Randa Handler
Children’s Book Author
By Israel Drazin
In the past, I wrote about good classical books that people can obtain for free from sources such as amazon because the copyright on the books have expired. There are other good books that people can obtain from amazon that, while not free, are relatively cheap, and are worth obtaining.
I am a reviewer for amazon and have the opportunity to read all kinds of books, books that I would otherwise not have read. This includes children’s books. While I am far from being a child, I found many of them to be quite clever and, more importantly, books that can teach children lessons what they should learn in an attractive manner. These books, especially the ebooks, are inexpensive.
One example is the clever and instructive series of books by Randa Handler. She is a new children’s book author who also illustrates her books with bright, colorful, and fun drawings that are appealing to children. Her books are consistently getting five star reviews from kids, parents, and elementary school teachers. Her educational messages are presented in a way that captures the interest of children in a memorable manner.
She published five books to date: “If I were king” won The Silver 2013 Mom’s Choice Award. She also published “Cubbie Blue and his dog Dot” books one and two, “What’s up with Mike?, and most recently, “The Thanksgiving Dinner” and “The Boy who spoke to God.”
In “The Boy Who Spoke to God,” for example, Randa Handler teaches that despite differences in religions, beliefs, ceremonies, and traditions among people, God is the God of everyone, and people should not let their differences separate them from others.
The tale focuses on a seven-year old boy who lives in a country where there are four radically different religions. Each has its own customs, such as when New Years is to be celebrated. All of the groups get together nicely and are able to produce almost magical works when they act together, but this stops, and disharmony develops, whenever they focus on their religious differences. The nation’s king thinks that he could erase this disharmony by insisting that all his people observe the same religion, but the people do not want to do this.
Then the boy has dreams in which God explains to him that he is the God of all. “Happiness has as many colors as the rainbow…. All beliefs are okay as long as they don’t cause people to hurt one another.”
The message is good, but it takes time for it to be understood by the people. There are problems at first. But then God, through the boy, explains all; and the people of the nation, as well as children who read the tale, understand this most important lesson.
