In 1994, five-year-old Frankie Gobel begged his father to ride the wooden roller coaster, Rolling Thunder, just once. That one ride was enough to hook the pair on the exhilaration and excitement of riding roller coasters. In this memoir, author Charles F. Gobel describes the pair's fifteen-year adventure of traveling to amusement parks around the United States to experience the thrill of the ride.

From their inaugural season, Charles and Frankie traveled by car, plane, and sleeper train to ride coasters of all sizes and heart-thumping capabilities. "Flying with Frankie" narrates their journey as the duo spend more than 300 days in forty different amusement parks, conquering 150 diverse thrill rides and thousands of roller coasters.

This travelogue details the adventures and describes the wide variety of coaster rides they experienced. Just as important as the rides, however, are the heartfelt memories created through all of their adventures and the steadfast bond that developed between the two as they followed the quest to take that one perfect ride.

In Foster Care: How to Fix This Corrupted System, author Janet Solander presents stories of how Child Protective Services (CPS), Department of Family Services (DFS), and the foster system have failed the very children they are mandated to protect and hold safe. Solander shares heartbreaking incidents taken from the daily news as well as her own firsthand experiences as a foster parent. Only through public awareness is there any chance that the children in the system have any hope of being protected the way they should be.Every child has the right to a safe and secure home, but foster children sometimes find that being in the system brings them to a worse place than the home from which they were taken. Only through public involvement pressuring lawmakers to correct the shortcomings in the system will the innocent victims, the children, have the chance the system promises them. Foster Care explains what is happening with these children and what we can do to help correct this dire situation.When foster parents and children gain a stronger voice to advocate for them, only then will the system be able to take care of those who are most vulnerable.

Made teen-friendly with contemporary language, BATTLEFIELD OF THE MIND FOR TEENS equips a new audience desperately in need of guidance with a means of winning the war raging inside them.

To anyone who is not a new mother, babyhood may seem like a nanosecond long--a quick blip on the radar of life. But to a new mother, it feels never-ending. A child is born, a thunderstorm comes barreling in, and the idea of buckling down to raise said baby seems like an eternity--and feels totally impossible. How will I ever make it through? This is especially true for women today, who are raised to foster strong personal and professional identities. Becoming a mother is a complete restructuring of one's life, and there's a necessary psychic reckoning that gets buried under dirty diapers and lost amid the nipple shields and mashed peas. Loaded with unfettered support from a mom who has been through it, You Are a F*cking Awesome Mom offers a welcome acknowledgement that motherhood is a mind f*ck--and that women deserve more than trite oversimplifying and sugarcoating about the miracles of child-rearing. It is not a parenting book, it's a mama book, one with an irresistible, irreverent voice, sharp insight, and some welcome doses of "truth salad," plus a few experts thrown in for good measure. It's You Are a Badass for new mothers, and a long-awaited life raft for all the mothers drowning in maternal confusion and terror.

Just like in flying, emergencies can happen at any time in life when we least expect them. Things are going smoothly and life throws us a "curve ball." How we react to those situations is often more important than anything else. When that challenge involves an illness or death of a loved one, the stakes and the tension of the game of life are the highest of all. This is the true story of a family living in Texas, suddenly confronted with the stark reality of brain cancer. Adapting to this common enemy, the family pulled together in a collective support network to help the mother deal with the crisis, while reminiscing and savoring the special moments they have enjoyed together over the years. This is a memoir of Linda Kay Eggspuehler...a mother, wife, friend, homemaker, surgical technologist, and so much more. She was the rock and foundation of this family. She touched so many lives with her gentle love and compassion. This memoir is dedicated to her children, so that their children will know who she was a little better.

'Byrne's book is about scientific parenting, and it is very welcome indeed ... breezy and digestible ... this is such a good book' Tom Whipple, The Times Kids aren't all the same. You can't follow instructions and expect success every time. So what if parents approached their children as questions to be answered and not problems to be solved? Scientist Emma Byrne takes evidence-based information on everything from physical and emotional development to what is really happening during sleep and separation anxiety, then shows how to apply it to the unique child in front of you. She challenges perceived wisdom by focusing on the variance as well as the mean - because your child is an individual, not an average. Like all good scientists, you're going to have a few missteps along the way. You'll reach dead ends; you'll need to wrack your brain for new approaches. But by staying curious, creative and paying attention to what's really happening with your family, Emma Byrne will help you figure it out. Just in time for everything to change once again.

Help your child learn self-discipline, cooperation, and responsibility! When a child misbehaves, the situation can quickly escalate into an uphill battle of yelling, tears, and resistance--on both sides. But what if you could avoid all that? Conscious parenting is about being present with your child and taking the time to understand the reasons and motivations behind behaviors. This relationship-centered approached means that you respect your child's point of view as you both learn how to create a mutually-beneficially set of behavioral rules. By practicing this mindful method, you can support your child emotionally and help nurture important social development. Parent coach Jennifer Costa teaches you how to: Communicate openly with your child about proper behavior Build a supportive home environment Determine your child's behavioral triggers Learn strategies that will help your child feel calm Teach your child long-term coping skills Discipline your child without embracing anger With The Conscious Parent's Guide to Positive Discipline, you will learn to create a calm and mindful atmosphere for the whole family, while helping your child feel competent, successful, and healthy.

