Helping
kids deal with sensitive issues
Book
by UB staff member helps kids through potty training, going to daycare
By JENNIFER
LEWANDOWSKI
Reporter Contributor
Bob Orrange
gives career advice for a living. But the associate director of Career
Planning and Placement at UB received a little career advice of his
own when an undergraduate art student in for a chat about her aspirations
got him thinking about one of hiswriting a children's book.
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"Daisy
Bug Daycare" offers advice for children acclimating to a new
daycare setting. |
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And so
the seed was planted more than a year ago for his firstand recently
publishedbook, "The Daisy Bug Daycare."
Orrange,
with the help of his niece and the book's illustrator, Katie Pistner,
a senior at Sacred Heart Academy, delivers a fun and reassuring look
at day care for youngsters just starting out. Orrange, whose two children,
Jesse, 3 1/2, and Christopher, 1 1/2, both attend the UB Child Care
Center in Butler Annex on the South Campus, said he always had a hankering
to write a children's book, but wasn't sure what the subject matter
should be. Sticking to the adage, "Write what you know," Orrange turned
to his daughter and son for inspiration.
Jesse and
Christopher are two of the eight characters featured in the book, which
touches on three potentially sensitive issues for children acclimating
to the new settingsaying good-bye ("The Morning Goodbye"), having fun
("Let's Paint") and the trials and triumphs of the bathroom ("It's Potty
Time!").
"There's
a certain separation anxiety that takes place and a fear of the unknownboth
for the child and the parents," Orrange says. He and his wife, Maureen
Hammett, who also works at UB as director of donor relations and stewardship
in the Office of University Development, took months off at a time to
be with their children when they were born, but returning to work proved
to be an adjustment. And while the book didn't help his own children
ease into day care, it certainly struck a nerve with his daughter, who
took exception to her crying character the first time she read it with
Orrange, and promptly threw the book into the adjoining room. Now, he
said, she's a fan for life.
"She knows
it all by heart," he said. "It's kind of a cool feeling to have your
daughter reading a book you wrote about her, for her."
Orrange
said he hopes others will find his stories both comforting and entertaining.
"There
are not a lot of books to prep kids on going to day care," he said,
noting that the best way to allay a child's fears is to explain a situation.
A second book that touches on three experiences for the newcomer to
day carefield trip, lunchtime and naptimeis due out in a couple of
months. Orrange said both books address issues of diversity, something
for which UB's center deserves high praise.
"They don't
just talk a game of diversity, respect and acceptanceyou walk through
the door and it's there," he said.
When Orrange
approached Tamar Jacobson, director of the center, for publishing suggestions,
she offered to assist in its publication.
"She just
fell in love with the characters," Orrange said. "She thinks the book
is perfect."
"The Daisy
Bug Daycare" was published jointly by Orrange and the UB Child Care
Center. Profits from the $6 copies will go to the center.
For information
on the book, contact Jacobson at 829-2226.
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