Cheryl L. Green, M.D., quotes jarring statistics when discussing the current mental health crisis among teens: 30% of America’s teenage girls have contemplated suicide in the past year; 24% had suicidal thoughts “with a plan,” which meets the criteria for in-patient admission, she explained.
“Professional help is in short supply right now because it’s such a crisis,” she said in a recent interview. “We don’t have enough hospital beds; we don’t have enough child and adolescent psychiatrists. So the question becomes, how can parents help right here, right now? And there are a lot of things parents can do.”
In her critically important new book, Heal Your Daughter: How Lifestyle Psychiatry Can Save Her from Depression, Cutting, and Suicidal Thoughts, Dr. Green empowers parents with lifestyle psychiatry strategies that can be used in conjunction with traditional therapies or as standalone support.
“Lifestyle Psychiatry can supplement in-patient psychiatric treatment as usual, after they are out, but can’t replace in-patient admission if your child is truly suicidal with a plan,” Dr. Green cautioned. “It goes a long way toward preventing that from ever happening, which is critical, considering our teens have been experiencing grave problems in their mental health for over a decade, and the recent pandemic greatly deepened what was already a crisis.”
In Heal Your Daughter, Dr. Green addresses the unique stress factors impacting teenage girls and gives parents or other caregivers six concrete ways to help their daughters develop health-promoting, depression-reversing habits.
She begins by explaining the new field of lifestyle psychiatry, and provides state of the art, evidence-based information and guidance related to six lifestyle domains: nutrition, detoxification, exercise, sleep, emotional connectedness, and stress reduction.
“The good news is that healing, even from the worst disasters of childhood and early adolescence, is possible,” Dr. Green said. “The early traumas that life inflicts need not be ‘managed’ with ever-escalating doses of psychiatric medications; I believe that they actually can be healed — completely or almost completely healed. There is every reason for hope.”
Dr. Green explains that the method outlined in her book doesn’t require a diagnosis. It is drug-free and affordable. And perhaps most importantly, it offers new hope to those who have given up on psychiatry and on the traditional mental health care system.
“Teen girls with depression are often overwhelmed, and are unable to help themselves,” Dr. Green added. “But you, the caregiver, can help them take tiny steps in the six domains described in the book. The more tiny steps taken, the closer teen girls can come to reclaiming the foundations of their physical and mental health.”
Ultimately, Heal Your Daughter and its companion book, The Heal Your Daughter Workbook, aim to make important new contributions to society’s collective understanding and support of today’s girls.
About the Author
Dr. Cheryl L. Green is a lifestyle psychiatrist based in Southern California. She works part time at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine, and part time in her own private practice based in the greater Los Angeles area. She holds degrees from Harvard University (A.B.), Princeton University (Ph.D.) and Stanford University School of Medicine (M.D.). She is board certified in Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Lifestyle Medicine. Her passion is inspiring others to achieve vibrant physical and mental health. She can be found online on her website, www.CherylLGreenMD.com.
In the important new children’s book, Bad Touching, author and retired OB/GYN Dr. Tiffanie Tate tackles the difficult topic of inappropriate touching in a way that young minds will understand.
The 32-page picture book uses simple language and lyric rhyme to tell the story of two young sisters, Lillie and Linda, who just want to make every adult happy. They live alone with their mother, and when she gets a new boyfriend, he helps take care of Lillie and Linda. He is nice at first, but that changes. Lillie and Linda learn that there are times when making everyone happy is not a good thing if it hurts them in the process. This story helps children understand and identify abusive situations and provides directions on how to seek help.
Bad Touching is Dr. Tate’s second book and is based on her personal experiences as a child. She did not disclose her abuse until she was an adult, she explained.
“My desire is to educate children about safe people they can confide in,” Dr. Tate said. “My hope is that this book will help children who are affected by abuse know they are not alone and let them know that it is all right to tell. I don’t want them to feel afraid or scared to talk about what is happening to them and wait for decades like I did.”
Then, amid her activism to help others, Dr. Tate was “badly touched” in a medical provider’s office while receiving care on January 24, 2023.
“It was a trigger that was traumatic, but instead of waiting like I did before, I immediately reached out and got the help I needed,” Dr. Tate said, adding that she reported the event to the office manager, filed a police report, and that the individual is in the process of being held accountable.
