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Exploring Forgiveness
Praying for a Wounded Child is a devotional prayer guide designed specifically for family members and caregivers of children who have been victims of trauma. Why was this an important book for you to write?
After perusing numerous books on prayer for one’s children as well as books on traumatized children, I noted a clear absence of books on praying specifically for traumatized children. Thus, I felt that foster parents and adoptive parents, as well as families facing battles, could best be strengthened by combining prayers along with information and guidance on traumatized children.
My heart’s desire herein is to spiritually, emotionally, and practically support those brave parents who deeply love and advocate for their wounded children. Briefly, too, I sought to use my education and experience as a mental health therapist and hospital chaplain as well as my trajectory as a parent to kids from hard places.
The book begins with the caregiver’s relationship with God before focusing on the child. Why was that sequence important to you?
This is an excellent question, and this order was intentional. An ocean of wisdom and strength is available in the Lord, as He can truly comfort and guide one. Moreover, checking the motives of one’s heart and offering forgiveness, even mentally, can liberate a caregiver’s mind and soul. Therefore, the critical area of forgiveness is duly explored.
In exploring forgiveness and various other aspects of a caregiver’s relationship with God, my intention was to first seek restoration and renewal for the caregiver spiritually as well as replenishment. Obviously, replenishment, renewal, and restoration are needed for a caregiver to give from a full bucket, as that saying goes.
What do you think caregivers often misunderstand about trauma in children?
Akin to grief, trauma in children is not the same as trauma with adults.
Generally, children lack critical thinking skills until roughly age 12 and sometimes even later, particularly with boys. Children’s verbal and processing skills are not fully established and present as their brains are still developing. Adults may be able to heal somewhat through verbalization, yet a child may need art or play with a healthy adult to begin to openly verbalize (and it may be minimal) or process their pain.
Children’s language, love language, and often their healing mechanism is play. And yes, a gift one can give to a child is to enter his or her world and play with what the child is drawn to, even if the child is not significantly wounded.
Additionally and notably, the child’s emotions may seem frozen or buried after the trauma, unlike some adults.
Thus, support groups for children where they are present with other children who have been traumatized, especially with a similar trauma, may help relieve the pain in a safe environment. These groups also may address and free a wounded child from a sense of loneliness and isolation in their pain. Examples are grief groups for kids (often found through hospices), Alateen, and foster care and adoption groups for kids.
I also wish to discourage parents from unknowingly denying or suppressing a child’s pain when the emotions come forth. Compensation, such as taking them out for ice cream, promising a gift, etc., is so easy to offer to stop the tears, big emotions, etc.
I totally understand that, and honestly, have been guilty of that as well. I truly believe this is a knee-jerk parental reaction, as it hurts us to see our child in pain.
Yet compassionate listening with statements such as, “I am so glad you are sharing this with me,” “Tell me more.” “I am not leaving you. I love you.” and “Please keep talking. I want to just listen to you.” or “I am here for you.” can heal, ensure a child’s safety with emotions, and facilitate a depth of bonding.
If a reader could take away one truth from Praying for a Wounded Child, what would you want it to be?
Raising a wounded child can be a profound vehicle to make us like Christ, meaning drawing one to Him as well as learning to respond to the child in a Christlike manner. Rather than viewing this as a burden (which can be easy to do as a human being), one can have the perspective of seeing this journey as a means to deeper prayer, a more understanding and empathetic walk with the wounded, and an opportunity to seek the heart of God for a wounded child.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Feeling Alone or Overwhelmed in the Journey?
In Praying for a Wounded Child, Wells offers a soul-stirring devotional born from her and her husband’s personal wrestling in prayer through unexpected issues as they parented all their cherished children which includes children from hard places. Her master’s degree in mental health counseling, and considerable experience with traumatized children lends to Virginia Wells’s authentic ability to empathize with parents involved in similar circumstances.
As you journey with Wells, you’ll encounter hope, wisdom, and relentless faith.
This riveting devotional goes beyond a good parenting book, and offers practical and spiritual guidance, cultivating a deeper relationship with Christ. Guidance and comfort are generously provided while still considering the emotional needs of your child.
You will discover prayers and insights about:liberating forgiveness
prejudice
the Luke 2:52 prayer
journaling intercession
attachment issues
extended family and siblings
identity
education
incarceration
abandonment
abuse
self-care
and more
Embrace a profound journey toward hope and healing, rediscovering the transformative power of prayer for both you and your children. This devotional is a beacon of hope for parents seeking understanding, clarity, and solace amid the concerns and challenges of parenting a wounded child.
