yes.

I wanna I wanna get no cats in the library. I met somebody else the other day in New York City and they're like, you know what? My kid doesn't have a cat, so they're reading books to their goldfish. And that means so much to me that all these kids are reading along. There's people who are like, oh, my kid is playing librarian in their bedroom.

They're playing Charlie the librarian. They're playing Roger the librarian. So it just to me, I'm I'm not the star of Reading Rainbow at all. It's the kids who are the stars. There's still library kids.

There's still kid book reviewers. And most importantly because it's always going to be honing to me as a PBS resident librarian, is still viewers like everybody in this room who are at home watching it on their computers, on their phones Mhmm. Just tuning in and just celebrating literature, celebrating literacy, knowing that they have a chance to be seen in literature and celebrate the fact that everybody can be a reader, and that's what Reading Rainbow still seeks to do. That's what LeVar Burton did. He didn't teach us how to read.

Right. He encouraged us to read. He made it fun. Yeah. And I'm just trying to continue that legacy.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: I've heard people say, don't know about you, but like, oh, it's he's a new LeVar Burton, you know, which is you're like, no. I'm I'm Michael of the Library, and that's my but you are. You are your own person, but there is this obvious show and years and years of love for it. So how are you kinda carving out your space and adding your colors to the rainbow, so to speak? Like, how are you thinking about the legacy and the future of the show?

Mychal Threets: Honestly, it's not even that I'm just like, I'm Michael Librarian. I am me. It's just that I am such a fan of Read Your Rainbow. I'm like, I I I call myself library's number one fan, but I am also Read Your Rainbow's number one fan. I'm so sorry if you all thought you were both of those things.

I am the number one fan of both of those. I refuse to give up the title. No. I I think one, I just think that I can't fill those shoes. I just feel it would be a disservice to everything that he did for Literacy and still does to this day Mhmm.

To try to fill his shoes and say like like those people who I think accidentally say I'm replacing LeVar Burton. I'm not replacing LeVar Burton. I am continuing the legacy. I am the Reading Rainbow kid that he raised, and now LeVar Burton is cussing up a storm for banned books. But it is important.

I think in a day where like the rainbow is under attack and I think it's so funny with a show like Reading Rainbow, the I mean, the rainbow is yes, it is often correlated with LGBTQIA plus and there's nothing wrong with that. Oh. But the rainbow is not just that. The rainbow is so much more. It's looking towards hope.

It's seizing hold of the impossible. I like to think of people who are like, rainbows, what? It's going was going woke. And it's just like, you know what? We've had so much rain today, which Saint Louis did not issue any warnings when I checked the weather coming from know.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: Like, raise your hand

Mychal Threets: if you packed

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: a rain jacket.

Mychal Threets: Bought one hoodie. Yeah. But it's just like, what do you what do you do, like, when you if you if you think that way and you see a rainbow in the sky after the rain, are you like, gross. What is it doing up there? Why?

It's like it it is just present. And I do understand and I think that's like what I am trying to move forward is trying to be as inclusive, as belonging as possible. I think I'm still a person who has no idea how much time I have left in the world. I'm learning to appreciate my existence in the world. For me, I'm just trying to make LaVar Burton's proud, I'm trying to make mister Rogers proud, I'm trying to make miss Rachel proud, I'm trying to make Bob Ross proud, trying to make Steve Irwin, Dolly Parton, all these wholesome people who raised me through television and just through being themselves proud, and for me, I'm just yeah.

I could never fill those shoes and I would never try because why would I do that when I can just say, hey, this person raised me, mister Rogers, I talk about mister Rogers every conversation I did it last time and he's always saying look to the helpers Yeah. And those are the shoes I'm trying to fill is just being another helper because those are all the shoes that every single one of us should attempt to step into because we're all capable of putting on that shoe of being a helper.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: It's no secret that Michael is a big fan of Dolly Parton, frequently referencing online WWDPD. Oh, Michael. His love for Dolly and that emphasis on kindness and helping others led me to my next question.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: Okay. Have you seen Steel Magnolias? And I do not mean the TV show. Have you seen the movie?

