“Slowpoke Sloth and Busy Beaver: Easy Does it” is an engaging, kid-friendly look at sloth and diligence. Slowpoke is very slothful, of course, but is Busy Beaver the perfect worker he thinks he is?
Mother Melania Salem is launching "Slowpoke Sloth and Busy Beaver: Easy Does it" - the latest book in the "Fearless and Friends" series. This engaging animal fable contrasts slothfulness and diligence, but with a twist. "Slowpoke and Busy" is geared towards parents and children alike. It is available at Amazon and on Mother Melania's monastery's website.
More information on the book can be found here:
https://www.amazon.com/Slowpoke-Sloth-Busy-Beaver-Teaching-ebook/dp/B0B81JZVBH
and a free pdf download is available here:
https://bit.ly/Slowpoke-Busy-Download
"Slowpoke Sloth and Busy Beaver" is the fifth and most recent book in Mother Melania's "Fearless and Friends" series. These modern-day animal fables teach virtue in a genial, child-friendly manner. Each book in the series addresses certain virtues and their corresponding character flaws. In addition, they all strive to balance personal responsibility with compassion, while celebrating healthy community. Cayce-Grace Halsell brings all the animals to life with her realistic yet endearing illustrations. The series is published by Holy Assumption Monastery.
In "Slowpoke and Busy," Slowpoke finds himself at the Duck Pond and builds a very makeshift home in a tree. Busy, who is constantly working on his dam, has a very low opinion of Slowpoke. However, despite Busy's love of work, he hates to make repairs. When the spring rains beat down upon the Duck Pond, both Busy and Slowpoke learn the consequences of being slothful and end up a little wiser.
Mother Melania has a background in agricultural research, theology, and education (elementary to college). This helped shape the creation of the books by allowing her to present deep topics in easily grasped forms. She wrote this series when she was helping out with the religion classes at an Orthodox Christian Classical School near the monastery. Among other things, these classes focused on teaching the traditional Christian virtues and vices. The challenge was to do this in an engaging, non-judgmental way. As Mother Melania had already written several series of children's books, she started looking for a premise for a new series.
The premise came when the sisters were returning to the monastery after being evacuated due to fire. On the way home, some of the sisters stopped at a novelty store to pick up toys for children visiting the monastery. Among the toys was a rubber duckie wearing a fireman’s jacket and hat. Thus was born Fearless the Fire Duck, along with his virtuous and not-so-virtuous friends. Mother Melania hopes that these books will present the virtues as what they are - powers that allow children and adults alike to live the lives of joy and love that God meant them to live.
The author made a point of thanking the children of St. John of Damascus Academy for their part in the creation of the book, saying: "They helped bring this series to life with their input and general love of life."
Those interested in learning more about the series can visit here: https://mothermelaniaskidsbooks.com/kidsbooks#fearlessandfriends
