In 2001, my first children’s book, The Philosophers’ Club, featuring actual Socratic inquiries on timely and timeless philosophical posers that I held with children far and wide — but in particular at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in the Mission District of San Francisco, home of the original Philosophers’ Club and where I lived at the time — was published by Tenspeed/Tricycle Press of Berkeley,
Though a nontraditional children’s book, our Philosophers’ Club book and complementary gatherings with children both within and outside of school settings was and is popular with children, teachers, parents, and went into more than one printing. After Penguin Random House bought Tenspeed/Tricycle, only to close it forevermore, returned the rights to me, we released digital versions in English and in Spanish, not to mention Kurdish and Persian, because of continuing demand for it over the years.
Indeed, I still get messages from educators who use it in their classrooms year in and year out, and love nothing more than to receive invitations to preside over Philosophers’ Club gatherings myself and also give workshops to teachers in how to facilitate dialogues themselves, since I’ve often been told that they enrich and enhance relationships.
And, I’ve often been asked over the years to make Philosophers’ Club a series of books, since these kinds of explorations hold promise of making those who inquire into the questions more thoughtful, reasonable, understanding and connected with their fellow inquirers, who might be of any age — all that matters is they like to keep asking ‘why? why? why?’ — and hence these books are for ‘children of all ages’ who continue to love to explore and expand their intellectual, imaginative, empathic lenses.
And so now, at long last we’ve come out with the second book in our Philosophers’ Club series.
Introducing: The Philosophers’ Club presents: WORLDS OF DIFFERENCE. It follows the same format of our original book in the series, and again is the product of actual dialogues I held the world over particularly with children and youth. The book includes dialogues that explore a variety of kinds of difference — e.g. What’s the difference between something and nothing? Between a winner and a loser? Between opinion and fact? — and invites the reader to dive in and be part of the inquiry. A Spanish edition will soon follow, as will print editions.
Please let us know what you think, and we hope WORLDS OF DIFFERENCE opens up new horizons for you in your own continuing quest to evolve as a questioner, thinker, doer.