SOULFUL BOOKS BY JAIYA JOHN
Welcome to our catalog of books by the author Jaiya John. Over 50,000 copies sold worldwide. All titles available online where books are sold, including: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Books A Million. *For bulk order discounts, books@soulwater.org. Thank you.
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Agencies, organizations, and school systems nationwide are acquiring this title in bulk as a professional development resource for workers, and leaders. It can enrich college and graduate programs, recruitment, hiring, orientation, and ongoing development. Download flier |
![]() Twelve brave 18-year-olds encamp on a mystical island in the presence of a mysterious shape shifter. These children of many tribes–African, Maori, Samoan, Native American, Latino, and Aboriginal–have come to enjoy the paradise, with its ocean shores, towering dunes and mountains, spectacular waterfall, and crystal clear lagoon. The island has other ideas. As human souls encounter island spirit, lives that have been touched by family disruption, homelessness, delinquency, and trauma face a reckoning. An ancient scroll forebodes a great danger: If they do not face their pain and fears in this surreal land, they invite their own demise. Through adventure, calamity, conflict, passion, and friendship, a tribe is born. The true purpose for their challenging childhood journeys is revealed in ways that will transform their lives forever. Clear Moon Tribe is a coming of age revelation. A richly crafted healing story, bathed in cultural myths, fables, and legends. Its words are the smoke of incense, drum, and ceremony, and will tattoo your heart hilariously, poignantly, unforgettably. Come, fall deliriously into a new tribal language. It all began that summer, on an island, beneath a provocative clear moon. 2015. 6 x 9 Softcover. First edition. 288 pages. $19. Fiction. ISBN: 978-0-9916401-2-6 Great for schools, youth programs, organizations, book clubs. A powerful resource for foster care, juvenile justice, homelessness, child welfare, human services, social services, and family & community service. |
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![]() Are you experiencing compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, burnout, disillusionment, doubt, lack of appreciation and support, lost direction, fear, emptiness? You deserve relief. Legendary is well water drawn from the very soul of your compassionate endeavor, offered back to you in your own yearning voice. Come here and drink to your replenishment. Regain your spark of purpose. Word by word, renew your wholeness, your humanity, and your vital health. Take a dose daily. Soon, you will be breathing freely again, like the first time you answered your sacred calling. 2014 (Originally published 2008). 5.5 x 8.5 Softcover. Second edition. 216 pages. $16. Social Services & Education. ISBN: 978-0-9916401-0-2 2ND EDITION. The many fictional voices of displaced children in Beautiful: A Poetic Celebration of Displaced Children are inspired by youth Jaiya John has worked with over a lifetime. This second edition contains 8 NEW POEMS. Beautiful is much more than a source of inspiration. Its words reveal the majesty and vulnerability of all children. Beautiful is an empowerment anthem for youth, a resource for those who love, care for, and work with these purposeful souls. Child light shines through these pages, asserting the demand of our young for their dignity, while portraying their limitless power to heal, grow, and flourish. A poetic companion to Jaiya John’s Reflection Pond, Beautiful is the kind of treasure we polish repeatedly, its truth seeping into our compassion. Struggle and triumph. Solitude and belonging. A journey of sunflowers toward the sun of selfhood. In these pages we find Beauty born. 2014 (Originally published 2008). 5.5 x 8.5 Softcover. Second edition. 200 pages. $18. Poetry / Child & Youth Development. ISBN: 978-0-9916401-1-9 An empowerment tool for youth! Great resource for: parents • social workers • counselors • therapists • community leaders • juvenile justice and mental health • policy makers • legal & court • child welfare • educators • advocates • mentors |
![]() 2ND EDITION. The many fictional voices of displaced children in Beautiful: A Poetic Celebration of Displaced Children are inspired by youth Jaiya John has worked with over a lifetime. This second edition contains 8 NEW POEMS. Beautiful is much more than a source of inspiration. Its words reveal the majesty and vulnerability of all children. Beautiful is an empowerment anthem for youth, a resource for those who love, care for, and work with these purposeful souls. Child light shines through these pages, asserting the demand of our young for their dignity, while portraying their limitless power to heal, grow, and flourish. A poetic companion to Jaiya John’s Reflection Pond, Beautiful is the kind of treasure we polish repeatedly, its truth seeping into our compassion. Struggle and triumph. Solitude and belonging. A journey of sunflowers toward the sun of selfhood. In these pages we find Beauty born. 2014 (Originally published 2008). 5.5 x 8.5 Softcover. Second edition. 200 pages. $18. Poetry / Child & Youth Development. ISBN: 978-0-9916401-1-9 An empowerment tool for youth! Great resource for: parents • social workers • counselors • therapists • community leaders • juvenile justice and mental health • policy makers • legal & court • child welfare • educators • advocates • mentors |