The author will be donating 50 to 100 per cent of the profits of this book to help human trafficking survivors and other God-honoring, compassionate charities.
Expanding Our Boundaries
How to Sit With Someone is an intimate guide to offering peer support and explores active listening, stigma, self-compassion, boundaries, mutual power, and recovery. Why was this an important book for you to write?
Peer support changed my life, and I believe it has the power to change other people’s lives too.
The book places a strong emphasis on boundaries alongside compassion. Why do you believe healthy boundaries are essential for both the supporter and the person receiving support?
We share more in relationships once trust is developed. It’s important in life to maintain a balance between expanding our boundaries as we engage in relationships and keeping ourselves safe by sharing at the appropriate times and with the right people.
You explore difficult topics like addiction, psychosis, and stigma with remarkable nuance. How did you balance honesty about these experiences while still offering hope?
I think hope matters because I believe people can respond to what they’re going through, even when they can’t control everything about their situation. That doesn’t mean change is simple or that everyone has the same choices available to them. But I do believe people can grow, recover, and find new ways of living. This optimism is a part of peer support, that we aren’t irredeemable.
Addiction, psychosis, and stigma are real, and they can be incredibly difficult. I don’t think it helps to cover that over with blind positivity. Hope is only meaningful when it stays connected to what people are actually facing. There are some big obstacles with these sorts of things, but determining what is feasible to change and what isn’t is up to the person living it.
What is one thing you hope readers take away from How to Sit With Someone?
I hope readers take away that mental health struggles are often made worse by disconnection from other people, from community, and sometimes from ourselves. Some of the most meaningful healing happens in relationship, when someone feels seen, heard, and less alone. This book is about learning how to come alongside people with more care, humility, and presence. You don’t have to say the right thing, or fix the person. Just be present with them human to human.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
How to Sit With Someone explores the skills and ideas that make conversations safer and more useful: listening without taking over, staying curious, setting boundaries, reducing shame, and knowing when it is time to involve more help.
This thoughtful and accessible book offers a steadier, more human way to support someone through mental health challenges, while also helping us reflect on our own healing and growth.
Visual Variety
Alex the Circus Clown: Learning Colors is Fun! invites young readers into a vibrant circus where Alex and his clown friends turn learning colors into a playful, rhyming celebration. What inspired you to use a circus setting to teach children about colors?
I chose the circus setting because it naturally brings color, energy, and excitement to the page. When children think of the circus, they usually picture bright balloons, costumes, laughter, and fun, so it felt like the perfect place to introduce colors in a way that would immediately capture their attention. I wanted learning to feel playful, not forced.
Alex the Circus Clown gave me the opportunity to create a world that feels joyful and inviting for young children. The circus is full of movement, imagination, and visual variety, which made it a great fit for teaching something as basic but important as color recognition. It also allowed me to use rhythm and rhyme in a way that feels lighthearted and entertaining.
More than anything, I wanted children to connect learning with happiness. If a child can smile, laugh, and enjoy the experience while also learning their colors, then the book has done what I hoped it would do.
How did you decide which colors to include, especially more specific shades like maroon, copper, aqua, and olive?
I wanted the book to go beyond just the basic colors children usually learn first. Of course, those foundation colors matter, but I also wanted to introduce them to a wider range of shades in a fun and natural way. Children notice more than we sometimes give them credit for, and books can be a simple way to expand their vocabulary early.
Colors like maroon, copper, aqua, and olive were included because they add variety and make the book feel richer and more interesting. The circus gave me the freedom to do that. It is such a colorful world that it did not feel out of place to include shades that are a little more unique. Balloons, costumes, props, and decorations all gave me room to bring in those colors in a playful way.
I also liked the idea of giving parents and teachers something extra to work with. A child may not remember every shade right away, but hearing those words early helps build familiarity. It opens the door for conversation, repetition, and curiosity, which are a big part of learning at that age.
For me, it was really about making the book more engaging while also giving children a broader and more colorful learning experience.
The illustrations are full of motion, pattern, and personality; how did you envision the visual style of Alex and his clown friends?
I wanted the visual style to feel lively, warm, and full of joy. Since this book is for young children, I pictured Alex and his clown friends as friendly, playful, and inviting rather than exaggerated or overwhelming. I did not want anything harsh or distracting. I wanted children to look at the characters and immediately feel comfortable, curious, and ready to turn the page.
