I am excited to tell you about a new children’s book initiative right here in Eleuthera. Anything that gets more children reading for fun is a great thing in my book. Regular readers of this blog already know of my passion / obsession with reading and getting young ones into the habit of picking up a book and losing themselves in it is something I feel is to be encouraged at every opportunity.
I was contacted by Lynn and Robert Parlett the other week to talk about this wonderful plan. They are writing a series of children’s books based on the childhood tales of the famous Bahamian Doctor Seabreeze….
They are raising the funds to publish the books – take a look at their FaceBook page for lots more information – Doctor Seabreeze’s Eleuthera
In the words of Lynn herself –
“The long range plan is to have a children’s book series that covers different parts of the child’s world such as helping with dinner, daily chores and a day at school, at a time when survival on the out islands of the Bahamas was dependent on the old ways of gathering and growing food, fishing, and earning enough money to buy a few necessities.
Doctor Seabreeze’s Tales: What’s for Dinner? is a full-color illustrated children’s book around 20 pages, geared to first and second graders, with a lively story of two boys helping to feed their family. Raking salt, grinding corn into grits, and earning a few coins were all tasks that helped to make dinner for the family.”
Life back then when Dr Seabreeze was a child in Eleuthera was quite clearly very different to what it is now – and so this book has a twofold benefit. Firstly it teaches the children about their history and heritage in a very personal and relevant way and of course secondly it gets them reading !
I think this series is a brilliant idea and it is one I have got behind myself and would love to hear that some of you are supporting it as well…..
This is the link to use for donating towards the project
– drseabreezebook@gmail.com.
Beautiful Poinciana in bloom – still waiting for it to come this year …..
I watched a short film on FaceBook of Asian children playing a complicated game of leapfrog – not an electronic device in sight – and was delighted to see what fun they were having – such a great sight and one that is so rare to see these days. So when I heard about this book series I was excited to think that maybe reading about some of the simple games that those of us of a certain age used to play all those years ago may be re-awakened and revived…..
By the way , Lynn and Robert Parlett co- wrote Dr Seabreeze’s memoir Doctor Seabreeze’s Eleuthera……
This year our vegetable garden has been really successful – there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why some years are so much better than others – we have not had much rainfall this year but the tomato crop is spectacular ! So we have been giving them out to all and sundry as well as consuming loads of them ourselves.
Fabulous bounty of tomatoes
And I guess that the freezer will have plenty of tomato sauce ready for a quick pasta dish…..
News next week of the Jazz Festival and how it all went and also looking forward to the Special Olympics Bocce Tournament with the Exceptional Learners at the end of the month…..
This picture got cropped at the top – so here it is in full – running to get fishenin’ !
4 thoughts on “A New Children’s Book Initiative in Eleuthera”
I love the book series proposal. Freedom to Read, Inc. would be happy to have these titles in libraries all over Eleuthera. Thanks for sharing!
That’s great – thanks Susy ……
Home grown food is so much nicer. All the best for the book. I am writing a children’s book myself so know how challenging it is.
All the best
Angela
Thanks – and lovely to hear from you ….