![]() Jaiya John has shared time with thousands of uprooted children through his global human relations work. Reflection Pond is a compassionate guide, a looking glass for what these youth have whispered into his spirit. They have shared their need for reflection ponds: people, places, and experiences through which their own beauty and purpose are reflected back to them. Through sensitive prose, Jaiya John draws from the natural world around us to unveil the magical inner life of children and youth. Here is a revelatory positioning of the human mirror. In its face we glimpse magnificence. 2007. 5.5 x 8.5 Soft cover. First edition. 244 pages. $18. Child & Youth Development. ISBN 978-0-9713308-2-5 Great resource for: MSW programs . staff development . parents and caregivers. social workers . counselors . therapists . community leaders . juvenile justice . foster care, adoption, homelessness . policy makers . legal & court . child welfare . educators . advocates . mentors |
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![]() Father to Son: Ode to Black Boys is a spoken word testimony to the phenomenal journey of African American people. A dying father’s inspired and hopeful last conversation with his 17-year-old son serves as the context for this uplifting and powerful narrative. Jaiya John’s compassionate voice weaves a rich kente cloth tapestry of Love, celebration, challenge, and honor. Father to Son, with its rich rhythmic wordplay, flavored with a gumbo recipe for Self-Love in both males and females, frames the journey of African American boys into manhood. Here is a role call for the spirit warrior in us who wants our families to be whole. Come beat the drum. 2016. 4 x 6. Softcover. 104 pages. $12. First edition. Poetry / African American / Child and Family. ISBN: 978-0-9916401-4-0 This little book is an easy, scintillating, soul awakening read! Share with youth, schools, libraries, programs, agencies, places of worship, sororities and fraternities, and families! |
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![]() Black Baby White Hands: A View from the Crib. Soul Water Rising Proudly Presents a Landmark Memoir. July 15, 1968. It is only three months following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the nation is burning. Black and White America are locked in the tense grip of massive change. Into this inferno steps an unsuspecting young White couple. Neither significantly knew even a single African American person while growing up. Now, a child will change all of that forever. In this fateful moment, a Black baby becomes perhaps the first in the history of New Mexico to be adopted by a White family. Here is a brazenly honest glimpse into the mind and heart of that child, a true story for the ages. Jaiya John has opened the floodgates on his own childhood. Black Baby White Hands, a waterfall of jazz splashing over the rocks of pain, love and the honoring of family. Magically, this book finds a way to sing as it cries, and to exude compassion even as it dispels well-entrenched myths. This classic is sure to find itself well worn, stained by tears, and brushed by laughter in the lap of parents, adolescents, educators, students and professionals. Here comes the rain and the sunshine, all at once. Second Edition, 2005 (First edition 2002). $19.00. 5.5″ x 8.5″ Soft cover. 350 pages. memoir/African American/adoption. ISBN 978-0-9713308-1-8 “Penetrating. John’s is a truly fresh voice emergent from an insightful American childhood.” “One of the few books to examine transracial adoption from a balanced perspective and to make a strong case for considering culture in placement decisions. It should be read by all adoptive parents, caseworkers, agency heads, policymakers and groups concerned about the best interests of children of color in foster care.” “Our concept of civil rights and spiritual responsibility has been peeled back afresh and rendered deeper with this book.” “This is a pot of gold for adoptive parents, and especially for transracially adoptive parents. But more than that, this book is priceless for anyone who cares to voyage into the wonderland that is a child’s heart.” “Powerful. This book is not only beautifully written, it also deserves a wide audience.” Black Baby White Hands: A View from the Crib is a memoir that, via the intense intimacy of one child’s life, represents in microcosm the experience of many youth in this society. Beyond race, this story also mines the culturally rich texture of contemporary U.S. American youth and their families. This book has been adopted for high school and college courses nationwide. In addition to its obvious child welfare implications, it reveals much of the complex psyche of African American and Caucasian American children and adults, as well as those of people of all heritages and backgrounds in today’s overwhelming social world. |