“As a parent educator for 28 years I have read every parenting book available. This is still the best book there is! It is the number one book I recommend to families. I continue to use it a the textbook for my Napa Valley College parenting class. The students absolutely love it! Each week there are deep discussions about the concepts in the book. The excitement and healing and shifts in perception—from fear based parenting to love based parenting—are being made! It has changed so many lives.” Nevin Valentine, Napa Valley College CA
30+ Years of Art and Illustration by Kristen Caven
Ta-Dah!
Our spring launch comes in for a landing with a big finish today… Kristen Caven’s collected illustrations she created for Dr. Hart’s books and lectures, all in one big beautiful book… not a workbook but a playbook! On every page expressive girls and boys, moms and dads, animals and random funny characters interact in this collection of poignant and humorous images, to illustrate crucial concepts for positive parenting. Each section also contains charts and mini-posters that make this one of the best authentic family resources you’ll ever find, full of tips, activities, and reference materials to turn to again and again. From “LOL” to “AHA,” readers will find the pages of book so engaging they’ll want to tear some out and paste them on the wall—and in fact, they are encouraged by the creators to do so! The Uplift Family Playbook bursts with charm and insight that parents will cherish for its inspiration—and kids will remember all their lives.
The Playbook is available as a paperback or digital edition (ideal for printing), and also in a spiral bound edition that can lie flat open or easily feature one page at a time, calendar-style, as a weekly theme or display. It’s the final installment in the new Uplift Family Upshift program (at Uplift Programs), which includes a course by Dr. Hart, a course by Kristen Caven, audiobook and ebook editions of The Winning Family, and bonus materials.
This is Kristen’s fourth cartoon art collection, after Perfectly Revolting: My Glamorous Cartooning Career,The Reason She Left, and Mad About Mills.
Thank you for following along with our overflowing cornucopia of offerings since Mother’s Day! Our final event will be on Father’s Day, when Kristen launches her podcast, The Whining Family, which you can follow on Substack, and other podcast hosts. Watch for a wrap-up next week, with a bonus thank-you for all of our subscribers!
We’re so excited to announce today’s SALE on The Winning Family! Even if you own the paperback or audiobook, we’d like to ask you to buy the ebook for only 99¢ (regular price is only $4.95). We are trying to get 1000 people to buy the book today so that the algorithms find it and make it more visible to parents who need it right now. Will you join us?
Why right now? Because everyone is feeling the pain of the win/lose bullying dynamics running rampant in our country right now. We’re tired of the name-calling, the gaslighting, the addiction, the lying. As social skills expert Corinne Gregory says, “We need to put the civil back into civilization.”
This book is our PRIDE and JOY, and we hope it will bring JOY to many families during PRIDE month.
Have you noticed how the title of The Winning Family is designed with a rainbow typeface? That’s not an accident. We chose a font in which every letter has a unique character and color, because not everyone in a family is the same.It’s normal for people to be different, for families to be non-uniform. We celebrate the fact that the world has finally evolved to truly embrace that reality, no matter what current government leaders say while they are attacking our national values. Families are full of differences of gender, gender preferences, races, beliefs, and religions. Caring and commitment make a family.
One reviewer put it this way:
“One of the book’s biggest strengths is its inclusivity, because this is obviously not just something you thought about afterward and tacked on: you believe it, you live it. You address issues of race, gender, religion, differently abled children, poverty, crime, mental health, and abuse with sensitivity and balance, neither giving them too much page time or not enough, and never lapsing into sappiness on the one hand or judgmentalness on the other. The book feels welcoming to readers of all kinds of backgrounds and walks of life. The personal stories from your mom and you not only serve as great examples, but your honesty about them make the reader feel like mistakes are okay, as long as you learn from them. In that way, the book itself is very empowering.” Jane Ryder
Don’t miss this chance to read it for only 99¢! You can always gift it to a friend.
This Sunday, Dr. Dee of House of Joy is throwing us a “house-warming” party on the audio app Clubhouse, and you’re invited! We’re launching a clubhouse there called “Positive Parenting for the Win,”and if you’re looking for a new way to connect with other parents, we’d love to have you come check it out.
Sunday, June 1st, 2025
12:00 PM PT / 3:00 PM ET
House Launch: Positive Parenting for the Win!
This is your chance to:
Meet Kristen & Dr. Louise Hart live
Hear some excerpts from The Winning Family
Learn more about the Upshift tools & launch events
Hang with other parents building strong, connected families
Learn how to use Clubhouse
Ask your questions or just listen in!
Never used Clubhouse? It’s a free audio app (like a live podcast where you can talk back). We’ll walk you through it if it’s new to you.
Join Kristen Caven and Steve Zolno (with Louise Hart) tomorrow in a conversation about parenting leadership styles.
