CHILDREN'S PICTURE  BOOKS


Thomas Wartenberg (2013). A Sneetch is a Sneetch and 

                                            Other Philosophical Discoveries: 

                                            Finding Wisdom in Children's Literature.


Wartenberg is a professor of philosophy and the author of 13 books. 

Children's picture books raise philosophical questions that can be discussed and debated for fun and enjoyment. 16 picture books, one per chapter, provide links to larger philosophical issues and suggest questions to start a conversation with children...excellent references, resources, and glossary.

Among my favorites:

Big Orange Splot--a seagull drops orange paint on a roof, neighbors complain, but the home's occupant decides to paint the roof and the house with murals of his dreams, plant tropical trees in the front yard, put up a hamock, and sip lemonaid...when neighbors confront him, he says he's making his dreams come true--theme of conformity vs individualism.

Frog and Toad "Cookies"--a batch of chocolate chip cookies are so delicious they are tempted to eat them all...they devise clever ways to deal with the temptation, including hiding the cookies (which doesn't work because they know where they hid them) and giving them to the birds to eat (which doesn't work because they can make more)...none of their strategies work because they do not address the core issue of thie urge to eat more cookies--theme of coping with temptation

Harold and the Purple Crayon--Harold, in his imagination during sleep, draws himself out of predicaments with the assistance of a purple crayon--themes of using drawing as method of problem solving, and distinguishing between fantasy and reality

Many Moons--a princess wants the moon, in response the King's advisers (the experts) are of no use because one cannot bring down the moon into the castle (for various reasons depending on the adviser's expertise)...the court jesture talks with the princess and discovers that her perception of the moon is the one she sees outside her window among the trees so he has a pendant of the moon made for her which satisfies her--theme of experts vs common sense


for practice, consider an ongoing problem/challange that you are engaged with...take out a piece of paper and a purple crayon or pen (or other favorite color), draw the issue and possible solutions...see if the purple crayon holds any magic for you.




 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
SPIRITUAL SOLUTIONS Wayne Dyer (2003). There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. Dyer earned a Doctorate of Education in Guidance and Counseling, and is a prolific author. His first book that i read in the 1970's, Your Erroneous Zones, profoundly influenced my thinking as a teen.  The theme of this book is that there is a spiritual solution to every problem, that problems are illusions created in the mind by incorrect thinking, and that the solution to these mental problems is to change our thinking in light of the spirit (defined as an energy/intelligence that is the source of all life, i.e., God). Some might call this "spiritual bypassing," ignoring the body in favor of the mind and spirit. The first half of the book is lessons from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Dyer suggests that low frequency is associated with the "negative" and faster frequency with the "positive" [for me, at least musically, lower frequencies don't imply negative emo...
Read more
Image
TURN ON Timothy Leary (1965, 1999). Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out Leary was a University Professor at Harvard who is best know for his experiments with LSD. The book is part lectures, part interviews, and part essays. Given all the media hype about Leary, i was surprised at how much common sense i encountered, and how much he speaks to learning, hope, and love.  He begins with a chapter on how to start your own religion (to invoke the rights of the first amendment in US law) with family and friends, a tribe of people living together in community with their own laws...a place where sacrament is consumed (it need not be LSD, but anything that is spiritually meaningful to the community, something that binds the community together in ceremony)...a place preferably in nature where one feels protected and nurtured.  The BIG ADVICE is to drop out of society's robot world/mind, and turn on to God/Goddess (the Spirit), nature, and the body and mind, and tune in (dropping back into socie...
Read more
Image
BODY WISDOM  Therese Bertherat (1989).  The body has its reasons: Self-awareness                                                           through conscious movement.  Berherat takes us on a personal journey in learning body wisdom /awareness using Ehrenfred's method which is radically different than the medical model/method she learned at University. The story unfolds as "sessions" of practices, and the end of the book reveals several "preliminaries" on how to cultivate body wisdom. Among the many practical lessons are:      pause after exhaling to let the body use oxygen before inhaling again--this allows the              body to rest/relax with every breath.      because all parts of the body are integrated, working with one par...
Read more