The movement was important to me because the circus is never still. In my mind, everything in that world has energy—balloons floating, costumes bouncing, clowns performing, and color everywhere. I wanted the illustrations to reflect that sense of motion and excitement so the book would feel alive from page to page.
The patterns and bright details were also intentional. Since the book is about colors, I wanted the artwork to do more than just support the words. I wanted it to help carry the learning. The costumes, props, and backgrounds gave me the chance to fill the pages with visual variety in a way that keeps children engaged while reinforcing the colors they are seeing and hearing.
As for Alex and his friends, I envisioned them each having their own personality while still fitting together as part of the same cheerful circus world. I wanted them to feel expressive, fun, and memorable. My goal was for children to connect with them, not just as characters in a lesson, but as friends leading them through a colorful adventure.
What do you hope parents, teachers, and caregivers take away from reading this book with children?
I hope they take away that learning can be simple, joyful, and shared. For me, this book is not just about teaching colors. It is about creating a moment where a child can learn, smile, and feel encouraged at the same time.
I hope parents, teachers, and caregivers see that early learning does not have to feel like pressure. It can be fun, lighthearted, and full of imagination. Sometimes the best learning happens when a child is relaxed, engaged, and enjoying the experience.
I also hope the book gives adults a chance to interact with children in a meaningful way. Whether they are reading aloud, pointing out colors, or talking about their favorite pages, those small moments matter. They help build vocabulary, attention, confidence, and connection.
More than anything, I hope this book leaves them with the reminder that children learn best when learning feels like joy.
Author Links: Facebook | Website
How to Sit With Someone
How to Sit With Someone, by John F. Gerrard, is a thoughtful, intimate guide to peer support, rooted in lived experience rather than clinical distance. Gerrard writes about what it means to listen without taking over, to support without rescuing, and to stay present with another person’s pain while still respecting their autonomy. The book moves through ideas like active listening, stigma, self-compassion, boundaries, mutual power, recovery, and the dignity of risk, always returning to the same quiet center: people heal best when they’re met with respect, curiosity, and real human presence. From the opening memory of sitting in a parked car with coffee and a friend, the book frames peer support not as a technique, but as something many of us have already touched in our most honest relationships.
Gerrard doesn’t write from above the subject, and that makes a tremendous difference. He’s willing to admit where he’s overshared, interrupted, misread a moment, or leaned too hard toward fixing. That honesty gives the book its moral weight. The section on communication, where he recalls someone asking him, “Can you just let me finish?” stayed with me because it captures something so painfully familiar: the way our eagerness to help can sometimes crowd out the very person we’re trying to hear. I also found the discussion of sympathy, empathy, and compassion especially sharp. Gerrard understands how pity can shrink a person, even when it’s well-intended, and he argues for a warmer, steadier kind of presence that doesn’t turn suffering into spectacle.
The writing itself is plainspoken but often quietly beautiful. Gerrard has a gift for taking abstract ideas and making them feel lived-in. Dialogue becomes a racquet sport where the goal is to keep the ball in play. Recovery becomes a direction rather than a badge. Black-and-white thinking is treated with unusual generosity, not as a failure of intelligence, but as a kind of scaffolding the mind may need when life feels chaotic. I loved that nuance. The book doesn’t flatten people into inspirational lessons, and it doesn’t pretend that compassion is simple. Its strongest passages are the ones where Gerrard lets contradiction breathe, especially when he writes about psychosis, stigma, the “tortured artist” label, or the night he resisted using again by shrinking the moment down to small, almost invisible choices. There’s real emotional intelligence in the way he honors both agency and limitation.
How to Sit With Someone offers less of a manual and more of a posture toward life: patient, curious, boundaried, and deeply humane. Its concluding reflections on lifelong learning bring the book full circle, suggesting that connection softens isolation, and that small acts of presence can change the direction of a life. I’d recommend this book to peer supporters, mental health advocates, caregivers, friends of people who are struggling, and anyone who wants to become less frantic about helping and more trustworthy in their care. It’s a sincere, grounded, and quietly moving book for readers who believe that sitting beside someone, when done with humility and love, can be its own profound form of support.
Pages: 129 | ISBN : 978-1778050152
Dog Tags and Ghost Roads
Dog Tags and Ghost Roads is a poetry collection about military service as both a calling and a haunting, moving from enlistment and duty into combat, homecoming, healing, and legacy. D.C. “Buddy” Lee writes from a place of deep reverence for veterans, families, faith, brotherhood, and the invisible weight that follows people long after the uniform comes off. The book begins with the solemnity of “The Oath” and “For God and Country,” then widens into the dust, salt, fear, and fellowship of service before settling into some of its most affecting terrain: the kitchen-table quiet of coming home, the startled body that still hears war in a slammed door, and the slow mercy of therapy, love, and ordinary mornings.