“There is still a lot to do,” she added, “but I want to be an advocate for women and children.”
About the Author
Originally from Compton, California, Dr. Tiffanie Tate is a Christian, mother, servant, listener and medically retired medical doctor. Her interest in becoming a physician began when she was in middle school, while volunteering with her church to help the homeless in Los Angeles. She saw people who were both hungry and sick. She wanted to do more than serve food. She wanted to help them in meaningful ways, so she became a physician.
Both of her biological parents were addicted to drugs. And while she never met her father, she had heard that he was homeless, and she couldn’t help but wonder whether he was one of the homeless she and her church were helping. With the loving support of her maternal family and, specifically, her maternal aunt who raised her (known as “Momtee”), Dr. Tate received the love, support and stability she needed to thrive and achieve her professional goals of becoming a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist. An injury led to her medical retirement, which inspired her to pursue her second passion: writing.
Dr. Tate is also a veteran of the U.S. Navy and served during the Global War on Terrorism. She believes in giving back and currently teaches residents by providing lectures on subjects in obstetrics and gynecology.
She is also the author of FloweTry: A Collection of 108 Poetic Flows on Life, Love, and Liturgical Issues, and the upcoming release, Little Engine Mia Sings, a children’s book that teaches about bullying and how to discourage it.
Bad Touching Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing ISBN-13: 979-8886850093 (paperback, 32 pages) Available from Amazon.com, BN.com and iTunes
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Reviews, photos, links to previous interviews and Q&As are available upon request.
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Matthew Kenslow has amassed over 1 million followers on Instagram, nearly 70k on TikTok and over 65k YouTube subscribers by sharing his insights, real-world experiences and pearls of wisdom when it comes to navigating the world around him. At 6 years old, Kenslow was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome (now referred to as autism spectrum disorder).
“My autism awareness and acceptance videos should, hopefully, not just encourage the families of those on the spectrum, but also educate those who still need to learn about autism and then accept us for who we are, learning what we’re going through,” Kenslow said during an interview.
Today, Kenslow is a pianist, college graduate, substitute teacher and the author of the book Juggling the Issues: Living With Asperger’s Syndrome, in which he takes readers inside what it’s truly like for someone living with the disability.
“My main message that I tell hundreds of people is that I have not given up on my goals,” he writes in the book’s preface. “I persevere on my aspirations. If I can do that, certainly everybody else can too.”
Told through a series of stories about his personal experiences, Kenslow sheds light on the ways in which certain challenges have impacted his everyday life. The way his mind works is different, he says, and he has struggled with social and conversational skills, and poor eye contact. He explains that simple tasks take longer for him — like reading or organizing his thoughts — while remembering things like the president’s birth, term and death dates; the elements of the Periodic Table; and the books of the Bible come more easily.
Juggling the Issues: Living With Asperger’s Syndrome is an important read for anyone whose life has been touched by autism spectrum disorder. Kenslow’s insights aim to lend understanding, provide inspiration, and encourage readers to put aside differences and embrace the gifts that others have to share with the world.
“Behind the disability we have a heart and a mind; we have a calling and a purpose,” Kenslow added.
About the Author
Matthew Kenslow has grown up with a form of autism that was once referred to as Asperger’s syndrome. Life has been an adventure as he pieced together all of his surroundings amid both praises and taunts. His mission is to teach others from a firsthand perspective about how people with autism interpret things differently from the rest of the world. He feels he has been blessed with the gifts to juggle, play piano and recall facts about the American presidents, geography, science and mathematics. He juggles at elementary schools and encourages the students to never give up on their passions.
He has earned the Gold Medal of Achievement (which is equivalent to the rank of Eagle Scout) through Royal Rangers, a program he has been in since he was 5. Now, he is giving back to children and teenagers, teaching and mentoring them in a wide set of skills and knowledge. He graduated from Orange Coast College with an Associate of Science degree in Chemistry and with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry fromVanguard University of Southern California. He aspires to be a middle school math teacher. Recently, he earned a full math credential after student teaching Enhanced Mathematics at his former middle school, Ensign Intermediate School.Currently, he is going for a Master of Arts degree in Education at Vanguard University and is an employed substitute teacher for NMUSD, often being called by students as “the best sub” and begged by them to come back the next day or to sub for their class soon.
