Mommy’s Black Eye by William George Bentrim

“Domestic violence exists.  That is a simple disturbing fact.  It isn't something that should be ignored or swept under the rug.  It is imperative to face this problem, acknowledge its existence and do our best to aid those who are exposed to it.  Children, all too often, are susceptible to accepting responsibility for their parent's bad behavior.  They need to understand that they are not responsible for the violence.  This book attempts to explain a very complicated issue to young children. It is focused on pre-school to middle school children.  It is not designed as a panacea, merely an attempt to help them understand what is going on in their lives."

Hear My Roar: A Story of Family Violence by Gillian Watts

"This book can help children understand that they have a right to live free from violence in their own homes."   Rita Smith, NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, DENVER, CO

"It's summer, and Mama, Papa, and little Orsa Bear are picnicking in the woods.  Papa tells Orsa how they used to scare animals into traps by roaring.  He challenges Orsa to roar, but ridicules him when he isn't loud or scary enough.  Papa's own roar is so loud and scary, Orsa cowers in fright."  "Told in comic-book style, this indispensable guide for parents and caregivers provides a gentle, non-threatening approach to talking with children about family violence."

A Family That Fights by Sharon Chesler Bernstein

"Henry's parents fight often and his father sometimes hits his mother, causing Henry to feel frightened and ashamed. Includes a list of things children can do in situations of family violence."
"Domestic violence is a strong subject for a children's book, but there is nothing shown here that a child in a violent family has not already seen. There is no feeling reflected that the child has not felt." Sharon Bernstein, Author
"Ideally, a caring adult should share this book with a child or a group of children." Sharon Bernstein, Author

Talking About Domestic Violence by Nicola Edwards

“Talking About Domestic Violence" looks at different types of violence in the home and how children can be affected by it.  The book encourages children to talk to someone they trust and reassures them that help is there.  It describes how families have left violent homes and built new lives.

"Home is where everyone is supposed to be safe.  So witnessing an adult hitting or threatening their partner affects children deeply and can leave life-long emotional scars.  Children too may be physically hurt.  Frightened, worried sick, ashamed that it's happening to their mum or dad and confused by the abuse of a parent they love some withdraw into a cloak of silence to protect the family."

Something Is Wrong at My House: A Book About Parents’ Fighting: REVISED EDITION by Diane Davis

This classic book, now revised, helps children between the ages of 3 and 10 acknowledge and express their feelings about domestic violence in their homes.  Beyond that, it shows them how to get help and how to deal with conflict in nonviolent ways.  Domestic violence is passed from generation to generation unless a child learns how to handle interpersonal relationships in a different way.  Something Is Wrong at My House can help break the generational cycle of domestic violence."

A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Child Abuse by Jim Mooney

This ground breaking book shows you how to be a good parent and avoid becoming involved with a child protection agency.  It also has plenty of information and suggestions for families involved with a child protection agency.  This is a great resource for parents who recently moved to the United States.  It helps them to understand some of what is expected of parents in the U.S.  A Parent's Guide to Preventing Child Abuse includes:  1. Help child proof your home   2. Basic parenting tips   3. What is considered child abuse and neglect   4. Ally's scale for safe and unsafe parenting   5. Knowing what to expect with a child protection agency   6. Tips for working with professionals   7. Being more organized AND more!

Talking to My Mum: A Picture Workbook for Workers, Mothers and Children Affected by Domestic Abuse by Cathy Humphreys, Ravi K. Thiara, Agnes Skamballis and Audrey Mullender

Talking to My Mum is a photocopiable activity workbook for five-to-eight-year-olds whose families have experienced domestic abuse, to help and support them in recovery and moving on.    Based on the authors' work with women and children, the workbook features illustrated activities with animal characters that encourage the young reader to build their confidence by working with their mothers and exploring a range of memories and feelings, including changes in the family's living arrangements, talking about their father, or happy times with siblings and friends.

