Latest / Parent's Talk with Francine Juhlin / Episode 3: Natalie McManus on the Most Memorable Travel Moments sharingcultures

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Episode 3: Natalie McManus on the Most Memorable Travel Moments sharingcultures · Parent's Talk with Francine Juhlin

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, today we are with Natalie McManus. She is a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: member of my Children's Authors Unite group. We did this
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: great live event. It was a holiday book fair. If
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: you haven't seen it yet, check it out. The replays
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: are in YouTube and on Facebook. Check out the replay
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: and see what all these fabulous authors are doing. But
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: today we are going to talk about Natalie's book. And
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: it is so very interesting. I can't wait to get
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: my copy. So Natalie, why don't you introduce yourself to
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the audience and tell us all about these little birds.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Okay. I'm Natalie McManus. I am a mother and a grandmother,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: or nana. And I've always wanted to write a children's
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: book my whole life. I collect children's books. I was
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: the neighborhood babysitter. So I read children's books all the
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: time to children in the neighborhood. And I'm a speech
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: pathologist by training and a link letter voice teacher for
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: theater and a public speaking coach and a presentation skills coach.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: and an actor. So, um, I do a whole lot
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: of different things. And, um, one of the things I
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: also love to do is travel. And my husband and
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: I travel a lot this past year, we went to
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: New Zealand and while we were in New Zealand, we can,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: I came upon this story stories cause I've kind of
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: combined things here. And I wrote Tane and the birds,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: a New Zealand story. And, um, this is a story
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: about the Kiwi bird in New Zealand and why New
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Zealanders call themselves Kiwis and why they're very proud to
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: call themselves Kiwis. Um, uh, because of, of, of the
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Maori culture legend about the Kiwi bird and how it
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: saved New Zealand. And so, uh, it's a very interesting story.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: I have a wonderful illustrator who has, um, made gorgeous
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: illustrations for this book. And it really adds to the story. So,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: next question. I could go on and on.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, don't worry about talking too much. Your stories are
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: just so interesting because I love learning about different cultures.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: I want.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: I want to know what you think.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: How does learning about different cultures help kids gain confidence?
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: I'm just a big believer in the more that children
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: know and they can learn that through books and in
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: real life. But you can learn things in books that
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: you might not learn. You know, a child might not
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: go to New Zealand, But they can learn a lot
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: about New Zealand in my book. But I think learning
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: about cultures helps us to be more accepting of different people.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: It helps us to be more imaginative. I mean, the
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: Maori culture that contributed to the legends and stories in
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: this book are just so inventive. And I think creativity
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: and imagination for children can help them be more confident
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: in themselves. And just general knowledge, being able to talk
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: to other people about things and tell other people about
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: things that they've learned. I think that that's the biggest
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: thing about learning about cultures is it helps you be
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: more excited. It also, it stimulates your... Your desire to
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: maybe travel, to maybe go see different places. And sometimes
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: children can be that little push for the parents. You know,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I want to go to this place and I want
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: to go to that place. But likewise, parents can read
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: a story. They could read a story about New Zealand
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: and say, hey, why don't we go? So it's being
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: culturally aware. is a great confidence builder for children just
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: because it gives them knowledge and acceptance of others.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: And in this day and time when everybody's running and
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: doing this and going to different ball practice and sporting
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: events and everyone's just so busy, talking about these shared
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: experiences bring families together.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Yes, I actually, I have a three-year-old grandson that.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: I gave my book to, and his parents sent me
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: a video the other night of him talking about my book.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, he was talking about the story and the
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: birds and the, and Nana wrote this story and, and
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: he's three years old, which I, to me, that's just
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: like amazing. It's, it's language skills. I mean, that's another
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: thing as a speech pathologist, I'm very big on language
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: stimulation for young children. And one of the best ways
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: parents can, can stimulate, uh, language development is reading. and
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: reading to your children. I mean, when my oldest daughter
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: had her first baby, she was asking me, well, when
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: can I start reading books to them? I'm like, now.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: They might not understand the story, but you usually have pictures,
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: so they're gonna learn vocabulary, they're gonna hear things, they're
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: gonna learn about how to make sounds. They're just gonna
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: learn in so many different ways. And a book, is
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: wonderful because you're getting, you're getting time together. You've got
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: someone who can read an adult or an older child
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: or whatever, and you've got the younger child and they
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: have to be together to read and that you're going
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: to see the pictures and then you're going to hear
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: the words about the pictures. So you start connecting things
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: and how they go together. It's just, it's a wonderful
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: language stimulation tool is books. I'm, just huge on books.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: And every year at Christmas, we gave our children a book.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Each one got their own book. And they're all lifelong readers,
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: which is really wonderful. But you got to find the
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: book that's interesting to them. You know, my son wasn't
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: so much interested in some of the kind of stories
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: that my daughters were, but we found the books that
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: he really liked. And oh my gosh, you find him
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: just sitting in a corner reading a book, which, you know,
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: he did the baseball, he did the, you know, basketball, he,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: you know, all the sports and things. But downtime was
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: something like that. And there is something to be said
