While You Were Away: 101 Tips for Families Experiencing Absence or Deployment

 Author's Summary

While You Were Away is concerned with coping with the extended absence of family members, either on military deployments, or, one assumes, any lengthy absence. The book is an action plan to make that absence easier on the family remaining and the individual deployed. Mostly Megan concentrates on the family at home, with a particular emphasis on families with young children.

MWSA Review

Ms. Graham is well qualified to write her book. She has been a military wife and mother; has developed absence and deployment programs; and written deployment journals for young children, teens and families. John Willman, who did the graphic work on the book, has extensive experience in digital media.

While You Were Away is concerned with coping with the extended absence of family members, either on military deployments, or, one assumes, any lengthy absence. The book is an action plan to make that absence easier on the family remaining and the individual deployed. Mostly Megan concentrates on the family at home, with a particular emphasis on families with young children.

While You Were Away is a short, concise book containing 101tips for coping with the absence of a family member. Each tip is preceded by a quote germane to the subject, which is then followed by suggestions of projects to complete during the deployment/absence. They involve projects which can involve the entire family, including the family member on deployment.

This book would probably be most useful for younger families with younger children. The suggestions are fairly elemental, and are aphorisms commonly found in this type of literature. However, for a family who has to cope with absences, particularly multiple, there are helpful points within While You Were Away.

Reviewed by: Weymouth Symmes (2011)