Connecting at Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2011

By Rana DiOrio, Founder

Last year, I attended The Bologna Children’s Book Fair (which is the largest children’s book fair in the world) for the very first time as an observer, a sponge. This year, I will be attending the fair as a participant, a doer, and to forge connections to take Little Pickle Press to the next level of growth and expansion. Here’s what I hope to accomplish:

Identify foreign rights partners for our titles. We have selected Foreword Reviews to represent our five titles. They have hired Sylvia Hayse of Sylvia Hayse Literary Agency, LLC to host meetings with prospective rights buyers. Sylvia just happens to also represent Little Pickle Press in ordinary course and has landed foreign rights deals for us in Korea and China. If you are a publisher or co-agent interested in pursuing the foreign rights to print our award-winning titles, please set up a time to meet with Sylvia Hayse by sending her an email.

Identify titles published in other geographies and/or languages that we may wish to acquire foreign rights to publish in the United States or all English-speaking countries. We will be on the hunt for high quality children’s books for which we can acquire the rights to publish. Specifically, we’d be seeking children’s picture books or middle grade chapter books that convey meaningful messages to children. Themes of particular interest include fiction or nonfiction stories about: adoption, altruism, divergent (vs. convergent) thinking, entrepreneurship, fostering creativity, forgiveness, and health/wellness. Award-winning content would be our first choice. If you have a title or titles for us to consider, please contact me at rana@littlepicklepress.com.

Identify digital applications partners for our content. We are developing world class content for children. We are seeking innovative technology partners to extrapolate our content into best-of-breed applications for mobile devices and computers. For example, we have forged a partnership with MagicBlox, a subscription-based, online, digital library, and we showcase our e-books and audio books in their library. We are about to ink a deal with SachManya, a state-of-the-art SAAS mobile publishing platform.  Their product, Yapper (Your APP makER), is an easy-to-use, web-based service for publishers and authors to build mobile applications and to derive revenue by selling their books, magazines, and other premium content within the apps. If you are a purveyor of technology or if you have a platform that needs high quality children’s media content, please let me know via email.

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Don't forget that today is the last day of our February 25% off all our award-winning books - use code LPPLOVE at check-out. Click here for the shopping cart to see these and more titles.

Have a Marvelous Weekend Friends

We hope you'll be someplace very special with castles and everything.

Having fun with the coolest friends in the whole world.

Visiting with family and making big smiley faces.

Or just being your fun and silly selves, you cutie patooties!

May the chief and her little pickles have a wonderful time at Walt Disney World Resort. Thanks for sharing pictures with us! Be sure to say hi to Goofy.

Encouraging Your Children to Read

By Kara Petersen, Little Pickle Press Sales Associate, Southern California

I am still shocked to find that there are some people who may not enjoy reading.  Both of my parents are avid readers and fostered this pastime within my sister and me from an early age.  However, I do have a few friends, who shall remain nameless, that don’t necessarily enjoy this hobby as much as I do, and an even shorter list of friends who would join me in calling it a passion.

Parents and teachers are constantly looking for new ways to encourage children to read, especially in our digital age with television, video games, and the Internet vying for children’s time. Sometimes, it may just take finding the right book to hook in a young reader and start a lifelong love of the written word.  Other times it may take more persuasion.

My friend Bunni Lesh, librarian for Canalino Elementary School in Carpinteria, CA, was the first person who introduced me to Renaissance Learning’s Accelerated Reader Program.  With points and prizes earned by taking reading comprehension quizzes, it’s like Oprah’s Book Club for kids.  Ms. Bunni told me it’s the only way she can get some of her students to read.  But then again, it’s the "getting children to read" part that is important.

How It Works:   

Librarians and teachers help to drive the selection of books by recommending titles to Renaissance Learning on their website. Books are considered for quizzes based on awards, national reviews, recommending reading lists, and requests from a number of different schools.  After reading a title students can take a number of different quizzes to measure their literary, comprehension, and vocabulary skills. Quizzes are available individually or as textbook quizzes for teachers to use in the classroom.  They are available for individual or teacher-lead reading activities.

According to Renaissance Learning’s website, yesterday students read 1,468,153 books and 11 billion words.  That’s a good thing in my book!

