A Tale of Two Three Books

Feb. 28 - It's staggering to think that, given so much societal focus on "thinking of the children," that more books like these haven't been written. But leave it to the Marines or, in this case, a Marine Wife and Mom Who Pens Books to Help Military Kids Cope:

Angela Sportelli-Rehak, wife of Marine Corps Lt. Col. Dennis Rehak, combined her personal experience with background as a professional counselor and professor to write two children's books about the challenges facing military families.

"When Duty Calls" and "Moving Again Mom" are part of a series called, "Uncle Sam's Kids" that follows a fictitious military family through the ups and downs of military life. The books are written for children in kindergarten through fourth grade and focus on the stresses of deployments and the disruption of being uprooted during permanent-change-of-station moves, Rehak explained. The stories are based largely on the Rehak family's personal experiences, as well as those of other military families, said Rehak, who teaches child psychology and education courses at Ocean County College in Toms River, N.J.

With 13 military moves under her belt, Rehak said she was often frustrated that no books on the market addressed the stresses her three children endured when they left their school, friends, sports teams and neighborhood behind during moves. "So I decided to write one myself," she said.

But as military deployments began stepping up after Sept. 11, 2001, Rehak temporarily put that project aside to write a book for the children of deploying troops. "My husband has been on many, many deployments, and I know there are a lot of stressors that come along with that," she said. "I thought a book about it might help a lot of people."

I really hope these books get the distribution necessary so that they can fill what is a definite need, as those of us who read blogs written by family members of military personnel can attest, and it would be wonderful if Sportelli-Rehak continues the series right up through the teen years.

The third book is also written for children and helps them cope with a different kind of stress: Why Mommy is a Democrat (that's my interpetation and I'm sticking with it.)

I'd love to take my shots at it but Tuning Spork beat me to it and, um, sporks the books delightfully -- and his review is totally SFW.

Posted by: Debbye at 07:03 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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