by Stan Ascher

Called Jennifer Pennifer, it's named after her own daughter.

GARLAND — Q: What do you get when you add ten pennies, some tape, and a little girl who wants to be a princess? A: A crown of pain?

When author Leslie Kuerbitz's daughter Jennifer was a toddler, she wanted to be a princess so badly that she concocted this recipe. Unfortunately, all that tape took out a significant chunk of hair.

At the same time, it created a spark of inspiration in her mom -- one that provoked her to write a manuscript for a fun little tale called The Misadventures of Jennifer Pennifer. She put it aside, and it wasn't until 25 years later that she rediscovered the manuscript in boxes that had been shuffled around during years of moving.

"My husband said [we] should dust it off get this thing published," Kuerbitz says.

But by then, she had a career's worth of experience as a family crisis counselor that ended up changing the theme of the book.

She spent more than a decade as a family coordinator for local police departments. That led to a stint on the "line of duty" desk, a part of the police department that helped the families of officers after they were killed or seriously injured in the line of duty. She then began to work with victims of violent crimes. "The youngest I saw was five, the oldest was 78," she says.

She went back to school, got a master's degree in counseling, and started her own private practice to help families in crisis.

"Children are going to be creative, they’re going to have misadventures, parents just need to know how to do the appropriate thing without being disrespectful or intimidating to them," she says. "Some days I feel like at back at the police department. I'll have kids out crying in my office."

She refashioned the book into a resource for families seeking advice on parenting skills. For her, becoming a good parent was an evolutionary process. "I had to learn what it was like to become a good mother," she says.

She maintains a blog and encourages children and parents to share their stories of misadventures. Her book is for sale on Amazon or from the Jennifer Pennifer website.

Her daughter Jennifer grew up to be a doctor. At last report, her hair is still penny-free.