Crisis and children: books to help children through trying times

Play Therapy With Children in Crisis edited by Nancy Boyd Webb Guilford Press, August 1999, $47.00, ISBN 1-572-30485-5

Help Me Say Goodbye: Activities for Helping Kids Cope When A Special Person Dies by Marge E. Heegaard Fairview Press, April 1999, $9.95, ISBN 1-577-49085-1

A Terrible Thing Happened: A Story for Children Who Have Witnessed Violence or Trauma by Margaret M. Holmes, illustrated by Cary Pillo American Psychological Association, February 2001, $14.95, ISBN 1-557-98642-8

Ten Talks Parents Must Have with Their Children About Violence by Dominic Cappello Hyperion, April 2000, $12.95, ISBN 0-786-88549-1

Parenting Through a Crisis: Helping Kids In Times of Loss, Grief and Change by Barbara Coloroso HarperResource, November 2000, $24.00, ISBN 0-060-19856-7

The Right Book, The Right Time: Helping Children Cope by Martha C. Grindler, Michael McKenna and Beverly D. Stratton Allyn & Bacon, December 1996, $31.00, ISBN 0-205-17272-5

Coping with Death and Grief by Marge E. Heegaard Lerner Publications, August 1990, $19.95, ISBN 0-822-50043-4

Together We'll Get Through This by Karen L. Carney Dragonfly Publishing, May 1997, $7.95, ISBN 0-966-78200-3

Scared Child: Helping Children Overcome Traumatic Events by Barbara A. Brooks John Wiley & Sons September 1996, $16.95, ISBN 0-471-08284-8

April Morning: Children Remember the Oklahoma City Bombing By Nancy Lamb Illustrated by Floyd Cooper Lothrop Lee & Shepard, April 1996, $16.00, ISBN 0-688-14666-X

When Someone Very Special Dies by Marge E. Heegaard Fairview Press, 1988, $6.95, ISBN 0-962-05020-2

The history of the development of African American children's literature is a story that has not been recovered completely and told in its fullness. Various scholars are working diligently toward that goal. The academic journal African American Review devoted a special issue to the topic in 1998, made up of articles by many of the researchers. The Oxford Companion to African American Literature and other respected reference books now include pieces on this body of work. In addition, there are individual efforts such as Rudine Sims Bishop's Shadow and Substance and Dianne Johnson-Feelings's The Best of the Brownies's Book (Oxford University Press Children's Books) that represent significant but limited portions of the history.

As the new director of the Children's Defense Fund Langston Hughes Library, I am eager to move forward and build on the library mission to serve as the leading national repository for the best quality children's literature by authors and illustrators of African descent and on the black experience for all children. To learn more go to www.chidrensdefense.org.

Khafre Abif is the director of the Children's Defense Fund Langston Hughes Library in Clinton, TN

COPYRIGHT 2001 Cox, Matthews & Associates
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group