This is an excellant resource guide for all individuals involved in long-term care or hospice
I commend the authors for a job well done.

The Management of Challenging Behaviors in Dementia is an outstanding resource for anyone who cares for people with dementia. I am a Director of Nursing in a nursing home as well as a doctoral student in nursing. I am constantly searching the literature for pragmatic but sensitive approaches to care that are supported by theory and research. Many books promise innovative strategies but I am frequently disappointed by content that is either too basic or too abstract and theoretical. This book is the exception--it is perfectly balanced.

The book offers innovative approaches to care that are practical and useful for the caregivers. The book is rare in that it provides the rationale for not only the inventive approaches but also for the underlying causes of the behavior and the more commonly used interventions in practice. The authors write clearly and concisely without compromising on explaining reasons or describing detail.

The authors' appreciation of the difficulties encountered by caregivers who work with people with dementia is evident. Their sensitivity in understanding the pain felt by the person with dementia, the family and the caregivers is reflected throughout the book. They do not promise the ultimate solution to solve all behavior problems but do offer practical, sensitive and sound approaches to assist caregivers in enhancing the quality of life for people with dementia.

I highly recommnend this book for anyone involved in caring for people with dementia. It validates the importance of the caregiver's actions and supports the need for knowledgeable and skilled people to provide care. The book is a must for long term care facilities, home health agencies, nursing schools and hospitals. It offers hope for the person with dementia and all those involved in his or her care.

"Old Rosa: A Novel in Two Stories" is a compelling work of fiction by Reinaldo Arenas, one of Cuba's most important writers. As the book's subtitle indicates, this work consists of two shorter pieces. The first, "Old Rosa," has been translated into English by Ann Tashi Slater; the second, "The Brightest Star," has been translated into English by Andrew Hurley.

The first story tells of the family of Old Rosa, a Cuban landowner whose life begins to fall apart under Castro's revolution. As Arenas explores her family and community relationships, he illuminates such issues as racial prejudice, homophobia, and economic conflict. This is a powerful story which skillfully blends elements of hard-core realism with hallucinatory supernatural touches.

The second story, "The Brightest Star," follows the experiences of Old Rosa's son Arturo in a Cuban forced-labor camp. This is a harrowing tale which deals in part with the redemptive power of writing and fantasy.

This book is an important piece of 20th century Latin American literature. The only drawback I found as a reader was the fact that each story unfolds as a single unbroken paragraph; this format, although impressive from a technical aspect, gets somewhat tiring after a while. But I still recommend "Old Rosa." And I also suggest that those who are impressed with Arenas' gifts as a fiction writer also read his remarkable autobiography, "Before Night Falls" (which has been made into a compelling film).

Old Rosa's world falls apart - a son joining the rebels made a crack - discovering her favored son is homosexual completes the destruction. The final five pages are incredible writing - Rosa's anger turns towards God, towards an angel, and turns destructive as she refuses to face the disgrace.

Yes, the two related stories in this slim volume stand as excellent writing in themselves - but the fire scene transforms the book into "incredible".

I bought this book hoping to find some specific exercises I could practice with my child in our pool. It was not very useful for that purpose. The book seems more of a way for existing swimming teachers to learn about this organization's philosophies on child development as it pertains to aquatics. It was nice to read a detailed accounting of why a 1-year-old resists back-floating but I wanted more of an idea of how to teach my child to blow bubbles and other beginning skills. It really doesn't go into actually showing you how to teach skills. This is a pitfall of buying a book based only on the title. Were I able to flip through it first, I would've realized this was probably not the book I was looking for.

This book is a very thorough introduction to teaching swimming to young children and is great for new swimming instructors. It covers the basics how a child's developmental stage intersects with the kinds of swimming skills and water safety children are ready to take on. However, I found it does not provide teachers with concrete ways to actually operationalize these skills through water play and songs. A few pages at the end of the book list out sample lesson plans, but if you aren't familiar with the songs listed you are out of luck (many of them appear to be australian children's songs). To be ready to teach a class you would also need to find a book of water songs and games for kids of different developmental stages.