Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: This is a nonfiction book recommended for ages 9 and up. It features kids from the age of four to seventeen, as well as families.

Q: What is the book about?
A: What’s It Like, Living Green is a compilation of stories about green families, kids who are making a difference for the planet and various topics on conserving resources, reducing, and recycling.

The sections include: What’s It Like, Living Green? ; Reduce; Recycle; Reuse; Responsible for Our Earth; and Kids Teaching Kids, by the Way They Live.

You will find a leaping frog with the words:  Take a Green Leap! next to suggestions of things you can do to make a difference.

This book includes photos of the green kids and their families, as well as a delightful cover and illustrations by a seventeen-year-old girl from Australia.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: I participated in the first Earth Day celebration, and now I am a mother and grandmother who wanted to bring kids together to make a difference for their planet.

Many of the people who came forward to participate in this project are not writers. I have written and published four books for children, including What’s It Like, Living Green? I was able to give a voice and a platform to those who are making a difference and bring their message to a generation who can really make a change.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: I spoke to a school librarian before publishing my book. I told her I was writing a book for kids, about living green.

She shook her head and said, “There are already so many books out there about living green.” I then told her I was having kids tell their stories about how they live and what they are doing in their communities.  She perked up and said, “I think that’s great. I have never seen a book like that.  You need to get that book out as soon as possible.”

Most of the books written on the subject of living green and earth awareness seem to be geared toward a younger audience or an adult audience. I have found very few for the age group for which this book is targeted.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: In What’s It Like, Living Green? Kids Teaching Kids, by the Way They Live, you’ll learn how other kids live green, along with tips as simple as putting on a sweater rather than turning up the heat.

You’ll see how kids like you can make a difference.  Read about a girl who learned how to drive with a car fueled by used cooking grease.

Learn about a boy in Canada who raised funds to build his first well to provide clean water for a whole village in Uganda, when he was only seven years old. He is now seventeen and the founder of the Ryan’s Well Foundation.

You will meet a girl from Florida who began a recycling business when she was five, and continued to build the business until she reached one hundred customers.  Now, joined by her younger sister, they use a portion of their earnings to benefit their community.

Learn about the students of St. Benedict’s School, in Illinois who have made commitments to a lifetime of environmental awareness.

You will learn simple ways to help the environment help others and even earn some money.

This book can be ordered through Amazon.com or through your local retailer.

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: The protagonist is 15, so young adults are a major audience; however, I have received letters from men and women of all ages, even into their sixties, expressing interest and enthusiasm about the release of Courage in Patience.

Q: What is the book about?
A: After six years of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse from her stepfather, 15-year-old Ashley finally finds the courage to reveal the painful details of her experiences with her mother, who refuses to acknowledge the problem and turns her back on her daughter. After confiding in her teacher—the only adult whom Ashley can trust—she is removed from her home and sent to live with her father and his second wife, Beverly, an English teacher. Nurtured by Beverly, an extraordinarily positive influence in her life, Ashley and a summer school class of troubled teens learn to face their fears and discover who they really are.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a family member, as well as an experienced English teacher.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: It is not an autobiography or a self-help book. Honestly, with the exception of some of Chris Crutcher’s books that include the problem of sexual abuse, I have not seen many others like mine.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: I wrote Courage in Patience to give hope to anyone who has to face their greatest fears and find out what they’re made of.