About the Author

Kathy Beckwith is a mediation trainer from Dayton, Oregon, having worked for over two decades with schools (K-12) and community mediation programs. She has mediated for parent/teen, victim/offender, and neighborhood mediation cases, and volunteers as a school mediation coach. Kathy is an author. Her most recent book is A MIGHTY CASE AGAINST WAR: What America Missed in U.S. History Class and What We (All) Can Do Now, published by Dignity Press. She is also author of the picture book Playing War; a YA novel, Critical Mass, dealing with sexual abuse in the lives of teens; and two books related to problem-solving -an elementary school curriculum guide, DON'T SHOOT! We May Both Be on the Same Side, and a picture resource book, If You Choose Not to Hit: A Dozen Skills That Make Kids Powerful Problem-Solvers.

Kathy is a graduate of Northwest Nazarene University, Nampa, Idaho (Business Administration), and did a semester of advanced study with the University of the Seven Seas (World Campus Afloat, now "Semester at Sea"). She and her husband Wayne were Peace Corps Volunteers in India, working with a horticulture program in Karnataka. She is a mom and grandma, and a baker of blackberry pies in the summer.

Lea Lyon is an award-winning children's book illustrator, painting teacher, and portrait artist who has made a childhood dream come true. Lea loved to draw and paint as a child, and she wanted to be a children's book illustrator. She ended up raising a family, going back to school for an MBA, and working in the corporate world, but she kept painting. Now, at long last, Lea is a children's book illustrator with five published picture books: Say Something, Playing War, Keep Your Ear on the Ball (all with Tilbury), The Miracle Jar and Operation Marriage. She lives in Richmond, California.

Reviews

In these times, when violence and war are constantly in the news, children need our help sorting out the fantasy of war play from the painful realities of war. By bringing up the impact of war on one child, who gets upset when his friends engage in war play, and showing us his friends' caring responses, 'Playing War' does what no other children's book before it has done. It provides the forum adults and children need to feel safe talking about the real human impact of war.--Diane Levin, Ph.D., Professor of Education and author of Teaching Young Children in Violent Times and The War Play Dilemma

... good conversation starter for parents who want to talk about war and violence with their children.

...excellent book ...start a discussion...about the Peace Testimony...illustrations are lovely and support the story beautifully.

...Here's a timely look at war in a thoughtful format accessible to youngsters.

No elementary classroom should be without this book!