A worthwhile resource for counselors, teachers, and others who work with children.
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
In 1989, The National Interest published "The End of History?" by Fukuyama, then a senior official at the State Department. In that comparatively short but extremely controversial article, Fukuyama speculated that liberal democracy may constitute the "end point of mankind's ideological evolution" and hence the "final form of human government." Now Fukuyama has produced a brilliant book that, its title notwithstanding, takes an almost entirely new tack. To begin with, he examines the problem of whether it makes sense to posit a coherent and directional history that would lead the greater part of humanity to liberal democracy. Having answered in the affirmative, he assesses the regulatory effect of modern natural science, a societal activity consensually deemed cumulative as well as directional in its impact. Turning next to a "second, parallel account of the historical process," Fukuyama considers humanity's struggle for recognition, a concept articulated and borrowed (from Plato) by Hegel. In this context, he goes on to reinterpret culture, ethical codes, labor, nationalism, religion, war, and allied phenomena from the past, projecting ways in which the desire for acknowledgement could become manifest in the future. Eventually, the author addresses history's presumptive end and the so-called "last man," an unheroic construct (drawn from Tocqueville and Nietzsche) who has traded prideful belief in individual worth for the civilized comforts of self-preservation. Assuming the prosperity promised by contemporary liberal democracy indeed come to pass, Fukuyama wonders whether or how the side of human personality that thrives on competition, danger, and risk can be fulfilled in the sterile ambiance of a brave new world. At the end, the author leaves tantalizingly open the matter of whether mankind's historical journey is approaching a close or another beginning; he even alludes to the likelihood that time travelers may well strike out in directions yet undreamt. An important work that affords significant returns on the investments of time and attention required to get the most from its elegantly structured theme.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 1992
ISBN: 0-02-910975-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The ever-popular and highly readable C.S. Lewis has "done it again." This time with a book beginning with the premise "God is Love" and analyzing the four loves man knows well, but often understands little, Affection, Friendship, Eros and Charity, exploring along the way the threads of Need-Love and Gift-Love that run through all. It is written with a deep perception of human beings and a background of excellent scholarship. Lewis proposes that all loves are a search for, perhaps a conflict with, and sometimes a denial of, love of God. "Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God. For what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and a cry for help?" To relate the human activities called loves to the Love which is God, Lewis cites three graces as parts of Charity: Divine Gift-Love, a supernatural Need-love of Himself and a supernatural Need-love of one another, to which God gives a third, "He can awake in man, towards Himself a supernatural Appreciative love. This of all gifts is the most to be desired. Here, not in our natural loves, nor even in ethics, lies the true center of all human and angelic life. With this all things are possible." From a reading of this book laymen and clergy alike will reap great rewards: a deeper knowledge of an insight into human loves, and, indeed, humans, offered with beauty and humor and a soaring description of man's search for God through Love.
Pub Date: July 27, 1960
ISBN: 0156329301
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Harcourt, Brace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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