Jane Smith – författare

The moving true story of a little girl with Asperger syndrome, controlled and abused by the one person she called her friend.Taylor had always struggled to make friends – she felt ‘different’. Taylor never knew her father and her mother wasn’t around much. She just didn’t understand people, and was alone and scared most of the time.That was until, aged just 11, an older married man called Tom befriended her. She loved having someone who would talk to her, listen to her, a protector. But when he moved away a few months later she was easy prey to the gang of drug dealers and petty criminals who groomed and abused her, using her as a form of currency to appease their debtors and amuse their friends.Increasingly isolated and desperate, it began to look as though the pattern of Taylor's life had been set – until she started to fight back, determined to build a safe future for herself, however long it took.

When Zoe was taken into care at the age of 13, she thought she was finally going to escape from the cruel abuse she had suffered throughout her childhood. Then social services placed her in a residential unit known to be 'a target for prostitution', and suddenly Zoe's life was worse than it had ever been before.Abused and ostracized by her mother, humiliated by her father’s sexual innuendos, physically assaulted and bullied by her eldest brother, even as a young child Zoe thought she deserved the desperately unhappy life she was living.‘I’ve sharpened a knife for you,’ her mother told her the first time she noticed angry red wounds on her daughter’s arms. And when Zoe didn’t kill herself, her mother gave her whisky, which she drank in the hope that it would dull the miserable, aching loneliness of her life.One day at school Zoe showed her teacher the livid bruises that were the result of her mother’s latest physical assault and within days she was taken into care.Zoe had been at Denver House for just three weeks when an older girl asked if she’d like to go to a party, then took her to a house where there were just three men. Zoe was a virgin until that night, when two of the men raped her. Having returned to the residential unit in the early hours of the morning, when she told a member of staff what had happened to her, her social worker made a joke about it, then took her to get the morning-after pill.For Zoe, the indifference of the staff at the residential unit seemed like further confirmation of what her mother had always told her – she was worthless. Before long, she realised that the only way to survive in the unit was to go to the ‘parties’ the older girls were paid to take her to, drink the drinks, smoke the cannabis and try to blank out what was done to her when she was abused, controlled and trafficked around the country.No action was taken by the unit's staff or social workers when Zoe asked for their help, and without anyone to support or protect her, the horrific abuse continued for the next few years, even after she left the unit. But in her heart Zoe was always a fighter. This is the harrowing, yet uplifting story, of how she finally broke free of the abuse and neglect that destroyed her childhood and obtained justice for her years of suffering.

This richly textured, critically acclaimed portrait of American Muslims introduces the basic tenets of the Muslim faith, surveys the history of Islam in North America, and profiles the lifestyles, religious practices, and worldviews of Muslims in the United States. The volume focuses specifically on the difficulty of living faithfully and adhering to tradition while adapting to an American way of life and addresses the role of women in Muslim culture, the raising and education of children, appropriate dress and behavior, and incidences of prejudice and unfair treatment. The second edition of Islam in America features a new chapter on post-9/11 realities, which covers infringements on civil rights and profiling, participation in politics, transformations in Islamic law, pluralism and identity issues, foreign influences, anti-Islamic sentiment, intra-Islamic tensions, and the quest for a moderate Islam. Source notes, glossary, and additional resources also reflect recent developments and scholarship.

This richly textured, critically acclaimed portrait of American Muslims introduces the basic tenets of the Muslim faith, surveys the history of Islam in North America, and profiles the lifestyles, religious practices, and worldviews of Muslims in the United States. The volume focuses specifically on the difficulty of living faithfully and adhering to tradition while adapting to an American way of life and addresses the role of women in Muslim culture, the raising and education of children, appropriate dress and behavior, and incidences of prejudice and unfair treatment. The second edition of Islam in America features a new chapter on post-9/11 realities, which covers infringements on civil rights and profiling, participation in politics, transformations in Islamic law, pluralism and identity issues, foreign influences, anti-Islamic sentiment, intra-Islamic tensions, and the quest for a moderate Islam. Source notes, glossary, and additional resources also reflect recent developments and scholarship.

'First Steps' is a new series of short, affordable self-help on a range of key topics. In First Steps out of Eating Disorders, Kate Middleton and Jane Smith draw on their extensive experiences as psychologists working with eating disorders. They explain what constitutes an eating disorder, common issues those with eating disorders face, and what to do about getting better. The book is written primarily for sufferers but with carers in mind, so it should be useful for both alike. Other titles in the First Steps series include: Anxiety, Bereavement, Depression, Gambling and Problem Drinking.

At least 1.1 million people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder, with people aged 14-25 most at risk.Books about eating disorders are often quite academic and aimed at the sufferer themselves. Very little is available for parents of sufferers. Jane Smith, director of Anorexia Bulimia Care charity has written this book, in collaboration with Care for the Family to provide practical advice for parents of eating disorder sufferers.Jane draws on her own experience of helping her young daughter through an eating disorder as well as case studies of the many families ABC has helped over the years . Includes answers to the most frequently asked questions ABC receives from parents.Supported by Care for the Family and includes a foreword by Rob Parsons.

The first book on self-harm written for parents by parents.Are you concerned that your child may be self-harming?Are you wondering what to do for the best?Do you need more information and help?If so, this is the book for you.An ever-increasing number of young people are turning to self-harm in order to cope with the pressures of modern living, and this poses a huge problem for parents and others who care for them.This book provides the answers you need to questions such as:- How do I know for sure whether my child is self-harming?- How should I approach my child?- What help and treatment is available to us?- What can I do to help my child?- How have other parents coped?Full of the real-life experiences of other parents who have been there, this is a practical book that will both inform and equip you to help your child and yourself through this difficult time.

What follows is a compact miscellany of chicken wisdom—a lively and amusing collection of quotations from past authorities on all things chicken, interspersed with brief editorial comments and complemented by wonderful illustrations. Whether a single sentence or several paragraphs, selections are all little known and long on charm. In Praise of Chickens can be savored in small pieces or enjoyably devoured all at once. It includes a demonstration of how to hypnotize a chicken; an account of a chicken rodeo; Mark Twain's sly tips on raising chickens; and a dictionary of the twenty-three-word vocabulary of the domestic chicken.

Nature artist Jane Smith has been fascinated by wildlife communities and ecosystems her whole adult life.Starting from her own garden in Argyll, she travels to ten locations in the west of Scotland - from the towering cliffs of St Kilda and the peatlands of Lewis to the Solway estuary and the urban sprawl of Glasgow - to explore the interaction of people and wildlife in a variety of diverse settings. On her journey she discovers a number of communities who are taking on the job of regenerating their own landscapes and meets a host of fascinating people whose lives are inextricably bound up with questions of sustainability, conservation and landownership.Contents Includes: Western Isles (peatlands) * North Uist (machair) * Islay (farmland) * Loch Arkaig (woodland) * Knapdale (wetland) * Dumfries and Galloway (river and estuary) * Jura (coast) * St Kilda archipelago (sea) * Glasgow (urban landscapes) *Eigg (community ownership)

The Mountain of Peace takes you on a peaceful journey, from the autumn leaf that falls peacefully to the earth, to sitting in the presence of a peaceful mountain. Jane Smith takes her inspiration from nature, travel, life, trees, stones and mountains.Peace weaves its way through the poems in this book, emphasising that peace can be experienced, discovered and felt on many paths in life if we can be still enough to feel the peace within us all.What brings you peace? What does it mean to be at peace? You are invited to discover your own peace, and this book will inspire you to experience peace in your daily life.Peace is here waiting for you! Feel it, hear it, touch it and, most of all, be it!