Ages 6-16 · Ithaca, NY metro area · Book 4, Discernment

Library Systems — Ithaca, NY

The Ithaca, NY metro area has about 104,047 residents, ranking 356th in the country. A licence costs less than writing something new that will need rewriting the next time a platform changes.

System-wide programming and copies on the shelf, with the family take-home doing the work at home.

The book behind it

Ellis Abel and the Two Wolves Within

“Choose what you feed within.”

Notice what shapes your inner world.
Awareness makes choice possible.
Feed the thoughts that strengthen you.

Ellis Abel is a character series. Volume 4 carries the value discernment, and the story does the teaching. There is no doctrine in it and nothing for a family to opt out of, which is why it runs in Ithaca, NY in public schools, libraries, clubs and living rooms without changing a word.

Read about Ellis Abel and the Two Wolves Within · The whole series

Five sessions in Ithaca

Session 1
Scope: age bands, group sizes, session length, leader experience
Session 2
Materials: story, leader script, family take-home, printable pack
Session 3
Train the team — one session, with the hard cases rehearsed
Session 4
Run one term and capture what the children actually did
Session 5
Review, adjust the pack, and set the next term

What Ithaca, NY leaders ask first

Is library systems in Ithaca, NY a religious program?

No. Ellis Abel is a character series. Each volume carries one named core value — this one is discernment — and the story does the teaching. There is no doctrine in it, nothing to opt out of, and it is used in public schools, libraries and secular programs as readily as anywhere else.

What ages does this work for?

Ages 6-16. The story is read aloud, so a child who cannot read yet is fully in it, and the discussion prompts are written in two bands so one adult can hold a mixed-age room.

What does a Ithaca, NY licence include?

The volumes, the session material, leader scripts, family take-home pages, and the right to run it under your own program name. Terms are set per organisation and per size, so there is no single-price page.

Do we have to use your branding?

No. You keep your name, your leaders and your program. The books are the spine, not the sign over the door.

How a session actually runs in Ithaca

Step 1
Two voices, named out loud
The story gives a child a way to talk about their own inner argument without having to admit anything embarrassing. Children in Ithaca, NY will describe the harsh voice in detail once it belongs to a story rather than to them.
Step 2
List what actually went in today
Not a lecture about screen time. An honest inventory of one real day — watched, scrolled, played, heard, said, and said to themselves — written down by the child, with the adults doing their own list at the same time.
Step 3
One question, good on any platform
Who made this, and what do they want from me. It works on a video, an ad, a group chat, a game's shop and a chatbot, and it will still work on whatever replaces all of them. That transferability is the point of teaching a question rather than a rule.
Step 4
Change one input, and say which
One thing, chosen by the child, changed before the next session. Not a screen-time limit imposed from above — those are complied with rather than learned. Then come back and ask what changed, without grading the answer.