Talking about Domestic Abuse: A Photo Activity Workbook to Develop Communication between Mothers and Young People by Cathy Humphreys, Ravi K. Thiara, Agnes Skamballis and Audrey Mullender

Talking about Domestic Abuse is a photocopiable activity workbook for use with children from approximately nine years to adolescence whose families have experienced domestic abuse, to help and support them in recovery and moving on.     Based on the authors' work with women and children, the activities are designed around four main themes:  1. Talking about personal experiences, including domestic violence   2. Building self-esteem 3. Naming feelings and 4. Facilitating mother-child communication.  Activities are accompanied by photographs that prompt discussion about the issues raised.

The Autism Acceptance Book: Being a Friend to Someone with Autism by Ellen Sabin

Dear Friend,

The Autism Acceptance Book will help you learn about autism and some of the different qualities of people with autism.

You will see that, like you, people with autism have their own special skills and challenges.  And, like you, they want to be accepted and understood.

People with autism may not always act the ways that you expect, but if you take time to understand them, you will get to learn new things and make new friends.

Kindly,  Ellen Sabin

What to Do When You Worry Too Much: A Kid’s Guide to Overcoming Anxiety by Dawn Huebner, Ph.D.

"What to Do When You Worry Too Much" guides children and parents through the cognitive-behavioral techniques most often used in the treatment of anxiety.  Lively metaphors and illustrations make the concepts and strategies easy to understand, while clear how-to-steps and prompts to draw and write help children master new skills related to reducing anxiety.  This interactive self-help book is the complete resource for educating, motivating, and empowering kids to overcome their overgrown worries.

The Complete Lifebook Workbook:  2^nd Edition by Jim Mooney

The purpose of this book is to help children and adults make a life book --- WHICH SHOULD HELP THE CHILD TO DEVELOP A BETTER SENSE OF WHO THEY ARE.  It provides some guidance and suggestions for important subjects to be covered.  It also gives ideas on how to look at certain subjects.  The material is written for children who have lived in or are living in foster care, group care, or with their adoptive family.

Spend a reasonable period of time per work session (don't overdo it)

Playful Approaches to Serious Problems: Narrative Therapy with Children and Their Families by Jennifer Freeman, David Epston and Dean Lobovits

"The narrative therapy approach involves the whole family and especially children by respecting their unique language, problem-solving resources, and views of the world.  When the grown-up talk becomes serious and focused on analyzing problems, it is likely to turn children off.  The authors of this book ask, "What might it mean for us as helpers of families and children to be light on our toes when confronting weighty problems?  Is it possible to play and to maintain a sense of humor while dealing effectively with distressing, frightening, or perilous situations?  How can we invite children and family members to bring forth their imaginative and creative resources while coming to grips with the sociocultural complexity of problems?"  These questions determine the nature of their inquiry into playful approaches to serious problems."

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson

ROSE ZELTSER TOOK 2 OF OUR 3 COPIES FOR USE IN FOSTER CARE TRAINING FOR STAFF.    Eleven-year-old Gilly Hopkins is famous for being brash, brilliant, and completely unmanageable.  None of her foster homes has been able to tame her yet.  So when Gilly is sent to live with the Trotters--by far the strangest foster family of all--she decides to put her brilliant mind to work.  What she needs is a plan that will make her real mother rescue her so she can stop being a foster child once and for all.  But the rescue doesn't work out quite the way Gilly planned---

 

Children’s Solution Work by Insoo Kim Berg and Therese Steiner

"An extraordinary book, Children's Solution Work is rich in clinical examples which will resonate with anyone who works with children---psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, school counselors, and family therapists.  The most complex of circumstances requiring intervention are described in detail, for example, abuse, violence, autism, retardation, eating disorders, ADHD, suicidal ideation and attempts, encopresis, enuresis, grief, and more.  Most remarkably, Insoo Kim Berg and Therese Steiner are gifted storytellers who allow the reader to be absorbed in the details of "how" solution focused therapists work with children, revealing their complex, intimate clinical experiences as well as their inner struggles to be helpful."     Cynthia Hansen, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist in Portland, Oregon

 

How to Screen Adoptive and Foster Parents: A Workbook for Professionals and Students by James L. Dickerson, Mardi Allen and Daniel Pollack

"1. What should you know before beginning a screening interview?  2. What are the warning signs that an applicant may be a child predator?  3. What are the steps to conducting a thorough home study?  4. When is psychological consultation warranted?"