The newest generation of children is exposed to ubiquitous technology, more than any generation that preceded them. They are photographed with smartphones from the moment they're born, and begin interacting with screens at around four months old. Is this good news or bad news? A wonderful opportunity to connect around the world? Or the first step in creating a generation of addled screen zombies? The truth is, there's no road map for navigating this territory. But while many have been quick to declare this the dawn of a neurological and emotional crisis, solid science on the subject is surprisingly hard to come by. In this book, Anya Kamenetz--an expert on both education and technology, as well as a mother of two young children--takes a refreshingly practical look at the subject. Surveying hundreds of fellow parents on their practices and ideas, and cutting through a thicket of inconclusive studies and overblown claims, she hones a simple message, a riff on Michael Pollan's well-known "food rules": Enjoy Screens. Not too much. Mostly with others. This brief but powerful dictum forms the backbone of a philosophy that will help parents survive the ubiquity of technology in their children's lives, curb their panic, and create room for a happy, healthy family life. Kamenetz's sophisticated yet practical thinking is a necessary cure for an age of anxiety.

Have you ever wondered how parenting can be so fulfilling and yet so overwhelming? Have you ever dealt with your child's behaviour and then had to fight off the guilt and uncertainty as to whether or not you did the right thing?

Many parents experience regular battles with self-doubt, frustration, and fear that they are damaging their kids for life. In "Break Free of Parenting Pressures," author and parent educator Debbie Pokornik discusses how you can throw off these shackles-recognizing you have what it takes to do a good job and allowing your inner wisdom to shine through.

"Break Free of Parenting Pressures " discusses:

Insights into why you parent the way you do
Secrets to help you understand your family
Ideas for building strong relationships with the important people in your life
Suggestions for strengthening your parenting strategies
Techniques to help you relieve stress and increase your pleasure in being a parent

Parenting will always be challenging. Let "Break Free of Parenting Pressures" help you decrease your concerns so you can enjoy this time and blossom as a family.

Build a More Equitable World for Your Daughter"If you're a dad who wants to create a fairer and more equal world for your daughters to thrive in, this book is a must-read!" -Jerry Yang, cofounder & former CEO of Yahoo! Inc. Winner 2020 Living Now Gold Award, Family & Parenting Finalist 2020 Indie Book Award for Social Change A world where your daughter can thrive. Today's dads are raising confident, empowered daughters who believe they can achieve anything. But the world is still profoundly unequal, with workplaces built by men, a massive gender pay gap, and deeply-ingrained gender stereotypes. Dads For Daughters: How Fathers Can Give Girls a Better, Brighter, Fairer Future offers fathers guidance for building a more equal world for their daughters. Invest in your daughter's future. Inspired by their daughters, dads are uniquely positioned to become powerful allies for girls and women. That's where Dads for Daughters can help. Dads for Daughters is a feminist book for fathers invested in the gender equality fight. Lean In for dads. There are so many ways that Dads of Daughters can make a difference-from mentoring women to equalizing pay, from sports fields to science labs, from building empathy to combating gender bias, from boardrooms to ballot boxes. With every small step, dads have the power to make incredible change for our next generation of girls. Dads For Daughters also offers women a guide for recruiting men into action. Together, we can give all our daughters a happier, more successful future. With this book, you'll find: Concrete strategies for creating a better tomorrow for the girls and women in your life Inspiring stories from dads of daughters who are already having an impact Resources for becoming a stronger male ally in your workplace and community Advice for engaging other men in gender equality efforts Dad's for Daughters is perfect for fathers who enjoyed books such as Lean In, The Moment of Lift, or We Should All Be Feminists.

Describes what being a foster mom is really like, the effects of foster care on the whole family, and how the foster care system fails severely abused children. Foster children are society's throwaway kids, the children no one wants-until someone finally does. Saving Michael provides an inside look Keri Vellis' struggle to secure the best possible services for two severely abused and traumatized siblings. Some doors opened, but too many closed during her ten-year journey as the voice for children in her care who have no voice of their own within the current system. Readers get a glimpse of Keri and her family's day-to-day life as she went from mother of three to adoptive mother of three more children and then the temporary caregiver of another seventeen. Saving Michael delves into issues bigger than one family's experiences and determination. Now an author and child advocate, Vellis provides a profoundly personal look into what it takes to get the best for each of the children she's had in her care. Her journey started from the first day of her first foster care situation and the urgent need for diagnoses and treatment. It continued despite the many obstacles thrown in her path to securing services for the vulnerable children in her family's care. Along the way, she details the many ups and downs, challenges and triumphs, her whole family experienced as part of the foster care system. All children deserve permanent, safe homes. The effort to obtain those for every child is a tremendous one not for the faint-hearted. But the rewards reverberate for everyone when it works. Follow Keri and her family on this heartfelt journey of love and persistence.