Forever Exposed: The Nikki Catsouras Story

By Lesli Catsouras

When Christos and Lesli Catsouras come face-to-face with the death of their daughter, Nikki, they couldn’t imagine anything worse. But when confidential and highly graphic police photographs mysteriously surface on the Web, Christos makes a shocking discovery that will haunt his family forever.

In the blink of an eye, mass email chains and websites showcasing images of their daughter’s remains swarm the Internet, portraying Nikki — a shy, unpretentious girl known for her miraculous recovery from a deadly brain tumor — as a spoiled Orange County girl who got what she deserved.

Haunted by the images, and targeted by cyberbullies, Christos and Lesli search for answers, for justice --- for help --- until they stumble across the truth that no one saw coming.

Forever Exposed is about more than the horrific aftermath brought about from the death of her daughter Nikki Catsouras. Lesli Catsouras not only weighs the significance of freedom of speech in America against the complicated issues of Cyber bullying and trolling, but also delves into the reality of how one ordinary family coped with such unimaginable circumstances.

Since 2006 the Catsouras story has been an ongoing subject of widespread public interest making headlines across the nation. Their story has been featured on The Dr. Phil Show, 20/20, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, ABC news, Fox news, CNN Headline News, Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, Newsroom with Megan Kelly and more, including top news stories from local and international news papers, magazines, including (Newsweek and Forbes) radio and television broadcasts. 

Learn more on ForeverExposed.

Order today on Amazon.

October 1st is BLUE SHIRT DAY - World Day of Bullying Prevention

October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month and to signify its importance, STOMP Out Bullying™ created BLUE SHIRT DAY™ WORLD DAY OF BULLYING PREVENTION.

BLUE SHIRT DAY™ WORLD DAY OF BULLYING PREVENTION

Join them in this fourth annual grassroots effort. Someone you know could be bullied. Someone you know might be a bully. Join them in solidarity on Monday, October1st! Make a statement against bullying and cyberbullying and STOMP Out Bullying™! Specifically the first Monday of every October -- this year on Monday 10-1-12  we’re asking kids, teens and adults to participate in BLUE SHIRT DAY™ WORLD DAY OF BULLYING PREVENTION by wearing a BLUE SHIRT in solidarity to STOMP Out Bullying™.

GO BLUE
Our new "limited edition" 2012 Blue Shirt are on sale NOW!! Whether you order a "Limited Edition" Blue Shirt™ from STOMP Out Bullying™ or wear your own blue shirt, you’ll be sending a message to everyone to end bullying and cyberbullying.


GET YOUR SCHOOL INVOLVED
Ask your school to participate on 10-1-12 by having the entire school -- students and faculty -- GO BLUE and wear a Blue Shirt! Thousands of schools across the country are participating. We want to see every school in a SEA OF BLUE across the country and throughout the world!  

If your school wants to participate all you need to do is COMPLETE THIS FORM giving us the name of your school, it’s city and state and we'll add your school's name to our BLUE SHIRT DAY™ WORLD DAY OF BULLYING PREVENTION supporter list on our website.

Stop Medicine Abuse: New Website

Medicine abuse and teens unfortunate is not new, but this year www.StopMedicineAbuse.org rolled out a new and updated website full of educational tools, downloads, brochures, posters, and other resources to help your and your family and community fight medicine abuse.

About them:

The prevention campaign StopMedicineAbuse.org and its Five Moms initiative is working to alert parents and members of the community about the problem of teen abuse of over-the-counter (OTC) cough medicines containing dextromethorphan (DXM).

In 2004, national surveys began to track abuse of over-the-counter (OTC) cough medicine among teens. Experts predicted, “abuse among adolescents most likely will increase, as the drug is relatively easy to obtain and inexpensive.  Moreover, adolescents perceive the risk in abusing the drug as low.”
This was a call to action.

To fight the potential rise of teen DXM use, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) launched the Five Moms: Stopping Cough Medicine Abuse campaign to raise awareness about teen DXM abuse and offer peer-to-peer guidance on how to prevent it. Following the success of the Five Moms campaign, CHPA created StopMedicineAbuse.org to serve as the online home for Five Moms and provide valuable resources for parents and their communities. Together, these initiatives have reached millions of parents to date.

Fearless Parenting: Raising a Child to Face the Adult World

By Harry H. Harrison Jr.

