BOOKS: Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons

Congratulations to Kristen Stone for winning this week's book giveaway!  While this contest is now closed, please come back to SixSeeds for more giveaways for good, family, fun!

Title: Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons
Author: Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Illustrator: Jane Dyer
Publisher: HarperCollins
Age:  All ages
Cost: $12.99
Buy it: here.
Rating:  5 seeds out of 6

Cookies.  We’ve all made them, shared them, devoured them, and eaten too many of them,  A delicious book by Amy Rosenthal now uses cookies to illustrate character.

How can sweet confections teach us a thing or two about life?  Each page of this picture book is dedicated to a calorie-laden analogy including:

ENVY means, 

I can’t stop looking at your cookie

Out of the corner of my eye-

It looks so much better than my cookie.

Boy, I wish it were mine and not yours.

After explaining fairness, cooperation, and a host of other virtues, the story ends with a good dose of reality to chew on:

WISE means,

I used to think I knew everything about cookies,

But now I realize I know about one teeny chip’s worth.

Jane Dyer, well known for the watercolor in I Love You Like Crazy Cakes and Goodnight Goodnight Sleepyhead, uses her talent to depict these cookies in a marvelously compelling way.  Be warned, however.  You might need a chocolate fix afterward.

The Bottom Line:

Not only is this book clever, it spans the ages as well. While a preschooler won’t get all that this book is communicating, it will surely keep their attention. Plus, Mom and Grandma will actually appreciate the storyline… not just tolerate it.

To Talk to Your Kids About:

Rosenthal covers a host of issues, some of which include cooperation, patience, pride, modesty, trustworthiness, compassion, greed, honesty, courage, envy, loyalty, open-mindedness, regret, contentment, and wisdom. So, there is no shortage of material to discuss with the kiddos. Though it’s a natural tendency to want to fix some particular weaknesses in our kids, we have an opportunity to point out growth as well with this book. There’s a good chance that Johnny already knows (all too well) where he falls short anyways.

You could use this as a time to be vulnerable about your own development as a parent and share how you personally need to grow in some of these areas. Or if you’re really brave… ask your child which area they think you need to improve upon.

For Mom and Dad To Consider:

The book does not just emphasize appropriate outward behaviors -  it hits on attitudes of the heart. Too often it seems, we are content to polish up the outward behaviors of our children, while letting the more subtle attitudes (like entitlement and selfishness) go unchecked. These “heart issues", while more difficult to detect, will continue to rear their heads if we don't do battle with them.

Rarely do you find a book of definitions actually interesting, or an explicit conversation about virtue that doesn’t feel like a lecture. Thumbs up to Amy Rosenthal who has managed both by presenting complex ideas to young ears using the easiest-to-understand analogies everyone loves – cookies!

Who is Amy? - Amy Krouse Rosenthal's website.

We are giving this book away this week! Please leave a comment for a chance to win. We always love to hear from you.

On one week from publication at noon (EST), we'll pick a name in a random drawing from all eligible entries received and send you an email notification.  When you receive your package in the mail, you'll find out which book you received!

Limit one (1) entry per person; NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington D.C. who are 18 or older as of date of entry.