Child-Abuse Perspectives

Your Child Should Know: Personal-Safety Strategies for Parents to Teach Their Children by Flora Colao and Tamar Hosansky (Perennial Library: $6.95).

Though child abuse has emerged from the closet of secrecy and shame, few parents feel comfortable discussing the subject and even fewer feel qualified to teach their children about rape, molestation and physical assaults, the really ugly facts of life.

In their sensitive, yet toughly practical guide, Flora Colao and Tamar Hosansky, who run SAFE, a private self-defense program for children in New York City, discuss realistic strategies. Divided into three main areas, their book--reviewed in its original hardcover edition several years ago in this column--alerts parents to dangerous situations, provides information about dealing with child-abuse incidents and illustrates the effects on victims.