Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on DEMW from
Speaker 1: KFI AM sixty with.
Speaker 2: Mo Kelly one five.
Speaker 3: Sixty.
Speaker 2: Hello There, Sunshine. It's the first ever picture book from
Speaker 2: the New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award winning
Speaker 2: host of the kid's YouTube original series tab Time. Of course,
Speaker 2: I'm talking about Tabitha Brown.
Speaker 4: Can I tell you something that's on my mind? I
Speaker 4: can very good when we listen to our friends. We
Speaker 4: can learn new things, like I just learned that my
Speaker 4: friend Ivy is a fruit and not a vegetable.
Speaker 5: It's tab Can I ask you a question?
Speaker 3: You can ask me anything.
Speaker 2: Are you a fruit or vegetable?
Speaker 3: Ivy?
Speaker 5: I am a person, a person that doesn't sound like
Speaker 5: a broccoli or a blueberry. Is that why you don't
Speaker 5: have a pit like mine that can do this?
Speaker 3: It sure is, and thank you for asking.
Speaker 5: We're both pretty good listeners, aren't we miss Tabit?
Speaker 3: Yes we are.
Speaker 2: Hello There, Sunshine follows young Tabitha, who wakes up ready
Speaker 2: to greet the sun, but gets a little worried when
Speaker 2: she realizes it's missing. From there, Tabitha embarks on an
Speaker 2: adventure through her own neighborhood, asking everyone if they've seen
Speaker 2: the sun. Hello. Their Sunshine is available everywhere beginning Tuesday,
Speaker 2: March eleventh, and its author Tabitha Brown joins me right
Speaker 2: now on the show.
Speaker 4: Ms.
Speaker 2: Brown is nice to speak to you this evening. How
Speaker 2: are you.
Speaker 3: I'm doing good, honey, how are you?
Speaker 2: I am wonderful When I see you in your various
Speaker 2: forms of work, I'm reminded of the many personal and
Speaker 2: professional struggles you've endured to get to this point. You
Speaker 2: wear many hats and use all sorts of talents and skills.
Speaker 2: What do you enjoy most? Acting, stand up comedy, writing,
Speaker 2: culinary arts, clothing design, motherhood, maybe something else?
Speaker 3: You know what? I think I enjoy just being myself
Speaker 3: the most right. I think that's the biggest thing, Like
Speaker 3: being a wife, being a mom, being a daughter, like
Speaker 3: those are. That's what makes me who I am, being
Speaker 3: a woman, and then I get to do all the
Speaker 3: other things. That's the bonus.
Speaker 2: Talk to me about writing for children. Yes, we were
Speaker 2: all children once upon a time, some of us even
Speaker 2: became parents, But I would argue that communicating with them,
Speaker 2: writing for them is a special gift. What is it
Speaker 2: you do or use in creating this connection with children?
Speaker 2: In a media space.
Speaker 3: You know what. I love children. Of course I'm a
Speaker 3: mama and I work with children, you know, with my
Speaker 3: children show tab time and writing for children. I think
Speaker 3: the biggest lesson is listening to children, but also going
Speaker 3: back into your own childhood in the childlike mindset and
Speaker 3: feelings inside. And so this book is all about my
Speaker 3: real childhood and my experience with my mama because she
Speaker 3: also listened to me, but she would also talk to me,
Speaker 3: and so I wanted to share that in book form.
Speaker 3: With just teaching children how they have light inside of them,
Speaker 3: which is like a superpower, right, we can transform someone's day,
Speaker 3: including our own. So taking that very simple technique of
Speaker 3: talking to children in a way that they understand, and
Speaker 3: we put that on paper. So still just telling the story.
Speaker 2: Hello, Their Sunshine available March eleventh. The sun has gone
Speaker 2: missing and young Tabitha sets out to find it. Take
Speaker 2: it from there.
