Vividly set against the backdrop of 19th century India and the British-owned sugarcane plantations of Natal, written with great tenderness and lyricism, Children of Sugarcane paints an intimate and wrenching picture of indenture told from a woman’s perspective.

Shanti, a bright teenager stifled by life in rural India and facing an arranged marriage, dreams that South Africa is an opportunity to start afresh. The Colony of Natal is where Shanti believes she can escape the poverty, caste, and troubling fate of young girls in her village. Months later, after a harrowing sea voyage, she arrives in Natal only to discover the profound hardship and slave labour that await her.

Spanning four decades and two continents, Children of Sugarcane demonstrates the lifegiving power of love, heartache, and the indestructible bonds between family and friends. These bonds prompt heroism and sacrifice, the final act of which leads to Shanti's redemption.

If you try to identify the basic qualities of a child most likely to succeed as an adult, what words might first come to mind? Independent? Likable? Creative? Disciplined? According to Dr. Joanne Joseph, the essence of a productive and healthy personality is a positive and secure self-image and a solid set of resilient attitudes and behaviors. The Resilient Child: Preparing Today's Youth for Tomorrow's World successfully integrates the latest information available about healthy cognitive development, self-esteem, and resilience to give parents and teachers practical suggestions for nurturing these qualities in children and adolescents. Dr. Joseph, an esteemed psychologist and child education consultant, skillfully shows how stories, television, nutrition, exercise, parental discipline style, and the child's individual characteristics each play a comprehensive role in the development of a child's self-esteem and resilience. With the author's clearly outlined strategies, parents and educators can guide children to be socially skillful, responsible, disciplined, good problem-solvers, and effective managers of the change and adversity inherent in today's world. Elaborating beyond what others have identified as the elements of a productive personality, Dr. Joseph uses a series of inspiring anecdotes and documented research to discuss the following: what experts do and do not know about the development of self-esteem; how parents and teachers can actively contribute to the natural development of a child's self-esteem; how to promote resilience in children through happy and difficult times; the kinds of characteristics that differentiate children from each other; how to liberate a child's inner strengths to build self-esteem and resilience; how literature and the media can teach resilient and productive values and behaviors; styles of parental discipline and their influence on the development of the child; and more.