I’m a Frog is another gem of a picture book by Mo Willems, published this year. It’s one of a series of books about best friends Piggie and Elephant Gerald. Willems’ books are clever and thoughtful, and frequently philosophically provocative. In I’m a Frog, Piggie tells Gerald that she is a frog. Gerald perplexed, responds, “I … I’m a Frog!
A plug for the philosophical suggestiveness of books by Dr. Suess! And for entering a philosophy session not knowing where it will lead. Today I read the story The Lorax, published in 1971, with a second grade class. In the story, the Once-ler describes how he arrived in a town full of Truffula Trees, with their … The Lorax
Jeff Mack’s book Good News Bad News portrays the different ways people can see the same situation. Using just four words – good news, bad news – Mack describes Rabbit and Mouse going on a picnic. Good news: they’re going on a picnic. Bad news: it starts to rain. Good news: Rabbit has an umbrella. … Good News, Bad News
Ann and Paul Rand’s picture book, I know a lot of things, captures a young child’s exuberance about the things he or she knows – such as “when I look in a mirror what I see is me.” Graphic designer Paul Rand’s illustrations enhance the inquisitive feel – looking at us from the mirror, for … I know a lot of things
Children Make Terrible Pets, Peter Brown’s picture book about a young bear, Lucy, who one day notices a small boy hiding in the bushes and watching her. Lucy thinks the boy is adorable, calling him “Squeaker” because he “makes funny sounds.” She asks her mother, who reluctantly acquiesces, if she can keep Squeaker as a … Children Make Terrible Pets
The book For Every Child, published in 2001 in association with Unicef, with text by Caroline Castle and a forward by Archbiship Desmond Tutu, lists some of the rights enumerated in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, in accessible language and with magnificent illustrations by 14 different artists. For example, the rights … Children’s rights
Benny and Penny in Just Pretend, by Geoffrey Hayes, is an early-reader graphic novel about two siblings and the efforts of the younger child, Penny, to join her brother in “playing pretend.” Constructing pretend worlds is part of many children’s childhoods – I remember when my children wouldn’t answer me unless I addressed them as … Just Pretend
Frog in Love by Max Velthuijs is the story of Frog, who has felt strange all week, and is trying to figure out what is wrong. He feels like crying and laughing at the same time, and that “there’s something going thump-thump” inside him. When he tells Hare about how he is feeling, Hare tells … Frog in Love
Arnold Lobel is probably my favorite children’s book author, and a master at generating philosophically suggestive narratives. The Frog and Toad books, in particular, are full of stories that raise many puzzles about life and experience. One of my favorites is the story “Shivers,” in Days With Frog and Toad. Frog tells Toad a ghost … “Shivers”
A Pair of Red Clogs is Masako Matsuno’s first book for children, written in 1960. A grandmother, looking for a box to send a new pair of clogs to her granddaughter, finds an old pair of cracked red wooden clogs in her storeroom. The grandmother remembers how excited she was when, as a child the … A Pair of Red Clogs
PLATO is part of a global UNESCO network that encourages children to participate in philosophical inquiry. As a partner in the UNESCO Chair on the Practice of Philosophy with Children, based at the Université de Nantes in France, PLATO is connected to other educational leaders around the world.
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