the crunchy mama blog

Kickstarter campaign and book review! (and giveaway!!)

I had to support this book when it presented itself in front of me! As a mother of a daughter who I never called a princess but I’ve always taught her to save herself over waiting to be saved, and of a son who I have always encouraged to remain true to himself and stay kind to all I loved the idea of this book. Soon as you open it you see the dedication that reads Once upon a time there was a girl who dreamt of living in a big castle… so she built one herself. YES! Love it. Not everyone dreams of a big castle and thats okay too, what matters is that children feel safe to dream and know they have support and are capable to achieve their dreams as they stay true to themselves and I believe this book show 26 great examples of that!!!

Pragmatic Princess 26 Superb Stories of Self Sufficiency

Written by Rachel Kowert, PhD and Illustrated by Randall Hampton

In 2019, hundreds of people banded together across the internet and raised $26,000 in just 30 days to help publish The Pragmatic Princess: 26 Superb Stories of Self-Sufficiency by research psychologist and mom of three, Dr. Rachel Kowert. In this extraordinary book, the kid residents of Cloud Canyon represent “a range of shapes, sizes, abilities and disabilities, and traditional and non-traditional families,” learning skills to face “age-appropriate challenges” in healthy ways. The crowdsourcing campaign and the book were successful, and now Dr. Kowert is expanding the world of Cloud Canyon! I’m honored to help spread the word. HINT HINT GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Featuring new faces alongside the beloved characters from The Pragmatic Princess, Tales from Cloud Canyon is being expanded into a series of books with character-driven, topical short stories celebrating the everyday child, designed for children aged 5+. Dr. Kowert is crowdfunding the physical publication of the new book. You can support the kickstarter program here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pragmaticprincess/tales-from-cloud-canyon

Why Cloud Canyon? Because in the Cloud Canyon universe:

• More than half the characters are female
• More than half the characters come from an ethnic-minority background
• 1 in 10 characters have a visible disability
• Characters come from traditional and non-traditional families
• Different body shapes are represented
• she/her, he/him, and they/them pronouns are represented

It was equally important for Kowert that these details were not the central theme of the stories themselves as our shape, level of ability, and what our family unit looks like are just some of the many parts of who we are and not necessarily the defining feature of our stories.

If you’d love to read Pragmatic Princess with your child, or a child in your life comment below for a chance to win your own copy!!!! Feel free to share this with anyone else that might want a chance to win as well!!

Always Grateful for Books Forward and the authors and illustrators I’ve had the honor of connecting with. You can connect with them on socials here:

Rachel:

https://www.instagram.com/drrachelkowert/

https://www.facebook.com/drrachelkowert

Books Forward:
https://www.instagram.com/booksforwardpr/
https://twitter.com/booksforwardpr

https://www.facebook.com/BooksForward
https://www.tiktok.com/@booksforwardpr?lang=en