fbpx

What We’re Reading: SCAN Staff Book Picks | WINTER 2018 

February 24, 2018

What have SCAN staff members (and volunteers!) been reading this winter? We have some great recommendations for you this season:
The Wild Truth, by Carine McCandless
We are thrilled to share that Carine McCandless will be the Keynote Speaker at our annual Ally in Prevention Awards luncheon this year! Carine is the sister of Chris McCandless, who gave away his savings, hitchhiked to Alaska, walked into the wilderness alone, and starved to death in 1992, and would later have his story told by Jon Krakauer in the New York Times bestseller, Into the Wild. Featured in both the book and film, Carine tells her own story in this memoir – sharing their experiences growing up in a dysfunctional and violent family, and how it impacted their lives.
My Body Belongs to Me from My Head to My Toes, by proFamilia
This helpful, kid-friendly book empowers resource providers to start conversations with children and parents alike. Used by a number of local agencies, including SafeSpot in Fairfax County, it gives children the words and confidence to establish body awareness, as well as the encouragement and tools to talk about an uncomfortable situation if it has already happened.
Breaking Night, by Liz Murray
SCAN’s CASA Volunteer Book Club just finished reading this memoir about a young girl’s experience with poverty, neglect, and—ultimately—teenage homelessness, all of which would lead to her remarkable graduation from Harvard. It includes deeply personal and detailed experiences of what it was like to be a child with two parents addicted to drugs, as well as the transition into homelessness, avoiding  protective services and eventually beating all odds to finish school and reflect on her experiences.
The Deepest Well, by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris was already known as a crusading physician delivering targeted care to vulnerable children. But it was Diego—a boy who had stopped growing after a sexual trauma—who galvanized her to dig deeper into the connections between toxic stress and the lifelong illnesses she was tracking among so many of her patients and their families. A survey of more than 17,000 adult patients’ “adverse childhood experiences,” or ACEs, like divorce, substance abuse, or neglect, had proved that the higher a person’s ACE score the worse their health—and now led Burke Harris to an astonishing breakthrough. Childhood stress changes our neural systems and lasts a lifetime.*
What are you reading right now?
* Amazon.com book review