Book Review: Helping Kids Who Are “Late, Lost, and Unprepared”
by Parents
Jan. 18, 2014
Do you routinely find your child’s completed homework forgotten on the floor of the car? Is her backpack a black hole from which nothing emerges? Does he struggle with taking turns or following directions? Late, Lost and Unprepared: A Parents’ Guide to Helping Children with Executive Functioning, by Joyce Cooper-Kahn, Ph.D., and Laurie Dietzel, Ph.D., offers practical tips to help parents and teachers guide disorganized children at home and school.
Don’t be put off by the term “executive functioning,” which Cooper-Kahn and Dietzel define as the skills that “help you manage life tasks,” such as organizing a trip or a research paper. Much of the book is written as if they are chatting with parents on the playground, as in this passage:
“Practice these words: ‘Wow, you do have a problem. What do you think you can do about it?’ Apply as needed when your child forgets to bring his book home from school, arrives at the beach in the summer with no bathing suit, et cetera. Help with problem solving, as needed, rather than taking over the problem or getting stuck in chastising, lecturing, or punishing.”
Using easy-to-read summaries, case studies, tips and “Try This!” boxes, Late, Lost and Unprepared offers, among others, “Strategies to Help a Child…
- Control Running Off in Stores
- Adapt to New Situations
- Complete Chores
- Who Has Trouble Following Directions
- Who Does Homework but Doesn’t Turn It In
- Who is Genuinely Surprised When She Gets in Trouble for Misbehavior
Real people, real solutions: The clinical psychologists offer stories of families who are finding solutions. For example, Ivan has trouble remembering anything except his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Before Ivan goes to bed each night, his parents remind him to put his homework folder in the fridge on top of his lunch. Forgotten homework problem solved.
Prioritize goals. Work on one goal at a time, the authors say. While her messy room may bother you, her disorganized backpack may be a higher priority.
Short-term supports, long-term success. Cooper-Kahn and Dietzel advocate a two-pronged approach. In the short run, parents need to help a child manage demands, whether chores, school work, or putting the brakes on interrupting. That may mean picking up the books in his room while he cleans up the art supplies, or having him dictate to you the first sentence of a paper, to help him start a task that may otherwise seem overwhelming.
Meanwhile, parents must work on the long-term goals that will help a child develop habits so that certain tasks — handing in the homework, hanging up the jacket — eventually become automatic. “Here’s the bad news; It really does require repetition, ad nauseum,” they write. The good news? By offering both support and skill building, and adopting a “no victims” approach, parents can help guide a disorganized child to success.
Source: Parenting
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Glenn’s Christmas Sweater For Kids
By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
October 30, 2009
If you loved Glenn’s Christmas Sweater, you will love this one just for kids. As he described on his radio show that he read it to his kids, when he first wrote it without the pictures. His two kids kept on requesting it over and over.
I decided to test his words, not that I didn’t believe him. I took it to a group of children in my neighborhood. I couldn’t leave; I had to read it over and over again. I was there for three hours. It brought tears to my eyes that there was a book that kids wanted to hear. And they didn’t even know that it was teaching them a lesson. Some of the kids even ask me to help them learn how to read it themselves.
If you have not got it, I am telling you that it is a must book to read to your children. This is one that kids will want to hear every night over and over again. You don’t have to read it just for Christmas. It can be read anytime.
I am going to let Glenn describe what the book is about in his own words:
We would like to know how your children reacted and learned from it. You can contact us at dan@goldcoastchronicle.com . And we will publish them.
by Glenn Beck
On Christmas Eve, Eddie shook his snow globe one last time and placed it on the dresser beside his bed. He watched the snowstorm swirl and thought about the one gift he wanted most for Christmas—a new bicycle.
Adapted from the #1 New York Times bestselling novel by Glenn Beck, The Christmas Sweater shares a young boy’s story of hope and redemption as he searches for the true meaning of Christmas. With the whimsical Grandpa by his side, Eddie takes a magical journey reminiscent of A Christmas Carol and The Polar Express that leads him to appreciate the simple things in life: family and love.