Mychal Threets: I have seen the movie. Absolutely.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: Do you know the scene where and this is a spoiler alert if you haven't seen it. Okay. Julia Roberts passes away. Shelby passes away, and they're, like, the burial. And Sally feels her mom and she's crying and very very angry that her daughter has died.

And one woman, like, pushes the other kind of mean woman, Weezer, in front of her and she's like, punch her. It'll make you feel better, you know. And then everybody starts laughing because what are you talking? It's absurd, you know. And everybody's laughing and Dolly Parton says, oh, laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.

And I feel like that when I think about you, part of what makes you connect so deeply and be, you know, somebody who, yes, you're trying to make those other people proud, Michael, but I think also why people feel so drawn to you and are trying to make you feel proud is that you have it's joy and it's library joy and it's joy joy joy joy, everything joy. But it's also like joy through suffering. And it's joy after suffering. It's rainbow after the rain just like you're describing. And I think, like, with that in mind, from the outside looking in right now, there's like this meteoric rise.

Like, it's this magical success story, you know? And I wanna know, like, how you are personally managing if you are having, like, still dark days. How you are, like how do you get through that when it become more and more public?

Mychal Threets: Honestly, I think whenever people ask me that, my favorite word to describe how I'm doing, how I'm responding to everything is overwhelm. It's like the the the good versions of overwhelm and also the bad versions of overwhelm sometimes. And I don't think it was a meteoric rise. I think it definitely came out of nowhere for a lot of people. But I've been on social media for so very long.

I mean, I was a Myspace teenager. I'll age myself even more by saying, when I graduated high school in 2008, my main song on Myspace was Lollipop by Lil' Lane Oh, wow. Which shows you which shows you my unhinged nature of you. Because sometimes I I'm like, oh, I'm watching Game of Thrones and people will comment like, oh, Michael, be careful. That shows a little bit much.

And I'm like, I am rewatching Game of Thrones.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: I am a grown man.

Mychal Threets: This is number four Yeah. That I've seen Game of Thrones. But no, but I just say that's how that's how long I've been on social media. So it's almost twenty years that I've been in the various platforms. I've been talking about things and my final say, I think I've gone viral a couple times previously before I even went viral for libraries and I just didn't like the response.

I still, I mean, I know it's very funny me speaking into a microphone, yapping at you all about mental health and libraries and belonging, but I do not like being the center of attention. I always joke that people that people are like, did you ever think this would happen? And I'm like, no. I went to library school so this would never ever ever happen. I thought I thought I was safe.

I thought I would just be talking to people at the local library about books and movies and TV shows. And then I just felt so much burnout at the library after an incredible almost twelve year career. Whereas a supervising librarian, it was just too much for me. I always tell people I wrote a 170 incident reports in about fourteen months Why? All by myself.

Not in addition to the 10 people who reported directly to me, and not those 10 people who reported to another person who I oversaw. I was reports like things that Yeah. So it's in reports of sexual harassment, of violence, there were library users who pulled knives on one another. Mhmm. My life was threatened several times.

And I talked about those things as much as possible, but I still focus on joy because I think for me, I often see that like what I talked about and what was so hard is that I believe that half of the library world really likes what I do for libraries. And I think the other half is very very much against me. They do not like my perspective, they think it's just too nuanced, they think I don't follow the rules, which I don't, to be fair. I am I am a rogue library person. Believe only only rules that should be followed to a tee in libraries are to protect library staff first and foremost, and then to protect the library users.

Yeah. Outside of that, I am willing to give everybody a second, third, fourth, fifth, seventeenth chance. And I think to this day, I mean I left the library not because of cyber bullying, which so many people think that's why I left, After some things in my life, family getting sick, me having a hard time, I said I can't do this anymore. I'm going to take my own life. In December 2023, I made the conscious decision that I knew I was eventually going to take my own life.

