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MARKING A LIFE MILESTONE:
HOW TO PICK THE PERFECT GRAD GIFT
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For Immediate Release
Contact: Brian Puppa, e-mail or call (905) 640-8914
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APRIL 23, 2007 / Legacy Project / -- From kindergarten to college, millions of graduates will be marching single file this Spring, with proud Moms and Dads looking on. What's the best gift you can give to mark this life milestone? Forget the pen set, briefcase, even the money. Personalize a graduation gift to make it meaningful and memorable. Bestselling author and life course expert Susan V. Bosak suggests creative gifts that include a dream kit and wishing stars.
Graduation is a key step in personal and social development. It's a chance to celebrate past achievements and look toward new challenges. It's also an opportunity for parents and grandparents to connect with children and grandchildren.
"Milestones like graduation are the moments in our life when our personal star shines a little more brightly," says Bosak, who runs LifeDreams workshops across the country as part of the Legacy Project. "We underestimate how important marking them can be. For young children, a graduation is a chance to develop self-esteem and belief in your ability to achieve something. For the high school and college grad, it's a chance to look back proudly with a sense of accomplishment and then forward with excitement toward bigger life dreams."
Bosak's book Dream: A Tale of Wonder, Wisdom & Wishes (TCP Press, hardcover, full color, $17.95) is a popular gift to encourage a graduate's dreams and goals. In the same vein as the popular Dr. Seuss book Oh, The Places You'll Go!, Dream is a book for all ages. It's a one-of-a-kind collaboration that combines remarkable artwork from 15 top world illustrators, inspiring quotations from historical sages, and a beautifully told poetic story about hopes and dreams across a lifetime. The book has won 11 national awards, including the Pinnacle Award as Best Gift Book, an iParenting Award, a Teachers' Choice, a Children's Choice, and being chosen by the American Booksellers Association as one of the top books of the year.
From the starburst on the cover to the elaborate design, Dream reveals more with each reading. The story begins at the end of the rainbow as you open the Dream Chest. You're whisked away on a colorful journey of a lifetime -- from infancy to adulthood -- highlighting all the hopes and dreams found along the way. As you read, you can hunt in each illustration for a hidden star and make a wish! The final page encourages you to find a dream and follow it, to "dream a dream, your very own dream."
The perfect grad gift should have emotional value, be useful and lasting, and be portable enough to go with a graduate, especially if they'll be leaving home for the first time. Bosak offers these ideas for other creative and meaningful grad gifts for all ages:
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- Design a personal diploma to go with the institutional one. Use evocative phrases, favorite quotations, and family photos to illustrate the graduate's past achievements and future goals. Frame it.
- If you decide you want to give money, make it meaningful. Give a sum of money accompanied with a fake $1 million bill as a wish for future riches and a financial book with practical advice on saving and investing. The money you give can be designated for a specific purpose, like recreation, travel, or tuition.
- Mark the occasion by preparing a speech for a family dinner, or writing a letter on special stationery that can be read and re-read by the graduate over the years. Appropriate topics include the importance of setting goals, learning from mistakes, creating a personal set of values to live by, and focusing on the important things in life.
- For young children, start a family graduation tradition. At the end of each school year, write a letter with your child about what happened during the past year, special memories, successes, and failures with lessons learned. Save all the letters and present them to your child when they graduate from high school or college.
- Create a series of scrapbooks, each reflecting one stage of the graduate's life -- infant, toddler, child, teen, and young adult. Include memories, thoughts and feelings, and photos. The last scrapbook should have your good wishes for the future on the first page, with the remaining pages left blank to represent all the possibilities ahead.
- Put together a dream kit of items related to a graduate's dreams. If they want to travel, give a set of luggage, a compass to help them always find their way, travel books, and perhaps airline tickets or a European train pass.
- Cut wishing stars from colored paper. Each can include a personal thought or quotation. Fill a special keepsake box or jar so that a graduate can pull out a wishing star when they need inspiration.
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Dream by Susan V. Bosak is available on the grad gift display in the children's section of bookstores across the country. For more information and grad gift ideas, visit www.dreamstorybook.com.
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To receive a MEDIA KIT, REVIEW COPY of the book, or to schedule an INTERVIEW with Susan Bosak, contact Brian Puppa by e-mail or call (905) 640-8914
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