Education / Educational sciences / Pedagogy Books

Book SynopsisIn 1967, when Jo Ivester was ten years old, her father transplanted his young family from a suburb of Boston to a small town in the heart of the Mississippi cotton fields, where he became the medical director of a clinic that served the poor population for miles around. But ultimately it was not Ivester’s father but her mother—a stay-at-home mother of four who became a high school English teacher when the family moved to the South—who made the most enduring mark on the town. In The Outskirts of Hope, Ivester uses journals left by her mother, as well as writings of her own, to paint a vivid, moving, and inspiring portrait of her family’s experiences living and working in an all-black town during the height of the civil rights movement.Trade Review“What makes this book particularly valuable is its vivid depiction of the abhorrent consequences of legalized segregation. What gives it heart is the window it opens to the personal journeys of mother and daughter. An important, riveting history lesson that, unfortunately, is still relevant today.” —Kirkus Reviews “A sensitive and powerful memoir of racial change in the South in the 1960s.” —Booklist “The Outskirts of Hope is a yesteryear tale (1967) that could not be more pertinent and helpful to the racially complex and perturbed time we are living in now.” —Norman Lear “A powerful personal perspective of a tumultuous time in America, seen through the eyes of a mother and her daughter navigating family and societal currents in the midst of the civil rights movement. White and Jewish from Boston, the family is transplanted into the segregated Deep South of the 1960s, trying to make a difference in people’s lives. Although their new world is fraught with fear and anxiety, their strength of character and dedication to being allies rather than bystanders results in their participation in history.” —Barry Curtiss-Lusher, National Chairman of the Anti-Defamation League “Not all stories about the south are fictional and have characters in them named Atticus and Scout. Some are true and have real people in them named Aura and Jo. But just as Atticus and Scout have seared themselves into our cultural consciousness, Aura and Jo will take up residence in your own after reading The Outskirts of Hope. I began this book thinking it was about civil rights and Mississippi and a Jewish family’s singular, brave saga there in the 1960s. I ended it realizing it is a story about us all. It is an American one. And it is one, told forgivingly, about forgiveness.” —Kevin Sessums, author of Mississippi Sissy and I Left It on the Mountain “The Outskirts of Hope is a highly personal narrative that shines a light on the struggles within the Deep South in a passionate, moving way. Told with wit, warmth, and heart, this family’s story places the reader right on the ground as Mound Bayou, Mississippi copes with a world reluctant to change, providing an intimate view of the Civil Rights Movement most have never even considered.” —Anthony Rudel, author of Hello, Everybody!: The Dawn of American Radio “The Outskirts of Hope is a courageous confession of a daughter about her mother and herself that lays bare the front line of the American civil rights struggle of the 1960s.” —Steve Adler, Mayor of Austin, Texas “In the sixties, a lot of people talked the talk about civil rights. The Kruger family lived the life. This sensitive but no-holds-barred account of their life in Mound Bayou, Mississippi is one of the most gripping real-life stories of confronting and dealing with racism ever written. Warning – once you start reading The Outskirts of Hope, you won’t be able to stop.” —Forrest Preece, Columnist, West Austin News “An unflinching memoir of the hopes, triumphs, and disappointments of a white family that moves to a black community in one of the most segregated areas of the American South in the late 1960s. This engaging book offers a rare and moving narrative of the power of seemingly modest personal activities in delivering the durable social changes promised by laws and policy.” —Bob Flanagan, Emeritus Professor, Stanford University “This is a fascinating tale of a family who talked the talk and walked the walk during the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The family with their youngest three children left a middle class New England suburb and moved to an essentially all black community in the Mississippi Delta, where the father opened a medical clinic and the mother taught in an all black school and the kids survived, albeit dramatically at times.” —Dave Richards, former Civil Rights Commissioner “This is the fearless mother-daughter memoir about a white family's move from Boston to a small black town in the Mississippi Delta to help launch the nation's first community health center providing health care to the poor and neediest. The leaders of the civil rights struggle—black and white, male and female—are famous, but we hear much less about the 'ordinary people' in the families that came with them. Aura Kruger and Jo Ivester's journey across the chasms of race and poverty also, profoundly, changed their lives. It may well do the same for readers of their story.” —H. Jack Geiger, MD, founding director of the Delta Health Center and Arthur Logan Professor Emeritus of Community Medicine, City University of New York Medical School “Ivester’s Jewish-Bostonian family took a chance on the importance of being human at a time when life was minimized based on the color of a person’s skin. Ivester captures the essence of the resulting journey through the dual eyes of a child and her mother as they learn the impact of just saying yes.” —Gigi Edwards Bryant, Trustee, Austin Community College District