Childhood is short. Adulthood however, is for a very long time. And it’s waiting. And for millions of kids about to fly out of the house, adulthood is going to be a scary, hopeless existence because they are simply unprepared to face it.

The reason is us. Parents. Somehow, many of us have lost our way.

And that’s creating a looming generation of kids who can’t face life on its own terms, who continue to live with parents well into their 30s, who have little job skills, who collapse under the stress being told “No”, who believe “trying hard” should insure success, who haven’t seen a priest or a rabbi in two decades, and who have absolutely no idea on how to function in the adult world.

What's gone wrong? As parents we live in fear. Fear our children aren’t happy enough, they’re not popular enough, they’re not safe enough, they don’t have enough, they have to work too hard, and that they’re not being treated fairly. This fear shapes the way we raise them. Instead of teaching them how to struggle, we eliminate struggle from their lives. Instead of teaching them how to persevere, we tell them not to try so hard. Instead of teaching them to do without, we teach them all they have to do is ask.

Instead of teaching them to be adventurous we make them risk adverse. Instead of teaching them how to succeed, we teach them to be happy because we’ve succeeded. So our kids grow up parent dependent instead of independent.

The good news is, we can change. Instead of focusing on giving our kids the most fantastic childhood ever, with just a few little attitude adjustments, we can work to prepare them for adulthood. To give them tools to succeed instead of reasons for failure. We can teach them to value honor and integrity over “cool” and “sexy.”

We can show them how to earn self-esteem, handle defeat and persevere when the going gets tough. We can help our children gain the confidence to face the world. Fearless Parenting is based on ten years of interviews I’ve done to complete eight books on parenting, marriage and raising children. It contains specific strategies you can use today to begin preparing your kids for the most difficult task of their lives:

Growing up.

Order on Amazon today - Click here.

Tale of a Baseball Dream

By Jerry Pearlman

Tale of A Baseball Dream is the fictitious story of Dusty Hunter, a young boy that grew up with a love to play baseball. Dusty was small in stature, but proved to have a “big heart,” as he overcame many obstacles and disappointments, in his efforts to become a great baseball player.

When Dusty’s dream appeared that it would end in disappointment, Dusty tromped through the mud to the baseball field where he and his dad had spent many days practicing, and in all of his anger and frustrations, he proceeded to toss baseballs in the air and began hitting them with a vengeance.

By fate, destiny, or miracle, Will Parker, an elderly professional scout for the New Jersey Force baseball team, happened to almost get knocked down by a ball that Dusty hit! Will Parker was only there that day, by the coincidence that he had boarded the wrong flight, and was completely lost.

Mr. Parker was nearing retirement, and had previously been thought of as a “failure,” since he had never discovered a star player for the New Jersey Force.

The New Jersey Force were known as the team haunted for almost a century, by the legendary “Curse of The Great Brutester!”

Tale of A Baseball Dream evolves into a magical tale which will inspire all young readers!

Order on Amazon today!

Back to School: Stop Medicine Abuse

StopMedicineAbuse.org was created by the leading makers of OTC cough medicines and their trade association, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA).

CHPA, founded in 1881, is a member-based association representing the leading manufacturers of over-the-counter medicines. CHPA and its members are involved in a multi-pronged effort to curb the abuse of over-the-counter cough medicines containing dextromethorphan with the help of a host of partners. Included in those other concerned organizations are the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, and D.A.R.E. America.

In addition to preventing the abuse of OTC medicines, CHPA and its members also work to provide information on the safe and responsible use of medications through the nonprofit CHPA Educational Foundation.

Learn about the abuse of OTC:

Recent studies among middle and high school aged kids across the country show a disturbing form of substance abuse among teens: the intentional abuse of otherwise beneficial medications, both prescription (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC), to get high.

Teens who learn a lot about the risks of drugs from their parents are 50 percent less likely to use drugs.

According to data from the 2011 Monitoring the Future Study, teen past-year abuse of over-the-counter (OTC) cough medicine has remained at roughly 5 percent.



The ingredient the teens are abusing in OTC cough medicines is dextromethorphan, or DXM. When used according to label directions, DXM is a safe and effective ingredient approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is found in well over 100 brand-name and store-brand over-the-counter cough medicines. When abused in large amounts, DXM can be dangerous.

StopMedicineAbuse.org was developed by the leading makers of OTC cough medicines to build awareness about this type of substance abuse behavior, provide tips to prevent it from happening, and encourage parents to safeguard their medicine cabinets. Substance abuse can touch any family: The key to keeping teens drug-free is education and talking about the dangers of abuse.
 
