For Children of All Ages
One day last week the mother of the two young Larbu and Tia readers I talked about in the previous CurrentSee told me that the boys want to sell the Larbu & Tia books — Natives and Hoodoos — at their lemonade stand this summer so that other children can benefit as they have. She said they’re serious—“Our family would like to purchase one box of each of the books.”
She went on tell to me how her boys had most recently applied the books to their lives:
“First thing this morning, our older son said, ‘Mama, I don’t know if I can meet this world.’ He burst into tears."
How many times have we adults felt this way?
After being with his pain, he declared, “I have to sink down.” He did, and said, “I can meet it.”
She then described an incident the night before.
"We've created 'ThunderCats Thursdays,'" she said, "where each member of the family portrays a different character from the TV show for the entire day, and then we top it off by watching a couple of episodes before dinner.
"Last night, as the second show was finishing and I was putting our baby to bed, the kids asked my husband for just one more. He reluctantly agreed (not wanting to disappoint them) with the stipulation that we had to eat dinner and take care of night-time tasks first.
"But as our dinner began to wrap up, my husband and I both started feeling like it would be too late to watch another show and be able to have a good night's rest."
He said to the kids, "I know I said we could watch another show. I said this because I didn't want to disappoint you, but now I can see the setup. It's feeling too late to be able to watch another one, but we can watch our last episode tomorrow instead."
At these words their younger son became enraged.
"We asked him to go to our bedroom to move the rage," she said. "We said, 'We are with you, stay with it and let us know when you're ready to be held.'"
He stayed in the room for about five minutes screaming and moving his rage and then ran out of the room saying, "Mama, I just need you to hold me. I was really wanting to watch another show."
His body softened and he accepted the disappointment and acknowledged that tomorrow would be a better time for everyone. The whole family enjoyed a restful sleep that night.
On the heels of our conversation, I spoke with a man who has read Natives, Hoodoos, and The Last Healer a good number of times. He said he’s found that the two children’s books deliver.
“It’s all in these small books,” he said, “if a person is willing to carefully search the content.”
Children of all ages, keep your eyes open this summer for the magic lemonade stand.