Follow Kenslow on Instagram (matthew_kenslow), Facebook (JugglingTheIssues), YouTube (@matthewkenslow722), Twitter (@matthewkenslow) and TikTok (@matthewkenslow).
Juggling the Issues: Living with Asperger’s Syndrome Publisher: River Birch Press ISBN-10: 1951561325 ISBN-13: 978-1951561321 Available from Amazon.com, BN.com and many other online retailers
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What parent doesn’t want their children to willingly pitch in and complete routine household chores? In his eye-opening new book, How Other Children Learn: What Five Traditional Societies Tell Us about Parenting and Children’s Learning, Cornelius N. Grove, Ed.D., explores five “traditional” societies where children do just that on their way to becoming mature adults. Yet they spend little or no time in classrooms. How do those children learn? How do their parents parent?
Dr. Grove defines traditional societies as those unaffected by industrialization and urbanization and untouched by modern values. They still can be found in small villages and camps where people engage daily with their natural surroundings (including raising or finding their daily food) and have little or no experience of classroom instruction.
Why seek fresh insights from these societies?
“One reason is that doing so reveals that, in traditional societies, children very largely learn on their own how to become family- and community-minded adults,” Dr. Grove said. “A second reason is because it’s insightful for modern parents to find out how traditional parents deal with their children. You’ll be astounded by how uninvolved they are!”
Anchored in the published research of anthropologists of childhood, How Other Children Learn takes a close look at the following five societies: the Aka hunter-gatherers of Africa, the Quechua of highland Peru, the Navajo of the U.S. Southwest, the village Arabs of the Levant and the Hindu villagers of India. Each society has its own chapter, which overviews that society’s background and context, then probes adults’ mindsets and strategies regarding childhood learning and socialization for adulthood.
The book concludes with two summary chapters that draw broadly on anthropologists’ findings about dozens of traditional societies and offer examples from the five societies featured in the book. The first summary chapter reveals how children in traditional societies learn to willingly carry out family responsibilities and suggests how American parents can attain similar outcomes. The second contrasts our middle-class patterns of child-rearing and school-attending with traditional societies’ ways of ensuring that their youngsters have opportunities to learn and develop into mature, responsible adults.
“Like their traditional peers, our children have a natural capacity to learn on their own and with other children by freely exploring, imitating adults and engaging in all sorts of activities serendipitously occurring in their community,” Dr. Grove added. “How do our children’s opportunities to freely explore and engage with others compare with those of traditional children? With school, extracurriculars and screen time, ours have very few.”
About the Author After attaining a Master of Arts in Teaching at Johns Hopkins University, Cornelius Grove taught high school history, worked in educational publishing, traveled extensively in Europe and Africa, and completed a doctorate in education (Ed.D.) at Columbia University. He then served for 11 years as director of research for AFS, the student exchange organization, simultaneously holding adjunct teaching posts at Columbia and New School Universities. In 1986, he taught at Beijing Foreign Studies University, after which he co-authored Encountering the Chinese: A Modern Country, An Ancient Culture (3rd Ed., 2010). During the 2000s, Dr. Grove became curious about the belief of many Americans that inborn ability is the main determinant of a child’s academic performance. This led to The Aptitude Myth: How an Ancient Belief Came to Undermine Children’s Learning Today (2013). He then figured out why East Asian students always outperform U.S. students on international comparative tests and wrote two books on his findings. The first addresses differences in parenting: The Drive to Learn: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about RAISING Students Who Excel (2017). The second explores contrasting approaches to teaching in pre- and primary schools: A Mirror for Americans: What the East Asian Experience Tells Us about TEACHING Students Who Excel (2020).
A charter fellow of the International Academy of Intercultural Research, Dr. Grove wrote lengthy entries on “pedagogy across cultures” for two encyclopedias. He retired in 2020 after 31 years as managing partner of Grovewell LLC, a global business consultancy. He and his wife have three sons. For more details, visit www.howotherchildrenlearn.info or connect with the author at www.LinkedIn.com/in/cngrove-author/.