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: about physically holding a book. And turning the pages, there's
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: a physical, sensual thing that happens for children when they
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: hold a book, which is much different from, say, on
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: a screen or just hearing an audio book. And they
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: all have their place. But for young children in particular,
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: holding a book, seeing a book, having a book read
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: to them by someone is, you just can't do anything better.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: I don't have any kids, but I remember reading to
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: my nephew and I chose a book that my mom
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: read to me when I was a kid. So this
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: is a lifelong family memory now because we were all
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: together at this Airbnb down in Orlando and I started
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: reading this book to him and it was like a
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: very catchy, it's like, there were five in the bed
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: and the little ones.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: Had rolled over. All rolled over and one fell down
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: and there were four in the bed.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: So, you know, he was learning math, it was rhyming,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: and next thing I knew, everybody in the house started
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: reciting this because we all remembered it from when we
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: were kids. Oh, yeah. Building these childhood family memories when
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: you read.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: To your kids.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, absolutely. And one of the first books that
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: I read repeatedly to young kids was Dr. Seuss and
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: The Cat in the Hat. And then there was The
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Green Eggs and Ham. Yeah. They love the rhyme. They
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: love the pictures, the colors. But also, I kind of
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: caught the rhyme poetry bug from Dr. Seuss. And so
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: now instead of writing a Christmas letter, I write a
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Christmas poem using Dr. Seuss's meter and poetry. And I,
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: you know, I have to think and I have to rhyme.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: And everybody tells me I can't stop doing the poem.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: So.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: Anyway, yeah.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: That's become a tradition.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: But yeah, books, I have so many books that I read.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: As a kid that were read to me that I'm
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: reading to my kids and my grandkids now. And, I mean,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: that's one reason I collected them. I couldn't give them away.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I've got to save this so
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: I can read it to my grandkids. You know, I
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: have the neighborhood kids. Sometimes I sit with them because
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: their parents have to be away, and I make sure
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: to get down to the bus. And they come over,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: and I'm like, let's read a book. You know, I'm
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: not going to turn on the television and say, oh,
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: let's watch some cartoons now. No, we're going to read
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: a book. And they love it.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: They just absolutely love it.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: So....
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: We've been talking about how to build confidence in kids,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and I believe reading can build confidence.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: So as a Nana, tell us, do you have any stories.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: About how your grandkids might have gained confidence from reading?
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: I think in talking about the book that they've just read,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: you know, I'll ask questions and they can feel important
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: that I know something. And they can tell somebody else something. And,
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: you know, I've watched my grandson tell his parents about
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: a book that I read to him. So they gain
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: confidence in that it's knowledge. Knowledge can help build confidence.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: And it helps with their language skills so that they
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: can have conversations with different people and other peers. It just...
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: It's the whole language building confidence thing that's really, really important.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: And just knowledge, just knowing something they can tell somebody else.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: That's a big confidence builder.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: In my books, I used a couple words. Well, not
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: really the books. My books were written for grades one
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: through five, but In my children's programming on my YouTube channel,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: A Confidence Call for Kids, I'll throw a big word
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: in occasionally talking about my book. So in one of
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: my little stories, I talked about perspective. And I used
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: that as a vocabulary word. So I talked about how
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: one side of the tree was her sad tree, And
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: on the other side, it was the magical forest tree
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: because she, you know, her imagination transported her. And it's
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: all a matter of the different perspective of how she
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: looks at the tree.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: And then I explained what perspective meant.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: So now when a kid reads my book, if they
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: see that video, they can pick out, oh, she changed
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: her perspective. And it's a learning experience that a lot
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: of people don't get until they're way into adulthood.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. I mean, the vocabulary that you can build
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: with books, you know, they just kind of slide in there.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: And sometimes, due to the context and stuff, the kid
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: might not necessarily.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: Know that definition yet. But they figure it out. It
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: gets the.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Brain moving and figuring it out. Like, oh, that's what
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: that must mean. Or they'll ask a question. I mean,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: kids learning to ask questions about things, being curious. It's
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: so important to the development of a young mind. But, yeah,
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: vocabulary is a huge thing. I threw a couple of
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: words into Tane and the Birds that they might not
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: be ready for at age three. because my book is
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: really for ages three through 13, because there's a lot
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: of information, cultural information about the Maori culture in New
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Zealand and about the Kiwi. And just, just, um, so yeah,
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: I I'm with you.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: I just love talking about books. It is there.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: They open up a world of, There's been things I learned. Well,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I learned how to fix an airplane through books. Back
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: in the 80s, when I was in the military, the
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: guys didn't want me there.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: They didn't want to teach me.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: So I'd pull out the manuals and figure it out
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: for myself. Well, if my mom didn't read to me
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: when I was a kid, if I didn't learn how
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: to comprehend what I was reading, if I didn't learn
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: how to increase my vocabulary, look things up in a dictionary...