What moved me most was the book’s emotional honesty about what service costs. Lee doesn’t treat sacrifice as a clean, polished word. He lets it drag sand into the house. In “The Echoes of Service,” honor becomes heavy enough to make breathing hurt, and in “Where Shadows Wait,” home is warm but not simple, because safety feels like a language the veteran has forgotten. Those moments stayed with me because they feel intimate rather than ceremonial. I believed the wife’s hand on the shoulder, the daughter’s laughter in the kitchen, the veteran sitting on the edge of the bed watching the dark. The best pieces in the collection understand that war doesn’t always announce itself with gunfire. Sometimes it lives in a hallway, a cup of coffee, a flinch.
The writing has a strong, thunderous pulse, full of flags, storms, steel, salt, sacred vows, and ghosts. At times, that grand register gives the poems real force, especially in the sea poems like “Underway,” “Run Silent, Run Deep,” and “A Life in Salt and Wind,” where Lee’s Navy background brings texture and authority. I loved those sensory touches: brine, deck, whistle, harbor, anchor, tide. The collection uses repeated images of fire, bone, flame, honor, and eternal watchfulness. When Lee lets the poem breathe in a specific room with a specific person, the book becomes richer and more piercing.
I felt that Dog Tags and Ghost Roads is interested in bearing witness, and there’s something earnest and worthy in that. Its ideas are rooted in respect, resilience, faith, service, and the conviction that healing is not weakness but another form of courage. This is a heartfelt, reverent book with its strongest power in the places where public honor meets private pain, and I’d recommend it especially to veterans, military families, caregivers, and readers who want poetry that speaks openly about duty, trauma, love, and the long road home.
Pages: 92 | ASIN : B0DST3795Y
I Have a Voice
“To all those who have silenced their inner voice, remember that it is never too late to rediscover it.”
Heidi Solomon-Orlick’s I Have a Voice is a rare children’s book with the power to resonate with both children and adults. Warm, empowering, and genuinely moving, this is a “book of listening” in the truest sense. It invites young readers to turn inward, recognize the voice they were born with, and understand just how deeply it matters.
The story’s message is simple yet profound: every voice matters. Some children have been told to be quiet. Others have felt unseen. Some may have lost touch with their own inner sense of self. I Have a Voice gently reminds them that it is never too late to rediscover what has always been there. The book teaches children that their voice is not only the sound they make. It is the part of them that knows they are loved, that they matter, and that they have a place in the world. It is also the quiet guide that helps them move through life. When we stop listening to that inner voice, we can lose our way. Still, we can always find it again.
One of the most memorable aspects of the book is its surprisingly immersive artwork. I expected charming illustrations that would pleasantly accompany the words. Instead, the visuals do far more. Each page is filled with rich, detailed, and lush imagery that draws the reader directly into the story. The illustrations do not simply echo the text. They deepen it. They add emotion, texture, and meaning, making each page feel less like something to read and more like something to experience. This is the kind of artwork children will want to linger over, returning to favorite pages just to look a little longer.
The activity pages at the end are another brilliant touch. They encourage children to explore their own emotions and discover their own voices in ways that feel playful, thoughtful, and engaging. This creative addition extends the reading experience beyond the story itself. It transforms a beautiful book into something children can carry with them, revisit, and use as a gentle tool for reflection.
I Have a Voice is highly recommended for parents, caregivers, and educators looking for a children’s book that does more than entertain. This is a meaningful story for young readers learning about themselves, their minds, and the quiet power of the voice within them. It is also, quite honestly, just as valuable for the grown-ups reading alongside them.
Pages: 54 | ISBN : 978-1965541982
One Leaf, One Life
One Leaf, One Life is a meditative blend of botanical art, memoir, science, and spiritual reflection, built around Ramiro F. Prudencio’s colored pencil portraits of autumn leaves and the essays they awaken in him. A retired urologist born in Bolivia and shaped by immigration, medicine, loss, aging, family, and art, Prudencio turns each leaf into a small threshold: into photosynthesis and color theory, into memories of Chicago autumns, into his childhood injury that cost him an eye, into his late discovery of colored pencils, into gratitude for the ordinary green machinery that lets us breathe.
