Striving for Excellence
As the leaves start to change, I hope this message finds you and your family well. I am thrilled to discuss our lineup for November!
First, we have the remarkable Camille Lederer, a Tenafly native who recently graduated from the prestigious American Museum of Natural History’s Master of Arts in Teaching Earth Science Residency Program.
We’re also excited to feature resident Joseph Stetson, chief commercial officer of the New York Red Bulls, along with an article on the esteemed Gordon Uehling, Tenafly Racquet Club’s founder and managing director. Their expertise in sports and dedication to excellence is sure to impress and inspire!
In the meantime, don’t miss our Q&A with Bill Hook, head golf professional at Knickerbocker Country Club.
And prepare for a delightful treat from the incredibly talented Christine Alpert of Sweettablescapes.
We encourage you to share your ideas and suggestions for making Tenafly magazine even better going forward. Please email me at hello@tenaflymagazine.com.
Gina Palmieri Publisher
Publisher Gina Palmieri
Local Editor
Jenna Demmer
Writers
Julie Marallo
Michael Pilla
Elisabeth Sydor
Gabrielle Walters
Photographers
Alyson Barrow
Damian Castillo
Brady Sansotta
Justin Schwab
WAINSCOT MEDIA
Chairman Carroll V. Dowden
President and CEO
Mark Dowden
VP, Group Publisher, Regional
Thomas Flannery
VP, Content Strategy
Maria Regan
Creative Director
Kijoo Kim
Art Director
Rosemary O›Connell
Executive Editor Richard Laliberte
Associate Editor
Sophia Carlisle
Advertising Services Director
Jacquelynn Fischer
Operations Director
Catherine Rosario
Production Designer
Chris Ferrante
Print Production Manager Fern Meshulam
Advertising Production Associate Griff Dowden
Tenafly magazine is published by Wainscot Media. Serving residents of Tenafly, the magazine is distributed monthly via U.S. mail. Articles and advertisements contained herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publishers. Copyright 2024 by Wainscot Media LLC. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced in any form without written consent.
WHAT’S NEW AROUND TOWN
Chamber Updates
Community events,
attractions
and opportunities from the Tenafly Chamber of Commerce
November in Tenafly means elections, the New Jersey teacher convention break, Thanksgiving and preparations for the holidays. Share the joy of the season when you support your local Tenafly businesses and organizations.
COMING: A HOLIDAY WINDOW CONTEST
This year, Tenafly is amping up the festive spirit with a holiday window contest. All businesses are invited to participate. If you work with any local business, you can team up with a storefront. The community is invited to vote for their favorites, and winners will be announced at the Tenafly Holiday Fair on December 14. Learn more at www. tenaflychamber.org/holidaywindows.
SHOP SMALL, STAY LOCAL
As you gear up for the holidays, consider these Chamber of Commerce vendors when checking off your list:
• Ave Lumi for babies, kids and women who love joyful and discerning fashion. 9 Jay St.
• Apothecure RX for beauty and wellness enthusiasts. 1 Highwood Ave.
• Sacred Space Meditation for your spiritual needs. 32 Washington St.
• Tenafly Bicycle Workshop for bikes and accessories to make your bike life the best. 175 County Road.
• Juma Fit for the athletes in your life. 38 Franklin St.
DON’T MISS THE JCC FALL BOUTIQUE
Shop small for a big impact! Every purchase directly supports the Leonard and Syril Rubin Early Childhood Center. Sunday, November 17 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
THANKSGIVING EDIBLES: ORDER EARLY!
• La Promenade: Get the full occasion catered or just the dessert. Impress the family with this local favorite. Stop in the shop or easily place your order online at https://laprom. com.
• Keep It Sweet Desserts: Don’t come emptyhanded to dinner. Pick up a baked-goods platter from Lauren Lilling. Follow @ keepitsweetdesserts on Instagram and contact her to easily reserve for the holidays.
• Sweettablescapes: Make a statement with artisticthemed cookies and desserts. Easily order holiday, custom or even DIY cookie kits from talented local baker Christine Alpert.
KEEP KIDS ACTIVE
Staying local during the New Jersey teachers convention break? Sign the kids up for Autumn Camp at Tenafly Nature Center. Learn more at https://tenaflynaturecenter.org/schoolbreak-day-camp.