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Kara Petersen was born and raised in Santa Barbara, CA.  She loves traveling, reading, yoga, watching ice hockey, and going to the beach.  When she isn’t sharing Little Pickle Press with Southern California she is writing her own stories and hopes to publish some of them for big and little pickles someday.

A Few More Days of Love

Friends, just a reminder that our special 25% off for the month of February ends soon. You can still order any of our books by going to our shopping cart here, choosing your books, and entering the coupon code LPPLOVE at check-out. Don't miss out on this tremendous value!

Wednesday Wisdom

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin." — Mother Teresa

A Typical Tuesday at Little Pickle Press

By Dani Greer

Recently in an interview, our chief executive pickle, Rana DiOrio,  gave this response about the LPP team:

I think that in-person meetings optimize collaboration. We have a weekly all-hands meeting that our remote team members participate in by phone. It represents the single most valuable growth driver for our company. The exchange of ideas during that brief weekly gathering is truly remarkable. Everyone walks away from the call/meeting with action items and is inspired to do their tasks to move the company forward.
 

I'm one of the old dills around here who can remember manual typewriters, mimeograph machines, and the exorbitant expense of a long-distance phone call. I can also recall a short stint with the telephone company where I had to program telephones for conferencing call features and train executives to use these "gang hot-lines", and I'm here to tell you that in many ways, life has improved and has become much simpler. Let me publicly state how grateful I am for technological changes like emails and conference calling services that allow us to be in touch on a regular basis and at little or no charge... and without requiring an advanced degree or extremely high IQ to use them!

So what does a conference call with the Little Pickle Press team look like on any given Tuesday? Here's a peek at the LPP HQ office as the California team members chat with the rest of us around the world.

How about you? What technological advancements have made your daily life easier?

Hail to the Chief

By Dani Greer

Today is Presidents Day in the United States. Or is it Presidents’ Day? Or maybe it should be President’s Day because, in fact, what was once termed Washington’s Birthday, is still Washington’s Birthday. Though the Uniform Monday Holiday Act created numerous three-day weekends, it never passed to include more than one president on this particular day. It was actually a term coined by department store advertisers who discovered that the generic-sounding holiday sold more inventory than the father of the country! Sadly, many Americans may enjoy an extra day off and get a bargain at a sale, but few will really honor the intent of the holiday.

I’ve been thinking a lot about presidents lately, mostly because of the remarkable turmoil surrounding a few of them in recent years. I grew up the child of an Army officer, and learned early to respect the Commander-in-Chief. It didn’t matter who that person was, or of which party — respect for the office was built into my upbringing. It was tacitly understood that a strong Army depended upon a strong leadership, and that meant the troops acted respectfully and so did their families. It was as simple as that.

There was a time in our history when leaders, especially presidents, were held in such high esteem that families put photographs of them on their living room walls, as though they were part of the family. I always thought that was a bit curious, until the last election when for the first time in my life, I felt a sense of connection with the Obama family that really was akin to a kind of love and admiration one might assign to a dear friend or family member. The election was a marker event in my life. It was the first time a black man and a woman were both considered viable presidential candidates. As a woman who grew up during the civil rights and women’s liberation movements, this moment in time was historic for me. It was a first in the country's history and I fully realized the enormity of it.

I’m not the only person who was thus impacted by the 2008 election. Novelist, Susan Wittig Albert, penned a personal memoir to mark her 69^th year.  The book juxtaposed the astounding events of the election against her own life as a writer and conservationist in the Texas Hill Country. When the University of Texas Press published An Extraordinary Year of Ordinary Days, no one could have guessed what a fascinating historic record it would eventually become. Click here to read an excerpt.

Rana DiOrio, founder of Little Pickle Press, was inspired by the election in a profound and positive way, too. When asked for a reaction to the election results, she simply states, “I cried.” But it also gave her the impetus to write her first children’s book in order to share conversations about the world and events with her own children. This is how What Does It Mean To be Global? was inspired and eventually born, and along with it a publishing company.

Discussing world events and politics and, yes, even presidents, is an important part of teaching our children to be good citizens. How do you model proper behavior to them? Do you bandy about insults about politicians, thinking your kids aren’t paying attention? Or do you use the news to create informative conversation at the dinner table, discussing current events and weaving them into discussions of your own views and values? 

