You know, there is one thing about life that I have discovered, and that is no matter how much experience you have or how much you have been doing a particular thing, you will always discover things or run across things that you have never heard of before.

Such is the case for me today, thanks to my good friend Colleen Holt, who edits my column and is also the communications specialist for the First United Methodist Church here in Conway. She is well aware that I am the founder of the Conway Bookcase Project, love kids and literacy, and was involved for 16 years giving bookcases and books to children being reared in low-income families. I recently turned our project over to the Conway Kiwanis Club.

Well, a few weeks ago Colleen told me about a series of books called “ValueTales,” written by Dr. Spencer Johnson and his wife Ann Donegan Johnson. These books were written back in the decade of the 1970s and published by Values Communications Inc. based in LaJolla, Calif.

Conway residents and First Methodist members, Steve and Bonnie Laycock, have donated a slightly used set to their church library. After deciding to share this information with you in this column, I wanted to see the books for myself, so I stopped by the church to check them out.

Needless to say, I was really impressed for a number of reasons. Dr. and Mrs. Johnson have done a fantastic job of collecting and organizing information into a resource that can benefit anyone, but especially children. In checking the Amazon website, I discovered there are a number of different products available, so prospective buyers can purchase what is best for them. The set in the Methodist Church library contains 30 different volumes, with 64 pages in each book, and beautiful graphics that describe the content of each volume.

What Spencer and Ann have done is select the individuals from throughout history who have made the greatest contributions to human progress and have told their story. They have selected one character trait that best describes the featured individual. While there are 30 different books in this set, I went through and picked out some that were more familiar to me. I read some of the copy and viewed the wonderful graphics that helped to tell the story that will make it clear, even for very young children.

Here are some of those I picked out: Louis Pasteur (Believing in Yourself), Albert Schweitzer (Dedication), Charles Dickens (Imagination), Will Rogers (Humor), Marie Currie (Learning), Helen Keller (Determination), Thomas Edison (Creativity), Harriet Tubman (Helping), Thomas Jefferson (Foresight), Johnny Appleseed, (Love), Wright Brothers (Patience). Here I have listed less than a dozen of the 30 volumes included in the set, but the key to getting the most from them is to take them one at a time, page by page, and read the prose and view the beautiful graphics that bring to life love, creativity, humor, foresight and so forth.

The thought I would ask you to keep in mind is that the individuals featured are the greatest success stories in all of human history. This is indeed a rare treasure available for the taking. As you read this, should you have young children or grandchildren, what a great blessing it would be to give them a set, or you might consider giving a set to your church library as this would reach dozens or even hundreds of children.

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(For a personally signed copy of my new book ‘Your Future Begins Today’ send $20 — includes postage & handling — to Jim Davidson, 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)