Cool Book Of The Day

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Hook & Jill is a fairy tale for “grown-ups.” Neverland is a place we long to return. It calls to us even — and especially — once we are past the innocent age of Peter Pan. Adults who re-read Peter Pan to their children can fully appreciate J.M. Barrie’s nuances and undertones. Hook & Jill revisits the delights of the original tale, and takes it further to develop the more mature themes at which Barrie only hinted in his children’s classic. Those who fell in love with Wicked and its adult perspective of Oz may find an equal fascination with the Neverland that I bring to life in an uninhibited new vision.

Q: What is the book about?
A: As Wendy Darling mothers the Lost Boys in Neverland, she struggles to keep her boys safe from the Island’s many hazards. The obvious villain is Captain Hook, insidious and seductive, a master manipulator devising vengeance for his maiming. But a more subtle threat encroaches from an unexpected quarter.… The children are growing up, and only Peter knows the punishment.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: Peter Pan has inspired writers, musicians, artists and actors for over a hundred years. But Hook & Jill is the first novel of Neverland to allow adults to fully return there. As grown-up readers recognize, Barrie threaded the loom for a deeply psychological coming-of-age. I took up Barrie’s strands and wove them to create an intricate and satisfying, if frightening, voyage into adulthood.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: Hook & Jill is not a story for those who wish to remain forever in childhood. It challenges the assumption that morality can be viewed — as children view it — in terms of black and white. The dark side of innocence is exposed, and what appears to be good may prove otherwise, while what seems to be evil… is irresistible.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: The mythology of Peter Pan is the magic mirror to my own experience. As an emerging adult, I discovered myself to be in the same predicament as Wendy and the Lost Boys. I, too, was forbidden to grow up. Yet I, too, could not help doing so. Like the children in Hook & Jill, in making my own decisions, I cast myself out of “Paradise,” reaping both the troubles and the rewards of independence.

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Parents, teachers, students, grandparents and others who knows or cares about a child with learning disabilities.

Q: What is the book about?
A: The book is a manual written with an insider’s view of the process of special education for learning disabled children. It empowers parents with insight into the environmental factors that cause learning disabilities; vital information about laws and legislation that empowers parents with rights that supersede those of the school. It is designed to empower parents with information and strategies that will elevate them to a level of co-partnership by powerfully supporting at home what she is asking the teacher to do in the classroom.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: 30 years of experience as a school psychologist in public education prepared me with an insight into the workings of the special education process that is of benefit to parents. Preparation as a classroom teacher along with extensive graduate training in school administration, language, reading, special education, and parent education gave me a rich foundation in children and learning.

During this time I learned what and what not to share with parents and why in the best interest of the school they should not be told.  In this book I have revealed all the little things schools would rather parents did not know about special legislation that gives parents and children rights that supersede those of the school.

The fact that legislation left the laws on the books without funding to implement them is highly problematic for the schools.  However, the law is there, and this book empowers parents to claim their rights under that law, making  them a driving force in special education.  Parents who purchase and read the book are empowered by the author through fax and phone in accomplishing their objectives for their child’s education.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: This book empowers parents to take an active role in making a difference for their child.  This book educates parents, and makes them the driving force behind the design of the Individualized Education Plan. Parents are provided with all the skills necessary to insure that their child receives the free, appropriated, public education guaranteed by law.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: It is fearlessly written by a 60’s activist who believes that things can be different and that parents are the key to this difference. The book is a road map to that objective.

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: 14 years old and up.

Q: What is the book about?
A: Swish: Maria in the Mourning is a non-fiction narrative which chronicles a mother’s process of mourning after losing her only child, the beautiful and charismatic Maria to a heroin overdose at 23.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: As a playwright I have produced six plays, and produced 3 plays for children. I have published poetry and won awards for my writing; in addition to teaching writing for twenty-five years, I have a B.A. in Literature and Theater (magna cum laude) and a M.A.T. in Secondary English Education both from Manhattanville College. After losing my only child to heroin, I needed to write a book that would appeal to everyone.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: Swish transcends the subject of addiction and captures the essence of a life lost, and every range of emotion that parenting, relationships, loving, losing and moving on can explore. Not a biography, the experience is told from the mother’s point of view, then shifts to the voice of Maria through her letters and journal entries during her addiction.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: This book has a performance version: Swish: Maria in the Mourning: The Monologues, which has received stellar reviews as a theatrical success, and after three performances, continues to journey to many more stages.

