BiographyShirley Camper Soman has been concerned about the well-being, joys and problems of children all of her life. Growing up with and entertaining younger cousins from age four on, visiting and observing a juvenile court at 11, baby-sitting at 14 for disturbed twins, volunteering at 15 as a counselor at Hecht House Settlement in Boston and at 19 on a hospital children's floor in Madison, WI were among many other young age involvements concerning children. Her work in social service agencies, child guidance clinics and hospitals concerned conditions for children and others in need of help. Parallel to this passionate interest has been her compulsion to write, starting at age six when she began a story about a scary witch whose nose turned inward and curled up! She is still at it frequently writing articles and poems and a memoir of a very full rich life filled with both tragedy and love. A widow, she is the mother of two grown children. Ms. Soman is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin (with a major in psychology) and her Master of Social Science degree is from the Smith College School for Social Work. Early in her career she began writing popular articles about children and parents. For several years, she was the child-care columnist for Redbook Magazine and two of her other columns on books for children and for parents were syndicated. She was Associate Editor of My Baby magazine and of Shaw's Market News. She also became Family Life Consultant for the then national Family Service Association of America, dealing with the media plus being editor of the organization's monthly journal for Board Members and staffs of its 350 local agencies. The circulation tripled while she was the edtor. For this institution, she also handled an Information and Referral Service for people with problems. As a consultant, she also served the Child Welfare League of America and the aborted 1980 White House Conference on Children. Shirley Soman chaired the country's First National Child Advocacy Symposium, served as the Children's Rights panelist for the first U.S. Amnesty International Human Rights Conference, taught those subjects in a special post-graduate Institute at City University of New York, produced a notable forum on The Effect of Television on Children as the Television Academy's Salute to the 1979 Year of the Child. She was a Board Member of several non-profit agencies (she remains on Childsavers, Inc.), and was a member of the former New York City Health Department's Injury Prevention Consortium. Ms. Soman sees much of her work as a minor effort to follow in one of the footsteps of Jane Addams. She regards her writing to be in the tradition of the fourth aspect of social work, social action, in communicating to the public about the concerns of children and families and those in the second half of life with a newspaper column "Creative Aging" and a column on an Internet magazine "Computers, Etc. For Seniors." Her tapes and papers (including an oral history of social welfare leaders) have been archived and are at the University of Minnesota. (One of her articles about children was reprinted in the Congressional Record.) Shirley is an active member in several national organizations for authors, as well as in the NY Academy of Sciences, the National Association of Television Arts And Sciences, the National Association of Social Workers and the Academy of Certified Social Workers. In the past, as a partner in a small film company, she wrote, directed and produced some documentary films on such subjects as housing, volunteers, public welfare. Her other published work consists of 600 plus articles in newspapers, magazines and journals. and several books. She has produced preventive health comic books for children, teens and young adults. Samples can be seen on ww.acorn2oak.com. Her latest venture is a blog, La-Di-Dah-50.com which covera many areas of great interest to people over 50. To reach her, use her blog email: la-di-dah@ Selected Works of Non-Fiction "Let's Stop Destroying Our Children: Then and Now" which contains Shocking real-life examples of the maltreatment of children and positive ways toward prevention. "Preparing for Your New Baby" which is an oversized paperback full of facts, lists, heart-felt comments, illustrations, "How It Used To Be" history. Two Comic Books: "BabyGrow"; "Beat AIDS" These and others in the works are striking 24-page unusual preventive health books that reach children, teens and even young adults. They are available to purchase online at www.acorn2oak.com "How To Get Along With Your Child" in paperback, plus the first anti-gun book for small children which was printed in MS. Magazine and in their anthology. Quick Links: Samples of two health comic books. currently available on CD'S. One for teenagers is "BEAT AIDS." The other for children and teens is "HOW DID I GROW?" Both are very different than the usual comic books. To view samples and to order through PayPal go to http:/ |
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