The picture book edition of The Christmas Sweater is a beautiful holiday treat from Glenn Beck that you’ll share with your family again and again.
Source: Glenn Beck
Book Review: Twilight
By Amy Orringer
October 18, 2009
Our Review
Though fantasy stories and fairy tales continue to enjoy their hold on the younger set, thanks to a certain wizard-based series, the world of young adult and tween fantasy is experiencing its own coming-of-age. The stories are less about plunging readers completely into another world, and more about that other world being tossed into readers’ lives, the already complex mess of adolescence.
Twilight, The Twilight Saga, Book 1 (Little, Brown Young Readers, 2006) by Stephenie Meyer
This is one of the few young adult novels we can recommend for both grandmothers and granddaughters. Twilight, the Twilight Saga, Book 1 is the first in yet another brilliant series that’s well-written enough to suck in (excuse the pun) even the most cynical adult reader. Readers can immediately identify with the main character, 17 year-old Bella; she’s a completely regular, kind-of-clumsy, independent girl — the kind we root for because secretly (or for some tweens, maybe not so secretly), we’re a little like that too.
So the plot gets even more enthralling when we discover that Bella just happens to be cosmically connected to a handsome, dangerous, incredibly kind vampire. Sure, there are lots of books about love against all odds, but this one manages to conjure up that belief in true, immortal that love we develop as young girls and never really let go of, no matter how long ago we traded it for practicality.
Young readers find themselves wanting to believe that even amid midterms and homecoming and the whole vampires-eat-humans problem, they’ll somehow make it through; older readers will simply feel like young readers again. The entire series has been flying off the shelves for months, and the first book will be released as a movie, starring Kristin Stewart and Robert Pattinson, later this fall.
Price: $6
For ages: 14 and older
Available at: Amazon.com
Source Grandparents
Book Review: Wintergirls
By Ariel Hasell
August 23, 2009
Being a teenager is more than just showing up at shopping malls and homecoming games. We review new fiction that explores the hard parts of life.
Wintergirls (Viking Children’s Books), by Laurie Halse Anderson, gives readers an insightful and heartbreaking look at Lia, a high school senior, battling anorexia. Lia — in and out of treatment centers herself — learns of the death of Cassie, her bulimic best friend.
She obsesses over the circumstances surrounding Cassie’s death, and consumed with guilt, suffers a relapse of her own disease. Lia’s desire to be an accomplished student, a good daughter, and reliable sister is directly at odds with her desire to become smaller and smaller. There are pages that repeat the words: “Must. Not. Eat.” Obviously, this is not going to be an easy battle for Lia.
Anderson is a celebrated young-adult author who captures the complexity of the modern, American teenage mind without reinforcing old strereotypes or relying on caricatures. In Wintergirls, Anderson maintains the tenor of her other works; her portrayal of anorexia is honest, enlightening, and doesn’t glamorize the disease, as other stories sometimes inadvertently do.
Age: 12+
Retail Price: $9
Available at: multiple sellers
Source: Grandparents
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what book you read this summer? dan@youngchronicle.com
Awesome Business Book for Kids
by Phoebe Assenza
August 1, 2009
A complete resource for the youngest entrepreneurs
Arthur Bochner was just 13 when he wrote the first edition of The Totally Awesome Business Book for Kids, a thorough and extensive guide to which the youngest entrepreneurs could easily relate. In The New Totally Awesome Business Book for Kids (Newmarket Press, 2007), Bochner and his sister, now in their twenties and teens, respectively, have updated the classic with 20 business ideas for kids, including the age-old mowing the neighbors’ lawns or becoming the family’s waste-management consultant, a.k.a. sorting recyclables. Other business skills like keeping records, communicating, negotiating, and marketing effectively are all covered, giving your grandchildren the inside track on mastering their own professional destiny.
| Age: | 8+ | Retail Price: $10 |
| Available at: amazon.com | ||
Source: Grand Parents
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com
Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady
by Phoebe Assenza
July 23, 2009
Readers of nearly all ages who are curious about our President-elect’s other half will be inspired by Michelle Obama’s biography.