And I basically after a little bit after that, I said March 1 will be my last day at the library and March 2 will be my final day in the world. And then fast forward, that day rolled around and I just felt so much support. It's not that I didn't feel loved, I just didn't feel worthy. Didn't feel I was doing enough, I thought I was failing me, I thought I was failing all the library people, not just my community but also the social media people I was reaching and I made the decision to take my life. I had written my letter to my mom and dad, and then I just got, that last day, because I had talked to the Internet, I forgot that the Internet listens to me sometimes, and I said, this is it.

And I got so many bouquets of flowers at the library. Oh my And I'm a person who loves getting flowers. I'm like, sunflowers, roses, lilies, this is a grow so great. I appreciate it.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: I'm like thinking now, like, oh, man, your life your life might be filled with a lot after this right now. Yeah. So okay. So the the library was filled with flowers for you?

Mychal Threets: Yes. Absolutely. There's just so many people just being so kind and celebrating, but also I think what really helped is so many people were honest. I've been talking about mental health without mentioning it specifically, talking about library and people are like Yeah. Thank you for reminding me how great the library is.

Yeah. Thank you for talking about mental health. And it wasn't that they talked about my library, they're like, yes. They're sending me pictures of their kids with library cards from New York Yeah. From Missouri, from Arkansas, from Wyoming, from Alaska, from Antarctica.

I didn't even know that people had library cards in Antarctica. Neither did I. I'm like, this is so great. This is so cool. And then March 2 came around, I was still very down and very depressed, but I said, you know what?

Let me try to stay one more day. And now we're in October 2025, and I am still alive, still talking about things, and it's so it's it's it's so amazing. Mean, I think and I think not a lot of people know they don't recognize how difficult it is to keep on living after you decide to stay one more day. I think you feel so badly where you think you're, you know what, I said I'm doing okay today. How can I say I'm still not okay the day after?

How can I keep going? I think there are parts of me that still believe at some point in my life I am going to die by suicide. Parts of me still feel that way very much even though I'm very much on a path to being okay, to learning to like myself and to love myself. I still have a lot of bad days. I still have panic attacks not every day, but probably every other day, which is a huge step up from my previous life, which is amazing.

But that's I think that's where the overwhelm is and that's why I like being home so often. Yeah. That's why I love being here. I mean, I've gotten to meet the likes of Amy Poehler, of Keke Palmer. The other day, I was so incredibly on the Today show, and Nick Offerman was in the next room.

And we were both standing outside. Didn't get to talk to him, but like he saw me and he smiled. And internally, I giggled the most Ron Swanson giggle that ever ever could be giggled. So all those things, but even then I still love these conversations. Talking to everybody, seeing school librarians is the biggest thing in the world to me.

To learn from my fellow library people, that's why I went to library school, that's why I still have student loan debt, is people have conversations and to keep on going and to remind people that it's okay to not be okay. 369 is okay to not be fine and to just take it one day at a time and that's what I'm trying to do the best And then for me, I get home to my surviving grandparents, to my parents, to my siblings, and to my cats, Machine Gun Kitty, and Kissing Cat Barlow.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: Thank you. How are you choosing joy, choosing to live, which I think I know that we're all grateful for that? Do you have, like, a mantra? What is your method for moving, like, day to day?

Mychal Threets: I would be lying if I said that Reading Rainbow doesn't help. I think I would joke. I'm just like, stay one more day. And it's like, you never know. You might get to be the host of Reading Rainbow, Which is not gonna be honest, I think the thing that keep me going that's staying is just the conversations that I get to have with people.

It is the hope. I think it is so cool that like, the longest time when I was telling library stories of library kids and library grown ups, I never honestly believed people when they said, my kids love what you do. They like what you do. I thought they just liked what I did and they were using their kids as an excuse to say that they liked what I did because I honestly I honestly never tried to reach kids with my content. I know my excited voice seems that way, like

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: It's working for kids right now.