GET YOUR VACCINES!
Apothecure RX offers drop-in flu and COVID-19 shots. Safeguard your health and support small businesses. 1 Highwood Ave.
Open weekdays 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; closed Sundays.
The Tenafly Chamber of Commerce is a local nonprofit organization that serves to enhance and elevate the Tenafly community experience by actively supporting our local businesses. To learn more, visit www.tenaflychamber.org.
• Body Pain: Neck, Back, Joint, Athletic & Orthopedic Injuries
• Mental/Emotional: Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia, Stress
• Women’s Health | Autoimmune Conditions
Q & a
Leader on the Links
Meet the local pro who was named the New Jersey PGA’s 2024 Golf Professional of the Year.
BY MICHAEL PILLA
Originally from Hawthorne, Bill Hook has been involved with golf as a player and administrator for most of his adult life. As a freshman in high school, he first interned at Ridgewood Country Club. He became aware of Tenafly’s Knickerbocker Country Club on the Pioneer Tour, a junior golf program for young golfers ages 8 to 18, when he played there for the state open qualifier and “fell in love with the course.”
Bill has been at Knickerbocker for 14 seasons and is recognized for his leadership, character and service to the New Jersey Section of the PGA of America (NJPGA) and the game of golf. This year, the NJPGA named him Golf Professional of the Year.
How did you get into golf?
When my father was 40, my mother gave him a set of clubs. I was 6, and she also gave me a set of clubs. We started playing just about every weekend, and then I started competing in junior events around here. The Bergen County Pioneer Tour was my first.
What got you involved with the business of golf?
Growing up, I dreamed of playing on the PGA Tour, but that’s an extremely long shot. When I was a sophomore in high school, my uncle gave me an article from the Wall Street Journal about going to college and majoring in professional golf management. I visited several schools and chose Penn State. Getting into the business, teaching and working in golf shops opened my eyes to what this game offers.
INTERVIEW WITH BILL HOOK
How is it being in Tenafly?
Tenafly is great. We have a good relationship with the town. I grew up 20 minutes away from here, and it’s very rare for you to land a job near where you’re from.
What makes the Knickerbocker Country Club special?
Knickerbocker’s best and most unique things are the membership and golf course. Knickerbocker truly is a second family and a home away from home. The membership continues with that culture, making everyone feel welcome and the staff a part of the family.
The golf course is believed to be the only course in the world laid out by Donald Ross and Herbert Strong, two golden-age architects with quite the résumés. The two married the property together perfectly and created a golf course you will never get tired of playing. The original front nine holes were sold off during the Great Depression, which left us with a fantastic 18 holes on the west side of Knickerbocker Road and the room to create a family club atmosphere, adding many more amenities on the east side of the road.
The club has been chipping away at a master plan for the golf course and is in the planning stages of a master plan for the east side of the road, including the clubhouse and all other amenities. With these updates, Knickerbocker is poised to move powerfully into the future, delivering a wonderful place to call home with even better people.
Tell us about winning the 2024 NJPGA Golf Professional of the Year award.
A group of golf professionals comprised a Special Awards Committee, and our peers voted based on all-around professionalism. You’ve got to have a certain number of service years on the New Jersey PGA board and check the boxes for being an all-around golf professional: running the entire operation, spending time with the allied associations, giving back time and energy, and [having] a commitment to the game.
I wouldn’t call it a job. It’s more of a way of life.
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A Zeal for Science
Camille Lederer turned her passion for the ocean and the American Museum of Natural History into a fulfilling career.
BY GABRIELLE WALTERS
When many people think of vacationing on Cape Cod, they picture sinking their toes into sandy beaches, snapping a picture of stunning hydrangeas and devouring lobster rolls. When Tenafly native Camille Lederer was growing up, she dreamed of working there.
Throughout her childhood, Lederer vacationed on Cape Cod with her family, where she spent much of her time exploring the ocean. This is where she discovered her love for science and set out a goal of returning there for work.
Her goal to live and work on Cape Cod came to fruition: Today, Lederer is a first-year physics and biology teacher at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School in Yarmouth, Massachusetts.
