Book Focuses on Easing the Transition to Day Care

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Robert R. Orrange gives career advice for a living. But the associate director of the Office of Career Planning and Placement at the University at Buffalo received a little career advice of his own when an undergraduate art student who stopped in for a chat about her aspirations got him thinking about one of his own -- writing a children's book.

And so the seed was planted more than a year ago for Orrange's first -- and recently published -- book, "The Daisy Bug Daycare."

Orrange, with the help of his niece and the book's illustrator, Katie Pistner, a senior at Sacred Heart Academy in Eggertsville, delivers a fun and reassuring look at day care for youngsters just starting out. Orrange, whose two children, Jesse, 4, and Christopher, 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 setting -- saying 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 unknown, both 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 by Orrange that touches on three experiences for the newcomer to day care -- field trip, lunchtime and naptime -- is due out in a couple of months.

He 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 acceptance -- you walk through the door and it's there," he said.

When Orrange approached Tamar Jacobson, director of the center, for publishing suggestions, she had an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the book and 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, with profits from sales to benefit the center.