Mychal Threets: Advisory tattoo sleeve of kids picture books. But I just get that that excited when I talk about libraries. So I think for something like being the PBS resident librarian, doing those social media videos with PBS, being a part of Reading Rainbow is like is that the first time I've honestly gotten to see so many reactions of kids like actually watching what I'm doing Yeah. Talking about what I'm doing, being at events like the Louisville Book Festival and having kids come up to me. Some of there were some of you were there.

Good to see you again. And I remember one one kid, I would think this is probably one of my favorite moments of, like, the response, is a kid came up to me and they're, like, looking at me, they're, like, I've seen you before.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: Like, you shouldn't be on Instagram, honey.

Mychal Threets: Like, and then dawned in their middle, like, you're much bigger, but I saw you on Reading Rainbow. Oh. I watched you with my mom. Amazing. And then they and they went away.

We took a picture, they went away, and they turned around real fast, and they're, like, I'm gonna subscribe. That's so great. I'm gonna tell Reading Rainbow your Oh. Subscribe.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: I love it.

Mychal Threets: I think it's it's library stories that keep me going. And honestly, I mean, I talk about libraries the way that I do, not because I know that there aren't problems that exist in libraries. I know for frontline staff burnout is very real. We need separate mental health leave in addition to physical sick leave. We need we need we need moments to be able to take care of ourselves.

People deserve to be paid what they're worth as library people. We didn't get into it to be rich, but we wanna survive as library workers. And I think just being able to amplify that is to raise is try to remind people like this is why we started doing what we do. Because I meet so many people who are struggling, who are at, who are close to the edge, and I just wanna remind them that it's okay to not be okay, that I have no idea when they're going to be okay. But I hope that they stick around to see a day where they're okay.

So to me, I keep on staying just because I meet so many people, I encounter so many people who are struggling just like I did and I do. And to have a chance just to try to help them in the simplest ways is the greatest honor, the greatest blessing I could ever have. Yeah.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: That's Thank you. Yes. I also want to kind of acknowledge, I guess, like, you have had so much time. Like, a lot of your reach obviously has been online. Right?

And so there's, like, this virtual element. Like, I'm sure everybody here is, oh, Michael, you know, like, no you or don't know you. You're Mike. I know you. And so there's a lot of, like, parasocial relation there's so much of that.

But you have this incredible huge virtual online community, but your roots are in a physical library. And I wonder, like, what is there about the physical space of a library in a school, in a community that is irreplaceable, right, that you cannot have in the online world? What is there that you feel like that we need that? Can you kind of vocalize that a little for us?

Mychal Threets: You know what? I cherish what I do on social media not because of any success that I have, just because I've always seen it way before any success that I have or had as a tool to reach people. And I think I love that because there are so many people who aren't able to get to the library. There are so many people where their grown ups, their guardians are working so hard and libraries close at seven, 08:00 and they're working up until that time and they gotta make dinner and there's no chance for them to get to the library. So for me to bother people about it online means it's a chance for them to remember that the library exists, that they can use Libby, that they can use Kanopy, Hoopla Digital, that they can sign up for summer reading challenge Exactly.

Beanstack, all those different things. But I think the physical space of the library, it is so powerful, it is so beautiful to show people, yes, this is your safe place. That's what it was for me Yeah. As a library kid because I had such a hard time making friends outside of my siblings, outside of my cousins, outside of my neighbors. I've suffered from mental health struggles all my life it seemed, least since knowingly since I was eight.

That's the biggest reason for me pursuing autism and ADHD and neurodivergence in my life, it's just like, how can I be mentally ill for this long without there being another cause because there's no thing that's spurned that? But the libraries, where I was like, I'm I'm safe here. I don't feel all those things. I have friends in Encyclopedia Brown, in Junie b Jones, in Amelia Bedelia, in Stanley Yelnats, in The Great Brain, and all these various characters. I think that's the beauty, that's the sanctuary, the sacredness of that physical space is it's the last third space.

