Melissa Harker Ridenour Books
Parents & Teacher PageWhat Would You Do? A Kid's Guide to Staying Safe in a World of Strangers can be purchased through and editorial reviews accessed on its listing on Amazon. The book also can be purchased through Barnes & Noble,Books-A-Million, Follett, Baker & Taylor, and Ingrams catalogues.
In addition, information about and purchasing acquisition ofWhat Would You Do? A Kid's Guide to Staying Safe in a World of Strangers can be accessed at Headline Kids. (Division of Headline Books, Inc.).
Information of particular interest to parents and teachers:
Current statistics on the increasing number of cases in which children have been the victims of abduction or prey for sexual predators is alarming. In the
Seventy-five percent of American parents fear that their children could become victims of abduction. You, as parents, teachers and other caregivers, face an enormous challenge in trying to keep your children safe.
Children exposed to snippets of such alarming news often draw on their own limited experience to try to make sense of it all. As a result, they may misinterpret or exaggerate the message.
The purpose the book, What Would You Do? A Kid’s Guide to Staying Safe in a World of Strangers, is to teach and empower children, in a non-threatening way, to take a proactive role in staying safe from harm.
For decades children were taught to stay away from strangers. Stranger Danger has always been the operative phrase. Such an expression can give children the misconception that all strangers are bad.
The concept of stranger is difficult for children to understand, and often the perpetrator is someone the child knows. It is more constructive for parents, teachers, and other caregivers to help build children's confidence, to help them determine whom they should and should not trust, and to teach them to respond to potentially dangerous situations. What Would You Do? A Kid's Guide to Staying Safe in a World of Strangers accomplishes these goals.
You, as parents, teachers, and other caregivers, should read the parent-specific information provided in chapter 5 of the book, What Would You Do? A Kid's Guide to Staying Safe in a World of Strangers. This chapter serves as a reference guide to help you keep your children safe. You, as parents, teachers, and other caregivers, should then review and practice with your children the safety precautions and defensive strategies that are explained to them in the first four chapters of What Would You Do? A Kid's Guide to Staying Safe in a World of Strangers.
Here is a useful safe-adult contact resource for you and your children. You can print out and complete, with your children, the My I.C.E. Support Group Contact Information.
Subscribe to my Child Safety Blog.
Below are links to websites that can be useful to you in your efforts to protect your children.
Child Rescue Network.org
To learn strategies for protecting your children when they are using the Internet:
Help Protect Our Children
To retrieve data on convicted sex offenders and maps of local community areas where they reside:
Live Secure
Map Sex Offenders
National Alert Registry
Stop Sex Offenders
To order Child Identification kits:
National Child Identification Program
To help your children practice self-defense and escape strategies, view the following video clips:
Girl Successfully Fighting Actual Abduction Attempt (View only with parent / teacher permission or with parent or teacher.)
Stranger 911
Biting
Face Attack
Mouth Attack
Throat Attack
Strike Against Double Wrist Grab
Strike Against Hands Grabbing from Behind
Strike Against Hook Punch
Escaping a Double Wrist Grab
Hair Pulling
Ear Attack
Below are links to some stranger safety coloring pages for you to print out for your children or students to color:
C. A. T. (Caution, Action, Tell)
S.K.Y. (Scream, Kick, Yell)
Strangers / Safety in Numbers / I'm Lost / Say No
The Bully and the Booger Baby: A Cautionary Tale,empowers children, parents, and schools to deal with the bullying problem. Below are some links (songs, games, and resources) that will be fun and helpful for children, parents and teachers:
“Sweet and Sunny” – original anti-bullying rock song performance by 12 year-old Harrison Ivaz
Bars and Melody child rap duo performance of anti-bullying version of Twista’s “Hopeful”
Stop Bullying.gov
Bullying the Silent Threat
Humanity Project Anti-Bullying Resources
Subscribe to my Anti-Bullying Blog for informational posts
The author offers school workshops for What Would You Do? A Kid's Guide to Staying Safe in a World of Strangers, for The Bully and the Booger Baby: A Cautionary Tale, and for Girl Power from Amazing Adventures in Shelby's Shoes.To schedule a workshop, contact the publisher or the author.
Publisher: Headline Books, Inc.
cathy@headlinebooks.com
Author: Melissa Harker Ridenour
mizzy300@comcast.net
Microsoft Publisher is required to view the brochure link below:
Informational Brochure on School Workshops
Adobe Reader is required to view the following pdf file of the school workshop flyer:
School Workshop Flyer
Microsoft Word can be used to view the workshop informational link below:
School Workshop Information
Information about the book, this website, or school workshops can also be accessed through:
info@authormelissaharkerridenour.com
Subscribe to my Child Safety Blog to take part in discussions about child safety issues.
Smart Phone Safety Guide and Digital Safety Guide
In Amazing Adventures in Shelby's Shoes, a little girl's imagination takes her all over the world as she plays dress-up, but she comes to realize she can be, in reality, anything she wants to be if she really tries. The book is a charming rhyming narrative with a non-fiction chapter of information, references and links about Girl-power and empowering children, especially girls, to realize their full potential and reach for the stars – to “shatter that glass ceiling.”
Subscribe to my Girl Empowerment Blog based upon the book, Amazing Adventures in Shelby's Shoes.
Coloring page 1 and Coloring page 2 based upon Amazing Adventures in Shelby's Shoes.
Disclaimer:
Children viewing this website should do so under the guidance and supervision of a parent, teacher, or other caregiver.