Alan Woo: Hello, my name is Alan Woo, and I am the author of David Jumps In. I wrote this book for a number of reasons. I wanted to encourage kids to get outside more and play. I feel like that is missing more and more these days with so much technology available at our fingertips. It is easy to just stay at home and play on the screen. But what about going outside, and exploring, and being with friends, and playing games, and just getting fresh air?

Another reason I wrote this book is because I wanted to introduce a game I used to play as a child on the playground. In the book, it is called elastic skip, and it entails rubber bands strung together to form a long, circular chain that goes around the feet of two people standing apart from each other, and then someone jumps between the rubber band chain in the middle. And there are variations to this game that you can research and learn more about. And there's some amazing illustrations in the book by Katty Maurey, and it shows how some of the kids play elastic skip. I haven't seen this game on the playground recently, so I wanted to reintroduce it to a new generation, along with other playground games that are described in the book like tag, hide-and-seek, and other classics.

Finally, the book has an important message I wanted to share about being kind to one another. David is the new kid at school, and that can be scary and intimidating for some, so I am glad he is able to meet some kind kids who eventually welcome him.

And now, I'm going to read the first few pages of David Jumps In for you:

It was David's first day at his brand-new school.

He didn't know anyone. He had no friends to hang out with or trade tuna fish sandwiches.

But bundled up deep in his pocket: a string of rubber bands knotted and ready for a game of elastic skip. "But who else would want to play that?" he wondered.

What will David do when the recess bell rings? Will he find a friend or two to play with?