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Children's Books for Geek Parents?
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?"
...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.
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
The Danny Dunn books are horribly outdated (how many kids today even know what a slide rule is?), though that kind of adds to the fun of it.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...