Child-Safety Books

I was sexually molested by an uncle when I was 10. To compound the trauma, my mother refused to believe me or help me; that job was left to my father, who did take steps to protect me from my mother's brother.

I went for counseling years later, and felt I'd dealt with the trauma...until I had children. When I found out I was pregnant at age 32, the first thing I did was buy a book, written for children, to explain to them what good touch and bad touch is. I became an overprotective mother because of my past abuse, and each of my children (I have 3) have read this book. I highly recommend this book!

the stories are for about an age of 10 and up in my opinion, my grandson is 5 and I was hoping for something to help him get threw his sexual abuse..Im going to read one of the stories to him in hope it will make sence but in all honesty im not sure it will help... thanks so much for this chance to express my self.

Although I agree with the previous reviewer, I have to say that for the size of the book and the fact that it is juvenile literature, it is extremely overpriced. I probably shouldn't judge price on size, but it's hard not to with this book. It is a skinny little thing and I really expected a little more meat for the price. Informative.

In 2001, the United States came under its first-ever serious biological attack, when envelopes containing anthrax began to be received by government officials and media people. Beginning then, many serious people began to worry about the possibility of terrorists using nuclear, biological and/or chemical weapons in their attacks. This 2006 book tells you how to prepare for such an attack, what to do during the attack, and what to do after it.

Overall, I found this to be a very informative book. Even though it is placed in the "young adults" category, do not take this book lightly. In fact, this book is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to consider the possibility of a terrorist attack by a weapon of mass destruction (WMD). The text is written in a clear and easy-to-understand manner, and there are numerous informative sidebars that contain important step-by-step instructions.

So, if you do want to consider what you would do in the case of a WMD attack, then you should get this book. It is an excellent book on the subject, one that I highly recommend.

Addendum to original review (below): I think the editor makes a good point below re: the purpose of the book. I've adjusted my rating of it because it does indeed contrast opposing viewpoints, some of which (as a counselor involved in the field) I continue to find troubling but recognize as valid contributions to this anthology.

-------------------------
Writers who see domestic violence as an ongoing, serious, criminal activity are contrasted with those who believe it to be exaggerated and overmeasured. As a man who has worked with both male and female perpetrators as well as a number of male and female victims of domestic violence, I cannot concur with statements that seek to underemphasize the catastrophic impact of what really is a national epidemic.

I was particularly dismayed by characterizations of feminists who point out the patriarchal context of DV as so black and white that all men are supposedly regarded as potential batterers and rapists. I've yet to meet a counselor, critic, or victim advocate of the feminist perspective who really believes this; the relative handful who do tend not to succeed in such an emotional arena, nor do they tend to be trusted by their male and female colleagues. It is also incorrect to imply that feminists by and large think patriarchy "causes" DV. What many maintain rather is that patriarchy forms the context that gives men implicit permission to control women. DV is merely the extreme example of this kind of male privilege.

My own paper emphasizes the need for holding perpetrators accountable for their acts of violence. And so we should. But that accountability and those acts exist in a society of outrageous violence and an ongoing unwillingness to take women's claims of male privilege, power, and abuse seriously. I can't tell you how many battering men have immediately launched into "if it weren't for the women's movement" or "this is all exaggerated" or "it was OJ's fault that I got arrested," ad nauseum, to justify their own misbehavior.

If we are to get a handle on this terrible tragedy of terrorism in our own homes, our own culture, we surely must pay more careful attention to its victims, whose bruised faces and broken bones tell their own tale without recourse to studies or statistics. For this purpose the book does do an adequate job of presenting these crimes in their actual detail, regardless of those who would minimize them might wish to think.

I am the editor of this book, Domestic Violence: Opposing Viewpoints. I included an article written by Craig Chalquist in this book, which I titled "Therapy Programs for Batterers Are Effective at Reducing Domestic Violence." (His title: "The Masters of Return: Batterers in Recovery and Beyond.")

