The Kidpower Book
for Caring Adults

This inspiring, comprehensive guide puts Kidpower’s decades of experience at the fingertips of parents, educators, and all adults who care about protecting children and teens.

Also available on Amazon in Paperback!

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We put Kidpower’s decades of experience at the fingertips of people who care about protecting young people from bullying, abuse, abduction, and other violence –
And we help prepare adults to empower young people with skills and knowledge for developing positive relationships, increasing confidence, and taking charge of their emotional and physical safety.

See Table of Contents and Comments from readers below.
“I LOVE it! I have been teaching my own kids using it as a guide. It seems that you are giving the gift of the whole Kidpower program to each person who buys this book, and to the children who will benefit.”

Table of Contents

Over 400 pages of inspiring stories, hands-on activities, and clear explanations are provided through the following chapters:
  • The Kidpower Story
  • What Adults Need to Know About "People Safety" for Kids
  • Building a Foundation of Emotional Safety for Young People
  • Five Key Self-Protection Strategies for Preventing Trouble
  • Safety Plans to Prepare for the Unexpected
  • Boundaries and Advocacy to Build Better Relationships
  • Self-Defense to Stop Most Emergencies
  • Protecting Young People From Bullying
  • Protecting Children From Sexual Abuse
  • Protecting Kids from Abduction and Teaching Stranger Safety
  • The Safety of Kids is Everybody's Business - How to Intervene
  • One Million Safer Kids - A Call to Action from Kidpower

Pricing options

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$10 per person
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Comments from readers

I recommend Kidpower as a strong foundation of every family’s personal safety training. I’ve been fortunate to serve as an Advisor to Kidpower Teenpower Fullpower International for almost 20 years. That commitment began as I watched kids at a workshop, saw them joyfully and successfully taught to practice skills that can keep them safe, and I felt intuitively ‘This is right.’
GAVIN DE BECKER
Best-selling author of The Gift of Fear and Protecting the Gift
As someone who has worked with thousands of survivors of child abuse, I particularly recommend the Kidpower Method because of its excellent balance of building self worth while focusing on prevention skills to set appropriate boundaries. Kidpower’s upbeat approach empowers kids and adults alike with the social-emotional skills they need, not just to be safe, but to thrive. Kidpower’s commitment to integrity, respect, effectiveness, and excellence is reflected throughout this book.
ELLEN BASS
Co-author of the Courage to Heal and Heal Your Mind
Kidpower has an outstanding track record in teaching parents and other caring adults effective skills for protecting young people without creating fear. As a public safety officer, I strongly believe that a great deal of violence, including bullying and abuse, could be prevented if everyone had these skills.
MANNY SOLANO
Police Chief, City of Watsonville
I am so moved by your generosity in publishing this book. I LOVE it! I have been teaching my own kids using it as a guide. It seems that you are giving the gift of the whole Kidpower program to each person who buys this book, and to the children who will benefit. What a wonderful thing you have done!
MOTHER OF TWO SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN
The Kidpower program is compelling in its relevance and importance to a child’s education. As a father and head of school, I appreciate how Kidpower gives parents and teachers practical tools that they can use effectively to protect the emotional and physical safety of the children and youth in their lives. The empowerment and advocacy that Kidpower promotes are essential to a child’s well-being. Kidpower has been a unifying theme in my educational philosophy for over 20 years.
DR. PETER LEWIS
Head of school
Incorporating Kidpower skills into my family’s daily lives has helped me raise a child who is independent and prepared to explore the world with safety and confidence.  Now all families can access this knowledge through “The Kidpower Book,” a resource that is chock-full of practical safety skills and strategies, presented in a very accessible format.  Kidpower empowers adults to teach these skills to kids in a way that is both effective and emotionally safe, not scary.  This book is a treasure-trove of information, and I am proud to give Kidpower my highest personal and professional recommendation. Kidpower has an outstanding track record in teaching parents and other caring adults effective skills for protecting young people without creating fear. As a public safety officer, I strongly believe that a great deal of violence, including bullying and abuse, could be prevented if everyone had these skills.
DR. AMY TIEMANN
Author of Mojomom, Creator of Courageous Parents, Confident Kids:Letting Go So You Both Can Grow and Co-Creator of Doing Right by Our Kids
Irene van der Zande has written a virtual encyclopedia on how to keep children and teens safe. Every parent should have this, both for the practical and carefully researched information and for the clear drills that any caring adults can use to practice safety skills with their child. I also highly recommend this book as an excellent resource for martial artists and self-defense instructors wanting to build or enhance their programs for child and teen safety skills. I’ve been in this business for decades and have never seen anything that can come close to Irene’s well thought-out and child-friendly approach, and it is well-written and engaging to boot! The layout, photos, and illustrations are the icing on the cake that make it even easier to read. Kudos on a really great and ever-so-important book.
CAROL MIDDLETON
Co-founder of the National Womens Martial Arts Federation and Director of the DC Self-Defense Karate Association
About the author

Irene van der Zande

Kidpower Founder and Executive Irene van der Zande is a master at teaching safety through stories and practices and at inspiring others to do the same. Her child protection and personal safety expertise has been featured by USA Today, CNN, Today Moms, the LA Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Publications include: cartoon-illustrated Kidpower Safety Comics and Kidpower Teaching Books curriculum; Bullying: What Adults Need to Know and Do to Keep Kids Safe; the Relationship Safety Skills Handbook for Teens and Adults; Earliest Teachable Moment: Personal Safety for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers; The Kidpower Book for Caring Adults: Personal Safety, Self-Protection, Confidence, and Advocacy for Young People, and the Amazon Best Seller Doing Right by Our Kids: Protecting Child Safety at All Levels.

Kidpower is a tapestry of many different threads woven by many different hands. This book has grown from the ideas, questions, teaching, feedback, and stories of countless people since I first started learning about personal safety and self-defense in 1985. Learn more about the remarkable people who have built and keep building our organization by reading A Tapestry Woven By Many Different Hands.
Patrick Jones - Course author

About the production team

Advanced Reader Edition Cover Design and Book Layout

Kristen Calcatera, Big Sky Creative.

First Edition Copy Editing and Proofreading

Cornelia Baumgartner
Amanda Golert
Kelly Goodwin
Chantal Keeney
Marylaine Léger
Erika Leonard
Kathy Pavlik

Kidpower Logo Design and First Edition Book Cover, Design, and Layout

Ian Price, Price Watkins Media

Research Footnotes and Indexing

Andrew Carl 
Jessica Yazmin Herrera

Early Draft Editing

Lynda Leonard
Laurel Miranda

Feedback for Chapter About Protecting Kids From Sexual Abuse

Jan Isaacs Henry
Carla Lemmon
John Luna-Sparks

Cartoons

Amanda Golert

Online Learning Center Publication

Mackenzie Mitchell
Marylaine Léger

Early Draft Editing

Lynda Leonard
Laurel Miranda

Photographs

Catherine Arnold
Nicole Barbara
Allegra Doriss
Cate Gaffney
Amanda Golert
Alice Keeney
Erika Leonard
Lynda Leonard 
Claire Laughlin
Juliana Schweidzon Machado
Laurel Miranda
Eugene Tanner
Shmuel Thaler
Phung Bich Thuy
Zaida Torres
Pat West
The Kidpower Online Learning Center, part of Kidpower International, aims to help learners gain important 'People Safety' skills for themselves and to help educators and caring adults learn how to teach these important skills to others, using Kidpower's Positive Teaching Method™.

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