Tell Somebody, Just Tell Somebody

About the Book

This is a book on sexual abuse, written for and directly to children between the ages of five to ten years old. It is written in a comprehensive and ‘easy-to-read’ manner, using concepts that this age group will find easy to follow and understand. This book will empower children, who find themselves in this situation, to know what to do and be able to get far away and tell somebody. Most children books, written on the subject of sexual abuse, tend to focus on the concept of ‘Stranger Danger’. Yet, in the past two decades, studies show that many of the sexual abuses occur with people children know and trust. Reports of sexual abuse around the world between children and priests, pastors, family members, neighbors and community leaders (people children know, love and trust) make this book crucial and essential for parents around the world to read it to their child. Studies also show that when children are abused by people they know and trust, they don’t tell. Many of these children grow up to adulthood, displaying behavior problems, while many turn to drugs and alcohol to drown their pain or even suicide. More important, in some cases, these victims become abusers themselves, thus creating this vicious cycle of victim and abuser. Therefore, it is important to get children to feel safe enough to tell someone if they are abused; it is even more important to empower children to know the warning signs of a potential predator. This book can become a beacon of hope and a reminder to children who find themselves in situations that are noted in this book that they can feel safe when they tell somebody; thus children, no longer, will have to live in silent and in pain. Children also need to be reminded that there are many adults that they can love and trust. This book talks to children about how they can develop their awareness about this topic and empower them to act on it, if they find themselves in this situation.

About the Author

Patricia A. Holmes is an Associate Professor in Communication at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Prior to this, she taught at the University of Missouri-St. Louis; Alabama State University in Montgomery; The Magbouraka Secondary School for Boys in Sierra Leone, West Africa and the U.S. State Department’s American Cooperative School in Monrovia, Liberia West Africa. In addition to this international/intercultural children’s book, she wrote: Broadcasting in Sierra Leone in 1998 and is currently working on another: “Liberia, West Africa, Rubber and Firestone: The Price of Growing Rubber in a Troubled Land”. She holds degrees in Journalism, Design Communications (B.S.; M.S., Southern Illinois University) and Radio/TV/Film (Ph.D., Northwestern University). She conducted her Ph.D. research in Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa and later created a semester-long Africa Student Study Abroad Program with the University of Ghana at Legon. Dr. Holmes has worked for years in International and Intercultural Communication and got the idea for this book from one of her Intercultural Communication students. Dr. Holmes has one daughter, Rashida KimBea, who is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.