Queen to My 3 Boys

Dylan and I were reading Loonies And Toonies before bed. I was reading along, mindlessly, not paying a great deal of attention to the words.

I read, "The Fraser, Columbia and Yukon rivers all flow into the Atlantic."

Dylan stopped me and said, "What did that say?" So I read it again, still not paying much attention to what it actually said.

"That's not true, Mom. The Fraser flows into the Pacific." He was right. We looked up the Columbia and the Yukon - I skipped out of geography class often when I was in high school. (Shhhh...don't tell the children.) I had no idea where they went to!

Sure enough, they all headed into the Pacific Ocean.

We wrote the publisher. Dylan wrote a letter and I wrote a cover letter. We printed maps and highlighted the rivers from where they started to where they drained.

The publisher just wrote us back. She was super-friendly and congratulated Dylan on catching the error and on his letter-writing skills. Then she challenged him more...she asked him, "Is it more correct to say that the Yukon River flows into the Pacific Ocean or the Bering Sea?"

We did some more research. Yep, Bering Sea.

She's sending us the revised edition of the book.

It was a great experience for Dylan to see that not everything in print is fact. Just because it's in print or because an adult says it, doesn't always mean that it's true. Critical thinking skills in the making!