Best Selling Books by Robert Coles

Do you find yourself asking "Whose life is it anyway?" Parenting today has come to resemble a relentless to-do list. Even parents with the best intentions strive to micro-manage every detail of their kids'' lives and live in constant fear that their child will under-perform in any area--academic, social, athletic. Lists and schedules, meetings and appointments invade our every moment and the need to be the best dominates--and undermines--our own sense of self as well as our children''s. In their groundbreaking new book The Over-Scheduled Child, renowed child psychiatrist Alvin Rosenfeld, M.D., and longtime family-issues journalist Nicole Wise combine personal and professional experience to take action against what they see as our overeager pursuit of perfection. The clear, comforting steps they prescribe to attack this rampant phenomenon will promote healthier and happier children and revitalize the parenting experience.

Investigates the nature of documentary work, arguing that the work of an observer is not only to represent, but also to interpret reality, and uses examples from literature and photography to show how the observers'' personal frame of reference has influenced his or her work.

""When I recall all those pictures I have seen drawn (and discussed), I am reminded, yet again, how earnestly and strenuously children struggle to comprehend the world, to seek out its beauties and mysteries and terrors."" "For more than three decades, the renowned child psychiatrist Robert Coles has investigated the inner lives of children through their expressive words and pictures. His beautiful and revealing new book - his first devoted entirely to children''s drawings - distills his insights into the ways children from all over the world disclose their deepest convictions, feelings, and dreams with crayon, paint, and pencil." "The fifty full-color drawings in Their Eyes Meeting the World were created by boys and girls under ten from richly diverse backgrounds. Here is artwork by children urban and rural, Christian and Jewish and Muslim, children from the United States and from various other nations. In the company of Dr. Coles, we meet Helen, a ten-year-old dying of leukemia, and Ruby, the sole black child in a newly desegregated school. These are children who draw with profound seriousness and passion, and from their pictures Dr. Coles sensitively interprets what matters most in their lives, always attentive to the influence of race, class, region, and historical moment. Most important, he uses the visual worlds children represent to gain entry into their moral, religious, and spiritual lives." "It was the poet-physician William Carlos Williams who offered the wisdom that guides Robert Coles''s observations of children. "Look at them, looking," he gently advised, "their eyes meeting the world." In place of abstract analysis, Dr. Coles relies on the concreteness of art; he demonstrates with empathy and respect how eloquently children can use color and form to speak from the heart, mind, and soul."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

From ancient times to the present day, here are indispensable insights on political power and leadership as expressed in the novels, plays, and poetry of the world’s greatest artists and intellectuals. Adapted from a course taught at Harvard by Pulitzer Prize—winning author Robert Coles, Political Leadership features scenes, stories, and speeches that pierce to the core of how and why some lead and others follow. In Felix Holt, the Radical, George Eliot observes that progressive reformers can be even more self-serving than their conservative counterparts; in The Prime Minister, Anthony Trollope suggests that honest men must cope with the corruption of politics–or leave leadership entirely to the crooked; and the works of Nadine Gordimer and George Orwell reveal that those who overturn tyrants often envy their power and repeat their mistakes. Anyone trying to understand today’s confused and violent world will be both challenged and inspired by this unique and important collection.

"Excellent" poetry and prose about physicians and their patients, by Raymond Carver, Kay Redfield Jamison, Rachel Naomi Remen, and more ( Library Journal). A Life in Medicine collects stories, poems, and essays by and for those in the healing profession, who are struggling to keep up with the science while staying true to the humanitarian goals at the heart of their work. Organized around the central themes of altruism, knowledge, skill, and duty, the book includes contributions from well-known authors, doctors, nurses, practitioners, and patients. Provocative and moving pieces address what it means to care for a life in a century of unprecedented scientific advances, examining issues of hope and healing from both ends of the stethoscope. "An anthology of lasting appeal to those interested in medicine, well-written literature, and a sympathetic understanding of human life." — Booklist

Combines prose by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Coles with full page tritone images spanning 150 years of photography from artists including Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, and Marion Post Wolcott.

Coles creates a portrait of moral leadership -- what it is, & how it is achieved -- through stories of people who have led & inspired him: Robert Kennedy, Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Erik Erikson, a Boston bus driver, teachers in college, med. school, & elem. school, among others. He tells how to be a moral leader & shows how the intervention of one person can change the course of history, as well as influence the day-to-day quality of life in our homes, schools, communities, & nation. He explores how each of us can be engaged in a continual & mutual life-giving process of personal & nat. leadership develop. Discusses how the actions of the Pres. affects the way people feel about themselves & the country, & explains how reading lit. can motivate action & growth.