Product Description

Military families face stressful times that are unique to the military lifestyle. One of the most challenging situations, both for children and parents, is when a father, mother, or sibling is deployed for military service and must be away from the home. Children often experience sadness, anger, fear, anxiety, and loneliness, and they do not understand their own feelings or know how to express them.

This book is designed to help children especially, but also their parents, during such difficult times. Based on many years of experience as a social worker, who has assisted military families experiencing stress, author Beth Andrews has created an excellent tool for allowing children and their loved ones to deal with the many emotions caused by deployment. The text and illustrations encourage children to discuss their feelings and to draw their own pictures to express themselves. The accompanying parents' guide is designed to validate parents' feelings and give them ways to help their children cope.

Guided by this approach, a parent or caregiver can help their children understand why one of their parents or a sibling had to leave home, identify their reactions, cope with their feelings in a positive way, be assured that they are not alone, and try new activities to help themselves adjust.

At a time when military families are asked to make many sacrifices in the service of their country, this reassuring book will be a welcome resource.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #80354 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 56 pages

About the Author
Beth Andrews, LCSW (Grand Junction, CO), is a social worker and currently a clinical supervisor at Colorado West Mental Health Center.

Customer Reviews

Excellent and very helpful book!
I borrowed this book from the local library and I loved it so much that I had to go out and purchase it. While it is for children a little older than toddler age, any book especially one about a sensitive topic such as a deployment, should be pre-screened by parents.

I used to be in the military myself but was never deployed. Having my husband deploy has been difficult on the whole family. I really did not know exactly how to explain things to my very intelligent almost 7 year old child (who is more like 6 going on 26!) This book really opened up the communication with my daughter and her feelings about Daddy's soon-to-be departure. She is a very boisterous girl and has a wonderful outgoing personality, but not when it comes time to discuss serious matters and feelings. The book really brought out a lot of information and opened up a great forum for the three of us to have a discussion.

Great things in the book! For example, it explains that is ok to have so many different emotions - that it is ok to cry and it feels good to cry. It is ok to be angry sometimes and to punch something soft like a pillow or to go outside and kick a ball. It explains that although the child may be worried about her parent who is deployed, her main job is still to go to school, be a kid and have fun. It explains that the parent that is home with the child may be a little more tired than usual because she is doing the her chores as well as Daddy's chores. It explains what a deployment is and other things that come along with deployments. The book explains that the deployed soldier may not know exactly where they are going or they may know but are not allowed to tell anyone. Same thing with dates of return. They may know a time frame that they will be back - but not necessarily the exact date.

Again, as a former soldier, I was able to appreciate that this book uses soldier as either the MOTHER or the FATHER - which is very common nowadays. The author interchanges the sex of the soldier which I think is absolutely wonderful!

There are more great things to this book - I don't want to give it all away. I HIGHLY recommend this book to all parents and children of someone who is deploying/deployed. Age ranges I would suggest are 5 - 8, but it depends on the maturity/comprehesion of the child.

For older children
I purchased this book for my toddler boys after my husband deployed overseas. I don't remember reading a recommended age, but this book is too advanced for my children. It seems more for 7-10 year olds. I am going to be returning this book. Make sure to check what ages the books are appropriate for first. I know I will be doing this in the future.

A bit lengthy
As far as I'm concerned, any deployment book for kids is a plus, but this one is a bit lengthy. I was expecting a "story book" and this is more of a long, drawn out explaining deployments/activity book. All in all, I appreciate any deployment books, as long as you know what you're buying.