I would urge you to think about the example you set for the youngsters in your family. It’s vital that young people learn the interpersonal skills that allow them to become strong citizens. It’s equally important that they learn the importance of strong leadership to the success of a nation. Please think about these things, and consciously plant the seeds that will grow your little pickles into good citizens. It starts in your home and ends in a better world for us all.

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 Don't forget to take advantage of our February discount on all books with the coupon code LPPLOVE at check-out. Please visit our website to order by clicking here.

A Day at Frenchtown School Part 2

By Maria Mostajo

At the Frenchtown School presentation we talked about yesterday, Rana also read her books, including What Does It Mean To Be Global, which gorgeously illustrates children trying all types of foods, celebrating different religions and cultures and encourages a greater sensitivity to other people’s experiences.  She then shared photographs of children from all over the world playing in their environments in an effort to show the Frenchtown schoolchildren that they are different yet very similar to their counterparts around the world.  The images were breathtakingly beautiful, had uplifting messages, and left the children with vibrant images to enhance their already open and creative minds.  

My favorite Little Pickle Press book in the series is What Does It Mean To Be Present? and when I read it I often think of yet another person, usually an adult, that could benefit from its message.  Rana described her inspiration for writing this book in a sincere and self-deprecating manner.  She admitted that, like so many adults, she is attached and addicted to her Blackberry and most importantly, how it was bothersome to her own children.  When asked if they knew anyone who had a Blackberry or I-phone, almost every hand went up. 

As she read the beginning of the book and asked them what it meant or didn’t mean be “present” they volunteered remarks, but as she softly read the words that described the “feeling of family, friends, savoring a delicious food or a snuggle or the warmth of the sun or the sound of the rain and the sand between your toes or the taste of the ocean’s salty spray…” the children’s peace was palpable.  I could hear the rhythm of each child’s breath as she read, “breathe… in and out, in and out… to make you peaceful… closing your eyes and being still enough to hear your inner voice.”  And for a moment I was reminded of how important it is for our children to settle down enough from their over-scheduled lives and activities to share with us what is inside of them; and for us parents to take the time to listen.

Rana and I left Rhode Island, which happens to be where she was raised, and marveled at the wonders of childhood and were so very thankful to have had the opportunity to partake in the Frenchtown’s effort to cultivate open minded and socially responsible little people.

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To purchase a copy of What Does It Mean To Be Present, written by Rana DiOrio and illustrated by Eliza Wheeler, please go to our shopping cart here.

A Day at Frenchtown School Part 1

By Maria Mostajo
 

As the parents of bi-racial children my husband and I agreed many years ago that we would raise our children in New York City where we could easily expose them to culture, diversity, and the world beyond themselves.  I grew up in a suburb just outside Boston and my husband was raised in Manhattan and we both had close ties to our communities.  I have to admit, in the end we chose Manhattan as we were both a bit hesitant to live in a suburb of New England out of the fear that a homogenous environment wouldn’t offer us the experience that we wanted for our family.

My best friend of over thirty years, and someone who I consider to be the most open-minded, worldly, and sensitive human being, chose to raise her four children in East Greenwich, RI.  While I have visited her many times over the years and have met her friends and neighbors, I hadn’t really given much thought to the opportunities available to her to stimulate and encourage her children to see and understand her view of all people living on our precious earth.  I assumed that it would be mostly her and her husband’s responsibility to teach their children to appreciate and respect other people’s traditions and cultures.  When I asked Elizabeth if she would be interested in helping me promote Rana DiOrio’s What Does It Mean To Be…? series of books, she immediately saw the opportunity for her community to explore the meaningful topics of the books and offered to sponsor an author visit at the Frenchtown School, where her youngest two still attend.  The Frenchtown School is a public elementary school and houses approximately 350 kids ranging between kindergarten and third grade.

