Faculty Bibliography

I RECENTLY HAD TO WRITE AN APPEAL LETTER ASKING FOR DONATIONS TO BUY CHILDREN'S BOOKS FOR DOCTORS TO GIVE OUT AT CHECKUPS. 'AT A TIME OF FEAR AND UNCERTAINTY,' I WROTE, 'THE HOMEBOUND PLEASURES OF SPENDING TIME TOGETHER, READING ALOUD, CLOSE CONTACT BETWEEN PARENTS AND YOUNG CHILD, BECOME EVEN MORE IMPORTANT. AS MANY AMERICANS FEEL NEW KINDS OF FEAR AND WORRY, THEY HUG THEIR CHILDREN CLOSER.' The letter went on to argue that as even young children struggle with disturbing images on television or the sense of adult worry and anxiety, the reassuring sound of a parent's voice reading aloud and the comforting colored world of a children's book become more and more important to the child - and to the parent. I urged my audience to think about what they were doing to help their own children through this time, and to make donations that would help us help more parents to understand the value of stories and bedtime rituals and comfort. Children's books are ways out into the world, just as literacy itself is power and strength and knowledge - but not necessarily always comfort. Children are entitled to the happy familiar books that lull them at bedtime into the warm comfort of knowing that all is as it should be - but they are also entitled to the fascinations of the books that tell you about the unfamiliar - about monsters and wild things, curiosity, adventure, and danger

Klass offers tips for parents on helping children make sense of the Sep 11 tragedy. Parents should let their child know that they are all right, control their own emotions, and show extra affection towards their children

Klass discusses the science of choosing a baby's gender and explores stereotypes behind the fantasy. Experts worry about implications of frivolous applications and designer babies, and people should worry that the privilege of parenthood, watching new human beings unfold, would be compromised

Klass argues for the value of the tumult of family life as cognitive stimulation for babies and young children. Children learn best by helping out around the house and being included in all the things that families do

Having a father present at his baby's checkup can greatly benefit the child's health. Fathers ask different kinds of questions than do mothers, and both parents can give the doctor a more complete picture of what is going on with the child's health and development

Klass explains that, as a pediatrician, she wants parents to understand the importance of being honest with a child's physician. Not telling the truth about a child's behavior or health can sometimes be dangerous

We visited the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park and admired Buddha statues and painted screens (well, some of us). Our hotel was in the Asakusa area, one of the older Tokyo neighborhoods, and right nearby was the seventh-century Sensoji, the oldest temple in Tokyo. It is approached down Nakamise Dori, a lane of what you would have to classify as Japanese temple tchotchke shops. We bought hot little cakes flavored with green tea, and Orlando got his fortune told in the temple, shaking a box until a stick fell out, then matching the number on that stick to a little drawer and extracting a paper fortune, complete with English translation. Then we activated our rail passes, having previously exchanged the vouchers at a special office at Tokyo Station, and for the next week we zipped around the island of Honshu, obeying the universal rail pass imperative of making it pay by traveling as much as possible. The trains were almost all Shinkansen, the famous bullet trains. From Tokyo to Kyoto, then on to Nara, Hiroshima, the castle town of Himeji, the mountain village of Takayama, and finally, the historic resort city of Nikko. Ryokan Kikuya in Tokyo. In a ryokan, you sleep on a futon and may share a bathroom. (Kaku Kurita for The New York Times)(pg. 18); The smallest samurai at Himeji Castle; wall-to-wall video games in Akihabara, the Tokyo electronics district; burning incense for good fortune at Sensoji, the city's most ancient temple; taking a PlayStation break. (Orlando [PERRI KLASS]); Mokubakan, a traditional samurai theater, beckons passers-by near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo. (Photographs for The New York Times by Kaku Kurita)(pg. 11)

Klass offer parents tips on how to make their children's visits to the doctor for shots more bearable. Klass suggests that parents explain as simply as possible what shots are for and why they are given and suggests that parents hug their children when the shots are over

As a pediatrician, Klass receives many after-hours calls from worried parents that could have been handled during the day. Although the calls can be frustrating, she knows that sometimes parents just need a little reassurance.