by Bhavya Kaushik Ann Jamieson introduction by Grace Chen ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 15, 2015
A worthwhile resource for counselors, teachers, and others who work with children.
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A collection of personal experiences with bullies sends a positive message to kids going through the same ordeal.
This anthology, compiled by Reading Harbor Publishing (Seeking Human Kindness, 2014), shares personal stories about bullying in the hope of making a difference. The contributors are writers, public speakers, educators, entrepreneurs, and therapists from all over the world, each dedicated to helping others overcome the harmful and lasting effects of bullying. Aimed primarily at children and teens, these short pieces are universally positive with similar hopeful messages—above all, that it does get better. The tone is not Pollyannaish, however. The authors are honest about how bullying hurt them, in many cases leading to self-harm, drug use, and suicidal thoughts. The book aims to provide practical strategies for overcoming bullying. The opening piece, “Preventing Peer Victimization,” offers down-to-earth advice, some of which may be difficult for bullied children to implement, such as getting fit and finding allies. A selection of inspirational quotes from celebrities follows, and the remaining pieces are all short, easy-to-read accounts of being bullied. The personal tone helps readers see themselves in the stories. The writers share how they got through these difficult periods in their lives by finding a passion or “something to hold on to when things are tough,” such as martial arts, reading, or riding horses. The clear message is that everyone finds a different path to recovery. The stories reassure victims of bullies that they are not alone; others know what they are going through and can help. They also tell tough truths, such as questioning the effectiveness of school anti-bullying programs. Many of the stories are heartbreaking and can make for tough reading. While the stories are primarily aimed at young people, who are most likely to be bullied, some contributors write about parental, spousal, and workplace abuse, which, while similar to bullying, would probably require different coping strategies. Overall, however, these encouraging stories will buoy confidence and self-esteem in bullied kids.
A worthwhile resource for counselors, teachers, and others who work with children.Pub Date: July 15, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Reading Harbor
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by David Grann ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2017
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
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Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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by Ta-Nehisi Coates ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 8, 2015
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”
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The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.
Atlantic senior writer Coates (The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”
This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”Pub Date: July 8, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
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