Kids Books: Powercat, The Pacific Tiger!

One of my favorite books when I was little was "Jennifer and Josephine" by Bill Peet. Do you know it?

The story is lovely. The illustrations are beautiful. But I suspect what I really, deep-down, loved about it was that one of the main characters had my name (and my grandmother's!).

So vain, right? But I don't think I'm the only one. There's an industry of personalized children's books after all. It just feels special to see yourself reflected in print.

To this day, I still enjoy books set in familiar places, and so it was fun a couple of weeks ago to come across "Powercat, The Pacific Tiger!"

Written by Lynn Beck, Dean of University of the Pacific's Benerd School of Education, and members of the School of Education Student Association, with pictures by Joe Bevill, the book isn't really a story in, say, the bedtime sense. Instead, it's more of an illustrated tour of the campus led by Pacific's mascot.

You can order it from the Pacific Tigers Athletics online store. ($14.95 plus shipping).

I think it could be fun to read just before a walk through campus - or to take along on a visit to the university. Make it a scavenger hunt of Pacific landmarks.

(Mascot Books, the publisher behind "Powercat, The Pacific Tiger!" sells similar books featuring a range of college and professional mascots, if there's another team that interests you.)