You can stay there from open to close, in a chair, you can read all the books, you never have to take them home. Half the time we override the rule and say you don't have a library card, that's okay, you can still take the book, you're all good, we want to see

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: the whole

Mychal Threets: point of the library and I think that's the beauty of what it represents is that the library as a building, as a desk, but as a people, it represents anywhere where books in the love of libraries are.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: I wanna talk about your book.

Mychal Threets: Yeah. So I think it may be weird to say is I am honestly much more excited about being a published author than I am the host of Reader Rainbow. I've tried to be very adamant this entire time that this book is my book and Lorraine Naum's book because I love illustrators. I love how hard they work. It's the reason I have controversial AI views is because of my love for illustrators.

And I am so excited for this picture book. I love the representation. I love everything about it. It's essentially a day in the life of library kids coming to a library and just seeing that there is books, there is library cards, but there is musical instruments, bakeware collections, there's video games, there's seaweed in libraries, there's something for everybody, but there's also room for kids in wheelchairs, for people with service dogs to come to the library. And it's so important.

I think what's great about this book is I hope that people learn from it and they feel and they keep on giving me more and more advice and more and more feedback. I've heard from some people that are just like, oh, I wish that there was a kid in the picture book who has a hijab. Me and Lorraine have taken that into account. We've had those conversations. And she's such a kind person, she's trying to draw a kid in a similar style because she is just that great of a person.

I think that's just my hope from that picture book because I've always loved picture books. They've been my favorite books all my life.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: Yeah.

Mychal Threets: It's what got me hooked on them when I first got my library card at the age of five. So to have one that can say I wrote is the most beautiful thing in the entire world. I think the randomized people are they're still here. I ask them constantly, are you sure we can't publish it tomorrow? What about tomorrow if you're like, Michael, we're going so fast.

We're already doing it much faster than we usually do. We're trying because you keep on bothering us. But, no, they're so very kind. They're so supportive. They're so helpful, but I'm just so happy for it.

It is a celebration of library joy, and I'm just I mean, to me, I mean, I'm very glad that my grandmother didn't get to know about reading Rainbow, but she did get to know about this book. She got to see the book. So no matter what happens, I'm just glad that she got to read it, that she got to say, Michael, I used to read you picture books. Now you wrote a picture book. I'm so happy for you.

So and this is why I'm saying I'm so happy you're here and the fact that she got to read it, that she's happy. Of course, I hope it becomes a New York bestseller, all those things, but it's already become the biggest success in the world for me because Yeah. She got to see it, and I've been writing books and writing since I was a kid, so to know that it exists in the world, that it's finally a physical copy that I can hold Yes. And have and can say, it's real, It's here. I'm so proud of me and Lorraine Nam, and I'm just so excited for what's to come.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: It's very exciting. And it's yeah. That's such a full circle moment to get there. To sort of close out our conversation before we invite others into it, I want to ask you, you've literally today, hundreds and hundreds of people talked to them and heard from them, and I just wonder if there's like one or two sort of learnings, messages, things that have come from other librarians that you have taken with you and brought into your life, into your work.

Mychal Threets: You know, I think the main thing that I've learned from my conversations, I've been on 300 planes in the last two years. I've been all over The United States, and as much as I love being home, I love learning from people. I love well, I don't love it, I'm honored to know that there are almost no school libraries in Arizona. There are very very few school librarians in title in New York City and so many similar things across The United States and to know that and to be able to fight for them, to stand up for them, to speak for them, to take advantage of the platform I have on social media, it is so great. I'll never take it for granted.

I learn something new every conference I go to. I just love taking everything in. And oddly enough, I have so many people, librarians, library workers, and just regular, regular citizens who come up to me and sometimes they're just like in tears. They're like, my kid is suffering from this. They're suffering from what you suffer from, from what you're struggling with, or sometimes it's them who are struggling.

And while it's a lot to have a person crying at you, crying on you, I appreciate it because sometimes, like I don't often check my DMs on social media, but people will reach out and they're like, I'm having a really hard time. I think I'm going to take my life. And I've responded to those some of those messages sometimes and they're like, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't think you would ever see that. You're just a safe space to talk to.