On January 31, 2011 we joined Elizabeth Atalay and her friend and President of the Parent Teacher Group at the Frenchtown School, Julie D’Amico, who introduced Rana and me to the Frenchtown student body.  It was magical from the start.  The books we had brought for display and sale were piled high on a table in front of a colorful poster at the entrance to the library where the children came to meet Rana in groups of a couple of classes at a time. While the children briefly stopped to look at the display, they were clearly there to hear what Rana had to say.  They marched in with their teachers and sat in a semi-circle around Rana, who captured their attention and imagination with her interactive, stimulating, and beautifully colorful images of children from all over the world doing things that they do but in environments vastly different than their own.

Rana opened with a discussion about the environment and within minutes the children were engaged in a conversation that had us moms watching behind the scenes in awe.  These four, five, and six year olds “get it”.  This is their earth and they care about it.  Their parents, teachers and friends have educated them about the issues and they are conversant and have ingenious ideas to offer about ways to conserve energy, protect the environment, and to continue the educational process.  Some have even written stories or books about the subject.  Building these types of conversations into their curriculum can only enhance their already caring and optimistic nature.

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See all our posters and books at http://www.littlepicklepress.com

Join us again tomorrow for more about our visit to Frenchtown School!

Eco Lips

By Cameron Crane

At Little Pickle Press, we know how important it is to keep our planet and the people in it as healthy and happy as possible. Our children’s books are printed and distributed in an eco-friendly manner, using recycled paper, soy inks, and green packaging to help reduce our impact. For every book sold, we donate 10% of the purchase price to Starlight Children’s Foundation in hopes of improving quality of life for children with illnesses. When we find a company with values in congruence with ours, we simply must share!

Recently, we discovered Eco Lips, an amazing series of lip products made with certified organic and natural ingredients, produced by solar power! My personal introduction to the product line was through Eco Lips Gold, which is a standard every-day lip balm. I tried the product in hopes of healing my lips, which were dry and red from the wind. I applied the product when I first bought it and again before I went to sleep. The next morning my lips had significantly improved, so I went online to Ecolips.com and back to the store to see what else the Eco Lips line had to offer. Amongst their medicinal lip balms, tinted lip balms, vegan lip balms, and fruit-based lip balms I found my next purchase, the Dagoba Roseberry lip balm. It tasted delicious and had the same moisturizing effect. I was hooked!

As if the luscious variety of treats for my lips wasn’t enough, I found out that Eco Lips has a line of products called Cause Balm which contributes $1 per balm purchased to a choice of 9 wonderful non-profit organizations. Their motto is, “Help us change the world, one set of lips at a time.”

Their children’s line is called Honest Kids, and comes in flavors children will love like Goodness Grapeness and Berry Berry Good Lemonade.

The bottom line is - I love Eco Lips for all the same reasons I believe people like Little Pickle Press - great products created and produced with an environmental and social conscience. It’s because of this synergy that Eco Lips has offered to give a 20% discount to our customers when they order product from Ecolips.com: 20% off entire order, Coupon Code: ECO20. Little Pickle Press would like to also extend a 20% discount to all Eco Lips customers: 20% off entire order, Coupon Code: LPPECO20. 

It was exciting to find a product that not only makes a difference in my lips, but makes a difference to the world.

Enjoy!

War and Peace

War and Peace. It’s the name of a famous literary classic by Leo Tolstoy. The two words and their respective actions also connect humanity throughout its existence. It’s fair to say our presence on this Earth has been shaped by both.

Today we continue to experience war and peace throughout the world, and more than ever our connections through telecommunications bring the events to our very living rooms. Most recently, we experienced the relatively peaceful change of leadership in Egypt, a historic event fueled and supported by Internet and other connections. It proved to be a vital and dramatic marker of the power of yet another living system of our times – telecommunications.

Peace has always been the goal in civilized societies, and this month we mark the anniversary of America’s own Peace Corps. 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy gave his famous "ask not" inaugural address. The country and the world were in a time of turmoil and the Cold War was in full swing, even as Kennedy preached unity and service. This message of service led to the founding of the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961.

Since then, more than 200,000 Americans have volunteered abroad through the program in 139 countries. Students at the University of Michigan were the first to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. From that inspiration grew an agency of the federal government devoted to world peace and friendship.

The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Today's Peace Corps is more vital than ever, working in emerging and essential areas such as information technology and business development, and contributing to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Peace Corps volunteers continue to help countless individuals who want to build a better life for themselves, their children, and their communities.

