Blog Tour stop for this enlightening and engaging trio of books
"“All children face many new experiences as they grow up and helping them to understand and deal with each one is one of the most demanding and rewarding things we do as parents. ~Sarah, The Duchess of York "
Synopsis
The Helping Hand stories are for both children and parents to read, perhaps together.
Each simple story describes a childhood experience and shows some of the ways to make it a positive one.
I do hope these books encourage children and parents to talk about these often challenging issues. If we can show children that talking things out goes a long way to finding a solution, it will stand them in good stead throughout their lives.”
Sarah, Duchess of York
There are three stories in the first series:-
James and the Bullies tells the story of a little boy who is being bullied at school but plucks up the courage to talk to his Mum.
Daisy learns about Strangers show what happens when Daisy loses her Mum in the supermarket. The experience teaches her a valuable lesson.
Holly’s First Day at School tells the story of a worried little girl facing school for the first time. She soon forgets her worries as she meets new friends.
My Review
Welcome to my stop on the tour for this wonderful trio of books by The Duchess of York.
Each of these enlightening and engaging stories are accompanied by beautifully drawn and fun illustrations, combined they help children and parents focus discussions on key issues that could be an upset or a worry in there lives.
In James and the Bullies, we follow James in his day to day life at school and the upset he feels from been bullied about his height.
We see his refusal to share his upset but as the tale develops we see James becoming stronger and he learns to trust his classmate and tell her what is happening, leaving the conversation with the promise that he will finally tell his Mum what is going on.
The old saying a problem shared is a problem halved is so true here we see James rise with the strength he has and I found this book a fantastic one to share with my boys, I loved how James character was drawn the worry and stress really showed on the page and we see the happier James at the end.
bullying is so rife in schools today and the fears that young children can have can be so overwhelming this book really helps with promotion the discussion with children around this issue.
In Daisy learns about Strangers, Poor Daisy becomes separated from her mother in a store, we learn what is the best way for a child to behave in this situation what the safe choices are and we of course see a happy ending with the added bonus of a catchy rhyme to remember the rules :-
“Never take a strangers sweet, even if its the biggest treat. Never take a strangers hand touching by strangers is strictly banned. And never get into a strangers care, remember these rules where ever you are”.
Lastly in Holly’s First Day at School , we join her on this day which is so worrying and upsetting for her, new places and events with new teachers and classmates can all be very overwhelming for young children but we follow Holly's day as she makes new friends and in the end loves her school and cannot wait for the next day
There are very few families who will not have the first day at school worries and tantrums I know I had them with all 3 of my son's! a book like this would have been fantastic and this one is perfect from encouraging young children to try new things to explaining the school day an the adults who will be around for support.
Each of this books promote such positiveness and allow and guide the open discussion between parents and children around topics that might seem difficult or complicated to explain, my older boys read of these and agreed they would have been a good way to explain things to them when they were younger. My youngest son who is 8 and has ASD found the book based around bullying the most effective this opened a discussion in our household about not only outside bullying but in side your own friendship group bullying, my son found this book aided him to explain worries he had had in school to me.
Below is a lovely Interview with the Duchess Of York about the Helping Hands Series, the inspiration for the books and the hopes of how they will help and aid the parents and children who read them.
HELPING HANDS STORIES INTERVIEW WITH SARAH, DUCHESS OF YORK
Why did you write the Helping Hand stories?
The simple answer is that I was originally asked to by a UK pharmacy chain who felt there was a need for them. But as I started to work on the stories, listened to Dr Richard Woolfson, the child psychologist who worked closely with us, and talked to mums with young children, it became clearer and clearer to me that this was something I could really contribute to. If we could tackle the issues that all children face growing up by using that oldest but most effective technique, storytelling, to create something that invited young children to start understanding those issues whilst being of practical help to parents, we would be doing something really worthwhile.
Why have you decided to republish them now?
Two reasons: firstly the importance of encouraging people of all ages to talk about difficult experiences as a healthy thing to do has become increasingly prominent and accepted. The Helping Hand stories are designed to help both parents and young children to do exactly that. My hope is that parents (and grandparents) will read the books with their children and talk about the stories after they have read them. Secondly, they were extremely popular with customers of the pharmacy chain but there is a much bigger audience out there who will not have come across the books yet – and will hopefully find them just as useful. We have brought them up to date in a bigger format with fantastic new illustrations – I can say that as I didn’t do them! They are the work of a very talented illustrator, Amit Tayal – thank you Amit for bringing the stories vividly to life. We’ve also produced ebook versions of the stories so they can be read on a tablet or laptop.
How did you choose the issues to write about?
