Books published by publisher Vanita Books

Knees shows the ups and downs of life with dyslexia. We have done this book in the style and size of a chapter book so that younger children and older children at low reading levels can read what seems to be an older child's book. We cover dyslexia’s symptoms and the reasons school can be hard for dyslexics. We talk about some famous people who had or have dyslexia. The book is endorsed by the head master of a school where many of the children have dyslexia. He has dyslexia himself.

A Tale of Two Mommies is a beach conversation among three children. One boy asks another boy about having two mommies. A young girl listening in asks some questions too. True to a child’s curiosity, practical questions follow. “Which mom is there when you want to go fishing? / Which mom helps out when Kitty goes missing?” To which he answers: “Mommy helps when I want to go fishing. / Both Mommies help when Kitty goes missing.” A Tale of Two Mommies is intended for 4-8 year olds. This book lets us look inside one non-traditional family, a same sex couple and their son. As the children talk, it’s clear this boy lives in a nurturing environment where the biggest issues are the everyday challenges of growing up.

A Tale of Two Daddies is a playground conversation between two children. The boy says he heard that the girl has two dads. The girl says that is right--she has Daddy and Poppa. True to a child’s curiosity, practical questions follow: “Which dad helps when your team needs a coach? / Which dad cooks you eggs and toast?” To which she answers: “Daddy is my soccer coach. / Poppa cooks me eggs and toast.”Intended for 4- to 8-year olds, this book introduces a type of family increasingly visible in modernm society. Neither favoring nor condemning, it reflects a child’s practical and innocent look at the adults who nurture and love her. It becomes clear that the family bond is unburdened by any cultural discomforts.

A Tale of Two Mommies is a beach conversation among three children. One boy asks another boy about having two mommies. A young girl listening in asks some questions too.True to a child’s curiosity, practical questions follow. “Which mom is there when you want to go fishing? / Which mom helps out when Kitty goes missing?” To which he answers: “Mommy helps when I want to go fishing. / Both Mommies help when Kitty goes missing.”A Tale of Two Mommies is intended for 4-8 year olds.This book lets us look inside one non-traditional family, a same sex couple and their son. As the children talk, it’s clear this boy lives in a nurturing environment where the biggest issues are the everyday challenges of growing up.

The Arctic region of North America is a land of long days, icy cold, hardy people and peculiar creatures. The Inuit people there have made traditional use of remarkable folk tales to find truth and explain the mysteries of an astonishing world. In Fish-Boy: An Inuit Folk Tale, Vanita Oelschlager retells a tale passed down by a wise old Inuit. It's an origin story involving a little magic and a very odd boy with a large heart for friendship. On a journey with his new father, he must confront misfortune and the malice of cold hearted villagers. But he has a way...and a lesson for all in the virtues of kindness and hospitality. Here then, is high praise for the tale-tellers: for the richness, diversity and creativity they send from the top of the world- and so, also Fish Boy, An Inuit Folk Tale, retold here and lavishly illustrated for a new generation. After all, that is how ancient folk tales and truth live on in the telling.

Porcupette Finds a Family, is a story about how a baby porcupine (called a porcupette) finds a new family after losing his mother. He wants to have an attachment to the bear family he finds, but is afraid his “bear” mother and “bear” brother and sister will leave him too. This causes him to act out his fears in ways that jeopardize acceptance from his adopted family. However, with the understanding and help of Mother Bear, Porcupette finally accepts that he is truly loved and wanted despite, or maybe because of, his differences.

Postcards from a War is about a boy whose mother has recently been deployed overseas to a war. His grandfather, who was about the same age when his father left to serve in World War II, helps him understand why she has gone away. He shares with his grandson postcards and letters sent by his father from the Philippines. The grandfather and grandson collaborate on building a scrapbook that will include these, plus the letters and emails and other communications the boy will get from his mother. Postcards is intended for 4-8 year olds, ones who are old enough to understand that a parent in the military may have to go to a dangerous place, but maybe not why. It shows the imporant intergenerational bonding that famililies often experience during times of war. The postcards and letters in the book were received by the author from her father during World War II.

A Tale of Two Mommies is a beach conversation among three children. One boy asks another boy about having two mommies. A young girl listening in asks some questions too. True to a child’s curiosity, practical questions follow. “Which mom is there when you want to go fishing? / Which mom helps out when Kitty goes missing?” To which he answers: “Mommy helps when I want to go fishing. / Both Mommies help when Kitty goes missing.” A Tale of Two Mommies is intended for 4-8 year olds. This book lets us look inside one non-traditional family, a same sex couple and their son. As the children talk, it’s clear this boy lives in a nurturing environment where the biggest issues are the everyday challenges of growing up.

A Tale of Two Daddies is a playground conversation between two children. The boy says he heard that the girl has two dads. The girl says that is right. She has Daddy and Poppa. True to a child’s curiosity, practical questions follow. “Which dad helps when your team needs a coach? / Which dad cooks you eggs and toast?” To which she answers: “Daddy is my soccer coach. / Poppa cooks me eggs and toast.”A Tale of Two Daddies is intended for 4-8 year olds. It becomes clear that the family bond is unburdened by any cultural discomforts. This book introduces a type of family increasingly visible in our society. Neither favoring nor condemning, this book reflects a child’s practical and innocent look at the adults who nurture and love her.

Life is a Bowl Full of Cherries show children the magic of idioms – words that separately have one meaning, but together take on something entirely different. Children are curious about words, especially phrases that make them laugh (“Couch potato!”), sound silly (“Eat your words”) or trigger images that tickle a child’s sense of the absurd (“Pie in the sky”). Life is a Bowl Full of Cherries uses outlandish illustrations of what the words describe literally. The reader then has to guess the “real” meaning of the phrases (which is upside down in the corner of each spread). At the end of the book, the reader is invited to learn more about these figures of speech. Our first book of idioms, Birds of a Feather (2009), dealt with birds, insects or animals. Life is a Bowl Full of Cherries uses food idioms. Both are fun – and instructive!