''Teaching with'' Calvin and Hobbes is an American children's

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textboo ...

published in 1993. As a rare piece of officially licensed ''

Calvin and Hobbes ''Calvin and Hobbes'' is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", ''Calvin and Hobbes'' has enjoyed ...

'' merchandise, it is a highly valued

collectible A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any object regarded as being of value or interest to a collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types of collectables and terms t ...

Content

Written by a speech-language pathologist and a

learning disabilities Learning disability, learning disorder, or learning difficulty (British English) is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficult ...

educator, ''Teaching with'' Calvin and Hobbes is a language textbook for elementary and intermediate-level students. Jan Roebken created the cover and additional interior illustrations. The book reprints fifty-seven ''Calvin and Hobbes''

comic strips A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

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

Calvin Calvin may refer to: Names * Calvin (given name) ** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States * Calvin (surname) ** Particularly John Calvin, theologian Places In the United States * Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet * Calvi ...

breaks his father's binoculars and solicits

Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influe ...

' advice. # "The Find" – Calvin discovers and assembles a

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

skeleton, of sorts. Hobbes renders a drawing of the creature. # "The Christmas Story" – As Calvin struggles to be good in anticipation of

Santa Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

's arrival, he and Hobbes discuss the

philosophy of law Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of law and law's relationship to other systems of norms, especially ethics and political philosophy. It asks questions like "What is law?", "What are the criteria for legal vali ...

and the nature of

belief A belief is an attitude that something is the case, or that some proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take i ...

. # "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. # "The Report" – Calvin and Susie are assigned a joint homework project. In each unit, questions for comprehension and

discussion Conversation is interactive communication between two or more people. The development of conversational skills and etiquette is an important part of socialization. The development of conversational skills in a new language is a frequent focus ...

follow the comic strips: 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 Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

resource.

Rarity

Owing to

Bill Watterson William Boyd Watterson II (born July 5, 1958) is a retired American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip ''Calvin and Hobbes'', which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Watterson stopped drawing ''Calvin and Hobbes'' at the end of 1995, ...

's principled refusal to license his comic strip for merchandise in general, ''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. Published in a limited

print run Print circulation is the average number of copies of a publication. The number of copies of a non-periodical publication (such as a book) are usually called print run. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulat ...

Fargo, North Dakota Fargo ( /ˈfɑɹɡoʊ/) is a city in and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, United States. According to the 2020 census, its population was 125,990, making it the most populous city in the state and the 219th-most populous city in ...

, ''Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes'' is a very rare and highly sought-after book. 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." 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. Valuations for the book ranged up to US$34,000 in 2012. A copy was sold on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

for an "extremely generous" donation to the

HALO Trust The HALO Trust (Hazardous Area Life-support Organization) is a non-political and non-religious registered British charity and American non-profit organization which removes debris left behind by war, in particular land mines. With over 10,000 staf ...

charity in 2013. ,

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

lists seven libraries as holding a copy of the book, including three in

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

(where the book was published): one in the

Chester Fritz Library The Chester Fritz Library is the largest library at the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It is the largest library in the state of North Dakota and houses over two million print and non-print items. It is a designated ...

and two in public libraries. The United States

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

holds a copy, as do universities in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. The Chester Fritz Library at the

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of ...

preserves its copy of ''Teaching with Calvin and Hobbes'' in the library's Special Collections Department for rare publications and manuscripts.

References

External links

1993 non-fiction books American children's books Textbooks Educational comics Children's comics Educational materials Calvin and Hobbes Books about tigers Special education in the United States {{DISPLAYTITLE:''Teaching with'' Calvin and Hobbes

Content

Rarity

See also

References

External links