Science Education
Growing up in close proximity to New York City, Lederer took full advantage of what the area had to offer.
As a child, she often spent days with her family at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. She was fascinated by the attractions and, at age 13, even had the opportunity to attend the Sleepover at the Natural History Museum experience, where she and other children slept on cots in the museum. While this may seem uncomfortable to some, it was nothing short of magical to Lederer.
Her Tenafly public school education helped pave the way for her to explore her interests. In school, she always felt she had room to pursue her passion for science.
She fondly recalls her elementary school teacher allowing her to present
research about owls even though it wasn’t an assignment. “It was a random project I wanted to do,” she says. “She let me and my friend present it to the class.”
Raised by a French mother, Lederer grew up speaking fluent French and English, and ultimately decided to attend McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Due to her upbringing in Tenafly, she felt well equipped to attend school outside the United States. “Many international people are in Tenafly,” she says. “That’s what makes [the town] so interesting.”
During the summer, she continued traveling to Cape Cod and obtained various summer jobs. One year she worked at a French bakery and another she worked as a naturalist assistant on whale-watching boats.
On the boats, she received informal education experience. She looks back fondly at her days working on the water and recounts the magic of witnessing others seeing whales for the very first time.
After university, Lederer decided to pursue science education as opposed to research. Her mentor recommended that she look into the American Museum of Natural History’s Master of Arts in Teaching Earth Science Residency Program (MAT ESRP).
A Dream Come True
Through research and alumni testimonials, Lederer found that the MAT ESRP would provide her with exactly what she needed: a free master’s program, small classes and plenty of experience at the museum, where she has always felt connected. “It seemed
The 2024 commencement group at the American Museum of Natural History’s Master of Arts in Teaching Earth Science Residency Program.
too good to be true,” says Lederer— “but it [was] true.”
The program is designed to prepare earth science teachers to step into high-needs middle and high schools across the United States. The teachers’ mission is to introduce young people to the field of climate science and prepare students to tackle modern environmental challenges.
This program was a dream come true for Lederer as she was able to explore the museum in a way she’d never had the opportunity to before, gaining access to private areas, classrooms and labs.
When asked about her favorite exhibit at the museum, Lederer answered without hesitation: the Hall of Ocean Life, known for its iconic, life-sized model of a blue whale. Her life came full circle when she graduated MAT ESRP under the very whale she had gazed upon with awe as a child.
As a first-year teacher on Cape Cod, Lederer expresses her desire to make a difference in the lives of the kids she’s teaching, saying many of her students are immigrants from difficult backgrounds.
“I’m looking forward to connecting with [the students],” she says. “I love the environment; my coworkers are great. [I] have to be present for the kids every day.”
Lederer says that as a self-proclaimed nature lover, she is excited to see what Cape Cod is like during the off season, and she knows with confidence that the lifelong connections she has made with her MAT ESRP family will support her every step of the way.
Camille Lederer has spent her life working toward teaching earth science in Massachusetts, starting with childhood vacations on Cape Cod and continuing through being educated at Tenafly public schools and McGill University, working on whale-watching boats and taking part in an American Museum of Natural History residency program.
Joseph Stetson’s career in sports marketing has taken him to Madison Square Garden, the Nets, Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment, the Red Bulls—and back to a home base in Tenafly.
Marketing All-Star
From local roots, Joseph Stetson built a business career in sports and worked his way back to Tenafly.
BY MICHAEL PILLA
When Joseph Stetson was at Rutgers University, he learned that a friend was interning at Madison Square Garden. “It sounded interesting, so I asked him how he got that job,” Stetson recalls. “He gave me the name and phone number of the HR department, and after a few calls, I got an internship.”
That innocent moment of curiosity started Stetson on the road to becoming one of the country’s most respected and innovative sports marketing executives.
Stetson grew up in Englewood, but Tenafly was an important part of his young life. “I’ve always had an affinity for Tenafly,” he says. “We were 10 minutes away. My buddies and I spent our summers on the Tenafly basketball courts; went to the movies at the Tenafly Cinema; rented videos, when there were videos, at Great American on Washington Avenue; had pizza at
TPR; and ate dinner at Friendlys.” Stetson may have lived in Englewood, but he was a resident of Tenafly in all but name.
