Why Melbern?
The sight of children of many cultures playing and joyfully cooperating brings instantly to view an understanding that America is great because of the contributions of the diverse many. Melbern’s Journey is a children's book series that will help children develop
an understanding, appreciation and respect for cultural diversity.
With over thirty-five years of experience in an elementary-school classroom, I have learned that the singular personal trait that drives success in interpersonal relations, maturation and happiness is respect. Fortunately, respect is universally valued among
divergent cultures and forms the foundation of action that contributes to the good of an individual or society and confirms their human dignity.
Through a series of adventures, Melbern and his friends encounter cultural diversity and learn to respect and accept the concept that people are different and their customs and cultures are to be valued. They often learn that once they understand why new
acquaintances act differently, they can acquire new and valued friendships.
“Holiday Surprise”, is the first book in our cultural diversity series of children’s books entitled, “Melbern’s Journey”. The “Melbern’s Journey” series will be designed for children in kindergarten through fourth-grades with editions specifically designed
for each grade and reading level.
Our Goal
Through the engaging and often humorous adventures of Melbern D. Moose and his group (please view our “Meet the Moose Group" film below), our readers will be exposed to cultural diversity of not only immigrant cultures but also the cultural diversity between
urban, suburban and rural cultures. They will witness the conflicts and experience the difficulty of accepting and interacting with people of different cultural heritages.
Our Internationally Celebrated Artist
We are very pleased to announce that Dave Titus, a national and internationally celebrated children’s digital artist, has agreed to be our character artist. In addition, Dave has also agreed to become a part of our team throughout Melbern’s entire journey.
Dave has given our characters a contemporary, exciting and unique multi-dimensional design. A design that we believe will attract, entertain and engage our modern, digitally-oriented readers. Dave’s expertise and experience will also allow us to immediately
offer Melbern’s Journey in digital versions.
Campaign Objectives - Publish and Distribute Complementary Copies
We are going to self-publish this first book so we can control and maintain the quality and integrity of both the art and text. We will have this edition published in September of this year in multilingual versions. The funds received from the StartSomeGood
campaign will permit us to complete the drawings, complete creative and pay for the printing. In addition, in order to help foster cultural diversity and increase awareness of the Melbern’s Journey series, we will send 250 complementary copies to elementary
school and public libraries across the US.
