Real life heroes for kids
LIKE millions of kids around the world, American author Brad Meltzer’s favourite childhood TV show was Sesame Street.
“I thought Sesame Street was an actual street that was just round the corner from my house. Ernie and my mother had the same laugh, and that was always happy,” he remembers.
“Jim Henson changed my life,” says Meltzer of the late creator of the puppet show starring beloved characters like Kermit the Frog, Elmo, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, and many others.
“Yes, Henson was a great puppeteer but his puppets taught me that there is good in all of us. That we are all different, but we can all get along and embrace that difference. Jim Henson taught me about the power of creativity.”
Now Meltzer is paying homage to one of his favourite performers with his latest children’s book, I Am Jim Henson (Dial Books), the 11th instalment in his heroes picture books designed for ages five to eight and illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos.
Meltzer’s three children inspired the launch of his children’s books series three years ago with I Am Abraham Lincoln and I Am Amelia Earhart. Subtitled Ordinary People Changed The World, the books look at heroes when they were children, showing their aspirations.
“I was so tired of my own kids looking at reality stars and big-mouthed athletes and thinking these were heroes. I wanted to show them that there is a difference between being famous and being a hero. And I am not alone in this as a parent,” says Meltzer, best known for his 11 high-energy (and thoroughly researched) thrillers.
“We as a country are starving for heroes,” he says of the
United States, adding that
“2017 represents 20 years since my first novel was published”. (He published
The Tenth Justice in 1997, just after graduating from Columbia Law School.)
The response to Meltzer’s children’s series has been overwhelming, with several landing on The New York Times bestsellers list. His children’s books have sold more than 1 million copies, with the author seeing a 91% increase in sales from last year; the most popular titles are I Am Martin Luther King Jr and I Am Rosa Parks.
But Meltzer is most proud of the letters, photographs and e-mails he receives from parents, teachers, librarians and children. Last year, many young readers sent him photographs of them dressed as one of his “heroes” holding the books for Halloween.
“The reaction has been humbling. Many [readers] said they didn’t want to go as a princess but as Amelia Earhart or Rosa Parks,” he says.
Meltzer’s next thriller will be published some time this year. His next children’s book will be about Sacagawea, “the only Native American included in Lewis and Clark’s historic expedition” mapping the continental United States, followed by titles on Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi and astronaut Sally Ride, among others.
“These [children’s books] are my heart and soul,” he says. – Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service