When I Was A Child

This book is a celebration of the special bond between a grandparent and child as they share the magic, joy and love in the world, both past and present. There is magic in everything. The world is a spinning star, No matter how old you are.

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER Ever since the 1981 publication of her stunning debut, Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson has built a sterling reputation as a writer of sharp, subtly moving prose, not only as a major American novelist (her second novel, Gilead, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize), but also as a rigorous thinker and incisive essayist. Her compelling and demanding collection The Death of Adam—in which she reflects upon her Presbyterian upbringing, investigates the roots of Midwestern abolitionism and mounts a memorable defence of Calvinism—is respected as a classic of the genre, and praised by Doris Lessing as “a useful antidote to the increasingly crude and slogan-loving culture we inhabit.” In When I Was a Child I Read Books, Robinson returns to and expands upon the themes that have preoccupied her work with renewed vigour. In “Austerity as Ideology,” she tackles the global debt crisis and the charged political and social climate in America that makes finding a solution to the country’s financial troubles so challenging. In “Open Thy Hand Wide,” she searches out the deeply embedded role of generosity in Christian faith. And in “When I Was a Child,” one of her most personal essays to date, an account of her childhood in Idaho becomes an exploration of individualism and the myth of the American West. Clear-eyed and forceful as ever, Robinson demonstrates once again why she is regarded as one of North America’s essential writers.

Are you afraid whenyou go to bed?This book will putgood thoughtsin your head.

First Communion is generally understood as a rite of passage in which seven- and eight-year-old Catholic children transform from baptized participants in the Church to members of the body of Christ, the universal Catholic Church. This official Church account, however, ignores what the rite actually may mean to its participants. In When I Was a Child, Susan Ridgely Bales demonstrates that the accepted understanding of a religious ritual can shift dramatically when one considers the often neglected perspective of child participants. Bales followed Faith Formation classes and interviewed communicants, parents, and priests in an African American parish and in a parish containing both white and Latino congregations. By letting the children speak for themselves through their words, drawings, and actions, When I Was a Child stresses the importance of rehearsal, the centrality of sensory experiences, and the impact of expectations in the communicants' interpretations of the Eucharist. In the first sustained ethnographic study of how children interpret and help shape their own faith, Bales finds that children's perspectives give new contours to the traditional understanding of a common religious ritual. Ultimately, she argues that scholars of religion should consider age as distinct a factor as race, class, and gender in their analyses.

The perfect gift for Mother's Day, this is a delightful treasury of nostalgia that gives an intimate, impressionistic portrait of the America of 1900. Possiessing an eye for engaging detail and charming sentiment, Rutledge perfectly captures the amazing changes that have taken place in America since the turn of the century.

Solve typical toddler challenges with eight key mindshifts that will help you parent with clarity, calmness and self-control. Through stories from her practice, Claire Lerner shows parents how making critical mindshifts—seeing their children’s behaviors through a new lens —empowers parents to solve their most vexing childrearing challenges. This process puts parents back in the driver’s seat, where they belong and where their children need them to be. These real life stories provide a roadmap for how to tune into the root causes of children’s behavior and how to create and implement strategies that are tailored to the unique needs of each child and family. Through these stories, Claire provides a treasure trove of practical solutions that are based in science and which work in real life. Why Is My Child In Charge? picks up where other books have left parents hanging. Most parenting books offer solutions that sound good on paper but don’t work in practice. They are aspirational rather than achievable, or they offer one-size-fits-all approaches that don’t meet the needs of an individual child. They can compound parents’ feelings of frustration and thus, can be counterproductive. Case by case, Claire unpacks the individualized process she guides parents through to solve the most common challenges such as throwing tantrums in public; delaying bedtime for hours; refusing to participate in family mealtimes; and resisting potty training. Employing a relatable story-telling approach, Claire elucidates: The faulty mindsets that pose obstacles to parents seeing the situation more objectively The essential mindshifts that enable parents to quickly identify the root causes of the problem The development of an action plan tailored to each unique child and family Why is My Child in Charge? is like having a child development specialist in your home. It shows how you can develop “win-win” strategies that translate into adaptable, happy kids and calm, connected and in-control parents. It will help you be the parent you want to be.