We congratulate the Peace Corps for its decades of service to so many worthy countries and encourage each of you to consider donating to them to further their goals. Please visit their website to learn about their history and services and to give to the 50th Anniversary Fund.

Perhaps you have a Peace Corps experience during your college days or know someone who participated as part of their experiential education. Share with us your memories and how it shaped the person you are today. We look forward to reading your comments.

Don't forget it's not too early to instill a global consciousness, especially as related to peace and understanding, in your little ones. What Does It Mean To Be Global?, written by Rana DiOrio and illustrated by Chris Hill, is just the book to start your children off right. Click here to view the video about it and to buy a copy.

I Love You

In our discussion of connectedness this month, one thing we must mention is the universal appeal of music across cultures, and its use to express love. Today we want to share this sweet video for parents. Pretend your children are singing to you for Valentine's Day!



Now it's your turn. Here's a link from Parent Dish of the Top 10 Love Songs to Sing to Kids. What a nice way to tell your children you love them.

What's your favorite love song to sing to your kids? What about a bedtime lullaby? Do you sing to your children at all? Please share your favorite tunes in the comments.

Things We Love and a Recipe

I’ve been thinking about love… not just love and romance because it’s almost St. Valentine’s Day, but all the different kinds of love as well as how we toss the word around.

It’s a well-used and versatile kind of word, isn’t it? We love our country, we love our parents, we love our school. We love children. We love pets. We love special places. We love our jobs. We might also love a certain pair of jeans, a brand of shoes, a favorite movie, and a special book. We love flowers, a unique wine, and a favorite recipe.

I love food. I also love to cook, and just as I was thinking about all this love stuff, I happened upon a recipe that caught my eye, and one that was perfect for this month’s celebrations.

RASPBERRY MERINGUE KISSES

Photo: Foodnetwork.com

From COOKS.COM

3 egg whites
1 tsp. vinegar
1/8 tsp. salt
3 1/2 tbsp. raspberry Jello
3/4 c. sugar
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Beat egg whites with vinegar and salt until stiff, but not dry. Gradually beat in raspberry gelatin and sugar. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop from a teaspoon onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 250 degrees for 25 minutes. Turn off heat and leave kisses in oven for 20 minutes or longer.

You know what I really love about this recipe? It’s easy peasy! Have I mentioned that I love easy peasy? What about you? Do you have any special Valentines’ recipes you love? Do share!

Alone on Valentine's Day

By Cameron Crane

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of reading Linda Booth Sweeney’s Connected Wisdom: Living Stories about Living Systems. I spent Saturday afternoon in my backyard, reading her beautifully articulated and wonderfully illustrated stories, which teach us a variety of lessons about living systems and our relationship to the world around us. She teaches us that everything has a place, and her stories help us to understand that even though we may question it at times, everything also has a purpose.

The next evening, I received a phone call from one of my girl friends in New Jersey. She was devastated. Her relationship of three years had just ended, and to make matters worse, she said, she was going to have to spend Valentine’s Day alone. No matter how much I tried to console her, she could not shake her overwhelming sense of loneliness.

http://bit.ly/2-of-a-kind-card

Suddenly, I remembered something I had learned in the very first few pages of Connected Wisdom. In her introductory statement, Sweeney reminds us that “like a spider’s web, a living system is so intricately woven that no part exists in isolation.” She gives us an example of a conversation amongst a group of 9-year-old students, who begin to debate whether we are a part of nature. Tom argues that we use nature but aren’t a part of it, while his classmate Christina argues that we are nature.

I realized then that my friend was seeing the world the way Tom did, the way that many of us do when we are feeling alone. Rather than seeing herself as part of the world around her, my friend was feeling outside of it. She had defined herself so much by one relationship- one system, that she had forgotten that she was an integral role in many other systems. She was still a daughter, a sister, a friend and a member of her volleyball team.