Mr. Chalquest is dismayed by how some authors perceive domestic violence, and that is his right. He has another valid concern about how batterers attempt to explain/justify/excuse their behavior. However, to give this book a poor review because of it is wrong. The title of this book is Domestic Violence: Opposing Viewpoints, and that is the entire purpose of this book: to present opposing viewpoints about domestic violence. The intent of the book is to present biased arguments on both sides of the issue so that the reader can make up his or her own mind. As he mentioned, not everyone views the problem of domestic violence in the same light he does. If I was the author of the entire book and wrote it espousing one point of view, instead of the editor who included previously published articles that explore different sides of the issue, he would be justified in his criticism. As it is, however, his criticism is irrelevant to the book.

Im reading the book Pee Wee Scouts,Pedal Power by Judy Delton,it is a realistic -fiction book.I was reading the book and it wasn't that interesting at first but then it started geting queer.I highly reccomend this book to readers because its funny but kind of simple.This book is mostly about some scouts helping,doing,or saving people,but it gets monotonous some times. I'm enjoying this book because its about theese scouts savig people and its fantastic for me because it tells people from good and bad. And there wasn't nothig that I disliked.

My 7 year old loved this book and the others we have read in this series. He can relate to many of the characters and likes that the kids which all have different interests can still play together even if they don't always agree. We used this book as a group bedtime story for my 3 kids: 3, 5, & 7 and it held all of their attention while provoking questions about saftey that we could talk about. We loved it!

This excellent book could either be used as a vehicle for parent-child discussion, or as a part of a school curriculum. It would be good for older elementary school and for middle school students. It covers a wide variety of safety and personal boundary issues. In this regard, it is superior to many books on personal safety. It presents stories of children and adolescents who are each faced with a dilemma which might put them in a dangerous or uncomfortable situation. It then discusses the options and the possible outcomes.

I like the fact that it starts by teaching kids how to avoid being bullied in the first place.

Carol E. Watkins, M.D.

This book is chock full of very practical advice. It contains story after story written in a way to seem very realistic -- exactly a situation you could imagine would really happen. Then they give very specific and workable solutions. I am buying a copy to use in my kid's self defense classes. Many self defense books carry very unrealistic solutions or advice that seems too distant from the real situation. This book will really empower kids.

My two year old grandson loves the book. His parents are smokejumpers and not only does he look at the book he also names the jumpers using his parents name but he also can count and repeat some of the words on his own. He knows the story well. He use to take his sisters book to his room all the time how he has his own. It gets used a lot. The book contains some inaccurate information in what the smokejumpers are doing.

I must say that I was apprehensive about a book about smokejumping. My 3 and 5 year old sons are the progeny of former smokejumper parents. They really know smokejumping! Since they loved Firefighters A to Z I knew we had to get this book, though.
Needless to say we weren't disappointed. The illustrations are large, brilliant, and true to life in their portrayal of the work of the smokejumper. The text is accurate, simple, yet elegantly descriptive. Oh yes! And the kids love to count along with the pictures and text. My son brought this one (proudly) to preschool and it quickly became such a favorite amongst the kids that the the teacher had to purchase her own copy for the school.

This book is a definate plus for kids. It has a simple story, one side is for older kids that includes more description, and one side is the simpler story for littler kids. Kids relate to the story and are able to open up while you are reading. A definate must have for social worker dealing with domestic violence, or abuse.

This is a good book for children who witness domestic violence at home. It's been helpful with young people in my practice.

Right off the bat I want to notify you that this is a book about law and trial. Now, the pros and cons of this book, one of the pros of this book is the fact that it was non-fiction. It didn't tell a fake story, it was all real. Something else positive about this book is that you learn something about the law each case.
Some cons of the book are the number of pages. It is a short book. Another problem I had was the time spent writing about each case. I feel the author could have elaborated on the case more. For example, the author could have showed the evidence from the case and gave the defending argument, instead of only giving the prosecutions argument.
Overall the good and bad, I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the law and non-fiction books that are short and to the point.
So go out to the library and check out "Teens on Trial."

As a high school law teacher, I found this book a great resource for student discussions. The court cases are written in easy to understand "kid" language. Both sides are presented clearly and fairly. Additional related discussion questions are presented with each case as well as possible answers. My students found the court cases relevant and interesting. At the end of each section, additional court cases are listed to review. It's a great book for teenagers!

I have read three or four of the books out nowadays about bullying and I liked this one the best. Instead of easy answers ("just tell your child these three things") it opts for a much more time-consuming but more rewarding approach that helps the children explore their own views on bullying in particular and issues of unfair treatment in general. Since the question of how one should think, feel, and behave when faced with unfair treatment is such an important issue for all children and adults, I wish every teacher of young children would read this book, and I wish I had had Ms. Katch for a teacher.

