Library

Lee’s Place Resource Library

 

Contents

    Books for Children
Divorce
Death
Adoption
Miscellaneous

 

PARENTING

• Everything you NEVER wanted your kids to know about Sex (but were afraid they’d ask)

J. Richardson M.D., & M. Schuster, M.D.; 432 pages

This book is a survival guide that will help parents stay sane through every stage of their child’s sexual development. This guide covers all the bases, including: what to expect at each stage of your child’s development and how you can influence it from birth onward; what to tell your kids at every age about sex and how to get the conversation going; and how to encourage your teenager to use contraception without encouraging her to have sex, and how to help her choose the method that’s best for her.

• Try and Make Me! Simple Strategies that Turn Off the Tantrums and Create Cooperation

R. Levy, Ph.D, & B. O’Hanlon, M.S., L.M.F.T.; 242 pages

Try and Make Me offers a commonsense approach to child rearing that ends the madness, prevents future violence, and helps children become the cooperative and well-adjusted “big-people” they innately want to be. Emphasizing the importance of avoiding power struggles, this book provides many clever tactics for putting an end to the screaming battles and teaching your children that good behavior is in their best interest, not just yours.

• Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours

Kevin Leman; 191 pages

Dr. Leman’s action-oriented method puts you back in command. He shows you: How children learn; How to be the authority in your home without being authoritarian; why reward and punishment no longer work; and what really does work.

• The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated Chronically Inflexible Children.

R.W. Greene, Ph.D.; 336 pages

An explosive child is one who frequently exhibits severe noncompliance, temper outbursts, and verbal or physical aggression. This book lays out a sensitive, practical approach to helping your child at home and school.

• How to Deal With your Acting-Up Teenager: Practical help for Desperate Parents

R. Bayard, Ph.D. & J. Bayard, Ph.D.; 205 pages

The authors of this book offer an original approach to teenage acting-out. They offer a practical, step-by-step approach for parents at the end of their rope! Detailed steps proven helpful for parents in establishing mutually respectful relationships with their children.

• Beyond the Big Talk: Every Parents Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Teens- From Middle School to High School and Beyond. (for parents of children ages 12-21)

D.W., Haffner, M.P.H.; 241 pages

This parenting guide helps parents raise sexually healthy children & teens, for parents of children ages 12-21. This guide covers topics including peer pressure, dating and parties, alcohol and drugs, harassment, abstinence and much more.

• What’s The Big Secret? Talking about Sex with Girls and Boys.

L. Krashny Brown, Ed.D, & M. Brown; 32 pages

This well illustrated book discusses sex for young boys and girls. This book conveys a genuine feeling of warmth and the subject doesn’t come across as a ‘big secret’ after all. This parenting book answers questions such as: “Are boys and girls different on the inside?” “How do you tell girls and boys apart?” “Is sex a dirty word?” “Where do babies come from?” “What does bring pregnant mean?” “Do boys and girls have the same feelings?”

• Love & Limits- Guidance Tools for Creative Parenting

E. Crary; 47 pages

Love & Limits gives parents lots of useful ideas for raising secure, cooperative and capable children.

• Don’t Tell A Whopper on Friday! –The children’s truth-control book (for children)

A. Moser, Ed.D; 61 pages

In a clear and easy-to-understand narrative, Dr. Moser discusses the problems of lying and the importance of telling the truth. He offers truthful examples and suggests ways that can help children tell the truth.

• Setting Limits – How to Raise Responsible, Independent Children by Providing CLEAR Boundaries.

R.J. MacKenzie, Ed.D; 372 pages

Setting Limits will help you establish the positive, respectful and instructional groundwork your children need for proper ethical and behavioral development.

• The Pocket Parent

G. Reichlin, & C. Winkler; 379 pages

This pocket parenting book covers everything from discipline & consequences, how to hold a family meeting, bedtime, manners, mealtime, self-esteem, time-out and chores to doctor & dentist visits, separation & anxiety, and strangers and fears at night.

• Pick Up Your Socks…and other skills growing children need!

A practical guide to raising responsible children
E. Crary; 108 pages

This book is about encouraging responsibility in your children. Most people, both parents and children, are responsible in some areas, and not responsible in others. This book will help you recognize where your child is and then build on the abilities that already exist.

• How to Behave So Your Children Will, Too!

Sal Severe Ph.D.; 266 pages

Parents need to understand that their children’s behavior is often a reflection of their own behavior. That’s what makes this book unique. It does not focus on what children do wrong. It teaches parents what they can do differently.

