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Popsicle Boys and Gardenia Girls p. 1
Child labor can take many forms, especially in the Global South. When I lived in the Philippines, fifty percent of the population was 18 or younger (a fact I remember from my missionary dad’s slide presentation). No matter what age, I was eye-level with a lot of children. At 6, I was shoulder-to-shoulder with a village girl—my size, but probably 10 years old—hauling buckets of water for her family. At 8, I was eye-to-eye with the gardenia* girls swarming our taxi window, swee
Jul 103 min read


A doll called Peter: 5 ways to help a child in family crisis
When I was a child in crisis, I received a gift I've never forgotten. It was late evening on my sixth birthday when two surprise visitors...
Jun 263 min read


Beyond the public library: 10 ways to feed your ravenous reader
What are you serving your voracious reader? As the child of missionary parents, I spent months at a time without public libraries, bookstores, or secondhand book shops. And it about killed me. We lived in remote regions of the Philippine Islands. Places without TV, telephones, or shopping, and often no other American kids nearby. Reading was my one source of entertainment and joy. Within a few months of arrival to our island home, I had read every book my mom packed in the mi
Jun 193 min read
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