After graduating from Dwight Englewood High School, Stetson majored in sports management at Rutgers, earning his bachelor’s degree while interning at MSG. “Some days, I would have to commute twice,” he says. “I’d go to the Garden in the morning, return to New Brunswick for class and then commute back to the city at night for an event.”
While giving his all to the Green, Stetson also found time to get his MBA from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. All the dedication did not go unnoticed. In 12 years at MSG, Stetson was promoted five times, progressing from intern to director of marketing for the MSG Network and Fox Sports Net NY. He did advertising, branding and business development.
Moving On and Up
After 12 and a half years at the Garden, Stetson moved on to the New Jersey Nets, becoming the senior marketing director. It was an exciting time! The Nets were planning their move from New Jersey to Brooklyn, and he was instrumental in rebranding the team and working on the naming rights deal for the Barclays Center.
The highlight of his time with the Nets was pitching the team to LeBron James when he was famously shopping for a new place to take his talents.
Before the Nets completed their move to Brooklyn, Stetson accepted a position as vice president of consulting at Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment, where he developed and executed marketing strategies for corporate clients, including MetLife.
He may have missed out on the move to
Brooklyn, but life had a move of its own.
“While with the Nets, I met Stacey, my future wife, at a mutual friend’s birthday party,” he says. They would marry in 2012.
The year 2014 was a milestone for Stetson. Two people who would have a lasting impact came into his life as he took on two new roles. The first role was as a dad, since his first child, daughter Penelope, was born that year. It was also the year he was introduced to Marc de Grandpré, the general manager of the New York Red Bulls. He envisioned growing the sport and creating a community of soccer fans in New Jersey. (The Red Bulls may have New York in their name, but they played games in a state-of-the-art soccer arena built in 2010 in Harrison, close to Newark.)
“All the other places I worked—the Garden, the World’s Most Famous Arena, the Nets and Van Wagner—were
established entities,” he says. “Here was an opportunity to create something new.”
Everything in Stetson’s career prepared him for this moment. His new position included his expertise in branding, marketing, sponsorship and working with major corporations. “I’m like a kid again,” he says. “I know little about soccer and have to learn the ins and outs.”
Stetson joined the Red Bulls as vice president of marketing and communications and is now the chief commercial officer, overseeing sponsorship/ premium sales and services; ticketing sales; service and operations; and Red Bull youth programs.
“My work has been at the intersection of growing business and developing people,” he says. With grassroots interest and a loyal fan base, Major League Soccer has grown 30 percent since Stetson came on board.
Full Circle
COVID-19 dramatically affected the Stetson family. The search for a safe haven led Stetson to take his family back to Bergen County, where he had grown up, renting and eventually buying a house in Tenafly. This time, Stetson isn’t the only one with an affinity for the community!
Stacey started a psychotherapy practice. She is blown away by Mackay Elementary School, where their two children, Penelope, now 10, and Isaac, 6, attend, especially the sense of community and general forwardthinking.
Their children think Mackay is fun, and they love everything from their teachers and classmates to clubs/ extracurricular activities, but mostly “they genuinely feel like they can be themselves there,” Stetson says.
As you might expect, Red Bull conducts several soccer-related programs to promote the sport and support the community, such as clinics and its Soccer Academy for kids who show the potential to turn pro.
“I do a lot of my community volunteering through Red Bulls community outreach programs,” Stetson says. He hopes to utilize those capabilities to enrich the Tenafly community, from donating tickets for fundraisers and reading-goal education programs to mentoring students, sponsoring Red Bull youth program clinics, helping college students with internship opportunities and facilitating the organization’s 11 Days of Service.
Stetson’s career path had brought him full circle, he says: “We are so grateful to have found our home here.”
Michael Pilla is a branding/digital marketing creative director, the founder of Pilla Creative Marketing and the author of “You Oughta Be in Business: A Humorous Guide for the SelfEmployed.”
Gordon Uehling focuses on developing coaches to help players perform at their best and offers personalized training that meets players where they are, often with the help of technologies such as video and analytics.
The Art of Coaching
Tennis pro Gordon Uehling uses career experience and technology to help players—and their coaches—excel.
