Ricky

Guido Van Genechten (1957, Belgium) studied drawing and painting, graphics and photography. Afterwards he worked for many years in the graphic industry. Now Guido works as a fulltime illustrator of children’s books. In 1998 he won the international Illustrator’s Award City of Hasselt with his picture book Ricky. This prize was the beginning of his international career as a children’s book illustrator. Since that moment, Guido Van Genechten has created many best-selling stories and received several awards. In 2007 he was the winner of the Reader’s Digest Award for Best Children’s Book Illustrator. And in the past ten years his books were published in 30 countries around the world.

“This book had a good moral about accepting yourself as you are because we are all different. This book also had antonyms and synonyms in it. Ricky was bullied because his ears were different then the other rabbits. This book could be a good book to discourage bullying and allow students to see how it hurts others feelings!” – Kira Richardson“Ricky the rabbit was different from everyone else because one of his ears hang down while the other ear hangs up. He tried to be like everyone else by getting both of his ears to stand up. In the end he realized that nothing was wrong with his ear, and that it's okay to be different. I would read this book at the beginning of the school year to help students understand that it's okay to be themselves because that's what makes them unique.” – Linh Tong“I found this story very heart warming and a brilliant story to highlight the important lesson that it is okay to be different. What is also brilliant about this story is that it is written in dual languages; English and one of 15 other languages. An EAL child would be able to relate to being different from their classmates and would be able to empathize with the feeling of being different or excluded from their friends or in social situations. Introducing this story to an EAL child would be an excellent tool to engage the child in lessons across the curriculum that they struggle to access due to language barriers. It could also be used for a whole class activity in possibly in a PSHE lesson to understand that differences should be celebrated and people should not be excluded due to these differences. This book could be used with children from EYFS to KS1 as an important tool to help engage EAL children in lessons and for whole class PSHE discussions. ” - Chris