We are all involved in a series of relationships with our friends, loved ones, coworkers, communities, and nature. The loss of one relationship can give us the opportunity to strengthen these other relationships, and to contribute what we can to each system. If we listen to the lessons in Connected Wisdom we can see that we are never completely alone, even if we do feel lonely from time to time.
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Cameron Crane is currently a student at Dominican University of California, where she is studying Business Marketing and Communications. She was in raised in San Francisco, California. When she is not working or studying, she loves to go on adventures, spend time with friends and family, hike, exercise, paint, and write short stories. Welcome to the Little Pickle Press team!

A Living Systems Exercise

by Linda Booth Sweeney, Ed.D.


Opportunities to “see systems” are all around us, from the classroom and the playground to the car, the library, the garden, the dinner table, the bath, and the grocery store.  Here’s a simple activity we call hidden connections that you can do anywhere (for instance, driving in the car or at the supper table).  In this game, we imagine the hidden connections that surround everyday objects, for instance, the pasta we’re having for supper, the car in our driveway, or the book we brought home from the library. 


Here’s a hidden connections conversation and exercise we had at our supper table not long ago:


Me:  Guys, how many connections helped bring this pasta to our table?


T:  Well, what about the farmer?  He grew the wheat.


J:  The sun that helped the wheat grow. And the ground and water too.


T:  The man who drove the truck to the grocery store.


J:  What about the people who work at the grocery store?  Yeah!  Them too!


Me:  We used gas to get to the store right?


T:  No, Mommmmm! We biked, don’t you remember? (He was right). But I bet they used gas in the tractor or to get the pasta to the grocery store!


Me: Where did the gas come from?

At that point, we left the table and found our standing globe, the hot pasta dish left to cool until we returned 15 minutes later. As subtly as I can, I say the connections we’ve imagined are all part of the pasta network and then ask “Who’s part of your network?”  At this point, one son yells, “Cool! “ pointing the spider web under our table.  “There’s a giant stink bug in that that web, and it’s DEAD!”  Lesson over, at least for the day. 

Extensions of this activity include creating influence diagrams using over-sized Post-It notes, drawing connection diagrams, making mind maps, and using software such as Inspiration.  This activity can be made developmentally appropriate for older children by picking two seemingly unrelated people or objects and searching out possible interconnections. For instance, your tuna fish sandwich, the Mayor of San Francisco, and the sneakers in your closet. Awareness of networks is a skill available 5-year-olds and 15-year-olds alike.
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Linda Booth Sweeney is the author of Collected Wisdom, a collaborative effort with two first-class artists - Milton Glaser, recipient of the National Medal of Arts is the book designer, and Guy Billout is the award-winning illustrator. Funding for Connected Wisdom was provided by SEED. It is currently translated into seven languages including English, Portuguese, French, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish or Russian.  It will be available in Dutch in March of 2011. 

Conflict in Living Systems

By Linda Booth Sweeney

It’s hard to see patterns of connection that make up systems. For the most part, we have to imagine how this influences that.

I was reminded of this during the snowstorm we had here outside of Boston this week. With school closed, my two boys had perhaps too much together time. What started out as a sharp word or two, ending up in not-so-playful snowball fight. Eventually, I took each one aside to find out what was going on. They both told a similar story: A cutting comment from one, led the other to comment back, which led to a poke, then a tackle (you know the scenario). In both of my sons’ explanation, I heard a common pattern - often seen in systems - called escalation. (If you don’t have children, just think about any situation that escalates like the old advertising campaigns for Coke and Pepsi, competing street gangs, or the current situation between Palestine and Israel. So, brothers, companies, countries can all be viewed as “living systems”; the difference is the scale.)

Whether you’ve studied systems or not, you know the pattern I saw. One party does something that is seen as a threat by another party so the other party responds in kind, increasing the threat to the first party. This results in even more threatening actions by the first party and the cycle continues. Seeing this pattern I drew the following picture with my boys:

(Here’s how you read it: Start in the middle. One boy, let’s call him “J”, makes a move to be more awesome than the other. Now, moving to the bottom of the right-hand loop, we see this annoys “T”, who then throws a poke of some sort at his brother. “T” then feels and then probably expresses some level of satisfaction. Then the cycle continues on the left-hand side, with “J” now feeling annoyed at “T” and so on.)

When I asked: “Would you say this is what’s going on?” they both agreed immediately but then quickly started talking over each other. They were all excited.

