Behind the Scenes of the Mighty Tokens Series
The third book of the Mighty Tokens series, Light of Kindness, was recently released. Learn more about this great series for emerging readers and get to know the author’s inspiration behind the series.
What is the Mighty Tokens series?
Mighty Tokens helps emerging readers experience positive affirmations while reading with a mentor. Children learn valuable reading skills as an experienced reader reads one side and the child reads the other side, pairing engaging stories with simple text. Each book deposits tokens of affirmation, investing in children’s character to raise mighty adults. There are currently three books in the series, Stick to the Beat, Full of Flavor, and Light of Kindness, with many more to come!
What inspired you to write the Mighty Tokens series?
One day, a friend brought up in a conversation that she had recently read an article saying that children hear five negative things to one positive thing each day. That statistic really stuck with me. A big part of childhood is learning what not to do as much as it is learning what to do, so I do think it is important to tell children “no”. But what stuck with me are the questions of how can I intentionally say more positive things to children and how can I help others do that, too. I began researching positive things children need to hear from their parents or mentors. I narrowed down my list to the ten themes I thought were most important, and that’s how I came up with the 10 Mighty Tokens: determination, self-esteem, kindness, motivation, trust, curiosity, help, gratitude, hope, and love.
Why Mighty Tokens?
The idea behind Mighty Tokens is that parents and mentors are intentionally taking the time to deposit tokens of affirmation into their children’s “character banks.” These Mighty Tokens are not tokens that children earn for being kind or helpful or loving. These are tokens that are passed from adult to child, so that children can learn and experience the value of these tokens as they then “cash them in” throughout life.
Why did you pick emerging readers as your target age group?
As these ideas were floating around in my head, I had already been working on a learn-to-read series. The idea of combining the Mighty Tokens concept with a learn-to-read format seemed to fit perfectly by setting up parents and mentors with a tool to naturally help instill these character-building tokens while strengthening their child’s reading skills. The book is formatted where an adult reads one side of the page and the child reads the other side. During early stages of the book, my writing mentor, Megan Johnson, encouraged me to make the book a conversation between parent and child. So as parents and mentors are reading this book with children, they are having this positive conversation of passing these tokens—teaching these important character traits—to children in the hope that they will learn those values.
What is your hope for the Mighty Tokens series?
My hope for the Mighty Tokens series is that it will help parents and mentors raise up children to someday be mighty adults—workers who know that determination will help them accomplish their dreams; citizens who are intrinsically motivated to make the world a better place; individuals who value others because they know how much they themselves are valued. In addition, I hope this series might give parents and mentors the right tools to learn how to do this even if they were never given these tokens themselves. I hope Mighty Tokens will help raise generations of mighty adults.
About the Author:
Kayla Pearson is the author of the Mighty Tokens™ series and the Help Me Become™ series here at MVP Kids. For the past 15 years, she has been following her passion of helping kids by leading various youth programs in her community and around the world. She spent two years overseas studying culture and teaching youth in East Africa. Kayla joined MVP Kids because she admired our mission to equip parents, teachers, and caregivers to engage with kids through inspiring entertainment. We are excited to share with you today more about her journey in creating the Mighty Tokens series for young readers.
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