Hello there. This is Mark Bowerline with another conversation. Before we get to it, a word about one of our sponsors.

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world of American higher education at Wyoming Catholic.edu. Matthew Meehan is with us today. He is

director of academic programs for Hillsdale College in Washington, D.C., and he's also

assistant professor of government there. He joined us previously to discuss the children's book,

Mr. Meehan's mildly amusing mythical animals. And he now has another one, the handsome little

signet. Welcome, Matthew.

Thanks for having me, Mark.

First Matthew, a general question. What makes a good book for toddlers?

I think it needs to be visually beautiful engaging so that they can start to see that the words tell stories.

And then it needs to have a kind of rhythm to it, a beautiful rhythm of language. And then the story itself needs to be something that they can take in that's

sort of relevant to them about their family and about discovery. Yeah. What are most toddler books on sale today like?

When you look at the whole field, what trends do you see happening?

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