New Book Review says Breaking the Paddle: Ending School Corporal Punishment is well-researched, insightful, focused, concise, cohesive and equips readers with information and practical steps they need to act.

 

The book has an effective organization, a combination problem-solution and how-to that equips readers with the information and practical steps they need to act. The table of contents, however, feels a bit over-detailed; it is weighed down with detail and slows the reader down in seeing the overarching form of the book. The book is well researched and gives insightful historical perspective; but adding even more current data (from the last five years) would give the book greater immediacy and help people see the very present realty of a problem that many people assume is in the past. The information on the connection between corporal punishment and youth violence is particularly insightful; overall, the book does a great job busting myth and adding depth to basic understandings about corporal punishment. The visual tone of the cover, which feels a little bit cartoonish, doesn’t match the serious, academic tone of the book. The tables are helpful and easy to read. The book does a good job managing the needs of a diverse combination of audience members: from parents to school personnel to legislator with such a group it would be easy for the book to feel scattered, but it feels focused, concise, and cohesive.

Judge, 22nd Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards. (2014)

Breaking the Paddle: Ending School Corporal Punishment Wins Two Coveted 2014 Purple Dragonfly Book Awards

CHANDLER, AZ (June, 2014) – The judges of the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards contest, which recognizes excellence in children’s literature, have spoken, and Breaking the Paddle: Ending School Corporal Punishment by Nadine Block, won second place in categories of History-Non-Fiction and Family Matters. The book is available at Amazon.com.

 

Nadine Purple Dragonfly
 
 
 
 
Nadine A. Block, author of
Breaking the Paddle: Ending School
Corporal Punishment

AWARD WINNER


Breaking the Paddle, has placed in the 2014 Eric Hoffer
Book Awards, with an honorable mention in the Reference
Non-Fiction category.

Breaking The Paddle: Ending School Corporal Punishment wins two awards

announced as a winner of Eric Hoffer Book Award  2014 (REFERENCE-NON-FICTION)

From:  The US Review of Books.  http://www.theusreview.com/USRhoffer.html

“Breaking the Paddle: Ending School Corporal Punishment, Nadine A. Block, Center for Effective Discipline – Block seeks to highlight that school corporal punishment is still legal in many places and to help people in those locations who are trying to pass laws to make it illegal. To reach these goals, Block discusses her organization’s struggle to pass a law outlawing it in Ohio, their eventual success, and many tips and suggestions from her organization’s experiences. Others can learn from their successes, setbacks, and roadblocks. There are also many examples of the counter-arguments that people seeking to outlaw school corporal punishment can expect to hear from those in favor, including responses that people and organizations can make to these counter-arguments. The book is supplemented with tables and extensive endnotes.”

Please note that it is available at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Paddle-Ending-Corporal-Punishment/dp/0615830099 and other onlin bookstores.

More information is available at www.nadineblock.com  as well as a student reading/discussion guide for the book.

Endorsements

“Block writes in an engaging manner, combining memoir, history, and a powerful rationale for ending school corporal punishment. In this book, parents, educators and professionals who work with families will find tools for protecting children from this outdated and harmful discipline.”

-Ted Strickland, State of Ohio Governor, 2006-2010

 “One hundred years from now, people will marvel that we once lived in a country where violence against children was not only condoned but sanctioned by law. This future generation will also be grateful for the work of Nadine Block and so many others who fought the good fight to end the infliction of pain as a means of disciplining children. This book tells the story of these courageous few – and shows us all there is still time to be on the right side of history.”

– Victor Vieth, Executive Director, National Child Protection Training Center

 “At the time when efforts to bring American school children under the cloak of fundamental human rights guarantees were in their very earliest stages, and calls for reform consisted of a mere few, faint voices in the wilderness, Nadine Block entered the scene. She quickly became a key player. Today, thanks in large part to her efforts, that voice in the wilderness has grown into a grand chorus, and the reform we yearned for – extending to school children the same fundamental legal protection against assault and battery that applies to everyone else – is now within grasp. Thank you, Nadine, for sharing the poignant details of your journey in Breaking the Paddle: Ending School Corporal Punishment.”

– Jordan Riak, Executive Director of Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education