Hi, it's Veronika here!

I'm always looking for interesting people and learning about the work they do. Recently, I've met Glenn. He felt that there are not enough books that would explain to children why animals are friends, not food. He and his colleague decided to create a book to fill this gap while they said "both of us are attorneys, so this book is a labor of love to spread the word. If we make any profit at all, we will donate it to animal sanctuaries." Which is also why I wanted to write about their book and help them to spread the word.

For those who don't want to wait and are keen to check out the book, please find it here.
Now, let me tell you who's behind the making of this vegan-friendly children book and why I find this book so good.

Glenn and his colleague Liora created something that I truly recommend to all who struggle finding good books that are suitable for children and that can explain what it really means to be kind to animals. I was intrigued to learn more as I find this whole "learning about animals" when it comes to explaining it to children a bit challenging too.

Although I don't have children myself, I very much dislike seeing in books that "cows give milk" and "chicken give eggs". Also, good luck explaining to both young and older children, how pigs "give" meat...

(As I've learnt, many children don't understand or are not being explicitly taught the connection between a piece of meat on the plate and the animals they pet at the farm on Sunday trip...)

Happy Animals book shows the kind approach in regards to the interaction with animals and the perspective of a vegan rather than what the society considers as a norm. Happy animals from the book are animals in a sanctuary rather than animals on a regular farm which is also a good point to learn. I must say, as a child, although I knew how pigs "give" meat as I've seen it myself, I thought I'd love to work on a farm because I love animals. I thought all the process of using animals is normal and that I can be friends with farm animals while working with them. It never crossed my mind as a child I could rather aspire to have animal sanctuary instead - which is something I'd love to do one day =)

The book itself is very nicely illustrated and the text comes in rhymes which I like when it comes to children books. It shows all the animals in quite a different light than most people are used to, it shows interesting facts about animals and gently explains also why the animals are not happy when they're being used for their milk, eggs, flesh and more.

I was also curious about the process of creating this book, so I've asked Glenn for more information.

Hi Glenn, can you tell us more?

Hi Veronika. Liora, my colleague, first came up with the idea for the book because when her eldest daughter was little, they were at a friends house for dinner and there was nothing for them to eat, and her daughter asked why they didn't eat meat. That got her thinking that there must be a great book for her. But when she searched, most of the children's books were for older children or could be scary to a small child. So Liora got the idea that there was a real need for a light, cute book that still got the message across to make the connection between our friends and our food.
We are both attorneys who have known each other for many years, so when Liora asked me, I readily agreed to collaborate.
I was always struck by how as young children, we cheer, cry for and love the animals in cartoons, books and movies, but most of us never made the connection that the hamburger for dinner that night was a cute, loving cow. So the theme of this book is erasing that disconnect.

Veronika: This was exactly on my mind too as I mentioned earlier - I'm sure many others can relate.

We know that children respond well to characters, so for each of the 6 most commonly eaten farm animals, plus fish, we made the main character that introduces the species and shares some information.
We used a rhyming cadence with a pattern for the introductions.
We luckily found a great illustrator who put exactly what we pictured in our minds onto the page in a bright, cheerful colour.
We intentionally steered away from anthropomorphic characters (like Donald Duck or Bugs Bunny) so that we could show animals in their natural state, with some artistic whimsy thrown in for a couple of the scenes.
We found Vegan Publishers, who were a great fit because we had the same mission.

Veronika: That sounds really good - let me also share a link to the Vegan Publishers website so everyone can learn more about their mission too.

Well, we learnt a lot about this book - now I'd just want to say good luck with spreading the word of kindness to animals through this book and for more information or the book itself, please check out the books Facebook page and Instagram or get your own copy right now.

Glenn kindly provided the book cover image - this one was edited to announce their upcoming radio interview back in November - how exciting!