BY GABRIELLE WALTERS
As you drive past Tenafly Racquet Club on County Road, upon first glance you may assume it is nothing other than an ordinary recreational tennis club. However, one conversation with owner Gordon Uehling will make it abundantly clear that this facility breeds excellence in an innovative manner.
With passionate coaches who use technology to gather data on a player’s performance, this Tenafly tennis facility ensures that players succeed every step of the way.
When Uehling bought Tenafly Racquet Club in 2006, it was anything but a flippant purchase. His entire career up until that point was conducted with the intention of one day coaching tennis.
Growing up, like most kids, Uehling played a variety of sports, with tennis being one in which he was exceptionally talented.
After attending Rollins College in Orlando, Florida, Uehling played professional tennis for eight years and
traveled to 30 different countries. In this time, he lived out of a bag for nine years and experienced some professional highs and some physical lows.
Whether he was recovering from difficult injuries or placing some careerbest results in Germany, Uehling was studying. He observed student programs and federations in order to adopt the same techniques that made them so exceptional.
“I wanted to bring the best practices of all my life journey to Tenafly,” he says.
Senses and Science
In 2002, he founded Court Sense, a comprehensive program of tennis instruction that provides high-level personalized training. Court Sense develops players from the ground up, starting with children.
While some coaches focus primarily on players, Uehling takes a different approach. “I empower other coaches with knowledge to help them share [with their players],” he says. “For me, it’s all about building coaches [rather] than players.”
As an athlete with dyslexia, he set out to create the kind of program he wished he had when he was first falling in love with the sport.
“Growing up with dyslexia, I needed to be taught in a certain way,” Uehling says. “I was more visual than auditory.”
This understanding allowed him to create a systematic approach that meets players where their needs are. In fact, the name Court Sense is inspired by the concept of coaches sharing the game of tennis through all the senses, no matter how a player most effectively learns.
Technology is a major player at Tenafly Racquet Club. Technology, videos and machines are all used to allow players to reach their goals quicker. Uehling’s dedication to innovating tennis has not gone unnoticed. In 2013, he was honored by the United States Olympic Committee and the United States Tennis Association for his contributions to the use of sports science in tennis.
His passion and dedication trickles down to his team. At the club, they live by a motto: “The art of coaching + sport science = magic.”
Providing Tools
When asked about the coaches, Uehling says this: “Everyone who works [at Tenafly Racquet Club] is highly motivated to be there. They have gone through at least four to six interviews to be there. They are there because they love to coach.”
Although he has acquired many titles so far in his life, Uehling describes himself primarily as a team builder. “I think that’s what you can call me,” he says. “[I enjoy] getting everyone on the same page and working toward a common goal. I love the word ‘camaraderie.’”
These days, the club is run so smoothly that it allows Uehling time to pursue other matters. He spends most of his days developing a new
online platform called GOTTA, for Global Online Teacher Technology Access.
This program, which is being designed to improve performance by tracking players’ analytics, can excite Tenafly Racquet Club members, as it will eventually be incorporated into their technology.
Uehling is also cofounder and board member of the nonprofit Youth Performance Institute, which works to ensure kids of all backgrounds have the tools needed to live their healthiest life. The organization accomplishes this through mentorship, technology and coaching.
If you have an interest in tennis, whether it be to play professionally or
recreationally, you can be assured that this local club will try to meet you where you are.
To learn more about Tenafly Racquet Club, call 201-569-1114.
Gabrielle Walters is a Tenafly resident and small business owner. You can find her wellness products in multiple stores across Bergen County.
A Recipe for Celebrating
As the holidays approach, custom cookies from Christine Alpert can sweeten any occasion.
BY ELISABETH SYDOR
Who doesn’t love a homemade cookie? Sweet, chewy and irresistible. How about a cookie that is downright gorgeous?
Sweettablescapes is a Tenafly baking enterprise run by Christine Alpert. It specializes in custom-decorated cookies and tiny treats for all occasions, as well as elaborate dessert buffets for events.
The cookies have a European sensibility, resonating quality, craft and care. In fact, Alpert is from a village near Lyon, France, which is famous for its wine and food.