I don't not ready I'm not ready to talk to a therapist, to a psychiatrist, I can't ask for help. So I am honored that people see even the existence of my platform as a chance to ask for help. So it's it's also helpful for me to be like, yes, it is a lot it is a lot of overwhelm, but I think for me, a person who never had that sort of role, that sort of person, that sort of platform, even though now I talk to therapists, talk to psychiatrists all the time, I am proudly live, laugh, Lexapro, is doing is doing all those things. So I think I just learned from people just that as much as I have asked for help, people are asking for help too, that more and more people are having the courage. And I just take I'm I'm forever thankful for learning from library people.

I've only ever sought out to amplify library people in library workers. I'm honored to be a librarian for PBS, to be a host for Reading Rainbow, to have the platform I have, but I would give it all up to fight for the people of of Gaza, the people of Palestine, the people of Sudan, the people of Congo. It means the absolute world for me to fight for all these people to tell Jewish stories, to tell the stories of Ukraine, of Yemen, of Tigray. It's something that we all should do because we have a powerful voice. And for me, that's what I'm trying to amplify and just put so much more emphasis on because that's what I'm supposed to do.

I was raised by mister Rogers again saying, look to the helpers and if I can become a helper, I'll always do it. And lastly, I think just being on so many planes, they always say, put your own oxygen mask on first. Yeah. And I would like to leave you with saying it is not selfish to take care of yourselves. Please please take breaks from a person who never did.

Take your fifteen minute breaks, take your lunch breaks, take your vacations even if it's a staycation. I love a good staycation, staying home and watching Grey's Anatomy and Golden Girls, staying with cats and pets. It's the most important thing you do because you cannot help your library kids, your library people, unless you're helping yourself.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: Michael Threatz, y'all. Give him a big round of applause. Thank

Mychal Threets: you. You. Thank you.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: I hope you enjoyed this live, nearly uncut interview with Michael Threatz. It was so much fun to be in front of a live audience and just to be in a space with so many librarians who adore Michael and he adores them right back. And to get to speak with him again after our earlier episode that was focused on the books that shaped him, it was just an incredibly special experience and one that I am so grateful that I had and that we collectively had for those who were there and those who are listening today. So instead of our usual Beanstack featured librarian segment, this episode, we are going to feature the librarians who were in the room where it happened and share some of their live questions for Michael. So let's take a

Mychal Threets: Hi. Who is your favorite golden girl?

AASL Librarian 1: Oh. Great question.

Mychal Threets: Thank you. My fave my favorite golden girl is Rose. I have a I have a I have a tattoo of of Betty White, so I love Rose. I love Betty White. She just anything for Saint Olaf all the time.

One day, I'll go to some Saint Olaf libraries.

AASL Librarian 1: I just wanna tell you Lorraine Nam is my friend from elementary school, and I just texted her to tell her that you were shouting out her amazing illustrations. And with her permission, she said, what? Why the book exists because of him to you? And my personal question that I have is, what are some of your favorite read alouds from all your read aloud time that you enjoy and you love reading again and again?

Mychal Threets: That's a very Lorraine Lorraine Nam response. I'm very glad that you've known her for so long. You guys are going back

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: and forth.

Mychal Threets: You what? I know. Exactly. Back and forth. She's also this I'm not a big person.

She's one of the smallest human beings I've ever met. I am not big, but I had to keep on bending down to hug her, and she still sit on her toes at the same time. So which also shows you I'm not a huggy person, but I will hug Lorraine Nam anytime. But to answer your question, my favorites are Tattooed on Me is the Monster at the End of This Book is my absolute favorite. I love that there's I love that there's always one kid who does not want you to turn the page.

And my my grandma also used to read aloud all the time. She would do the Grover voices. I cannot do a Grover voice, but I just had fun being like, are you sure? Are you sure you want me to turn the page? I love Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems.

