News from Kids Can Do It!
2008 was a good year for Kids Can Do It! We received more than 450 essays for our ongoing essay contest and my books received the Mom’s Choice Gold Award, the USA Book News Best Books Award, and the American Authors Association Silver Quill Award.
Since the publication of my book Hot Issues, Cool Choices: Facing Bullies, Peer Pressure, Popularity, and Put-Downs the end of 2007, I’ve been receiving e-mails and snail mails from all over our country, Canada, Australia, Japan, and even the Ukraine.
Unfortunately, bullying is alive and well in contemporary societies all over the world, and some of these letters are heartrending. Some students tell me how they have been bullied to the point that they no longer want to live.
I’ve tried to answer each letter I receive and I usually include an autographed copy of one of my books along with a note of encouragement.
What I love most about these letters is the fact that my readers have found comfort in my books and have discovered that they’re not alone--that there are others out there who are facing the same problems.
This is the miracle of books and literacy! Books can provide comfort and solace, books can help heal wounded souls, and books can give help to the helpless and hope to the hopeless.
One young woman wrote, “When brokenness is real, a single light can make all the difference in the world.”
May each of us in our own way bring a light into the darkness!
Sandy Humphrey
Retired Clinical Psychologist and Children’s Author
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Dare to Dream!: 25 Extraordinary Lives was
a USA Book News "Best Books 2005" Award finalist, Young Adult Nonfiction
Category
Church and Synagogue Library Association- 2005 Recipient "Helen Keating Ott Award for Outstanding Contribution
to Children's Literature" Sandra will be awarded on July 24th in Portland Oregon.
**Hey Lulla Kids** Sandy has a really neat essay Contest! Visit her web site at:
Recipient of the National Character Education Center's Award for "Exemplary
Leadership
in Ethics Education" (2000)
Writer and Consultant for The Heroes & Dreams Foundation which provides
character
education materials to schools K-8 throughout the United States and Canada
"Author of the Month" for December 2003 for MyShelf.com
Writer for the Data Recognition Corporation which publishes testing materials
for schools nationwide
Recipient of the 2005 Helen Keating Ott Award for Outstanding Contribution to
Children's Literature
After working more than thirty-one years as a clinical psychologist, Sandra
retired
in 1992 to begin her second career as an author of children's books which
include:
If You Had to Choose, What Would You Do? (Prometheus Books 1995)
It's Up to You...What Do You Do? (Prometheus Books 1999)
MORE--If You Had to Choose, What Would You Do? (Prometheus Books 2003)
Keepin' It Real: A Young Teen Talks With God (CSS Publishing 2003)
Dare to Dream!: 25 Extraordinary Lives (Prometheus Books 2005)
She has had stories and articles published in Evangelizing Today's Child,
Highlights
for Children, Hopscotch, Listen Magazine, My Friend, Once Upon A Time, and
Touch
Magazine.
In addition to her writing, she is also a Study Buddies mentor and a
confirmation mentor,
serves on a youth ministry team, and visits classrooms to talk to students
about her
books.
www.kidscandoit.com
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Dare to Dream! 25 Extraordinary Lives
Prometheus Books, March 2005
Ages 9-12, ISBN 1-5910-2280-0
Magical heroes like Harry Potter, Spiderman, or Catwoman provide plenty of entertainment for kids, but in real life heroes are made of sterner stuff than celluloid fantasies. In this inspiring collection of biographies, critically acclaimed writer and psychologist Sandra McLeod Humphrey teaches young people that heroes were once ordinary people whose strength of character helped them to achieve extraordinary things. Starting with only their dreams, they worked hard and overcame obstacles to make their dreams come true. Some overcame physical handicaps, others psychological barriers like extreme shyness or feelings of inferiority; some faced racial discrimination or educational disadvantage, others financial burdens. In spite of these frustrations and discouragements, all of these people discovered in themselves the patience, perseverance, and determination to pursue their dreams beyond every obstacle. The message is clear: No matter who you are or where you come from, you too can accomplish extraordinary things, as long as you dare to dream and never, never, never give up
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Keepin' It Real: a Young Teen Talks with God
CSS Publishing, January 2003
Young Adult, ISBN 0-7880-1953-8
Leslie has just turned 13—and she is having a very bad year. Not only is she stuck in a new school where she doesn't know anyone, but she's also stuck in a "life group" at her church where the leader of her small discussion group asks tough questions she can't answer. Come along and join Leslie on her faith journey as she writes letters to God and in the process begins to find answers to some of her problems.
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It's Up to You ... What Do You Do?
illus. by Brian Strassburg
Prometheus Books, 1999
Ages 9-12, ISBN 1-5739-2010-X
If a friend had wronged you, how would you react? What if someone could give you all the answers to a big test in school? Is being "popular" important? From about age six through elementary school and junior high, young people are exposed almost daily to questions of personal values just like these, and their responses help to develop those unique virtues that givern their actions for years to come. The 25 contemporary anecdotes in It's Up to You...What Do You Do? offer challenging situations involving school-age children who must make their own choices in life. |
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If You Had to Choose, What Would You Do?
illus. by Brian Strassburg
Prometheus Books, 1995
Ages 4-8, ISBN 1-5739-2010-X
It is never too early to begin talking with our young people about personal values and helping them define their own code of moral conduct. The twenty-five problem situations presented in this book have been developed to help you talk to your children about values in as enjoyable and natural a way as possible. I hope these discussions will help them develop a sense of direction and purpose to their lives resulting in more rewarding and more fulfilling experiences not only for them but also for those whose lives may be touched by their actions and choices. |
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More If You Had to Choose, What Would You Do?
illustrated by Brian Strassburg, Claudine Gevry
Prometheus Books, May 2003
Ages 9-12, ISBN 1-5910-2077-8
How important is winning, and does it really matter how we win? What do you think determines a person's "worth" — how much money he or she has? Can you have lots of friends and still be lonely? When other people are telling you what to do, how do you decide what is right for you?
In this sequel to her popular first book, If You Had to Choose, What Would You Do?, psychologist Sandra McLeod Humphrey encourages parents and teachers to talk to children about values and to help them formulate their own personal value system in the face of peer pressure, even when following their own conscience means going it alone. Children can easily identify with the twenty-six scenarios presented, and the questions at the end of each chapter encourage productive, in-depth discussions about the moral choices suggested by each story. Kids will enjoy reading through each short situation and then deciding what they would do.
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