"Screening potential adoptive and foster parents is an extremely difficult task, yet many social workers who screen applicants and supervise placements have no written guide to aid in their decision making or to measure competency of technique." 

This book serves as a comprehensive guide for social workers to draw on when making decisions for foster care / adoption placement.

 

Interactional Supervision: 3^rd Edition by Lawrence Shulman

The book is written in a conversational mode and is designed to be easy for students in supervision courses and for new and experienced supervisors.  Along with numerous examples from "real life" supervision and a thorough explication of a work-phase model of supervision, the new edition includes:  1. In-depth discussion and illustrations of the practice content of supervision, 2. Supervision of evidence-based practices, 3. Ethical issues, changing legislation, and risk assessment strategies, 4. Group leadership, group supervision, and the impact of traumatic events, i.e., 9/11.

 

Maps of Narrative Practice by Michael White

"In this much-anticipated and long-awaited book, Michael White draws on his more than 20 years of clinical and professional experience to present readers with the definitive guide to understanding and successfully implementing narrative therapy techniques in their practice."  "Maps of Narrative Practice" expertly lays out the six main areas of narrative practice---1. Externalizing conversations, 2. Re-authoring conversations, 3. Re-membering conversations, 4. Definitional ceremonies, 5. Unique outcome conversations, and 6. Scaffolding conversations---clearly explaining how to employ them in clinical practice, and exploring the practical implications for therapeutic growth of each one.

 

The Pinballs by Betsy Byars

ROSE ZELTSER TOOK 2 COPIES OF OUR 3 FOR USE IN FOSTER CARE TRAINING FOR STAFF.

"Take a good look at a pinball machine sometime.  You might learn something about life."  Carlie gets bounced around like a pinball--no say in what happens to her, nobody to depend on.  If she was in charge, she wouldn't be stuck in this foster home with two other kids, Harvey and Thomas J.  But to her surprise, Carlie and the boys become friends.  And as the three learn to depend on each other, they also start to realize that they don't have to be like pinballs.  Together, they can stop bouncing around and take control of their own lives.

 

Becoming Patrick: A Memoir by Patrick McMahon

When Pat McMahon risks the love of the mother who raised him by seeking out the mother who gave him away, he transforms from a mild-mannered engineer into a frenetic detective.  After he overcomes the challenges of existential angst, bureaucratic roadblocks, and unemployment, the phone call to his first mother releases a torrent of long-buried feelings.  During a sometimes turbulent long-distance unfolding, he absorbs her shocking revelations and comes out as gay once again.  Their eventual reunion creates a profound bond, even as he navigates waves of conflicting emotions, merges past with present, and embarks on a new future rooted in truth and insights into the universal quest for identity and human connection.  He is Becoming Patrick.

 

Three Little Words: A Memoir by Ashley Rhodes- Courter

ROSE ZELTSER TOOK 2 COPIES OF OUR 3 FOR USE IN FOSTER CARE TRAINING FOR STAFF. "Sunshine, you're my baby and I'm your only mother.  You must mind the one taking care of you, but she's not your mama."   Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes, living by those words.  As her mother spirals out of control, Ashley is left clinging to an unpredictable, dissolving relationship, all the while getting pulled deeper and deeper into the foster care system.

Painful memories of being taken away from her home quickly become consumed by real-life horrors, where Ashley is juggled between caseworkers, shuffled from school to school, and forced to endure manipulative, humiliating treatment from a very abusive foster family.  Ashley finds the courage to succeed--and in doing so, discovers the power of her own voice.