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AUGUST 5, 2008 / TCP Press / – How can you help build closer bonds across the generations in your family? Try getting to the head through the heart with a new release of the award-winning bestseller A Little Something by Susan V. Bosak. There are also free online family activities to go with the book at www.legacyproject.org.
Relationships between generations benefit everyone. Children get a better sense of who they are and where they've come from, have higher self-esteem, even better grades in school. Parents are often less stressed when there's an active, supportive grandparent in their children's life. And older people live longer, healthier lives, with less memory loss and depression, and are much happier when they're actively involved with the young.
"These relationships give you things you can't get anywhere else," says Bosak. "They make us feel connected – not only to each other, but to something bigger, to the flow of life, to the past and to the future."
Bosak says her interest in intergenerational connections started with her own close relationship with her grandmother, who inspired Bosak's book A Little Something. A heartwarming story about love and legacies across generations, the book has become a popular Mother's Day gift and Grandparents Day read-aloud in families and schools, with more than half a million copies in print. It has won six national awards, including Parents' Choice. The book is illustrated in richly-detailed watercolors by artist Laurie McGaw.
In the story, every time a young girl visits her grandmother, the visit ends with the grandmother's familiar words, "I want to give you a little something…" Then she gives her granddaughter a small keepsake. As the years pass, the grown granddaughter comes to understand the significance of all the things she has received from her grandmother. It becomes clear that one gift is most precious of all, the gift of love.
"Sharing a story together and seeing where it takes you is a great way to start to bring grandparents and grandchildren closer," says Bosak. "Anyone can read a story and everyone likes to be read to, even teenagers. The end of a story is your beginning."
Bosak has received letters and e-mails from families across the country who have been encouraged to start their own keepsake tradition after reading A Little Something. Children like the coolest new stuff, but they also have a real need for a sense of family history and connection. In the short term, you can use a keepsake to create an immediate sense of connection, and over the years it becomes a powerful symbol of that connection.
"Whenever you give a keepsake," explains Bosak, "make sure you share the story behind it – where it came from and what it means to you. Even write about the keepsake in a letter or journal you keep in a special place. That will give the keepsake more meaning as time passes."
A Little Something by Susan V. Bosak (TCP Press, $16.95) is available in bookstores. For free online family activities, visit www.legacyproject.org.
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