#139 "Newtown's Trees" Author Frank Miller

Newtown's Trees is an allegory about the 2012 tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, using the town's beloved trees cut down by the protagonist as the central theme.  It is a book that can be appreciated on several levels; by adults who know the horrific details of the events that took place on a cold December morning, as well as by children who read the book or have it read to them as a sad story with an uplifting ending that outlines the strength of the human spirit.

The tale has an even wider application to other news stories that portray bad things happening to good people. Newtown's Trees is a book that warms the heart and leaves the reader feeling that despite these often senseless tragedies, there's a lot of good in this world.

Frank L. Miller is a writer and trained school psychologist. He earned an educational specialist degree in school psychology, and practiced for thirty-eight years before retiring in 2012. Frank adopted his son and daughter after marrying their mother, an elementary guidance counselor, and then adopted his daughter’s first-born child when she was unable to raise the child. The author lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with his wife of thirty-one years and the granddaughter they have thoroughly enjoyed raising who is now fourteen. Newtown’s Trees is Frank’s second publication, having written a book chronicling the battle he fought with his school district over his eldest daughter’s drug abuse and expulsion from school.

We will also feature the 2015 National Distinguished Principal for Texas, Diane Gough of Hewitt Elementary School in Hewitt, Texas. We will hear about her great Watch D.O.G.S. program.