She grew up loving to cook and bake. In a romantic turn of events, she met her husband-to-be while working on a cruise ship and returned with him to the States and married life, and eventually to Tenafly.
When Alpert’s twins, the eldest children of three, were on their way to college, she decided to bake professionally.
Spreading Love
Her process begins with the purest ingredients—eggs, flour, sugar, butter— topped off with one-of-a-kind decorations and finished, Alpert says, “with love.” She is modest about her beautiful and inventive designs. “I’m a good copier,” she says.
A cartoon character or a guest of honor’s picture sketched into a mock magazine cover are just some of the diverse images she recreates. She also offers readyto-order packages. For example, her 12 Days of Christmas Cookie Countdown box opens to reveal a Santa cookie one day, a candy cane the next, and so on over 12 days leading to Christmas.
In addition to decorated sugar cookies, she creates a wide range of treats from macaroons to mini-muffins, quick breads, petit fours and cookie pops.
Alpert’s personal favorites are the shortbreads—traditional dense and chewy cookies, undecorated. She sells these by the pound, including chocolate and ginger varieties along with snickerdoodles, with lemon and pecan versions.
Alpert is a one-woman show and thus
generally needs three to four days’ notice for “baking, drying the icing, filling in the backgrounds,” she explains. Ninety percent of her business is pickup. She will do any theme of cookie—from weddings to baby showers and birthdays—but mainly bakes for holiday themes.
She considers her work a gift. “When you bake,” she says, “you spread love. It’s always for others.”
Find Sweettablescapes on Instagram or at 347-852-0995.
Elisabeth Sydor is a writer and editor in New York who loves to bake and will never turn down the offer of a cookie.
Drawing on her European roots, Christine Alpert became an indemand baker after raising her three children.
The Secrets Of Children’s Sleep
A guide to eye-opening truths about kids and the effects of too little shut-eye
The baby who wakes you at 3 a.m. The nap-resistant toddler. The teen who texts deep into the night, then sleeps too late in the morning.
For many parents, concerns about when a child should and should not be sleeping begin at birth and don’t end until the child is out of the house—and for good reason.
Sleep is the glue that holds us together, and lack of it contributes to difficulties with learning, memory and emotional control, and causes disruptive behavior, decreased energy and lack of motivation. So how can you help write a better bedtime story for your child?
The Early Years: Babies and Toddlers
Newborns don’t enter the world with an internal clock. Before 3 months of age, baby doesn’t know the difference between day and night. But once they are about 3 months old, you can teach baby to self-soothe and fall asleep without parental presence, and keep to a schedule.
Most babies will take a morning nap and an afternoon nap. Between 1 and 2 years old, the morning nap gradually gets later and becomes the only nap. Since nap time often becomes a battle of wills, how does a parent know when to insist? One guideline is based on your child’s behavior: If a child is 3 years old, doesn’t nap and is a wreck the whole day, then that child still needs a nap.
Having an established sleep routine at night (for example, taking a bath, brushing teeth and reading a book) helps signal the brain that there is about to be a shift to sleep.
Later On: Tweens and Teens
By the teenage years, most kids have evolved from larks (showing a preference for waking early and going to bed early) to owls (staying up later and wanting to sleep later).
A “perfect storm” of sleep-disturbing factors takes place in these years: School starts earlier, kids go to bed later and electronics in the bedroom detract from sleep.
Uneven schedules also play a role. Teens sleep in on weekends, stay up even later on weekend nights and create a bad cycle of morning sluggishness for the beginning of the new school week.
To compensate, many teens go back to taking a nap. Napping can be good if it’s 20 to 40 minutes and if it’s sporadic, but many teens nap after school and then have trouble going to sleep at night. Try to allow no more than two hours’ difference between weekend and weekday bedtimes.
Another problem endemic to this age group: Teens do everything in their bedrooms, including homework, phone calls and social media. That can become bad for sleeping, as teens subconsciously associate the stresses of life with bed instead of looking at bed as a place for sleep and comfort.
Regardless of age, these suggestions can help set the stage for a good night’s sleep.
• Keep the bedroom cool (at a temperature less than 75 degrees), comfortable and quiet.
• Block out as much light as possible.
• Keep electronics out of the room and keep pets out of the bed.
Could It Be a Sleep Disorder?
