Daniel's Choices

About the Book

Daniel is a ten year old boy that has witnessed domestic violence and also has had to try to live up to unrealistic expectations from his father.  His Brother is good at sports and the father tends to favor him more than Daniel.  Daniel finds that he isn't good at the traditional sports but loves to skateboard with his friends.  Daniel has been getting into a lot of fights at school as a result of everything that is going on in his life.  Feeling responsible for the fighting between his parents and not feeling that he is very good at anything...Daniel begins to think about suicide and that he would rather be dead than live and that maybe his family would be better off without him.  In this story you will see the contributing factors to Daniel's thoughts of suicide and what things he does to give off early warning signs that something isn't right with Daniel and how everybody comes together to begin the healing process.

About the Author

Joanne Hughes has worked with troubled youth in residential settings and in women’s shelters for women and children fleeing domestic violence for over 17 years. Within her years at the shelter’s she had heard many stories of children that had not only thought about suicide but that also had made very viable plans. These books are written to help educators, social workers, health care professionals, parents and children to be able to talk about suicide in a safe and comfortable manner so that we can help the children and youth to deal with stress and crisis in their life without ever having to consider suicide.

Joanne was born in Calgary Alberta and has always loved working with children. Joanne has been very active in her community from the age of 12 with babysitting, volunteering at the hospital with the siblings of sick children who were visiting, teaching children gymnastics at the Y.M.C.A, answering calls at the community parish and as a victim services advocate with the Strathmore R.C.M.P.

Joanne is a Reiki Master trained in Calgary with Ariel Energetixs Inc. and trained as an Emotional Fitness Coach through the Emotional Fitness Institute. She currently resides in Beautiful British Columbia with her two children where she is beginning a new book and a new chapter in her life.