Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/doing-the-right-thing-celebrating-childrens-behavior-in-books/5022156/
Behaving well, treating others as we ourselves would like to be treated, is a challenge, whether we're two or over 60. Even our best intentions sometimes aren't well received. The characters in a number of new children's books face that challenge by being helpful and supportive (or at least trying to be!) — and courageous in the face of ridicule.
When I was three or four years old, I brightened our faded sofa with a blue crayon. Oddly enough, nobody but me was pleased with the result! The good intentions of two little characters in new picture books remind me of my younger self. Sprout, in Sprout Helps Out, is the big sister in a busy family who takes charge when everyone else is too busy — doing her own hair by cutting it off, flooding the kitchen when she does the dishes, and feeding the fish a donut. Rosie Winstead's whimsical illustrations, with lots of children's art, are a sweet backdrop for Sprout's ever-so-helpful antics.
Sprout Helps Out by Rosie Winstead (Dial, 2014); Ages 2-5.
Little Jumbo, in How to Cheer Up Dad, never quite gets it that his ...