Conversations about Conservation with June Smalls

On today's episode of the "Helping Families Be Happy" podcast, host Dr. Carla Marie Manly talks to June Smalls. She will be talking about her upcoming book, "Hear Them Roar: 14 Endangered Animals from Around the World". June shares how we do so many things naturally and can do more of them that mimic the animal world which would be really good for us. 

Episode Highlights

• 2.02: June talks about her love for reading and writing books at an early age. She got serious about sharing her work with the world back in 2013. That is when she joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and started looking for critique groups. 
• 3.11: June talks about the book written by her - She Leads, that's part of a series. Then there is - He Leads which is about the mountain gorilla and then the follow-up book that will be out in the fall - They lead, which is about the Gray Wolf Pack. So, we have different leaders and different family structures throughout the animal kingdom.
• 05.14: June talks about her upcoming book and the research that she did and all challenges she faced. 
• 07.15: June makes the sound of a baby rhinoceros. She shares how they make they make little, tiny sounds that should be coming out of a much smaller animal.
• 08.15: June and Carla talk about poaching and how rhinos are endangered because of it. 
• 10.16: The best thing when we look at animal families is that we see that there is no one way to be a perfect family. And there are some animals that are solitary that are only with their parents for the first couple of years when they're growing and then they are solitary.  
• 12.18: June shares how as a family, there are so many different ways to be a family and to help each other.
• 13.19: As per Carla, we often forget in today's busy world, the importance of playing together. 
• 16.46: Childhood and families, sometimes they are messy, sometimes it's not always perfect, says June. 
• 17.21: June shares how reading a book together is a way to bond and a way to open and spark conversations. 
• 19.51: The good thing about nonfiction animal books, is we are going to mention that there is birth, which is beautiful, and there is death, which is hard, and there are struggles those animals don't always eat every day, and sometimes that can open a conversation about different animals. 
• 22.56: June talks about flying foxes and how they are endangered. They are megabats, but they are so important because they are just like butterflies and honeybees because they pollinate, they eat fruits, and they eat the nectar out of the flowers. 

3 Key Points

1. June explains how she sees books about families, animal families, extinct animals, and all of that as a package. How can the book make families happier? How does this impact families?
2. There is the capacity for us to not only see different ways of doing things through the animal world but realizing we can incorporate those into our own lives in beneficial ways because sometimes it does take more than a single mom or a mom and dad or a single dad to raise a child.
3. June shares some of the key lessons that she can offer to her listeners about the importance of reading for family, togetherness, family happiness, and having parent, child caregiver, and child reading together.

Tweetable Quotes

• "Some animals are so rare that even though we have had them in captivity, we don't have any recorded sounds for them." - June 
• "There are so many elements when we look at the animal world where they are working together while being part of a family, and it sounds like that makes these animals much happier." - Carla 
• "I would rather help support a child to be a B student who is happy and well-rounded than an A student who is stressed and anxious and unhappy." - June 
• "If you are afraid of bats, look up the flying fox eating a banana, then you will never be afraid of bats again." - June

Resources Mentioned

• Helping Families be Happy Podcast Apple
• https://junesmalls.com/
• Podcast Editing