The subtitle of this book, "Lessons on teasing and bullying in a preschool classroom" led me to believe that it would be easy to cull those lessons, allowing me to immediately ease the teasing and bullying I see in my own preschool classroom. This is not a book with easy answers, and as I began to read, I don't believe it was intended to be such. It is a very enjoyable read, fast and easy, about the day to day interactions of the author's own classroom. She utilizes some wonderful methods of interacting with and empowering the children, and for this reason I could easily recommend this book be required reading in a college teacher prep course. But in an effort to go deeper into her understanding of bullying, she digresses from her class to interview her brother (a former teaser, now a social worker) and high school students on their experiences. Quite frankly, reading the high school dialogue became tedious (however brief it was) with all the "Like's" that could have just been assumed by the reader.
Overall, I did devour this book and would recommend it to my fellow teachers, (...)

i took this exactly for what its worth. its a book. i took it as nothing more than an author telling us a story thats eerily similar to columbine and hes simply stating that bullying is bad and leads to violence. forget all the stats because i once read that 72% of all stats are made up.. plus they just make you forget what you last read.

so if you take this for what its worth. A BOOK. i think the story and how its written will intrigue you and keep you interested the whole way through.

I am a middle school Civics and this year I had my students read Give a Boy a Gun and the response from students was GREAT! They loved this book. I have also had high school students read this book as well in a Street Law class I taught and they equally enjoyed this book. I highly recommend this book to all Social Studies teachers.

Here are a couple of the reviews my students gave Give a Boy a Gun.

The book Give a Boy a Gun was just a wonderful book! I enjoyed reading it. Usually, I don't read books but when my teacher gave us that book to read I just fell in love with it! I just had to read more and more and find out what would happen in the end. It was just an amazing book to read. I would love to read more books from that author!

Another Student

The book was really good. It kept you think about what will happen next. I think every kid should read this book because it could happen at any school.

This book was very extreme, and completely addictive and thought-provoking. From the way it's written from many different people's point of view as flashbacks, and to the footnotes of interesting information on school shootings, this entire book just makes you wonder about how violent our country is becoming. This book is really short, so it's a fast read, but it will probably stick with you for awhile after you read it because of the seriousness of the subject.

Middletown High School seems a school like any other. There are athletes, especially football players, who feel like they own the place. In some cases they are right; the teachers treat them with a different set of standards and allow them to get away with more than anyone else. There are lots of regular kids and at the other end of the spectrum from the football crowd are the students who are considered freaks. These are the students who are the constant targets of the football players and often of the teachers who recognize the way the system works. It's just like any other high school, and it is dangerous.

Gary and Brendan are two students who are considered freaks. They are constantly bullied by the athletes. They are called names, pushed in the halls, and sometimes they are worried about worse violence. The athletes think they deserve their bad treatment for having no school spirit, for not buying into the glory of athletics. They did it to themselves, some people think. But to Brendan and Gary, it's simply an unfair system that forces them to feel upset and angry every day.

These boys aren't content to just feel angry, though. After years of being pushed around and treated badly, they have finally decided to do something about it, to fight back. They are going to make many of their fellow students and even some of their teachers pay with their lives. They are going to shoot some and bomb others. When the night of the big dance comes, will they be able to pull off this plot? Will someone notice something is terribly wrong and step in?

I liked how the story was told from so many points of view, so you could see how most people didn't think they were doing anything wrong. Even the tormentors couldn't seem to see the results of their actions. I liked the facts about guns at the bottoms of the pages; I was surprised by some of the information.

At the end of the book, many of the characters didn't get it. They still thought the whole tragedy was because Brendan and Gary were crazy, instead of looking at themselves as being partly to blame.

A work of fiction base on facts of numerous school shootings. The book shows diary entries of the two boys who plan and execute the shooting as well as interviews with the survivors and news articles.

The book was very well put together, but the most emotional part was at the end where they show real-life facts about school shooting since the 1970's. The facts and stats will bring tears to your eyes. It also gives you the opinion of the author about what needs to be done and I think we could all learn from his point of views.