• Ages & Stages- A Parent’s Guide to Normal Childhood Development

C.E., Schaefer, & T.F. DiGeronimo; 232 pages

Tips and Techniques for building your child’s social, emotional, interpersonal and cognitive skills. This book is divided into four stages of child development, allowing you to monitor your child’s progress, identify the reasons for emotional and psychological differences in siblings, and even determine how your parenting strategies should change as your child grows.

• Your Child: Emotional, Behavioral and Cognitive Development from Birth through Preadolescence

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; 469 pages

This book takes you step-by-step through the developmental milestones of childhood, discussing specific questions and concerns and examining more troublesome problems. Expertly and definitively offering practical advice and invaluable information, this book will guide you through every stage of your child’s growth and help you meet the daily challenges of parenting.

• Everyday opportunities for Extraordinary Parenting: Simple Ways to Make a Difference in Your Child’s Life

B. Connor; 318 pages

Filled with thoughtful advice and easy-to-use ideas, Everyday Opportunities for Extraordinary Parenting gives parents practical tools and creative tips for guiding kids through a happy, healthy childhood.

• Transforming the Difficult Child; The Nurtured Heart Approach

Howard Glasser, MA and Jennifer Easley, MA; 271 pages

The Nurtured Heart Approach gives parents and teachers an absolutely clear understanding of how a challenging child really responds to normal ways of parenting and why traditional methods actually make the situation worse. It also provides a powerful set of strategies designed specifically to turn the challenging child around to a new pattern of success.

• Supernanny; How to Get the Best from Your Children

Jo Frost; 223 pages
Jo Frost, also known as Supernanny, works miracles on unruly toddlers (and young children) with her strategy of tough love, clear rules and praise for good behavior.

• Driven to Distraction; Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through Adulthood

Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., and John J. Ratey, M.D.; 319 pages
Through vivid stories of the experiences of their patients, (both adults and children), Drs. Hallowell and Ratey show the varied forms ADD takes from the hyperactive search for high stimulation to the floating inattention of daydreaming – and the transforming impact of precise diagnosis and treatment.

 

 

DIVORCE

 

• Mom’s House, Dad’s House, Making Two Homes Work for Your Child I. Ricci; 381 pages

According to the Stepfamily Association of America, 60 percent of all families are breaking up, and custody and visitation issues loom large in the lives of many parents. Isolina Ricci's Mom's House, Dad's House guides separated, divorced, and remarried parents through the hassles and confusions of setting up a strong, working relationship with the ex- spouse in order to make two loving homes for the kids. This expanded and revised edition (the book was originally published in 1980) includes emotional and legal tools, as well as many reference materials and resources. As one parent said of the first edition, "This book is my friend."

• Difficult Questions Kids Ask (and are too afraid to ask)About Divorce

Meg F. Schneider & Joan Zuckerberg PhD.;224 pages
This invaluable book explores the apparent and hidden fears that haunt children as they weather the painful confusion of a divorce.

• What to Tell Your Kids about your Divorce D. Weyburne; 204 pages

What parents do to help their children through a divorce can have a long- term effect on how children view themselves and their relationships with others. In this essential guide, therapist Darlene Weyburne shows the best way to break the news to kids, tells how to reassure children that the split is not their fault, and outlines proven strategies for dealing with issues that can disrupt children's lives.

• The Good Divorce - Keeping your family together when your marriage comes apart

C. Ahrons Ph.D.; 301 pages

Dr. Ahrons shows couples how they can move beyond the confusing, even terrifying early stages of breakup and learn to deal with the transition from a nuclear to a “binocular” family- one that spans two households and continues to meet the needs of children.

· The Co-Parenting Survival Guide – Letting Go of Conflict after a Difficult Divorce
Elizabeth S. Thayer, Ph.D & Jeffery Zimmerman, Ph.D.

The “Co-Parenting Survival Guide” shows you how to avoid the hot spots and the common traps of hostility, inflexibility, and constant squabbling, and develop skills to sustain a co-parenting partnership based on love and concern for your children, so they can best benefit from two parents living separately but working together.

· Making Divorce Easier on Your Child – 50 Effective Ways to Help Children Adjust
Nicholas Long, Ph.D. and Rex Forehand, Ph.D.; 229 pages

“Making Divorce Easier on Your Child” is filled with practical, sensitive and highly effective ways to help children cope and adjust both during and after this major change in their lives.

• Surviving Separation and Divorce

Loriann Hoff Oberlin; 293 pages

Author Loriann Hoff Oberlin understands the rough road to starting over. A survivor herself, she shares her personal experiences as well as her professional expertise as she shows you how to rebuild your life, step by step.

