Without even noticing it, we diminish children in somany ways. Holt perceptively points out these ways, and offerspractical ways to treat children more respectfully.

Finding Grandpa Everywhere is a beautiful, touching book about acceptance of death and seeing joy and love in what remains behind.

"For This Child I Pray; A Father's Prayer Journal" is an absolutely beautiful idea: a directed prayer journal for Christian fathers. Each two pages offers a relevant scripture and a thoughtful quote, and focus prayer statements where the father then adds his own specific prayers for himself and for his child on a subject. For example, one page asks ' As a father, I pray for the correct definition of success specifically in ....' and 'Today God, help my child succeed in....' - the father fills in the rest. The way it's laid out and written is concise and easy and would not involve hours of journaling - I can see a Dad spending maybe 15 minutes for each two page section. A Dad could either use one journal for more than one child or could dedicate a separate journal to each child. The picture on the front really grabs father's hearts (I tested it on my husband and he was totally hooked at first glance). I think I have not seen a better tool for men's spiritual growth, for enhancing a father's awareness of his own influence, for reflection on parenting, and praying with wisdom for his children. This will capture every Christian Dad's heart and the heart of his child. This would make an exceptional gift or keepsake. Ron DiCianni also has written a prayer journal for mothers. If there is a wait for delivery, it will be worth it.

Superintendent Ross and High school principal Marlowe cover every aspect: student-teacher relationships, child molestation, sexual harrassment, sexual deviation, and staff romances. Authors look at what kinds of situations create a potential for sexual improprieties, and, most importantly, how to solve the problem once created.

The failings of the troubled Milwaukee social services system in many respects parallel those of other systems.

Today, some short years have passed since an entrenched child welfare bureaucracy thwarted the reform efforts of Hagedorn and his Youth Initiative. The results have been tragic for children, and promise to worsen.

After his departure, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against the troubled Milwaukee County Department of Social Services, essentially charging the Department with failure to provide services to children, and with abuse and neglect of the children in its care.

Today, a state takeover of the Milwaukee child welfare system looms imminent. It has been reported that as the takeover nears that conditions for children and families continue to deteriorate. It is expected that as the state takes over the troubled system, that the removal of children from their homes will double in number.

All of this could have avoided had the bureaucracy not resisted the reform efforts of the Youth Initiative. As Hagedorn explains: "The last of our reform team left the Department of Social Services by the end of 1993. The good old boys whom we had tried to depose returned victoriously, and completely, to power."

His observations are particularly timely in view of the recent departure of court-appointed receiver Jerome Miller, whose efforts at reforming the troubled District of Columbia child welfare system were chronicled in the Washington Post. Miller recounts that from his earliest days as receiver, the District's child welfare bureaucracy shored itself up in an effort to thwart his efforts. Once he departed it took the Department less than a week to undo the few reforms he had managed to implement, handing contracts back to favored service providers.

John Hagedorn takes the reader into the innermost circles--the very nooks and crannies of the child welfare bureaucracy, explaining not just the how but the critical why underlying the failure of nearly every effort at reform.

Challenged here are the most cherished assumptions about child welfare, among them the "myth of classlessness." Hagedorn recounts how the results of a study were suppressed when it was found that the vast majority of child abuse reports came from impoverished areas of the county--contrary to what the report was originally intended to convey.

Also challenged are the commonly held assumptions about high caseloads, the lack of resources, and the core tasks of social workers--those tasks which define what they do on a day-to-day basis.

But there is one most pervasive myth of all--central to the continued existence of child welfare as we know it--which Hagedorn boldly confronts. "It's simply too risky for bureaucrats to admit that their agency may not be 'doing good.' The erosion of that myth may lead someone to investigate them or even propose cutting their budgets."

The failings of the Milwaukee system are in many respects typical. Indeed, as of early 1998, legislators have called for a complete audit and investigation of the Los Angeles Department of Social Services, an "underbudgeted" agency which somehow or other manages to spend half a billion dollars per year on foster care services alone. In New York City, a lawsuit seeks to push the troubled child welfare agency into court receivership. New York City spends more per capita than any other city in the country, notes Children's Rights, Inc. It should have one of the best child welfare agencies in the country--instead it has one of the worst.

No other volume serves better to illuminate the inner workings of the shadowy institution of child protective services than does Forsaking Our Children. Only Hagedorn answers the questions of how and why these more recent efforts at reform are likely to fail. But he does not stop there. He also provides a critical recipe for meaningful and lasting reform.

No student of the child welfare system should be without this thoroughly researched and annotated volume. While some others may have learned their lessons in the classroom, Hagedorn has learned his battling the child welfare bureaucracy head on.

This is a book which has helped me develop an attitude for perceiving children. It and "The Continuum Concept" by Jean Leidloff, have both helped convince me how little of our unsolicited instructions children really need.

John Holt is one who takes 'freedom' to its limits, at least as far as children are concerned.

The change it brought in me: When I have the baby sitter's role with my kids, I try to do that which is of mutual interest to us (myself and the kids), or do something which I like while they're doing their stuff. However, I have an open door policy, and allow them to come up to me for any of their queries. Doing something which just interests my kid is defeating, as my frustration and resentment gets transferred through my tone or through my way of looking at them.

It would enable a person who always finds children to be messy, annoying, revolting and disobedient to see them as friendly, interesting, and transparent.

This is one of Gorey's best stories, about the sad life of a sickeningly sweet orphan. Some people might prefer "The Gashlycrumb Tinies", but I think "The Hapless Child" is superior. This book is the epitome of Gorey's weird style, a parody of Victorian fiction, and always funny in a gruesome way, or gruesome in a funny way, depending on how you look at it. "The Hapless Child" is also collected in the first "Amphigorey" collection, but any serious collector of Goriana will have to own this edition as well.

This book informs and spells out after affects of abuse and helps to define what to watch for in those you have traditionally trusted because anyone can be damaged enough to abuse and we are responsible to protect our children and to heal. Take the HEALING PLUNGE/never regret it!

Helping Schoolchildren Cope with Anger: A Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention by Jim Larson (Professor of Psychology and Director of the School Psychology Program, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater) and John Lochman (Professor and Saxon Chairholder in clinical Psychology, University of Alabama, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center) is a straightfoward, solution-oriented guide to dealing with chronic aggression in young students, particularly those ranging in age from 8 to 12 years. This invaluable, accessible work is based upon the latest studies and findings on childhood aggression, and presents the principles behind the authors' own approaches to teaching young folks how to cope with anger, along with session-by-session guidelines, and a great deal more, Helping Schoolchildren Cope with Anger is a first-rate supplement to professional help for disturbed children and highly recommended for professional and academic reference collections in the field of anger management studies.

I read Dr. Taylor's book on Helping Your Heperactive Child and found it to be accurate and informative. It was very good! I consider myself to be a bit of an expert on this subject because I was ADHD-sa and my father was ADD and my son was ADHD so I know what I'm talking about. Mary Powell