JACKIE FRENCH KOLLER
a. THE PROMISE (Knopf) "would be very appropriate, about a boy drawing courage from memories of his mother and particularly from one of her favorite sayings: "Some things you just got to take on faith."
b. Both NOTHING TO FEAR (Harcourt) & A PLACE TO CALL HOME (Atheneum). "...about teens finding the strength to build a new life after losing a parent."
c. The FALCON (Atheneum) "about a teenage boy learning to forgive himself for a making a bad decision with tragic repercussions for himself & his family."
d. THE PRIMROSE WAY (Harcourt) "about a Puritan girl learning to accept and respect the cultural and religious differences of her Native American neighbors."

DEBORAH HOPINSON:
BLUEBIRD SUMMER, illus. by Bethanne Andersen "... about a family coping with grief and memories of a grandmother."

JANE KURTZ:
a. THE STORYTELLER'S BEADS is being used to talk ... about the realities of war in other countries and also for its help in setting the picture around the intense feelings of "we belong and nobody had better throw us out" that have coalesced around land in the Middle East.
b. RIVER FRIENDLY RIVER WILD is being used as a story of hope, a family picking up and putting a life together after disaster, depending on their community and each other to help get through the grief and frustrations.
c. JAKARTA MISSING starts with a bomb going off in Nairobi and presents life through the eyes of a worrywart who sees scary things going on around her and wonders whether there is anything she can do to control the unfolding of the universe.
d. Jane was raised in Ethiopia so check into her listings at Amazon.com and think about reading any of her Ethiopia books to help with your understanding of the lives of people in other parts of the world.

CYNTHIA LEITICH-SMITH
has posted a great list of reading resources at this time on her site at http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/ (left upper corner), including her own, award-winning RAIN IS NOT MY NAME

JEANNETTE INGOLD
a. "My PICTURES, 1918 , Harcourt, would be very appropriate. A YA novel set on the Texas home front during WWI, it's about a girl searching for a way to understand loss and change and learning to find her own view into the world."
b. "The CBC site lists my first book, THE WINDOW, Harcourt, among its recommendations of books about trauma, tragedy, and loss. ... about a girl learning to let others into her life after an accident in which she's lost her eyesight and which killed her mother.

DIAN REGAN:
"... this one is not quite out yet, but ... Knopf/Random House might bring it out early: SHATTERED: Stories of Children and War (Knopf/February 2002). A collection of YA stories from 12 authors, including "Faizabad Harvest, 1980," a story about the Russian invasion of Afghanistan by Susan Fisher Staples.

In my story, "Golpe de Estado," about the 1992 coup in Caracas, the main character deals with the "us verses them," mentality, which is so prevalent right now. And when he thinks how worried his Grandparents back in the United States will be when they hear about the coup, he wonders if something so terrible to him will even make the papers back in the USA. This fills him with guilt for all the times he's flipped past stories of devastation in faraway countries, as if they were of no concern to him. And we see ourselves. America has been attacked! Oh, but this has been happening to other countries for decades. The USA has been concerned, but how concerned have we as individuals been?"

SARA JANE BOYERS:
a. As well as TEEN POWER POLITICS, I have to say that my own first book, LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME, a pairing of the reassuring l978 poem of Dr. Maya Angelou's and the wildly expressive work of the late contemporary artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, has been used since published for reassurance to children, teens and adults as it evocatively captures the strength within us all.
b. As well, we are now in discussion about bringing back into print my second book, O BEAUTIFUL FOR SPACIOUS SKIES, a pairing of all four verses of Katharine Lee Bates' incredible hymn, "America the Beautiful" with the absolutely fabulous paintings of one of our greatest living artists, Wayne Thiebaud (his retrospective in New York just ended and he will be honored this next month by the Archive of American Art). Will post when its republication date arrives!

*****SOME PICTURE BOOKS TO READ AND/OR SHARE WITH YOUNGER CHILDREN***

KATIE DAVIS:
"My newest book, SCARED STIFF, is about a little girl who is afraid of things in her life (regular things) and finds a way to empower herself."

WENDIE OLD:
" STACY HAD A LITTLE SISTER, is about a child who loses a sibling from S.I.D.S., but actually concentrates on (and reassures) the older child's fears that she will die, too. It shows how ... the family reassuring each other begins the healing."

KAY WINTERS:
"THE TEENY TINY GHOST AND WHOOO'S HAUNTING THE TEENY TINY GHOST help children cope with facing fear [SJB comment: And also great for Halloween!]. In both titles, the TTG is very timid, and he finds he has to take action, and stand up to his fear. When he finally finds the courage to do so, he is very pleased with the results, and so are his readers. "