Sierra Leone is only one of the more than 50 armed conflicts currently going on around the world. It is estimated that 20 million children were either refugees or displaced internally, and some 300,000 children under the age of 18 were used in hostilities at any given time as government or rebel soldiers, with about one-third reportedly fighting…

In this paper, the author looks at how she attempted to teach her students--preservice teachers--to engage in dialogic conversation about gay and lesbian identity using children's literature with gay and lesbian characters as a jumping off point. Through her analysis, the author has identified two requirements for dialogic conversation among…

Much has been written about children's literature that deals with war, and specifically the Holocaust, but very little has been said about the portrayal of the refugee experience in children's books, which is now developing as a significant genre of its own. The rapid growth in these books, which are aimed at all ages, has not been documented…

Many elementary school children may cope with difficult life struggles such as disabilities, abuse, loss, and identity issues. This article details original, student generated, biblio-therapeutic book creations and how this genre teaches positive ways for children at-risk to cope with tough life circumstances. Pre-service, elementary college…

The purpose of the current study was to examine therapists' perceptions about literacy in early intervention services. Little effort has been devoted to the incorporation of literacy into therapy services for very young children with special needs. In an attempt to understand how therapy providers view the role of literacy in their services, 168…

This study examined children's and adolescent trade books portraying school-age characters with dyslexia. All of the books are contemporary realistic fiction, geared to elementary and adolescent readers, and published in the United States between 1993 and 2003. After an extensive search, seventy-two books were located. An analysis of the…

This article discusses therapeutic letter writing by school counselors as a way of enhancing effectiveness of direct services to students. Writing as an effective therapeutic tool has been well-documented, and therapeutic letter writing specifically has been shown to have positive effects. This article provides a brief literature review, along…

The role of children's literature in helping children make sense of themselves, their experiences and their worlds either in a classroom setting or in a more therapeutic context has been well documented. What has not been researched as far as we know is the use of children's literature in the college classroom as a means of enabling students to…

This article describes a bibliotherapy program where graduate students work with students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. In a teacher preparation program, 20 graduate students observed 16 literature selections and considered how the characters and themes in these novels could help to facilitate the social-emotional learning of…

Analyzes codependency related, self-help literature with a dramatistic lens to explore M. Beattie's bibliotherapeutic portrayal of codependency and codependency recovery. Depicts Beattie's "stylistic medicine" for codependency recovery as a three-step, rebirth experience: (1) recognize the codependent pollution within; (2) engage in…

The efficacy of bibliotherapy has primarily been investigated in anxiety disorders, depression, or substance dependence. The efficacy of self-help books to increase parenting competence was only investigated in a few studies despite their broad dissemination in public. The aims of the study were to investigate the short- and long-term efficacy of…

Bibliotherapy (use of books to help people deal with problems in their lives) can be very useful in helping blind people adjust to their loss. Criteria for material selection should address matters of reading preference, education and work history, prognosis, and nature of the adjustment problem. (CL)

This paper suggests that videocassettes and videodiscs of commercial films provide a hitherto untapped resource for the application of principles and practices previously in the domain of bibliotherapy. Although students may balk at the idea of spending many hours reading through even the most engaging of popular fiction, the paper argues that…

Explores the role of biblio/poetry therapy as an avenue into the spirit that can promote spirituality, perception, insight, relevancy, integration, and totality. (SR)