It was my privilege to be invited to an interesting
evening earlier this month. This invitation came from Heartland Community
Action Agency. Staff there invited me to
attend an event called the Childhood Crisis Response World Café.
The invitation said, “Come and enjoy an evening of
conversations about supporting children in crisis, discussions about resources
available to providers, and perspectives from a child’s mental health therapist.”
To my surprise, I knew many of the women
in the room. They were local day care
providers, who came to the event after a long day of child care. Some of them had attended classes the same
day to refresh their CPR certification.
I am always impressed by how professional these extraordinary women
are. They shared stories, carefully not
divulging names, about the children in their care. My impression is that any of them could do
something else at a very high level, but they really love those children and
they really love their work.
My
contribution was to work on a bibliography of books that are available as
resources to help families through the difficult times, whether happy, like an
adoption, or sad, such as separation or death.
Julie Jansen, Healthy Foundations
Project Coordinator for Heartland CAA, provided me with a list of recommended
books, and I started searching.
For
example, Sad Days, Glad Days, by
DeWitt Hamilton, is about a child whose mom is dealing with depression. Saying
Goodbye to Lulu, Tear Soup, My Father’s Arms are a Boat, and Missing Mommy are all books that help
children understand and cope with death. 
Mama
Loves Me from Away explains incarceration
to a child whose mother is in prison.
My Red Balloon and Sometimes We Were Brave are about having a parent on military
deployment. The complete list is
available at the children’s desk.
I
found many books on Julie’s list currently in the Litchfield collection, and
added a few of my own favorites. Many
more books from her list are available in Pioneerland Library System. I also developed lists of books that are
still in print, and I hope to work closely with Heartland CAA to add more books
on these topics into the library collection.
