Jane Sharpe, the author of Gun Safety Activity Book for Kids, is becoming a prolific author of material that helps parents deal with behavioral and medical childhood issues. Our interest is in her works introducing, explaining and supporting our Second Amendment rights to children. We previously reviewed her Freedom Baby ABC, and were glad to provide a cover quote encouraging people to pick it up for their toddlers. She sent out a copy of her newest book for review and it is just as pleasing and useful, in this case for elementary students.
Gun Safety Activity Book for Kids is another book structured around the alphabet, this time more advanced and much expanded compared to Freedom Baby ABC. In this case, she introduces each letter with a word or phrase beginning with it. She then riffs on that for several pages, further explaining the concept and often introducing related concepts (e.g., “clay pigeon” for C segues into a discussion of shotguns and shotshells).
In each case, the reader is asked to think of other words beginning with the letter. (Thankfully, for X she just asks for words including it.) Each of these pages is headed “Practice!” This is good reinforcement of the fact that it takes practice to achieve competence in all things, including shooting. She uses puzzles, mazes and other activities to enhance learning. Many items include pictures and instructions teaching about equipment and its use, including proper gun management. Safety rules are thoroughly emphasized.
This is an attractive book, with bright colors on cover and back. The inside pages are the sort suitable for coloring, with mostly large, clearly drawn pictures. There are some written portions in very small print, for example the two “cryptogram” pages, where kids are to decode some messages that describe gun safety principles. I’d rather see key gun safety points strongly stated rather than depending on kids to decipher them.
However, kids are not going to have the Gun Safety Activity Book unless interested adults provide it, who can guide them through more complicated concepts and help with tougher puzzles, depending on their ages. And interested adults should certainly appreciate Sharpe’s books for helping to introduce and teach their children right from the beginning. They are good tools in education about the normality and value of knowing the ins and outs of guns, shooting and our rights.
If you have kids; if you care that they grow up knowing the truth of our rights to keep and bear arms; if you want to introduce them to many concepts and details involved in shooting—start them with Freedom Baby ABC then move on to Gun Safety Activity Book for Kids as they grow. There’s a reason both have only 5-star reviews on Amazon (except for two 1-star reviews claiming they’re “propaganda” and “child abuse”!). You’ll enjoy these with your kids, as they do.
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— DRGO Editor Robert B. Young, MD is a psychiatrist practicing in Pittsford, NY, an associate clinical professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.