Americans are learning a very difficult lesson right now, and ready to better understand the dynamics that have brought us to war with one another. Destruction is something families experience often in this country—when people get hurt, can’t agree, and treat each other disrespectfully. When we see politicians using power tactics that echo their upbringings, we need to remember that parents hold the key to teach and practice prevention and peace-building skills alike.
In their parenting classic, The Winning Family: Where No One Has to Lose, Authors Kristen Caven and Louise Hart teach some key principles of positive parenting that are also true on the macro level:
👉 When needs are met, fewer problems arise
👉 Peace is a process, and
👉 What you focus on expands
In their book and classes, this mother-daughter team teaches the principles of positive parenting, which helped influence the field of Positive Psychology, the core principle of which is: expanding positive emotion expands wellness, resources and opportunities.
The Winning Family was originally published in 1987, and brought community psychologist Dr. Louise Hart to international audiences to teach harm prevention through building self-esteem in families. Louise is an elder now, and her daughter and co-author Kristen Caven has revised her book for the next generation. This month it became available as an audiobook, and her class for parents is forthcoming at www.upliftprograms.com
Caven, who attended St. Johns College and graduated from Mills College with a degree in Myth and the Western Mind, will be in conversation with Steve Zolno, a social sciences graduate of Shimer College who holds an M.A. in Educational Psychology and works as a Management and Educational Consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area. Zolno is the author of eight books including The Future of Democracy, and has been leading groups about democracy for twenty years. Explore his work on building a good society at thefutureofdemocracy.net.
Register today– event is free Add to Calendar – https://tinyurl.com/dtd525
“Steve Zolno has served up some nutritious food for thought with The Future of Democracy. His wide-angle look at democracy’s past and present in countries all over the world helps us tease out what democracy really means now and for the future. People who sense that the political discourse is “off” or that we have lost connection with our guiding principles should read this book—and they should read it together.” —Kristen Caven, co-author of The Bullying Antidote
We are excited to announce the publication of The Winning Family AUDIOBOOK! It will be available wherever audiobooks are sold on May 12th. This launch kicks off a festival of events between Mother’s Day and Father Day—join us for the festivities!
Virtual book Launch: Sunday, May 11, 4pm
It’s Mother’s Day, and we’re a mother-daughter team…and both moms…and this is our gift to other mothers! Register here for a party on Zoom to raise a glass to this accomplishment. Meet our own winning family and learn more about our “Mother of All Launches.”
May 12: Audiobook goes On Sale at all digital bookstores!
Dads, daddies, papas—we’ve got you covered too, with events through Father’s Day that uplift your parenting game!
May 25: “Dinner Table Democracy,”
A conversation about the intersection of parenting and politics featuring author Steve Zolno Register here today.
May 26: Course Launch: “Improving Self-Esteem in Your Family”
Sign up for announcements about the forthcoming Uplift Family Upshift over at Uplift Programs.
June 1*: “Positive Parenting For The Win” Open House
At 12pm PST, let’s talk about positive parenting on the CLUBHOUSE app with East Coast Dr. Dee of House of Joy. Join PPFTW House today!
June 6: Launch of The Winning Family Playbook!
A collection of cartoons, charts, and posters from the Lifeskills/Uplift Collection.
June 8*: pending expert interview…watch for announcement!
June 15: FATHER’S DAY Podcast launch of “The Whining Family”
“The Whining Family” will be an ongoing podcast featuring conversations centered on themes in The Winning Family. The first one features Kristen’s son, podcaster Donald Caven.
and…
BESTSELLER DAY for The Winning Family ebook!
The ebook will go on sale for 99¢ for one day – we hope you will join us in giving us a boost!
Sometimes we get requests from people who love the book and want to gift a signed copy to friends, new or struggling parents, or family members. Since we’re authors and publishers, and NOT a bookstore, this is not as easy as one might think!
Here are three ways to get a signed copy.
Invite us to come and speak where you are; we’ll bring books to sell!
Send a self-addressed envelope and we’ll send back a signed sticker you can put in a book you’ve ordered online. (Write us at upliftpress “at” gmail for the address!)
Request one from us here! Using our donation link, send the title and a message how you want it inscribed, and the cover price + $15 to cover our costs.
Order a digitally-signed ebook of The Winning Family for just $5 at this link!
HEY! We’ve got some exciting news coming up… watch your inbox in the next few weeks!
Know how kids ask moms and dads on their holidays, “when’s Children’s Day?” And parents say, “Every day is Children’s Day!” Well, it shouldn’t be a well-kept secret that November 20th is actually World Children’s Day! Kids are really worth celebrating…and childhood is something we must care for universally.
November 20th was chosen by the United Nations to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of the Child in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
UNICEF offers a kid-friendly version of that vital document, (which has yet to be ratified by the United States), a video you can watch with your children, crucial conversation starters, and more on its World Childrens Day page.
