This looks worthy: Annaka Harris has a kickstarter project for a children’s book, I Wonder.
I Wonder is about a little girl named Eva who takes a walk with her mother and encounters a range of mysteries – from gravity, to life cycles, to the vastness of the universe. She learns to talk about how it feels to not know something, and she learns that it’s okay to say “I don’t know.” Eva discovers that she has much to learn about the world and that there are many things even adults don’t know – mysteries for everyone in the world to wonder about together!
This is the kind of thing we need more of — get them young, and get them thinking.
This is just evil, dogmatic indoctrination which is worse than what christians do!
Sounds great, we need more thinking like this, even in school textbooks. Don’t expect it in church anytime soon.
Missing a “/kenhamm” in there.
Yes, andusay, my first thought was this is one book you won’t see on the shelves at Ken’s creation extravaganza.
Excellent!! Always looking for books for my little one. And I am writing a trilogy of kids fantasy novels- the first is to be released by a major publisher next year- dealing with atheism and anti-religious themes. Hopefully it will ruffle some feathers and make some kids start asking questions…
Cool! Just backed it.
/Dad to 4.5 and 1.5 year olds.
The target is almost reached. Great stuff.
There’s your Atheism+ bumper sticker right there.
So awesome. In the last year, two different friends have asked me whether I knew of any books appropriate for their young kids on the subjects of skepticism and/or critical thinking. They were looking for something that would provide an inoculation of sorts to guard against all of the woo — religious or otherwise — surrounding their children in (U.S.) culture.
I suspect there’s a serious market for this. And as “no religion” becomes a bigger slice of the U.S. demographic, it will only get bigger. I also strongly suspect PZ could be a majah playah, mainly because of his demonstrated ability to simplify complex scientific concepts and research findings in ways that a math-phobic ex-theatre major artist-type can not only understand them, but be appropriately wowed by them. No small gift, that.
I’ve got a 10-day-old girl that I love to hold and read to. This is perfect, and we need more like it!
I need a lot more like this in my/the family’s bookshelf.
YES!!! The first step in education is to know that you don’t know. The trouble with society is that not enough people are prepared to say it. Everyone talks like they are an expert, with rock-solid opinions on global warming, the situation in the middle east, vaccines, etc. We need to teach children (and adults) that it’s perfectly acceptable, and almost certainly more truthful, to say “I don’t know”.
Not just more truthful, more *humble*.
Backed. Sounds just lovely.
The next step is “I don’t know, let’s go and see if we can find out”
Bringing up children can be such a learning experience.
What a cool book.
I think saying “I don’t know” is not just more truthful and more humble, but also more interesting. When you don’t know something you get to look for the answer, and that’s the fun part.
Awesome! Need more books like this. I can’t donate but hopefully when it’s out I can get it for Little One. *crosses fingers*
Kids of just about any age (yes, this means you, too) will enjoy and find thought-provoking on a very basic, fun level Just Visiting This Planet by N. dG. Tyson.
So, where do we ask questions about invertebrate zoology?
Oh, little Eva took a walk with her mother, did she?
Were you there?
An olive branch?
Awesome job, Professor Myers.
Oh, how lovely! Such an important idea to teach to the kiddies.
I’ve always wanted to illustrate a children’s book, just need someone I know to write one. :p
Maybe cuttlefish, eh? Invertebrate musings for the under 5s?
Goal reached in less than 6 hours !
Really love all you heathens.
Got mine and an extra copy to donate to local library or school.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/618768707/i-wonder/posts/302799
Great idea for a book! I’m looking forward to reading it.
This is exactly the kind of thing I try to look for on trips to the book store. Seeing as they’re so hard to find, it was an easy decision to donate to kickstarting this project. I wish more kid’s book authors were thinking of science, education and development instead of toy lines and franchis-itis.
FranchisE, that is, but you knew that. Also glad to support anything that isn’t by one of the zombiefication crowd, like Huckabee or Beck, who write ‘kids’ books.
Try this one: God probably doesn’t exist
http://www.humanism.org.uk/shop/133
…get them young, and get them thinking.
I expect that this book will be banned by the Texas State Board of Ed, since the teaching of “critical thinking” and “values clarification” would undermine parental authority. Only “fact-based” curricula are allowed. I feel bad for all the kids whose sense of wonder, imagination and creativity is being snuffed out by sanctimonious god-fearers.