Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes
OCLC
29340469

Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes is an American children's

collectible
.

Content

Written by a

learning disabilities educator, Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes is a language textbook for elementary and intermediate-level students.[1][2] Jan Roebken created the cover and additional interior illustrations.[1]

The book reprints fifty-seven Calvin and Hobbes

comic strips
, organized into five lesson units. Each unit begins with a series of comic strips that form a story. The five units are:

  1. "The Binoculars" –
    Hobbes
    ' advice.
  2. "The Find" – Calvin discovers and assembles a dinosaur skeleton, of sorts. Hobbes renders a drawing of the creature.
  3. "The Christmas Story" – As Calvin struggles to be good in anticipation of Santa's arrival, he and Hobbes discuss the philosophy of law and the nature of belief.
  4. "The Bug Collection" – Calvin forgets to do his homework, and rushes to complete it on the way to school. Susie gets sent to the principal's office.
  5. "The Report" – Calvin and Susie are assigned a joint homework project.

In each unit, questions for comprehension and discussion follow the comic strips:

  • Do you think Calvin's mother should have told Calvin the truth about his dinosaur? Why or why not? [...]
  • Imagining and creating are important and fun, but, when it goes too far, it's time to get back to reality. Do you think Calvin was disappointed when his mother brought him back to reality or do you think he always had an inkling that he was having fun with his imagination?
  • Can you think of a time when you were imagining or creating and your mom or dad brought you back to reality?
  • Were you disappointed to get back to reality?[1]

In both the 1996 first edition and the 2006 second edition of their book How to Reach and Teach All Children in the Inclusive Classroom, teachers Sandra F. Rief and Julie A. Heimburge "highly recommend" Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes as an

educational resource.[3][4]

Rarity

The Chester Fritz Library in North Dakota preserves a copy of Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes.

Owing to Bill Watterson's principled refusal to license his comic strip for merchandise in general,[5][6] Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes is an exceptional item; a license was granted to the authors after they personally communicated to Watterson the success they had using his comic strip to teach children with learning disabilities.[1][7]

Published in a limited

print run in Fargo, North Dakota,[1] Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes is a very rare and highly sought-after book.[8][9]

In the 2010 revised edition of his book Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip, Nevin Martell says that only after a long search did he obtain a copy of Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes, that copies of the book sell for very high prices, and that the book is "perhaps the most difficult piece of official Calvin and Hobbes memorabilia to find."[10]

The book price comparison website Dualj.com, which tracked sale prices of books, recorded that a copy of Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes sold for US$10,000 in 2009.[11][12] Valuations for the book ranged up to US$34,000 in 2012.[13] A copy was sold on eBay for an "extremely generous" donation to the HALO Trust charity in 2013.[14][15]

"It's pretty much the only example of Watterson licensing his characters for anything, and die-hard fans are desperate to get a copy. But those can run up to $34,000 and are nearly impossible to find..."

The A.V. Club, "The obscure Teaching With Calvin And Hobbes is a collector's Holy Grail," October 27, 2016[16]

As of May 2023, WorldCat lists only eight libraries in the world as holding a copy of the book, including three in North Dakota, where the book was published, the United States Library of Congress, and educational institutions in Ohio, California, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore.[17] The Chester Fritz Library at the University of North Dakota preserves its copy of Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes in the library's Special Collections Department for rare publications and manuscripts.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ .
  2. ^ "Reading with Calvin" (jpg). Minot Daily News. Minot, North Dakota. 1993-11-16. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2015-08-23. Retrieved 2015-08-23. [Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes] is for teaching reading to students in grades four to nine. Holmen and Santella-Johnson began using the cartoon characters with children who have learning disabilities and language disorders. They found the students identified with Calvin, Holmen said.
  3. . There is a wonderful book called Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes by Mary Santella-Johnson and Linda Holmen that we highly recommend.
  4. . We highly recommend a wonderful book, Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes...
  5. ^ Watterson, Bill (1989-10-27). What We Expect of the Comics (The Cheapening of the Comics). The 1989 Festival of Cartoon Art. Archived from the original on 2015-01-12. Retrieved 2015-08-23. Characters lose their believability as they start endorsing major companies and lend their faces to bedsheets and boxer shorts. The appealing innocence and sincerity of cartoon characters is corrupted when they use those qualities to peddle products.
  6. . ...I don't want some greeting card company using Calvin to wish people a happy anniversary...
  7. ^ Hulsizer, Tim. "A Concise Guide To All Legal Calvin and Hobbes Items". Calvin and Hobbes: Magic on Paper. Archived from the original on 2015-04-30. Retrieved 2015-08-23. Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes: This is a teaching book licensed specially by the syndicate and Bill Watterson.
  8. ^ Grzegorek, Vince; Ferris, D.X. (2010-08-31). "Expanded Book Chronicles Search for Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes Creator". Scene and Heard: Cleveland Scene's News Blog. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Scene. Archived from the original on 2013-10-13. Retrieved 2015-08-23. ...the über-rare Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes...
  9. PC Magazine. New York, New York: Ziff Davis. Archived
    from the original on 2015-05-16. Retrieved 2015-08-23. ...you're trying to hunt down that elusive, rare edition of Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes?
  10. .
  11. ^ "Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes: Book Price Comparison History". Dualj.com. 2010-05-20. Archived from the original on 2011-04-23. Retrieved 2011-12-26.
  12. ^ "Book Price Comparison History is posted at Dualj". Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes: Tracking the Book. 2010-05-20. Archived from the original on 2013-12-02. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  13. ^ Yung, Herman (2012-05-24). "Teaching with Calvin & Hobbes: one of the rarest and most expensive textbooks ever published". Doobybrain.com. Archived from the original on 2015-08-10. Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  14. ^ "for Charity TEACHING WITH CALVIN AND HOBBES Reading Textbook Bill Watterson HALO". eBay. 2013-08-04. Archived from the original on 2015-09-07. Retrieved 2015-09-07.
  15. ^ "TEACHING WITH CALVIN AND HOBBES Bill Watterson Comics Rare School Text Book 1 Ed". eBay. Archived from the original on 2015-09-07. Retrieved 2015-09-07. Update August 2013: I sold my personal copy, as described hereunder, for an extremely generous donation to The HALO Trust.
  16. ^ Blevins, Joe (2016-10-27). "The obscure Teaching With Calvin And Hobbes is a collector's Holy Grail". The A.V. Club. G/O Media. Archived from the original on 2022-10-25. Retrieved 2023-05-27.
  17. from the original on 2023-05-27. Retrieved 2023-05-27.
  18. ^ "Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes in the Chester Fritz Library". Grand Forks, North Dakota: University of North Dakota. Retrieved 2015-08-23. Location: UND Special Collections CFL Floor 4 Special Collections Rare Books; Item Status: Non-circulating

External links