Join them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.

Be an educated parent, you will have safer and healthier teens.

Voting and the U.S. Government

Papersalt Publishing has the most unique books for the entire family.  Just in time for an election year they have released Voting and the U.S. Government.

This is maybe the book we’re most proud of.  It covers everything from the Declaration of Independence up through modern government in a simple way that all kids, teens and adults will enjoy.  They’ll be much more informed now, and much more prepared for their adult lives.  “Pretty much everyone in America should read this book.”

Follow Papersalt on Twitter and join them on Facebook to find out more about their current releases.

School Struggles: A Guide to Your Shut-Down Learner's Success

By Richard Selznick

From the author of The Shut-Down Learner, here is aid and comfort for parents of children having difficulty with school. Dr. Selznick offers perspective and understanding developed over his 25 years of working with thousands of academically struggling kids and their families.

Tackling topics like excessive use of technology, parental indulgence of children, students who have trouble getting organized, and the importance of patience, this book will be a godsend for families struggling with school and behavioral issues.

Follow Dr. Selznick on Twitter and join him on Facebook.

Order School Struggles today on Amazon.

Bullied: What Every Parent, Teacher, and Kid Needs to Know About Ending the Cycle of Fear

By Carrie Goldman

Carrie Goldman became an unexpected voice for the antibullying movement after her blog post about her daughter Katie's bullying experience went viral and an online community of support generated international attention.

In Bullied, Goldman brings together the expertise of leading authorities with the candid accounts of families dealing firsthand with peer victimization to present proven strategies and concrete tools for teaching children how to speak up and carry themselves with confidence; call each other out on cruelty; resolve conflict; cope with teasing, taunting, physical abuse, and cyberbullying; and be smart consumers of technology and media. As a mother, she calls on us all—families, schools, communities, retailers, celebrities, and media—to fiercely examine our own stereotypes and embrace our joint responsibility for creating a culture of acceptance and respect.

For parents, educators, and anyone still wrestling with past experiences of victimization and fear, Bullied is an eye-opening, prescriptive, and ultimately uplifting guide to raising diverse, empathetic, tolerant kids in a caring and safe world.

At least 25 percent of kids have been bullied online. One in five teens has been bullied at school. More than half of bullying behaviors will stop in less than ten seconds when another student intervenes.

Order on Amazon today!

SuicideHotlines.com

Suicide Hotlines.com

For suicide prevention and emotional crisis, please take a moment to pass this on to someone you know is struggling or if you need this yourself.

You are not alone, there are people that care, people that will listen and help.

Visit www.suicidehotlines.com and click into your state.

Toll free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

1-800-SUICIDE   1-800-273-TALK
1-800-784-2433   1-800-273-8255

The Rise of the Cheater

.From peeking at a neighbor’s test in school to sneaking a second helping of dessert when no one’s looking, everybody seems to cheat a little every now and then. In fact, if you’re like most people, statistics show that you’ve probably already fibbed a time or two today. Lying and cheating have been an ugly little fact of life for a long time, but today’s generation of students and young professionals show a startling trend in attitudes toward cheating: The average young person doesn’t just admit to lying and cheating more often than previous generations, they also often believe that lying and cheating are a necessary fact of life. If you’re a student, chances are you’ve given someone the answers to a quiz, “borrowed” a friend’s paper, or even collaborated on a test when you shouldn’t. These are all behaviors that have been present in academics for decades, but the alarming fact about this behavior is how it sets adolescents up for their actions as an adult. Studies show that students who regularly cheat in school are far more likely to participate in dishonest conduct as adults, from swindling a customer to cheating on a spouse. If adolescents today are behaving more dishonestly than ever, what will they look like as adults tomorrow?

Source: Online Colleges

Keepin' It Private

Keepin' It Private is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to protecting the privacy of minors by producing innovative and fun-to-watch content distributed through various media, teaching tweens and teens how to safely navigate the vast expanse of their ever-growing technological network.

Nothing is more precious than our children. At Keepin' It Private, in a world where technology brings to our fingertips new and exciting ways in which to connect with others, whether it's across the street or across the globe, we strive to reach out to, encourage and empower kids to network responsibly prior to forming habits that may breach or compromise their personal information or well-being. 

Join them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.