The Kidpower Book for Caring Adults: Personal Safety, Self-Protection, Confidence, and Advocacy for Young People Paperback – April 10, 2012

WOW...I love it!! What an amazing resource for understanding, providing and practicing safety and boundary skills that we all need, no matter what our age. This book is very comprehensive and allows you to easily revisit specific topics regarding safety to refresh the information and practice with your loved ones or others that you serve in your life. The depth and knowledge that Irene Van der Zande has provided in this book and her other books is truly priceless! I'm so grateful to have this knowledge now, and I wish I could've had it throughout my life. I believe we all need these skills to not only keep ourselves and others safe, but to thrive and improve our relationships as we speak up, use the power we have and continually practice and add to them. I highly recommend this book to everyone!

This is a good book that will make you trust in your gut and talk to your kids.I want to give this book more stars, but to be honest, I've just never been able to push myself to read it all the way through.I find the approach quiet alarmist and fearful in places, even though clearly this is not the authors intent. An example is the authors approach to explaining rape to children (which she explains as "when somebody wants to control or hurt someone else") where as I would simply say "rape is when somebody has sex with someone else and they don't want to".It's this deeply ingrained "emotion" that is through much of the book and although the author says she doesn't want us to be fearful of letting our children roam free, she clearly states that to do so would be crazy and negligent.I wanted to give the book more stars because it is absolutely packed with information - it is a huge heavy book, full of activities, research and information. Worth the money. And it did prompt me to think about these issues. I like how the author encourages us to trust our gut - and to trust in our own knowledge of children and their individual level of maturity. But I personally don't have the same approach to childhood safety (or life in general) as this author, and I just don't see myself being able to use many of the routines and drills. Worth a conversation with friends though.

I have been working with kids for over 10 years and this book is such an amazing resource! As an adult it helps me understand how I can talk to - and above all teach - kids about safety.What I like about the book is it covers so many areas of the aspect of safety for kids...not only abuse but also bullying, strangers and emergencies.It is all done in such a positive way, looking at how to prevent a lot of problems and also how to have better relationships with other people.It is a very comprehensive guide that is easy to read and simple to implement.I hope every adult who has a child in their life or who works with kids gets this book, reads it and helps kids everywhere be safer and happier!

Easy to understand, good lessons, awesome illustrations! Overall awesome! A+++ worth the money. I would recommend the book to others.

Thus book is so useful in understanding how to relate to safety in way that won’t scare your kid. My kid has read the kids book and we pull them out when things come up at school with friends. She feels empowered after she understands how to handle interactions with adults and kids.

So much great info in this book for parents...info on how to present safety topics to kids (in a manner that is empowering to them, and not scary)...and info that gives parents confidence in setting appropriate limits in a positive way. I would count this as a "must have" resource for all parents!

I love the section on trusting children and teens to make their own choices about who they touch and what kind of touch is okay for them. Enough forcing them to kiss grandma or hug the aunt they haven't seen in months!! Polite children are easy targets. Support their choices!!!

Great book.