My wife and muse, Joyce, has been an educator for 30 years. After 15 years of teaching high school, she returned to the elementary classroom – teaching first graders how to read. Most of us take the ability to read for granted but it turns out that teaching young kids how to read is more complicated than we might think. How many of us remember the process of learning how to read? I’ve wracked my brain and I cannot remember not being able to read. I still have books from my childhood that I remember being challenging for me but I simply do not recall looking at a book and having no idea how to read it. (Joyce, on the other hand, distinctly remembers wondering how kids around her were able to read and she could not. Being competitive, she quickly caught up with her classmates.)
A few weeks ago, while telling me about methods she uses to teach kids to read, Joyce also talked about some of the challenges kids face. I think adults take for granted, that in addition to learning the most basic skills, kids also have to deal with the same things as adults: loss, grief, self-image, depression, anxiety, etc. At the same time, in the midst of dealing and learning, kids are capable of such joy and happiness. Regardless of what else they’ve experienced, some of her kids hug her, tell her they love her and how much they love coming to her classroom.
Our conversation led to the idea of a series of children’s books that address the emotional development of children in elementary school – but not in a dry, clinical way. The books had to be fun for kids to read – meaning the language needed to be rich, the stories relatable, and of course, the illustrations fun and joyful. A series of books would allow us to cover a variety of characters and the various issues they face. Finally, we would also work-in some tools that would help new readers with the text, and we would provide tools and helps for teachers, who might want to use the books in their classrooms.
It sounded like a tall order, but Joyce is a fantastic muse and with her help and encouragement, Tam Tam Gets Mad was written, a wonderful illustrator was found, and the concept of Tam Tam’s World took shape. Thank you for joining us in this journey and please stay tuned for the release of the first book in the series!
