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"See Spot run. See Jane run. See Dick run." Remember those sentences from one of the first books that you read as a kid?

"Spot" the dog, "Puff" the cat, and "Tim" the teddy bear, were the supporting cast, along with Mom and Dad, in the popular Dick and Jane books written by Dr. William S. Gray that were used to teach reading to children from the 1930s through to the 1970s.

Early experiences in a child's life have a profound effect on the rest of their lives, setting up memories and influencing recreational tastes and attitudes. Spot, Puff, Dick and Jane never had much to say about hunting. That's quite a difference from traditional cultures where kids are brought up listening to hunting stories where hunters are heroes and animals teach us hunting ethics.

As the population becomes more urban and numbers of hunters slowly decline, the chances of kids knowing much about hunting dwindles. Hunter recruitment programs certainly help, but attitudes about hunting are also influenced by the overall cultural world that kids experience, including peer pressure. Anti-hunting groups pour millions of dollars into "educational literature," including kids books. The chances are pretty good that kids will come into contact with people, books and movies that are anti-hunting. Will there be anything to counter these experiences?

Children's literature contains a lot of misinformation about wildlife, and you will certainly find children's books with a definite anti-hunting message, such as "Now You See Them, Now You Don't," which like the popular feature films "Bambi," "Jumanji" and "The Iron Giant," and the iconic cartoon character, Elmer Fudd, depict hunters as reckless, stupid, egotistical boobs, as well as unsuccessful. Sure, there are some camouflage-wearing bird brains out there, but the vast majority of hunters are ethical and are largely ignored in books for kids.

In an earlier column I hailed two kids books by J.J. Reich that have a positive spin on hunting, "Deer Dad" and "Snort, Wheeze, Rattle and Grunt."

Those books are a good start, but a problem with kid's books is that they don't last that long. You need a whole library.

I want to suggest two more beautifully-illustrated children's books with pro-hunting themes that belong in your family library: Conner's Big Hunt and Conner's Big Gobbler. Written by Indiana hunter and author Shawn Meyer and illustrated in color by commercial illustrator Reed Sprunger, both 24-page books are hunt stories about a young boy going out to hunt with his dad, sharing the excitement, learning important lessons, and becoming educated so Conner can follow in his dad's footsteps, if he wants to.

"Conner's Big Hunt" is an archery deer hunt. "Conner's Big Gobbler" is about a turkey hunt. Both are successful hunts and the stories skillfully weave in safety, skill, ethics, values, and proper behavior, along with real experiences of hunting magic — heart-thumping emotions as you wait, dew-soaked pants, wildlife sounds as the sun wakes up, etc. — that both educate and entertain.

In contrast to cartoons where hunters are almost always buffoons, Conner's Dad is the kind of hunter that should be a role model for us all. Get these books and Spot, Dick and Jane, will be a thing of the past.

"Conner's Big Hunt" and "Conner's Big Gobbler" are $14.95 each, plus shipping and handling, from www.huntwithakid.com, or you can purchase them from Amazon.com. If ordered from Shawn Meyer's website, you can purchase both titles for $25.99, plus shipping.

Shawn says that he has two more kid's books in the works. So, keep tuned in to his website, where parents can also download discussion questions to expand on lessons about hunting, wildlife and good old fashioned values learned from reading outstanding books about Conner's hunting adventures.