Pam
Swish: Maria in the Mourning
Outskirts Press

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Healing Stories is for parents of all kinds (for example, birth parents, adoptive parents, stepparents, foster parents) and for all other adults who have children in their work or personal lives: friends; grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives; teachers; school counselors and psychologists; child care providers; child therapists; pediatric health care professionals; children’s librarians; and anyone else who might want to share a book with a child.

Q: What is the book about?
A: Healing Stories is a guide for adults to more than 500 picture books that can help support children as they face new or challenging experiences. Each of the 34 chapters includes a list of picture books about a specific childhood concern – everything from daily trials (worries at bedtime, learning how to make friends, having a bad day), to new experiences (starting school, losing a baby tooth, having a new baby sister or brother), to more emotionally stressful events (divorce, serious illness, death). Lifelong coping resources are also addressed (a sense of security in relationship, a resilient sense of self, imagination, and emotional awareness). The annotations for each entry empower you to select the books that best match the child and the situation you’re concerned about. Healing Stories also includes an introduction that discusses ways to use books with children who are experiencing life changes or stress.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: In my practice as a psychologist, I work extensively with children who have had many different kinds of stressful experiences, as well as dealing with the everyday changes that all children face. This experience, combined with my education and training in the psychology of childhood, contributed to my selection of recommended picture books. I also hold an appointment as Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, am a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and have published over 100 articles in the scientific and professional literature on topics such as depression, trauma, and cultural issues in mental health.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: Most other books that recommend children’s books to parents use only the child’s age and literary quality as their criteria for selection. Healing Stories primarily considers picture books’ usefulness in helping children cope with specific concerns (although suggested age ranges are given for each picture book). Healing Stories is the only book that brings a psychologist’s knowledge and experience to this task and in a format and style that are user-friendly for parents.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: William Sears, M.D., author of more than 30 parenting books and medical and parenting consultant to Baby Talk and Parenting magazines, called Healing Stories “a valuable family resource for healing and helping children through transitions in life.”

Melanie Lawrence of Parents’ Press said, “Parents who love and reread children’s books will enjoy Healing Stories, and almost certainly find help within its pages for their children’s tribulations, whether big, small, or in between… Within each category are dozens of marvelous books, intelligently summarized… this is an exceptional look at two generations of books that can both entertain our children and soothe them in time of need.”

According to Kari Ramstrom, M.L.I.S., writing in Library Journal, “Healing Stories empowers parents to promote development and healing in children through books in a fun, helpful manner. The quality of her selections is excellent.”

Mary Ruth Cross, M.S., M.F.T., of Play Therapy Magazine called Healing Stories a “comprehensive, easy-to-use guide …[w]ritten in a warm, engaging style that is accessible to parents… Healing Stories is an essential resource for every adult who cares about young children.”

Jerome L. Singer, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Child Study at Yale University and author of Make-Believe: Games and Activities for Imaginative Play, wrote, “Dr. Golding has provided an invaluable tool for parents and other caregivers … In a time of national concern about school readiness and literacy this is a great way to introduce children to the pleasures and values of reading.”

Alvin Poussaint, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of Raising Black Children, hailed Healing Stories as “a unique resource for guidance in sorting through the wealth of children’s picture books addressing psychosocial issues. Golding is especially sensitive to questions of inclusiveness, cultural context, and age appropriateness. This is an important book for parents.”

Charles E. Schaefer, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University, author of How To Help Children With Common Problems, and editor of Handbook of Play Therapy, described Healing Stories as “A practical sourcebook of stories to help children (ages 1 to 12) cope with the difficult challenges of life. Highly recommended!!”

More information about Healing Stories is available at www.Healing-Stories.com.