The concise, easy-to-read for teens, Michelle Obama: Meet the First Lady tells the story of a young woman from the South Side of Chicago, and the hard work and determination that took her to Princeton, Harvard, and the White House, becoming what some would call a living example of the American Dream.
| Age: | 9-12 | Retail Price: $11.55 |
| Available at: amazon.com | ||
Source: Grandparents
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think if you read this book? dan@youngchronicle.com
Book Review of the Week – Moon Rabbit
By Amy Scheibe
Grandparents
July 18, 2009
Editor’s Note: This book is wriiten by Natalie Russell (Viking Juvenile, 2009)
Ages 3 to 6
We would like to know your favor book? And we would also like if you would write a review on it and we will Publish it. dan@youngchronicle.com
I am completely smitten with Little Rabbit and her moonlit adventure to discover whether there is someone out there “just like her.” When she hears some lovely music playing in the park, she stumbles upon Brown Rabbit, who is nothing like her, making him the perfect friend. Russell is a papermaker, and has illustrated her adorable book with sumptuous prints.
Or try: Goodnight Moon (1947). No kidding. If you don’t have a copy in your house, get one. All ages.
Source: Grand Parents
My Sister, Alicia May
by Beverly Beckham
July 11, 2009
Share with your grandkids the inspiring story of a child’s special love for her sister who has Down syndrome.
When Nancy Tupper Ling’s childhood friend gave birth to a daughter with Down syndrome, Ling wrote a poem called Our Fragile Emissary. The heartfelt verse quickly landed in e-mail inboxes and on message boards around the world. (You can Google it.) Six years later, Ling wrote a book about the same child, titled My Sister, Alicia May, and what happened next is a tale of fate, serendipity, and maybe something more.
Ling sent her manuscript to Pleasant St. Press, a small publishing house in Raynham, Mass. Co-owner Jean Cochran, who is also a children’s book author, instantly loved it, and bought the rights to publish the book. Then she went looking for an illustrator. “I first saw Shennen [Bersani]’s work on a British website for illustrators,” Cochran said. She assumed two things: that Bersani lived in the United Kingdom and that she would never be able to afford her.
Cochran contacted the illustrator anyway and learned in a telephone conversation that Bersani lived not an ocean away, but just ten miles down the road from her office. An even more remarkable coincidence is that My Sister, Alicia May was in many ways Bersani’s personal story, too.
“Shennen informed me that just as with the sisters in the book, she too had a sister – her only sibling – who has Down syndrome,” said Cochran. “I had no way of knowing this. We were both in shock at the coincidence.”
It took Bersani a month to decide whether she should illustrate the book. “I thought if I take this on, it will bring up all the emotional stuff,” Bersani said. But she chose to do it because, she said, “No one will be able to do it the way I can.”
When Bersani’s sister, Holly, was born 40 years ago, it was a different world. There were few programs for any kids with disabilities. A lot of the day-to-day caretaking for Holly fell on Bersani. She went to art school during the day and watched her sister nights and weekends. Although Bersani is a successful artist now, illustrating books for children that sell more than a million copies around the world, she had never used her professional work to explore her feelings about her sister or disabilities in general.
“I can tell you honestly, I sobbed and wept over a few of the pages as I tried to work on them – I ‘became’ Rachel [Alicia May’s older sister]. I felt every emotion vividly because they were my own.”
The book is filled with these emotions.
Cochran, whose publishing company is only three years old, said, “It is extremely important to us that our books are as good, if not better – in content, art, and production – as the larger, more established houses with whom we must compete.”
My granddaughter Lucy has Down syndrome and I have spent the last five years in search of a mainstream, beautifully written and illustrated book like this. Until My Sister, Alicia May, I’d found nothing.