One of our publishing partners, Spiraling Music, just released the script and score of a children’s musical that highlights this visionary document. Please share this special discount with anyone you know who might be looking for theater projects for youngsters.
Below is an excerpt from the book, reprinted with permission of the publisher:
Introduction
100 years ago, before there was a United Nations (1942) or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the League of Nations adopted the Geneva Declaration on the Rights of the Child, which basically stated that humanity “owes to the Child the best that it has to give.” This 1924 declaration articulates that children need priority, protection, and a dignified upbringing. The UN adopted this declaration in 1959, but the idea got real teeth in 1989, when it became the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a convention being different from a declaration in that it moves from being an ideal to being the law. For the past 35 years now, the world has begun the process of making sure children are legally protected everywhere in the world.
There are 41 rights listed in the CRC, many of them (like the right to identity, nationality, and freedom from discrimination) echoing the UDHR. Some of them are very specific to children, such as Article 27, which states that children have the right to food, clothing and a safe home. Articles 12 and 13 that say children have the right to express their views. Article 42 states that everyone needs to know what the rights of children are.
Author and composer Merrill Collins took these mandates to heart when she and her collaborator, Fredrick Gums, who were running an arts program for kids to teach concepts in Peace, created this poignant children’s musical. They wrote it with children, in the voices of children, for audiences of children, all of whom are trying to understand this grownup world and problems like poverty and hunger. And they wrote it as a fundraiser to help children who were experiencing famine. The brilliance of this co-creation is, to quote actor Jeff Bridges, that “poverty is a very complicated issue, but hunger isn’t.” It empowers every single person involved in the production to help raise awareness, and raise money, and simply send food to those who need it.
The musical is beautiful. The staging is imaginative. Best of all, Merrill’s passion for educating communities about key world agreements through music is infectious. This guide provides detailed instructions that make the production simple and strong, including activities to engage children about The Rights of Children, and impactful information to provide during intermission. When children understand Children’s Rights, they become humans who understand Human Rights. And as we move forward on this magnificent project of creating a world where everyone has dignity, the planet becomes a more respectful, safe, optimistic, and beautiful place where “everybody’s everybody.”
—Kristen Caven, playwright and co-author of The Bullying Antidote and The Winning Family: Where No One Has to Lose,
Exciting news! We’re launching an audiobook of The Winning Family in 2025!
We are delighted to announce the forthcoming release of the audiobook edition of The Winning Family: Where No One Has to Lose by Dr. Louise Hart and Kristen Caven, published by Uplift Press. Narrated by the authors themselves, this audiobook promises to be a transformative listening experience for anyone with a family.
The Winning Family isn’t just another parenting manual; it’s a comprehensive guide that offers practical strategies and profound insights into personal growth as a parent as well as building strengths in chidren. Hart and Caven draw upon their expertise to provide readers with invaluable tools for nurturing strong, resilient families where every member feels valued and supported.
The Winning Family audiobook invites listeners to embark on a journey of self-discovery and growth, offering practical strategies and heartfelt wisdom for creating a family where no one has to lose. Our goal with this audiobook is to reach even more parents and grown children, and empower them to create the relationships they want to have.
Narrated with warmth and authenticity, Kristen Caven brings each chapter to life with her engaging and sometimes comedic energy, which readers will experience more of through her interview podcast, The Whining Family. Julianne Idelman of Hand in Hand Parenting says, “The Winning Family is a book you will return to again and again for Hart’s reassuring words, lighthearted confidence in the love of parents for their children, and down-to-earth ideas about making the parenting journey a path to self-discovery.”
Pre-orders for the The Winning Family audiobook are now available. Reserve your copy in advance at a discounted price, and be the first to listen when it arrives!
“What can I say, this book is life changing. If you truly care about the happiness of your children and the world they live in, this book is for you. This book can be use as a daily resource for parenting improvement and a fun text to help you and your parenting partner to bond, heal and improve your life as a parent.” —J.M. Madrigal
“Even with two small children under the age of three, I read this book in only a few days. I couldn’t put it down, and when I did, I couldn’t wait to pick it up again! The Winning Family should be required reading in all high schools and colleges.”—Lisa L. Wharton, NJ
“My husband and I were on our way to separating. But since reading this book and learning how to listen and deal with feelings, we have worked through so many problems. It has saved my daughters from growing up with divorced parents.”Tiffany, mother
Have you noticed how the title of The Winning Family is designed with a rainbow typeface? That’s not an accident. We chose a font in which every letter has a unique character and color, because not everyone in a family is the same. 
Sunday, June 1st, 2025
12:00 PM PT / 3:00 PM ET
House Launch: Positive Parenting for the Win!
June 
