Selected Comments from the First Readers of The Conscience Celebration, addressed to Ms Susan Cakars who provided editorial advice, reprinted with permission:

"At this point in our history when society appears to be disintegrating, this book should prove to be a help to a wide variety of professions in their efforts to promote empathic connections between children and their world. I think the book would be most effective as a basis for group discussion. The story is interesting with the right amount of tension to make the reader want to know what will happen next. The teaching or instructive sections may need the guidance of an adult facilitator to keep the youngsters involved....

"... I liked the examples of conscience development and think they will appeal to the middle school group.

"...[T]he dilemma[s] which the main characters found themselves in were interesting and the way their stories were dispersed will keep the reader involved with what will happen next. The examples (Aaron and Cynthia) will be primarily identified by middle-class children. The examples involving animals will have a universal appeal....

"... I liked the example of Jamie and Cynthia’s discovery about the causes of the changes she saw in her friend. I believe this will encourage young readers to look beyond concrete reactions to behavior and to be interested in motivations or causes for changes observed, the search for which is the beginning of the empathic connection.

"...I liked the reassurance that everyone is different in their emotional response. This is important so that children won’t feel abnormal if they don’t react like others. The acceptance was also illustrated clearly in the contrasting responses of Aaron And Cynthia.

"...The description of Jamie and Jessica is beautiful and realistic.

"In summary, I think this is a timely story that will prove to be useful to a wide variety of caregivers whose purpose is to facilitate healthy growth in children. Children will find it absorbing but may need guidance through this didactic sections...."

Chief Psychologist Riley Child Psychiatry Clinic

Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology, I.U. School of Medicine.

" I recently finished ‘The Conscience Celebration’ by Matthew Galvin and Barbara Stilwell. I really found it to be an excellent piece of writing.

" I thought it was able to combine a learning modality that was understandable and self-revealing in terms of the adolescent experience. Further, it was very relevant to the life of the typical child/adolescent, expressing the dynamics, issues, and dilemmas that are so much a part of developmental processes.

" I would think the book quite useful for young people as both a source for self-help reading as well as for instructional purposes..."

Associate Professor of Psychology

Regis University.

" I am writing regarding Matthew Galvin and Barbara Stilwell’s manuscript, The Conscience Celebration. I teach courses at IUPUI in Religious Studies and sometimes lead discussions on morality and ethics in the World Religions.

"Galvin and Stilwell have done a remarkable job with this book on the elusive topic of the development of childhood conscience.

" In it, they create a group dynamic with vivid personalities, and conjure up neighborhood scenes, sketching the ‘bridge kids,’ parents doctors and youths with questioning minds, involved in discoveries about right and wrong. In this subtle way they dramatize the issues and suggest emergent conclusions. The trick of this is really quite neat --they describe the textures of everyday life for kids, capturing them so well that the ideas unfold naturally in a thick (rather than thin or superficial) rich weave of actions and feelings, concepts and theories. Thus information, knowledge and even wisdom are imparted in a pleasant story form.

"The book is like a journey exploring the terrain of complex experiences in the interior life of children. It is a useful work, rich with insights, valuable for those seeking to understand the inner language and its connections with children’s behavior.

" The discussions in the book feature illustrative examples drawn from literature, history, religions and current events as well as typical childhood goings-on.

" It is a well-thought out exposition of lucid reasoning about good and bad conduct and the formation of a moral sense. It serves an important purpose in our time-- to illuminate the issues with the findings of our best researchers in the field. I highly recommend it for publication...."

Associate Professor Religious Studies.

"Please excuse the delay in sending this response to a draft of The Conscience Celebration by Drs. Galvin and Stilwell. I’ve read it a few times and have been impressed with the story line and the means by which conscience development has been presented for assimilation and understanding of children, their parents and perhaps by teachers and school counselors. The reader who is familiar with the authors, both of whom have a very easy and familiar manner with youngsters, can almost hear them chatting with the children under their care. The book, it seems to me, would best be targeted to older children and pre-teens ages 10 to 14. The story line is engaging and is a neat way to convey information to a variety of interested readers.

" At a time when schools are being increasingly required to socialize their students and even to provide a reasonable model for the development of morals, this book should be very much in demand if teacher and/or counselor guides could be available to them to make the most of the material that may be unfamiliar to them. This might be specially true for special education professionals (e.g. teachers, teacher aides, guidance counselors, tutors). This book might also be [useful] for the residential or institutional placement sector which is constantly seeking the means to socialize the youngsters residing with them.

" The manuscript intermittently becomes didactic and convoluted, with the concepts difficult and probably requiring great effort for younger readers to grasp. Therefore, some attention to those sections would be critical for general acceptance. It would also be of some benefit if portions of it could be serialized in some of the newsletters and magazines subscribed by older children and young teens as one way to get a wider [audience] sensitized to the issues.

Arthur B. Richter Professor of Child Psychiatry.

"I am a psychotherapist who specializes in the treatment of families recovering from emotional, physical, sexual abuse and addictions. In helping people who have experienced violence little has been written about the stories of feeling like a bad person and not knowing how to sort feeling from actions that were done to them. I am impressed with Drs. Galvin’s and Stilwell’s manuscript, the Conscience Celebration . The multiple conversations that the adults and children have with each other and within themselves informs the reader that the development and formation of conscience is an ongoing process. Each child seems to explore their own dilemma making the process both personal, family, and community minded.

" At this time in our culture it seems imperative that adults and children have information about moral development. Often in the families I work with both parents feel they are not good enough parents and their children struggle with hopelessness and or trying to make up for the shame in their parents. The Conscience Celebration introduces new conversation that brings moral issues into multiple perspectives. It does not tell the child what to do but gives a frame work about exploring the context of moral development. One of the main strengths of this book for my clinical practice is being able to share with families multiple conversations of conscience development in process rather than thinking that the endpoint is to be " a good person".

" I would encourage you to look for authors such as Drs. Galvin and Stilwell who have had the opportunity of researching the field of moral development and the art of story telling. I would like books and videos that help children and adults move through conflict while building their integrity in a manner that does not shame but does inform. The Conscience Celebration reaches that goal.