Giveaway and Author Interview
Book Details:
Book Title: Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times®, Vol. 1 by Pam Gittleman
Category: Children’s Fiction (ages 2 to 5), 46 pages
Genre: Children’s Picture Book
Publisher: Mascot Kids, an imprint of Amplify Publishing Group
Release date: Oct 3, 2023
Formats Available for Review: print-hardback (USA), e-book (EPUB)
Tour dates: Nov 20 to Dec 8
Content Rating: G. Suitable for everyone.
Book Description:
What happens when Three KIND Mice put their heads (and bodies!) together to get some cheese on top of the counter? Will Humpty Dumpty be left in pieces when his friends notice that he’s fallen off the wall? And who will get bags of wool–and toys and books–from Baa Baa BRIGHT Sheep? Read all about the beloved characters from traditional nursery rhymes in this endearing collection of eight updated rhymes that nurture kindness, empathy and gratitude!
Buy the Book:
Kinderbooks
Mascot Books
Amazon ~ B&N ~ BAM
Target ~ Bookshop.org
add to Goodreads
Teaching children morality and values through updated nursery rhymes sounded interesting, but to my surprise, it ended up being more than interesting.
One of the most delightful features of this book is the symbol at the top of various pages – scan it to hear the story read aloud. Additionally, there’s another symbol to scan that leads to resources and activities for each rhyme, helping to develop social-emotional learning and language skills.
With the inclusion of expressive emojis, children can engage in fruitful discussions about the emotions that each character might be experiencing. Plus, there are three mice – Brie, Cheddar and Gouda – that make appearances throughout the book, which is sure to be a fun activity for very young children to spot them on different pages. Parents, teachers, and caregivers will adore this colorful hardback book.
So, what makes it more than re-written nursery rhymes inside an attractive book cover? The added aids easily push it up to a five-star book.
My thanks to iRead Book Tours, the publisher and author for a gifted copy. I was free to express whatever my thoughts were regarding this book.
Meet the Author and Interview
Pam has been an early childhood music educator for over twenty-five years with a passion for singing, rhyming, reading stories, and making music with preschoolers.
When Pam noticed that some children seemed unfamiliar with traditional nursery rhymes, and that parents and teachers were avoiding them because of their outdated, dark, and inappropriate nature, she set out to modernize them. Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times® provides a memorable way to build language, musicality, and literacy through songs, stories and rhymes that nurture kindness, empathy, and gratitude. The inclusion of resources that support social and emotional learning (SEL) make it easy for parents and teachers to engage with the children they love.
The rhymes in the book can also be enjoyed as songs on the Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times album recorded by Raffi and Lindsay Munroe, as well as in videos on the Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times® Show on YouTube. (www.linktr.ee.com/forkindertimes)
Aside from making music with young children, Pam loves dogs and dark chocolate. She lives in New York with her husband, and loves when her children, grandchildren, and granddogs come to visit!
Pam collaborated with Dan and Catherine Markowitz for art and design of the book.
Interview
What was the inspiration for your book?
As a preschool music teacher for the last 20 years, I was surprised by the fact that students were increasingly unfamiliar with many nursery rhymes/songs. After all, nursery rhymes have always played such an important and whimsical role in supporting language development and musicality, not to mention stimulating imagination and fun. Well, it didn’t take long to realize that millennial parents, teachers, and caregivers were avoiding those stories because so many of them are “dark” and outdated:
Three Blind Mice get their tails cut off by a carving knife! Ouch!
Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall and can’t be put back together again. Bummer!
“Ring Around the Rosie” is reportedly about the circular red rash that developed on bodies infected with the plague. The posies were the flowers carried in pockets to mask the smell of the dead bodies and their ashes that “all fell down.” Yikes!
I realized that as a genre that benefits the development of language, literacy, musicality and imagination, nursery rhymes could be modified to have positive messaging and a strong impact. That’s why I decided to leverage the inherent appeal of traditional rhymes in a way that would be more socially responsible and compelling to everyone and created Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times®.
What were some educational aspects that were important for you to include in this children’s book?
There is a wealth of compelling research on the importance of social and emotional intelligence. That research indicates that social and emotional learning (SEL) is critical for high-quality early childhood education and foundational to improved academic, behavioral, and lifetime outcomes. I really wanted to create fun, memorable, easy-to-access SEL content for preschoolers and the adults who love them. Updating nursery rhymes to be more relevant, putting beloved and whimsical familiar characters in situations that would model and convey messages of kindness, empathy, and gratitude, and pairing the rhymes with tools for SEL (an emoji chart and guiding questions) were important ways for me to retain the educational, memorable qualities of traditional rhymes for a new generation of young readers. Making sure the rhyming and musicality of these new rhymes were on point was also an important goal so that the rhymes would support the language development that young children’s brains are hard-wired for when it comes to hearing rhyming words and processing rhythm and music.
What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book, and for the series?
I really wanted to strike the right balance between a fun book to read and a book that stimulated young children and their grown-ups to engage in conversations about situational and emotional awareness as well as about compassion and caring. I wanted the situations and characters to model what children can aspire to, not lecture about what not to do. And, I wanted to make it easy for parents, teachers, and caregivers to build strong, positive relationships that are so critical to their children’s growth and development by having rhymes they could read together, talk about, and recall when the children found themselves in similar situations to the characters.
When will volume two be available? Can you give us an idea of what favorite nursery rhymes you will be adapting?
Volume one includes eight of the fifteen rhymes that were recorded on the Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times album by Raffi and Lindsay Munroe (www.forkindertimes.com/album.) If volume one does well, I would hope to have volume two available in late 2024. It would likely include some or all of the 7 remaining rhymes from the album including, “Rock-a-Bye Baby,” “Sing a Song of Six Cents,” and “Old Mother Hubbard.” But there are also lots more rhymes that I’ve adapted, so we’ll see how things play out for volume two and beyond.
Which was your favorite children’s book growing up?
I was always a fan of Harold and the Purple Crayon because it really stimulated my imagination. I loved how Harold could create the world around him and that opened up a world of creative thinking for me.
What in your background attracted you to the idea of creating new nursery rhymes?
I was always very musical. From the time I was quite young, I had good rhythm and an ear for music that allowed me to participate in choruses, bands, and other musical ensembles, playing flute, piano and guitar. That joy for music led me to leave the corporate world and become a preschool music teacher. Creating updated nursery rhymes allowed me to combine my love for music, rhythm and rhyming with my passion for having joyful experiences with the population of learners that I knew and loved best: preschoolers!
connect with author: website ~ X/twitter ~ facebook ~ facebook ~ instagram ~ instagram ~ goodreads
Giveaway
NURSERY RHYMES FOR KINDER TIMES Book Tour Giveaway
If you purchase through the links in this post, I may earn a small commission. This helps support Pick a Good Book and allows us to continue bringing you great content.