 

 

ADOPTION

 

• Talking with Young Children about Adoption S. Fisher & M. Watkins; 270 pages

Current wisdom holds that adoptive parents should talk with their child about adoption as early as possible. But no guidelines exist to prepare parents for the various ways their children might respond when these conversations take place. In this wise and sympathetic book, a clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist, both adoptive mothers, discuss how young children make sense of the fact that they are adopted, how it might appear in their play, and what worries them and their parents may have.

• Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self D.M. Brodzinsky & M. Schechter M.D., & R. Marantz Henig; 213 pages

This book uses voices of adoptees themselves to trace how adoption is experienced over a lifetime, and their reflections are moving, keenly self- aware and very personal. This book offers a place to turn for thousands of adoptees who, at one time or another, have questioned the validity of their feelings but have had no one to compare their experiences with.

 

DEATH

 

• But I Didn’t Say Goodbye: For parents and professionals helping child suicide survivors

B. Rubel; 85 pages

This book is a great resource to help children deal with the difficult often hidden stigmatizing after effects of suicide.

• After A Parent’s Suicide: Helping Children Heal

M. Requarth, M.A., M.F.T; 254 pages

The premature death of a parent can be devastating for young children- with the consequences far more profound when the parent dies by suicide. Amidst the resulting grief, turmoil and confusion, the surviving parent is faced with the monumental task of tending to the emotional lives of the children left behind. This book is an amazing “how-to” guide for parent survivors: how to manage both the immediate and the long-term implications of the suicide, how to talk to your children, and how to see them through the heart-rendering anguish to a place of acceptance and healing.

• The Empty Room: Surviving the Loss of a Brother or Sister at Any Age

E. DeVita-Raeburn; 240 pages
With an inspired blend of life experience, journalistic acumen, and research training, DeVita-Raeburn draws on interviews of more than two hundred survivors to render a powerful portrait of the range of conditions and emotions, from withdrawal to guilt to rage, that attend such loss.

• Name all the Animals A. Smith; 352 pages

An engaging storyteller, Smith crafts her memoir to read like a novel, interspersing moving flashbacks of the times she spent with her brother with amusing portraits of the nuns at her parochial school, who sneak out of the infirmary to play cards and make autumnal visits to a secret swimming pool.

• A Broken Heart Still Beats: After Your Child Dies McCracken & Semel; 328 pages

Organized by a journalist and a psychotherapist, each of whom has lost a child, A Broken Heart Still Beats is a remarkable compilation of poetry, fiction, and essays about the pain, stages of grief, and the coping and healing process that follows the death of one's child.

• Never the Same: Coming to Terms with the Death of a Parent D. Schuurman; 256 pages

Children and teens who experience the death of a parent are never the same. Only in the last decade have counselors acknowledged that children grieve too, and that unresolved issues can negatively impact children into adulthood.

• Healing a Child's Grieving Heart: 100 Practical Ideas for Families, Friends, & Caregivers A. Wolfelt; 128 pages

A compassionate resource for friends, parents, relatives, teachers, volunteers, and caregivers, this series offers suggestions to help the grieving cope with the loss of a loved one.

• I’m Grieving as Fast as I Can L. Feinbergg; 190 pages

I'm Grieving as Fast as I Can sensitively guides young widows and widowers through the normal grieving process while highlighting the special circumstances of facing an untimely death. Hundreds of young widows and widowers, with whom the author has worked with for more than a decade as a counselor, share their thoughts and dilemmas about the situations that arise as a result of losing a loved one, among them what to tell young children experiencing a parent's death, returning to work, and dealing with in-laws and other relatives.

• The Private Worlds of Dying Children M. Bluebond-Langner; 304 pages

In a moving drama, constructed by her own observations of leukemic children, aged 3-9, in a hospital ward, the author shows how the children come to know that they are dying, how and why they attempt to conceal this knowledge from their parents and the medical staff, and how these adults, in turn, attempt to conceal from the children their awareness of the child’s impending death.

• Healing the Bereaved Child A. D. Wolfelt; 316 pages

This inspiring and heartfelt book is designed for caregivers, friends and families of bereaved children. By comparing grief counseling to gardening, Dr. Wolfelt frees us of the traditional medical model of bereavement care, which implies that grief is an illness that must be cured. He suggests that caregivers instead embrace a more holistic view of the normal, natural and necessary process that is grief.

• Help for the Hard Times: Getting through Loss E. Hipp; 316 pages

The author discusses young people's experiences with loss and helps them figure out ways to continue functioning after loss.

• Living Beyond Loss: Death in the Family

M. McGoldrick & F. Walsh; 350 pages
Family reaction to death/helping families with anticipatory loss/rituals & the healing process/etc.

