People often ask how we came up with personalities of the characters in our award winning children’s book series Bur Bur and Friends. Although the characters are based on our kids and their friends in real life, that still doesn’t mean it has been an easy process. When JoAnne came up with the idea of creating a cast of multicultural kids who educate children about sports , outdoor exploration and active play, it was only the beginning. Farmer’s Hat Productions came to life. From there, concept grew on us and evolved into a process that we consider for all of the books that we develop . We began by, creating a general profile of each child/character. As we write each book, we incorporate some of the qualities we see in our kids. Through that process, we came into the realization that we could have an impact on the lives of many children that we most likely will never meet.

Talks about children and obesity have been circulating in the media for a while and there is no question it is an epidemic. The surgeon general has said often the key to solving this issue is early education. So lets place emphasis on some of the things we all can do for kids in this area. If we grab a hold of this concept and begin introducing sports, outdoor exploration, active play early in life it could make a huge difference for so many children. Many kids develop a passion for these types of activities at a young age through literacy or experience. Most of them will carry that love with them for their entire lives. Bur Bur is that child who is developing his passion and a love of learning new things, including staying active.

Our books teach values like patience, practice, accomplishment, listening, etc. As the series continues to grow, that list will be expanded to other principles like teamwork, friendship and more. We currently have four books in the series. Our fifth book and beyond will introduce all of the characters in the series. We have a website that is a destination where children can come to play hide and seek with Bur Bur and Friends. When they are done playing the game, they can head over to our “Meet new friends” page and learn more about each character.

Bur Bur is the main character in the Bur Bur and Friends children’s book series. Often when we have been interviewed by the media, we are asked “Who is Bur Bur and why do kids like him so much?” The answer is simple. Bur Bur could be any child. Most kids can identify with him because he is not that different from them. Truly, he is not that different from all of us. He wants to have fun, has a family he loves and wants to be happy. He has a sense of wonder and a genuine curiosity that we had as children. We would like to think there is a little Bur Bur in all of us.

Please don’t keep these books a secret! We encourage you to take a look at them for the special child in your life. You could be planting seeds for a lifetime.

This post was written for the April Carnival of Children’s Literature hosted by Ellsworth’s Journal

Seed Newsvine

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 6:31 pm and is filed under Community Board. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.