“Look,” one of them said, pointing to the diagram, “it’s a figure eight lying on its side.” The symbol of infinity.

“This thing could go on forever."

“And just keep getting worse,” the other groaned.

As we talked about it, the growing conflict was driven by each one trying to “out-cool” or “top-dog” the other. The more “cool” behavior one kid put on, the more the other wanted to squash it. As it turns out, one was particularly good at “poking” and the other one was good at “squashing”.

For that one snowy afternoon (with their Mom at her wit’s end), they saw themselves as part of the “system”, rather than separate from it. They “got” that focusing on just one of them wasn’t going to solve the problem. When they could see how their actions were actually fueling the actions of the other (with the help of a simple picture) they then were able to talk about how they might break the cycle. When I asked what they could do differently, the answer came easily. The poker would lighten up on the poking, and the squasher wouldn’t squash so much.

When our children learn to see systems, they see that nothing stands alone, which means that my bully is your bully, my climate is your climate, your disaster is my disaster, your food shortage is my food shortage. They learn to stop jumping to blame a single cause for the challenges they encounter and instead, look for multiple causes, effects and unintended impacts. They learn to move beyond bullet points to see more web-like patterns of cause and effect that more closely match the more interdependent, complex world live in. They remember that their world is interconnected and changing, a tightly woven web people, places, event and nature, and as such, is indeed meaningful.
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To read more about living systems and Linda Booth Sweeney's book, Connected Wisdom, read our previous blog posts here and here.

Connected Wisdom Book Review

by Dani Greer

Publisher: Chelsea Green

ISBN: 9780982248010
Year Added to Catalog: 2009
Book Format: Paperback
Book Art: Full color
Dimensions: 9 x 12
Number of Pages: 96

Ages:  9 and up

Linda Booth Sweeney began to write for children in earnest twelve years ago. Her articles have been accepted by Highlights Magazine for Children and her writing for adults can be found in numerous journals and magazines. Her current books include: The Systems Thinking Playbook (co-authored with Dennis Meadows) , and When a Butterfly Sneezes: A Guide for Helping Children Think about Connections Through Favorite Children’s Stories. Today we review her book, Connected Wisdom: Living Stories about Living Systems.

When you pick up this book, you’ll first notice the wonderfully elegant and spare illustrations by Guy Billout. These perfectly enhance the organization of the book, neatly divided into twelve natural laws of living systems. Each chapter is then complemented with a flawlessly rewritten folk tale from around the world, which illustrates through story the principles in each law.

Let us use Chapter 4 – Cooperation and Partnership – as an example. We learn that our world’s survival depends on sharing with each other through all levels of life, something clearly illustrated in nature as animals are fed… and are food… for each other. As Sweeney points out, “life on Earth has thrived not through combat or domination but through cooperation and partnership”. The popular folk tale, Stone Soup, is used to illustrate how a village keeps from starving, indeed feasts on a sumptuous stew, when everyone adds a little of what they have to the pot with a stone in it. “It is not the stone but the people of your village who performed the magic.” Such is the power of sharing.

In this month of Valentine’s Day and love, one might take the idea a step further by suggesting “living” systems are even stronger when they become “loving” systems. We often think of love as romance with hearts and flowers, but in truth, as love matures, it has many levels and aspects and all make for a stronger living system, whether in our homes, our workplaces, our communities, or the world. This month, consider all the ways that you reach out in love, and consider also how this strengthens the living systems in which you operate. Do you see how the two are connected, and that the important natural law of cooperation and partnership is really rooted in that fundamental emotion – love?

Please consider reading Connected Wisdom as a family project. The short chapters and fables make it accessible to children and adults alike. Use it as an opportunity to discuss the connections we have with each other and the different ways we express love in all our immediate living systems. More importantly, use the examples as a way to strengthen your own living systems by practicing the principles in your everyday life… and in your expressions of love.
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The author, Linda Booth Sweeney lives outside of Boston in a bustling old house filled with her husband, three wonderful children, a dog, and the chickens.  She is working on several picture books as well as non-fiction books for children. Visit her blog – Talking about Systems to stay connected.

