Library of Clean Reads: Laurie Zelinger

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Kid Konnection: Please Explain "Anxiety" to Me! Simple Biology and Solutions for Children and Parents by Laurie Zelinger and Jordan Zelinger

Please Explain "Anxiety" to Me! Simple Biology and Solutions for Children and Parents by Laurie Zelinger and Jordan Zelinger (Rated: C)
Loving Healing Press
ISBN: 978-1615990290
Published July 23, 2010
Paperback, 40 pages

I was eager to get this book for review and happy that I did. Dr. Laurie Zelinger and son Jordan Zelinger have managed to explain the biological reasons for anxiety in such a simple way that my young children easily understood. My 6-year-old son and even my daughter loved the use of dinosaurs in the explanation, and I thought the comparison to a switch turning on and off was brilliant. The illustrations are also simple, colourful and age-appropriate.

This is a comforting book, both for children and parents. The therapeutic strategies outlined are uncomplicated and effective, and at the end of the book are summarized in the form of rhymes to make them easy to remember. My children quickly associated with some of the situations that can cause anxiety. It made them realize that they are not the only ones to feel that way at times. Throughout the days after I read them this book, my children on different occasions have said to me, “Mom, my switch is on.” I quickly understood what they meant and was happy they recognized how they were feeling. I asked them if they remembered what they could do to alleviate the feeling of anxiety and they did and put some of those solutions to practice.

Best of all, this is an empowering book. Every parent should read it. It is an essential tool to explain what anxiety is to children but most importantly how to deal with it. And in a society where the medical community tends to overmedicate patients, including children, I cannot stress how good it is to read a book to my children that shows them how they can control how they feel. Kudos to the Zelingers!

Every Saturday, Booking Mama hosts a feature called Kid Konnection—a regular weekend feature about anything related to children's books. If you'd like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children's books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, visit Booking Mama.

Disclosure: Thanks to Loving Healing Press and ReviewTheBook.com for sending me this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.

Friday, July 9, 2010

The "O, MY" in Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy: How to Prepare Your Child for Surgery, a Parent's Manual by Dr. Laurie Zelinger

The "O, MY" in Tonsillectomy and Adenoidectomy: How to Prepare Your Child for Surgery by Dr. Laurie Zelinger (Rated: C)
Loving Healing Press
ISBN: 978-1932690743
Published November 2008
Paperback, 28 pages

This is an excellent guide for parents whose child will (or might) undergo tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy. The author, a school psychologist, play therapist, and parent of four who has had one of her own sons experience this procedure, certainly knows what she is talking about.

This book is well organized and prepares a family to cope with these medical procedures. It comes with a useful preparation list, a bibliography for additional reading, and a caregiver’s section that can be filled out with important medical info and kept handy. Dr. Laurie Zelinger gives practical advice every step of the way, showing parents what to expect from the day they are told their child will need the operation to post-surgery recovery.

For example, she states that when parents first get the news that their child needs surgery, it is best “not to discuss the topic on the ride home. Children do not need to hear both sides of a situation, or any concerns that you may have.” How true! And how wise. This will avoid building fear in the child from the onset. I also loved the suggestion of providing the recovering child with a bell to summon the parent since they won’t be able to call out. It seems the author thought of everything.

Throughout the advice found in the pages of this book, I saw respect for the child as a person. Although this book is not meant to be read to a child (I initially thought it was when I requested it for review because it was categorized under books for children of PreK age), the parent can still show the illustrations and summarize the explanations especially prepared for telling their children why they need to have their tonsils or adenoids removed.

This book is reassuring, comforting and helps to alleviate any fears regarding these procedures. I would highly recommend it to any parent who wants to be prepared to help their child face a difficult situation smoothly and confidently.

Disclosure: Thanks to ReviewTheBook.com for sending this book for review. I was not compensated in any other way, nor told how to rate or review this product.