Speaker 3: Yes, so this is based on my childhood. In my
Speaker 3: hometown in North Carolina and e North Carolina, there was
Speaker 3: a little neighborhood I lived in called River Being And
Speaker 3: so I wake up one morning I don't see the
Speaker 3: sun shining outside, and so I think, what's going to
Speaker 3: happen if we don't have the sun shining, it's a
Speaker 3: cloudy day. And I go on this journey to find
Speaker 3: the sun. And I'm in my neighborhood. I'm helping my neighbors,
Speaker 3: I'm helping my friends do things, I'm playing, I'm bringing
Speaker 3: joy and happiness to people in the neighborhood. But yet
Speaker 3: I still never find the sun. And at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, I go back to my mama and
Speaker 3: I said, She asked me, did you ever find the sun?
Speaker 3: And I said no, I still didn't find the sunshine today.
Speaker 3: And she says, well, what do you do today? And
Speaker 3: I tell her all the things that I did in
Speaker 3: the neighborhood with my friends and with the neighbors, and
Speaker 3: how I helped people and made people feel good and happy,
Speaker 3: and she said, well, it sounds like you did find
Speaker 3: the sun. And in that moment, it's a light bulb
Speaker 3: moment where I realized that I am the sun. I
Speaker 3: was the sunshine in people's life that day. And so
Speaker 3: kindness is sunshine. Love and joy is also sunshine. And
Speaker 3: being able to spread that we all have the power
Speaker 3: to do so. And so that's hello, their sunshine.
Speaker 2: What has working in this children's space taught you about children,
Speaker 2: their minds, and their dreams. Now, this story Hello Their
Speaker 2: Sunshine may be semi autobiograph, if you will, but I'm
Speaker 2: quite sure you've learned something about children more generally. Right.
Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely, children are so much smarter than we realize.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: I think that if we listen, we can always learn
Speaker 3: from children. Most children, until a certain age, have no fear.
Speaker 3: Fear is talk. They have big imaginations. They're big dreamers.
Speaker 3: They're so curious. And I think as we get older
Speaker 3: and we become adults, our fears, you know, start to
Speaker 3: take over. Our imagination shrinks. We start to conform into
Speaker 3: this world the people project on us and we believe it.
Speaker 3: But children are not like that. They believe things that
Speaker 3: are what they are. They also have a big imagination
Speaker 3: to believe them to be different and even better sometimes.
Speaker 3: And so I think the purity of children is the
Speaker 3: most sacred thing, and to be able to learn from
Speaker 3: them is an honor for me. I love learning from
Speaker 3: children every day, every day.
Speaker 2: My time has grown short with you, Ms Tabitha Brown.
Speaker 2: But I know that since Hello Their Sunshine is going
Speaker 2: to be available on March eleventh, you might be doing
Speaker 2: some appearances in support of this children's book, and I
Speaker 2: understand you might be in the LA area sometime soon.
Speaker 2: Can you tell me about that.
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm gonna be That's what next Saturday. So I'll
Speaker 3: be at Pierce College and it's partnering with Malik Books
Speaker 3: and LAUSD So it's a big family day. We're giving
Speaker 3: away a thousand books. It's a free event. I'm going
Speaker 3: to do a meet and greet. Look, it is free,
Speaker 3: but you still have to go online and register ticket.
Speaker 3: It is free, but yeah, I hope that people come
Speaker 3: out and take pictures and share some sunshine with me.
Speaker 2: I gotta say, people can't see you, but I can
Speaker 2: see the vibrancy, the joy, the I will say, the
Speaker 2: glow that you have. Where does that enthusiasm come from?
Speaker 2: For what you do? Very quickly?
Speaker 3: You know what I think is God's gift right that
Speaker 3: he allows me to be a joyful spirit. And honey,
Speaker 3: I'm alive and I'm happy about.
Speaker 2: So yeah, hello there. Sunshine is available everywhere beginning Tuesday,
Speaker 2: March eleventh. Tabitha Brown has been enjoyed to talk to
Speaker 2: you and follow you for quite some time. But it's
Speaker 2: nice to be able to dialogue with you. I wish
Speaker 2: you nothing but the best.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, bo I appreciate you, hon.
Speaker 2: It's Later with mo Kelly ca if I AM six forty.
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