Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Publishing" in Parenting & Families

Ever since he came out as autistic, Joe Biel has been contacted by people wanting to share their stories and ask questions. The most common question by far is: How do I find a romantic partner? Autistic listeners will find valuable answers and perspectives in this book, whether they are just getting ready to jump into dating, are seeking to forge closer friendships, or are looking to improve an existing partnership or marriage.

“They’re not dead, are they?” The officer’s body visibly slumped as he delivered his final nod. From that July day in 1968 on, the Morris family became the Morris orphans: 10 children who attracted nationwide attention, and a trust fund that didn’t bring out the best in those who fostered them. Kathi, the oldest, was only 17 when her parents were killed by a drunk driver. This is her story - behind the headlines - of when the Morris orphans only had their mutual loss and each other.

When Deb Moerke and her husband decided to become foster parents, they never imagined how their lives would change. And never did they imagine their worst nightmare coming true: Their five-year-old foster daughter, Hannah, murdered at the hands of her birth mom, Karen. The Moerkes were overwhelmed with horror and grief. And just when they didn’t think they could bear any more, Deb received a phone call from Karen in prison. Facing a life sentence for Hannah’s murder, she was pregnant. And Karen had an incredible request: Would Deb take her unborn baby and love it as her own?

Discover a story of healing and personal transformation. Marlena’s childhood was full of contradictions. Her father was both a heroic doctor for people with leprosy and an abusive parent. Her Mennonite missionary community was both a devoted tribe and a controlling society. And Marlena longed to both be accepted in Paraguay and escape to somewhere new. In Nothing Bad Between Us, follow Marlena’s journey as she takes control of her life and learns to be her authentic self, scars and imperfections included.

Tens of thousands of worried parents have turned to this authoritative guide for information and practical guidance about the growing problem of teen self-injury. Dr. Michael Hollander is a leading expert on dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), the most effective treatment approach for cutting. Vivid stories illustrate how out-of-control emotions lead some teens to hurt themselves, how DBT can help, and what other approaches can be beneficial.

The crisis of unfulfilled lives unfolds gradually, often with acquiesced boredom and a flimsy search for purpose. Our relevancy comes into question, or we succumb to the idea that the future will be one of slow-moving ambition and then an even slower glide into comfort as the flush of freedom fades. We can change this outcome if we want to. We should want to. The 60-Something Crisis: How to Live an Extraordinary Life in Retirement is the first book to circumvent the tired approaches of finding purpose, or using reinvention to discover a path of fulfillment after sixty.

Less than three months after retiring from a 30-year law enforcement career, Kim Colegrove's husband chose suicide. Since that day, Colegrove has been helping first responders across the country practice techniques to cope with the stress and trauma that their work brings. And this book continues that mission by offering first responders and their families hope by introducing meditation and mindfulness as viable and practical tools to help reduce stress, regulate emotion, and improve overall health and well-being.

Sisters Amy and Zoe grow up in Oklahoma, where they are homeschooled for an unexpected reason: Zoe suffers from debilitating and mysterious seizures, spending her childhood in hospitals as she undergoes surgeries. Meanwhile, Amy flourishes intellectually, showing an innate ability to glean a world beyond the troubles in her home life, exploring that world through languages first.  

We need only scan the latest news headlines to see how bias and prejudice harm adults and children alike - every single day. Police shootings that give rise to the Black Lives Matter revolution, rampant sexual harassment of women and the subsequent #MeToo movement, and extreme violence toward trans men and women are just three examples.

The challenge: how to raise children in a drug-filled society and prevent substance abuse. How to listen and what to say in order to accomplish these goals is what Saying No Is Not Enough is all about. Now in its second edition, this valuable prevention and intervention guide for parents and professionals by Dr. Schwebel, one of the nation’s experts, presents his complete step-by-step program, refined and time-tested over the last 25 years. 

No one said motherhood would be easy. For Adiba Nelson, the journey to parenthood started with a big bang and continues with a breakdown (or two) and several “why?” questions for God.

In Mother to Son, Jasmine Holmes shares a series of powerful letters to her young son. These are about her journey as an African American Christian and what she wants her son to know as he grows and approaches the world as a Black man. Holmes deals head-on with issues ranging from discipleship and marriage to biblical justice. She invites us to listen as she reminds Wynn that his identity is firmly planted in the person and work of Jesus Christ, even when the topic is one as emotionally charged as race in America.

In January of 1995, 17-year-old Lizzette Martinez met Grammy-winning musician and record producer R. Kelly at Aventura Mall in Florida where he was performing. At first, it seemed that her hopes of becoming a professional singer were about to come true when he offered to help boost her career. However, this mentorship quickly turned into sexual grooming, leading to years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, digital technologies had become deeply embedded in children’s lives, despite a growing body of research detailing the harms of excessive immersion in the unregulated, powerfully seductive, profit-driven world of the “kid-tech” industry. In Who’s Raising the Kids? Linn—one of the world’s leading experts on the impact of Big Tech and big business on children—explores the roots and consequences of this monumental shift toward a digitized, commercialized childhood, focusing on kids’ values, relationships, and learning.

When Paul Collins’s son Morgan was two years old, he could read, spell, and perform multiplication tables in his head … but not answer to his own name. A casual conversation—or any social interaction that the rest of us take for granted—will, for Morgan, always be a cryptogram that must be painstakingly decoded. He lives in a world of his own: an autistic world. In Not Even Wrong, Paul Collins melds a memoir of his son’s autism with a journey into this realm of permanent outsiders.

How do you raise your kids to be feminist, anti-racist, gender-inclusive, self-compassionate, and with strong respect for boundaries and consent in a society that offers mixed messages on all these things—especially when none of this was part of your own upbringing? Drawing from their own experiences raising diverse and politically active young people, parents and therapists Dr. Faith Harper and Bonnie Scott have written a parenting guide for the twenty-first century.

Fishing was Mark Hume’s passion since he was a young boy, a lifeline through a childhood marked by his family’s frequent moves. When he became a father, he knew he wanted to pass on his love of water, fishing, and the natural world to his daughters. Most of all, he wanted to give them hope for their future. As soon as they were old enough, Mark taught his girls how to read the water and see the patterns in nature. He discovered that fly fishing and fatherhood require many of the same skills: patience, flexibility, and the knowledge of when to reel in and when to let go.

There’s a quiet epidemic in our culture: The fastest-growing type of family unit is grandparents charged with the task of raising their children’s children. Though there are myriad reasons for this—the death of one’s adult child, parental drug addiction, abusive living situations, or incarceration, to name a few—the effects tend to be the same: senior citizens who expected to spend their golden years relaxing or traveling are now seeing their dreams dashed. Those on limited incomes are feeling the strain and are frightened about their futures.

Some writers look at life with their eyes, others with their heart. In this collection of evocative, funny, and moving stories, Peter Damm does both. These are vignettes of growing up in small town, rural Michigan, but also a closely observed portrait of mid-century America. The tone is alternately wry, elegiac, poignant, and humorous, as Damm recalls the joys of fishing on a northern lake, the rigors and confusion of childhood, or feasting on blueberries in autumn.

The experience of the Vietnam War is almost impossible to grasp - the fear, smell, pain, and camaraderie. Boys were turned into men, men were transformed into soldiers, and then from soldiers to warriors. These warriors had wives who shared in their transformations. Some marriages were strengthened, while for others men and their families were left emotionally and spiritually battered. Focusing in on a singular company’s experience of war and its eventual homecoming, Andrew Wiest discusses the shared experience of combat and both the darkness and resiliency of war’s aftermath.