Much has been written about the state of Black adolescence_often from a sociological point of view situating Black teens in an at-risk category. However, through her characters, young adult author Janet McDonald (1954-2007) presents the wide range of adolescent life. McDonald especially presents to readers the multifarious views of society in relation to the self-efficacious drive of urban teens to rise above their circumstances by any means necessary. Janet McDonald: The Original Project Girl is a bio-critical study of McDonald and her work as it relates to the contributions she has made to the genre of teen fiction. It explains McDonald's profoundly realistic fiction, which holds wide appeal for teens in search of answers to the coming of age mystery. Catherine Ross-Stroud, in her study of McDonald's works and interviews with the author, has put together a comprehensive resource that will be a useful research tool.
Little Girl Lost, a true story of a boy's drowing and his 10-year-old sister's loss, is drawn from the author's haunting memories of growing up in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan in the 1940s. Part II of the book offers adults resosurces and a bibliography to assist children experiencing loss and grief. The author has said: "Thank God, there's an increasing awareness and emphasis in helping children understand and process the impact of traumatic and tragic events and experiences that directly or indirectly affect their lives. The counseling of children has come a long, long way from the times of which I write -- half a century ago.
Taking account of the political, economic and cultural changes that have impacted on social work over recent years, this book explores the challenges and presents the realities of practice. Using an international range of examples, McDonald makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the character and purpose of social work.
Mother of Eight Survives Population Explosion was the original sub-title for the manuscript assembled in 1975-76, after my column "Just Between Us" finished its weekly four-year run in the Community Press, Portland, Oregon.Many years ago, at Christmas, I gave each of my eight adult children binders with copies of the incomplete manuscript titled Just Between Us that I am about to share with you. My children enjoyed searching for "their stories." They were all a huge part of what I did and why I did it.The 1960s and 1970s were times of tremendous turmoil and change in our society. It was all about Vietnam, human freedom, liberation, conservation, Zero Population Growth, and saving the earth for future generations. With eight children, I was living in the midst of my own population explosion - and turning heads whenever I packed them all with me into a restaurant or grocery store. Those were challenging times, interesting and fun times. This book speaks to life's challenges, the search for human freedom and spiritual growth. Putting one foot in front of the other on a daily basis. And for me personally it was a challenging time - raising eight children and facing a failing marriage.For decades, we sang and we cheered for personal liberty and freedom from war - but no one can be totally liberated. Every individual has commitments to honor. Freedom is a mental attitude, and being liberated is about half way between where you've been and where you'd like to be. It denotes progress. A sense of travel. In effect, you might say you're on a trip. Reaching plateaus along the way where you rest and then continue on.Don't expect children to understand you, the job you do, or the sacrifices youmake. They thought you were senile about the time they reached the age of reason. Their conviction strengthens as they grow older and begin taking sociology and psychology courses in college. They may even use you as a term project in the study of abnormal behavi
Much has been written about the state of Black adolescence_often from a sociological point of view situating Black teens in an at-risk category. However, through her characters, young adult author Janet McDonald (1954-2007) presents the wide range of adolescent life. McDonald especially presents to readers the multifarious views of society in relation to the self-efficacious drive of urban teens to rise above their circumstances by any means necessary. Janet McDonald: The Original Project Girl is a bio-critical study of McDonald and her work as it relates to the contributions she has made to the genre of teen fiction. It explains McDonald's profoundly realistic fiction, which holds wide appeal for teens in search of answers to the coming of age mystery. Catherine Ross-Stroud, in her study of McDonald's works and interviews with the author, has put together a comprehensive resource that will be a useful research tool.
Why do we pray?Why do we meditate?Answers to vague, soul searching questions such as these come from experience – doing the exercises and getting results. Mostly, we don't know what we are looking for in the exercises. When we work out on the treadmill at the gym we have a goal in mind – to lose weight, gain physical strength and stamina. Prayer and meditation are both spiritual exercises. Our spirit is somewhere at our center – a place of comfort, rest and peace. And, it is easy to get there. We are looking for the divine presence within our core being – that “Kingdom of God” within us that Jesus promised.On January 1, 2011 I began my journey to the center of my being by randomly selecting passages from old or new testaments. Taking a few minutes to reflect on the passage and read footnotes as needed. Then I wrote one page of commentary in my spiral notebook. Nearly four years later – a book of “366 Daily Reflections on Random Selections from Scripture” is available to readers. The important lessons in the book are overshadowed by the process of just doing the exercises of reading, reflecting, responding, and resting in the comfort of discovering a connection with something greater than ourselves, within ourselves.
Snow falls each year before we leave Central Oregon for the winter. Usually a light dusting that doesnâ??t last. Itâ??s a lovely reminder of what we once enjoyed. However, I put my cross-country skis in a garage sale before I moved to Central Oregon in 1999, knowing my husband Harry Taylor and I would be spending our winters in Mexico. When I started searching for answers to why we are called snowbirds, I ran across the lyrics of Anne Murrayâ??s song, as well as an encyclopedia section on the Junco, or snowbird, relative of the finches. Slate-colored Juncos breed in northern evergreen forests of Canada and the United States, and are found as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. Canadians and Americans have been heading south for decades, if not centuries, to escape the cold sting of winter. You need only drive on Oregon Highway 97 from late September through December to see the migration of cars and RVs heading south. My how these â??houses on the roadâ?? have grown â?? many â??snowbirdsâ?? now are full timers. Snowbirds Unlimited: Tales from the Restless Traveler merely scratches the surface of a lifetime of travel at home and abroad, by air, land or sea, coupled with ten years of documenting portions of that travel in published columns and articles. Many interesting, exotic and wonderful destinations are missing from this book due to the space limitations. This is a pick up and put down book, much like my previous collection of published columns in Mother of Eight Survives Population Explosion: Just Between Us Column Selections. Although the days of family-travel slide shows in the living room have passed, we now have social networking to share our enthusiastic reports and photos online. And, if some of us are fortunate enough to do what I am doing, and readers are interested enough to buy the books â?? we still can share our adventures.
The essays in this collection explore the activities of two populations of displaced peoples that are seldom discussed together: Indigenous peoples and refugees or diasporic peoples around the world. Rather than focusing on victimhood, the authors focus on the creativity and agency of displaced peoples, thereby emphasizing capacity and resilience. Throughout their chapters, they show how cultural activities-from public performance to filmmaking to community arts-recur as significant ways in which people counter the powers of displacement. This book is an indispensable resource for displaced peoples everywhere and the policy makers, social scientists, and others who work in concert with them. Contributors: Catherine Graham, Subhasri Ghosh, Jon Gordon, Maroussia Hajdukowski-Ahmed, Agnes Kramer-Hamstra, Mazen Masri, Jean McDonald, and Pavithra Narayanan.
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