A Book Review of Friendship and Other Weapons by Signe Whitson

 Submitted by Lisa Shepard

 There are a great many books, theories and beliefs about bullying. Experts and others have devoted volumes discussing the many theories as to why bullying occurs and how professional should handle the overall topic. Schools have developed themes to assists students in learning to be kind to one another and have devised programs dedicated to mentoring to assist all students to be able to enjoy a positive experience in school and in the community. While all of this is informative and helpful there are fewer examples of curriculum-based instruction dedicated to a specific population of children bullied, facing bullying or are tormentors themselves. Signe Whitsons book Friendship and Other Weapons is a comprehensive skill-based curriculum of activities designed to teach young girls how to be confident, and proud of who they are.

Reclaiming Youth Bookstore is pleased to offer "Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion" by Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles.  This book came highly recommended to us by a number of people. Following are two of those recommendations:

First, from  Dr. Martin Brokenleg, RYI Co-Founder & Co-Author of "Reclaiming Youth at Risk":

Sometimes I find someone who embodies the hope I have.  Father Greg Boyle writes about his work with poor youth in an inner city in Tattoos on the Heart.  One of his goals is fostering , "a compassion that can stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment at how they carry it" (p.67).  This compassion is a quality found in our hearts.  Reading this book will open and touch your heart.

How to Be Angry: An Assertive Anger Expression Group Guide for Kids and Teens

Signe Whitson

Signe Whitson isn’t angry.  And even if she was, you might not know it. She has written the book on How to be Angry. With a foreword by Nicholas Long, Signe provides a curriculum she describes as an assertive anger expression group guide for kids and teens. This three part book addresses the broad topics of Exploring Anger Behaviors, Developing Assertive Anger Expression Skills, and Committing to Assertive Anger Expression.

Through fifteen sessions within those broad topic areas Signe provides well-developed lesson plans. In just a sampling of what the reader will find in this book Part 1, Exploring Anger Behaviors includes lessons titled Decisions, Decisions! Four Choices in Anger Expression and Sugarcoated Hostility: The Five Levels of Passive Aggressive Behavior. Part 2 includes lessons titled I Feel Angry! Using I-Messages to Express Anger Assertively and two lessons on Keeping Bullies at Bay that address The Five W’s of Bullying and Four Rules for Using Assertive Communication to Stand Up to Bullies. The final section presents two lessons, What’s the Plan? Replacing Self-Defeating Patterns and Committing to Assertive Behaviors and Putting It All Together: Choosing to Use Assertive Behaviors to Express Anger.

Small Stories: Reflections on the Practice of Positive Youth Development

By Lloyd and Anthea Martin

Circle of Courage Publications is proud to include Small Stories in its library of leading-edge resources for helping all young people flourish. The authors draw on decades of experience in teaching and youth work with indigenous teens and families in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Consistent with resilience research, their focus on universal growth needs makes this book relevant in any setting.

Many professionals try to keep their distance and dish out a cure to a client from a troubled background. The Martins move care to the forefront, joining with the community and people they serve. They show how to connect with adult-wary youth in the natural environment, using moments of crisis as well as shared activities of hilarity and joy. Most outsiders saw only violence and dysfunction in these turbulent neighborhoods. While the authors recount real pain, they also reveal the joy, inner strength, and social support that enable these persons and cultures to thrive.

Dr. Martin Brokenleg provides the following book review of First Nations 101 by Lynda Gray. 

The Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia is known for the intensity of its social problems.  Aboriginal people are concentrated in this part of the city.  There is one beacon of light and hope in The Urban Native Youth Centre.  A number of healing, motivating, cultural supports and educational programming take place at this Centre.  Lynda Gray is the Director of the Centre and is well-known throughout the city for her compassion and dedication to supporting Native youth in the city.

First Nations 101 (Vancouver, Adaawx Publishing, 2011) is an introduction to the many topics that make the history and current status of Native people unique.  Gray addresses cultural, historical, legal, and social topics as they are found among Native peoples.  She is open about problems, clear about causes, and positive in assessing the complex modern world of Aboriginal peoples.

No one can even be curious about a topic without some prior information.  This gem of an book will introduce readers to one of the mosaics in the multicultural society of Canada.  This is a book I wish I had as a professor of Native Studies.  It is a book I wish I had written.

We are pleased to include the following book review of Fire in the Heart , which was submitted to us by Kathy Dennison, a 5th Grade Teacher from Brookville, PA.  Thanks Kathy!

Fire in the Heart as told to Matthew Van Bockern is an excellent example of a Native American legend. This engaging story captured the interest of my fifth grade class. They sat engrossed as they learned of a young Indian boy named Roanhorse mentored by an old woman he met in the woods who taught him the importance of respect for the earth and its people. When Roanhorse came of age, he was chosen as one of two deserving young men to vie for the position of leader of the tribe.

A book review of:

Skills for Families, Skills for Life: How to Help Parents and Caregivers Meet the Challenges of Everyday Living

By: Amy Simpson, Paula Kohrt, Linda M. Shadoin, Joni Cook-Griffin, & Jane L. Peterson

A Book Review of

Rethinking Juvenile Justice

Elizabeth S. Scott and Laurence Steinberg

2008, Harvard University Press

Reviewed by Steve Van Bockern

A 12-year-old charged with two counts of homicide will stand trial as an adult. The boy is charged in the February 2009 shooting deaths of his father’s pregnant fiancée and her unborn son, Christopher. The boy was 11 at the time of the killings. If convicted of murder as an adult, he faces life in prison without parole.

Our courts are faced with the dilemma of trying to determine when children and if children should be tried as adults. Questions abound:

• When is a child a child and adult an adult?Even when there is an horrendous act of violence by a child, is she less culpable by virtue of her immaturity?  
• At what age does a person become fully responsible for crimes committed? 
• Is trying children as adults successful? How do you define success? 
• Do juvenile courts rehabilitate better than adult prisons?

A book review of

Deep Brain Learning: Pathways to Potential with Challenging Youth

Larry K. Brendtro, Martin L. Mitchell, Herman J. McCall

2009, Starr Commonwealth

Reviewed by: Mark Freado

A Review of:

Fire in the Heart

By: Matt Van Bockern

Illustrated by: Justin Royal

Item #: 1220

Reviewed by: Steve Van Bockern