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I would never have been able to learn how to
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: fix an airplane.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Right. Right. When you saying that made me, I brought
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: back a memory for me when I had my tonsils
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: out when I was in third grade. And back then
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: there were no televisions in your hospital room. And so
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: my mother came in and she would read to me.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: And I think I was reading Nancy Drew books or
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: something like that. And it was just, I could have
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: my own movie in my head. And I hated it
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: when she said, well, I can't talk anymore. I've got
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: to stop. But, yeah, I just loved reading stories at
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: the end of the day. You know, I would sit
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: on the bed with my parents, and they'd read a
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: story to us. Or I remember reading Stuart Little, and
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: we'd read one chapter every night. And it was like, oh,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: I couldn't wait for story time. I couldn't wait for the,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: to read, you know, what happened next? And yeah, books,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: I don't think there's a room in my house that
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: does not have at least one bookshelf.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I remember, nowadays, I don't read a lot of, I
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: read more children's books than anything.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: I guess it comes with the territory.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: But I remember reading two or three books at a time,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: depending on if it was a big book, I read
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: it at home. If it was a little one, I
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: stuck it in my purse for when I was sitting
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: on a park bench or when I was sitting in
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: a doctor's office. And then I had the one I
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: read before bed because it was maybe a little boring
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: and helped me calm down at night. So I had
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: all the different genres that I would read at different times.
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: Of the day. Wow.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: You're better than me.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Not better, just everybody has their own way of doing things.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: But I think, especially in the children's genre, because they
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: are so short, I think kids could read two or
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: three books a day. My 30-page book is a quick read,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: and they could read this and another short one.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then I was really amazed when the Harry
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Potter books came out because my kids were in like
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: fifth and sixth grade. And I was looking at these
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: really thick books and I'm like, oh my gosh, they
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: couldn't put them down in the imagination. And so I
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: started reading. I was like, I want to know what
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: they're reading. And so we've got the whole series. And
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: it was very interesting when we went We took a
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: trip to England, and we bought one of the Harry
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: Potter books there, and the vocabulary was different. Really? How so? Yeah, well,
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: things like, they might say muffin here, but in the
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: book it was, what is it, scones?
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes, yes.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: And just different little things like that, but it was,
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: instead of the elevator, it was a lift. Right, right.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: Or the... the fountain, the water.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: Fountain, I think was a bubbler or something or, but
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: it was, and I was actually disappointed that they had
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: changed the vocabulary for the United States.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Versions because I thought what an opportunity for the kids
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: here to learn vocabulary for things in a different, Oh,
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: they call it that there. And, and so I, you know, again,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: vocabulary is something that, that books always offer. Um, Yeah,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: I agree.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: That's all part of the culture.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: But I want to also say, my husband's like you.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: He reads three different things at a time. I'm like,
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: how do you keep them all straight? I'm like, what
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: are you reading now? But I just, I love that
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: books foster that parent-child or that person-child relationship to talk
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: about things and just stimulate that imagination and that thought process,
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: that curiosity.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: And with learning.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: About different cultures, it could really reduce bullying because they
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: could say, well, I learned about somebody who didn't do
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: things the way we did because they came from somewhere different.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: And It helps make everybody less different because we're all
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: really the same. We say things differently, do things differently.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: So learning about different cultures and just different. ideas can
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: make us feel like we're less different. That's why in
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: the Confidence Club for Kids, I had done some networking
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: sessions for kids.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: And they were so popular, I think I need to
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: bring them back.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Kids in Denver, kids in North Carolina, kids in Florida
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: all got together and realized we're all going through the
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: same stuff.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And wherever you go in the world, people, you know,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: people are more alike than we know. I mean, America
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: is a melting pot. Everybody here is from somewhere else,
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: you know, all over. And you don't find that everywhere.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: And it's really like I live right outside Washington, D.C.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: So we live in an area which is super multicultural
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: because we've got the embassies and the nation's capital here. And,
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: you know, we've got people from all kinds of countries.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've got different people from different embassies living
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: right down the street. You know, and over in my backyard,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: we had a little girl years ago that was from
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: South Africa, and she didn't know what Halloween was. So
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: we had a good time teaching her about Halloween. And
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: it's just, it's a, I just love learning about other cultures,
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: and I think it's a wonderful thing for children to
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: learn about them. Young, when you're young, before you start thinking,
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: you know, well, they're different. No, they're like you, but
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: it just makes me do things different.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: I remember, well, my stepfather's Japanese.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: So when we first started joining the Japanese culture, we
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: had this friend, her name was Michiko in Japanese, but
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: they called her Violet in the U.S. She didn't speak
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: a word of English. We didn't speak a word of Japanese,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: but we would play for hours. We didn't even need
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: to speak the same language. It's amazing how adaptable kids are.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, very good.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Imagine being introduced to these different cultures in a book,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: how much easier that adaptability becomes.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Well, and, you know, one of the things in Tane
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: and the Birds, and I'll show a quick picture here
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: near the end of the book, you'll see here these
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: are Maori birds. adults and they have these tattoos on
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: their bodies and the women, a lot of the adult
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: women will get like black lips and then they'll have
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: a chin tattoo. And what I found fascinating, they're very
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: different than the tattoos you might see here in the
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: United States where people get all kinds of different designs
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: and colors and things.
