A quick, accessible introduction for new caregivers.
A compact resource that addresses the typical concerns of those who care for the elderly.
Edwards (Flip Flap Floodle, 2004) draws on 14 years of personal experience caring for her aged mother, plus additional research, to provide a survey of issues that affect people thrust into similar roles. She poses questions and discusses the factors that affect what level of care an elder needs. However, when she tackles the subject of assisted-living and skilled-nursing facilities, it highlights the inherent challenge of writing this type of book. Regulation of such facilities varies from state to state, limiting how detailed and specific such advice can be, and there’s similar variation regarding medical care, insurance, wills, probate, and other, related matters. Edwards plows many furrows, most not very deeply. Twenty-one brief chapters span the logistical, medical, financial, legal, interpersonal, social, emotional, and spiritual issues that arise when one adult becomes responsible for another. Sometimes they cover subjects in only one sentence: “Support Groups: People join support groups to share experiences and common concerns, learn coping skills, and to give each other emotional support and comfort.” As a result, this is really a book of lists with some items expounded upon a bit more fully. Edwards offers readers dozens of sources for additional reading and provides endnotes; an appendix includes charts and forms to log information regarding schedules and medications. Overall, the book is strongest when the author shares tips from her own experience providing in-home care and when discussing communication—between the caregiver and elder, with health providers, and with substitute caregivers. In these moments, she effectively shares practical methods and systems that worked for her. The prose is conversational in tone, breezy at times, but clear throughout; readers who have already used hospice care, for example, will find her descriptions spot-on. She approaches every discussion, from relationships to religion, in an inclusive, nonjudgmental manner, and her hard-earned empathy shines through.
A quick, accessible introduction for new caregivers.Pub Date: April 15, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-940310-40-4
Page Count: 176
Publisher: 4rv Nonfiction
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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