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Children's Books for Geek Parents?

Posted by Cliff on from the a-niche-looking-for-an-author dept.

Lithium_Golem asks: "My wonderful daughter will be nine months old next month and I figure that it's time to buy her some new bedtime story material. My problem is that I can't find any children's books that describe fathers as white collar workers, let alone computer geeks. For example, many of the stories I find portray the ideal father as a fireman, carpenter or truck driver. I'm not looking for anything specific like 'I love my dad because he's a programmer,' I'm just looking for a story that will help her understand what I do for a living when she's older. So, readers of Slashdot, does anyone know of a children's book written by or for geeks, or should I write my own?"

8 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Arthur's mom is an accountant... by Dr.+Zarkov · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...although his father is a caterer. Accountants are knowledge workers, right? Closest that comes to mind, but Arthur's mom's work isn't really explained in any of the series that I read, come to think of it. Computer programming is a harder concept for a very young child to grasp than fighting fires, I think. If you're perceptive, you'll be able to tell when the child is ready to get something out of an explanation, but you are unlikely to find the best such explanation in a book, IMO. I think DIY is called for.

    --
    The song in "The Roads Must Roll" is all reet.
  2. If you are a creative censor.... by Hardwyred · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Snowcrash :-) I wish my Dad was a pizza deliverator hacker who also just happens to be the worlds greatest sword fighter.

    --
    www.linux-skunkworks.com
  3. My son (6) just told me by Kalak · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I read him the the question, and here is what my son said:

    I want you to write a book. Not about you, but about a story. "How about dinousars, please?"

    q:Do you want to learn about my work?
    a: sure

    q:Do you want to learn it from a book?
    a: yes

    q:Would you rather I wrote a book about work, or about a story?
    a: a story about dinosaurs

    q:so, how would you like to learn about my work?
    a: going to work! (excited about this).

    from my son: I hope you get my dad to teach me about it, and to try do do the same things at work, and I hope you have a great day, end it with a smile. If I ever come over to work, please have a great smile ready for me. I hope you have a fun day at work.

    In short, being a dad is more important than being a geek, They'll learn about your work in time.

    --
    I am, and always will be, an idiot. Karma: Coma (mostly effected by .hack)
  4. Buy Dr. Suess books... by zymurgy_cat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ....or Sandra Boyton (sp?) books or anything like that. Read her those fun stories about Thing 1 and Thing 2 or dog parties or singing pigs. Don't worry about how your daughter will learn about what you do (assuming you're still doing that when she's old enough to really understand). My older son is 4 and a half, and he's never really asked or wondered what I do.

    You'll have an opportunity to explain it to her hands-on when she's older. When she's playing on the computer and something goes wrong, you can "fix" it and say that you make computers work....or write a simple game or whatever it is you do. When my son eventually asks me, I'll show him some simple chemistry experiments (ie, baking soda and vinegar to make a rocket) to explain what I do.

    To this day, I still remember my dad using forks and spoons to teach me how PNP and NPN transistors work (he specialized in electronics in the Navy). That, more than any book, gave me an idea into what he did for a living.

    --
    -- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
  5. Re:You're the book. by rynthetyn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Danny Dunn books are horribly outdated (how many kids today even know what a slide rule is?), though that kind of adds to the fun of it. Can you even still get a hand on them though? When I was in elementary school in the '80s, I checked them all out from the local library, but I just went over to the library website and they don't have them anymore.

    --
    Eagles may soar, but weasles don't get sucked into jet engines...
  6. Story of Ping by wan-fu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What better children's book to help explain your geekiness than The Story of Ping

  7. Stories by daniil · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Perhaps one of the reasons why there aren't any "white collar" childern's stories is that it's simply difficult to explain what a white collar dad does for a living. Just like in the joke where a lawyer tells his son that he plays the piano in a brothel, because he's unable to explain what he actually does. Plus, it's probably bloody hard to tell an interesting story about the day of a white collar worker. There's no visible result to their work. Hell, sitting behind a desk hardly classifies as work at all (i remember that it was quite a disappointment for me when i found out that my dad, a mechanic, didn't spend all his day messing around with sophisticated machinery). Now, a fireman -- that's something completely different. Anyone can see that his work is an important one. The same goes for the truck drivers -- they have a whole huge truck to steer, for god's sake.

    I'd recommend what many others already have: read her books that'd stimulate her imagination. You'll find that many of these books are rather geeky in themselves. Don't let the System get her too early (Disney'll take care of that for you).

    Rolling up your own stories is always a good idea. And i guess making up stories of heroic programmers shouldn't be that hard, either -- there's tons of IT lore out there; some of it must be suitable for a children's story. Use some fairytale as a model. Add some magic (shouldn't be hard -- computers are rather magical in themselves) and mystery (people typing magic words, etc), and you're ready to go.

    --
    Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
  8. A Space Child's Mother Goose by jamiefaye · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ... was what my father read to me in the 1950s. A true classic. I still have it, including my scribbles from when I was 3 years old.

    It is available on Amazon, still in print for $19.

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1930 900074/qid=1095627727/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl 14/002-6629950-4455238?v=glance&s=books&n=507846#p roduct-details

    The original book is a collectors item that goes for about $100.00