What moved me most is how earnestly the book believes in attention. Prudencio doesn’t glance at a leaf, he almost courts it. A maple becomes a dancer, an elm becomes a question mark asking Quo vadis?, an artichoke rises like an “emperor thistle” dressed for coronation. That often feels tender and earned, especially because the author’s own life is folded into the observation. When he writes about losing an eye at five, and then later about learning to see inward, the metaphor of the leaf stops being decorative. It becomes personal. I felt that same quiet force in the story of his grandson bringing him leaves by color until he finally presents one as “a rainbow.” It’s a small scene, but it contains the whole book’s heartbeat, wonder passed between generations, and nature translated through affection.
The writing is at its best when it lets precision and feeling breathe together. I enjoyed the way Prudencio can move from chlorophyll, electromagnetic waves, and the xylem’s slow upward pull of water into something almost prayerful without seeming embarrassed by either science or awe. His background as a surgeon gives the book a steady hand. He loves process, tools, discipline, and the almost surgical patience of burnishing pigment into paper. There’s a genuine soulfulness here, and the repetition of certain ideas, aging, humility, service, purpose, gradually begins to feel less like insistence and more like a ritual.
The book feels beautifully made, with a level of craftsmanship that matches the patience of the artwork itself. The cover is elegant and inviting, the layout gives the leaf portraits room to breathe, and the production has a gallery-like polish that makes the reading experience feel contemplative. I also found the author’s training in ikebana especially distinctive, because it gives the book a sensibility that goes beyond botanical illustration. There’s a disciplined attention to line, balance, emptiness, and natural form that seems to shape the images and the way he thinks about aging, beauty, and impermanence.
By the end, I felt I had read not a conventional art book, and not exactly a memoir, but a late-life testament written by someone trying to make peace with time without surrendering curiosity. Its loveliest idea is that decline can still be radiant, that what is scarred, curled, spotted, or nearly spent may be carrying its deepest beauty at the very moment we’re trained to overlook it. I closed the book feeling calmer, a little more awake to the living world, and more grateful for small, perishable things. I’d recommend One Leaf, One Life to reflective readers, nature lovers, artists, retirees, caregivers, and anyone drawn to books that turn close observation into a gentle philosophy of living.
Pages: 169 | ISBN : 978-9917032519
An Act of Love and Healing
A Legacy of Love teaches readers how to create a “Person-Centered Plan” (PCP), a living, breathing document that honors the uniqueness of their loved one and their individual needs.
What was the hardest thing to write about?
The hardest part of writing this book was sharing my personal story. Opening up about my own journey as a caregiver was both emotional and vulnerable, but I knew it was important. I wanted to offer an honest and heartfelt reflection, so others walking a similar path would feel seen, understood, and less alone.
What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?
One of the most important messages I wanted to convey is that, as caregivers, we have an essential role in being a positive voice for our loved ones. Our advocacy, love, and dedication can profoundly shape their experiences and well-being. I also wanted to emphasize the importance of approaching caregiving with intention, presence, and deep respect for the unique person we are supporting.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
I hope readers walk away with the understanding that creating a Person-Centered Plan (PCP) is not just about organizing care—it’s an act of love and healing. Taking the time to truly see and honor the individual beyond the caregiving role allows for a deeper, more meaningful connection. Sometimes, we become so immersed in the responsibilities of caring that we forget to pause and appreciate the beautiful soul right in front of us. My hope is that this book helps caregivers shift from simply managing care to truly cherishing the person they are supporting.
Designing a meaningful care plan for your loved one with unique needs can be a life-changing gift—one that shapes their entire lifespan and journey. Whether you’re caring for a teen, a child, or an aging family member, this book shows you how to create a Person-Centered Plan (PCP) that caters to their individual strengths and preferences, enhancing their quality of life and making caregiving more fulfilling.
In this book, you’ll discover:Real-life stories of caregivers who transformed their approach with a personalized care plan.
Ways to recognize your loved one’s unique qualities to ensure their care is meaningful and effective.
Step-by-step strategies to build and adapt a care plan that evolves with your loved one’s needs.
Emotional insights through poems and reflections on the caregiving journey.
Practical advice to help you implement and follow through with your care plan.
You may be asking, “Can a plan really make a difference?” The answer is yes. A thoughtfully crafted Person-Centered Plan (PCP) is not just a tool—it’s a powerful way to offer care and compassion that truly honors your loved one’s unique journey. This book helps you become the guide your loved one needs, making their care not only more effective but also more meaningful. You take on the role of their voice in cases where speech may not be present.
Don’t wait for things to improve—take control of the caregiving journey today. Transform how you care, connect, and create a lasting impact on your loved one’s life.
