Event with Corie Skolnick

Sun, 06 May 2012 20:04:40 -0400

Start: 05/20/2012 - 4:00pm

End: 05/20/2012 - 4:00pm

What happens when Jimmy
Deane, a half-white, half-black infant, born amidst simmering racial tension on
Chicago’s south side in 1969, is adopted by
Carter and Susie Deane, a well-meaning South Florida
couple who orphan Jimmy yet again before he even sets foot in kindergarten?
This quintessential orphan tale tracks Jimmy’s trajectory from the wintry night
of his inauspicious birth in Chicago, through
the trials of a lonely biracial youth in South Florida, to his eventual
touchdown in the City of Angels.

With a large dose
of humor and warmth, Orfan lets the
reader in on the loss, grief, trauma, and isolation that children experience
when the foundation of a loving parent is pulled out from under them, and they
are placed in homes where they are not loved or appreciated, or even safe.
While Orfan has a fantastical side
that allows us to reach in and enjoy the story of Jimmy, it also illustrates
the searing pain of aloneness and how important it is that our communities
support all our "orfans" to have stable, permanent lifelong families.
As we see with Orfan, families can
appear in all shapes and colors and from the most unlikely places. Orfan is an old-fashioned page-turner
with real heart and an insight into love and how people authentically come
together as family.

About Corie Skolnick:

Born in Oak Park, Illinois,
and raised on Chicago’s south side, Corie
Skolnick has lived her entire adult life in Southern
California. She is a California
licensed marriage and family therapist and a “sometimes” psychology instructor
at California State
University, Northridge and Moorpark College. Among the many courses she has
taught at both colleges, her very favorite is The Psychological Aspects of
Parenthood. She has two grown children, both of them in the arts, and she is
married to the social psychologist, Paul Skolnick. Orfan is her first novel.

May Book Club

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:26:11 -0400

Start: 05/23/2012 - 6:30pm

End: 05/23/2012 - 6:30pm

Join us to discuss The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins on Wednesday, May 23 at 6:30 pm. Always a lively discussion, and everyone is welcome. Please note that our book club is usually on the third Wednesday of every month. This is a special exception for May.

Laguna Beach Books - Events Feed

Event with Corie Skolnick

May Book Club