Finally, A Good News Story

Not just another children's book but a rhyming children's book with an important life lesson, "think for yourself", delightfully illustrated by children the age of the intended readers.

Curt Vevang, a retired engineer from Palatine, has penned "The Prince and The Elf," a rhyming tale of a young prince who learns a very valuable life lesson - think for yourself. This book is intended to be read to toddlers as early as 3 or 4 years old, but additionally, 3rd and 4th graders can read it by themselves. So who better to illustrate the book than children at the same grade level. And a marvelous job they did.

The book consists of 16 rhyming couplets, each illustrated by a different 4th, 5th or 6th grade student from Virginia Lake Elementary School in Palatine. Additional students from the same grades did the cover illustrations.

Curt presented his poem and idea to the Principal of Virginia Lake, Mr. Michael Carmody, who liked the idea. Soon the art teachers, Mr. Fischer and Mrs. Wec were on board and an after school illustrators club was formed. The students worked industriously after school portraying the actions described in their chosen couplet. The art teachers combined the illustrations with the corresponding couplets and they were sent off to Amazon.com for publication.

The children were able to learn and reinforce the important life lesson stressed in the book, "thinking for yourself" while at the same time having an enjoyable and very creative time. Pictures of all of the illustrators (each holding a sign designating the page that their illustration appears on) appear in the back of the book.

Mr. Vevang has pledged 50% of any profit from the book to JDRF, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The book, The Prince and The Elf is available for purchase at Amazon.com