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Princess Grianne and Dragon

by Margaret Atkinson; Illustrated by Cynthia Snider

30 pages; Saddle stitched; colour book; catalogue #06-1121; ISBN 1-4120-9367-8; US$14.61, C$16.80, EUR12.00, £8.40

Princess Grianne finds a very special dragon in her sleeve. They have an exciting adventure together, and Princess Grianne teaches him about curbing his enthusiasm so as to remember responsible and safe behaviour.

Read more!

About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

Bibliography

About the Book

We've all got a 'dragon' or two lurking deep inside us. When we were babies, those 'dragons' were clearly visible. If we were uncomfortable or hungry, we got MAD. And we let everybody know how mad we were. In fact, we were downright enthusiastic about how mad we were. But most of us learned over time how to calm these 'dragons'. We learned to curb our enthusiasms and to find more reasonable outlets for anger. And by the time we became parents, we looked forward to helping someone else learn how, too.

But sometimes a child comes to us whose 'dragons' are just too powerful. FAS/E (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Effect) and RAD (Reactive Attachment Disorder) are common diagnoses of such children. These are children who often feel alien in a hostile world. How do you give love to a child who feels unlovely? How do you teach kindness to one who feels hateful? Many behaviours exhibited by such children are common in all children, but their intensity, duration and relentless repetition are magnified to extremes.

Some families face these and similar problems daily. And they often do so alone. Parents and siblings suffer guilt, frustration, isolation and grief. The anger, violence and unrelenting ill-will in the child are heartbreaking for the parents, and often impossible for the outsider to believe.

Princess Grianne and Queen Mommy are real people. They struggle to control a particularly powerful 'dragon'. This wee book is my attempt to offer a little whimsy, a little laughter, to families like theirs. And to give the children a sense of fun and control through imagination. If it does this for just one soul in the Wide-Wide World, it will have served its purpose.

This is the first in a projected series of five stories of Grianne and her dragon. Grianne, who is now ten years old, helped to formulate the stories with me when she was between three and seven. Dragon, of course, reflects Grianne's real behaviours. Princess Grianne is the teacher, controller and mentor.

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About the Author

Author Marnie Atkinson is a retired Elementary School Teacher and Administator. She has a B. Ed., a Diploma in Curriculum and Instructional Studies, and an MA in Education Administration and Curriculum. In the course of her career she has taught Kindergarten to Grade Seven. She spent several years teaching ESL and Special Education students. As a Vice-Principal, she was often called upon to intervene when a child behaved inappropriately or lost self-control in a classroom.

Marnie has three grown children. She lives in Golden, BC, Canada and spends her spare time skiing, spinning, gardening, writing, helping in the community, tutoring, and taking trips to the coast to visit family.

In the past two years, Marnie has studied the field of FAS/E and RAD, two disorders that can threaten the very survival of the families in which they occur. This reading, and the knowledge gained through her career and while parenting her grandchild, gave rise to the writing of these picture books.

Illustrator Cynthia Snider is a self-taught artist. She has lived most of her life in the mountainous areas of British Columbia, Canada. Cynthia takes much of her inspiration from the beauty of her world and from her interest in people.

Cynthia has enjoyed artistic creativity all her life. She has become an accomplished painter and sketcher. She has embraced many different media, which include painted whimsical creatures and cottages of rock, and finely decorated pottery. Her landscapes and portraits range in media from charcoal to water colour to acrylics and, her favourite, oil. Her portraiture shows great depth of understanding of her subjects. Her work is enjoyed in homes in Canada, the USA, and Europe.

The illustrations for Princess Grianne's Book are done in charcoal and pencil. The coloured cover illustrations are done in water-colour pencil and ink pen. Cynthia provided Respite Care for the year that Grianne was with her Grandmother. She enouraged Grianne to try her hand at drawing, and gave her a new outlet for some of her emotions. She used her knowledge of Grianne and her mother, old photographs, and Grandmother's descriptions of their early life together in her illustrations.

Cynthia says, "I like my work to be realistic and to have a clean, relaxed look. I get great pleasure from drawing and painting and I hope the viewer sees that in my work".

Cynthia has two grown children. She lives with her husband in Golden, BC, Canada.

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Excerpts

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Bibliography

Archer, Caroline. (1997) First Steps in Parenting the Child Who Hurts, London & Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Archer, Caroline. (1997) Next Steps in Parenting the Child Who Hurts, London & Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Buenning, W. D. (2005) Understanding Bonding and Attachment, Retrieved (March15, 2006) from Gray, Deborah D. (2002) Attaching in Adoption, Indianapolis: Perspectives Press.

Hage, Deborah. (2003) Therapeutic Parenting, Glenwood Springs: Families By Design

Hughes, Daniel. (1998) Building the Bonds of Attachment, Northvale, New Jersey; London: Jason Aronson Inc.

Hughes, Daniel. (1997) Facilitating Developmental Attachment, Northvale, New Jersey; London: Jason Aronson Inc.

Karr-Morse, R. & Wiley, M S. (1997) Ghosts from the Nursery, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.

Levy, T M & Orlans, M. (1998) Attachment, Trauma, and Healing, Washington DC: CWLA Press.

Levy, Terry M, ed. (2000.) Handbook of Attachment Interventions, San Diego: Academic Press.

Randolph, Elizabeth M. (2001) Broken Hearts, Wounded Minds, Evergreen, CO: RFR Pub.

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