Living Systems with Linda Booth Sweeney

Some people study rocks. Others study ancient cultures or economics. I study living systems to see and understand interconnections, both in nature and their everyday lives.

We don’t usually talk to our kids about living systems. Just in case you’re wondering what I mean by “system”, here’s a simple definition:

A system is made up of two or more parts that interact to form a whole, usually within some boundary. In living systems, the behavior of the system changes if you change the way the parts are arranged. If you take a nut out of a bowl of nuts, the behavior of the bowl of nuts doesn’t change. If you take the heart out of the body, or take a key predator out of an ecosystem, the body and the ecosystem change. Your body, an ecosystem, a family, a classroom, a community – these are all living systems.

Yet it’s easy to focus on just a part, or our part, and not see how “two or more parts” are interacting. In fact, we do it all the time. We tinker with elements in the natural world and expect it to continue working the same. To be fair, it’s hard to see systems. If you think of it, have you ever seen a system walking around? Why not? Well, it’s hard to see patterns of connection that make up systems. For the most part, we have to imagine how one part influences another.

When our children learn to see systems, they see that nothing stands alone, which means that my bully is your bully; my climate is your climate; your disaster is my disaster; your food shortage is my food shortage. They learn to stop jumping to blame a single cause for the challenges they encounter and instead, look for multiple causes, effects, and unintended impacts. They learn to move beyond bullet points to see more web-like patterns of cause and effect that more closely match the more interdependent, complex world we live in. They remember that their world is interconnected and changing, a tightly woven web people, places, event and nature, and as such, is indeed meaningful.

Opportunities to “see systems” are all around us, from the classroom and the playground to the car, the library, the garden, the dinner table, the bath, and the grocery store. With a thoughtful guide, a farm, for instance, is a wonderful place to encourage children to think about interconnections. The parts of a farm -- the farmer, animals, crops, insects, soil, weather, and more -- are all interconnected in important ways. When we visit a farm, we can talk with children, helping them to make connections beyond the farm, to their everyday lives.

For more examples about living systems and games to practice seeing and understanding these connections, join Linda Booth Sweeney here at the blog over the next week.

Tomorrow we'll review Connected Wisdom, the book. You can also listen to this Voice America broadcast with Linda today.

Words to Live By

A friend of a friend recently passed into Spirit, but his words live on. We share them with you here:

Tim Moellering's top ten rules to live by, since as a Berkeley high school and junior high school teacher and coach for about 30 years, his greatest passion was teaching and seeing his students and players (including many troubled and economically less fortunate kids) succeed in life. He had a full auditorium for his memorial service yesterday, and they had a separate service at Berkeley High School for teachers and students there (since there would've not been a space large enough). Tim always was the one to get our old college buddies together, and it was good to see some folks yesterday I haven't seen in over 20 years.


1. Have empathy for everyone. Learn from Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird: "Crawl in someone else's skin and walk around in it."

2. Tell the truth. When you tell the truth, you have less to remember. You know you never lied and eventually everyone will trust you.

3. Be reliable. Do what you say you are going to do, even if it means showing up on time. People will trust you.

4. Assume positive intent. Assume everything everyone does is with good intentions. If they are incompetent, so be it, but it doesn't hurt you to assume they are doing their best. You will be able to understand their actions when you don't judge.

5. Be physically active. Better than any drugs. It's fun, it can be a big boon in your social life. If you are running an errand, walk or ride a bike because you will feel better. It may not be obvious at first, but it adds up.

6. Just do it. If the choice is between sitting around and doing nothing or doing something, do something every single time.

7. Don't blame anyone. This is key. No one is to blame for anything. Only you can change what you do. If you blame someone else then you can't solve the problem. Instead, you are telling someone else to solve the problem. If you don't blame other people then you will be able to take control.

8. Your possessions can be replaced. People are obsessed with their possessions. It's a terrible way of living by letting your possessions control you. When you let go of your possessions, you become free. There's little relationship between wealth and happiness.

9. Carpe diem. Seize the day. Accomplish something every day, otherwise you are wasting time. There's always something wonderful to experience, go do it.

10. Solve your problems. Some people like to have problems so that they have something to complain about. Don't waste time. It also gives you something to do, something to strive for.

Carpe Diem!