Literary Las Vegas: Steve Berkowitz
Steve Berkowitz studied Mandarin Chinese and marketing at the University of Massachusetts before teaching in China and Taiwan for three years. He returned to the United States and earned a master’s degree in elementary education and creative arts in learning from Lesley University in Massachusetts.
When Berkowitz isn’t teaching fifth grade in the Clark County School District, he’s spinning tales of fantasy. His children’s book “Chocrotes and the World Without Question” follows a chicken born questioning everything despite a despot who demands mindless followers. Visit goodreads.com/mrbsreads.
Excerpt:
“Who are all these other chickens?” asked Chocrotes.
“Why are they here, too?”
“What is that above us?”
“Why is it blue?”
“How is it that we walk, on these feet just two?”
His mother, overcome with joy but scared a neighbor might hear Chocrotes’s questioning, quickly rushed the chicks back inside.
“Chocrotes, I love how you wonder so, I enjoy the questions that you ask, but you must remember to heed my previous warning. Your father and I believe that to question is to live, but in this world, to question is to die!”
Chocrotes looked at his mother in disbelief. “Why mother? Why must it be this way?”
His mother responded, “In the past, many believed that questioning should be encouraged, but now the new king, King Doodle Doo, believes that those who question must be removed from their homes and thrown into the coop for the rest of their lives. There is no good answer for your question, and I feel you will grow to be a most wise and courageous chicken, but for now you must not question when you leave this home. For it is too dangerous for you and your family…”