That's also a really fun one. I love Crunch the Shy Dinosaur by Sorocco Dunlap. And I really love The Book With No Pictures by BJ Novak. I remember I did it recently at a place in LA. At the one time, they just call you boo boo butt.

And all the kids I did, all the kids are like, bye, librarian boo boo butt. Bye, librarian boo boo butt. I was like, not my name. I'm not librarian boo boo butt, but that's what happens when you read the book when no picture's allowed to kids is they will repeat it, they will say those words, but they laugh so much, they giggle so hard, and it's just so cool to see them taking in a story and imagining so much. So I think those are always my four go to read alouds.

AASL Librarian 2: It's not really a question. I just wanted to tell you how much I love what you're doing, and I love that you are here today, and thank you for speaking with us. You're amazing.

Mychal Threets: Thank you so much. I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for having me.

AASL Librarian 3: Yes. Hi, Michael. Thank you for being such an inspiration to us. I'm curious if you could speak to a younger version of yourself, what advice would you give them?

Mychal Threets: If I was talking to a younger version of myself, I would tell my younger self to keep saying that it's okay to be a shy kid, that shy is not a bad word, that it's not bad, that you're quiet while your family is loud and rambunctious and obnoxious. It's quite okay and you just seize a hold of new opportunities. I think I was just so afraid as a kid and I just my parents were so supportive that I think that just in trying to take care of me, they didn't they didn't sometimes they push me into situations, but they didn't like ask me to try something. They didn't say what would make it okay. So I could go back in time and talk to little me.

I think I would just listen to him, and that's something I've always tried to do as a children's librarian is I think adults, grown ups, we care so much. We're so passionate about library kids. We wanna give them more and more advice, and I like to listen to library kids. I like to listen to their unhinged nature, their unhinged commentary, but also their very insightful thinking. Everything that I say about banned books and most things in life is as a result of listening to library kids and their unique perspective and their approach to life.

So I think I would do the same thing to myself as a library kid is give that kid who was anxious, who had nightmares almost every single night, is give him a chance to just say what was going on in his life and just have a chance to speak without being interrupted.

AASL Librarian 3: What is your favorite part of being a librarian and being part of the reading community?

Mychal Threets: My favorite part is it's always been the storytelling. I think it's such a special part of the reading community and being a librarian just to see kids know they belong in the library that if you're autistic, if you have ADHD, dyslexia, if you're anxious, if you're mentally ill, if you're unhoused, you belong at the library and you can receive these stories as a story for every single person. If there's a story you don't like, you can write it yourself that audiobooks are real books, that graphic novels are real books, that manga is real books and my my favorite thing has always been promoting that and saying, just go to the library. Thank the library people. They they may have bad days, but they will remember every bad day, they cannot wait for you to come back and say, I'm sorry if you had a bad day, but let's make this the best library day you can possibly have.

And I love that almost every single library person lives to do that for every library kid and every grown library kid who walks through those doors or down those Libby or just speaks about their beautiful library card?

AASL Librarian 4: Michael, my cheeks hurt because I've been smiling the whole time looking at you. That we say that representation matters, and I wanna tie it to the question that was just asked about you speaking to your younger self. A lot of times when I do author visits, young people ask me who's my favorite superhero? And I say Miles Morales because he represents my intersectionality. He's black and he's Latino like myself, like yourself.

And I'm so happy because there's a saying, little shots are big shots who keep on shooting. And you're a little shot and now a big shot, and you're giving little shots their shot so that they could keep shooting and be big shots. My question for you is what message would you give our audience about how important intersectionality and unity and representing the rainbow of humanity is?

Mychal Threets: Unity is everything. That's what Reading Rainbow is seeking to do is to remind every person that they are a reader, that they are worthy of being a reader, and they always have if they knew it or not. And I think the best way for me to answer that question about what it means, unity and representation, is when I was a children's librarian at the Vallejo SpringSound Library, again, I would visit all these schools. I remember going to this one of the schools, one of the sites one day, and a kid came in a little bit late, and they had come in just to say goodbye to me because they were moving away from the area, and they came up to me and they said, mister Michael, I can't stay. My dad just told me I could come by and say bye to you.