Cochran said there is a huge void in the market for children’s books, especially picture books. “In publishing, there’s a saying that everything under the sun has been done. This has not been done. Not like this.”
My Sister, Alicia May, which was published May 1, is the story of two real girls, Alicia May and her sister Rachel, and every child who has a sister or a brother or a friend. It is the story of what it’s like to love someone. Sometimes the people you love irritate you the most. Sometimes you want to pretend you don’t know them. Sometimes you don’t want them tagging along. Sometimes you’re so proud of them you want to tell the world.
“Classrooms, libraries, doctors’ offices, and ordinary households need this book,” Cochran said. “I feel that it’s important as a person and as a publisher to bring awareness, to tell this story.”
This is also the kind of tale that belongs on every grandparent’s bookshelf. It is a story first, and only subtly, like all good stories, a lesson.
“She looks like me,” an 8-year-old at my local library said after studying the book’s cover. Alicia May has long, dark blond hair with bangs, pink cheeks, and a beautiful smile. And what this 8-year-old saw was not a child with Down syndrome, but another little girl with blond hair, just like her.
Source: Grandparents
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? And what good books are you reading this summer? dan@youngchronicle.com
Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Moving Day
By Meg Cabot
July 1, 2009
If you like books that are fun and have many silly jokes, then Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: Moving Day is the book for you. A book filled with lots of drama from Allie and her friends, many laughs and of course, rules.
Allie has one friend named Marry Kay. Allie’s not that crazy about her; she really wants a new best friend. But when Allie wanted a change, her parents gave her one. The secret was that they were moving.
Allie wasn’t surprised. Her mom had wanted to test out her home improvement skills on an old house that she could restore. Their current house was already redone. Allie didn’t mind moving at first, but soon she did.
Moving means new friends, new school, new house, new everything. When Allie moves, she will also have to deal with the challenge of being the new girl. Allie wanted a change, but not one as big as moving. Even though Allie wants a change (a new best friend) she likes her house and doesn’t want a new one.
The characters in the book have a good mix of personalities. Many of the characters are very different from each other, especially Allie and Mary Kay. Allie and her rules are fun. Some are silly, and some are ones that really make sense. For example, a silly one that Allie uses is “Never eat anything red.” A good rule that’s not very silly is “Treat your friends the way you’d want them to treat you.” There are many more rules in the book. Allie was very believable throughout the book. If she said something about moving, Mary Kay or school, you could definitely believe her. As I read the book, she almost felt like a best friend to me.
I enjoyed the book as every chapter added to a great story. The chapters weren’t short but they weren’t long and the story moved quickly without long descriptions. This is the first in a series, and it left me wanting to read the next book. I became so lost in the book that whenever I wasn’t reading it, I was talking about it.
I would recommend Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls to all girls who love a good fun book with silly moments.
Source: Scholastic News Online
Editor’s Note: We would like to hear what you think? And if you read a book and you would like to do a review. You can contact us at dan@youngchronicle.com
Book Review: Nick of Time
By Demaria Williams
June 23, 2009
The main kid characters in Nick of Time by Ted Bell are ordinary kids on an extraordinary adventure through time. Nicholas McIver and his little sister, Kate, are helping their father spy on Nazi U-boats from the lighthouse where they live. Nick finds a mysterious sea chest that contains Leonardo da Vinci’s time machine.
The dreaded pirate Billy Blood will do anything to get his hands on that machine. With the help of some friends, Nick embarks on an adventure that takes place more than 100 years in the past. He travels in time to save his dog, Jip, and others kidnapped by the wretched Billy Blood. He also runs into a relative along the way!
The plot moves quickly. I was definitely able to lose myself in the story. I felt as if I had jumped into the book and joined in all the action. My own world didn’t even exist anymore after I got caught up in the story! I definitely think you should set aside the time to read Nick of Time.
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? And we would like to know what your favorite book is? dan@youngchronicle.com
Source: Scholastic News Online