03-10-2006, 01:23 AM
Ellen Sabin is publishing her third children’s book through her firm Watering Can Press, this one titled "The Autism Acceptance Book: Being a Friend to Someone with Autism."
The idea for the project began when her schoolmates from Weston High School, Brian and Tricia Kelly, whose son is autistic, contacted her.
"’The Autism Acceptance Book’ is significant," she said during a recent interview, "because currently one out of 166 kids is being diagnosed with the condition. This means that more and more children around the country are in classrooms with kids who have autism."
Kelly, a businessman and philanthropist who currently lives in California, read about Sabin in an article published in "Forbes" and contacted her last spring.
"He was particularly concerned that the quality of life for autistic children is substantially affected by how their peers treat them," Sabin said. "He wanted to know if I could write a book that would help children understand not only to understand kids with autism, but help them learn how to really empathize and treat them with kindness and respect."
At that point, she said, she dropped everything else she was doing and began doing research on autism, spending the rest of the spring and summer on the project.
"I interviewed leading experts on the subject, got in touch with the directors of organizations devoted to the disorder, and talked to physicians, therapists, social workers, parents and teachers. And I probably read every book that’s available on the subject."
Sabin began her series of books aimed at creating "kids with character" almost by accident after writing "The Giving Book" for her 6-year-old niece, Leah.
"The Giving Book" helps children understand the power of giving and philanthropy and create a scrapbook of their dreams and wishes for other people and the world around them.
The book caught on - parents asked where to buy it, teachers wanted copies, parenting specialists encouraged it to be shared. The seed was planted, and Sabin went on to find other topics that inspired her to develop books on positive role models.
The second such work was "The Hero Book," which provides an interactive experience that encourages children to think about the qualities that make people admirable and takes them on a journey to find positive role models and discover the hero inside of themselves.
And most recently, the spiral-bound 62-page "Autism Acceptance Book" offers narrative, activities, conversation starters, and journal exercises that invite children to "walk in someone else’s shoes" as they learn how to treat others the same way they would like to be treated themselves. In addition, scrapbook pages allow each reader to customize his or her book.
Currently a resident of New York City, Sabin said she grew up in a family of givers and learned the power and importance of being a caring individual and helping others at a young age.
Her early career focused on working with and managing nonprofit organizations to serve a wide range of social and community causes.
She has a master’s of public health from the Harvard School of Public Health, a master’s of public administration from New York University, and a BA from Emory University. Along the way, she’s volunteered creating health clinics in rural Mexico, building homes with Habitat for Humanity, serving as a patient advocate in an emergency room, mentoring, raising funds, and advising.
Half of the profits from "The Autism Acceptance Book" have been pledged to "Autism Speaks," a leading nonprofit organization that supports autism research and awareness.
Sabin is pleased that she and two other former Weston residents and schoolmates were able to get together and create "The Autism Acceptance Book," which hopefully "will have a huge impact on children across America." The book is aimed at children ages 6 to 13, and there is a free online teacher’s guide that contains detailed lesson plans for classroom use.
From www2.townonline.com