• On Children and Death

E. Kubler-Ross; 288 pages
Based on a decade of working with dying children, this compassionate book offers the families of dead and dying children the help -- and hope -- they need to survive.

• The Year of Magical Thinking

Joan Didion; 240 pages
This memoir won the National Book Award in 2005. It is an account of the year following the death of the author’s husband, John Gregory Dunne.

• Grieving a Suicide; A Loved One’s Search for Comfort, Answers and Hope

Albert Y. Hsu; 180 pages
For those who have lost a loved one to suicide and for their pastors and counselors, this book is an essential companion for the journey toward healing.

• Parenting a Grieving Child, Helping Children Find Faith, Hope and Healing after the Loss of a Loved One

Mary DeTurris Poust; 237 pages
This is a practical, faith based guide for parents of grieving children.

• How To Go On Living When Someone You Love Dies

Therese Rando, Ph.D.;338 pages
Dr. Rando leads you gently through the painful but necessary process of grieving and helps you find the best way for yourself.

• Living with Grief After Sudden Loss (Suicide, Homicide, Accident, Heart Attack, Stroke)

Edited by Kenneth Doka, Ph.D; 261 pages
This book was produced as a companion to the Hospice Foundation of America’s third annual teleconference.

 

 

 

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

DIVORCE

 

• I Don’t Want to Talk About It

Jeanie Franz; 28 pages (ages 4-8)
When a child’s parents tell her they have decided to divorce, the last thing she wants to do is talk about it. But with her mother and father’s help, she starts to consider what life will be like after the divorce and learns that although some things will change, many other things will remain the same.

• My Two Homes, Magic Words Handbook for Kids

Kent Winchester; 28 pages (ages 5-12)
The Magic Words Handbook is a book full of thoughts and sayings for children to help them deal with their parents’ divorce or separation. It is designed to help children, who are facing changes in their family, work through their most commonly encountered fears and emotions.

• Dinosaurs Divorce, A Guide for Changing Families

Laurene Krasny Brown and Marc Brown; 32 pages (ages 4-10)
Dinosaurs Divorce will help young children understand the concept of divorce and blended families.

• What Can I Do? A Book for Children of Divorce

Danielle Lowry; 47 pages (ages 8-12)
What Can I Do? goes beyond “It’s not your fault” and offers kids real solutions and resources for dealing with the hard questions and feelings they face when parents divorce.

• It’s Not Your Fault, Koko Bear

Vicki Lansky; 32 pages (ages 3-7)
It’s Not Your Fault, Koko Bear is a read-together book for parents and young children during divorce.

• Divorce, Finding a Place

Eileen Kuehn; 64 pages (teens)

Divorce, Finding a Place takes readers through the initial shock of loss, the stages of grieving, and the process of recovery.

• HELP! A Girl’s Guide to Divorce and Stepfamilies

Nancy Holyoke; 128 pages (ages 8 & up)

HELP! Gives information for girls about every aspect of divorce, from the initial split-up to a parent’s remarriage.

• The Divorce Workbook

Sally Blakeslee Ives, David Fassler & Michele Lash; 147 pages (ages 4 & up)

This book helps children express, explore, and understand some of the many emotions triggered by the separation and divorce process.

 

 

DEATH

 

• When Dinosaurs Die, A Guide to Understanding Death

Laurie Krasny Brown and Marc Brown; 32 pages (ages 4-10)
When Dinosaurs Die explains in simple language the feelings people may have regarding the death of a loved one and the ways to honor the memory of someone who has died.

• The Two of Them

Alik;, 32 pages (ages 4-8)

A tender story of a grandfather and his granddaughter sharing many happy memories until the grandfather’s illness and eventual death. The illustrations are moving as is the expression of the granddaughter’s grief. This was a Reading Rainbow Review Book.

• After a Suicide, A Workbook for Grieving Kids

The Dougy Center; 48 pages (ages 6-12)

This is an informational workbook for children who have experienced a loss from suicide. It explores many of the complicated issues of suicide such as what is suicide, why people die by suicide and how to talk to others about suicide.

• Stacey Had A Little Sister

Wendie C. Old; 32 pages (ages 4-8)

Stacy has mixed feelings about her new sister, Ashley, but when the baby dies of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, Stacy is sad and misses her.

• After the Funeral

Jane Loretta Winsch; 31 pages (ages 4 -10)

After the Funeral discusses the various feelings accompanying the death of a loved one, including sadness, grief, and the fear of death itself.

• The Day I Saw My Father Cry

Bill Cosby; 40 pages (ages 6-10)

The Day I Saw My Father Cry describes the grief a father and his sons share after the death of a special friend.

