Daddy Misses Kisses and Candy at War By Kathy Barnes, Ph.D. And Jody Berg Gives parents ways to encourage 'feeling talk' when a daddy or mommy goes to war. "Avoiding feelings makes behavior worse." If you are Cora and are three, four or five years old, life is exciting and full of extremes. You run laughing loudly, and then suddenly you start screaming and crying. Your mom leans over to hug you and you hit her, yelling, "I want my daddy, not you " As Cora's mom, you try not to get your feelings hurt, but you are so tired from taking care of her, the house, and balancing the checkbook by yourself. Why complain? you shrug. I have no choice. My husband is fighting in Iraq. But Cora's behavior is perplexing, painful, and frustrating. When moms or dads read Daddy Misses Kisses and Candy at War with their child, the pictures, story, and questions on the pages will comfort both. Mom and child will learn to put words to feelings. "I'm mad at my daddy, dear Mommy, dear Mommy, I pick up the phone and call Daddy home. I promise, I'll be good and eat yucky food, when he doesn't come home, I'm in a bad mood." Mom asks Cora, "What food do you think is yucky?" and Cora lists lima beans and lemons. Then Mom rocks her, saying, "Come to me Cora, when you're mad, dear Cora, We'll snuggle and cuddle and share with God. Pick up your crayons and squiggle in red. Go you your room and pound on your bed." Cora feels understood and is learning what to do when she is mad. At night, nap time and scary, sad times, moms, dads, and their small children will read and re-read our book and learn how to share feelings. Praise for Daddy Misses Kisses and Candy at War "The children in our preschool program loved the rhyming and repetition and pictures in the book. They kept interrupting, saying, 'My friend Susie's daddy is over in that place too.' They went to lunch singing, 'Come to me Cora, dear Cora, dear Cora.'" - Sherry Clow, director of a preschool program.

THE PET WAR is a hilarious story about the timeless battles of dog vs. cat, brother vs. sister, know-it-all vs. know-nothing. Eleven-year-old Otto wants a dog. His twelve-year-old perfect sister, Lexi, wants a cat. Their mother, who works very long hours as a nurse, wants neither. Pets are expensive so who's going to pay for everything? And what happens to the pet when the siblings are at their dad's for the weekend? Otto has an idea. What if he got a job and earned enough money to pay for the dog? Then Lexi has to open her big mouth. She proposes that whichever sibling can raise enough money first will decide which pet they get. Oddly enough, their mom and dad agree. With Otto and Lexi each out to defeat the other, their business plans become more elaborate and involved. As the competition gets fiercer, the stakes get higher, and the battle lines have been drawn, so let the Pet War begin. . . .

Moving to America turns H&à's life inside out. For all the 10 years of her life, H&à has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by, and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. H&à and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, H&à discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape, and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.

A powerful and unique portrait of generational strife and changing styles of masculinity as seen through the stories of ten World War II veterans and their baby boomer sons. It is fair to say that Tom Mathews’s relations with his father, a veteran of World War II’s fabled 10th Mountain Division, were terrible. He came back from the war to a young son he’d barely met and proceeded to bully and browbeat him—for his own good, he thought. In the course of puzzling out almost fifty years of intermittent conflict, Mathews came to understand that their problems were not simply personal, they were generational—and widely shared by millions of other baby boomer sons. And so, to write this powerful book, which traces the kinetic effect of the war on the men who fought it, their sons, and their grandsons, Mathews has uncovered nine other dramatic and telling father-son tales of veterans in some ways missing in action and how internal war wounds shaped their lives as fathers. These include a combat infantryman whose life was saved by the fabled Audie Murphy, and a black member of the storied Tuskegee Airmen corps. In a moving final chapter, he and his father return together to Italy to revisit scenes from the war—and attempt, at long last, to forge their own separate peace. In a very real sense, Our Fathers’ War tells the secret history of World War II and its echoes down the years and generations. In the course of doing so, it offers a portrait of evolving styles of American manhood that many, many fathers and sons have been needing and awaiting.

In a prose that is so beautiful it is poetry, we see the world of growing up and going somewhere through the dust and heat of Fresno's industrial side and beyond: It is a boy's coming of age in the barrio, parochial school, attending church, public summer school, and trying to fall out of love so he can join in a Little League baseball team. His is a clarity that rings constantly through the warmth and wry reality of these sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic, always human remembrances.

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.