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Book SynopsisDeja helps young children recognize their emotions by listening to their bodies Body awareness is a key foundation of consent. We Listen to Our Bodies gives children a vocabulary to understand and communicate their feelings, develop personal boundaries, and build their social and emotional skills. Through body awareness and recognizing how emotions physically manifest, young children can listen to their bodies for clues about how they re feeling. Their bodies might feel shaky when worried or like one big sigh when calm and relaxed. By recognizing that physical sensations are trying to communicate something, children can understand when they feel unsafe, calm, or in need of healthy touch. We Listen to Our Bodies follows Deja and her preschool classmates as they learn to build emotional self-awareness by listening to the physical cues of their bodies. Using the book as a read-aloud, educators and families can model the language Deja s teachers use to support children as they learn body awareness. The author, who hosts workshops and trainings on teaching consent for families and early childhood educators around the country, offers additional activities in the back of the book. Digital content includes a song from Peaceful Schools with downloadable MP3 files and sheet music.We Say What's Okay SeriesCentered around a class of preschoolers, the We Say What s Okay series helps teach young children the social and emotional skills they need to understand the complexities of consent. Each book covers a consent theme, such as how to recognize the physical sensations that emotions create, look for body language cues, ask for and listen to choices, and know that our bodies have value. With believable, everyday situations and diverse characters, children can see themselves and others reflected in each story and develop a vocabulary to communicate consent and feelings. Every book in the series is accompanied by a song from Peaceful Schools with downloadable MP3 files and sheet music.

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Book SynopsisIn this picture book, children learn how crying can help them and ways to cope with challenging feelings.Everyone cries. Sometimes the tears are happy ones; often, though, they come from sadness or frustration. If you re sad or upset, the tears may come. Crying has a purpose: it lets your feelings out and shows others you might need help. Sadness and disappointment are common, recurring emotions that children can learn to understand, handle, and grow from. With vivid illustrations and straightforward suggestions, Tears Are Not Forever provides practical advice for coping with these challenging feelings. Remember: tears are not forever. In time, you will feel better. A section for adults reinforces the book s message that crying is a natural, normal response to strong feelings and includes tips and activities to help children express and handle their feelings.The Best Behavior(R) Series Simple words and lively full-color illustrations guide children to choose positive behaviors. Select titles are available in two versions: a durable board book for ages 1 4 and an expanded paperback for ages 4 7. Bilingual board book and paperback editions of select titles also are available. Kids, parents, and teachers love these award-winning books. All include helpful tips for teachers, caregivers, and parents.

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Book SynopsisYoung children learn that everybody cries, how crying can help them, and ways they can cope with challenging feelings.

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Book SynopsisHelp young children explore the ways people experience grief when someone dies.Gentle and reassuring, What Does Grief Feel Like? shares the many ways people can grieve when a loved one dies and validates children s unique grief experiences. Open-ended questions throughout the book invite children to share what they are thinking, feeling, and going through: *What did you feel after your special person died? *What happens when your grief gets too big? *What do you do in your family and community to help your grief?Dr. Korie Leigh has spent over sixteen years specializing in working with children and families experiencing grief and loss, and she wrote What Does Grief Feel Like? from a child development perspective, with developmentally appropriate vocabulary. A caregiver s guide provides helpful information on developmental stages, expressions, and behaviors of grief in children.

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