Author Manfred J. von Vulte and Illustrator Shane Kirshenblatt bring to life the importance of character for primary and middle school students. Join Gary the Purple Lion and Larry the Spotted Leopard as they go to school and discover that perseverance, integrity, honesty, resilience, humility, and many more noble qualities are so important to their primary school experience. Besides that, help two friends figure out just exactly what is in Larry’s boot!

Middle school students, parents and educators will enjoy the second half of the book which includes more than a dozen character traits, critical questions, and genuine suggestions on how to improve as a student with a moral compass. Each section contains phrases that will help guide this specific age group.

These phrases have been with us for many generations and can be found in numerous parts of the world. Fascinatingly, their origins come from sayings grandparents and parents have communicated from time immemorial in different tones, volumes, and degrees of emphasis. This book takes specific universal tenets and seeks to combine them with cultural and ethnic wisdom, while presenting them in English, but also communicating them in some of the languages of the world, so that their intrinsic value can mean more to the speaker and to the listener. English is a paradox. While it allows for an arguable maximization of an audience, it often loses some passion and resonance in its translation.

Explore Authentic Character Formation Phrases in:

Halkomelem and Kwakʼwala (Indigenous Languages), French, Arabic, Chinese (simplified), Czech, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Persian – Farsi, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, Tagalog, Ukrainian, and Urdu.

Manfred J. von Vulte B.A., B.ED., M.A., OCT is the published author of numerous articles, as well as two children’s works, a history book, and an educational guide on the use of comic books and experiential learning for parents and teachers. Manfred has been teaching for over twenty years and has been with Durham Catholic District School Board since 2017. In 2019, he was recognized with the Distinguished Catholic Educator Award by his peers at St. Leo Catholic School where he runs a Comic Book Club and Animation Studio. The Ontario Insurance Teacher’s Plan (OTIP) awarded him and his students $5,000 to develop this animation initiative in 2021. Manfred was profiled in an alumni spotlight by York University’s Faculty of Education in the same year. He is the Director of the Comic Book Project Canada and was featured on the Space Channel, the Global Television Network and at Fan Expo Toronto. His passion is to help reluctant writers and readers through the medium of comic books.

Manfred was born in Montreal, lived in Winnipeg, then moved to Scarborough, Ontario at age ten. He lived there until 2021, when he and his wife Charmaine and son Robert moved to Newcastle, Ontario.

Readers may also be interested in reading his latest published article in Canadian Teacher Magazine < https://canadianteachermagazine.com/2021/09/20/10726/ >, a national education periodical.

Website: www.comicbookprojectcanada.com

Twitter: @ComicCanada and @ComicBookProjectCanada