As a mom, it’s nice to hear about something that would help my daughter and other kids stay interested in learning while teaching them valuable information to be used as they grow older. I had the privilege of meeting Craig Howard, the local Jersey City man who created Plumster Bunny – a book series that acts as a tool to instill useful life lessons in children at an early age. He invited us to his garden headquarters and explained what makes Plumster Bunny so special.

I also got to meet Plumster Bunny himself, the cutest bunny in Jersey City. Craig mentioned Plumster is only friendly to women, and I think he liked me. Is this my job?!

What’s your name?

My name is Craig Howard, I’m the author and creator of the Plumster Bunny platform for early childhood. The architecture of the series is supported by deep positive social interactions. I built this platform as an alternative to the many negative influences in today’s society. We believe that exposure to our series will provide young people with the necessary tools needed to compete ubiquitously. Drawing insight from global thought leaders and heads of business, you will find it necessary to have developed a strong command of relationship building techniques.

The Byzantine storylines were purposely done to map childhood challenges and maturation. I tried to key into various complex issues children face and provide a positive relationship solution for them to use as a guide. I chose the Plumster Bunny stare as it’s implementation is cross cultural. Shying away from violence, we are setting up a generation of children who are reimagining the world in the most wonderful way possible.

I started with just very heavy character education and social things, and now we’re starting to work on some of our STEM-themed platform. The next book ,Bunny Four, is going to involve a team with Aspergers , prosthetics, and 3D-printing, and we’re going to have some interesting partners that help us along with this particularly difficult endeavor. The fifth book will be even more dynamic as we have a lady scientist chase away major transportation issues in their town via the Hyperloop. Health, Wellness, and Biotechnology will be at the forefront as Plumster Bunny & Friends help the Gourditmo twins work their way back to health.

How did you get into writing children’s books?

I’ve got four children of my own, and they’re four individuals, and they’re pretty funny. They also challenge me a lot. I always observed children and I just started seeing these huge disconnects in children who make it and children who don’t. So I said, “Why is this?” I thought that everybody had the same books, and then you realize that they don’t have the same books. People don’t have the same access to information, and information is key.

A lot of children would be more successful if they understood things that are out there. Especially in this day and age, you have the opportunities to be all that you can be. You have guys chasing big things, big ideas, and with information all over, you’ve got Watson right in your palm via the cellphone. So there’s no reason why you don’t know, but I don’t see that matriculating across the board. So I felt that this would be the perfect platform to do this successfully. In the near future, we’re going to be moving away from just books to a lot of online content where we will offer games to further assist in the early childhood learning process.

Do you work from the garden? What is the connection?

This is Astor Place Community Garden and the woman who runs it along with Debbie is Tina Bland, and she’s president of the organization I’m part of B.I.T.E.. Where Plumster stays is at another community garden on Clinton and Crescent, there was a building that collapsed so the interview was relocated as a courtesy. Plumster just wanted somewhere new to hang out to boot. When I know I’m going to have a few hours I also leave him to hop around my yard.

How long have you had Plumster?

Plum is two years old; his father is an award-winning Flemish giant rabbit, and that’s the breed that he is. I went out to Pennsylvania; I got him a couple of years ago, and I wanted to use him as a way for children to become familiar with living things. As we’ve seen in Orlando, there’s a lot of violence in the world. If you can’t kill Plumster, you can’t kill your buddy. You can’t go out and just decide to get an AK-47 and spray a whole nightclub. So that’s what Plumster aims to do while we’re teaching a myriad of other lessons.

He’s so cute. He’s hilarious.

So he’s usually home with you guys? Your kids take care of him?

My kids are older, and I take care of Plumster. He would stay in the community garden during the day, and we’d get him at night and put him back in his cage. He’s getting to meet the kids at P.S. #12; they get excited, and it helps change their psychology. I’m going to do a few book readings over the summer. I’ve been in a lot of schools, especially Golden Door Charter School, which I have to speak about. Mr. Brian Styles is the biggest help in this city of getting me access to children. As I’m strolling around this city, I see these children. The board of education has purchased a lot of our books, so I’m happy for that. I’m just looking to build that relationship where they let me in the schools, and I can pontificate about the whole platform and where I see it going. Until then, I’m going to be working outside the city and a lot of other schools to spread this message. I expect in another five years, we will be in fifteen states and a lot of boards of education.

Tell me about your work in Jersey City.

There are a lot of daycares that are supporting us, a lot along Martin Luther King Drive, several Downtown. Parents have given me the opportunity to meet people, and the Jersey City Public Library whenever they have book fairs in Van Vorst Park. I also did a presentation in the Jersey City Public Library: Greenville Branch and everywhere I go with Plumster, whether I go with the stories alone or I go with Plumster Bunny, kids are readily accessible. It’s funny, the kids from Lincoln High School, they stroll by, they have to “Hi,” to Plumster. Other kids who are getting on the Light Rail, because I live right along Arlington Avenue, get to see him hopping in the front of the yard.

So who illustrates and writes these books?

There’s a gentleman named Nick the Artist, and Nick the Artist is out of Los Angeles, California probably the only person who’s affiliated with Plumster Bunny but not from Jersey City. My other partner, Jimmy Addams, he’s silent. I’m the face of Plumster Bunny.

Why is Plumster Bunny purple?

I made Plumster Bunny purple because I wanted children to notice him. What’s funny is, I’m not a fan of purple, I’m a fan of red, but if I did red I felt it would signal stop. So I didn’t want to do that and then Plumster Bunny later on—we’re a big proponent of healthy living and healthy eating, and there’s one thing that we don’t have in children’s diets, and we don’t promote, and that’s plums.

So I read that you were in the corporate world, and you left it to do this.

What happened was my blood pressure went nuts, and I was no longer able to trade, and I just couldn’t make good decisions and be profitable. When you’re a trader, it never stops. I saw this tremendous opportunity to create this platform for children and bring to them that type of psychology so they can see opportunity. I live in Ward F, and if you stop most people in Ward F they’ll say, “I want to sell my house, and I want to move,” I’m like, “That’s the wrong thing, you actually want to stay here, and you want to rebuild your community,” they’re like “Why,” and I say, “Because this place has tremendous upside, everywhere else is already built. Either you’re established, or the game is over. Here you have tremendous upside and you can create a new paradigm for the future the way that you want to so why would you not?

How is it going from that world to this world?

It’s culture shock because I’m a bit type-A, a bit aggressive. It’s been a long journey but fun.

Do you have a favorite Jersey City hangout spot?

Light Rail Café and Edward’s Steakhouse.

Anything you’d like people to know about you and your work?

Whenever you see us online, like our work, visit us, ask for Plumster to be in your school. Push for me to be on the board of education, I will help change a lot of children. I was the most mediocre student that you could ever find, and more specifically, as an ex-hedge fund trader, I failed math every year of my life. The last thing that I thought I would do for a living is math, but I did, and one of the reasons I did is because I’m a jerk, and I say that in a funny way because I was too stubborn to realize that I was too stupid not to be successful in that career. So for a lot of these difficult kids that seem like they’re not headed anywhere, give them an opportunity.

No, school is not for everyone, but learning is lifelong, and you should want to be a lifelong learner. I challenge myself everyday—am I the best every day? I’m not always saying yes, but the thought is there.

Plumster Bunny Five, that’s going to start things for women because if you’ll notice something about Plumster Bunny right now, it’s fairly male-centric. Last time I checked, women were on the planet too, and we have a great fan base of young Plumsterettes looking to see themselves represented.

 

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