The GOOD FUN! Book

Gr 3-6-For each month of the year, Duncan and Issa suggest a party with a service theme. For example, they suggest making Valentines for children at a local hospital in February, cleaning up a park for Earth Day in April, or making jack-o-lanterns for a nursing home in October. The ideas are realistic, age appropriate, and thoughtful. The authors have done a good job mixing fun with function. Some of the activities are geared for a large group, like a school class, while others would work with a Cub Scout troop or a birthday party. Almost all the projects require an adult leader to contact and coordinate with a community organization like a nursing home or food bank. Each plan contains two ideas, a treat recipe, a craft, and information about a national charity related to the theme. The book is illustrated with child-friendly color cartoons featuring youngsters doing good deeds. The Kid's Guide to Service Projects (Free Spirit Publishing, 1995) has more service ideas, but they are not organized in a party-plan format. This is a great resource for any school or public library.-Donna Cardon, Provo City Library, UT (c) Copyright 2010.

The Good Fun! Book was lucky enough to spend some time with Vicky and Jen of VickyandJen.com recently. Committed to "making every day matter," they are a one-stop-shopping portal on the Web for quality life experiences. Check out the podcast interview here, where they talk to us about the writing the book, raising our kids, and "making life simple so you can enjoy what really matters."

Joan Horwitt, founder of Lawns 2 Lettuce 4 Lunch in Arlington, Virginia, visits with Will Allen, founder of Growing Power and one of the amazing people featured in The Good Fun! Book, at his Milwaukee headquarters recently. Lawns 2 Lettuce 4 Lunch works to help local elementary students learn about growing and eating healthy foods and develop new relationships between the school and its neighbors. Learn more about community farming at Growing Power.

"The other day in the mail I received a wonderful gift," writes Ellen Galinsky in a Nov. 18 article on Huffington Post. "It was from Darell Hammond, the visionary CEO of KaBOOM!, the group that has helped bring playgrounds to children around the country. In keeping with Hammond's passionate commitment to 'saving play' because it's declining in America, he want to share this book with friends and colleagues."

"This book is called The Good Fun Book by Karen Duncan, the wife of the Secretary of Education, and Kate Hannigan Issa. It is a gift in the real sense of the word because it can help us turn the gimmes into giving; it serves as an antidote for extravagant children's parties; and at the same time it really provides lots of 'good fun' for kids and adults."