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: And the tattoos are very specific about their ancestry, about
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: the milestones in their.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: Life, the accomplishments in their life, that tattoos actually have
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: a really specific meaning and they're different for everybody because
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: everybody's different. And I just thought that that was really interesting.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: They're not just tattoos. They're like really significant to that
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: person and to their whole background.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: We watched all of these Alaskan shows for a while,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and the women is almost like a barcode on their chin,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: and that's the number of children.
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: Wow. Yeah, that was very, very interesting.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: That's cool. And you learn something new every day. I
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: just learned something new. Exactly.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: And I would love to read a book on that.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: Someone needs to write a children's book about that.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: Right? Right.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Well, our next trip, we're hoping, in 2027 is to Alaska.
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: So maybe.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: There you go. You could write a whole travel series
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: for kids. I could.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: I could.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: This is how new ideas evolve.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, this book that I wrote, Tane and the Birds,
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: came from a guy on our bus. Our tour guide
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: was following up on a story told by the bus driver.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: And he started talking about this, he started telling this legend. Well,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: it's really, over the course of writing the book, I
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: learned that it's actually bits and pieces from different versions
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: of the same legend. And I combined it with the
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: bus driver story, which is a whole other long story.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: So we have the bus driver told a story, then
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: the tour guide told followed that up with a story,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: which was really about a version of a number of
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: different versions of the same Maori cultural legend. And he
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: was telling this story, and when he got done with
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: the story, I looked at my husband and I said,
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: that would make a great children's book. And so I
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: talked to him and I taped him telling the story again.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: And we kept in touch once I got back to
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: the States because I wanted to expand on what he
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: had told me. I wanted to get more into the
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Maori culture and bring in the words that they used.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: You know, for instance, they call an owl a ruru.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: So I thought that was much more fun to call
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: the owl the ruru in the book. So there's a
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: new vocabulary that they can learn from another culture. And
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: it was, we went back and forth so that I
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: added more different things from that culture into the book.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: And that's why it says revised and written by Natalie McManus.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: I didn't have the original story, but I also combined
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: the bus driver story with that story. So yeah. it
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: makes it original.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Well, it's your story because you're telling it with your
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: spin on it.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: And you compiled all of these other stories.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, are there any last words you want to
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: tell us about why, why should somebody lie here?
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow. Um, Yes, you should buy my book because
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: not only is it unique and different, it really is.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: It has a twist to it that you don't see coming.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: And it gives you a lot of information in story
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: form about the Maori culture, about the Kiwi bird, which,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: you know, 800 years ago, New Zealand didn't have any people.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: And so the Kiwi bird didn't need wings. So the
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: Maori culture actually made up this legend to kind of
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: explain why does this wonderful little bird not have wings?
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: And it saved New Zealand, and they're very proud of
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: their Kiwi bird. It's got beautiful, beautiful illustrations. My illustrator
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: really just went above and beyond. This is a We
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: had to imagine the Kiwi bird before Tane the Forest
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: God changed it into this. And we had to come
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: up with Tane the Forest God. So I'll find that
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: real quick here. Here's Tane the Forest God.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: It's a tree.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: And it's the oldest, tallest tree in New Zealand. This
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: tree grows taller than all the other trees And it
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: can live to over 2,000 years old. So there's a
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: whole information page here at the beginning that they can
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: learn about the vocabulary and some of the other information
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: about the Maori culture. You can get the book on Amazon.com.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: And if you're in New Zealand or Australia, you can
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: get it on Amazon.com.au. Or you can get through Anna
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: McCabe's bookshelf.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: Well, and... You can also get it at childrensauthorsunite.com.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. So it's a great Christmas gift. It's a
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: great birthday gift. Books are just a great gift period.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: And they shouldn't even be saved for a gift. They
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: should just be given freely.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Natalie, for coming on the show.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: And Maybe we'll have you back when that next book
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: comes out so we can hear the next story.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: You got it. Thank you so much for having me.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: Thank you.