Faculty Bibliography

I SHOULD probably start by confessing that I did not go through a horse-crazy stage when I was growing up, and therefore the name Chincoteague had no particular significance for me. My family and I first stumbled on the island on a drive down the East Coast heading for Kitty Hawk on a Wright Brothers pilgrimage with a sixth grader who had spent the year researching Orville. As we drove, I had Jane and Michael Stern's book ''Roadfood'' open on my lap, cross-referencing the towns we passed. That's where I found Chincoteague, cited for the Landmark Crab House, and the write-up made mention of the famous Chincoteague oysters. It was getting to be dinner time, so we turned off the road and drove out along the causeway that takes you from the mainland to the island of Chincoteague. We triumphantly ate oysters and crab concoctions at the Landmark, and then spent the night at a nearby motel. There are many legends about how the ponies got there (the shipwrecked-Spanish-galleon legend, the farmers-grazed-them-on-the-island-to-save-taxes-on-the-mainland legend), but they are most famous in song and story for a 1947 novel, ''Misty of Chincoteague,'' and its sequels, written by Marguerite Henry. The original novel draws its plot from the annual ''pony penning'' event, in which the horses are driven into the water to swim from Assateague to Chincoteague, where the foals are sold at auction to benefit the volunteer fire department. This annual auction keeps the herd down to numbers that the island can support. ''Misty of Chincoteague'' tells the story of a brother and sister who dream of a pony of their own -- and have their eye on one particularly appealing mare, the Phantom, and then her foal, the Misty for which the book is named. This is a book that has for more than 50 years spoken straight to the dreams of horse-loving children, and the annual penning, swim and auction are the biggest event on the Chincoteague calendar. Even today, if you look on amazon.com, the reader reviews of ''Misty'' offer tag lines like ''the best book I ever read'' and ''really made me want a pony of my own.'' A roadside fruit and vegetable stand between Chincoteague and the National Seashore. (Marty Katz for The New York Times)(pg. 12); Testing the waters of the beach on Assateague, over the bridge from Chincoteague. An egret hunts for food. A mare and her foal on the nature trail. Shop on Maddox Boulevard. A prized crab at Wright's Seafood Restaurant and Crab Gallery, in Atlantic, Va., on the mainland. (Photographs by Marty Katz for The New York Times)(pg. 10)

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 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.

As she watches her kids grow, Klass often finds herself in sympathy with common health myths, though as a pediatrician she recognizes their falesness. At the very least, she listens for the hidden messages and wisdom in the myths

The authors assessed war violence exposure and behavioral symptoms in Bosnian refugee children in Massachusetts and the utility of behavioral screening of refugees during the Refugee Health Assessment (RHA), required of newly arrived refugees. The study was a survey of 31 Bosnian refugee children in 1996 at the International Clinic of Boston Medical Center, the state's largest contracted provider of the RHA. Subjects were also offered referrals to appropriate mental health services. Sixty-eight percent experienced long-term separation from a parent. Eighty-one percent were directly exposed to armed combat. Seventy-one percent experienced the death of a close friend or relative. Fifty-two percent experienced economic deprivation. Families reported behavioral symptoms for 77% of children. Only one family expressed interest in psychosocial services of any kind. Large numbers of Bosnian refugees are likely to have experienced traumatic war violence and are at risk of behavioral symptoms. The RHA affords opportunities to screen for behavioral problems but not to intervene. Primary care providers and other clinicians should be aware of likely recurrences of symptoms in high-risk children such as these

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)

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