A broad-minded and engaging activity book to help children work out their feelings.
An interactive workbook designed to help kids deal with separation and divorce.
This volume from Nightingale (Building Resiliency, 2018) draws on her experience as a psychologist and family therapist. She offers a series of illustrated exercises that aim to help children of separation and divorce work through various aspects of chaotic events in their lives. They’re peppered with affirmations, such as “It’s okay to keep on loving both your parents” and “Do you know that crying can sometimes make grownups feel better, too?” It presents a kid-friendly frame story in which a beautiful mermaid and a strong knight fall in love and have four children: Constance, Arletta, Newton, and Spartacus. After a while, tensions grow when the mermaid wants to return to the sea and the knight wants to stay on land: “everything seemed to upset both of them, and they complained about each other,” Nightingale writes. The book offers a series of scenarios involving each child as they experience their parents’ split, and this narrative device allows the author to effectively explore different reactions, including withdrawal, moodiness, anger, and resentment. Each section offers discussion questions (such as “Newton wondered WHY about many parts of his parents’ divorce….What things have you wondered WHY about?”) and pages of exercises (such as “Draw a picture of something special at your mom’s house”). Nightingale’s experience and empathy make the book invaluable for parents who may have read adult books about divorce—including, possibly, the author’s own—but want a similar resource for their kids. The author’s decision to create four fictional children, instead of one, is wise, as well, as it increases the likelihood that a child will find someone relatable in these pages.
A broad-minded and engaging activity book to help children work out their feelings.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-889755-01-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Nightingale Rose Publications
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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
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