The Storyteller
Theresa Carter reads to children at the Carmel Valley Library in San Diego
San Diego
One day in late 2004, when Theresa Carter's husband walked in the door from work, their 5-year-old son Adam greeted his dad by mooning him. "That was when I knew that Adam's infatuation with SpongeBob SquarePants and other characters in pop culture had gone too far," she says with a laugh. Carter, 48, a lifelong history buff, spent most of her career in Atlanta, including a stint as senior brand manager for Diet Coke. But when the family moved to San Diego in 2005, instead of taking on another corporate marketing job, she started researching a children's book about Abraham Lincoln.
It's history with a twist: "Abraham Lincoln and the Forest of Little Pigeon Creek", available through Carter's website, ameritales.com, or in bookstores, isn't about the adult Lincoln but about his boyhood. "I want kids to enjoy the stories and have fun but also to realize that history is full of real-life action heroes," says Carter. "Famous people they learn about in school had some of the same problems kids face today." That includes Amelia Earhart (misfit; tomboy) and Thomas Edison (irritant to his teachers). Still to come in the series, which has already won a Mom's Choice Award: Jackie Robinson, Christopher Columbus, and Sitting Bull.
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Last updated June 11 2008: 7:18 AM ET
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