"1. Kio & Gus (novel)" by Matthew Lipman
 
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ISBN

0-916834-19-0

Publication Date

1982

Publisher

Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children

Number of Pages

69

Summary

Kio visits his grandparents’ farm and becomes friendly with Gus, who lives with her family not far away. Gus helps Kio become aware of the world as the blind experience it, and some of the differences that characterize the creative activities of the blind. Kio's grandfather was once a sailor, and early in the book he tells of an encounter he once had with a whale. He is determined to visit a site where he can observe whales once again, and Kio persuades him to take the two families along.

Kio and Gus consists largely of conversations, because these are children who are sensitive to language and ideas as well as to the animals, people and things in the world that surrounds them. Among the contrasting concepts that Gus and Kio wonder about are make-believe/reality, fear/courage, saying/doing, and truth/beauty. Young readers of Kio & Gus will find their sense of wonder challenged as much as their reasoning skills.

Excerpt

“Kio,” I say, “my father and mother got me some real clay. I’ve already made a cat, like Roger. Do you want to try it out?”

“Sure,” Kio says. I take him to my room and give him my clay cat. “You make something!” I say to him.

“What should I make?” he says. “I know! I’ll make a peach!” He rolls some clay in his hands until he has a round ball, then he gives it to me. “There!” he says. “A peach.”

“That’s silly,” I answer. “Look, let me show you.” I take a bit of clay and roll it into a little ball. “That’s the pit,” I say. Then I add some more clay around it. “That’s the part you eat,” I say. And then I wrap another layer of clay around the whole thing. “That’s the skin.”

Kio says, “All I see is the skin.”

“Sure, maybe that’s all you see,” I say, “but you know that what I made is really like a peach and yours isn’t. Mine’s a peach all the way through!”

Translations

Keywords

animals, blindness, courage, creativity, environmental ethics, fear, language, make-believe

Disciplines

Early Childhood Education | Philosophy

Published Reviews and Research

1. Kio & Gus (novel)

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