The Scarred Child Behind The Mask

The Scarred Child Behind the Mask is about a misunderstood child who suffers from the lack of proper education foundation, injustice at the hands of government,inadequate funding for public school setting especially the suburban vs. urban schools and poor parenting (our children became victims of wrong decisions). As a result, the child is unable to perform at his or her best. Unfortunately, students are defined by their zip code and tax bracket. It does not matter if the person has mental health issues or if the person is an ESL (English as second language) student, a child with behavioral problems, or if the person does not have the proper foundation. Nevertheless, all of them are expected to take the same statewide assessment test prior to their high school graduation. With all of these hardships and the injustices, along with my experiences, the need to write this book in two parts was essential. For each time I came across a disadvantaged child, an inner city kid, a mental health student, an ADHD student that has autism or a child that suffers from trauma was a mirror reflection of who I was at one time. But, with the help of God, counseling, therapeutic services, a support network, determination and perseverance, the child that was once scarred behind the mask can become somebody and prevail and become a contributor in society. In this book, you will find various stories and examples of people who have the "I can do" stories and "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). The Scarred Child Behind the Mask is my story and the story of many others. We all have a part to play!

About a misunderstood child who suffers from the lack of proper education, injustice at the hands of government, inadequate funding for public school and poor parenting

But she perseveres, staying by Sam's side, until he moves first a finger, then a foot, and finally starts to rebuild his life."--BOOK JACKET.

Too Much Too Young investigates how age and gender have shaped the careers and images of pop music stars, examining the role of youth and youthfulness in pop music through a series of themed case studies. Whiteley begins by investigating the exploitation of child stars such as Brenda Lee and Michael Jackson, offering a psychoanalytic reading of the relationship between child star and oppressive manager, and looks at the current glut of boy- and girl- bands and stars in the mold of Britney Spears to examine the continuing fatal attraction of stardom for adolescents. Whiteley then considers the star images of female singer-songwriters Kate Bush, Tori Amos, and Bjork, whose 'little girl' voices and characterization by the media suggests a girlish feminitity which is often at odds with the intentions of their musical output. She then moves on to explore the rock/pop divide as it affects the image of male performers, considering why male stars usually fall into the category of 'wild boys' such as Kurt Cobain or Jim Morrison, or 'nice boys', like Cliff Richard, The Monkees, and Wham! Whiteley ends by asking what happens to stars who set so much store by manipulations of youthfulness when they begin to age, and points to stars like Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue and Cher to demonstrate that it is possible to achieve iconic pop status even without dying young.

Do you really know the person you have committed the rest of your life to? Are they the same person you married, once knew, or have you ignored those subtle changes and made compromises just for the sake of happily ever after? Perhaps it is you who has changed, and now everything you once cherished, once hoped for, does not bind you in the way that it once did. Against the backdrop of the Pacific Ocean, Beth, and her husband Jake, travel to Samoa to reset and mend a broken marriage. But the suspicion of an affair, an addiction, a crime, or the thought that he just does not want to be around her anymore, travel with her to this island paradise. How does it feel to lose a child? Your children are not supposed to leave you before you leave them. How do you live in a vacuum, unable to breathe, when sleep and inevitable death are the only reprieve? And then, what happens when you are responsible for their death? An old man and women, isolated from the rest of the world, abandoned by their families and neighbours, grapple with grief. Falling Behind is a collection of six short stories that explores the character of grief and its manifestation in people and how these very same people attempt to ride it out and hope, at the same time, for it to end. As with Leaving Behind, each story bears an unexpected twist.

The novel is about the human condition, healing, love, and forgiveness. It is about a woman who has been traumatized by the tragedy of the bombing, her husband's attempt to heal and rescue her, and a young man coming to terms with the death of one of his friends in the same tragedy.

"A wide-ranging collection that allows the mask—as artifact, metaphor, theatrical costume, fetish, strategy for self-concealment, and treasured cultural object—to clarify modernity’s relationship to history."--Carrie J. Preston, author of Modernism’s Mythic Pose: Gender, Genre, Solo Performance "Covering an impressive range of geographies, cultures, and time periods, these carefully researched essays explore the fascinating role of masks and masking in mediating the relationship between tradition and modernity in both art and literature."--Paul Jay, author of The Humanities “Crisis” and the Future of Literary Studies Behind the Masks of Modernism reconsiders the meaning of "modernism" by taking an interdisciplinary approach and stretching beyond the Western modernist canon and the literary scope of the field. The essays in this diverse collection explore numerous regional, national, and transnational expressions of modernity through art, history, architecture, drama, literature, and cultural studies around the globe. Masks--both literal and metaphorical--play a role in each of these artistic ventures, from Brazilian music to Chinese film and Russian poetry to Nigerian masquerade performance. The contributors show how artists and writers produce their works in moments of emerging modernity, aesthetic sensibility, and deep societal transformations caused by modern transnational forces. Using the mask as a thematic focus, the volume explores the dialogue created through regional modernisms, emphasizes the local in describing universal tropes of masks and masking, and challenges popular assumptions about what modernism looks like and what modernity is.

Follow a young boy in the midst of addiction as his family is twisted apart by their parents' strong grasp to drugs. He struggles to survive the abuse that torments him and helps you try to understand the cycle that consumes so many. There is love and anguish in this story of survival. The story was written while he was incarcerated and after an attempted suicide. The nurses shocked him back to life, and he sat in a strip cell, plotting how he could share his pain to help others overcome their own past. He processes all facets of abuse, sitting on a hard stool in a jail cell. Immersed in his mind, in his memory, the poison of his past had to finally come out.

Using Gloria Anzaldúa's theories of conocimiento as a critical lens, the authors examine several literary works including Side by Side / Lado a lado; They Call Me Güero; Land of the Cranes; Efrén Divided; and Gabi, a Girl in Pieces.

The deep pain of childhood abuse--whether physical or emotional, whether a child was neglected or wished nothing more than to be left alone--doesn't just go away. There's simply no just getting over it. Even if no physical scars remain as evidence of the victim's suffering, the deep wounds on their minds, hearts, and souls are still there. But it is possible to become whole and happy. Author of the successful Healing the Scars of Emotional Abuse, Dr. Gregory Jantz now helps readers understand the effects of childhood abuse on their emotional, intellectual, physical, relational, and spiritual health. He then outlines the steps to lasting healing, including grieving what was lost, learning to balance emotions with intentionality, regaining a positive relationship with one's own body and mind, and coming to an understanding of God not as a frightening authority figure like the abuser or an accusing judge, but as a loving creator, redeemer, and friend.