How Other Children Learn: What Five Traditional Societies Tell Us about Parenting and Children’s Learning Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group Release Date: March 1, 2023 ISBN-10: 147587118X ISBN-13: 978-1475871180 Available from Amazon.com and BN.com
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Vacation Plans Go Awry in Latest ‘Ladybug’ Adventure
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Sometimes, summer vacations don’t go exactly as planned, and in the new children’s adventure, Hillary and Malibug Beach, Hillary the Little Ladybug is eagerly anticipating her family’s trip to Malibug Beach and goes to sleep dreaming of mermaids. Are the mermaids in her dreams a hint as to what awaits her at Malibug Beach?
Co-authored by William Dandurand, Elisabeth Revel and Mary Cohen, The Adventures of Hillary the Little Ladybug series explores climate change and other topics through stories aimed at young readers. All proceeds from sales of the “Ladybug” books benefit Mother Nature Festival Live Inc., which endeavors to stop harmful climate change.
In the latest story, strange things happen that alter everything for the ladybugs. A comet explodes, and the green glow causes mutations among them. Hillary sees mermaids and vampires. The vampires try to bite Hillary and turn her into a vampire.
The King orders all castle workers back to the castle, and the family must leave their vacation early. Hillary ends up back home in her bed but has strange dreams. Oh well, tomorrow will be another day. Hillary says her night prayers with her mom and falls into a restful sleep.
Some familiar figures have appeared in the Hillary the Ladybug series, such as Bigfoot, Tiny Tim and the King. Hillary’s own name sounds a bit like a famous person who has expressed concerns about climate change.
The series features original illustrations, photography and playfully educational storylines to tell adventurous children’s tales from the perspective of a precocious ladybug.
A team of authors and illustrators have collaborated on this 16-book series, including Mary Cohen, Elisabeth Revel, Gary Revel, Naomi Kiber and William Dandurand, whose grandfather, Ray Lowe, worked for Disney.
In previous episodes of the Hillary the Ladybug saga, our heroine has solved the mystery of the secret cave, found herself in a post-nuclear world, joined the crew on a submarine, faced giant sharks, encountered a haunted castle, met the King of England, imagined herself as a queen, learned a valuable life lesson from a praying mantis and, in this new book, deals with challenges during a vacation with her family to Malibug Beach (no, not Malibu Beach, don’t be silly!).
The original illustration of Hillary the Little Ladybug was created by American-born Gary Revel Jr., a 2006 Finnish Star Winner who lived in Finland for 16 years. Revel Jr. has received acclaim for his singing, dancing and acting in Finland and Hollywood, California.
“The Adventures of Hillary the Little Ladybug is in development at Jongleur Pictures LLC for the making of an animated series to be produced by Jeff Olm,” says Gary Revel. “Jeff has been on the film-making team of many top-grossing films over the last 20 years. These include Titanic, The Revenant, Shrek Forever After, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and many more.”
Jongleur Books publishes other William Dandurand-authored books, including ABC Owl: Who Are You, Lochy the Loch Ness Monster, Harry the Fairy, Global Warming A to Z, Halloween A to Z, California Girls A – Z, Treasure Stories Told by My Grandfather and Hillary and the Haunted Castle. The publishing company’s backlist includes over 70 books, novels and chapter books from over 20 authors and illustrators.
For more information about how the Hillary the Little Ladybug series is helping to stop global warming, visit https://mothernaturefestival.live.
Also visit https://garyrevel.com/book/, or follow the publisher on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jongleurbooks. The Adventures of Hillary the Little Ladybug series is available from Amazon.com.
Trish Stevens Jaqueline Cooper Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Story of Precocious Ballerina Sparks Joie de Vivre in the Hearts of Young Readers
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With a turn of her tutu and a playful plié, precocious 6-year-old ballerina Lilly Nilly dances her way into readers’ hearts with a joie de vivre that will entertain and inspire kids and adults alike in the delightful new children’s book, Pardon My French – It’s the Language of Ballet: The Adventures of Lilly Nilly.
From the creative mind of real-life former NYC-based dancer and choreographer Nancy Paris, Pardon My French takes young readers inside the mind of a spunky, determined young dance student whose self-appointed mission is to figure out what the heck ballet –– and coincidentally life –– are all about.
