Pickle Bumps For Baby Dill

This story creates a variety of pickle and olive characters, like Gert and Mertin Gherkin, Olive Pitt and Karl Kalamata, whose names are certain to elicit laughter from young children.  It’s a funny story replete with tongue twisters to challenge the kids (and the adult readers) and to encourage their enjoyment of reading.  The story uses a fun and colorful assortment of pickles and olives to deliver a positive message about accepting and supporting those who are different.  In this way, the story “opens the door” and provides opportunities for parents, grandparents and teachers to discuss issues related to diversity, and to help young children to accept that it's okay to be different. While the story is not about bullying (bullying is never mentioned in the story), many elementary school teachers have used it as a means to begin a classroom discussion about bullying.