If your child’s sleep-related behavior is troubling, a sleep disorder is a possibility.
Doctors classify something as a sleep disorder when a lack of sleep seeps into daytime behavior or activities. If you have a child who is snoring three or more days a week or who is exhibiting daytime sleepiness or difficulties in school, speak to your pediatrician or consider seeing a sleep doctor. Diagnosis of a sleep disorder begins with a thorough history and physical exam. For babies and younger kids, keeping a sleep log can be helpful. For teens, a wrist recorder or smartwatch can track this information.
The most common childhood sleep disorders include:
• Obstructive sleep apnea, marked by snoring and feeling tired even after a full night’s sleep.
• Insomnia, which causes trouble falling asleep and/or staying asleep.
• Hypersomnia, which causes excessive sleepiness.
• Parasomnia (sleepwalking or sleeptalking).
• Rhythmic body movements. The most common of these is restless leg syndrome, which causes a creepy-crawly feeling in the legs, often mistaken for growing pains.
• Secondary nocturnal enuresis, a form of bed-wetting that develops six months or more after a child has learned to control his or her bladder.
• Delayed sleep phase syndrome, in which sleep is delayed by two or more hours beyond bedtime and thereby causes difficulty waking.
However, most children’s unhealthy sleep patterns can be improved or corrected with simple steps that ensure the bedtime story has a happy—or at least more restful—ending.
BOOK NOOK
Volumes That Honor Vets
Remember the nation’s heroes with these books recommended by Tenafly’s library director.
November 11 is Veterans Day. Here are some book suggestions for adults and children that drive home the sacrifices our nation’s veterans have made.
FOR ADULTS
“AMAGANSETT”
By Mark Mills
When the body of a wealthy New Yorker turns up on the shore of Amagansett, Long Island, the police have to determine if it was an accidental drowning or murder. Fisherman Conrad Labarde, the son of Basque immigrants and a World War II veteran, found the body. Once a deathdefying commando who is now trying to cope with trauma, Labarde has good reasons for wanting to solve this case.
“THE YELLOW BIRDS”
By Kevin Powers
This novel, a finalist for the National Book Award, is about the impact of war on soldiers during war and after. In Al Tafar, Iraq, Pvt. John Bartle is realizing that his fate is beyond his control. The war is killing countless people and there is nothing they can do about it. Then, after having to become desensitized to his surroundings to survive, he is expected to come home and reconnect with his family.
BY JULIE MARALLO
“NEVERHOME”
By Laird Hunt
Constance is a loving wife in Indiana who wants to protect her husband from having to fight in the Civil War. She knows she is far more suited for it, so she cuts her hair, puts on men’s clothes, changes her name to Ash Thompson and joins the Union army. Through Ash’s travels, author Hunt paints a picture of people struggling to maintain their humanity in a nation tearing itself apart.
FOR CHILDREN
These are picture books for children 5 to 8 years old, but they are great conversationstarters for older children, too.
“THE
WALL”
By Eve Bunting
You might remember this book from your own childhood or from “Reading Rainbow.” It’s the story of a young boy who travels to Washington, D.C., with his father to see his grandfather’s name on the Vietnam War Memorial. While there, the boy watches other people looking for names, revealing what an emotional experience a trip to the wall truly is.
“THE
POPPY LADY: MOINA BELLE MICHAEL AND HER TRIBUTE TO VETERANS”
By Barbara Elizabeth Walsh
As her students and friends left to serve in World War I, Georgia schoolteacher Moina Belle Michael wanted to find a way to help. Not allowed to volunteer overseas because she was considered too old, Michael decided to run a meeting room for soldiers headed to war. After reading a poem about a battlefield covered with poppies, she decided to fill the meeting room with fresh poppies every day. She also pinned a poppy to her collar to symbolize her devotion to the soldiers. As soldiers returned home injured or unable to find work, Michael distributed poppies with donations to raise money for them. The poppy became the symbol of veterans, and Michael became forever known as The Poppy Lady.
Julie Marallo is the director of the Tenafly Public Library.
In this photo taken on a gorgeous day by Brady Sansotta, a banner hangs over Washington Street to get residents excited about the Tenafly fall festival. Have
