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Today's children live in a world filled with adventure, mental stimulation, topical issues, and personal challenges. The values they learn now, between the ages of 5 and 8, will shape the rest of their lives.
Through this collection of heartfelt true stories about family ties, helping neighbors, and lasting friendships, children will see how other kids their age have learned valuable lessons from the choices they've made--and most of all, they will realize that they are not alone in dealing with some of the difficult issues in their lives; such as the loss of a loved one, accepting and respecting others, taking responsibility for their actions, coping with fitting in, or learning to make friends.
Chicken Soup for the Child's Soul is a book that can help guide children as they explore their relationships with peers and family members, and begin to develop their own personal values. You and your children will share special times reading these real-life stories to each other, as together you explore how other children have dealt with everyday issues in healthy, positive ways. Reading Child's Soul stories together can serve as an entrance to conversations about the topics of the stories, which can create better family and classroom communication during these exciting years of growth.
Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield are the co-creators of the bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul series.
Patty Hansen (Newport Beach, CA) is the coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul and Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul and is the founder of preteenplanet, a site for today's tweens.
Irene Dunlap (Costa Mesa, CA) coauthored Chicken Soup for Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul, and Chicken Soup for the Soul Christmas Treasury for Kids.
Jack Canfield had been traveling around delivering key note speeches and organizing workshops to help audiences build their self-esteem and maximize their potential when he had an in-flight brainstorm that changed his life. While flying home from a gig, Canfield realized that the very same advice he had been delivering during his in-person addresses could potentially form the basis of a book. Canfield used inspirational stories he'd gleaned over the years as the basis of his speeches, and he thought it would be a terrific idea to gather together 101 inspirational stories and anthologize them in a single volume. Upon returning home, Canfield approached friend and author Mark Victor Hansen about his concept. Hansen agreed it was a great idea, and the two men set about finding a publisher. Believe it or not, the mega-selling series was not an easy sell to publishers. "We were rejected by 123 publishers all told," Canfield told Shareguide.com. "The first time we went to New York, we visited with about a dozen publishers in a two day period with our agent, and nobody wanted it. They all said it was a stupid title, that nobody bought collections of short stories, that there was no edge -- no sex, no violence. Why would anyone read it?"
Canfield wisely practiced what he preached -- and persisted. Ultimately, he and Hansen sold the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book to a small press based in Deerfield Beach, Florida, called Health Communications. The rest, as they say, is history. There are currently 80 million copies of the Chicken Soup books in print, with subjects as varied as Chicken Soup For the Horse Lover's Soul and Chicken Soup For the Prisoner's Soul. Canfield and Hansen ranked as the top-selling authors of 1997 and are multiple New York Times bestsellers. Most important of all, the inspirational stories they have gathered in their many volumes have improved the lives of countless readers.
This year, expect to see Canfield's name gracing the covers of such titles as Chicken Soup For the Scrapbooker's Soul, Chicken Soup For the Mother and Son Soul, and Chicken Soup For the African American Woman's Soul. He and Hansen have also launched the all-new "Healthy Living" series and 8 titles in that series have already been released this year. There is also the fascinating You've GOT to Read This Book!, in which Canfield compiles personal accounts by 55 people each discussing a book that has changed his or her life. The most compelling of these may be the story of young entrepreneur Farrah Gray, who read Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success at the age of 11 and made his first million dollars at the age of 14!
With no sign of slowing down, Canfield continues to be an inspiration to millions, who fortunately refused to give up when it seemed as though he would never even get his first book published. "Mark and I are big believers in perseverance," he said. "If you have a vision and a life purpose, and you believe in it, then you do not let external events tell you what is so. You follow your internal guidance and follow your bliss, as Joseph Campbell used to say."
Writing the first Chicken Soup book was a lot more daunting than Canfield expected. After the first three years of research, he and Mark Victor Hansen had only compiled 68 stories -- 33 tales shy of their goal of 101 stories.
Along with co-writing dozens of full-length books, Canfield also publishes a free biweekly newsletter called Success Strategies.
Some fun and fascinating outtakes from our interview with Canfield:
"My inspiration for writing comes from my passion for teaching others how to live more effective lives. I started out as a history teacher in an all-black inner city high school in Chicago, graduated to a teacher trainer, then psychotherapist, then trainer of therapists, then large group transformational trainer and then a writer and keynote speaker. All along the way, my desire was to make a difference, to help people live more fulfilling lives. That is what I still do today. Most people don't know this but I was not a good writer in college. I got a C in composition. Nobody would have ever believed I would grow up to be a bestselling author."
"I play guitar, and I am learning to play the piano. I love movies and some TV shows. My favorites are Six Feet Under, Grey's Anatomy, House and Lost. I love to play Scrabble, poker and backgammon with my in-laws, nieces and nephews. We really get into it. I love to travel. I have been to 25 countries and try to add two or three new ones every year."
The Twenty-Dollar Bill
When my mom and dad said that we could adopt a couple of kittens, I jumped at the chance to have some soft, cuddly animals around the house. So off we went to the Humane Society where there were a lot of animals up for adoption.
The first thing I noticed was that there was not a lot of room for the animals and not a lot of supplies to care for them. Even though they didn't have much, the people who worked there cared about the animals more than anything, and they did their best for them. Still, it seemed they had just barely enough food and medicine to keep the animals healthy.
When we started looking around, I saw a lot of animals and fell in love with each of them. But my family and I finally settled on adopting two kittens we named Sox and Sierra. We went up to the front desk to sign the papers for them, and that's when I noticed a box on the counter. The Humane Society ws hoping to get enough donations to buy more supplies for the animals and also build a new building to help even more abandoned animals.
We finished up and took our new kittens home, where they were sure to get a lot of love. Later that day my mom and I went shopping, and as we were walking through the parking lot at the store, I noticed a green piece of paper three spaces away from our car. It was kind of wet, but it looked like it could be a dollar bill, so I walked over and picked it up. It wasn't a dollar bill--it was a twenty-dollar bill!
When I got home, I dried it off and thought about what to do with it. I considered spending it on a toy and a lot of other things. Right then, Sox climbed up into my lap, and I knew what I was going to do with the money.
I asked my mom to take me back to the Humane Society so that I could put the money in the donation box. The lady at the counter smiled and thanked me, and I felt really good about what I did.
If the Humane Society does raise enough money to build a new building, I will know that I helped many more animals that will come to live there one day--hopefully, only until someone comes along and lovingly adopts them like we did with Sox and Sierra.
--Mallory McGinty, 10
©2007. Mallory McGinty. All rights reserved. Reprinted from Chicken Soup for the Child's Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Patty Hansen, and Irene Dunlap. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. Publisher: Health Communications, Inc., 3201 SW 15th Street, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442.
Anonymous
Posted April 22, 2012
I have read this book and it is the best book i ever read
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Posted August 22, 2011
Bad Bad bbbbbbbbbbaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddddd !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!+!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Posted May 26, 2011
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Overview
Today's children live in a world filled with adventure, mental stimulation, topical issues, and personal challenges. The values they learn now, between the ages of 5 and 8, will shape the rest of their lives.
Through this collection of heartfelt true stories about family ties, helping neighbors, and lasting friendships, children will see how other kids their age have learned valuable lessons from the choices they've made--and most of all, they will realize that they are not alone in dealing with some of the difficult issues in their lives; such as ...