• Someone I Loved Died By Suicide

Doreen Cammarata; 38 pages (ages 6-12)
Someone I Loved Died By Suicide is a story for child survivors and those who care for them.

• Mending Peter’s Heart

Maureen Wittbold; 32 pages (ages 4-10)

Peter’s beloved dog died and Peter is struggling to cope with his feelings. He gets a little help from an older gentleman who listens.

• A Little Bit of Rob

Barbara Turner; 32 pages (ages 4-8)
A Little Bit of Rob is the story of a young girl and her parents learning to cope with the death of Rob, the oldest child in the family.

• Sunflowers & Rainbows for Tia, Saying Goodbye to Daddy

Alesia Alexander-Greene; 24 pages (ages 6-10)

Sunflowers & Rainbows for Tia is about a young girl describing how she feels when her father dies and how she and her family express their sadness and their love for him.

• “I Wish I Could Hold Your Hand…”

Dr. Pat Palmer; 27 pages (ages 4-8)

“I Wish I could Hold Your Hand…” gently helps grieving children identify their feelings from denial and anger to guilt and sadness and learn to accept and deal with them.

• Losing Uncle Tim

MaryKate Jordan; 32 pages (ages 6-12)

Losing Uncle Tim Describes a child’s struggle to find reassurance and understanding after his uncle dies of AIDS.

• Everett Anderson’s Goodbye

Lucille Clifton;22 pages (ages 4-8)

Everett Anderson’s Goodbye describes a child’s struggle to come to terms with his grief after his father dies. A Reading Rainbow Book.

• Sam’s Dad Died

Margaret M. Holmes;12 pages (ages 4-8)
Sam’s Dad Died is a child’s book of hope through grief.

• The Tenth Good Thing About Barney

Judith Viorst; 25 pages (ages 4-8)

The Tenth Good Thing About Barney is a touching book of a young boy whose cat, Barney, has died and how he remembers the good things about Barney.

• Molly’s Mom Died

Margaret M. Holmes; 12 pages (ages 4-8)

Molly’s Mom Died is a child’s book of hope through grief.

• What on Earth Do You Do When Someone Dies?

Trevor Romain;72 pages (ages 6-12)
What on Earth Do You Do When Someone Dies? describes the overwhelming emotions involved in dealing with the death of a loved one and discusses how to cope with such a situation.

• If Nathan Were Here

Mary Bahr;32 pages (ages 6-10)

If Nathan Were Here explores the grief of a young boy whose best friend has died.

• The Accident

Carol Carrick, (ages 5-10)

After his dog is hit by a truck and killed, Christopher must deal with his own feelings of depression and guilt.

• When Someone Very Special Dies

Marge Heegaard; 32 pages (ages 4-8)

This book was designed to teach basic concepts of death and help children understand and express the many feelings they have when someone special dies.

• I Will Remember You; A Guidebook Through Grief for Teens

Laura Dower; 208 pages

Each chapter in this guide can help you explore a different aspect of grief.

 

 

 

ADOPTION

 

• Over the Moon, An Adoption Tale

Karen Katz,; 26 pages (ages 4-8)
Over the Moon is a brilliantly illustrated story which shares the journey of adoption from the parents’ perspective.

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS

 

• Stop Picking on Me; A First Look at Bullying

Pat Thomas, 29 pages (ages 4-8)
This approachable book explores the difficult issue of bullying in reassuringly simple terms. The fears, worries and questions surrounding this upsetting experience are made accessible to young children.

• I Wish Daddy Didn’t Drink So Much

Judith Vigna; (ages 4-10)
After a disappointing Christmas, Lisa learns ways to deal with her father’s alcoholism with the help of her mother and an older friend.

• Dad’s in Prison

Sandra Cain and Michael Speed; 25 pages (ages 6-12)
Mark and Simon are upset and confused when their Dad is sent to prison. This book follows Mark and Simon on their first visit to see their Dad and the additional methods of staying in contact.

• A Terrible Thing Happened

Margaret M. Holmes; 32 pages (ages 4-8)
This gently told and tenderly illustrated story is for children who have witnessed any kind of violent or traumatic episode. An afterword for parents and other caregivers offers extensive suggestions for helping traumatized children.

• My Body is Private

Linda Walvoord Girard (ages 6-12)
A mother-child conversation introduces the topic of sexual abuse and ways to keep one’s body private.

• No More Secrets for Me; A Book for Adults to Share with Children

Oralee Wachter; 46 pages (ages 4-12)
In four separate stories on the theme of sexual abuse of children, young victims are able to articulate their feelings and defend themselves, often with the help of another person whom they trust.