Lilly Nilly sees the world in a unique way and delivers her humorous, offbeat observations with childlike honesty. She wears her curiosity on her sleeve and asks burning questions like, “Why can’t you hang upside down on a ballet barre if it looks just like an ordinary bar?” Or, “If you’re going to travel in a carpool, should you wear a bathing suit?”
“Young readers will find Lilly’s stories funny and very relatable, especially if they are ballet students themselves,” Paris said. “Adults will find her sharp wit and strong-willed spirit a charming reminder of just how empowering a joyful approach to life can be.”
Pardon My French – It’s the Language of Ballet is complete with illustrations that only Lilly Nilly could have drawn — with a little help from Paris, of course, who used her own experiences as a professional dancer and teacher to inform her narrative. Her mission, Paris said, is to encourage all readers to trust their instincts, seek their own answers, and be kind to all.
“I want people to know that although it was written as a children’s book, I always had an adult audience in mind,” Paris added. “And — it’s funny!”
Author Nancy Paris is an alumna of The Juilliard School and has performed professionally across the U.S. and Canada. As a dancemaker, she has choreographed industrials and private events in New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Palm Springs and Puerto Rico. Most of the incidents in her stories are based on personal experience, with the names changed to protect the innocent.
Paris lives in Manhattan with her husband, Charles Yurick, and loves writing and drawing because she can do it sitting down! Pardon My French is the first of at least three books in The Adventures of Lilly Nilly series.
For more information, please visit www.lillynilly.com, or connect with Paris on Facebook at @adventures.of.lilly.nilly.
Pardon My French – It’s the Language of Ballet: The Adventures of Lilly Nilly ISBN-10: 0578316889 ISBN-13: 978-0578316888 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Julie Henderson Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Penguin Who Dreams of Flying Lifts Children’s Spirit of Adventure
“A Penguin’s Quest is an uncommon, spirited picture book in which an unconventional penguin’s daring decisions inspire her friends.” – Foreword Reviews
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Young readers can take a journey with Ingrid the penguin as she ventures from her home in Antarctica in search of a mythic place where it’s said a penguin can learn to fly in the enthralling children’s tale, A Penguin’s Quest.
Ingrid’s story begins as she heeds advice from some seriously lost NYC pigeons and sets out determined to accomplish something that no other penguin has ever done. A globe-trotting, epic journey ensues, with a cast of colorful characters that includes sea captains, Penn Station rats, a trip inside the NYC pigeon underworld and a ski instructor named Klaus. The mystery of Ingrid’s destination holds the answers as this intrepid penguin is on the verge of a discovery that could rock the penguin world.
Brought to life by author (and world-renowned photographer) Scott McDermott, with illustrations by Christine Anderson, this engaging adventure about pursuing a dream, no matter how improbable it may seem, unfolds like a short, animated film and culminates in a wonderful end. Written for children with a reading age level of grades 2-3, A Penguin’s Quest is a perfect early reader chapter book in a picture book format.
Author Scott McDermott grew up in Switzerland, backpacked through the American West, and trekked the Himalayas before spending the last 25 years as a commercial photographer and filmmaker in New York City. He has photographed many of the most influential figures in Hollywood, the music industry, business and government, along with directing a feature film and many commercials. McDermott recently started writing children’s fiction, inspired by the stories he made up to tell his own children. He is also learning to play bass guitar, primarily to back up his son on guitar.
Illustrator Christine Anderson is a Senior level Illustrator and Surface Pattern Designer based in Scottsdale, Arizona. She received a BFA in Graphic Design/Illustration from Drake University and has worked in commercial design for over 20 years. Though she had a successful career as a muralist and furniture designer, as well as being commissioned by corporations such as Learnin’ Tree, American Express, Hobby Lobby, Trader Joe’s, Michaels’s, QT Fabrics and Boston International, Anderson longed for her drawing board. She decided to refocus and get back to her true love, illustrating, with children’s books being part of her journey.
Or find them on Instagram (@Apenguinsquest_book; @scottmcdermott_; @christineandersondraws; or @Notablekidspublishing), Twitter (@ScottMcdermott_) or Facebook (scott.mcdermott.33).
A Penguin’s Quest Publisher: Notable Kids Publishing Publication Date: February 2, 2022 ISBN-10: 1733354859 ISBN-13: 978-1733354851 Available from Amazon.com and BN.com
