What is different about our books?

You can visit any library and go to the Children’s Section and find thousands of books on the shelves for your children to read.  With this in mind, when a new book series like ours comes along, we really should address why they are different from many of the books out on the market right now.

Any parent, or adult for that matter, can relate to how quickly children can get bored.  Equally true, most children will look to someone or something else to help in this department. When my brother was bored, his first target was usually me, the younger sister, and visa-versa for that matter.  Making up stories was always one of the many pastimes that would help us whittle away hours in the car or standing in long lines somewhere.  This tradition has continued through my son.  After being asked countless times to tell my son a story it seemed only fitting to stick with the theme, “Mommy, tell me a story.”  The beauty of a story is that it can be about anyone or anything.  It can be silly or serious, or true or made-up.  There is no limit to where you can go or what can happen in a story. It’s only limit is your imagination.  The other great thing about a story is that all children love stories.  This truth spans culture, race, social class or gender.  All children love stories.  I love this about children!

My books are designed to help children tap into their own abilities to make their own stories.  Because of this, all my books share some common threads.  Every book begins with a little boy that’s bored… children can relate to that. Depending on what the boy is looking at will determine what the story is about.  In the first book Mommy, Tell Me a Story about a Car the little boy is riding in a car and looking out the window looking at the other cars.  This inspires him to ask his mommy to tell him a story about a car.  The second book Mommy, Tell Me a Story about a Plane, the little boy is in an
airport waiting for his plane to arrive and looking at the other planes.  The third book Mommy, Tell Me a Story about What Daddy Does, the little boy is looking out the window waiting for daddy to come home from work. I want to encourage young minds to understand that they too can come up with their own stories by just observing the world around them.  The fourth book that will be out this year:  Mommy, Tell Me a Story about a Fish.  The little boy is sitting in the waiting room of a doctor’s office and looking at
their fish tank.  I have made each story very different because I want to reinforce to children that your imagination isn’t limited to one topic, idea, or character.

All of my books also have a lesson to learn.  Not that pure entertainment doesn’t have its place, but as a mother and teacher, I never want to waste a teachable moment.  Children are much quicker to remember something when it is in story form.  I also added the element of rhyme to make the stories easier to read and remember.  I purposely use inanimate objects or animals in my stories because I don’t want the focus to be on the gender or nationality of the character but on the attributes of the character
and what lesson it is they need to learn.  In the first book Rusty the car has to learn some lessons about competition and what it means to win.  In the second book Hugh the plane finds a new purpose in life when he stops feeling sorry for himself and helps others instead.  The third book delves into the world of recycling and helps children see why it is important, and what they can do to help keep our world beautiful.  The fourth book, coming soon, is about a fish named Pearl that learns to see her value despite being different and turns the tables on a bullying problem.  It is so important for children to see that a lesson can be found in any situation in our lives.  You just have to look for it.

We also have worked very hard to bring characters to life that will inspire children’s own artistic creations.  My husband works countless hours to create colorful and loveable characters and scenery free-hand in colored pencil.  We are always amazed at how many children recognize that it is colored pencil. Many of their first comments are, “I have colored pencils!”  This immediately makes the idea of drawing attainable.  They
have colored pencils so they can learn to draw pictures just like Mr. Dave did.   We even plan on making coloring books to go with the series in the future so they can practice their own art skills anytime, with their pencils.

Stories through books should be about helping children see their own potential and realizing that it isn’t out of their reach.  They can think of stories too, they can learn lessons in any situation, and they can be creative in artistic expression.  Yes, I wrote these stories and my husband drew the pictures, but we designed the series for little ones all over the world to help them express their own imagination and talents and see where they can take them.  Our desire is that Mommy, Tell Me a Story book series will
just be a vessel to inspire little ones through imagination, lessons, and beautiful artistic expression.

Mommy, Tell Me a Story book series… imagination inspired through color and rhyme.