We're moving. This is my last day, but I wanna let you know I wanna be a Brown librarian, which is just so special. And then there was another kid who is a again, I don't always identify who the kids are, but this other kid is a little little little white kid, little white boy. And they hear that and they come up to us and they go they stand because they're sitting crisscross applesauce and they go, I wanna be a brown librarian too. And the little kid who is fully capable of being a brown librarian says pats him on the shoulders, goes, we can all be a brown librarian.

And to me, that's the most beautiful thing in the world because it shows you that kids are not color blind, they see in crayon colors and they're just saying, we can all be this. So the kid isn't like, yes, you can be a brown librarian, it's saying we can all be a librarian without knowing and that's what I always think about is all these kids, they see so much, they see the rainbow, they see hope, they see library joy, they see belonging, and I just I've always remembered that story. I've never seen that kid again, but I will never forget them because that range true because I'm a I'm a person who didn't I'm black, Mexican, and white. I didn't know I was black for the longest time. I identified as brown because of the crayon color, and that's it.

It's saying, yes. We're all existing. We all have a chance to be the best version of ourselves, and the best way to be the best version of ourselves is together. And I think even better is to be together, to be ourselves amongst the most wonderful people in the world, librarians and library workers.

AASL Librarian 4: Thank you, Michael.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: I just wanna close this by saying that as Michael and I got here, we were super early after his selfie line. We were just sitting there talking and I was asking him, like, so, you know, now your life is changing in all these ways. Have you are you doing anything different? Like, do you go to, like, nicer restaurants? What's this, you know, what what's like your indulgence, you know?

And he was like, I'm a pizza guy. And I I would rather give to these other things. Like, I don't need for much and I want to keep it that way. And I just feel I want to give to libraries. I want to be in this space and that's like the big gift for you.

So it's utterly refreshing to be with a person who truly has like lived a life of purpose and is walking in their purpose and bringing all these other people, librarians in this room, but also just millions of people who don't necessarily know the love and the joy in a library. And so for you to spread that and to be about that and to live those values is just it's a gift and we, I think, are you can hear from everybody in here. So grateful for you. So thank you for being here and thank you all for being such a wonderful audience. Thanks.

Mychal Threets: Yeah. Thank you. And if you could please give a huge huge round of applause for Jordan and Beanstack for this conversation. It's so important. And yes.

No. I I'm always trying to give back, and I would just like to remind you as we as we leave, as you all get to go back to your planes, in your homes, in your libraries, just to please stay one more day. You never know who you're gonna meet. You haven't met all the people who are going to love you yet in the words of Jaz Thornton and I've got to meet you all today And I love you so very much. I'm so glad that you're in the world, and I'm just so thankful to have been amongst you today.

I do hope you keep on watching Reading Rainbow. It is out now on YouTube on Kidzuko, and I also hope that you get a chance to read. I am so happy you're here, a celebration of Library Joy. But most of all, I hope that you guys take it one day at a time and just remember how valuable you are, how worthy you are of life, and of Library Joy. Library Joy and I would not exist if it weren't for every single one of you.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: Thank you.

Jordan Lloyd Bookey: This has been the reading culture, and you've been listening to my live conversation with Michael Threatz. Again, I'm your host, Jordan Lloyd Bookie, and currently, I'm reading The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, so good, and Mighty Macie by Kwame Alexander, which I adore and wish that my daughter had when she was younger, but it's so good, y'all. If you enjoyed today's episode, please show some love and give us a five star or a written review. It just takes a second, it really helps ensure that this podcast gets shared with others who we know are going to love it. To learn more about how you can help grow your community's reading culture, you can check out all of our resources at feedstack.com, and remember to sign up for our newsletter at the readingculturepod.com forward slash newsletter for special offers and bonus content.

This episode was produced by Mel Webb and lower street media and script edited by Josiah Lamberto Egan thanks for listening and keep reading