Clarissa’s Disappointment: And Resources for Families, Teachers and Counselors of Children of Incarcerated Parents

Clarissa Pettaway has waited five years for her father to come home from prison. When the day finally arrives, her mother makes a special dinner, and her father calls her his favorite names: Oh, Clarissa, Sissy, Sassafrass Girl, I’m never gonna leave you again. Soon, however, Clarissa discovers it isn’t all that easy for people who have been incarcerated to rejoin their families and reenter society. Clarissa has to learn to cope with the reality of her father being out of prison, and all of the confusing, conflicting emotions it creates in her. Two books in one, Clarissa’s Disappointment combines a moving children’s story with resources to assist the families, teachers and counselors of children of incarcerated parents. The author, Megan Sullivan, is an associate professor at Boston University who specializes in helping children with incarcerated parents. Her own father was incarcerated when she was 10 years old. The illustrator, Daniel Jay, a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, is a nationally recognized artist whose mission is to inspire where art and science meet. Clarissa’s Disappointment won the Press’s Larry D. Underwood Prize for Children’s Literature.