I wanted to tackle issues that are important and universal. Take bullying for example. According to UK research, at least two in five young people have experienced bullying in some form in the previous year. And bullying is the most common reason for children aged 11 and under to contact Childline. ‘James and the Bullies’ is a simple story of bullying at school that illustrates how to face up to the problem and to go about resolving it. As with so many problems, being brave enough to talk about it is more than half the answer. Also, each story includes ten ‘Helpful Hints’ contributed by Richard Woolfson to give parents practical ways to help deal with the issue.
Do the stories reflect your personal experience?
As a mother, I was of course concerned about the issues that the stories cover and I would have loved to have had them to hand when I was a young Mum. But I wanted to write them, based on a broader understanding of the issues and the ways to tackle them. So the situations and solutions I describe come from both Richard Woolfson’s many years’ experience working with children and their parents and the many conversations I have had with other parents at the school gate and subsequently.
Do you have plans to write more Helping Hand stories?
I would love to. There’s no shortage of topics. For example, the growth of cyberbullying is something I know the parents of young children I talk to are desperately worried about. It’s a problem that just did not exist when they were children so it is more difficult to grasp. I think a story that shed some light on the issue and offered advice on how to tackle it would be very well received.
What do you hope the Helping Hand stories will achieve?
I had a conversation the other day with a mum who had recently read the stories to her young daughter. She told me that, initially, she had been a little wary of raising such difficult topics with her innocent young child. But, equally, she knew that her little girl would have to face such issues, probably sooner rather than later. As they describe a fictional situation, the stories had been a relaxed way to introduce the topics and her daughter had engaged with them. She identified with the children portrayed in them and wanted to read them again a few days later, asking a number of questions. Mum and Dad had felt very relieved that the topics were now ‘on the table’ and indeed the books were now literally on the bedside table to be referred to, as and when needed. If that experience could be repeated a thousand times – or even tens of thousands of times – I would be thrilled.
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Author Bio
The Duchess of York is a global humanitarian, businesswoman, best selling children’s book author, producer and wellness advocate.
The Duchess is widely admired for her "comeback spirit" and for overcoming formidable obstacles to succeed as a good mother who has worked hard to support her children, a survivor, businesswoman and humanitarian.
In 1993 she founded Children in Crisis (www.childrenincrisis.org.uk) and the charity has educated over 1.4 million children, trained over 18,000 teachers, built 57 schools and supports hundreds of schools on a yearly basis.
Recently CIC merged with Street Child and The Duchess is Founder Patron, remaining active in its mission to provide education to forgotten children around the world. She has recently returned from visiting Street Child’s projects in Nepal and Sierra Leone, supporting the most marginalised into education and out of bonded labour.
The Duchess has published over 52 books including two autobiographies and titles dealing with health, empowerment, history, art, as well as children's stories. Her children’s books include the series of ‘Budgie the Little Helicopter’, adapted into a highly successful animated series on US primetime Fox and her children’s book ‘Tea for Ruby’, published by Simon and Schuster had it’s debut at the top of the New York Times bestseller list.
The subject of countless media interviews herself, The Duchess has also found success as a reporter and presenter. In America, she has been a special correspondent for NBC's Today show and has presented specials and documentaries on ABC, FOX, and CNN.
In Britain, she has presented and coproduced specials for ITV, BBC, and Sky TV. She has served as guest editor on BBC Radio 4 Today programme and has regularly contributed to BBC Radio 2’s primetime lifestyle show “Steve Wright”. She conceived the film, and produced alongside Martin Scorsese, ‘The Young Victoria’, a period romance based on the early life of Queen Victoria starring Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend and scripted by Julian Fellowes.
She has written two books on the subject, ‘Travels with Queen Victoria’ and ‘Victoria and Albert: Family Life at Osborne House’. The Young Victoria was released in the US, UK, Australia, France amongst other territories and it was the closing film at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2009. She devotes much of her time to promoting wellness and children's causes. The ‘Helping Hand’ series of books is designed to introduce children to the issues they all confront as they grow old, through storytelling and to support their parents with advice provided by a leading child psychologist.
For 10 years she was the highly successful US spokesperson for Weight Watchers International where she distinguished herself as a wellness advocate and a spokesperson for the American Heart Association.
She has recently been asked to lead a campaign highlighting women and heart disease by The British Heart Foundation. She is a passionate supporter of a number of charities including The Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America, Julia’s House, The British Heart Foundation and The Children’s Air Ambulance.
She also champions Key to Freedom, a business structure initiative set up to support the Women’s Interlink Foundation (WIF) by giving vulnerable young women a platform to sell their products. WIF works across West Bengal, India, helping these women develop skills to earn an income. She has just returned from a visit to The Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation Hospital (BASR) where, as Patron, she is spearheading a campaign to establish a cardiology department to include a heart attack centre and rehabilitation.
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Thank you to the Publisher and Author for sending me an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this novel and for the opportunity to review these works.
All reviews are my own unbiased opinion.