Big as a giant, small as an elf, you face difficulties. Its how you deal with them that matters. A dear friend Steve Light, children book author, released a new book called The Christmas Giant which tells a story of just that. I got it from Amazon last week.
I read the book to my kid a few times already, but always at the end we would switch to applying the concepts in the book to create another story together. Giant being me and elf being my kid we ventured into a forest of huge Chinese cabbages, an earthquake came and the gift we prepared fell deep into the abyss, elf being small jumped right into the crack to grab it while I lowered him using my stretchable arm, etc etc. We never gave up in our stories, we found duality all over the places, we came out with results far better than what we planned. I hope this plants deep into my kid's mind: It is through difficulties and failures we find strength to create an extraordinary future.
(Hickory Dickory Doc by Steve Light, in his home)
Here's something you don't know about Steve. He carves wood into blocks of cute figures, they can be put inside boxes he dubbed Storyboxes, one story one box. You can imagine the anticipation and excitement from kids when he slowly unboxes the blocks and revealing the stories one piece at a time.
- The Christmas Giant facebook page, Steve posts a sketch a day until Christmas.
- Candlewick Press: Steve Light Bios
- Happy Birthday Author blog post about The Christmas Giant
